1. Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics
Lecture 3

2. Nasals a nasal = air passing through the nose
English has three nasals, all of them voiced:
/m/ mime
/n/ nine
/ŋ/ ding dong

3. /n/ as in ‘nine’ Pronunciation:
the tip of the tongue not touching the teeth
Compare: Eng. ‘not’; Swe. ‘nå’t’
’n’ is mute in words ending in -mn:
condemn /kənˈdem/
autumn /ˈɔ:təm/
hymn /hım/
damn /dæm/
solemn

4. /ŋ/ as in ‘king’ The spelling ’ng’ is usually pronounced
/ŋ/ long, strong, diphthong, singing
but sometimes /ŋg/ :
longer /ˈlɒŋgə(r)/ (also ‘longest’)
finger /ˈfıŋgə(r)/
hunger /ˈhʌŋgə(r)/
angry /ˈæŋgrı/

5. /h/ as in ’heat’ mute in a few common words:
’hour, honour, honest, heir’
+ names in –ham:
’Birmingham, Beckham’
often mute in many BrE accents (not RP!)
hammer, head, Harry

6. Affricates consist of a plosive followed by a fricative
English has two affricates:
voiceless /tʃ/ chain
voiced /dʒ/ Jane

7. /tʃ/ as in ‘church’ The plosive /t/ is followed by the fricative /ʃ/
Spelling: ‘ch’
cheese /tʃi:z/
China /ˈtʃaınə/
child /tʃaıld/
check /tʃek/

8. /ʃ/ versus /tʃ/ sheep /ʃi:p/ cheap /tʃi:p/ ship /ʃıp/ chip /tʃıp/
share /ʃeə(r)/ chair /tʃeə(r)/
sheet /ʃi:t/ cheat /tʃi:t/
shop /ʃɒp/ chop /tʃɒp/

9. Pronunciations of ‘ch’
/tʃ/ in most words
Note!
/ʃ/ in some loan words:
champagne, chef, parachute, Charlotte, Chicago, Michigan
chic (but ‘chick’ /tʃık/)
/k/ in Greek loan words:
chaos, chemistry, echo, choir

10. /dʒ/ as in ‘juice’ Examples jeans /dʒi:nz/ jam /dʒæm/ joke /dʒəʊk/
gentle /ˈdʒentl/
legend /ˈledʒənd/
ridge /rıdʒ/

11. /j/ as in ‘yes’ Examples yard / jɑ:(r)d/ young / jʌŋ/ your / jɔ:(r)/
unit /ˈju:nıt/
Europe /ˈju:rəp/

12. /dʒ/ versus /j/ /dʒ/ /j/ jet yet jello yellow juice use joke yolk/yoke
job yob
jail Yale
The letter ‘j’ is never pronounced /j/!

13. /w/ as in ‘well’ Note the contrast /v/ – /w/ ! vet – wet vain – Wayne
veil – whale
veal – wheel
The letter ‘w’ mute in words with wr-
write, wring, wreath, wreck

14. /l/ as in ‘ball’ Two variants (allophones): clear and dark
In RP, /l/ is clear before vowels and /j/; dark in other positions
clear /l/: let, love, live, million
dark /l/: tall, world, people, humble
In GA, /l/ is always (more or less) dark
In Estuary English dark /l/ often /w/

15. The letter ‘l’ is mute in some words with –olk, -alf, -alk, -alm
folk, yolk
calf, half
chalk, stalk, walk
calm, palm, balm
also mute in salmon, Stockholm, colonel, almond

16. /r/ as in ‘rose’ In RP /r/ is only pronounced before a vowel:
break, rhyme, bury
(but not in metre, barred)
In GA /r/ occurs in all positions

17. Linking /r/
occurs in RP when a word with a final ‘r’ is followed by a vowel:
far away
your answer
butter and jam
Compare:
four days (no /r/)
four evenings ( /r/ pronounced)

18. Intrusive /r/
occurs in RP between vowels where there is no ‘r’ in spelling
used to prevent hiatus (vokalmöte)
Examples:
Asia and Africa /eıʃər ən æfrikə/
law and order /lɔ:r ən ɔ:də/
Rebecka and Ian /rəbekər ən i:ən/