CONTENTS Introduction Lesson I: Symbols and terminology Lesson 2: Transcription hints Lesson 3: Stress, chythm and weak forms Lesson 4: Sandhi r Lesson 5: Consonant syllabicity Lesson 6: Elision Lesson 7: Assimilation Lesson 8: Glottaling Lesson 9: Further practice Appendix: Answers to exercises “Answers to Lesson 1 Answers to Lesson 2 Answers to Lesson 3 “Answers to Lesson 4 Answers to Lesson 5 Answers to Lesson 6 “Answers to Lesson 7 Answers to Lesson § Answers to Lesson 9 Glossary BibliographyIntroduction ‘This hook is designed to help you develop and improve your skills in transcribing English phonetically. Anyone who is interested in the way modern English sounds ean benefit from working through the lessons in this book, each of which deals in detail with a particular aspect of the pronunciation of English, provides an overview Of the theoretical background and backs this up with « number of exercises of different kinds. Model answers to all the exereises in the book may be found in the Appendix. There is also a glossary where you can find definitions of al the technical terms and abbreviations used in the lessons. Phonotic transcription is a useful learning technique for two different kinds of people. For native speakers of English who wish to know more about English pronun- on, transcription is one way of reinforcing the idee that the spoken and written representations of language are completely different things, Transcription helps you to realise what you actually say, rather than what you think you say. Anyone who ‘does phonetic transcription regularly is likely to be surprised fairly often at the discov ‘ery of some new phenomenon that they had not been aware of before. We certainly found this when preparing the transcribed texts for the book. For learners of English as a foreign or second language, transcribing texts helps to make one aware of the target one should be aiming for and of the pronunciation (or range of pronunciations) cone can expect to hear from native speakers. The spelling system of English (its ortho- graphy) is notoriously unhelpful when it comes to learning the pronunciation of the language. For both types of user, phonetic transcription can make you realise that the pronun- ciation of a word can differ, sometimes quite radically, depending on the sort of envir- ‘onment in which the word is said. A couple of simple examples should help to make this clear. Ifanyone were to ask a native speaker of English how the word fram is pronounced, the most probable answer would be from). This is the form of the word which is usec when the word is said in isolation and not part ofa longer utterance. This form is called ‘the word's citation form, The same form ean also be heard as part of a longer utterance (a piece of connected speech), for example in the question, Where do you come fram?2 Introduction However in the answer to this question itis very likely that the word will not be pro- nounced /from|, but /fram/, for example in J come fram Manchester. Another, slightly ‘more complicated, example concerns words sueh as couldn't and shouldn't. Some of the possible variations of the pronunciation of the first of these are set out below: Orthographie form: couldn't Citation forms: /kudant/ or /kudnt) : Connected speech forms: jkudent/ or /kudt) or /kudn/ or /kudan) Example: couldn answer that question. /kubrp/ or /kudamp) or /kubmy/ or jkudam/ Example: J couldn't make up my mind ‘kwank) or skudank; or /kuan/ or jkudon/ Example: Feo’ go Fortunately, these types of variation in phonetic form ate not random or arbitrary They are, for most part, common to all languages and are the result of a universal tendency for speakers to economise on the amount of effort they put into the move- ments necessary 10 produce speech. Although there are differences in detail between one language and another, the speech of speakers ofall Iangueges displays this type fof feature which can be explained by reference to a small number of connected speech processes. Many ofthe lessons in this book are designed to make you familiar ‘with the common connected speech processes of English and to give you practice in including them in your teanscriptions. A transcription of a piece of English text of ‘more than a few words which did not include an example of the operation of at least ‘one connected speech process would probably be an inaccurate and unrealistic rpre- sentation of how that text would be spoken by an English native speaker. To put this another way: if you wish to produce a transeription of a piece of English which is accurate and realistic, itis no use simply looking cach word up in @ pronouncing = duced and explained with plenty of examples. The topic 15 then illustrated in a transeribed passage which contains a number of occurrences of the relevant phenom enon, These occurrences re hahlighted in the transcription. Then there are & number of exercises of various types to help you make sure you have understood the topic and ‘can produce transcriptions containing the feature concerned. For instance, you may be asked to look ata passaye in orthography and to identify places in the passage where the phenomenon might occur. Or you might be given a transcribed passage where the phenomenon is not included and your task isto edit the transcription to show it at appropriate points. The fina exercises in each lesson are always a numberof passages for you to transcribe, Again, you can be sure that the relevant phenomenon oeeurs quite afew times in these passages. ‘The book: consists of eight essons. Each lesson introduces a new topic (or in some cases « number of related topics) and explains the theoretical background with lot of examples. There are exercises for you to do in each lesson and the answers to all the exercises can be found in the Appendix. Although you can, of course, do the lessons in any order you wish, it would perhaps be wiser to follow the otder given, since the ‘exercises are cumulative, in the sense that features introduced in earlier lessons are included in later exercises without any further explanation, The last section of the book consists of a number of passages for you to transcribe as further practice. Since this book i primarily about iransetibing, the theory has been kept as short and simple as possible. You ean find out more about the theoretical isues mentioned in textbooks such as Gimson’s Introduction to the Pronunciation of English (Crattenden, 1994), English Phoneties and Phonology (Roach, 1991), Speech Sounds (Ashby, 1995) or one of the other texts on English phonetics and phonology which you can find the Bibliography. If you are interested in transcribing of learning about the sounds of American English, we can recommend two very accessible books: Applied Phonetics: The Sounds of American English (Edwards, 1992) and Applied Phonties Workbook (Edwards and Gregg, 1997) It is impossible to lear to transcribe without getting involved with some technical terminology. We have tried to Keep ths to a minimum and have given explanations of the terms used, There is « glossary with brief definitions of technical terms at the end of the book. Terms included in the slossary are printed in hold type on their fest appearance in the text. ‘your native language is not English, phonetie transcription is one way of improv ing your pronunciation of English. However, this course cannot solve all yout prob. L lems. The speling system of English is so complex and ful of exceptions and special ‘ases that the only foolproof way of finding out how an unknown word is pronounced 35 to look the word up ina good pronouncing dictionary. A good example is provided by the word acorn, The vast majority of words which begin with the letters ac are pro= nounced either /ak/ ithe first syllable is unstressed (Such as across, acept) or 2ok if