Page 134 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes Complex Vowels: Any one of these can be added to each of the nine vowels giving us 9 x 3 = 27
complex vowels—a vowel phoneme follwed by a semi-vowel phoneme. Thus in all there are thirty-
six (9 simple and 27 complex) vowel phonemes that serve as the vocalic nuclei.
Consonants:
In addition, there are twenty-one consonant phonemes
/p t k b d g c j f θ s sv ð z z m nŋl r/.
Stress
Trager and Smith recognize four levels of stress:
1. Primary/’ /: teacher
2. tertiary / /: Miss Smith; contens
3. weak [zero] / /: animal
4. Secondary / /: under; came
Tell me the truth.:/tel miy ð truw θ /
e
Juncture: Trager and Smith recognize four junctures as phonemes: 1. Internal junction /+/ as in
night+rate as contrasted to nitrate; 2. Single-bar Juncture /1/, indicative of incompleteness; 3. Double-
bar Juncture /1/, indicative of incompleteness; 3. Double-bar Juncture /ll/, indicative of uncertainty;
4. Double-cross Juncture /#/, corresponding to the orthographic period of fullstop, indicative of
assertion. The first one is known as plus juncture, the other three are called terminal junctures.
Pitch: Trager and Smith accord the phonemic status to pitch and recognize four levels /1 2 3 4/; for
example,
/ w n// tu w// θ viy// fohv #/
2
3
3
2
2
–
e
Stress, pitch and juncture are described by Trager and Smith as ‘suprasegmental’ whereas the vowels
and consonants, including the semi-vowels, are segmental phonemes. With segmental phonemes
there is very little transition from one segment to the other. But the suprasegmentals are not restricted
to one segment but extend over more than one. The segmental phonemes are discrete; the
suprasegmental phonemes are super-imposed.
10.6 Phonology of English
In English (the Received Pronunciation of England), there are 44 distinctive speech sounds or
phonemes. Twenty of these are vowel sounds and the remaining 24 are consonantal sounds. In the
vowel sounds twelve are pure vowels or monophthongs—/i:/,/i/,/e/,/æ/,/a:/,/ :/,/ /,/u/:./
u,/ /,/ :/,/ ^ /; and eight are vowel glides or diphthongs—/ei/,/ai/,/au,/,/ou/,/ i/,/u /e /.
The vowels /i:/,/a:/./):/,/u:/, are comparatively long and the vowels /i/,/e/,/ael,/ /u/, / ^ /
e
e
e
e
and / / are compartively short. In other words, the five long vowels are always longer than other
seven short vowels in identical phonetic environments (=when they are preceded and followed by
e
the same sounds.) Thus the vowel in peel is always longer than the vowel in pill).
10.6.1 Vowels in Detail
/i:/During the articulation of /i/ the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate,
to an almost close position. The lips are spread, and thus it is a front close unrounded vowel [since
all English vowels are voiced and oral we shall not repeat this phenomenon]. The various spellings
for this vowel are e,ee,ea. ie,i,ey,eo, as in the words eve, see, tea, piece, receive, police, key and people
respectively. As regards the distribution of /i/ it can occur initially [eat], medially [meat] and finally
[bee].
/i/ During the articulation of R.P. vowel /i/ the front part of the tongue is raised in the direction of
the hard palate to a position between the close and half-close positions. The lips are loosely spread. /
i/ is thus a centralised front unrounded vowel between close and half-close positions. /i/ is
represented in spelling by i, e, y, a, u, ee, ey, ia, ai, ui, and ei as in pit, begin, city, baggage, ladies,

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