English Language Workshop Pronunciation Clinic (1)

A Children’s Poem (1) I take it you already know, Of tough and bough and cough and dough. Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through. Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps. Beware of heard, a dreadful word, That looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead - it’s said like bed, not bead, For goodness’ sake, don’t call it ‘deed’! Watch out for meat and great and threat, (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt). © 2013 - Alan Daniel Taylor – All rights reserved - Ogni riproduzione è vietata

A Children’s Poem (2) A moth is not a moth in mother, Nor both in bother, broth in brother. And here is not a match for there, Nor dear and fear for bear and pear. And then there’s dose and rose and lose – Just look them up – and goose and choose. And cork and work and card and ward, And font and front and word and sword. And do and go and thwart and cart – Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Why man alive! I’d mastered it when I was five.

The Terminology Homophones – are words pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning; such as «heel» (tacco) and «heal» (guarire) or the preposition «to» or the number «two» Homonyms – are words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. They are usually the result of the two words having different origins, «bear» (the animal) and «bear» (to carry or support) Vowels – are sounds, such as English ah! [ɑ] or oh! [oʊ], pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. Consonants – are sounds articulated with the complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx.

What is correct English? There is no correct form of the English language and the spoken and/or written form is depndent on many factors: social extraction; geographical area (are we in India, Australia or the UK); who is deciding what is correct English is spoken in all parts of the world and with many different accents and regional variations. What is the country with the largest English speaking population in the world?

What creates the problem? 1 Vowels: English has over 24 vowel sounds 2 Homophones – same sound but different spelling bare/bear – whole/hole – fool/full – led/lead – sea/see 3 Homonyms (same word but different meaning/pronunciation) rose/rose – bear/bear – jack/jack/Jack/jack/ 4 Little relation between spelling and pronunciation bough – sword – throughout – tough 5 No true model to follow

Fill & Feel Problem: Tendency to replace the English high lax (lazy) vowel [ɪ] with [i]. Italians tend to pronounce the following words in the same way: “fill” and “feel”, “pill” and “peel” “hill” and “heel” “ill” and “eel” “sill” and “seal” “kill” and “keel” “dill” and “deal” “nill” and “kneel”

Singer and Finger Confusion between [ŋ] with [ŋg] Italians tend to make the words “singer” and “ringer” rhyme with “finger” and “linger” Eg: The singer [ŋ] broke his finger [ŋg] Eg: The sinner and the singer lingered.

Small and Snoopy Tendency to replace the initial sound [sm] or [sn] with [zm] or [zn] respecively. Example: “small” becomes “zmoll” “snoopy” becomes “znoopy” “smart” becomes “zmart” “snake” becomes “znake” “smack” becomes “zmack” “snore” becomes “znore”

Mother - Madder Italians have the tendency to replace [ʌ] with [a] mother [mʌðər] becomes mather [maðər] Other examples: brother [brʌðər] brather [braðər]

Thirsty - Thirty Italian tend to have problems with fricatives: The voiceless /θ/ sound may be replaced with a dental [t] or the labial [f]. thirsty [θərstə] becomes firsty [fərstə] Voiced /ð/ may become a dental [d]. mother [mʌðər] becomes [mʌdər] or [mʌddər] Other problem words are: Thursday, thirty, thorough, through

What does voiced/unvoiced mean? If a sound is “voiced”, you can feel it in your throat/larynx. Put your hand on your throat while you repeat the words: Unvoiced Voiced thirty mother small Zara hasty hazy thirsty Thursday Can you feel the difference in the vibration?

The silent letters In English, the following letters in red are not pronounced. b: thumb – climb – dumb - crumb k: knife - knee - know - knock - knew gh: right - might - fight - sight w: sword t: whistle - thistle - mistletoe g: guard - guess - foreign - feign - sign h: hour - honest - heir l: calm - salmon - talk - would - should s: isle - island

There and Dare Italians typically pronounce the /th/ [θ] and the /d/ sounds both as dental stops, they become homophones. Consquently, words like there and dare tend to become homophones. “They dare go there.” “Dare they go there.” “That there is a dare.”

Bag and Beg /æ/ is replaced with [ɛ], so that bag [bæg] sounds like beg [bɛg]. bag [bæg] becomes beg [bɛg] lag [læg] becomes leg [lɛg] back[bæck] becomes beck[bɛck] fat [fæt] becomes fet [fɛt] rag [ræg] becomes reg [rɛg]

Cat /a/ & Cart /æ/ Cat Cart Hat Heart Had Hard Chat Chart Am Arm Can Can’t “My hard-hearted aunt had a fat cat in her flat”

Cart /a/ & Cut /ʌ/ Cart Cut Part Rut Carp Cup Starter Stutter Martyr Mutter “I can’t come by car!” stuttered the startled stuntman.

Cut /ʌ/ & Curt /ə/ Cut Curt Hut Hurt Fun Fern Bud Bird Gull Girl “Have fun in the ferns!”, the girl cut in curtly.

Cart /a/ & Caught /o/ Cart Caught Art Ought Tart Taught Bar Bore Are Sore “Oh, they are awfully bored in the bar?” asked Mark awkwardly.

tough /ʌ/ & through/u:/ Tough through/threw Rough pew Buff new/knew Enough true Stuff stew “I’ve had enough of this rough stuff” said the tough buff to the true dude.

Schwa [ə] The Schwa [ə] is probably the most common vowel sound in English and does not exist in standard Italian. Italian speakers tend to give the written vowel its full pronunciation. lemon [lɛmɒn] instead of [lɛmən], television [tɛleviʒɒn] instead of [tɛleviʒən] parrot [pærrot] instead of [pæɹə] intelligent [intɛlidʒɛnt] instead of [intɛlidʒənt] water [wɔtɛr] instead of [wɔtər] sugar [ʃugar] instead of [ʃugər]

Its raining Cats and Dogs Italian speakers may pronounce consonant-final English words with a strong vocalic offset, especially in isolated words. This has led to the stereotype of Italians adding [ə] to the ends of English words whereas English speakers tend to truncate words. dog [dɒg] becomes [dɒgə] cat [cæt] becomes [cætə] © Ateneo Impresa SpA - Ad uso esclusivo degli allievi di Ateneo Impresa SpA - Ogni riproduzione è vietata

Parrot and Carrot Tendency to pronounce /r/ as a “trilled” or a “rolled ” [r] rather than the English /ɹ/ e.g. parrot [pæɹət] becomes [pærrot] carrot [cæɹət] becomes [cærrot]

Star, Bar and Far Many Italians produce the /r/ sound (either trilled or rolled) wherever it is found in a word resulting in a rhotic sound, even when the language they are learning is non-rhotic. The English sound is more an /ɹ/ e.g. parrot [pæɹət] becomes [pærrot] carrot [cæɹət] becomes [cærrot] Try saying the following words without giving importance to the /r/ sound and try to create the /ɹ/. star, bar, far, car

Double or Stubble Double letters (both vowels and consonants) are rarely given importance in English pronunciation. Italians pronounce apple with a longer [p] sound than English speakers do. Example: feel, summit, little, coffee, carrot, parrot

Quick revision hill pill kill ill fill nill peel heel reel seal eel reel bag rag fag tag nag brag leg beg red said lead seed flower hour sour power dour cower hare mare rare bare lair tear sore four lower bore tore roar

The pronunciation fo the regular Past Tenses To walk – walked is pronounced: /t/ To shout – shouted is pronounced: /id/ To listen – listened is pronounced: /d/

Now you try to decide /t/, /d/ or /id/ To cook – cooked To archive – archived To rent – rented To smoke – smoked To bounce – bounced To hire – hired To file – fliled To scratch – scratched To listen – listened To renounce – renounced To look – looked To deviate – deviated

Now you try /t/, /d/ or /id/ to cook – /t/ to archive – /d/ to rent – /id/ to whistle – /d/ to bounce – /t/ to hire – /d/ to file – /d/ to scratch – /t/ to listen – /d/ to renounce – /t/ to look – /t/ to deviate – /id/ The Rule of thumb: Voiced …s/ch followed by /t/ Unvoiced …r/n/l/v followed by /d/ /t/ or /d/ followed by /id/