Basics of Phonetics and Phonology:

Accent Rhythm and Intonation

Dr Vandana LunyalDirector

Regional Institute of English

Topics

Sounds

Syllables

Word stress

Sentence Stress

Intonation

Objectives

The participants should be able to:

● understand the basics of Phonetics and Phonology of English

● study the importance of stress, rhythm and intonation at a glance.

● appreciate how stress rhythm and intonation change the meaning of a word, sentence or a message

● analyse situations in which meaning of a word or sentence has changed due to spoken features

● acquire a good pronunciation of English

Sounds

Vowels:

During the production of all the English vowels:

• the soft palate is raised, and

• the vocal cords vibrate

The above articulatory features distinguish different vowel sounds and determine the vowel quality

Types of Vowel Sounds

• Monophthong - a vowel sound whose quality doesn't change over the duration of the vowel. It is also called pure or stable vowel

• Diphthong - a vowel sound that glides from one quality to another

Monophthongs or Pure vowels

Diphthongs

Two vowels produced consecutively in the same syllable by moving the articulators from one position to the other.

Example: Fly: flai- 1 syllable word-ai

Diphthongs

Diphthong Examples

/eI/ brain, great, neighbour/aI/ site, shy, eye/ɔI/ employ, oil, coy

/əʊ/ oval, fold, know /aʊ/ owl, mountain, cloud /Iə/ ear, beard, appear /eə/ compare, hair, stair /ʊə/ poor, jury, endure

English Consonants

•A consonant is a speech sound which obstructs the flow of air through the vocal tract.

•There are 24 consonants in standard southern British English

English Consonants

•A consonant is a speech sound which obstructs the flow of air through the vocal tract.

•There are 24 consonants in standard southern British English .

Classification of English consonants: Three

Aspects

1. the place of articulation: Where

2. the manner of articulation: How

3. the state of the vocal cords: Do vocal cords vibrate?

Place of Articulation | FREE Pronunciation E-Course

Manner of Articulation | FREE Pronunciation E-Course

The syllable

RimeTheOnset

• The Nucleus• The Coda

Description

1. The ‘onset’ is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. /k/ in cat).

2. The term ‘rime’ refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (‘at’ in cat).

3. The Nucleus the ‘core’ of the syllable • It is the vowel • All syllables have a nucleus, but may or may not have other

constituents.4. The CodaIt is the consonant or the consonants after the nucleus.

● Syllables are directly Proportionate with sounds

The number of vowel sounds in a word equals the

number of syllables.

Every syllable must have a vowel sound.

For example:

• can• win-dow• mag-ne-tic

Accent/Stress

Stress is the first vocal feature to be analysed. Speakers need to stress some syllables while speaking. If they do not do it, words will be misunderstood or sound strange. Stress is used in all languages whether, Hindi or English or Spanish.

Notice the differences in the following sentences:

● I need a permit to go to the other state● The teacher did not permit me to leave the class.● My sister will present you with a present.● I won’t clean the garden.● I won’t clean the garden.

Word Accent

Word accent or stress is the relative degree of prominence with which different syllables of a word are pronounced.

For example:

1. pro-mi-nent 1st syllable is accented

2. per-cieve 2nd syllable is accented

3. in-ca-pa-ci-tate 1st & 3rd syllables are accented

4. pro-nun-ci-a-tion 2nd & 4th syllables are accented

Features of Word Accent

• It’s longer.• It’s louder.• It’s clearer.• It has a higher pitch.• It involves more movement of your

mouth and lips to make the sound

a

Stress on first syllable:

Rule ExampleMost 2-syllable nouns PREsent, EXport,

CHIna, TAble

Most 2-syllable adjectives

PREsent, SLENder, CLEver, HAPpy

Stress on last syllable

Rule

Rule ExampleMost 2 syllable verbs

to preSENT, to exPORT, to beGIN, to deCIDE

Two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change

with a change in stress.

For example:

Present is a 2 syllable word pre-sent• If we stress the first syllable - 'present

- - it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent).• If we stress the second syllable - pre'sent

- - it becomes a verb (to offer).

Similarly,

Noun/Adjective Verb'absent ab'sent'object ob'ject'conflict con'flict'desert de'sert'record re'cord

Stress on penultimate syllable(penultimate = second from end)

Rule ExampleWords ending in -ic GRAPHic,

geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic

Words ending in -sion and -tion

teleVIsion, reveLAtion

Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)

Rule

Compound words (words with two parts)

Rule ExampleFor compound nouns, the stress is on the first part

BLACKbird, GREENhouse

For compound adjectives, the stress is on the second part

bad-TEMpered, old-FAshioned

For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part

to underSTAND, to overFLOW

Shift in word accent from first syllable to the second, the third, or the fourth syllable as the words leading to change in their grammatical form and meaning.

For example:

'democrat de'mocracy demo'cratic

'politics po'litical poli'tician

'family fa'miliar fami'liarity

'telephone te'lephony tele'phonic

'photograph pho'tographer photo'graphical

How Sentence Stress Works and Why

Generally content words are stressed and function words are not stressed.

• Stressed words carry the meaning or the sense behind the sentence, and for this reason they are called Content Words – they carry the content of the sentence.

• Unstressed words tend to be smaller words that have more of a grammatical significance – they help the sentence “function” syntactically and for this reason they are called Function Words

Content words are not accented in the following situations:

1. When they are repeated in a contextYou 'want me to 'come? I 'won’t come.

2. When words in their neighbourhood are emphasizedOh, I 'haven’t got an i'dea.

3. When one word in a sequence of two content words is habitually contrasted with some other word, that word alone is accented.

a'cute angle (obtuse angle), 'bus journey (train journey),'pleasure trip (business trip)

Content words are not accented in the following situations:

4. When the main verbs be and have in the sense of possess, occur medially in a sentence.Example: I have a 'new 'dictionary at 'home.

5. When the demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, those are used like the definite article the, carrying no force of demonstrativenessExample:I 'don’t 'like this 'other one

Impact of stress on the meaning

1. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. 2. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. 3. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. 4. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses.

5. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. 6. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. 7. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. 8. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses.

Impact of stress on the meaning

I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses

1. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses.

Meaning=> John didn't ask. I asked.2. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses.

Meaning=> I didn't demand it. I asked it.3. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses.

Meaning=> I didn't ask your secretary. I asked you.4. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses.

Meaning=> I didn't ask you to steal the flowers. I asked you to buy them.

Impact of stress on the meaning

5. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. Meaning => I didn't ask you to buy the flowers for your mother. I

asked you to buy them for me.`

6. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. Meaning => I didn't ask you to by me one white rose. I asked you

to buy me a bunch of them.

7. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. Meaning => I didn't ask you to buy me a bunch of red roses. I

asked you to buy me white roses.

8. I asked you to buy me a bunch of white roses. Meaning => I didn't ask you to buy me white lilies. I asked you

to buy me white roses.

RhythmRhythm is the second feature to be studied.

Rhythm is made by the strong emphasis placed on syllables or the number of beats in a sentence.

In English, saying words in rhythm reduces the number of syllables.

For example the three words , ‘ham and eggs’ can be reduced to two words by using the weak form of ‘and’ (n)

‘ham’n eggs’.

IntonationIntonation lends melody to the spoken language. Speaker depend more on Intonation patterns to convey their meaning rather than pronunciation of individual vowels and consonants.

● If your voice falls, you are making a statement.● If your voice rises, you are asking a question.● Hence meaning depends not on ‘what you say’ but

‘how you say it’.

'Melody' you hear is the intonation.

It has the following features:

• It's divided into phrases, also known as 'tone-units'.• The pitch moves up and down, within a 'pitch range'. • Everybody has their own pitch range.• Languages, too, differ in pitch range. •

English has particularly wide pitch range.

• In each tone unit, the pitch movement (a rise or fall in tone, or a combination of the two) takes place on the most important syllable known as the 'tonic-syllable'.

• The tonic-syllable is usually a part of a high-content word, near the end of the tone unit.

• These patterns of pitch variation are essential to a phrase's meaning.

• Changing the intonation can completely change the meaning.

Intonation: Stress timed

Once upon a time, there was a king.

Intonation: Syllable timed

Ek samay ki baat hai, ek raja tha

There are three types of tones:

• The falling tone `

• The rising tone ,

• The falling-rising tone ˇ

Falling Tone

The falling tone is generally used in:

1. Statements which are complete and definite.

- He’s just been pro`moted

- He made me feel at `ease.

2. ‘Wh’ Questions when said in a neutral way.

-What’s the `matter?

-Where are you `going?

3. Commands

- Shut the `window

- Don’t make a `noise

Falling Tone5. Exclamation

- Good `heavens!

- How `beautiful!

5. Invitations

- Come over for a cup of `tea.

- Why don’t you come and `dine with me?

6. Tag-Questions

When the speaker expects the listener to agree with him

- He can’t help it, `can he?

- It was a good film, `wasn’t it?

Rising Tone

The rising tone is naturally used in :

1. Yes/No type questions- Was he present ,yesterday?

- Are they ,coming?

2. Statement intended to be a question- You won’t ,come?

- He isn’t ,going?

3. Request- Pass me the salt ,please.

- Listen to me for a ,minute.

Rising Tone

4. Wh-question showing politeness, friendliness, warmth, personal interest

- How is your ,son?

-What is your ,name child?

5. Alternative questions- Do you like ,tea or ,coffee?

- Are you going to,Delhi or ,Bombay?6. Repetition-question which repeats someone else’s question, or wants

him to repeat some information

- ,What did I say?

(It will take me two hours) ,How long?

Fall-rise

The fall-rise tone ( ˇ ) is normally used in:

1. Incomplete statement

- If you don’t beˇhave- If you don’t ˇcome

2. Statement intended to be a ‘correction’ of the information received.

- (He has three sons) He has ˇfour.- (She teaches English) ˇFrench.

1. When the speaker intends to convey special implications.

- I am ˇwaiting (so do hurry up)- I am ˇreading (so don’t disturb)

- He’s ˇgood. (but I can’t trust him)

- I can do it toˇmorrow. (but not today)

Fall-rise4. Statement which shows a kind of reservation on the part of the speaker.

ResourcesInteractive Phonetic chart for English Pronunciation

Learn Pronunciation of English Vowel Sounds

Syllable Structure

Syllables - Why and How to Count Syllables: English Pronunciation

English Pronunciation | Rhythm Intonation Stress | Improve English Accent

Thank You