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Unit 17: Connected English Speech: Accent

• In looking at the importance of studying aspects of speech above the segmental level some Notes
writers have claimed that learners can come to identify an overall “feel” of the pronunciation of
the language being learned. Differences between languages have been described in terms of
their articulatory settings - that is, overall articulatory posture - by Honikman (1964). She
describes such factors as lip mobility and tongue setting for English, French and other languages.
The notion seems a useful one, although it is difficult to confirm these settings scientifically.
• Audio is liable to come as something of a surprise to students who have not had the experience
of examining colloquial English speech before. The main message to get across is that
concentration on selective, analytic listening will help them to recognise what is being said, and
that practice usually brings confidence.

17.11 Key-Words

1. Tense/Lax : This feature marks off [p] from [b] and shorter vowels from longer ones.
Tense vowels are longer and stronger, tense consonants are longer and possess
great plosive strength.
2. Voiced/Voiceless : Glottal activity accompanies voiced sounds which is termed as ‘periodic
frequency excitation,’ in which vibration of vocal cords occurs. This activity
results in ‘buzz’ phonemes, ‘because of the tone generated at the glottal source’
- [b] - [p]; - [d] - [t]; - [g] - [k] sow this.
3. Strident/Mellow : Sounds showing irregular wave forms are termed strident, such as ‘noisy’
fricatives. Acoustically it is described as ‘higher intensity noise’ contrasted
with the ‘lower intensity noise’.
4. Grave/Acute : We can identify grave sounds by noting concentration of energy in the lower
extreme of the spectrum compared to the concentration of energy in the higher
part which is the case in acute sounds. On this basis we can distinguish [u]
and [o] from [i] and [c].
5. Nasal/Oral : Nasal cavity supplements oral cavity as resonator in nasal sounds, [m], [n],
[n].
17.12 Review Questions

1. Divide the following sentences up into feet, using a dotted vertical line ( ) M as a boundary symbol.
If a sentence starts with an unstressed syllable, leave it out of consideration - it doesn’t belong in
a foot.
(i) A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
(ii) Over a quarter of a century has elapsed since his death.
(iii) Computers consume a considerable amount of money and time.
(iv) Most of them have arrived on the bus.
(v) Newspaper editors are invariably underworked.
2. Draw tree diagrams of the rhythmical structure of the following phrases.
(i) Christmas present (ii) Rolls-Royce
(iii) Pet-food dealer (iv) Rolls-Royce rally event
3. The following sentences are given in spelling and in a “slow, careful” phonemic transcription.
Rewrite the phonemic transcription as a “broad phonetic” one so as to show likely assimilations,
elisions and linking.
(i) One cause of asthma is supposed to be allergies

c¥
w• n k]+z cv F smc wz spccÉ zd tc bi F ld iz
θ

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