Phonetics and Phonology - Class Notes PDF

1 Phonetics and Phonology - Class Notes Unit I: The English Language and its Pronunciation Class 1 Language is a system of choices from which speakers select in order to create meaning ○ System: different elements are working together with a purpose ○...

1 Phonetics and Phonology - Class Notes Unit I: The English Language and its Pronunciation Class 1 Language is a system of choices from which speakers select in order to create meaning ○ System: different elements are working together with a purpose ○ Choices: language uses different resources available to speakers (sounds, prosodic features, morphemes, syntactic features, etc) ○ Speakers: language users ○ Create meaning: speaker's experiences and ideas of the context and themselves Language works as a system of communication that uses symbols Different systems of communication constitute different languages Language is specific to human beings Language as a system of communication aims primarily at transmitting information from one human being to another Language is studied scientifically, which means that its object of study (language) can be approached in a systematic (following different steps) and empirical (contrasting our ideas about language with the real world) way using the scientific method Philosophy was the first science to study language, and since it couldn't cover all its extent, a new scientifical branch was created: Linguistics Linguistics It's the formal study of languages Those who study language are called linguists Since language is a very complex field, there are sub-sciences that focus on specific aspects of languages. The main ones are ○ Phonetics ○ Phonology ○ Morphology: the scientific study of morphemes (the smallest unit of meaning that can carry meaning) and how it can combine to create more complex units of meaning ○ Syntax: how language units are combined and the rules those combinatory possibilities follow in a language system ○ Semantics: the study of meaning and how it is created, organised and coded in a language system  2 ○ Pragmatics: the study of language in context and how both elements affect each other ○ Sociolinguistics: how language and social groups and society interact ○ Psycholinguistics: how humans acquire, learn and cognitively process and study language Phonetics and Phonology Language is an abstract system (it's in our mind) and speech is physical They are "two sides of the same coin" Phonetics: ○ the systematic study of the sounds of speech, which is physical and directly observable (Ogden) ○ it is a general approach to the study of speech sounds, since it focuses on all speech sounds of all languages ○ it can be studied in various ways, having three main subfields: Articulatory Phonetics: how sounds are articulated and analyses which organs and muscles take part in the production of speech sounds Acoustic Phonetics: how speech sounds and their physical properties travel from a speaker's mouth to a listener's ear Auditory Phonetics: how speech sounds are perceived/received by the listener Phonology ○ It's a more specific approach, it generally focuses on a particular language ○ It's the study of how the sound system of a language is organised. How we can combine sounds to convey meaning. ○ It has two main areas: Segmental: it studies sounds/phonemes Suprasegmental: aspects of languages that extend beyond the limits of sounds (syllables, intonation units, etc) Class 2 Language varies from speaker to speaker. People may speak the same language differently based on where they live, the social group they belong to, their age, their educational background, etc. This proves that language denotes cultural, social, educational background and identity. Language is not static. It constantly changes and adapts to the times  3 Terms that get usually confused: ○ Dialect: a variety of language that is different from others in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc. It doesn't only depend on the place of origin. It's the language that a group of people uses. ○ Accent: it makes reference to differences in pronunciation of a same language We'll study General British English/Modern Received Pronunciation (R.P.)/Estuary English/BBC English/Standard Southern British Pronunciation English pronunciation doesn't have a 1-1 correspondence to spelling. This means that, unlike Spanish, we can't guess a word's pronunciation by the way it's spelled We'll use the International Phonetic Alphabet (I.P.A.) to represent English sounds When we speak, we don't produce sounds in isolation. Speech is more like a "string of sounds” In order to study speech, we can isolate units (segments). For example, we can take the word "help" and segment it into 4 units -> /h/e/l/p/ Phoneme -> the smallest sound unit which can change the meaning of a word. They are the mental representations of sounds. Minimal pairs are words that are pronounced the same but differ in only one sound. By analysing them we can determine the phonemes of a language. For example: pin vs bin There are 44 phonemes in General British English Allophone -> different and acceptable realisation of speech sounds which DO NOT change the meaning of a word. Speech sounds vary from speaker to speaker and from context to context. They can be in free variation (the speaker chooses when to use a realisation and when not to) or in complementary distribution (they are determined by the phonetic context) PHONEMES IN THE MIND, ALLOPHONES IN THE MOUTH Unit II: The Vocal Tract Class 1 General info There are two terms that we must differentiate: ○ Anatomy: the different body parts that take an active role in the production of speech ○ Physiology: the function of those body parts and how they work together  4 None of the organs that humans use to produce speech are exclusively used for speaking nor it is their main function (speech is their secondary function) The use of the organs involved in speaking developed that function later in evolution The three systems/subsystems of speech organs ○ Articulatory system ○ Phonatory system ○ Respiratory system 1- Respiratory system: it provides the airstream on which speech is produced. It includes: ○ The rib cage: it’s barrel shaped and contains the lungs and the intercostal muscles ○ The intercostal muscles: they run between the ribs ○ The diaphragm: a dome-shaped muscle ○ The lugs: a pair of organs made of sponge-like material that do not move ○ The bronchial tubes: they are pipes that connect the trachea and the inside of the lungs ○ The trachea: it's a windpipe The primary function of this system is to breathe By breathing we are able to provide O to our bodies and remove CO2 from the blood The main function in terms of speech production is to provide the airstream to produce sounds. The airstream can be: ○ Egressive: if the air goes out. It can be pulmonic (originates in the lungs) and glottalic (it originates in the glottis) ○ Ingressive: if it goes in In English we use egressive pulmonic airstream, just like Spanish. In order to get air inside the lungs, speakers inhale. We take the air outside our bodies and take it inside. Mechanically speaking, the intercostal muscles and the rib cage are lifted, the diaphragm is lowered to increase lung volume. The difference in atmosphere pressure allows the external air to enter the body through the mouth to the lungs. In order to get air outside the lungs, speakers exhale. The intercostal muscles, rib cage and diaphragm work together to produce pressure, reduce lung volume and expel air.  5 Inhalation and exhalation generally take the same amount of time. However, when speaking, exhalation takes longer During the production of pulmonic egressive stream the breathing muscles work together to maintain a consistent level of pressure, which means that we don’t run out of air when speaking The necessity to breathe and refill the lungs to speak determines an important characteristic of speech: it can be divided into “breath groups”. We don’t stop in random moments to breathe, but in organised periods of time. These are called intonation groups (Suprasegmental phonology) 2- Phonatory System: it’s main function in terms of speech production is to produce the voice, with the help of the airstream coming out from the lungs It consist of the larynx and the vocal folds/cords (both terms are accepted) The larynx is a box-like structure that consists of a series of cartilages ( it doesn’t have bones) The different cartilages are: ○ The cricoid cartilage: it functions as the top ring of the trachea and forms the base of the larynx ○ The thyroid cartilage: it’s like two flat plates that can be seen and felt as the Adam’s apple. It’s a shield for the vocal folds, it protects them ○ The arytenoid cartilages: they sit/are attached to the cricoid cartilage and are attached to it by a joint that moves and allow the speaker to tense or relax the vocal folds The vocal folds/cords are muscles covered by several layers of fibrous tissue. Their main function is to prevent food from entering the trachea and the respiratory system. They also allow us to hold our breath Their secondary function/main function in terms of speech production is phonation (the folds rapidly opening and closing). That rapid opening and closing of the vocal folds is called vibration) Not all speech sounds are produced with Voiced Voiceless  6 vibration of the vocal cords. E.g. /f/. By placing our hand in our Adam’s apple and checking if it vibrates or not we can tell if a sound is voiced (vibration) or voiceless (no vibration) The length of the vocal cords is 12 to 17mm for adult women and 17 to 25mm for adult men. That’s why female voice tends to have a higher pitch. The fact that their cords are shorter also means they are tenser, and the opposite for men. The space between the vocal folds is called glottis 3- The Articulatory System/The Vocal Tract: After passing through the larynx, the air now escapes through this system It consists of three cavities and articulators The cavities act as resonating chambers and amplify the buzz produced by the vocal cords. The three cavities are: ○ 1. The pharyngeal cavity/The pharynx/The throat: It’s 12cm long and extends from the larynx to the mouth and nose ○ 2. The oral cavity: its shape varies greatly from speaker to speaker. That affects the type of voice that we produce ○ 3. The nasal cavity: it’s 10cm long. It’s on top of the oral cavity The articulators are: ○ The uvula: it’s a small fleshy appendage at the lower end of the palate. It plays a crucial role in the articulation of some sounds in some languages like, for example, German. It’s a passive articulator because it can’t move ○ The palate: it’s a bony structure that forms the roof of the mouth. It’s a passive articulator (we can’t move it). In order to study it we can identify two main parts: The hard palate: the roof of the mouth The alveolar ridge: that “mountain” that we have in between the teeth and the roof of the mouth ○ The soft palate/velum: it’s a muscular tissue at the back of the palate that can be lowered or raised to allow airflow through the nose or mouth Raised: the air escapes through the mouth (Oral sounds) Lowered: though the nose (Nasal sounds) Therefore, it’s an active articulator (it’s capable of movement) ○ The lips: they are two fleshy folds richly supplied with muscles. They can block (e.g. /p/), allow (e.g. /ɑː/) or reduce (e.g. /f/) the airflow coming from the lungs. They can assume a variety of positions. The  7 ones we are interested in are rounded, spread and neutral. They can work together with the teeth to produce sounds, such as in the case of /f/. They are a pair: the upper and the lower lip. They are active articulators. ○ The mandible: it’s an approximately U-shaped bone structure. We can move it up and down. Downwards movement influences the position of the tongue and it gives more room to the oral cavities, which changes the quality of the air. ○ The tongue: it’s the most important active articulator and the most complex organ of speech. It consists nearly of entirely muscle and it can assume a wide variety of shapes. For descriptive purposes, it’s segmented into different sections: ○ Active articulators: tongue, mandible (lower jaw) velum and lips ○ Passive articulators: uvula, teeth, alveolar ridge and hard palate Unit III: Vowels Class 1 General info. In all languages, vowels form the nucleus of the syllable and consonants are attached to them (except for syllabic consonants). We can guess the number of syllables in a word by counting the number of vowels. Without vowels/syllabic consonants we have no syllables The term “vowel” is used to refer to both the sounds and the letters. But, when studying this subject, we mean the sounds. The word vowel comes from latin “vocalis”, which means voice. English adopted the word from French Some authors claim that the original vowel phonemes were three: /i/u/a/. This is because they are extreme vowels (we articulate them at the extreme of the vowel area, the area in the vocal tract used to articulate all vowels). They are present in almost all languages About 20% of languages have at least 5 contrasting vowels, for example: Spanish. A fact that applies to almost all languages with 5 contrasting vowels is that the order of the letters in the latin alphabet (a,e,i,o,u) is also the order of the frequency of occurrence of these sounds.  8 The record of number of vowel sounds is held by the Dutch dialect of Weert, with 28 vowel sounds What are vowel sounds? Phonetics POV → They are sounds in the production of which the airstream escapes through the mouth meeting no obstruction of the articulators. In other words, they are sounds articulated with a relatively open configuration of the vocal tract. Being in open approximation, the articulators don’t come in contact or close to each other Phonology POV → They are units in the sound system which typically occupy the centre/central element of the syllable General features about English vowels They are all voiced (produced with vibration of the vocal folds) They are all oral (the velum is raised). If there’s nasalization, it won’t be contrasting/affect the meaning of the word They have no names, except for the schwa, which is the most occurrent in English. In order to describe them, we’ll provide a phonetic description. Some recommend learning monosyllabic words that contain each vowel There are 12 monophthongs/pure vowels, 8 diphthongs and 5 triphthongs (combination of closing diphthongs + schwa) Classification Monophthongs/pure vowels: Only one vowel quality is perceived Diphthongs: two vowel qualities are perceived Triphthongs: three vowel qualities are perceived The Cardinal Vowel System The IPA describes vowels using a set of reference vowels called cardinal vowel system The cardinal vowels have predetermined values and other vowels are described in reference to them Cardinal vowels cover the whole of the space in the mouth used to produce vowel sounds. This is called the vowel space Cardinal vowels are independent of any language and represent possibilities of the human tract In the chart, the horizontal lines will indicate the distance between the tongue and the palate  9 (position or height of the tongue: close, half-close, half-open, open) and the vertical lines will indicate the part of the tongue raised (front, central, back). The cardinal vowel diagram works as a map where we can locate the exact position of the articulators to produce the target vowel. How are vowels grouped in order to study them? Length: short vs long vowels. Vowel qualities (movement from one vowel to another): monophthongs (pure vowels), diphthongs, triphthongs. Distance between the articulators: open, mid (half-open, half-close), close. This is also called “position”. Part of the tongue raised in the vowel space: front, central, back. Position of the lips: rounded, spread, neutral. Strength: strong vowels (those that generally occur in stressed syllables) and weak vowels (those that generally occur in weak syllables). Class 2 Monophthongs/Pure Vowels Phonetics POV They are 12: /iː/ɪ/ʊ/uː/e/ə/ɜː/ɔː/æ/ʌ/ɑː/ɒ The horizontal axis represents the part of the tongue raised in the vowel space/area The vertical axis represents the distance between the articulators. This is also called position. It’s the distance between the tongue and the hard palate  10 A- Close Vowels: The tongue is quite high, it’ll be closer to the palate /iː/ → The front of the tongue is slightly behind and below the close front position. Lips are spread (like a smile). The tongue is tense, and the sides of the tongue touch the upper molars. This sound is more acute than the Spanish /i/ ○ As in: bead, key, cheese ○ The part of the tongue raised is the front. The position is close. Lips are totally spread. /ɪ/ → The part of the tongue slightly nearer the centre is raised to just above the half-close position (not as high as /i:/). Lips are spread loosely and the tongue is more relaxed. The sides of the tongue may just touch the upper molars. It’s not as acute as /i:/ ○ As in: bit, sausage, biggest, women ○ The part of the tongue raised is the front (but a bit more towards the central part). The position is just above the half- close position. Lips are loosely spread/spread loosely /ʊ/ → The part of the tongue just behind the centre is raised, just above the half-close position. Lips are rounded loosely. The tongue is relatively relaxed (The closer the sound is to the central part, the more relaxed the tongue is) ○ As in: book, good, woman, pull ○ The part of the tongue raised is the back, towards the central part. The position is just above half-close position. Lips are loosely rounded/rounded /uː/ → The back of the tongue is raised just below the close position. Lips are rounded and move forwards. The tongue is tense. The vocal tract is quite tense ○ As in food, rude, true, who, fruit ○ The part of the tongue raised is the back. The position is close/just below the close position. Lips are fully rounded  11 B- Mid Vowels: The tongue is neither high nor low in the mouth /e/ → The front of the tongue is between the half-open and the half-close position. Lips are loosely spread. The tongue is tenser than /ɪ/ and the sides of the tongue may touch the upper molars. It’s similar to Spanish /e/ but we are supposed to spread our lips more and the tongue is tenser ○ As in: egg, left, said, head, read (past) ○ The part of the tongue raised is the front. The position is between the half-close and half-open position/mid position. Lips are loosely spread /ə/ (Schwa) → It’s the commonest vowel sound in English and the easiest to produce. The centre of the tongue is between the half-close and half-open position. Lips are relaxed and neutrally spread. It’s a very short sound. It’s never stressed/only happens in unstressed syllables ○ As in: about, paper, banana, the (b4 consonants) ○ The part of the tongue raised is the central part. The articulators are in mid position. Lips are loosely spread/neutral /ɜː/ → The centre of the tongue is between the half open and half close position. Lips are relaxed and neutrally spread. ○ As in: shirt, her, word, further ○ The part of the tongue raised is the central part. The position is between the half close and half open position/It’s a mid vowel. Lips are neutrally spread/open /ɔː/ → The back of the tongue is raised between the half open and half close position. Lips are loosely rounded. Tip: make the vocal cavity concave so the air can resonate and the sound can become stronger ○ As in: fork, call, snore, bought, saw ○ The part of the tongue raised is the back. The position is between the half open and half close position/It’s a mid vowel. Lips are loosely rounded  12 C- Open Vowels: the tongue is low in the mouth /æ/ → The front of the tongue is raised to just below the half-open position. Lips are neutrally open. Try to think that you are “pulling your tongue out” ○ As in: hat, attack, plait ○ The part of the tongue raised is the front. The position is just below the half open position/ between the half open and open position. Lips are neutrally open /ʌ/ → The centre of the tongue is raised to just above the fully open position. Lips are neutrally open. ○ As in run, uncle, front, does, come ○ The part of the tongue raised is the central. The position is between the half open and the open position. Lips are neutrally open /ɑː/ → The tongue, between the centre and the back, is in the fully open position. Lips are neutrally open. You must drop your lower jaw ○ As in: far, part, hearth, class ○ The part of the tongue raised is the back/just between the centre and the back. The position is just above the fully open position. Lips are neutrally open /ɒ/ → The back of the tongue is in the fully open position. Lips are lightly rounded ○ As dog, often, cough, want, because ○ The part of the tongue raised is the back. The position is in the fully open position. Lips are loosely rounded Phonology POV /iː/ → No restrictions in distribution /ɪ/ → Not in final position. /uː/ → No restrictions in distribution /ʊ/ → Not in final position /e/ → Not in final position /ə/ (Schwa) → Not in stressed syllables /ɜː/ → No restrictions in distribution /ɔː/ → No restrictions in distribution /æ/ → Not in final position /ʌ/ → Not in final position /ɑː/ → No restrictions in distribution /ɒ/ → Not in final position  13 Long vowels → NO RESTRICTION Short vowels → NOT IN FINAL POSITION (except for the schwa) Diphthongs Phonological POV: They have no restrictions in distribution. They are considered long vowels Phonetic POV They are sounds in the production of which there’s a glide (a movement) from one vowel position to a second vowel position/ They are sounds in the production of which two vowel qualities can be perceived. They are 8: /ɪə/eɪ/ʊə/ɔɪ/əʊ/eə/aɪ/aʊ/ They share the same qualities of monophthongs in terms of voicing (They are all voiced) They can be classified according to the direction of the glide (movement of the lips, tongue and jaw). They can be closing, centring an opening. GBE doesn’t have opening diphthongs A- Centring: The glide is towards the /ə/ /ɪə/ → The glide begins in the position of /ɪ/, moving down and back towards the /ə/. Lips are neutral but with a small movement from spread to open. It’s a quick sound ○ As in: beer, beard, fear, here, idea /ʊə/ → The glide begins in the position for /ʊ/, moving forwards and down towards /ə/. Lips are loosely rounded, becoming loosely spread. Nowadays it’s being replaced with /ɔː/ ○ As in: moor, tour, sure, obscure /eə/ → The glide begins in the position for /e/, moving back towards the /ə/. Lips remain neutrally open. It’s disappearing as well and being replaced with /ɜː/ ○ As in: where, wear, chair, dare, there B- Closing: the glide is towards /ɪ/ or /ʊ/ /eɪ/ → The glide begins in the position for /e/, moving up and slightly back towards /ɪ/. Lips are spread ○ As in: cake, way, say, pain, they, vein  14 /ɔɪ/ → The glide begins in the position for /ɔː/, moving up and forward towards /ɪ/. Lips start open and rounded and change to neutral. The movement is longer ○ As in: toy, avoid, voice, enjoy /aɪ/ → The glide begins in an open position, between front and centre , moving up and slightly forwards towards /ɪ/. Lips move from neutral to loosely spread ○ As in: high, tie, buy, kite, might, cry /əʊ/ → The glide begins in the position of the /ə/, moving up and back towards /ʊ/. Lips are neutral and change to loosely rounded ○ As in go, snow, toast, home, hello /aʊ/ → The glide begins in a position quite similar to /ɑː/, moving up towards /ʊ/. Lips start neutral, with a movement to loosely rounded. The glide is not always completed as the movement involved is extensive ○ As in: house, loud, down, how, bough Triphthongs Phonetics POV They are sounds in the production of which there’s a glide from one vowel to a second one and then to a third one, all produced rapidly and without interruption (Articulatory POV). Three vowel qualities can be perceived (Acoustic POV) They are difficult to produce and recognise They can be seen as a closing diphthong + the schwa There are 5 possible triphthongs: ○ /eɪə/ → layer, player ○ /aɪə/ → liar, fire ○ /ɔɪə/ → loyal, royal ○ /əʊə/ → lower, mower ○ /aʊə/ → power, hour  15 Class 3 Allophonic variations There are 3 processes that affect the articulation of all vowels in GBE. The result of these differences in articulation are at allophonic level (they don’t change the meaning of words). They are: ○ Nasalization ○ Clipping (we’ll focus on this one) ○ Breaking Nasalization → Vowels adjacent to nasal consonants (/n/m/ŋ/) “catch” some of their qualities, meaning that the air will escape (mainly) through the nose. Remember: nasality is not a contrastive feature in English. ○ /mæn/ → [mæ̃n] (～= diachritic) Clipping → Vowel sounds are shortened/said more quickly when followed by voiceless consonants. Vowel qualities (voicing) remain the same, only length is affected. Some may think that speakers differentiate the words card and cart, for example, by their last sounds (/d/ and /t/). Truth is, when plosives are in final position, there’s little to no difference in real speech. Speakers use clipping to understand the meaning of what they are saying. This is difficult to perceive and produce for non-native speakers. ○ This process is called Pre-Fortis Clipping (fortis consonant = voiceless) card (vd) vs cart (vl) → /kɑːd/ vs /kɑːt/ → [kɑːd] vs [kɑ∙t] ○ Clipping is a process that language offers by means of which vowel sounds are shortened when they are followed by voiceless consonants Breaking → It refers to the transitional sound between a vowel and a dark [ɫ] (the last “l” sound in the word “little”, for example). Some speakers introduce a short vowel sound similar to /ə/ ○ /fiːl/ → [fiːᵊɫ] There are two processes that affect long vowels only ○ Smoothing or levelling ○ Diphthongisation → a process by means of which some monophthongs become diphthongs (not covered in ph&phI) Smoothing or levelling → It’s a reduction process by means of which vowel sounds, especially diphthongs and triphthongs, lose one quality. It has not yet achieved phonemic status (it’s allophonic: producing it doesn’t change the  16 meaning of words) but it’s widely used among native speakers, getting more popular nowadays. ○ It mainly affects the following triphthongs: aʊə → ɑːə “hour”: /aʊə/ = /ɑːə/ A triphthong becomes a aɪə → ɑːə pure vowel + schwa “fire”: /faɪə/ = /fɑːə/ (a new diphthong) ○ Some diphthongs may become pure vowels. This is called monophthongization ʊə → ɔː “sure”: /ʃʊə/ = /ʃɔː/ ɪə → ɜː “year”: /jɪə/ = /jɜː/ Allophonic variations /i/ and /u/ → Archiphonemes Remember: /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ can’t occur in final position. However, when we perceive these sounds in such position, we transcribe their archiphonemes. They are not phonemes yet/almost phonemes. They are neutralisations/ mixtures of the phonemes: ○ /ɪ/ and /iː/ → /i/ It has the length of /ɪ/ and the vowel quality of /iː/ ○ /ʊ/ and /uː/ → /u/ It has the length of /ʊ/ and the vowel quality of /uː/ They are allophonic variants of the previously mentioned phonemes Native speakers insist on the importance of producing them in unstressed syllables They occur in: ○ Word final position. E.g.: “city” ○ Prefixes spelled “-re”, “-pre”, “-de” In the case of /i/. If it precedes an unstressed vowel ○ In weak forms of structural words (like she, he, we, prepositions like to/the weak form of the auxiliary to) Spanish Vowels Spanish has 5 pure vowels: /a/e/i/o/u/. They, unlike English sounds, have a 1-1 correlation with spelling Some authors say that the most frequent vowel sound is /e/. Others say its /a/ Vowels in Spanish can be described in the same way we describe English ones: following articulatory and acoustic criteria  17 Front Central Back Acoustic Crit Close Mid Open All vowels in Spanish are oral and voiced. Some may have nasal qualities but, just like English, they aren’t contrastive The articulatory characteristics of pure vowels can be described using the “Helwag’s triangle”: Vowels in Spanish can occur alone or they can combine to form diphthongs (auto), or triphthongs (buey), which are uncommon in Spanish. Diphthongs can be: ○ Rising (crecientes) from a close vowel (i,u) to an open one (a,e,o). The second element is the most prominent. Eg: “patria”, “bueno” ○ Falling (decrecientes) from an open vowel to a closing one. The first element is the most prominent. E.g.: “aire”, “auto" Spanish has 13 diphthongs (8 falling and 5 rising) Unlike English, difference in length is not a contrastive feature Spanish vowels are affected by pre-fortis clipping as well, but it’s not used to differentiate words Spanish vowels occur in all positions Unit IV: Consonants Class 1 General info There are about 600 different consonants used in different languages of the world.About 98% of the world’s languages have the three voiceless stops /p/t/k/ There are 21 consonant letters in English There are 24 consonant phonemes in GBE Like vowels, there’s no 1-1 correlation between spelling and sounds In English, all consonants are produced by using the egressive pulmonic airstream  18 What is a consonant sound? Phonetics POV → Consonant sounds are sounds that are articulated in one of two ways: Either there’s a closing movement of one of the vocal organs, forming such a narrow constriction that is possible to hear the sound of the air passing through; or the closing movement is complete, giving total blockage. ○ They are sounds in the production of which the air escapes through the mouth or nose meeting stricture of the articulators, which can be complete, partial, close or intermittent. Phonology POV → They are units of the sound system which typically occupy the edges of the syllable (except syllabic consonants). They may also appear in sequences/clusters (a combination of more than 1 consonant) We can classify GBE consonants according to different variables/characteristics: ○ Place/Point of articulation (PoA) → where in the vocal tract they are produced and which vocal organs are involved (e.g.: velar) ○ Manner of articulation → how the sound is made at the various locations of the vocal tract (e.g.: by plosion) ○ Voicing/Phonation → if there is/isn’t vibration of the folds ○ Muscular energy used → the amount of effort/energy involved in their production. Fortis (voiceless) or Lenis (voiced) ○ Air release → where the air escapes through. Oral (mouth) vs Nasal (nose) / Sound produced (audible vs non-audible release) Consonant combinations The 24 consonant phonemes in GBE and other accents can be used singly or in combination in syllables and words When two consonant sounds are combined (used one after the other) we use the term consonant cluster The field that studies how sounds combine in a language is Phonotactics The number of consonants that can appear in a cluster in syllable initial position is 3 → strings: /strɪŋz/ The number of consonants that can appear in a cluster in syllable final position is 4 → glimpsed: /glɪmpst/  19 Class 2 Plosives Phonetic POV They are sounds in the production of which: ○ The articulators are moved against each other to form total obstruction to the airflow. ○ The air will be prevented from escaping the body for a moment, increasing the pressure. ○ Once they come in contact with each other, the air is compressed and (in most cases) suddenly released immediately afterwards producing a loud noise, which is called plosion. ○ There may be voicing during part of the articulation of a plosive consonant → Fortis plosives = voiceless / Lenis plosives = voiced 4 stages/phases are identified in the production of plosive consonants: 1. Closing phase → the articulators move to form stricture/total obstruction to the airflow 2. Compression phase → the air that is trying to escape from our body is stopped and air pressure increases 3. Release phase → the articulators that were preventing the escape of air move and the air is suddenly released 4. Post-release phase → it’s what happens after #3, which is called aspiration. Not considered by all authors. There are 6 plosive phonemes in English → /p/b/t/d/k/g/ ○ In order to name them, we’ll ask ourselves: Point of articulation ¹ → articulators involved in its production Manner of articulation ² → how are they articulated (plosive) Voiced or Voiceless ³ → Is there vibration of the vocal folds? Phonemes → Voicing differentiates the pairs of phonemes with the same PoA Voiceless/Fortis Voiced/Lenis Bilabial /p/ /b/ Voiceless³ Bilabial¹ Plosive² Voiced Bilabial Plosive Alveolar /t/ /d/ Voiceless Alveolar Plosive Voiced Alveolar Plosive Velar /k/ /g/ Voiceless Velar Plosive Voiced Velar Plosive  20 Allophones Aspiration → There’s an interval of time consisting of voiceless strongly spelled breath/voicelessness, between the Release Phase/Phase 3 of the plosive (when the air comes out) and the onset/articulation of the following vowel. // It’s the strong burst of air that accompanies the production of voiceless plosive consonants (/p/t/k/) under certain circumstances. They’ll be… ○ Aspirated → when they precede a stressed vowel, semivowel or /l/ “pin” → /pɪn/ → [pʰɪn] (ʰ → diacritic) ○ Weakly aspirated → they precede unstressed vowels or in final position “today” → /tədeɪ/ → [tədeɪ] ○ Unaspirated → preceded by /s/, followed by a fricative or other plosive “stop” → /stɑp/ → [stʰɑp] When we produce the fricative /s/, so much air is released that it’s impossible to produce extra amount of air, which is to produce the closing phase. Instead we separate them and air keeps coming out Devoicing → During the production of voiced plosives (/b/d/g/) in initial and final position there’s generally little voicing/no voicing. Voicing starts in the closing phase (Voiced Onset Time (the amount of time that passes from the start of the articulation of the sound and the start of the vibration of the vocal folds) coincides with the onset of the stop). However, they are still lenis ○ How do native speakers tell voiced and voiceless plosives apart then? → by Aspiration and Pre-Fortis Clipping Phonological POV All plosives can occur in initial position All plosives can occur in mid position All plosives can occur in final position They occur in clusters ○ Voiced plosives aren’t preceded by other consonants/Can’t form clusters with consonants before them Spanish Plosives Spanish has 6 plosives as well → /p/t/k/d/b/g/. They are called Oclusivas and can be Sordas (voiceless) and Sonoras (voiced) The articulation happens in three stages → implosión, oclusión and explosión /p/ and /b/ are also bilabial, but less air is expelled /d/ and /t/ are dental, not alveolar /k/ and /g/ are also velar  21 Spanish Allophones Voiced Plosives (/b/d/g/), especially between vowels, become fricative, meaning that we don’t close our articulators totally ○ “aguja” → /aguxa/ → [aɣuxa] ○ “bebé” → /bebe/ → [beβe] ○ “dedo” → /dedo/ → [deðo] In Spanish “v” and “b” have only one phoneme (/b/). However, [v] exists as an allophone for /b/ Class 3 Fricatives Phonetic POV They are consonant sounds in the production of which the air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound. Articulators won’t come in complete touch with each other They are continuant sounds, which means that we can produce them as long as we have air in our lungs Just like plosives, each place of articulation has a pair of voiced and voiceless phonemes, except for the glottal Pre-fortis clipping applies to fricatives as well There are 9 fricative phonemes in English → /f/v/θ/ð/s/z/ʃ/ʒ/h Phonemes Voiceless/Fortis Voiced/Lenis Labiodental /f/ /v/ Voiceless Labiodental Fricative Voiced Labiodental Fricative Dental /θ/ /ð/ Voiceless Dental Fricative Voiced Dental Fricative Alveolar /s/ /z/ Voiceless Alveolar Fricative Voiced Alveolar Fricative Post- /ʃ/ /ʒ/ Alveolar Voiceless Post-Alveolar Fricative Voiced Post-Alveolar Fricative Glottal /h/ Glottal Fricative (voicing quality of the vowel it precedes)  22 Allophones [ʍ] → In some words like “which, why, where, whale” where /w/ is in initial position, some speakers produce a voiceless fricative with the same characteristics of /w/. Its in Free Variation ○ “which” → /wɪtʃ/ → [ʍɪtʃ] [ç] → Similarly, in the sequence /hj/ in words like “huge, human”, speakers produce a palatal fricative ○ “human” → /hjuːmən/ → [çjuːmən] Phonological POV They occur in all positions, except for /h/, which can’t occur in final position Spanish Phonemes Note: our argentinian accent may be different in terms of phonemes in comparison with other Spanish accents The 4 fricative phonemes (fricativas) are: ○ /f/ → “foca” → Voiceless Labiodental Fricative ○ /s/ → “sopa” → Voiceless Alveolar Fricative ○ /θ/ → “zapato” (sólo español peninsular) → Voiceless Dental Fricative ○ /x/ → “ajo” → Voiced Velar Fricative Spanish Allophones [f] [s] /θ/ → [s] → “zapato” (en español rioplatense) [x] [ʃ] → “allá, lluvia” (español rioplatense/Buenos Aires) → Free Variation [ʒ] → “rápido” (dialectos del interior de Argentina)→ Free Variation [ð] → The Voiced Dental Fricative exists as an allophone in Spanish. It’s in Complementary Distribution. We produce it when it appears in between vowel sounds ○ “dado” → [daðo] [ɣ] → “haga” → Velar Fricative (realización intervocálica de /g/) [β] → “bebé” → Bilabial Fricative (realización intervocálica de /b/). There's no Bilabial Fricative in English, we MUST produce a Plosive. [h] → “gente” (Español centroamericano) / “vos tenés” (sur de Mendoza) [j] → “yuyo” (algunos sociolectos del interior de Argentina)  23 Class 4 Affricates Phonetic Pov They are complex sounds. They begin as a plosive and end as a fricative. The articulators move together, compressing the air but, instead of a rapid release with plosion, the tongue moves to the position of a fricative, making the air escape through a small passage They can be seen as a combination of two homorganic sounds (homo = same. They are sounds with the same PoA) Although they are represented with two symbols, they are considered to be only one sound There are 2 affricate phonemes in GBE → /tʃ/dʒ/ Phonemes Voiceless/Fortis Voiced/Lenis Post-Alveolar /tʃ/ /dʒ/ Voiceless Post-Alveolar Affricate Voiced Post-Alveolar Affricate Allophones /tʃ/→ ○ It may be aspirated in the same context plosives are (when preceding stressed vowels). However, the amount of air expelled is not much ○ It may be preceded by glottal reinforcement [ʔ] when the previous syllable is stressed. Eg: “nature” → [neɪʔtʃə] Spanish Phoneme ͡ /tʃ/ → Africado linguo-palatal sordo → “chancho”. The reason why the symbol includes an arch is because, in English, some phoneticians say that affricates are two separate sounds. In Spanish they tend to agree that it’s only one Spanish Allophones /t͡ʃ/ → [t͡ʃ] /j/ → [dʒ]. It exists as an allophone in Complementary Distribution in Spanish → Posición inicial de la sílaba “yo”; “hielo” (español peninsular) ; detrás de una nasal (“cónyuge”); detrás de una lateral (/l/) (“el yate”)  24 Class 5 Nasals Phonetic POV The air escapes through the nose. Therefore, the velum must be lowered There’s complete stricture to the airflow, so that it can’t escape through the mouth Voicing, unlike the previous consonants, is not a contrastive feature. All nasal sounds are voiced They are continuant sounds There are 3 nasal phonemes in GBE → /m/n/ŋ/ Phonemes Bilabial /m/ (Voiced) Bilabial Nasal Alveolar /n/ Alveolar Nasal Velar /ŋ/ Velar Nasal Allophones [m] → as an allophone of /m/ [ɱ] → as an allophone in Complementary Distribution of /m/ before a labiodental fricative (/v/f/). This is called regressive assimilation of PoA/ Neutralization. Some characteristics of the PoA of /v/f/ are transferred to the previous sound. ○ “comfortable” → /kʌmftəbl/ → [kʌɱftəbɫ] [n] → as an allophone of /n/ [ŋ] → as an allophone of /ŋ/ Phonological POV /m/ and /n/ → They occur in all positions /ŋ/ → o It doesn’t occur in initial position ○ It always occurs (Assimilation of PoA) in mid position in sequences “nk, ng” as they are followed by the Velar Plosives → “think, anger” Except when it’s followed by an inflectional morpheme “singer” → /sɪŋə/ → /ə/ is an inf. morpheme “finger” → /fɪŋgə/ → free morpheme. The velar plosive is pronounced when the sequence is within the word  25 Except in comparative and superlative forms /lɒŋ/ → /lɒŋgə/ → /lɒŋgɪst ○ It occurs in final position ○ It never occurs after long vowels (including diphthongs) Spanish Phonemes /n/ → nasal alveolar → No restrictions /m/ → nasal labial → No restrictions /ɲ/ → nasal palatal. The most outstanding feature of Spanish. E.g.: “ñoqui” → It occurs in initial and mid position. It can’t occur in final position Allophones [n] → as an allophone of /n/ [m] → as an allophone of /n/ [ɲ] → as an allophone of /ɲ/ [ŋ] → as an allophone in Complementary Distribution of /n/ when the sequence /n/ + /k/ or /g/ occurs → “conga”, “con Carlos” Class 6 The Lateral (/l/) Phonetic POV It’s a sound in whose production the airflow escapes through the sides of the tongue. The articulators involved are the tongue and the alveolar ridge, so it’s an Alveolar Consonant. There’s complete obstruction to the airflow in the middle of the tongue. It’s Voiced. We call it the lateral/Voiced Alveolar Lateral. Allophones → All 3 allophones of /l/ are in Complementary Distribution [l] (Clear/Light Lateral) → It occurs before vowels. The front of the tongue is raised. E. g. “light” [ɫ] (Dark Lateral) → Before consonants or a pause. The back of the tongue is raised. E.g.: “milk, child” [l̥ ] (Devoiced Lateral) → When it follows /k/ or /p/. It’s produced without vibration of the vocal folds because those plosives are generally aspirated, leaving no air for the /l/. E.g.: “plea” Phonological POV The later occurs in all position/has no restrictions in distribution It can form clusters/combine with other consonants  26 Spanish Phonemes /l/ → lateral alveolar /ʎ/ → lateral palatal → “pollo”, “allí” Allophones /l/ → [l] → In Spanish, it’s always clear /ʎ/ → Different dialectal variations ○ [ʎ] → Español peninsular ○ [ʃ , ʝ , j] → Español rioplatense Class 7 The retroflex (/r/) Phonetic POV It varies a lot in different English accents We’ll refer to it as an approximant consonant, meaning that in its production, the articulators approach each other but don’t get close enough to produce a “complete” consonant sound like a plosive, fricative or nasal The articulators involved are the tip of the tongue and the palate (generally the post-alveolar part). The tip of the tongue is usually slightly curled backwards (consonants with this characteristic are called retroflex). Lips are slightly rounded. It’s (generally) voiced We can call it Post-Alveolar Approximant/the Retroflex Allophones The production of /r/ highly depends on its phonetic environment, meaning that its allophones are in Complementary Distribution ○ [ɻ ] → It’s the sound we find in words like “red” and “arrive”. The tip of the tongue is slightly curled ○ [ɹ̥ ] → It’s the sound we find when /r/ is preceded by voiceless plosives (/p/t/k/). It takes their voicing quality, becoming voiceless and slightly fricative. The tip of the tongue doesn’t curl backwards. E.g.: “press” Phonological POV It’s distribution is easy to state in GBE It occurs only before vowels. This is because GBE is a non-rhotic accent It doesn’t occur in post-vocalic position/after vowels (except for the linking /r/) ○ When “r” is in post-vocalic position and the following sound is a vowel, it’s articulation is mandatory = linking → /pɪtər ən luːsi ə r ə kʌpl/ It can combine to form clusters  27 Spanish Phonemes In Spanish we have 2 phonemes that correspond with spelling “r” and “rr” ○ /r/ → Alveolar Vibrante Múltiple (Trill) → The tip of the tongue “taps” against the alveolar ridge two or three times. It occurs in initial position (rojo), mid position when it’s preceded by “n” or “l” (“enredo”) /when the spelling suggests “rr” (“perro”) ○ /ɾ/ → Alveolar Vibrante Simple → There’s only 1 “tap” in its production. It occurs in intervocalic position when the spelling suggests “r” (“pero”), in final position (“amor”), and in consonant clusters after /p/t/k/b/g/d/f/ (“brisa, croto, graso”) In Spanish, the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge, tapping against it. In English, it doesn’t touch it but comes close to it Class 8 Semivowels/Glides Phonetic POV They are also considered Approximants They are phonetically as vowels but phonologically as consonants, that's why they’re called semivowels/semiconsonants Phonemes /j/ → It’s practically the same as that of a front vowel such as /iː/, but very short. It’s palatal → Palatal Approximant /w/ → It’s very similar to an /uː/ but short. It’s bilabial and velar (It has a double articulation). Lips become rounded → Bilabial-Velar Approximant Phonological POV They behave as consonants, that’s why they are considered as such in this POV They always occur as marginal elements of the syllable (next to vowel sounds). E.g.: “twin”, “pure” They never occur in final position Spanish Phonemes There are many opinions about whether or not these are phonemes/allophones and vowels/semivowels, it depends on the author We find these sounds in words like “rabia”, “huevo” as possible realisations of diphthongs, or as allophones of the conjunction “y” in connected speech (“arriba y abajo”)  28 Class 9 Syllabic Consonants In some cases, there are no vowels found in a syllable, so its central element is taken by a consonant, which becomes syllabic The diacritic to syllabic consonants is ( ̩ ) Not every consonant can become syllabic. We’ll only consider here the lateral (/l/), the retroflex (/r/) and nasal consonants, specially the alveolar nasal (/n/) Syllabic /l/ This is perhaps the most noticeable/frequent case of syllabic consonants It occurs as a consequence of elision (omission/dropping of some sounds), specially elision of the schwa, a weak vowel The lateral is always realised as Dark ([ɫ]) when it’s syllabic The most obvious case is when we have one or more consonant letters followed by “-le”. E.g.: cattle, bottle, wrestle, muddle, couple, struggle, knuckle: ○ With alveolar consonant preceding → /kætl/, /bɒtl/, /resl/, /mʌdl/ ○ Non-alveolar consonant preceding → /kʌpl/, /strʌgl/, /nʌkl/ We also find syllabic /l/ in words that end with one or more consonant letters + “-al” or “-el”. E.g.: panel /pænl/, petal /petl/, pedal /pedl/, parcel /pɑːsl/, etc It’s not mandatory to pronounce the syllabic /l/. The sequence /əl/ is correct Syllabic /n/ It’s the most frequent syllabic nasal It’s found when we find a plosive or a fricative + /ən/. In medial and final position, the /ə/ is generally dropped and /n/ becomes syllabic ([n̩]). E.g.: threaten /θretn/, situation /sɪtjʊeɪʃn/ It’s more common after alveolar plosives (/t/d/) and fricatives (s/z/) as they are homorganic sounds (same PoA) We don’t find it after /l/ or affricates. E.g.: sullen /sʌlən/, pigeon /pɪdʒən/ Syllabic /n/ is quite common after labiodental fricatives (/v/f/) in final position. E.g.: seven /sevn/, often /ɒfn/ It’s unusual in sequences of nasal + plosive + /ən/. E.g.: London /lʌndən/ Syllabic /m/ and /ŋ/ They can be syllabic as a result of elision and assimilation ○ happen [hæpm̩] (Bilabial PoA)/ thicken [θɪkŋ̩] (Velar PoA) Syllabic /r/ It’s more common in rhotic accents and less common in GBE. There are some pairs where it can help disambiguate meaning: Hungary /hʌŋgəri/ [hʌŋgr̥i], hungry /hʌŋgri/ [hʌŋgri]  29 Combination It’s not unusual to find 2 syllabic consonants together. It’s very hard to determine if a speaker pronounces a sequence of syllabic consonants or not. Some examples are ○ national [næʃn̩l̩ ] ○ visionary [vɪʒn̩r̩i] ○ veteran [vetr̩n̩] Unit V: Sounds in Context: Morphological Realisations and Connected Speech Processes *= not in the class, taken from the booklet Class 1 Inflectional Morphemes A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning/meaningful unit in a language. They can be classified as: ○ Free → they can stand alone as words Lexical → nouns, verbs, adjs, etc Functional → prepositions, pronouns, etc ○ Bound → they can’t stand alone as words and have to be connected to another morpheme Derivational & Inflectional Suffixes Suffix → it’s a morpheme added at the end of another morpheme to form another word. E.g.: come → coming (present participle inflection -ing) What’s the difference between inflectional and derivational suffix formation? ○ Inflectional morphemes → units which combine with roots to modify aspect, tense, number, etc. This addition doesn’t change the meaning, stress pattern or grammatical category of the root. That’s why they are called stressed neutral suffixes as well ○ Derivational morphemes → They do change the grammatical category of the word. E.g.: abstract (adj) → abstraction (n) There are 8 Inflectional Suffixes in English. They do not change the stress pattern of the word Inflectional Suffixes The realisation depends on the last sound of the root 1. Preterite/Past Tense → 3 possibilities ○ /ɪd/ (extra syllable) → If the stem ends in /t/ or /d/ (alveolar plosives) ○ /t/ → If the stem ends in a voiceless sound except /t/  30 ○ /d/ → If the stem ends in a voiced sound except /d/ 2. Plural/ Possessive/ Third Person Singular → 3 possibilities ○ /ɪz/ (extra syllable) → If the stem ends in a sibilant1 sound ○ /s/ → If the stem ends in a non-sibilant voiceless sound2 ○ /z/ → If the stem ends in a non-sibilant voiced sound3 3. Present Participle = -ing → 1 possibility ○ /ɪŋ/ → All cases If the stem ends in “r”, a linking /r/ is added before /ɪŋ/ 4. Comparative form (-er) → 1 possibility ○ /ə/ → All cases Adjs ending in /ŋ/ add /g/ before the suffix 5. Superlative form (-est) → 1 possibility ○ /ɪst/ → All cases Adjs ending in /ŋ/ add /g/ before the suffix Connected Speech → words are rarely said in isolation. They combine to form larger units of meaning. There are 3 main processes that affect sounds in C.S.: ○ Assimilation→neighbouring sounds affect each other so that they end up sharing some characteristics like voicing, manner of articulation, PoA ○ Elision → a phoneme that is present when the word is said in isolation is dropped in connected speech ○ Liaison/Linking /r/ → although GBE is a non-rhotic accent, /r/ must be pronounced when “r” is in between vowels, either when the spelling suggests it within a word (sugary) or when the last sound of a word is a vowel and so is the first one of the next word (cheer up) Class 2 Gradation It’s a process that language offers by means of which strong vowels are weakened, and vowels or consonants are elided. It refers to the use of Weak and Strong forms Generally, strong forms are used when there is stress on a word for emphasis; when prepositions are separated from the noun phrases they relate to; when aux verbs are used without their main verb; at the end of sentences, a preposition + pronoun sequences tend to have a weak preposition; if a stressed syllable precedes, and a strong preposition of one or more unstressed syllables precede; when speaking slowly and deliberately, auxiliary verbs tend to be stressed and their strong form is used. 1 /s/z/ʃ/ʒ/dʒ/tʃ/. Sounds in the production of which the tip of the tongue is near the roof of the mouth 2 VL Plosives (/p/t/k/), VL Dental Fricative (/θ/), VL LabioDental Fricative (/f/) 3 Vowels, Lateral (/l/), Retroflex (/r/), Nasals (/m/n/ŋ/), VD Plosives (/b/d/g/), VD LabioDental Fricative (/v/), VD Dental Fricative (/ð/)  31 Grammatical Words Word Strong Form Weak Forms the /ði:/ → when the word is pronounced in / ði/ → when the following word starts with a isolation; when the article is named; to vowel sound express uniqueness or emphasis / ðə /→ when the following word starts with a consonant sound. a /eɪ / → when the word is pronounced in /ə/ → when the following word starts with a isolation or when the article is named consonant sound. an /æn/ → when the word is pronounced in / ən/ → when the following word starts with a isolation or when the article is named vowel sound. and /ænd/ → when the word is pronounced in /ənd/ → before vowel sounds. isolation; when it is named; when the word /ən/ → before consonant sounds. makes a tone-group on its own; for contrast and/or emphasis. but /bʌt/ → when it makes a tone group by itself; /bət/ → generally pronounced like this. for emphasis (b4 a pause); when named. as /æz/→ for the name of the preposition or /æz/→ in initial position; when it means “while” when it is used in final position /əz/→ when it means “because”;rest of the cases or /ɔ:/→ usually used in this form /ə/ → between numbers or fixed pairs. some /sʌm/ → for naming the word; when it /səm/ → when it means “an indefinite amount functions as a determiner before a countable of”, acting as a determiner of plural or mass singular noun, meaning an unknown nouns individual, person or thing;in familiar style, stressed, before a countable singular noun meaning extraordinary; when it acts as a pronoun; for contrast with others, meaning “not all”;when it’s part of compounds (eg somehow) that /ðæt/→ naming the word or when it functions /ðət/ → when it functions as a relative pronoun. as a demonstrative adjective or pronoun. who /hu:/ → for naming the word and when it /hu/→ when it is a relative pronoun functions as an interrogative word. there /ðeə/ → when it functions as adverb of place /ðə/ → when it functions as anticipatory (followed by to be, to exist, etc) than /ðæn/→ for naming the word or for contrast /ðən/→ usually used in this form.  32 Prepositions Strong Form Weak Form It occurs when the preposition occurs in final They are usually pronounced in their weak form in position; when it’s not followed by “it” connected speech complement; when they are followed by an unstressed pronoun and the previous syllable is unstressed; for contrast, prepositions are strong and stressed at = /æt/ at = /ət/ to = /tu:/ to = /tə/ → before consonant sounds. for = /fɔ:/ to = /tu/ → before vowel sounds or /w/ from = /frɒm/ for = /fə/ of = /ɒv/ from = /frəm/ or /frm/ of = /əv/ Pronouns Strong form → for contrast; in compound Weak forms → it is the usual way they occur in subjects or objects; when followed by an connected speech. In the case of him and her, appositive. the glottal fricative can be dropped except when it occurs at the beginning of the sentence.  33 Possessive Adjectives Auxiliary Verbs Strong form → when followed by the weakest Weak forms → in medial form of “not”; in emphatic affirmatives; before a position all auxiliaries and the pause, in final position as a sentences substitute; in verb BE are in the weak form. initial position before an unstressed pronoun; in tag In initial position when questions; when there are two auxiliaries together, followed by a noun subject or the first one is strong and the second is pronounced a stressed pronoun, all in its weakest form; when the verbs HAVE and DO auxiliaries are in the weak are the main verbs, they are pronounced in the form. strong form; the modal verb MUST is used in the strong form when it means: strong necessity, deduction, inference, supposition Aux V Strong Form Weak forms am / æm / / əm / “What am I going to do now?” / m / “I’m happy”. is / ɪz / / ɪz / “The church is empty”. / z / “Paul’s here”. / s / “What’s the matter?” are / ɑ: / / ə / “What are you doing?” was / wɒz / / wəz / “There was a boy there”. were / wɜ: / / wə / “We were travelling to Spain” have / hæv / / həv / “What have you done?” / əv / “I should have known better”. / v / “They’ve got to go”. has / hæz / / həz / “Has Mr Smith arrived?” / z / “Pau’s left” / s / “The cat’s eaten the fish”.  34 had / hæd / / həd / “The teacher had already left”. / d / “They’d gone by the time he arrived”. do / du: / / də / “What do they want?” / du / before vowels and the semivowel /w/: “What do we need?” / d / “Do you like it?” does / dʌz / / dəz / “Does your mother work?” did / dɪd / / dɪd / “When did he arrive?” can /kæn / / kən / or / kn / “Can all of them come?” could / kʊd / / kəd / “We could take a walk.” shall / ʃæl / should / ʃʊd / / ʃəd / “I should go.” will / wɪl / / wɪl / “What will they say?” / l / “We’ll come tomorrow.” would / wʊd / / wəd / “Who would believe him?” must / mʌst / /mʌs / ought / ɔ:t /