Pronunciation Lesson [PDF]

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Pronunciation Lesson Source : http://cle.ust.hk/~material/pl/

Introduction These pronunciation lessons have been developed to help you: understand the systematic differences between English and Cantonese pronunciation; monitor your own speech and become aware of ways in which you can improve the intelligibility of your own spoken English; become aware of the rhythm of English in contrast to that of Chinese; use stress (strong and weak syllables) appropriately in both words and sentences; make use of transcription in dictionaries. Each lesson introduces an aspect of English pronunciation and many include short tasks for practice. You can expect to finish a lesson in 15 minutes.

Table of contents Lesson 1

A guide to English pronunciation

Lesson 2

Syllables and wordstress

Lesson 3

Weak syllables

Lesson 4

Rhythm

Lesson 5

Syllable structure in English and Chinese

Lesson 6

Consonants and consonant clusters

Lesson 7

Linking words

Lesson 8

Sentence stress

Lesson 9

Intonation: showing feelings

Lesson 10

Intonation: as punctation

Lesson 11

Sound symbols

Lesson 12

Linking words: more ways

Lesson 13

Long vowels ending in voiced consonants Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 1

Lesson 14

Sentence stress and intonation to convey a writer's message

Lesson 15

Highlighting keywords

Lesson 16

Using sentence stress to contradict or correct

Lesson 17

Pronunciation and grammar

Lesson 18

The schwa in "that" clauses

Lesson 19

Synthesizing all the pronunciation skills studied so far

Lesson 20

Specific problem sounds for Cantonese speakers: /v/, /z/ and 'th'

Further Practice

Practice 1: /l/ and /n/ Practice 2: /l/ and /n/ Practice 3: /t/ and /d/ Practice 4: /t/ and /d/ Practice 5: /k/ and /g/ Practice 6: /k/ and /g/ Practice 7: /ɪ/ and /iː/ Practice 8: /ɪ/ and /iː/ Practice 9: /e/ and /æ/ Practice 10: /e/ and /æ/ Practice 11: /ɔ/ and /ɒ/ Practice 12: /ɔ/ and /ɒ/ Practice 13: /uː/ and /ʊ/ Practice 14: /uː/ and /ʊ/ Practice 15: /ə/ Practice 16: Word stress - compound words Practice 17: Word stress - nouns VS verbs Practice 18: 'ed' endings Practice 19: 'ed' endings

*Many of the lessons contain audio materials and/or interactive tasks. Please consult the "Technical" section on the menu bar if you have any problem displaying the transcriptions or listening to the sound recording in MP3 format.

Lesson 1 - A guide to English pronunciation What is 'Pronunciation'? Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 2

Pronunciation is a broad term used to describe a number of aspects of producing the appropriate sounds in the language targeted. Most people think it refers to only the separate, identifiable sounds of words, but it covers more than just that. As well as the sounds there are also the sentence tunes, and the use of pitch and loudness to indicate importance or strong feeling.

The English sound system All languages have their own unique sound systems. We can find sounds in English such as "th" which cannot be found in Cantonese. Similarly there is a sound "eui" in the Cantonese word for 'team': 'deuih' ( ), which does not exist in English. Sometimes the same sound is found in both English and Cantonese, e.g., 'ng'. But it never occurs at the beginning of an English word, whereas it does in Cantonese, as in 'ng h' ( speakers to pronounce.

) and 'ng h' (

). These words are difficult for many English

Some, but not all, of the difficulty Cantonese speakers have with English is due to such differences as these.

Intonation Another major area of difference is the tune or intonation of the language, which is the pattern of rises and falls in pitch. In Cantonese, the word meanings are distinguished by changes in pitch commonly called tones. For example, the word 'ma' can mean 'horse' ( ) or 'mother' ( ) according to whether the pitch is rising or falling. However, in English, the changes in pitch indicate the feelings of the speaker or show that the sentence is not yet finished. 'No', for example, can be said in many ways: the pitch tells the listener the real meaning, that is, the emotional meaning, which the speaker wants to convey.

Rhythm The third and probably the most difficult aspect of pronunciation to master is the rhythm of English, which is totally different from the rhythm of Cantonese (or other dialects of Chinese). English has strong and weak beats similar to the beat in music. The beat is marked by loudness and a higher pitch. We refer to it as stress. The sound in a stressed syllable is said to be strong. Individual words can be strong or weak, or contain both strong and weak sounds. Phrases have strong and weak sounds and in sentences, the most important words will be strong, or stressed. The differences between strong and weak syllables are extremely hard for speakers of Cantonese to master. This is possibly because in Chinese each syllable is written as a separate character. But the rhythm which works for Chinese does not work in English. The rhythm of the strong beats in English is regular, as in music. There may be any number of weak beats between the strong ones.

Word linking To add to the difficulty, English words run together so that a sentence often sounds like one long word. This is often hard for Cantonese learners to do. Probably the most important way to master this running together is to practise linking words beginning with a vowel to the last sound of the preceding word, e.g., the_end; stop_it. Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 3

Lesson 2 - Syllables in English words English words can have one or more syllables. Here are some examples. one syllable

must

can

two syllables

study

exam

three syllables diligent

analyze

four syllables

analysis

registration

five syllables

environmental durability

six syllables

permeability

anthropological

Recognizing wordstress If an English word has more than one syllable, one of the syllables of the word should sound stronger, or stressed. It is said more loudly, on a higher pitch and is slightly lengthened. There may be more than one stressed syllable in a poly-syllabic word such as “environmental”. In most dictionaries, the symbol used to indicate stress is /ˈ/ placed before the stressed syllable, e.g., eˈxam. If a word has more than one stressed syllable, the major one is called primary stress /ˈ/, and the other secondary stress /ˌ/ e.g., ˌphiˈlosophy. These stresses are usually indicated together with the pronunciation symbols /ˌfɪˈlɒsəfɪ/. Check your dictionary for the system used. The remaining unstressed syllables are pronounced very fast, i.e., with weak vowels.

Identifying wordstress Find out the stresses in the following words.

1 must

2 can

3 study

4 exam

5 diligent

6 analyze

7 environment

8 durability

9 permeability

10 anthropological Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 4

Counting syllables and recognizing wordstress Listen to the recording and write the number of syllables for each word in the space provided. Also read each word to yourself and find out where the stress is.

environment

probable

secondary

church

able

protect

walked

coughed

subtract

probability

productive

enthusiastic

economy

interfaces

purchased

Lesson 3 - Weak syllables Syllables which are not stressed can be described as weak. They are pronounced very quickly and softly. Learning to pronounce unstressed syllables weakly can be difficult for Cantonese speakers.

Identifying weak syllables Find out the strong and weak syllables of the words below, e.g., toGEther, and then practise pronouncing the words aloud. .

1 protect

2 subtract

3 purchase

4 estate

5 analysis

6 horizon

7 equipment

8 insurance

9 exhibit

10 representative Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 5

International Phonetic Alphabet We can use the International Phonetic Alphabet to indicate how words are pronounced. Click here to see and listen to the English phonetic symbols.

Recognizing transciption symbols Read the words transcribed below and write them out in normal spelling in the space provided. The first one has been done for you. 1 /praɪs/

price

2 /prəˈtekt/ 3 /həˈraɪzən/ 4 /ˈpɜːtʃəs/ 5 /əˈnæləsɪs/ 6 /təˈgeðə/

Note

The schwa The symbol for the most common vowel sound in spoken English is /ə/. It is always unstressed, and said very quickly, softly and at a low pitch. We call it the schwa.

Lesson 4 - The rhythm of English The strong and weak syllables of English result in a rhythm that is similar to the rhythm of music. The strong (stressed) syllables are like the beat in music. Strong syllables are long. Weak syllables are usually short. Strong syllables usually have weak ones around them, but if two strong ones occur together, they are said just as slowly as if they did have weak ones around them.

Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 6

Look at the following examples: (a dot = short, a dash = long)

·—

·—

·—

result

detect

confuse

—·

—·

—·

final

science

table

·—·

·—·

·—·

computer

in Sydney

distribute

—··

—··

—··

absolute

tentative

chemistry

·—··

·—··

·—··

infanticide

it's terrible

impossible

—··—

—·—

——

Give me a break!

Run along!

Mind out

——

——

Get lost!

Don't know!

Marking rhythm in sentences Find out the strong and weak beats in the following limerick. Then try to work out the rhythm (which is characteristic of a limerick) and practise reading it.

There was a young student called Billy Who really was terribly silly He ate a whole pig And became far too big And that was the end of poor Billy

Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 7

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Lesson 5 - Syllable structure in English and Chinese Words are made up of syllables; the center of a syllable is a vowel, e.g., /aɪ/ as in "I"; or /maɪ/ as in "my". One of the differences between Cantonese and English is the structure of a syllable. English has far more consonants around the central vowels than Chinese. English

Cantonese

screamed

/skriːmd/(CCCVCC)

country

/gwok/(

)(CCVC)

grasps

/grɑːsps/(CCVCCC)

language

/mahn/(

)(CVC)

asked

/ɑːskt/(VCCC)

good

/h u/(

grumbled

/grʌmbəld/(CCVCCVCC)

house

/ k/(

)(CV) )(VC)

Consonant values Final consonants have different values in different languages. Compare the final consonants in these words: 

in the English word "but" and the Cantonese word for a pen "b t" (



in the English word "lock" and the Cantonese for fall down/get down "lohk" (



in the English word “cup” and the Cantonese for class as in 1st year class " k p"(

) )

t nɪhn

)

As soon as we understand the difference in the way the final sound is pronounced in each language, it is easy to understand why Cantonese speakers may not hear English endings, so do not say them and then do not write them.

Lesson 6 - Consonants and consonant clusters Practising final consonants and clusters Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 8

Say these phrases concentrating on the final consonants. Remember the rhythm. There should be two beats in each phrase.

1 Don't talk. 2 The shirts were scorched. 3 We asked him some questions. 4 He squealed loudly. 5 The results were ruined. 6 The experiments took time. 7 The discs are corrupt. 8 I asked her out. 9 I was quite upset. 10 But I soon bounced back.

Practising initial and medial consonant clusters A good strategy for pronouncing two or more consonants together is to say them slowly and imagine there is a very short vowel between them. Practise the following words:

Initial project

train question

quality streamlined

process strip triangular thread screws Medial electrical cylindrical rectangular micrometer description

Reading consonant clusters in a sentence

Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 9

Practise reading aloud the sentence below; focus on the consonant clusters but don't forget about the rhythm (strong and weak sounds).

Trains trundle through here throughout the night. Freight has priority.

Suhanto Kastaredja’s Collection –Page 10