Articulating phonemes correctly

SEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY

THE IMPORTANCE OF ARTICULATING INDIVIDUAL PHONEMES CORRECTLY

Speaking carefully

1. As you know, if you exchange just one phoneme for another, the meaning of the word alters too. One of my students replaced a short vowel with a long vowel within a single word. Instead of /ć/ she said /i:/. She wanted to say that her friends were having /hćvIŋ/ lunch. Instead, she said that her friends were heaving /hi:vIŋ/ lunch. As a result, the meaning was completely changed.

a)They were having lunch = měli oběd b)They were heaving lunch= vyzvraceli oběd.

Words, in which one phoneme replaces another to alter the meaning, are called minimal pairs.

Articulating consonants correctly is important too. Unlike Czech, the English letter s, may be pronounced as /s/ or /z/. For example: course /kɔːs/; cause /kɔːz/. Realising this, a student once asked if the word horse ends in a voiceless or voiced consonant. The difference, in context, is considerable: The cowboy brought his /hɔːs/ = Kovboj přivedl svého koně. /hɔːs/ = horse

The cowboy brought his /hɔːz/ = Kovboj přivedl svoje ‘ šlapky`. /hɔːz/ = whores

2. Leaving out one phoneme can also change the meaning of a word – with potentially disasterous consequences. This is not just a feature of English, of course. Consider this example in Czech.

Dva pacienti se proberou v pražské nemocnici. Vybaví si, že se stali účastníky včerejší autonehody.

-“Jak to vlastně bylo?“ – Ptá se první. – “Tys přece říkal: zleva volno, zprava taky!“

- “Kdepak kamaráde, já říkal: zleva volno, zprava tanky!“

The message is clear. If you don‘t pronounce words clearly, you may end up in hospital or - even worse - you might not pass the phonology course.

Practising individual sounds

Articulate the words below carefully. Note the spelling, pronunciation and transcription, as well as the pronunciation of the letter s. Look up the meaning of any words you don`t know.

/n/ +/z/ /k/ +/s/ /ŋ/ +/z/ / ŋk/ + /s/ /ŋkl/ + /z/ /æ/

ban -s

ran

Stan (Stanley)

tan

back -s

rack

stack

tack

bang -s

rang

----

tang

bank - s

rank

stank (simple past of stink)

tank

ankle -s /ɪ/

----

chin

----

----

----

sin

thin

win

brick

chick

click

slick

Rick (Richard)

sick

thick

wick

bring

------

cling

sling

ring

sing

thing

wing

brink

chink

clink

slink

rink

sink

think

wink

wrinkle

sprinkle

twinkle

winkle

/ʌ/

Hun (Attila)

------

sun

stun

----

Huck (Finn)

muck

suck

stuck

truck

hung

mung (beans)

sung

stung

----

hunk

monk

sunk

stunk (past part. of stink)

trunk

uncle

Two or more consonants together, such as /ŋklz/, are called a consonant cluster. These are not as common in English as in Czech, which is famous for it consonant clusters. Čtvrtkruh. Strč prst skrz krk. Vrch pln mlch. Vlk zmrzl, zhltl hrst zrn. English cannot compete with this. Words exist with up to four consonant sounds eg sixths /sIksθs/ and twelfths /twelfθs/- but these are rare.