The speech chain
The speaker on R has idea “a short tree” → lexical lookup “bush” → string of 3 phonemes → pop + note + hiss Listener on L receives pop + note + hiss → /b, ʊ, ʃ / → Wernicke’s area → Wernicke’s area → “bush”
Vowels of Modern English
You only need to feel where your tongue is. Vowels are described as Open vs Close, Front vs Back. “ee” is front and close; “a” is front and; “o” is back and open; “oo” is back and close. All other vowels can be located in this quadrilateral space.
Infants recognise all their parents’ phonemes by 12 months, then lose interest. A vowel is like a trombone note.
Accents are mostly vowels
There are many English accents, but few have sufficiently different syntax to be called “a dialect”. The Birmingham accent is the same as London and RP, except for the “a” in “bath”. The New Zealand accent replaces “e” by “i”, which then forces the “i” to become “u”. Example “Phil says the weather will be wet and windy” becomes ” fʊl sɪz ðə ˈwɪðə wʊl biː wɪt ənd ˈwʌndiː”. The Scots accent has about six different vowels plus continuing “ch” and trilled “r”.
General American seems to have exactly the same 24 consonant phonemes, but these accent features:
rhoticity (full pronunciation of all /r/ sounds)
T-glottalization (with satin pronounced [ˈsæʔn̩], not [ˈsætn̩]), T- and D-flapping (with metal and medal pronounced the same, as [ˈmɛɾɫ̩]),
L-velarization (with filling pronounced [ˈfɪɫɪŋ], not [ˈfɪlɪŋ])
yod-dropping after alveolar consonants (with new pronounced /nu/, not /nju/)
vowel mergers before /r/ (so that Mary, marry, and merry are all commonly pronounced the same), raising of pre-voiceless /aɪ/ (with price and bright using a higher vowel sound than prize and bride)
pre-nasal /æ/ raising and gliding (with man having a higher and tenser vowel sound than map)
weak vowel merger (with affect and effect often pronounced the same)
LOT vowel mergers (the LOT–PALM merger in most Americans, LOT–THOUGHT merger among nearly half).
Comparison of English and Chinese consonants
Consonants are described by the Latin name of where the obstruction is. English has nine hisses (fricatives) and six pops (stops, plosives) and nine others. The column headings in the following table are places of articulation.
| Labial | Denti- alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo- palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Fricative | f fv | Θ θv | s sv | ʃ ʃv | h | |
| Stop | p pv | t tv | k kv | |||
| Affricate | ʧ ʧv | |||||
| Approximant | ɹ l | j | w | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ |
The /v/ notation above, meaning voiced, is not standard IPA. The place of articulation (i.e. the column headings above) is not exactly correct for English, so /f/ would be labio-dental in English.
| Labial | Denti- alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo- palatal | Velar | |
| Fricative | f | s | ʂ (ʐ) | (ɕ) | x~h |
| Stop | P pʰ | t tʰ | k kʰ | ||
| Affricate | t͡s t͡sʰ | ʈ͡ʂ ʈ͡ʂʰ | (t͡ɕ) (t͡ɕ)ʰ | ||
| Approximant | l | ɻ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ |
Those in brackets are sometimes not separate phonemes; they are alveolar-palatal consonants (pinyin j, q, x) standardly pronounced [t͡ɕ, t͡ɕʰ, ɕ]. Alveolo-palatals consist of a consonant followed by a palatal glide [j] or [ɥ]. Glides (or semivowels) are not included in the table above. Some Chinese vowels can also be viewed as approximants: /i, u, y/ may also be analysed as underlying glides; if so, there are two Chinese vowels, not six.
An English speaker needs to acquire aspiration as a contrastive feature. In “pin” the /pʰ/ is aspirated because it is in the onset of the syllable and the vowel is stressed. In “spy” the /p/ is unaspirated in the nucleus. Placing the hand in front of the mouth allows the breath to felt only in “pin”. These are allophones, but in Chinese [p] vs [pʰ] is contrastive.
The phoneme inventories seems to be the same in: three stops that are neither voiced nor aspirated /p t k/; three nasals /m n ŋ / (though I have had misunderstandings about “dinn(g)er”); one approximant /l/. If this is correct, 17 English consonant phonemes are not found in Chinese. Teaching Mandarin might contrast minimal pairs: aspirated vs unaspirated stops; and the six affricates.
Elisions
In rapid speech 50% of vowels → schwa; h-dropping, -g dropping; loss of rhoticity; stop → glottal. “Are you having a good time?” ɑː jɪ avin ə ɡʊd taɪm?
Final consonants are essential in single syllable words; any elision gives phonemic error
Stress and pitch
Stress is loudness + length + pitch. The basic Germanic word level pattern is {stress, un-} or {stressed, un- un-}
Loanwords from French are fitted into this template “I am student at Brussels University”
Sentence level stress is only to show speaker’s attitude, usually questioning; Liverpool, Australia may differ. Irony is conveyed by SLS.
Scots vowels are the most distinctive accent of English. In the table below abut 8 of the 20 are different in Scots and RP.
