φ
English Phonetics
Course Notes Summer 2016
online: http://www.spence.saar.de/courses/phonetics
Robert Spence
Last update: 2016-04-10 00:40 UTC+10:00 Language: the noises we make with our faces in order to live. (J.R. Firth) φ 0.1 3 0 Basic Organization
0.1 General information
0.1.1 Overall goal
This course provides an overview of English phonetics, with special emphasis on pronunciation prob- lems that students of English are likely to face if their native language is German. The course is based on the dual fictitious premises that:
• course participants are being trained as undercover agents for the German secret service;
• they will be deployed in espionage work in the United Kingdom, where they will be required to pass themselves off as native speakers of Southern British English.
Additionally, reference will be made to some of the main differences between Southern British English and General American English, on the one hand, and between Southern British English and Broad Australian English on the other.
0.1.2 Who this course is for
The course is intended primarily for BA students whose English courses take place in Fachrichtung 4.6 (Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft sowie Übersetzen und Dolmetschen), and is a Modulelement of the MündlicheKommunikation module of the BAStudienfach(Ergänzungsfach)Sprachkompetenz2.Fremd- sprache (Englisch). Other students are welcome to attend the course provided they have a reasonably sound knowledge of English.
The main language of instruction is English, but sometimes German will be used, depending on the nature of the particular problem under discussion.
The course devotes special attention to the things that can go wrong when it is the sound system of German that is interfering with the sound system of English, but we will also look at some of the things that can go wrong when the source of the interference is the sound system of another language (typically a Romance one) that students have chosen as their first foreign language.
0.1.3 How the course works
The course runs for one 15-week semester (1 x 1 SWS = 1 SWS) and meets Mondays from 10:15 to 11:00. Please be punctual! After each class (15 x 1 hour) there is a substantial amount of homework, consisting of exercises designed to review what has just been learnt and prepare the ground for what is to come. The total extent of the course is 15 (15 x 1) contact hours, plus an additional 45 hours (15 x 3) devoted to homework, making a total of 60 hours for 2 credit points. φ 0.1 4
0.1.4 Communication
All students taking the course should make sure that their correct email address is on the course mail- ing list. When sending an email to the course leader, please make sure that the piece of text [phonetics] (including the square brackets!) is included in the subject line. (This will happen automagically if you are reading any email I have already sent you concerning this course and you simply hit the “Reply” button.)
0.1.5 Successful participation
Students are expected to attend regularly. If you are unable to attend one of the lessons, it is vital that you contact me beforehand to let me know. Missing more than two lessons altogether would seriously compromise your chances of successfully completing the course.
At the end of the semester, typically in the last week of lectures, there is a written test which covers the whole of that semester’s work; students should make sure they understand the new ‘just turn up’ procedure for registering to do the test, and those students who pass the test are awarded 2 credit points towards their Bachelor’s degree.
Students who fail the written test at the first attempt have the chance to re-sit it (typically during the semester break or right at the beginning of the next semester’s lectures) and if they are still unsuccess- ful at their second attempt, they can do an oral test instead (at a time to be arranged by mutual agree- ment). The written test will be based on the questions contained in the weekly worksheets, which are included at the end of each section of the present document.
ERASMUS students taking the course can obtain a graded certificate (benoteter Teilnahmeschein) by attending regularly and passing the written test, or an ungraded certificate (unbenoteter Teilnahme- schein) on the basis of regular attendance without sitting the test.
Most of the course materials, including the weekly worksheets, are included in the document you are reading right now; certain additional materials will be distributed in the lessons; and other materials can be accessed by following the links on the course website. φ 0.2 5 0.2 Provisional timetable
Week Date Unit Description
01 18.iv 00 Basic organization; initial survey; resources for doing phonetics
02 25.iv 01 Theoretical introduction (1): the place of phonetics in a functional theory of language
03 02.v 02 Theoretical introduction (2): phonetics, phonology, and writing
04 09.v 03 Consonants (1): approaching consonants via articulatory phonetics and phonology
05 16.v – No Class (Reading: Arnold u. Hansen, Kap. 6)
06 23.v 04 Vowels (1): approaching vowels via articulatory and acoustic phonetics
07 30.v 05 Vowels (2): the English vowel system contrasted with German
08 06.vi 06 Consonants (2): the English consonant system contrasted with German
09 13.vi 07 Syllables & Rhythm (1): linking, stress, weak forms
10 20.vi 08 Syllables & Rhythm (2): assimilation & elision; morphophonology
11 27.vi 09 Intonation (1): tonality and tonicity
12 04.vii 10 Intonation (2): the primary tones of English and their meaning
13 11.vii 11 Intonation (3): the secondary tones of English and their meaning
14 18.vii – Revision
15 25.vii – Final Exam φ 0.3 6 0.3 Resources for learning and doing phonetics
There are a number of resources that will make it easier and more fun for you to learn and do phonetics. The most important of them are listed below:
0.3.1 Books on English Phonetics / Phonology
Eckert and Barry: The Phonetics and Phonology of English Pronunciation. Trier: WVT, 2005
This book is written in the Anglo-Saxon “voyage of discovery” style. It has some annoying inconsisten- cies (in the use of the symbol [r] for example), but is very worth reading.
Arnold und Hansen: Englische Phonetik. Langenscheidt, 1998
This book is written in formal German academic style. It was originally published in the former GDR (DDR). Most of it is very good, except for the section of intonation.
Halliday and Greaves: Intonation in the Grammar of English. London: Equinox, 2008
The theory of English intonation put forward in this book is the basis for the last three lectures of the course.
0.3.2 Dictionaries that indicate the standard pronunciation of words
These days, most students use online dictionaries, or dictionary apps, to obtain information about how particular English words are pronounced. In this regard, there is a problem.
The most respected dictionaries for British English have long been the massive Oxford English Dic- tionary and its shorter sister, the Concise Oxford Dictionary. For many decades, these dictionaries— which are intended mainly for native speakers—used their own way of showing how words were pro- nounced (employing diacritic marks like dots and lines in addition to the normal orthography, and re- spelling some words or parts of words wherever necessary: annī′hĭlāt|e -nīĭ-). During the same period, φ 0.3 7 other dictionaries gradually reached agreement on a standard way of using IPA symbols (/əˈnaɪəleɪt/; see below) to represent English pronunciation. When the Concise Oxford Dictionary decided to use these symbols for the first time, five changes were made to the standard system—for reasons that are not easy to understand (/əˈnʌɪɪleɪt/).
The result is:
• If you are using an Oxford dictionary to check the pronunciation of an English word, make sure it is an Oxford learner’s dictionary – not the “Concise Oxford Dictionary”!
• BAD: Concise Oxford Dictionary: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com
• GOOD: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com (don’t forget the ”s”!)
• On a Mac, the Concise Oxford Dictionary is integrated with the operating system. DO NOT TRUST IT!!
• Beware these…!
WRONG! (words like:) RIGHT! ɛ BET e a BAT æ əː NURSE ɜː ɛː SQUARE eə ʌɪ PRICE aɪ
To find out more about the background to this problem, see: https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/ipa-english-uni.htm
0.3.3 Online resources
There are a number of resources freely available on the Internet that are immediately relevant to this course:
Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationales_Phonetisches_Alphabet or in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
In general, you should be careful about using Wikipedia, especially where ‘controversial’ topics are concerned. Although many topics in the linguistic sciences are indeed controversial, phonetics is probably one of the least so. You can therefore ‘trust’ Wikipedia, as far as phonetics is concerned. But remember that Wikipedia is written by volunteers, and is constantly being edited; the volunteers are not necessarily experts, and the process of editing often produces awkward and illogical paragraphs. φ 0.3 8 It is never a bad idea to consult ‘original’ sources, such as the website of the International Phonetic Association: http://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org
Right from the beginning of the course, you should start trying to become familiar with the IPA sym- bols. Here you can find a chart of IPA symbols used for English: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_chart_for_English
You should also try to learn as many other IPA symbols as you think you will need (for describing the pronunciation of English in more detail, or for describing the pronunciation of different dialects of English, or for describing other languages). For the full chart of all IPA symbols, see the IPA website or the main Wikipedia article. The full IPA chart can also be found on page ??, the second page of Chapter 2 below.
0.3.4 Fonts
You are encouraged to write out the IPA symbols to practise them; but please note that this means printing them, not writing them cursively in your normal handwriting. You will need to be able to read IPA transcriptions in order to pass the examination at the end of the course, but the questions will be multiple choice, and you will not have to write the IPA symbols.
Youare also urged to practise using IPAsymbols with a word processor. In order to do this properly, you need to check the fonts installed on your computer to make sure that you have at least one Unicode font with a broad coverage of symbols. Typically, you will find that you have something like Lucida Grande, or Arial MS Unicode already pre-installed. You may also wish to download and try out other fonts, as well.
In order to find out which of the fonts on your system actually contain the IPA symbols, check your computer’s character viewer; scroll down till you come to about Unicode code-point 2500 (in hex- adecimal notation) and then examine carefully the symbols that follow.
Figure 1 shows the Unicode “IPA Extensions” block in the character viewer of a MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion, and Figure 2 shows the steps that were necessary to “customize” the character viewer so that it would display more than just arrows and smileys ;-)
The following fonts are free, and are worth having:
Charis SIL: http://software.sil.org/charis/
Doulos SIL: http://software.sil.org/doulos/
Gentium Plus: http://software.sil.org/gentium/
The Brill: http://www.brill.com/about/brill-fonts φ 0.3 9
Figure 1: Character Viewer under Mac OS X 10.8.2, showing the IPA Extensions block
Figure 2: Customizing the Character Viewer under Mac OS X 10.8.2 to enable the display of IPA symbols by their Unicode block φ 0.3 10 Below we examine the IPA coverage of a variety of different fonts to see what results are possible when typesetting with X TE EX/XƎLATEX on a Mac running Yosemite. You may be able to get better results depending on your typesetting / desktop publishing / word-processing system and your operating system.
X TE EX is a free typesetting system; more information about it can be found here: http://www.tug.org/xetexshowcase/xetex-wuhan.pdf
The aim in comparing different fonts was to determine the quality of the results achievable in for the following kinds of transcriptions: graphemic, phonemic, broad phonetic, and narrow phonetic (in- cluding diacritics, the undertie symbol to indicate linking (absence of a break), and the (old-fashioned) lower ligature tie to indicate a diphthong). The best results overall appear to be achievable by using the Charis SIL font, which has been specifically designed with a view to combining diacritics, or with Doulos SIL or Gentium Plus.
Charis SIL (with STIXGeneral for the graphemic boundary symbols ⟨ ⟩) ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨left⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /left/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈleft fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ‿n̩ˈʤe̞͜ɪnˈle̞fˑəˈɹ‿ɪtəli̽ðɪ̽sˈmɔ̝ːnɪŋ] (narrow phonetic) ←− perfect result
Doulos SIL (with STIXGeneral for the graphemic boundary symbols ⟨ ⟩) ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨left⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /left/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈleft fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ‿n̩ˈʤe̞͜ɪnˈle̞fˑəˈɹ‿ɪtəli̽ðɪ̽sˈmɔ̝ːnɪŋ] (narrow phonetic) ←− perfect result
Gentium Plus 〈Arthur〉 〈and〉 〈Jane〉 〈left〉 〈for〉 〈Italy〉 〈this〉 〈morning〉 (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /left/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈleft fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ‿n̩ˈʤe̞͜ɪnˈle̞fˑəˈɹ‿ɪtəli̽ðɪ̽sˈmɔ̝ːnɪŋ] (narrow phonetic) ←− perfect result
Lucida Grande (with STIXGeneral for the graphemic boundary symbols ⟨⟩) ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨left⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /left/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈleft fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ‿n̩ˈʤ ɪnˈlefˑəˈɹ‿ɪtəli̞ ðɪ̽ sˈmɔ̽ ːnɪŋ]̝ (narrow phonetic)←− ligature tie fails
Arial Unicode MS ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨left⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /left/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈleft fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ‿n̩ˈʤe̞ɪnˈle̞fˑəˈɹ‿ɪtəli̽ðɪ̽sˈmɔ̝ːnɪŋ](narrow phonetic) ←− ligature tie fails
STIXGeneral ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨left⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /left/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈleft fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ n̩ˈʤe̞͜ɪnˈle̞fˑəˈɹ ɪtəli̽ðɪ̽sˈmɔ̝ːnɪŋ] (narrow phonetic) ←− undertie fails, diacritics badly aligned φ 0.3 11 CMU Serif ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨left⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /left/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈleft fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ‿n̩ ˈʤe̞ ͜ɪnˈle̞fˑəˈɹ‿ɪtəliðɪ̽sˈmɔ̽ ̝ːnɪŋ] (narrow phonetic) ←− ligature tie fails
Junicode ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨le⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə⒭/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /le/ /fɔː⒭/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈle fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹ‿n̩ˈʤe̞͜ɪnˈle̞fˑəˈɹ‿ɪtəlı̽ðɪ̽sˈmɔ̝ːnɪŋ] (narrow phonetic) ←− unacceptable
Linux Libertine ⟨Arthur⟩⟨and⟩⟨Jane⟩⟨le⟩⟨for⟩⟨Italy⟩⟨this⟩⟨morning⟩ (graphemic) /ˈɑːθə(r)/ /ænd/ /dʒeɪn/ /le/ /fɔː(r)/ /ˈɪtəliː/ /ðɪs/ /ˈmɔːnɪŋ/ (phonemic) [ˈɑːθəɹ ənd ˈdʒeɪn ˈle fəɹ ˈɪtəli ðɪs ˈmɔːnɪŋ] (broad phonetic) [ˈɑ̘ːθəɹn̩ˈʤe͜ɪnˈle̞ fˑəˈɹɪtəliðɪsˈmɔ̞ ːnɪŋ]̝ (narrow phonetic) ←− unacceptable
You may be able to get better results than these, depending on your word processing system. Most modern fonts are “smart fonts”, which have hidden features that allow you to access additional shapes of each character: see the difference between the Greek letter β and the IPA phonetic symbol β. In or- der to get the second shape, with the serif at the bottom, which is the correct shape for the IPAphonetic symbol β), I had to access ‘Stylistic Set 20’ in the font; otherwise it would have been a normal Greek let- ter β. To do this, using XƎLATEX, I had to type {\fontspec[Script=Latin,StylisticSet=20]{Brill}{β}}, but you may be able to access these alternative shapes more comfortably via a menu in a WYSIWIG (“what you see is what you get”) word-processing program or desktop publishing program.
0.3.5 Copy-and-paste
The simplest way to work with phonetic symbols is to copy-and-paste them. Here you can find every- thing you need:
• http://www.ipa.webstuff.org/ [NB: you need to select e.g. ”Vowels” first…
See Figure 3 (left half). … then click on the “copy and paste version” link]
• http://people.w3.org/rishida/scripts/pickers/ipa/
See Figure 3 (right half).
Beware! The naming conventions used for vowels on the second website are outdated; please do not refer to “high” and “low” vowels if you mean ‘close’ and ‘open’ vowels!
• http://westonruter.github.io/ipa-chart/keyboard/ This is an alternative character picker to the one above; it has better terminology, but may need frequent refreshing in your browser window. φ 0.3 12
Figure 3: Two copy-and-paste solutions for IPA characters; Images: (left) webstuff.org ; (right) Richard Ishida
Figure 4: The IPA keyboard layout from SIL
Note: A copy-and-paste solution will save you having to type the symbols using your own keyboard; but you will still need at least one font on your system that has all the phonetic symbols.
0.3.6 Keyboard layouts
It is worth installing an IPAkeyboard layout (see Figure 4). This will enable you to enter a large number of phonetic symbols directly from your keyboard — for example, in order to get ŋ you type shift- N, and so on.
• http://scripts.sil.org/UniIPAKeyboard
SIL International is a ”faith-based” organization that provides free software for purposes related to literacy in the third world. “SIL” originally stood for “Summer Institute of Linguistics”, an organization whose founder, Kenneth L. Pike, played a major role in increasing our understanding of language and translation. φ 0.3 13
0.3.7 Software worth having
If you are interested in having your very own phonetics lab to play with, the free software PRAAT is the current standard:
• http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/
Praat can do virtually everything, but it takes time to become familiar with its many functions.
There is another piece of phonetics software which you probably already have, without realizing it:
• http://audacity.sourceforge.net
Figure 5: (left) Praat: doing phonetics by computer (right) Audacity: a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder Images: (left) Paul Boersma, David Weenink ; (right) http://web.audacityteam.org/about.php
Audacity enables you to view, for example, a spectrogram of a piece of speech. This will be useful when we are looking at acoustic phonetics later on.
0.3.8 Mobile apps
It is also worth mentioning two apps that run on an iPhone or Android device. Both of them were programmed by a Computer Science graduate of our university.
• FrequenSee – Spectrum Analyzer (free) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DanielBach.FrequenSee&hl=de
This app analyzes the frequency of sound in real time, allowing you to immediately see, for example, what the acoustic difference is between an [s] and an [f], or an [i] and an [a] and an [u].
• live BPM – Beat Detector (relatively inexpensive) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DanielBach.liveBPM
This app detects the rhythmic “beat” of someone’s drumming (or their speaking), and might be useful when we come to the unit dealing with Rhythm.
Then there is the “killer app”, which unfortunately is presently only available for iPhone/iPad: φ 0.3 14
Figure 6: (left) FrequenSee — Spectrum Analyzer ; (right) liveBPM — Beat Detector (Images: Daniel Bach)
• Click on the IPA symbol, hear the sound: http://www.uvic.ca/humanities/linguistics/resources/software/ipaphonetics/index.php φ 0.5 15 0.4 Principles
Some general principles to remember when studying the phonetics and phonology of English:
1. Imagine you are training to be a spy, and are going to be working in England. A German accent would give you away!
2. Start with the entire body in its biological and social environment. Sleep in an English-style bed, eat an English-style breakfast, surround yourself with everything English; stand the way English people do, walk the way they do, hold your mouth the way they do. Then the sounds will come naturally.
3. Free up your sound-making. Stop being an adult with desires and purposes and intentions. Just be a child and play. Do not let your phonetics be constrained by anything related to language (such as German sound patterns, or German sentence patterns, or German ways of organizing ideas, or ...)
4. Find someone to imitate. It should be someone quintessentially English. Abandon your own desires and purposes and intentions and just imitate the other person.
0.5 A note on how to use these course notes
The course notes for each unit of the Phonetics course typically consist of the following parts:
0. An attempt at a one-page executive summary of the unit in graphic form.
1. A set of workpoints—a list of contrastive examples designed to lead in to the unit by casting light upon a particular ‘region’ of the phonetics and phonology of English and highlighting some of the differences between English and German.
2. A checklist of learning goals for the unit.
3. An outline of the relevant portion of the phonetics of English.
4. A discussion of the problems that each region of English phonetics may pose for German- speaking learners.
5. A list of references which can be consulted for further information.
6. A worksheet containing exercises for guided practice.
At the very beginning of the course, we look not at the sounds and sound system of English but at the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics, which is the guiding theory behind the course as a whole.
After each class, students should complete the corresponding worksheet; before the next class, they should study the next set of contrastive examples.
The test at the end of the course will be based on the weekly worksheets.