1. Phonetics

Phonetics – This section of linguistics studies the sounds of human speech. It is divided into:

1)      articulatory phonetics

2)      acoustic phonetics

3)      auditory phonetics

INTERESTING FACT: The first phonetic system of writing, which served as the basis for the creation of all modern phonetic signs, is said to have been created by the Phoenicians.

2. Phonology

Phonology – This section of linguistics studies how the sounds of human speech are organized in a specific language.

INTERESTING FACT: There are between 30 and 40 dialects of English in the UK, and more than 20 in the United States.

3. Accent

Accent – The manner of pronunciation which is characteristic of a particular geographical area. An accent can be foreign or regional and can be connected with specific economic status.

INTERESTING FACT: Cows also have regional accents.

“I spend a lot of time with mine, and they moo with a Somerset drawl,” said Lloyd Green, a reporter for BBC News.

4. Vowel sound

Vowel sound – A speech sound created by the relatively free passage of breath through the larynx and oral cavity.

INTERESTING FACT: Although the exact number of vowels in some languages is difficult to count, the most significant number of vowels is presumably in the Taa language – the language of Botswana and Namibia – in which there are between 20 and 31 vowels, depending on how they are counted.

5. Consonant sound

Consonant sound – A sound that is made when airflow is interrupted or limited by the position of the tongue, teeth or lips.

INTERESTING FACT: The central dialect of the Rotokas language has the least number of consonants in the world – only 6.

6. Monophthong

Monophthong – A vowel that has only one perceived sound. Unlike diphthongs, a monophthong does not “glide” up or down concerning another vowel. Examples include /eh/ in the word pet, /ih/ in the word film, and /aa/ in the word father.

INTERESTING FACT: The process of converting monophthongs to diphthongs is called diphthongization. The reverse process is called monophthongization (don’t hurt your tongue too badly trying to pronounce them!).

7. Diphthong

Diphthong – A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another. For example, the vowel sounds /ey/ in the word play, /oy/ in the word boy and /aw/ in loud. It is also called a “gliding vowel.”

INTERESTING FACT: The most common combinations of vowels in American English are /ay/, /aw/ and /oy/ as in the words find, round and boy.

8. Triphthong

Triphthong – A union of three vowels (letters or sounds) pronounced in one syllable. They are pronounced together, as the sound passes smoothly from one letter to the next.

INTERESTING FACT: There are five triphthongs in British English:

•         eɪə – as in player

•         aɪə – as in  fire

•         ɔɪə – as in loyal

•         əuə – as in lower

•         auə – as in hour

9. Neutral vowel, or “shwa”

“Shwa” – A mid-central vowel sound with the IPA symbol /ə/ or the Arpabet symbol /ah/. In English, it occurs in words such as about and ballot.

INTERESTING FACT: As a rule, all unstressed vowels in English take on a neutral sound. Thus, the /ah/ in an unstressed word changes to a neutral /ə/.

Compare: “I didn’t even know that she was at the party.” And “She was at the party last night.”

10. The sound /æ/

The sound /æ/ in Old English is a near-open front unrounded vowel, represented by the symbol /æ/ in the IPA and /AE/ in the Arpabet. It can be found in such words as cat, bat, pack, etc.

INTERESTING FACT: Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne (b.1941) is a prominent public figure and pronounces this vowel sound shorter. This pronunciation was very popular among people who had a high status in society. Her original pronunciation of this vowel may be due to a hearing impairment, from which she is known to suffer.

Source: https://preply.com/en/blog/10-concepts-in-english-phonology-that-you-should-know/ 

Phonemes and other aspects of pronunciation 

In any language we can identify a small number of regularly used sounds (vowels and consonants) that we call phonemes; for example, the vowels in the words 'pin' and 'pen' are different phonemes, and so are the consonants at the beginning of the words 'pet' and 'bet'. Because of the notoriously confusing nature of English spelling, it is particularly important to learn to think of English pronunciation in terms of phonemes rather than letters of the alphabet; one must be aware, for example, that the word 'enough' begins with the same vowel phoneme as that at the beginning of 'inept' and ends with the same consonant as 'stuff'. We often use special symbols to represent speech sounds; with the symbols chosen for this course, the word 'enough' would be written (transcribed) as /ɪˈnʌf/. The symbols are always printed in blue type in this book to distinguish them from letters of the alphabet. 

Source: Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology. A practical course. Fourth edition. Cambridge: CUP.

Languages have different accents. They are pronounced differently by people from different geographical places, from different social classes, of different ages and different educational backgrounds. 

The word accent is often confused with dialect. We use the word dialect to refer to a variety of a language which is different from others not just in pronunciation but also in such matters as vocabulary, grammar and word order. Differences of accent, on the other hand, are pronunciation differences only.

The accent that we concentrate on and use as our model is the one that is most often recommended for foreign learners studying British English. It has for a long time been identified by the name Received Pronunciation ( usually abbreviated to its initials, RP), but this name is old-fashioned and misleading: the use of the word "receíved" to mean "accepted" or "approved" is nowadays very rare, and the word if used in that sense seems to imply that other accents would not be acceptable or approved of. Since it is most familiar as the accent used by most announcers and newsreaders on BBC and British independent television broadcasting channels, a preferable name is BBC pronunciation.

This should not be taken to mean that the BBC itself imposes an "official" accent -individual broadcasters all have their own personal characteristics, and an increasing number of broadcasters with Scottish, Welsh and Irish accents are employed. However, the accent described here is typical of broadcasters with an English accent, and there is a useful degree of consistency in the broadcast speech of these speakers.

In talking about accents of English, the foreigner should be careful about the difference between England and Britain; there are many different accents in England, but the range becomes very much wider if the accents of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland and Wales are included in Britain, and together with Northern Ireland form the United Kingdom) are taken into account. 

Within the accents of England, the distinction that is most frequently made by the majority of English people is between northern and southern. This is a very rough division, and there can be endless argument over where the boundaries lie, but most people on hearing a pronunciation typical of someone from Lancashire, Yorkshire or other counties further north would identify it as "Northern" This course deals almost entirely with BBC pronunciation. There is no implication that other accents are inferior or less pleasant-sounding; the reason is simply that BBC is the accent that has usually been chosen by British teachers to teach to foreign learners, it is the accent that has been most fully described, and it has been used as the basis for textbooks and pronunciation dictionaries.

A term which is widely found nowadays is Estuary English, and many people have been given the impression that this is a new (or newly-discovered) accent of English. In reality there is no such accent, and the term should be used with care. The idea originates from the sociolinguistic observation that some people in public life who would previously have been expected to speak with a BBC (or RP) accent now find it acceptable to speak with some characteristics of the accents of the London area (the estuary referred to is the Thames estuary), such as glottal stops, which would in earlier times have caused comment or disapproval.

If you are a native speaker of English and your accent is different from BBC you should try, as you work through the course, to note what your main differences are for purposes of comparison. I am certainly not suggesting that you should try to change your pronunciation. If you are a learner of English you are recommended to concentrate on BBC pronunciation initially, though as you work through the course and become familiar with this you will probably fi.nd it an interesting exercise to listen analytically to other accents of English, to see if you can identify the ways in which they differ from BBC and even to learn to pronounce sorne different accents yourself.

ACTIVITY

1 Give three different names that have been used for the accent usually used for teaching the pronunciation of British English.

2 What is the difference between accent and dialect?

3 Which word is used to refer to the relative strength of a syllable?

4 How many sounds (phonemes) do you think there are in the following words?

a) love       b) half       e) wrist       d) shrink           e) ought