Phonetics Part III
Some Practice And Tips for Transcription
Schwa
• In most words of English, the vowel in unstressed syllables is schwa [´]. This is a mid central reduced vowel. In banana, for example, the first and third vowels are schwa. (Transcribe it!) • A different symbol is used for the same sound in stressed syllables: [√]. This is the vowel in cut. (Transcribe it!) • We’ll talk (much!) more about stress later.
Vowels before [®]
• The tense/lax distinction is mostly neutralized before [®] • We’ll adopt the convention of transcribing only lax vowels before [®], so [bE®], not [bej®]; [wI®d], not [wij®d] • The mid back lax vowel, which occurs before [®], is [ç] (tense counterpart [ow]) • Practice transcribing: bore, for, war, core
1 Mid-back lax vowel, cont
• The only other place the mid-back lax vowel [ç] occurs is in the diphthong [çj] • Practice transcribing the following: – boy – coil – choice – doily
Exercise 1 Circle all the sounds that are voiced
[s] [v] [h] [w] [r] [z] [k] [b] [t] [p] [I]
[ow] [f] [S] [d] [g] [ij] [m] [T] [/] [D] [tS]
Exercise 2 a. High front tense unrounded vowel [ij] b. mid back lax rounded vowel [ç] c. low back unrounded vowel [A] d. mid front lax unrounded vowel [E] e. voiced labiodental fricative [v] f. voiceless alveopalatal affricate [tS] g. voiced velar nasal [N] h. voiceless glottal fricative [h] i. voiced interdental fricative [D] j. voiced alveopalatal fricative [Z] k. voiced alveolar lateral liquid [l]
2 Exercise 3 [bAks] box [klowD] clothe [g®ejs] grace [bjuwtij] beauty [TQNk] thank [s´®tSt] searched [pçjnt] point [Suwlejs] shoelace [Dow] though [bQN] bang
Exercise 4 fulfillment [f√lfIlm´nt] geriatrics [dZE®ijQtrIks] catastrophe [k´tQst®´Σfij] umpteenth [√mptijnT] corpulence [kç®pjuwl´ns] caterwauling [kQt´®wAlIN] oblivion [´blIvij´n] foot [fUt] trophy [t®owfij] shrink [S®INk]
Exercise 5 a. [w] a. voiced labial glide b. [T] b. voiceless interdental fricative c. [®] c. non-lateral (retroflex) alveolar liquid d. [d] d. voiced alveolar stop e. [S] e. voiceless alveopalatal fricative f. [b] f. voiced bilabial stop g. [h] g. voiceless glottal fricative h. [aw] h. low back rounded diphthong i. [U] i. high back lax rounded vowel j. [√] j. mid central (stressed) vowel k. [Q] k. low front lax vowel
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