Файл: Advanced_English_Pronunciation_in_Use.pdf

Section £ Reference

step-up A step-up happens when the voice moves up to a noticeably higher pitch than it was at before. In this book, the symbol rn is used to show a step-up.

stress In a word with more than one syllable, syllables that stand out more than others are stressed. (See also main stress and secondary stress.) An unstressed syllable is one that does not stand out.

stress shift When a word which has main stress and secondary stress is used in conversation, the syllable with main stress is usually made prominent. However, if this word is followed by another prominent word, particularly if it begins with a prominent syllable, prominence may move to an earlier syllable with secondary stress. This change is called stress shift. It happens because the rhythm of English prefers prominent syllables to be separated by non-prominent syllables where possible. In CEPD, words which commonly have stress shift are shown with an example: I,sek nd'hrend/ stress shift: ,secondhand ' books.

strong form I weak form Some function words have two pronunciations: a strong form and a weak form. For example, but can be pronounced /bAtI (strong form) or /b;Jtl (weak form). The weak form is the usual pronunciation of these words.

sufnx A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to make a new word. Examples include -ive, -ment, -eer.

syllJble A syllable is a word or part of a word that contains a vowel. (For an exception, see syllabic consonant.) The vowel may have consonants before or after it. For example, the word abolish has three syllables: a- I;J/, -bol- /boV, -ish /Ifl.

syllJbic consonant A syllabic consonant is a consonant (mainly IV or 1nl) that is pronounced as a syllable. For example, there are syllabic consonants at the end of the words bottle and happen. Dictionaries show syllabic consonants either with a , symbol under the consonant (bottle - /botl) or use the symbol to show that the vowel before the syllabic consonant can be left out (happe

- /hrep nI).

tail A tail is a word or short phrase added to the end of a sentence to emphasise or make clearer what we have just said, for example: It's a nice town, Buxton; It's really expensive, that is.

tone In each speech unit there is one main movement of the voice up or down, starting on the

last prominent word of the speech unit. English has four main tones: falling tone 61, rising tone 1i!J, fall-rising tone 1ii!!I, and rise-falling tone rilm'II.n addition, there may be little or no

movement of the voice in the speech unit, and we refer to this as level tone a.

vowel A vowel sound is a sound produced without blocking the air flow from the mouth with our teeth, tongue or lips. A vowel letter is a letter that represents a vowel sound.

Further reading

Reference works

For a detailed work on the pronunciation of British English:

Cruttenden, A. (ed.) (200 1 ) Gimson's Pronunciation ofEnglish, 6th edn. London: Hodder Arnold.

For more on English phonetics and phonology:

Roach, P. (2000) English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course, 3rd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

For a dictionary of pronunciation:

Jones, D. (2006) Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 1 7th edn. Edited by P. Roach, J. Setter and J. Hartman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

For more on the pronunciation of national and regional varieties of English:

Gramley, S. and Piitzold, K.-M. (2004) A Survey ofModern English, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.

For more on differences between North American and British English pronunciation: Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M. and Goodwin, J. M. ( 1 996) Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers ofEnglish to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (See in particular Appendix 1 . )

For more o n the pronunciation of English a s a n 'international' language (see Unit 2):

Jenkins, J. (2000) The Phonology ofEnglish as an International Language: New Models, New Norms, New Goals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

For more on 'tails' (see Unit 40):

Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. ( 1997) Exploring Spoken English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

For more on phrasal verbs (see Units 19 and 20):

Cambridge Phrasal Verbs Dictionary (2006) 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

For information on the pronunciation problems of particular first language speakers:

Swan, M. and Smith, B. (eds. ) (2001 ) Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and Other Problems, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Material for further practice

Bradford, B. ( 1 998) Intonation in Context: Intonation Practice for Upper-Intermediate and Advanced Learners ofEnglish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brazil, D. ( 1 994) Pronunciation for Advanced Learners ofEnglish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cauldwell, R. (2002) Streaming Speech: Listening and Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English. (British! Irish version) . Birmingham: Speechinaction. (American! Canadian version, 2005).

Cauldwell, R (2005) Listening to Accents ofthe British Isles. Birmingham: Speechinaction. Gilbert, J. (2004) Clear Speech, 3rd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (North

American English)

Hahn, L. D. and Dickerson, W. B. ( 1 999) Speechcraft: Discourse Pronunciation for Advanced Learners. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. (North American English)

Vaughan-Rees, M. (2002) Test Your Pronunciation. Harlow: Pearson.

Other books in the English Pronunciation in Use series

Hancock, M. (2003 ) English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Marks, J. (2007) English Pronunciation in Use Elementary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Key

On the recording you will mostly hear speakers of BBC English (see page 10). Where other speakers are recorded, the country or region of Britain they come from is noted.

Unit 1

1 . 1 Speaker 1

I don't get a lot of time to myself these days, but if I have a couple of hours to spare then I go down to the tennis club. I've just joined a tennis club near me and we've moved to a new house and er the tennis courts are right outside the back of my garden, so I just literally walk down and go through the gate and spend a couple of hours knocking balls about.

Speaker 2 (United States)

When I've got some free time urn I like to read. Usually I avoid the latest fiction and look for novels or novelists that I've always known about and wanted to read. But occasionally I just stroll through a bookshop and sometimes it's just the cover of a book that makes me grab it and take it home.

Speaker 3 (Canada)

When I've got spare time I like to go to the lake. It's about a twenty minute drive and when I get there I go water skiing. I just love water skiing when the weather's good. And afterward if I've got enough energy, I pick Saskatoon berries on the lane behind the cabin. And later on in the week I make some pies.

Speaker 4 (Australia)

My favourite thing to do on a sunny day is to go to the beach. It takes about an hour from my house. I have to get the train and a bus, but it's worth it. Lots of my friends live near the beach, so it's always the perfect way to catch up and enjoy the sunshine.

Speaker 5 (South Africa)

One of my favourite things to do when I've got a bit of spare time is to go fishing with my friends. Er we get a bit of tackle together, the fishing rods, pile it all into the back of a four-by­ four and we head up into the mountains. There's some wonderful streams up there, well stocked with trout, and carp, and bream. We normally take a bit of a picnic up, you know, some bread rolls, and some ham and cheese, and it's just a nice day out.

1 .2 Here are some of the things you might have noticed:

· --I

1 (northern England)

When I get a day off, I like to go up into the Yorkshire Dales. These are sort of hills, er about twenty miles from where I live. And I'll er walk through the day. I'll set off while it's still dark and walk for about eight hours. And at the end of that finish up in a village somewhere and have a nice meal.

Here are some of the differences you may have noticed between this accent and BBC English: - the vowel in '!', 'like', 'nice' (lml in BBC English) is more 'open', beginning with a

- the 'r' sound in 'for about' is said with a slight tap of the tongue behind the top teeth

I live in the country and I'm I'm quite lucky because where I live is sort of on the top of urn a range of low, flat hills. So it's quite windy. On good days, I like to take my children out and we go and fly kites. The children have got little kites, because obviously if it's too windy and with a big kite it would be really too, too much for them, they couldn't control it. Urn but they they thoroughly enjoy being out just just in the fresh air.

Here are some of the differences you may have noticed between this accent and BBC English:

-'r' is pronounced where it would not be in BBC English (in 'sort', 'for then', 'air') and said with a flap of the tongue

-the vowel in 'like', 'fly', 'kite', ete. (lml in BBC English) begins with a sound close to 'ee'

(li:/)

-the vowel in 'low', 'so', 'go' (I';Jul in BBC English) is pronounced more like a simple vowel, close to /:J:I

3 (Wales)

In my spare time I really like visiting gardens. Usually, the gardens of big houses. And at every time of the year there's something different to see. The spring, of course, is the best time, when everything's coming into bud, and then later in the summer into full flower. It's really wonderful. And even when it's raining, you can still get great pleasure visiting gardens.

Here are some of the differences you may have noticed between this accent and BBC English:

-the vowel in 'year' (II';JI in BBC English) is pronounced with more rounded lips

-the vowel in 'gardens' (10:1 in BBC English) is more 'open', beginning with a sound close to lrel (as in 'cat')

- the Irl in 'raining' and 'really' is said with a flap of the tongue

4 (Northern Ireland)

Usually, 'cause erm I'm working during the week er and sometimes on a Saturday as well the only day off that I have would be a Sunday. Er and on Sunday we like to get up early, make a big breakfast and if the weather's good er I take my kids for a long walk in the country. Erm we go off er with our little fishing rods and sometimes er go down to the local stream and with a net and try and er catch a few tiddlers or something like that.

(Note: A tiddler is a very small fish.)

Here are some of the differences you may have noticed between this accent and BBC English:

-the vowel in 'ysually' and 'dyring' (lu:1 in BBC English) is pronounced rather like the vowel in 'good' (lu/)

-the vowel in 'off' (101 in BBC English) is pronounced with more rounded lips

-the vowel in 'stream' (li:1 in BBC English) is pronounced almost as two vowels li:1 + I';JI