Link to glossary

 

 

 

English Structures

Phonetics

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Moodle TESL 551: Crowley   Houts-Smith
 

 

 

 

 

Suprasegmentals

 
When talking, speakers can control other aspects of the sound that don’t get written into the alphabet.

Such aspects include stress, tone (pitch), and length.
Stress

Stress refers to the relative prominence of certain syllables.

  • The prominence is indicated by some combination of loudness, pitch, and length.
  • Each language combines these elements in various ways to indicate stress.
  • English tends to combine all three, but not always.
More than one syllable can be stressed in a word, although one syllable usually receives more stress than any other.
The syllable with the greatest prominence is referred to as carrying the primary stress, and the next most prominent syllable as carrying secondary stress.

Stress can be indicated in phonetic transcription with numbers (1 for primary stress 2 for secondary).

  • Sec1 ond ar2 y

Or with an acute accent for primary stress and a grave accent for secondary.

  • Séc ond àr y

Or by a superscript vertical line for primary stress and a subscript vertical line for secondary stress.

  • |Sec ond |ar y
Length

Length - Many languages allow for sounds to be lengthened. Greater length is indicated in phonetic transcription by a colon.

  • Either the regular colon on the keyboard [ : ]
  • Or an IPA colon which looks like an inverted pyramid over a regular pyramid [ː]
Although we teach children the difference between long and short vowels in elementary school, these distinctions are actually different vowels, not just a difference in length. So mate is not just longer than mat; it’s got a higher tongue position, too.

To get an idea of length, then, say these words out loud:

Sack
Sag
Beet
Bead
Without thinking about it, you made the vowels in sag and bead longer than the ones in sack and beet.
Some languages include this possibility of making some sounds longer to create different words. Korean, for example, has long vowels and short vowles that create diferences in meanings of words.

Both vowels and consonants can be lengthened.

  • [hena] “we” in Moroccan Arabic
  • [hen:a] “here” in Moroccan Arabic

Often lengthening is reflected in spelling by doubling a letter.
Tone
Tone - is used to refer to the levels of pitch on individual syllables of a word.
Languages that use tone to differentiate meaning between words are called tonal languages.
Examples of tonal languages are Chinese and Thai.

Register tonesare tones that remain at the same level through out the articulation of the syllable, even though they change from syllable to syllable.

Contour tones are tones that change during the articulation of a single syllable
This chart shows high (H), medium (M) and low (L) register tones as associated with specific sounds.
M
L
M
M
H
H
|
|
|
|
|
|
ku u ki ti kwa a
There is also a superscript number system for register tones.

 

3 is high tone
2 is mid tone
1 is low tone		 ku2 u1 ki2 ti2 kwa3 a3


Another system uses diagrammatic markings on a vertical line to show register tones.

 

 is low tone,
is mid tone,
is high tone.


Intonation

Intonation refers to pitch patterns over entire utterances. The meaning of the entire utterance can be affected by the intonation, but the meaning of no individual word is affected by the intonation pattern.

Intonation patterns are often indicated by the drawing of lines through the entire utterance, with the height of the line indicating the relative height of the pitch.

Do you want any coffee?
End of Lesson
Moodle - Kim Crowley's Course  Moodle - Linda Houts-Smith's Course
American Sign Language The sign language used by the deaf community in the United States.
Test of English for International Communication. A standardized exam for Educational Testing Services that is intended to determine the general capability of an NNSE to use English to conduct business. It is used by some businesses, predominantly in Asia, in hiring.
Test of English as a Foreign Language. A standardized exam from Educational Testing Services that is intended to determine the general capability of an NNSE to use English as the language of insruction .It is used as an admissions requirement by most US universities and colleges for international students.
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. A term that encompasses both TEFL and TESL. It is the name of the professional organization to which many teachers belong. TESOL the organization has many regional affiliates both in the US and abroad.
Teaching English as Second Language. Refers to the activity of teaching the English language as a tool necessary for some daily task like instruction, shopping, or interpersonal interactions.
Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Refers to the activity of teaching the English language as an intellectual, academic pursuit to non-native speakers of English.
Native Speaker of English. Refers to a person who acquired English in infancy and young childhood as a first language.
Native Speaker. Refers to a person whose relationship to a language is that it was encountered in infancy and young childhood as the dominant language of the environment.
Non-Native Speaker of English. Refers to a person who didn't acquire English as a first language, but came to it after another language was established.
Non-Native Speaker. Refers to a person whose relationship to a particular language is that he/she didn't encounter it while initially acquiring language, but came to it after another language was established.
Limited English Proficient. An adjectival phrase used to refer to the same students as ELL refers to. LEP is falling into disuse as it focuses attention on student deficiency rather than on the positive attribute of learning. Is being replaced by ELL.
Second Language. Refers to any language gained subsequent to the first or native language. It is acquired or learned secondarily to the native language. Doesn't refer to the ordinal numbering of languages, only to the relationship of a particular language to a persons native language.
First Language. Refers to the language that an individual encounters as an infant and young child; a persons native language.
English for Specific Purposes. Refers to the goal of learning English to use it for highly focused activity, such as for business or for aviation communication.
English as a Second Language Program. refers to a school program that is purposefully structured to provide instruction on the English language to NNSEs. An ESL program does not typically include instruction in any other subjects than English. An ESL program may be a component of a larger ELL program at a school.
English as a Second Language. Refers to the subject matter of the English language and the methodology for teaching the English language to non-native speakers. ESL makes no reference to the subjects other than English, but it is not methodology alone either, it refers to teaching the English language as content area. Typically, ESL refers to the study of English in a country where it is used for at least one daily task, such as instruction, interpersonal relations, or shopping.
English Langauge Learner Program. Refers to a school program that is purposly structured to provide instruction on the English language and instruction in other content areas to English Language Learners.
English Language Learner. Refers to students who are in the process of learning English, whether they are in ESL classes exclusively or a combination of ESL classes and other subject area classes.
English as a Foreign Langauge. Refers to the study of English as an intellectual, academic pursuit, not a a language whose use is necessary or desirable for daily life, although it may be used as a research tool. Typically, EFL is the study of English in a country where English is not a language of instruction or daily interactions, such as in Italy or in Saudi Arabia.
English for Academic Purposes. Refers to the goal of learning English to use it as the language of instruction for other subject areas.
Refers to a school program that is purposely structured so that students will use two languages on a daily basis.
Refers to the use of two languages in any capacity on a daily basis. A bilingual person uses two languages on a daily basis--for work and at home, perhaps, or for different subjects at school. Can also refer to the ability to use two languages, even if not used daily.