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Its important for you not to panic! Youll be incorporating these concepts gradually as the course
develops, and you will be coming back to them regularly. However, its extremely useful to have a
compendium of guidelines.
Script conventions:
1. Phonemic script is enclosed by slant lines ... Make sure you do not write a slant after each word.
This is a phonemic transcription.
.
CHr
Hy
?
e?!mh9lHj
sqzm!rjqHoRm
.
2. Phonetic or allophonic script is enclosed by square brackets.
tell .!sdk.+
Z!sd4\-
3. Ordinary spelling may be enclosed by angle brackets <> in order to avoid confusion.
<mess> .!ldr..
4. As stress is a property of the whole syllable, stress marks are placed before the syllable begins.
hotel .g?T!sdk. subsequently .!rUarHjv?mskh.
7. Do not confuse letters with phonetic symbols. Letters may be pronounced in a number of ways.
Phonetic symbols, however, always stand for the same sound.
<g> can be .f.
or .cY.: go .!f?T.
gym .!cYHl.
.f.
will always stand for a voiced velar plosive: give .!fHu.
goose .!ft9r.
8. The following symbols are not English phonemes: <c, , o, q, x, y>.
Prof. Francisco Zabala - 2016
Phonemic inventory:
9. There is a limited inventory of phonemes in English. Stick to these conventions in other words,
dont create new combinations!!!
a. Vowels:
Pure vowels or monophthongs
1. Relatively long .h9+
@9+
N9+
t9+
29.
2. Short .h+
H+
d+
z+
U+
?+
P+
T+
t.
Diphthongs or glides
1. Closing .`H+
dH+
NH+
`T+
?T.
2. Centring .H?+
d?+
T?.
b. Consonants
Plosives .o+
a+
s+
c+
j+
f.
Affricates .sR+
cY.
Fricatives .e+
u+
S+
C+
r+
y+
R+
Y+
g.
Nasals .l+
m+
M.
Approximants .k+
q+
v+
i.
10. Be neat! Make sure that you dont confuse these pairs in your handwritten transcriptions:
a. .d+
?.
b. .?T+
`T.
c. .H+
h+
h9.
d. .T+
t+
t9.
e. .r+
R.
f. .`H+
`T+
@9.
g. .N9+
NH+
P.
11. Vowel sounds are difficult to pronounce and recognize at first. Also, they differ quite a lot
depending on the speakers accent. In order to help you, we can either call the vowels of the
General British accent by their number or standard lexical set.
12. Miscellanea:
a. General British English is a non-rhotic accent. That is, the sound .q. is only found before
vowels. Therefore, letter <r> is not pronounced before consonants or silence.
British .!aqHsHR.
red .!qdc.
German .!cY29l?m.
hair .!gd?.
Prof. Francisco Zabala - 2016
e. Dont confuse .H?.
with .i?+
id+
iU+
i@9+
iz.; or .T?. with .v?+
vU+
v@9+
vz.. They differ in
terms of which element in the sequence is the more prominent. Diphthongs have a more
prominent first element, whereas in the semivowel + vowel clusters it is the vowel that has
the more prominence.
ears .!H?y.
Cf. yes .!idr.
sure .!RT?.
Cf. schwa .!Rv@9.
f. Dont use the happy .h.
and the thank-you .t.
vowels in diphthongs. Diphthongs can only
end in .H+
T+
?.-
My cow .l`H
!j`T.
(not .l`h
!j`t.)
g. Diphthongs may be followed by other vowels, especially schwa. Make sure you dont use
semivowels here.
hour .!`T?.
(not .!`v?.)
fire .!e`H?.
(not .!e`i?.)
player .!okdH?.
(not .!okdi?.)
loyal .!kNH?k.
(not .!kPi?k.)
lower .!k?T?.
(not .!kPv?.)
h. DRESS .d., TRAP .z., LOT .P., FOOT .T. and STRUT .U. are checked vowels. This means
that they never occur word-finally.
i. FLEECE .h9., START .@9., NORTH .N9., GOOSE .t9.
and NURSE .29.
cant occur before the velar
nasal .M..
j. The velar nasal .M.
is normally preceded by checked (i.e. short) vowels.
sang .!rzM.
song .!rPM.
sing .!rHM.
sung .!rUM.
ginseng .!cYHmrdM.
m. GOOSE .t9.
and FOOT .T.
are extremely rare in word-initial position. Note the following
relatively frequent words (among some other rare words):
ooze .!t9y.
oops .!Tor+
!t9or.
n. Stress has an impact on pronunciation. For example, we generally use .it9. in stressed
syllables, and .it+
i?.
in unstressed syllables.
using .!it9yHM.
university .$it9mH!u29r?sh.
particular .o?!sHji?k?+
o?!sHjiTk?.
o. The sequences .h9q. and .t9q.
dont occur in General British. Instead, you should use .H?. for
the former, and .T?. (or at times also .N9.) for the latter.
mysterious .lH!rsH?qh?r.
hero .!gH?q?T.
curious .!jiT?qh?r+
!jiN9qh?r.
plural .!okT?q?k+
!okN9q?k.
Prof. Francisco Zabala - 2016
p. The spelling <oo>
Its generally GOOSE .t9.
It takes STRUT .U. just in blood and flood.
It takes FOOT .T.
in foot, good, hood, stood, soot, woof, wood, wool.
It takes FOOT .T.
in all <-ook> endings (except for spook).
q. The spellings for TRAP .z. and STRUT .U.
are mutually exclusive. The spelling <a> never
takes STRUT .U.. The spellings <o, u, ou> never take TRAP .z..
fan .!ezm.
Cf.
fun .!eUm.
tan .!szm.
Cf. ton .!sUm.
r. Some words whose spelling is <a> are called BATH words because they take .@9. in
General British instead of TRAP. Normally, the <a> is followed by:
Nasal (+consonant)
dance .!c@9mr.
sample .!r@9lok.
Fricative (+consonant)
after .!@9es?.
pass .!o@9r.
16. The presence of stress has an impact on the choice of vowel sounds. There are two subsystems of
vowels (notice that .H+
T.
belong to both groups):
a. Strong vowels They tend to occur in stressed syllables:
.h9+
H+
d+
z+
@9+
P+
N9+
T+
t9+
U+
29+
dH+
`H+
NH+
`T+
?T+
H?+
d?+
T?.
18. English, being a Germanic language, doesnt allow the occurrence of two unstressed syllables at
the beginning of a word. In other words, the Teutonic rule demands that either the first or second
syllable of every word should be stressed. If the primary stress falls later than either on the first or
second syllable, there will be a secondary stress either on the first or second syllable. The rule of
alternation helps us there: if we hear a strong (primary) stress on the third syllable, then there
may be a hidden secondary stress on the first syllable. If we perceive a strong prominence on the
Prof. Francisco Zabala - 2016
fourth syllable, then there may be a prominence in the second syllable. The unstressed syllables
normally take weak vowels (especially schwa).
oven .!Uu?m. contain .j?m!sdHm.
preposition .$oqdo?!yHR?m.
sophistication .r?$eHrsH!jdHR?m.
representative .$qdoq?!ydms?sHu.
grammaticality .fq?$lzsH!jzk?sh.
19. Many unstressed endings are generally weak in English; therefore they take weak vowels. Some
words allow the optional use of either schwa or another weak vowel. Sometimes, its even possible
to elide a weak vowel altogether (possible elisions are shown in italics).
-able .,?ak. preferable .!oqdeq?ak.
-ace .,?r+
,Hr. preface .!oqde?r.
-age .,HcY. village .!uHkHcY.
-ain .,?m.
certain .!r29sm.
-al .,?k.
special .!rodRk.
-an .,?m.
American .?!ldqHj?m.
-ary .,?qh.
secretary .!rdjq?sqh.
-ate .,?s+
,Hs.
(adjectives & nouns) certificate .r?!sHeHj?s.
-ed .,Hc. (past tense after final .s+
c.) planted .!ok@9msHc.
-edly .,Hckh+
,?ckh. (adverbs) supposedly .r?!o?TyHckh.
-ed
.,Hc. (adjectives) wicked .!vHjHc.
-en .,?m.
tighten .!s`Hsm.
-eon .,?m.
dungeon .!cUmcY?m.
-er
.,?. (comparative) quicker .!jvHj?.
-es /-s
.,Hy. (plurals, simple present, genitive after sibilants) Wells .!vdkyHy.
-est
.,?rs+
,Hrs. (superlatives) biggest .!aHf?rs.
-et .,Hs.
circuit .!r29jHs.
-eth .,?S+
,HS.
twentieth .!svdmsh?S.
-ful .,eTk. (quantity nouns) spoonful .!rot9meTk.
-ful .,ek. (adjectives) beautiful .!ait9s?ek.
-ible .,?ak+
,Hak.
incredible .HM!jqdc?ak.
-ily .,Hkh+
,?kh.
happily .!gzo?kh.
-ion .,?m.
invention .Hm!udmRm.
-less .,k?r+
,kHr.
timeless .!s`Hlk?r.
-ly .,kh.
timely .!s`Hlkh.
-ment .,l?ms.
moment .!l?Tl?ms.
-ness .,m?r+
,mHr.
careless .!jd?k?r.
-on .,?m..
Amazon .!zl?ym.
-ory .,?qh. laboratory .k?!aPq?sqh.
-ous .,?r.
ridiculous .qH!cHji?k?r.
-some .,r?l.
awesome .!N9r?l.
-ure .,?.
temperature .!sdloq?sR?.
-y /-ey .,h.
Tony .!s?Tmh.
20. Some of these endings are really words in their own right, but they have become unstressed and
weak because of these combinations are extremely frequent. We call this process monolithicity.
They take weak vowels.
-burgh /-borough .,a?q?.
Edinburgh .!dcHlaq?.
-chester .,sRHrs?+
,sR?rs?.
Manchester .!lzmsR?rs?.
-ford .,e?c.
Oxford .!Pjre?c.
-ham .,?l.
Buckingham .!aUjHM?l.
-land .,k?mc.
Scotland .!rjPsk?mc.
Prof. Francisco Zabala - 2016
c. Radical <r>
General British English is a non-rhotic accent, therefore, you should pronounce those <r>
letters in the spelling only when they are followed by a vowel sound. When theres no
vowel sound after a <r> in a strong syllable, then this consonant letter normally affects the
vowel letter before it by either lengthening it or turning it into a more open sound.
<ar> = START .@9.
star
<er> = NURSE .29.
hers
<ir> = NURSE .29.
first
<or> = NORTH .N9.
form
<ur> = NURSE .29.
curse
The role of stress in connected speech
23. As you know by now, when you transcribe a word you need to focus on what syllables can be
potentially stressed. These syllables will always take a strong vowel. The same is true when you
transcribe connected speech, but in order to spot the stressed syllables in the chunk, you first need
to discriminate between content and grammar words.
Content words:
Grammar words: - They compete against other options
- Theyre the only possible The minister of agriculture
collocations The chairman of Shell
- They are predictable The president of Argentina
- They are frequent
- They have little semantic value
The secretary of education - Theyre less predictable
- They tend to be unstressed .C?
!rdjq?sqh
?u
$dcY?!jdHRm.
- Theyre more semantically loaded
CAPPA - They tend to be stressed
conjunctions articles pronouns NAVA
prepositions auxiliaries nouns adverbs verbs - adjectives
Prof. Francisco Zabala - 2016
a. Content words (NAVA: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) can potentially carry one or
several stresses. Content words are highlighted in speech by means of stress because they
are loaded with meaning and are not easily predictable in the context.
category .!jzs?fqh. representative .$qdoq?!ydms?sHu.
uselessness .!it9rk?rm?r. situation .$rHsRt!dHRm.
Tip: if in doubt, choose a weak form over a strong form. These are the most frequent
words in the language and, therefore, they are highly predictable in the context in which
they appear. These words take weak vowels because they are not stressed. (See the notes
on weak and strong forms)
24. If the grammar word youre looking for is not in the list above, dont turn it into a weak form.
Its on and off, till you break up, then.
.Hsr
!Pm
?m
!Pe
{
sHk
it
!aqdHj
!Uo
!Cdm.
27. Contractions:
a. Negative contractions are always strong, because they contain a negative adverb inside
them.
They werent scared. .CdH
!v29ms
!rjd?c.
b. There is strong when it works as a locative, but its weak when it denotes existence.
Theres a pear over there. .C?y
?
!od?q
!?Tu?
!Cd?.
b. If the final sound in the original word is voiced .a+
c+
f+
u+
C+
k+
l+
m+
M., a vowel or a
diphthong, we add .y. to agree in voice.
Bobs .!aPay.
hoods .!gTcy.
digs .!cHfy.
arrives .?!q`Huy.
bathes .!adHCy.
Wills .!vHky.
comes .!jUly.
means .!lh9my.
Kings .!jHMy.
draws .!cqN9y.
carries .!jzqhy.
toys .!sNHy.
c. Exception: If the final sound in the original word is a sibilant consonant (i.e.
.r+
y+
R+
Y+
sR+
cY.), a new syllable (.Hy.) is added to the root. Notice that the two
phonemes in .Hy.
agree in voice.
dresses .!cqdrHy.
washes .!vPRHy.
Mitchs .!lHsRHy.
Jamess .!cYdHlyHy.
garages .!fzq@9YHy.
bridges .!aqHcYHy.
d. IRREGULARITIES:
The spelling shows the change from .e. to .u., but not from .S. to .C.-
life .!k`He.
lives .!k`Huy.
(C.f. wives .!v`Huy.
wifes .!v`Her.)
path .!o@9S.
paths.!o@9Cy.
Prof. Francisco Zabala - 2016
Theres one irregular root word:
house .!g`Tr.
C.f. houses .!g`TyHy.
30. Regular verbs in the past tense <-ed> (and most adjectives):
a. If the final sound in the original word is voiceless .o+
j+
sR+
e+
S+
r+
R., we add .s. to agree in
voice with it.
hoped .!g?Tos.
booked .!aTjs.
watched .!vPsRs.
laughed .!k@9es.
wished .!vHRs.
passed .!o@9rs.
gap-toothed .$fzo!st9Ss.
b. If the final sound in the original word is voiced .a+
f+
cY+
u+
C+
y+
Y+
k+
l+
m+
M., a vowel or
a diphthong, we add .c. to agree in voice.
rubbed .!qUac.
clogged .!jkPfc.
ranged .!qdHmcYc.
arrived .?!q`Huc.
breathed .!aqh9Cc.
buzzed.!aUyc.
filled .!eHkc.
skimmed .!rjHlc.
cleaned .!jkh9mc.
longed .!kPMc.
glued .!fkt9c.
carried .!jzqhc.
played .!okdHc. camouflaged .!jzl?ek@9Yc.
c. Exception: If the final sound in the original word is either .s.
or .c., a new syllable (.Hc.) is
added to the root. Notice that the two phonemes in .Hc.
agree in voice.
decided .cH!r`HcHc.
invented .Hm!udmsHc.
d. Notice:
Some adjectives always take .Hc..
naked .!mdHjHc.
wicked .!vHjHc.
ragged .!qzfHc.
Miscellanea
31. Be careful with the demonstratives:
a. Basic vowel pattern: this .'!(CHr.
that .'!(Czs.
b. Silent <-e>: these .'!(Ch9y.
those .'!(C?Ty.
32. <some> is strong in compounds
somebody .!rUla?ch.
someone .!rUlvUm.
somewhere .!rUlvd?.
something .!rUlSHM.
sometimes .!rUls`Hly.
somewhat .!rUlvPs.
33. Notice:
.!vd?. where wear ware
.v?. were (most frequent form weak)
.!v29. were (rarely strong form)
35. Inflecting:
a. Sometimes, a vowel is added after another vowel. You should keep both!
Vowel Final <-ing> Superlative <-est> Ordinal <-th>
FLEECE .h9.
seeing .!rh9HM.
freest .!eqh9Hrs.
happy
.h.
tidying .!s`HchHM. happiest .!gzohHrs. fortieth .!eN9shHS.
PRICE
.`H.
tying .!sq`HHM. shiest .!R`HHrs.
FACE
.dH.
saying .!rdHHM. grayest .!fqdHHrs.
CHOICE
.NH.
toying .!sNHHM. coyest .!jNHHrs.
b. Make sure you dont add an extra vowel in these cases. Just follow the rule!
Vowel Final <-ed> Final <-es>
FLEECE .h9.
skied .!rjh9c.
skies .!rjh9y.
happy
.h.
worried .!vUqhc. worries .!vUqhy.
PRICE
.`H.
dried .!cq`Hc. dries .!cq`Hy.
FACE
.dH.
played .!okdHc. plays .!okdHy.
CHOICE
.NH.
enjoyed .Hm!cYNHc. enjoys .Hm!cYNHy.
b. Word-final and morpheme-final<-ng> is .M.. The letters <n> and <g> fuse.
sing .!rHM.
sing|er .!rHM?.
sing|ing .!rHMHM.
wrong .!qPM.
wrong|ly .!qPMkh.
c. Exception: the comparative and superlative forms of <long>, <strong> and <young>
add .f..
Adjective Comparative <-er> Superlative <-est>
long .!kPM. longer .!kPMf?. longest .!kPMf?rs.
strong .!rsqPM. stronger .!rsqPMf?. strongest .!rsqPMf?rs.
young .!iUM. younger .!iUMf?. youngest .!iUMf?rs.
40. Negative <un-> takes a strong vowel, even if its not stressed.
undo .'$(Um!ct9.
unhappy .'$(Um!gzoh.
unabridged .$Um?!aqHcYc.
41. <de->
a. .!cd. when it takes either the primary or secondary stress
decorate .!cdj?qdHs.
derivation .$cdqH!udHRm.
b. .!oqd. when it takes a secondary stress (or primary stress in some words)
preferable .!oqdeq?ak.
preparation .$oqdo?!qdHRm.
c. .$oqh9. when it means before
prejudge .$oqh9!cYUcY.
pre-exist .$oqh9Hf!yHrs.
43. <re->
a. .!qd. when it takes either a secondary or primary stress
represent .$qdoqH!ydms.
resonate .!qdy?mdHs.
b. .qh9. when it means again
rewrite (noun) .!qh9q`Hs.
rewrite (verb) .$qh9!q`Hs.
44. <pro->
a. .!oq?T+
!oqP. in stressed position (every word is different!)
pronoun .!oq?Tm`Tm.
probable .!oqPa?ak.
/s/ or /z/?
48. Its extremely difficult to know when to use .r. or .y.. Although the real answer is only found in a
pronunciation dictionary, the following tendencies are of great help:
a. The spelling <z> is never .r.
b. The beginning <s-> is never .y.
Sore .!rN9.
strong .!rsqPM.
But: sure .!RN9.
sugar .!RTf?.
Works consulted:
Jones, D. (2003). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (16th edition). Cambridge: CUP.
Ortz Lira, H. (2007). La transcripcin fonemtica del ingls: problemas y soluciones. Santiago de Chile:
UMCE.
1
Wells, J.C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd edition). Hong Kong: Longman.