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Lecture 3Lecture 3

Phonetic TranscriptionsEnglish VowelsAbout the Lab...

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A few words about phonetic transcription:

• IPA characters are used to transcribe the sounds in a word

BED

TIP

ME

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CAREFUL! These may not correspond to the number of letters in the word

SHEEP

TONGUE

LAUGH

BRUISE

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Phonetic transcription:

• there is no punctuation in phonetic transcription (no capital letters, etc.)

• there may be symbols that look like punctuation, but they have a new (symbolic) meaning…

How's it going?

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You need to learn a new meaning for these two "punctuation signs":

'' (an apostrophe)

IPA symbol for WORD STRESS

:: (a colon)

used in the IPA to indicate a LONG VOWEL

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'' marks WORD STRESSplaced BEFORE the stressed syllable

''

''

''

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From now on, WORD STRESS will be marked in every polysyllabic word that we transcribe...

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:: indicates a LONG VOWEL*placed AFTER the vowel symbol

(a long vowel is simply a vowel you take a longer time to say…)

moon

deep

leaf

/ mu:n /

/ di:p /

/ li:f /

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Speaking ofSpeaking of VOWELS…

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55 LONG VOWELSLONG VOWELS

sheep

blue moon

bird

door

car

vowel + [r]

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66 "SHORT" VOWELS"SHORT" VOWELS

ship

bed

hat

sun

dog

put, book

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11 UNACCENTED VOWEL SOUNDUNACCENTED VOWEL SOUND

banana

"schwa"

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12 Monophthongs

= simple (single) vowel sound

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rose

cow

cake

night

boy

8 8 DiphthongsDiphthongs

beer

care

poor

monophthong + [r]monophthong + [r]

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flower

higher

player

slower

lawyer

55 Triphthongs Triphthongs

diphthong + [r]

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13 Compound vowel sounds ("glides")

+

12 Monophthongs

=

French: 16 vowel soundsItalian, Spanish: 5 (??)

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To master this complex system, you need:

• to understand a little bit about vowels

• to learn the sounds (and the symbols)

• to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

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What is a vowel?

• How do you make a vowel sound?

• What do you do (with your mouth) to change from one vowel sound to another?

EXPERIMENT, and TELL ME (in English, obviously!)

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A vowel sound:• a reverberation of air in the mouth cavity

• vocal chords "on" (always) = "voiced" sound

1. the degree to which your mouth is open

2. the position of your tongue

determine which vowel you produce.

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www.ling.mq.edu.au/.../ vowel_artic.html.

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle

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The Vowel Triangle: DIPHTHONGS

cake a glide

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The Vowel Triangle: DIPHTHONGS

night

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The Vowel Triangle: DIPHTHONGS

snow

(RP)

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Booklet, p. 10: copy the symbols, and key words

SHEEP

FISH

BED

HAT

"schwa"

BIRD

SUN

BLUE MOON

BOOK

DOOR

DOG

CAR

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Homework:

• Study all the "long" vowels: booklet, pages 11, 15 (CAR), 16, 17 (MOON).

• For each vowel, try pronouncing the words.

• Look up any words you don't know in the dictionary (unilingual, preferably).

• Notice how many different ways each sound can be spelled!!