IPA

Transcription

Practice

Resource Person: Faiza Liaqat

MS. Applied Linguistics

University of Sargodha, Gujranwala Campus

Charts

English vowels:The labels “Front”, “Central”, and “Back” refer to thepart of the tongue. The terms “High”, “Mid”, and “Low”describe the position the tongue assumes for a givenvowel. For example, the vowels in hip, heap and hippy

are highfront vowels: /hɪp/ /hiːp/ /hɪpi/.

English consonants:The labels in the upper row (“Bilabial”, “Labiodental”, etc.) refer tothe articulator, or part of the mouth involved in the articulation of aconsonant. The terms in the column on the left (“Plosives”,“Fricatives”, etc.) describe the manner of articulation for a givenconsonant. Consonants on the right side in each column are voiced,and the ones to the left are voiceless. For example, the consonant/p/ is a voiceless plosive bilabial.

trænˈskrɪpʃən ˈpræktɪs

1. Vowel symbols

1. Write these words next to the right phonetic symbol

above.

dork, steam, start, week, lurk, spat, food, foot, lark, cool,

corn, far, seat, stern, van, sport, scream, seem, harsh,

lurk, rude, born, dull, puke, psalm, rock

Odd man out2. Eliminate the word whose vowel is different from those in

the other three. In words with more syllables, the vowel in

question is in bold type.

(F) stick, myth, feet, fit (A) lard, father, parent, jar

(G) blood, muck, tar, pub (B) done, gun, fall ,stub

(H) roll, rot, dot, gosh (C) sat, Nazi, clap, plaid

(I) son, run, fun, butcher (D) set ,dead, heat, bet

(J) lock, bottle, shore, stop (E) sieve ,leave,

meat, Steve

3. Transcribe the vowels in the following sentences.

Love thy neighbor as yourself, but choose your neighborhood.

/l_v ðaɪ neɪb_r əz jəs_lf bət tʃ_z jə neɪb_h_d/

If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.

/_f ju ɑː n_t kr_təsaɪzd jə meɪ n_t bi duɪŋ m_tʃ/

Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.

/ɒpət_n_ti ɪz m_st baɪ məʊst p_pəl bikɒz ɪts dr_st ɪnəʊvər_lz ən ɪt l_ks laɪk w_k/

I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead.

aɪ dəʊnt θ_ŋk _nibʌdi ʃəd raɪt ðər əʊn baɪɒgr_fi ʌnt_l ðəd_d

Vowels /ʊ/ and /uː/

spelled ‘u’ /ʊ/

When the letter ‘u’ is pronounced as a high-back vowel, it is usually the

short /ʊ/: bull, butcher, full, pull, push, sugar, wuss

u-e /uː/

But when a syllable containing the /u/ sound is followed by the letter ‘e’

in the spelling, the sound will be /uː/: absolute, cute, crude, dude,

exude, immune, include, mute, nuke, rude, use, etc.

spelled ‘ew’ /uː/ brew, chew, jewel, Jewish, lewd, Lewis, newt,

shrewd, etc.

spelled ‘oo’ /uː/ bloom, boom, boost, boot, booth, booze, cool,

doom, food, fool, gloom, goof, goose, hoot, loop, loot, loose, mood,

moon, moot, noose, ooze, pool, proof, school, shoot, smooth, snoop,

soon, spook, spoon, stool, swoon, swoop, tool, tooth, troop, zoom

spelled ‘oo’ /ʊ/ book, good, foot, hood, hook, look,

nook, shook, stood, took, wood, wool

Final /uː/ Words usually end in the long /uː/: argue,

avenue, bamboo, boo, coo, loo, peekaboo, shoo,

taboo, tattoo, too, voodoo, Yahoo, zoo, etc.

both /ʊ/&/uː/ broom, groom, roof, room; in AmE also

root, soot, whoop

idiosyncratic /ʊ/ woman, wolf

/uː/ womb, tomb, fruit, group, soup, suit

Exercises

Minimal pairs. The words below differ only in

one sound (the /uː/-/ʊ/contrast). Complete the

table.

wood /wʊd/- wooed /wuːd/ ____ /pʊl/ - ____ /puːl/

____ /fʊl/- fool /fuːl/ ____ /lʊk/- ____ /luːk/

Transcribe the following phrases.

true blue, loose woman, A Few Good Men,

footloose groupie, cool looking dude, spoonful of

sugar, hooked on books, Fruit of the Loom,

shooting some bull, food and booze, cute Susan

crude tool, new tattoo, useful fool wolf on the

loose, astute conclusion, groovy music

Vowels /ɪ/ and /iː/Patterns

/ɪ/ is usually spelled as the letter “i”: bit, spin, zit,

glib, etc.

/iː/ is often pronounced when spelled as:

‘ee’ bee, greet, meet, leek, reek, see, etc.; employee,

refugee, divorcee, etc.

‘ea’ bean, beat, heat, league, peace, sea, weave etc.

‘ie’ / ‘ei’ achieve, believe, field, piece, ceiling, receive,

conceive, etc.

e-CONSONANT-e athlete, complete, concrete,decent,

Irene, obese, Pete, Portuguese, Steve,

But there are exceptions: Looks like /iː/ but is really pronounced as /ɪ/:

sieve, mischief, counterfeit, foreign

Looks like /ɪ/ but is really pronounced as /iː/: liter,

kilo, and -ique words antique, physique, pique,

technique

Plus, there are some tricky examples of Irish

names: Sean /ʃɑːn/, Sinead /ʃɪˈneɪd/

Exercise

Transcribe the following

King and Queen

kith and kin

speed limit

feeling of bliss

Decipher these minimal pairs

/fiːl/ /fɪl/ /stiːl/ /stɪl/ /biːn/ /bɪn/

/riːm/ /rɪm/ /diːm/ /dɪm/ /liːk/ /lɪk/

Vowels /ə/, /ʌ/ and /æ/ /ə/ (the “schwa”) is the most frequent vowel in

English.

It usually appears in unstressed syllables, but never in stressed syllables: about, afraid, confuse, etc.

It is not associated with any specific letter in the spelling (in fact, it can be spelled with any vowel letter: ability, seven, dinosaur, suppose)

The indefinite article a/an is pronounced with the schwa: /ə bed/, /ən æpəl/.

/æ/ is usually spelled as the letter “a”: ban,

cat, dab, hag, stack, tab, etc.

/ʌ/ is usually spelled as the letter “u”: bun,

cut, dub, hug, stuck, tub, etc.

Exceptions:

Some exceptional cases of /ʌ/ words to

memorize: ton, son, won, front;

one, done, none, come, love, glove, brother,

mother, some, something, other, nothing, money,

monkey, cover, govern, color, does;

blood, flood;

enough, rough, tough;

touch, country, cousin, young, couple, double,

trouble.

which sound comes

before

Past /d/, /t/, or /ɪd/ After unvoiced sounds such as p, k, f, s, sh,

and ch the final -ed is pronounced like t as in the

word cat. Note that the -e remains silent.

e.g. p help helped f stuff stuffed, laugh laughed s

miss missed dice diced , fix fixed

After voiced sounds such as b, , g, v, z, , , m, n,

ŋ, l, and r the final -ed sound is pronounced like d

as in good. Note that the -e remains silent.

e.g. b grab grabbed g hug hugged v save

saved z ooze oozed, please pleased

The final -ed is also pronounced like the d in

good after all vowel sounds. Note that the -e

remains silent.

e.g. stay stayed, free freed, lie lied

For verbs ending in d and t the final -ed is

pronounced Id as in the final two letters of the

word did. Note that here the -e is not silent and

this final -ed sound adds another syllable to the

end of the verb.

E.g. add added, grade graded, decide decided

which sound comes

before

plural /z/, /s/, or /ɪz/ If the noun ends in an unvoiced consonant

sound: /f/, /k/, /p/, /t/, /th/-(thin), pronounce "s" as

/s/.

When it ends in a voiced consonant sound,

/b/, /d/, /g/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ng/, /r/ or with a vowel

sound, /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, pronounce "s" as /z/.

If it ends with /s/, /z/, /sh/, /ch/-chair, /zh/-the

second "g" in garage, /dz/-(j), pronounce "s" or

"-es" as /iz/.

DIACRITICS

Diacritics Used with

ConsonantsChanges in Place of Articulation for

Consonants.

These symbols describe deviations from normal

tongue placement for consonants.

Dentalization. Dentalization refers to an articulatory variation in

which the tongue approaches the upper incisors.

It is marked by [ ] placed under the IPA symbol.

For example,

the symbol [d] stands for a coronal alveolar voiced

stop.

widow and width.

FORMULA

Dentalization rule

[-dental] → [+dental] ∕ ___________ [+ dental]

Palatalization Another modification of consonant articulation is

palatalization. Only sounds for which the palate is

not the place of articulation can be palatalized.

The diacritical mark for palatalization is a

superscript j added

to the right of the basic IPA symbol.

Ch, dz, 3, sh

S sound in question

FORMULA:

[-palatal] → [+palatal] ∕ ___________ [+ palatal]

Velarization. Velarization refers to the posterior movement of

the tongue placement (in the direction of the

velum) for palatal sounds.

The diacritical mark for velarization is a

superscript γ placed to the right of the IPA

symbol.

FORMULA:

[-velar] → [velar] ∕ ___________ [+ velar]

since [sins] silk [silk]

mince [mins] milk [milk]

Voice Symbols

Aspiration and Nonaspiration

Syllabic Consonants.

Unstressed syllables easily become reduced

syllables. This means that their vowel nucleus

practically disappears.

If the vowel nucleus is reduced, the following

consonant becomes a syllabic; that is, it becomes

the peak of that syllable.

“little” [l tl ]

“scratching” [skr tʃn ]

Nesalization leap [li:p] lean [li:n]

tap [tap] tan [tæn]

Nasalization rule

[- nasal] → [+nasal] ∕ ___________ [+ nasal]

five past

[faivpa:st] [faifpa:st]

love to

[lΛvte] [lΛfte]

as can be shown [ezkenbifoun]

[eskenbifoun]

that boy → /dap bɔɪ/ that girl → /dak gɜːl/

(Cruttenden, 2001: 285)

good pen → /gʊb pen/ good concert → /gʊg

kɒnsət/ (Cruttenden, 2001: 285)

ten players → /tem pleɪəz/ ten cups →/teŋ kʌps/

(Cruttenden, 2001: 285)

that thing → /dat̪ θɪŋ/ get those → /gɛt̪ dəʊz/

(Roach, 2000: 139)

Connected speech processes interact

with one another in complex ways.