Page 46 - DENG401_Advance Communication Skills

Unit 1: Simple Rule for Pronunciation & Intonation

Draw simple diagrams of tongue and lip positions. Make sure all students can clearly see Notes
your mouth while you model sounds.
Word or sentence intonation can be mimicked with a kazoo, or alternatively by humming.

‘Epenthesis’ is what happens when speakers add a sound before (word-initial) within
(word-internal) or after (word-final) a word or phrase. This additional sound can sometimes
cause misunderstandings in communication or (inappropriate) ridicule from native
speakers (Oh no!).
Pronunciation rules, also different pronunciations through laying stress on different words.
You have come to know about vowels and intonation i.e. pitch.. Now you also know what
is rising, falling, dipping and peaking intonation. You have also learnt the importance of shwa
as a vowel sound.
Pronunciation involves far more than individual sounds. Word stress, sentence stress,
intonation, and word linking all influence the sound of spoken English, not to mention
the way we often slur words and phrases together in casual speech.

1.8 Keywords

Dialects: A regional variety of a language, with differences in vocabulary, grammar, and
pronunciation
Epenthesis: Insertion of an extra sound into a word, as happens in some dialect pronunciations
or in a word’s development over time.
Intonation: Pitch
Phonemes: A speech sound that distinguishes one word from another, e.g. the sounds “d” and “t”
in the words “bid” and “bit.” A phoneme is the smallest phonetic unit that can carry meaning.
Syllable: A unit of spoken language that consists of one or more vowel sounds alone, a syllabic
consonant alone, or any of these with one or more consonant sounds
1.9 Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. You make this sound by ....................... your tongue from the roof of your mouth and
pushing air out of your mouth at the same time in type one.
2. Words ending in voiced ........................(with sound produced by your vocal chords) are
pronounced with a type 2 ‘ed’:

3. In type ....................................words, the final ‘s’ should be pronounced with air pushed out
between the top of your tongue and your top teeth, without using the vocal chords.
4. Words ending in voiced phonemes (with sound produced by your vocal chords) are
pronounced with a ......................................
5. Words ending in /t/ and /d/ sounds are type …………………
6. ………………….. is what happens when speakers add a sound before (word-initial) within
(word-internal) or after (word-final) a word or phrase.
7. The classic example of ……….. is the question-statement distinction.

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