1. Lesson 6 Diphthongs + connected speech
LINGUA INGLESE 1 modulo B Introduction to English Linguistics prof. Hugo Bowles
Lesson 6 Diphthongs + connected speech

2. Lessons and esonero 22 Ottobre – lesson 6 26 Ottobre – lesson 7
2 Novembre – lesson 9: revision +
exam practice
Sabato 1 Dicembre – lesson 10
esonero – AL; MZ

3. DIPHTHONGS fear go house I pain pear tour toy here know how my play
there
pour
voice
beer
home
down
either
cave
where
choice
hear
bone
loud
eye
reign
air
clear
sew
sigh
made
heir
dear
crow
thai
maid
wear
Don’t
tie
obey
foam
pay
foe

4. TRIPHTHONGS /ei/ + schwa /ai /+ schwa /au/ + schwa /oi/ + schwa
schwa + /u/ + schwa
player
fire
hour
royal
lower
liar
power

5. Minimal pairs Beware of heard a dreadful word that
looks like beard and
sounds like bird

6. While the position of the tongue is more or less stable for a pure vowel…

7. … a diphthong is characterised by a graceful movement from one point to another, for this reason they are also sometimes known as glides.

8. English diphthongs may cause Italian speakers difficulty for two main reasons:
Italian has four diphthongs while English has eight. All the Italian diphthongs have equivalents in English which are not the same but which are reasonably similar
Nowhere is the English spelling system more bizarre than in its representation of diphthongs

9. If one has a clear idea of where pure vowels are articulated on the quadrilateral then interpreting the diphthong symbols is not difficult.

10. Technically, English diphthongs are divided into two groups:
Closing diphthongs – which tend to move from an open to a close position, these roughly correspond to Italian sounds
Centring diphthongs – which tend towards a central position

11. First we will look at the closing group…

12. … the ‘pay’, ‘ made’, ‘maid’, ‘reign’, ‘obey’, sound:

13. Then we have the ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘tie’, ‘sigh’, ‘either’, ‘eye’, ‘Thai’, sound:

14. Then there is ‘boy’, ‘choice’:

15. Then ‘down’, ‘loud’:

16. To end the closing group, the most common diphthong in English, that of ‘no’, ‘know’,‘bone’, ‘foam’, ‘sew’, ‘though’, ‘don’t’, ‘foe’, ‘crow’:

17. To start with the centring group, we have the most common, that of ‘clear’, ‘deer’, ‘here’, ‘wier’:

18. Then ‘air’, ‘where’, wear’, ‘care’, ‘heir’:

19. Finally, there is a diphthong which is quite rare - ‘tour’, ‘poor’:

20. Pronunciation change
Poor used to be pronounced like puer in Latin (and still is in some regions, e.g. Scotland).
Now it tends to be pronounced as a long vowel (like “door” and “more”)
Is there a difference between the pronunciation of “poor” and “paw” (zampa) ?

21. Finally:
Diphthongs are the element in a language which are most liable to change. The majority of the characteristics of a given accent are usually to be found in this area, so understanding of the underlying mechanics is vital if one wants to understand accents and accent change.

22. Connected speech

23. Aspects of Connected Speech
Weak Forms
Yod coalescence
Elision
Assimilation

24. Weak syllables (vowels)
father
happy
thank you
open
photograph
radio
influence

25. Weak syllables (consonants)
bottle
parcel
threaten
seven
happen

26. Weak forms
When we talk about weak forms in the phonetics of English this regards a series of words which have one pronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another (weak) when not stressed within a phrase.
e.g. a car v I bought a car

27. Look at this phrase:
I went to the station and bought two tickets for my father and his best friend.

28. What are the most important words?
I went to the station and bought two tickets for my father and his best friend.
went
station
bought
two
tickets
father
friend
best

29. If we eliminate the other words can we still understand the message?
went station booked two tickets father best friend.

30. Let’s look at the phrase transcribed:
I went to the station and bought two tickets
/ə’wentəδə’steıʃənəm’bɔ:’tu:’tıkıts
for my father and his best friend
fəmə’fa:δərənız’bes’fren

31. There is a tendency for vowels in unstressed syllables to shift towards the schwa (central position)

32. Weak form are commonly used words
Prepositions
Auxiliary verbs
Conjunctions

33. to tu: tǝ for fɔ: fǝ from frɑm frǝm into ɪntu: ɪntǝ of ɒv as æz ǝz at
weak form
preposition to
tu: tǝ
for
fɔ: fǝ
from
frɑm
frǝm
into
ɪntu:
ɪntǝ of ɒv as æz ǝz at æt ǝt
Pronunciation
Spelling
strong form ǝv

34. du: dǝ a: ǝ(r)* wɒz wǝz wɜ: wǝ wʊd wǝd kʊd kǝd ʃʊd ʃǝd kæn kǝn m^st
Auxiliary verbs
Strong do
du: dǝ
are a:
ǝ(r)*
was
wɒz
wǝz
were
wɜ: wǝ
would
wʊd
wǝd
could
kʊd
kǝd
should
ʃʊd
ʃǝd
can
kæn
kǝn
must
m^st
mǝs(t)
Weak

35. her (as object pronoun) hɜ:(r) (h)ǝ(r)*
Other words
and
ænd
ǝnd, ǝn, n
but
b^t
bǝt
than
δæn
δǝn
that (as a relative)
δæt
δǝt
you (object pronoun)
ju: jǝ
your
jɔ:
jǝ(r)
her (as object pronoun)
hɜ:(r)
(h)ǝ(r)* a
æ, ei ǝ* an æn ǝn
the
δi:
δǝ, δi: (before a vowel)
Strong form
Weak form

36. Weak=unstressed - I do like chocolate.
In the following sentences the underlined words are
stressed and so would be pronounced using the strong
form:
- I do like chocolate.
- She drove to Las Vegas, not from Las Vegas.
- We were surprised when she told us her secret.
(stress on ‘were’ for emphasis)

37. Yod coalescence
Yod is the name of the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet – it stands for the vowel / I / or the semi-vowel / j /. In English phonetics Yod coalescence is a form of assimilation – it is a phenomenon which takes place when / j / is preceded by certain consonants most commonly /t / and / d /:

38. /t/ + /j/ = /tʃ/ / bǝtʃu:zjǝhed / / wotʃu:ni:d / what you need….
…but use your head!
/ bǝtʃu:zjǝhed /
what you need….
/ wotʃu:ni:d /
the ball that you brought
/ δǝbɔ:lδətʃu:brɔ:t /
last year….
/la:stʃiǝ/

39. /d/ + /j/ = /ʤ/ /kuʤu:helpmi:/ /wuʤɔ:zwɜ:k/ could you help me?
would yours work?
/wuʤɔ:zwɜ:k/
she had university exams
/ʃi:hæʤu:nəvɜ:səti:jigzӕmz

40. Yod coalescence is common in colloquial speech and is becoming ever more so. Note that it can occur: - between word boundaries (as above examples) within words e.g. You Tube = /ju:tʃu:b/

41. /ʤəliviə/ /(di)ʤəliviə/
The fact that two extremely recurrent words in English, you and your, start with /j/ means that understanding of this simple mechanism is vital to the understanding of spoken English. Do you and also did you are often pronounced as /ʤə/:
Do you live here?
Did you live here?
/ʤəliviə/
/(di)ʤəliviə/

42. Exercise. Identify places where yod coalescence may occur in the following phrases:
What you need is a good job!
You told me that you had your homework done.
She didn’t go to France that year.
Could you open the window please?
You’ve already had yours!

43. Exercise. Identify places where yod coalescence may occur in the following phrases:
What you need is a good job!
You told me that you had your homework done.
She didn’t go to France that year.
Could you open the window please?
You’ve already had yours!

44. Elision
 Elision is very simply the omission of certain sounds in certain contexts. The most important occurrences of this phenomenon regard:
1     Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when ‘sandwiched’ between two consonants (CONS – t/d – CONS), e.g.
The next day….
/δǝneksdei/
The last car…
/δǝla:ska:/
Hold the dog!
/hǝulδǝdog/
Send Frank
/senfrank/

45. consonant + affricate elision
This can also take place within affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ when preceded by a consonant, e.g.
lunchtime /lunʧtaim/  /lunʃtaim/  
strange days /streinʤdeIz/  /streinʒdeIz/

46. Elision of ‘not’
The phoneme /t/ is a fundamental part of the negative particle not, the possibility of it being elided makes the foreign students life more difficult. Consider the negative of can – if followed by a consonant the /t/ may easily disappear and the only difference between the positive and the negative is a different, longer vowel sound in the second:
+ I can speak…. /’aikәn’spi:k/
- I can’t speak… /ai’ka:nspi:k/

47. Assimilation Assimilation can be: of Place of Voicing of Manner
We will look at the first two

48. Assimilation of Place
The most common form involves the movement of place of articulation of the alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and /n/ to a position closer to that of the following sound.
For instance, in the phrase ten cars, the /n/ will usually be articulated in a velar position, /teƞ ka:z/ so that the tongue will be ready to produce the following velar sound /k/.
Similarly, in ten boys the /n/ will be produced in a bilabial position, /tem boiz/ to prepare for the articulation of the bilabial /b/.
This phenomenon is easy to find also in Italian: think of the different pronunciations of the ‘n’ in Gian Paolo, Gian Franco and Gian Carlo.

49. Assimilation of place before a VELAR
/n/ before a velar becomes /ƞ/
e.g. ban = /bӕn/
bank = ban+k = /bӕƞk/ not /bӕnk/
/d/ before a velar becomes /g/
e.g. good girl = /gʊg gɜ:l/
/t/ before a velar becomes /k/
e.g. that girl = / δæk gɜ:l /

50. Assimilation of place before a BILABIAL ( /b/ /m/ /p )/
/n/ before a bilabial becomes /m/
e.g. ten boys = / tem boiz/
/d/ before a bilabial becomes /b/
e.g. bad man = /bæb mæn/
/t/ before a bilabial becomes /p/
e.g. hot meal = / hop mi:l /

51. ASSIMILATION OF VOICING
The vibration of the vocal folds is not something that can be switched on and off very swiftly, as a result groups of consonants tend to be either all voiced or all voiceless. Consider the different endings of ‘legs’ /legz/ and ‘hats’ /hæts/, of the past forms of the regular verbs such as ‘kissed’ /kist/ and ‘sneezed’ /sni:zd/.

52. The assimilation of voicing can radically change the sound of several common constructions:
have to
has to
/hav tu:/
/haz tu:/
/hæftə/
hæstə/
e.g. I have to go! /aihæftəgəu/
used to
/ju:zd tu:/
/ju:stə/
e.g. I used to live near you.
/aiju:stəlɪvnɪəju:/