Samenvatting English pronunciation for student teachers - phonetics

Phonetics 1


Chapter 1 Spelling and pronunciation

Grammatical interference: applying Dutch grammar rules in English sentences.

Where is your bag? I saw HIM yesterday. HIM=it

Semantic/idiomatic interference: using Dutch words in English sentences.

He was lying on the BANK. BANK=couch

Phonological interference: applying rules from L1 (Dutch) to L2 (RP).

Wood=woet

Homophones are words that sound the same but are written differently.
Phonemes are symbols that represent sound in RP. One phoneme represents one speech sound.

Homographs are words that have the same spelling but are pronounced differently. This can be
caused by the stress pattern.

When a word is a noun/adjective (zelfstandig/bijvoeglijk naamwoord) the stress is on the first
syllable. However, when a word is a verb (werkwoord) the stress is on the second syllable.

Monophthongs: vowels that do not change in quality.
Diphthongs: vowels that change in quality.

There are lax and tense vowels. Lax vowels are short. Tense vowels are long, they can be
monophthongs or diphthongs.

Vowel tree
Lax Tense
Monophthongs Monophthongs Diphthongs
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Consonant tree
Obstruents Sonorants
Plosives Fricatives Affricates nasals approximants
fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis voiced
       
       
       
       
       


, Phonetics 1

Chapter 2 predictable pronunciations

Grammatical -s rule:

After a hissing sound (/ we use /z/.
After all other fortis obstruents  we use //.
In all other cases we use //.

Grammatical -ed rule:

After /d/ or /t/ we use //.
After all other fortis obstruents we use //.
In all other cases we use //.

Why is English difficult to learn?

English is not a

Chapter 3 word stress

All words consist of syllables. One of the syllables is pronounced more strongly, this is called word
stress. A foot is a stressed syllable followed by any unstressed syllable or nothing. Unstressed
syllables contain no vowels or weak vowels. A foot can carry primary or secondary stress.
We only put in the primary stress when transcribing!

Chapter 4 sentence stress

Music of spoken English:

- There is an accent on certain words (sentence stress)
- This gives rhythm and beat
- It makes you sound more native and understandable

We make a division in major category words and minor category words. Major category words give
the meaning to your sentence, the content words. Minor category words are the words you need to
make a sentence complete, the structure/function words.

Major category words:

- Main verbs talk, go, write, find etc.
- Nouns house, student, desk, flower etc.
- Adjectives green, beautiful, tasty, small etc.
- Adverbs quickly, secretly, inside, always, very etc.

Minor category words:

- Pronouns I, you, they, her, that
- Prepositions at, for, with, after, to, (on and in are always SF!)
- Articles a, the
- Conjunctions but, and, furthermore, because, so, however
- Auxiliary verbs can, should, must, have, do, would
- Forms of ‘to be’ is, was, am, will be

Rule: major category words are stressed; minor category words are not stressed.