Un-Hungarian sounds Szilágyi Szandra Fonetika és fonológia angoltanároknak Autumn 2014

1. Consonants 1.1. / ŋ /  the velar nasal  the sound / ŋ / regularly appears before /k, g/ just as in Hungarian  in word-final ng, the g is silent /n/: sin kin son ban thin wind hand /ŋ/: sing king sung bang thing winged hanged

1.2. / w /  labio-velar: just like /u/ but /w/ is [- syllabic], a ”semi-vowel”  it only occurs in prevocalic position  in RP wh is pronounced just like w (which = witch) /v/: verse veal via vine veil vest invite /w/: worse wheel wire wine whale west in white

1.3. / θ, ð /  dental fricatives  pronounce them like a lisp /s/ and /z/  they can be confused by beginners: /θ/ with /f/ and /ð/ with /d/  /θ/’s and /ð/’s spelling is always th /s/: sing mouse face force miss seem useful /θ/: thing mouth faith fourth myth theme youthful be /d/: dare die dine eider sudden wordy dense /ð/: there thy thine either southern worthy thence

 there is /θ/ ~ /ð/ alternation when a singular word becomes plural bath baths mouth mouths path paths youth youths  here are some other examples /θ/: breath tooth north /ð/: breathe teethe northern

2. Vowels 2.1. / ӕ /  it is produced in the front of the mouth, with the tongue in a mid or low position  much broader than Hungarian / ɛ /  / ӕ /’s spelling is always a /pron/sounds/vowel_short_7.shtml

2.2. / e /  in conservative RP it is not as broad as the Hungarian / ɛ /, it’s between / ɛ / and /e:/  othervise nowadays it is the same as Hungarian /e/ / ӕ /: bat lad pack catch marry flash cattle /e/: bet lead peck ketch merry flesh kettle / ӕ /: salary mansion bag had a fact fanatic radish /e/: celery mention beg head affect phonetic reddish

2.3. / ɪ /  tongue is raised to mid position or high position and is produced in the front half of the mouth  it’s much broader than Hungarian /i/, similar to / ɛ / /pron/sounds/vowel_short_1.shtml / ɪ /: sin bin rid is live risen his

2.4. / /  low and central  it is similar to a short Hungarian /a:/ /pron/sounds/vowel_short_3.shtml

2.5. / ɒ /  low and back  it is between Hungarian /o/ and / ɔ / /pron/sounds/vowel_short_4.shtml //: luck nut rub sung cuff colour gun / ɒ /: lock not rob song cough collar gone

2.6. / ʊ /  it is much broader than /u/ and approaches /o/ /u/: fut luk rum sugár puding pulóver bulit / ʊ /: foot look room sugar pudding pullover bullet

2.7. / ɜ : /  it is similar to /ə/ but longer and tenser  it is always followed by r in the spelling /Ø:/: fő sző ők sőt lőn szőkül ökör / ɜ :/: fur sir irk shirt learn circle occur

sources János Kovács – Péter Siptár (1989): Angolra hangolva. Budapest. Tankönyvkiadó. Ádám Nádasdy (2003): Practice book in English Phonetics and Phonology. Budapest. Nemzeti. ammar/pron/ ammar/pron/

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