1. The Pronunciation of Vowel Letters

2. Content:
1. Letter-To-Sound Rules 1: Single Vowel Letters ( vowel digraphs)
2. Letter-To-Sound Rules 2: Graphic Position of Vowel-Letters
3. Laxing Rules

3. 1. Letter-To-Sound Rules: Single Vowel Letters
Why do plain-tense vowels have broken-tense and plain-lax vowels broad-lax counterparts?
What do we call these rules?

4. Pre-R Broadening: Pre-R Breaking:
Plain-lax vowels are replaced by their broad counterparts before r
Pre-R Breaking:
Plain-tense vowels may not stand before r, and are replaced by their broken counterparts in this position

5. Place the following words into the chart.
Practice
Place the following words into the chart.
1. bacon 13. post
2. parent 14. glory
3. cat gone
4. start nor
5. previous 17. music
6. hero during
7. very punish
8. her surface
9. kind
10. pirate
11. mirror
12. affirm

6. 2. Letter-To-Sound Rules: Graphic Position of Vowel-Letters
graphic position of a vowel-letter: the letters that follow it in spelling
two types: free and covered
What do <V>, <C>, <#> and <SLV> refer to?

7. Covered position rule: “If a stressed single vowel-letter stands in covered graphic position, it is pronounced lax” (Covered vowels are lax)
Free position basic rule: “If a stressed single vowel-letter stands in free graphic position, it is pronounced tense, unless some laxing rules apply to it.” (Free vowels are tense unless laxed by rule)

8. Practice
Decide if the stressed vowels in the following words are in free or covered position. 1. spot 4. radio 7. lion 2. bank 5. cyclist 3. going 6. revise

9. 3. Laxing Rules
a. Trisyllabic Laxing Rule: if the stressed vowel is in at least the third-last syllable of the word, it must be lax
e.g. hesitate
b. Laxing by ending
e.g. metric
solid
c. Laxing by free <u>: if it is followed by a free vowel letter <u> in the next syllable
e.g. gradual
d. CiV laxing: there is a stressed vowel letter <i> or <y> which is followed by a consonant letter + another vowel letter <i> + one more vowel letter
e.g. decision

10. Practice
Graph.pos.
Rule
Tns/Lx value
Pre-R Break./Broad
Trnscr.symbol

11. Sources
1.Baloghné Bérces Katalin, Szentgyörgyi Szilárd. Az angol nyelv kiejtése -The Pronunciation of English Nádasdy, Ádám. Practice Book in English Phonetics and Phonology. Budapest: Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, 2003.

12. Thank you for your attention!