27816 - English Phonetics and Phonology I
Compulsory
5.3. Syllabus
(27816) English Phonetics and Phonology
PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. General concepts.
1.1 Phonetics and Phonology: a definition.
1.2 Transcription: definition and types
2. Models of pronunciation.
2.1 Choosing a model of pronunciation.
2.2 GB (General British): history and contrastive definition and description.
3. Phonemes, allophones and other basic concepts.
4. Establishing the phonemes of English: a process of commutation.
5. Classification of vocalic phonemes.
5.1 The system of Cardinal Vowels and the Vowel Quadrilateral.
5.2 Monophthongs. The features of length, degree of closure, place on the front-back axis, and lip rounding.
5.3 Diphthongs and triphthongs.
6. Length, a relative concept.
6.1 Long and short vowels in popular terminology.
6.2 Length in strict phonetic terms. Clipping.
7. Classification of consonantal phonemes.
7.1 The features of voice, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
7.2 Main allophones of consonants.
8. The ‘Five Rules’ and other useful generalisations about spelling and pronunciation.
9. Spelling-to-pronunciation relationships (SPRs): the concept of grapheme. ‘Continental spelling’ in English.
10. Stress-timing: An introduction to the rhythm of English. Weak and strong forms (of words).
11. An introduction to lexical stress.
11.1 Prominence.
11.2 Primary and secondary stress. Weak and strong syllables.
11.3 Stress placement rules. Stress shift.
PART II: VOWELS
A. Description and practice of the GB vocalic phonemes: ‘Pure’ vowels (monophthongs) and ‘glides’ (diphthongs), with an emphasis on spelling regularities and irregularities and on special difficulties for Spanish speakers (pronunciation and perception).
B. Specific topics:
1. /i:/ and /I/as an illustration of the complexities of English SPRs.
2. Short I and the pronunciation of affixes.
3. /æ/ and the relativity of the feature of Length.
4. The FOOT-STRUT split.
5. A as /A:/: A case of ‘lengthening before fricatives’.
6. The influence of /w/ on immediately following vowel letters.
7. Incidence of /j/ before /u:/ and other back vowels.
8. Postvocalic-/r/ loss. Vowels before RR.
9. Diphthong levelling and triphthong smoothing.
PART III: CONSONANTS
A. Description and practice of the GB consonantal phonemes, with an emphasis on spelling regularities and irregularities and on special difficulties for Spanish speakers (pronunciation and perception).
B. Specific topics:
1. Pronunciation of past and past participle endings in –(E)D.
2. Pronunciation of inflectional –(E)S.
3. Pronunciation of adjectives ending in –ED.
4. T-glottalling.
5. Coalescence within words resulting in affricates and palato-alveolar fricatives.
6. The grammatical function of the fortis/lenis distinction.
7. Pronunciation of -NG-, -GN(-), and other consonant digraphs.
8. Nasal and lateral plosion.
9. Syllabic and silent consonants.
10. Clear and dark /l/.
11. Linking and intrusive /r/.
12. Phonemic alterations at word boundaries in connected speech: assimilation, coalescence, elision.