Diffculties of hing school pupils in pronunciation of some english consonants

 Palato alveolar : are the sounds produced with the tongue tip or blade coming close to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate, such as in /S,

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE

Phonemes are the different sounds within a language In the first place, of all the teacher and students have been asked, no one denied that pronunciation has a very important role This can be easily seen in teaching and learning English in Vietnam Even though it is one

of the three language elements, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, the first two are heavily focused on but the last one is left with very little concerned

As the matter of fact that pronunciation is of little concern, materials on this issues, therefore, are not always available in Vietnam This has much hindered student's acquisition

of English pronunciation

In addition, not many effective methods have been introduced to help teachers and learners improve their teaching and learning pronunciation These results in a very low quality of sound production in many students

Furthermore, that Vietnamese sound system is far different from that of English is considered to be one of the barriers to the acquisition of English pronunciation This can be shown, for example, by the Vietnamese monosyllabic sound system which has caused students a great deal of difficulties as they produce some final consonants and consonant clusters

Deriving from these above-mentioned reasons, the foreign learners need to be given some strategies for improving their pronunciation out of respect for listeners' ears Therefore, it is

necessary for a research study on difficulties of high-school pupils in pronunciation of

some English consonants to be made

II AIMS OF THE SUDY

This research aims at finding out some difficulties in pronunciation of some English consonants and giving some ways to overcome these difficulties for foreign language learners, especially for high-school pupils

III SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Within the limit of the study, the author will focus only on some theoretical matters related

to English consonants and consonant clusters and some of the most typical and problematic consonants and consonant clusters made by the High School students in Haiduong Province They are the students of eleventh form in Chilinh High School English is one of their compulsory subjects; however, for the reason that is not their major, their level of English is quite various Nevertheless, the research is intended to be devoted to the pronunciation practice at a high school Also, non-professionals in general can benefit from the study

IV TASKS OF THE STUDY

As specific in the research topic, the research work will fulfill a number of tasks:

1 To study the English sound, especially English consonants and consonants clusters

2 To find pupils' errors when they produce consonants and consonant clusters

3 On the basic of findings, possible solutions are given to reduce the pupils' errors

V METHODS OF THE STUDY

In order to attain the primary aims, the researcher has consulted several ideas from the Supervisor and people who fully master this topic All the theories have been carefully selected and gathered through reference books and documents in Internet websites as well

In addition, a survey questionnaire has been designed as the key data collection instrument

of the study Collecting, analyzing and discussing have been used

VI SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research studies the phonemes and some difficult consonants By conducting a survey questionnaire, it shows difficult consonants students always meet as well as the reason for these difficulties Based on the cause discovered in the survey, solutions to help students overcome these difficulties as well as to improve their pronunciation correctly and effectively are also made Therefore, naturally the research has some significance to students, teachers as well as anyone interested

On the part of teachers, with the help of the study, they may find the most effective teaching techniques to introduce English phonemes By considering the difficult consonants students always meet, they may have their way to help their students overcome these difficulties as well as to improve their students' pronunciation

On the part of students, they can refer to the study in order to improve as well as enrich their knowledge of the English phonemes, English consonants and so on Furthermore, they can themselves overcome the difficulties they meet when pronouncing some English consonants by applying some suggestion solutions mentioned in the thesis

The study is practical by nature; therefore it is useful for everyone who is interested in the phonemes and wants to improve pronunciation

VII DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK

The thesis consists of three main parts: the introduction, the investigation, and conclusion

Part one, "Introduction", introduces reason for choosing the topic, aims and scopes of the research, the research methods as well as an overview of the thesis

Part two, "Investigation", consists of two chapters Chapter 1 is entitled "Theoretical Background", which has two sections, knows as "Literature Review in Brief", and "The English sound and pronunciation" The chapter 2 is entitled "Methodology, results and finding", which includes the procedures of conducting survey questionnaire In this chapter, the results are analyzed and the major findings are presented Based on the major findings, some solutions to the problem are also given

Part three, "Conclusion and Recommendation", summarizes the keys points of the research, points out some limitations as well as provides a few recommendation and suggestion for further study

PART TWO INVESTIGATION

CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I 1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF

Every language has its own sound system on which people base on to produce sounds English therefore has its own sound system too The system of English sounds can be showed in the following chart:

Vowels, as stated by Peter Roach(2000) " the most common view is that vowels are sounds

in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips"

Meanwhile, in wikipedia, they have defined" in phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken

language, such as English ah /a:/ or oh! /oU/, pronounced with an open vocal tract so that

there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis."

Linguists and phoneticians have carried out many researches on English consonants Each of them has their own way to define, discuss and point out features of English consonants

In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, consonant is a speech sound made by partly or completely stopping the flow of air through mouth

Roach(2000) in his book entitled English Phonetic and Phonology defined that "consonants

are speech sounds When we pronounce them the organ of speech always form an obstruction, the airstream is stopped before going out and the pronunciation is with or without vibration of vocal cords"

In Better English Pronunciation, J.D O‟Connor (1980) refers to the English consonants He

claims that consonants contribute more to making English understood than vowels do Besides, consonants are generally made by a definite interference of the vocal organs with the air stream, and so are easier to describe and understand

P Dale and L Poms (2005) in English Pronunciation Made Simple does not mention to

definition of consonants They just consider to pronouncing the consonant of American English; therefore, they do not pay much attention to the theories of consonants

From the practical phonetic standpoint, it is convenient to distinguish two types of speech sounds, simply because the majority of sounds may be described and classified most appropriately according to one of two techniques:

1 The types of sound which is most easily described in terms of articulation, since

we can generally feel the contacts and movements involved Such sounds may be produced with or without vocal cords vibration (voicing) and very often have a noise component in

the acoustic sense; these sounds fall generally into the traditional category of consonants

2 The type of sound, depending largely on very light variation of tongue position, which is most easily described in terms of auditory relationships, since there are not contacts or strictures which we can feel with any precision Such sounds are generally voiced having no noise component; these sounds fall generally into the traditional category

of vowels and will be known as vowels

In short, the English consonants plays an important role in English pronunciation or English sound system Much research on English consonants and English pronunciation has been carried out but they are not very clear and complete They not mention much to difficulties

of learners in pronunciation of some English consonants Therefore, it is necessary to have a full and understandable description of pronunciation of English consonants

I.1.1 English vowels classification

According to Roach, vowels are made by voiced air passing through different mouth-shape; the differences in shape of the mouth are caused by different positions of the tongue and of the lips The quality of vowels is determined by the particular configuration of the vocal tract Different parts of the tongue may be raised or lowered The lips may be spread or pursed The passage through which the air travels, however, is never so narrow as to obstruct free flow of the airstreams In the short way, Kelly (2000) described in his book that vowels are produced when the airstream is voiced through the vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx and then shaped using the tongue and the lips to modify the overall shape of the mouth The position of the tongue is a useful reference point for describing the differences between vowel sounds Thus vowels have been traditionally classified according to the four questions:

- How high is the tongue? According to this criterion there are:

 High vowels if they are made with either the front or the back of the tongue

is high in the mouth It is raised above its rest position, such as /I:/,/u:/

 Low vowels if they are made with the tongue below its rest position, such as /A:/

 Mid vowels if the vowels are made with the tongue neither high nor low in the mouth, such as: /e/

- What part of the tongue is raised? Answering this question, we have:

 Front vowels: are the vowels in the production of which the highest point of the tongue is in front of the mouth: /I:/

 Back vowels: are the vowels in the production of which the back of the tongue is raised to the highest point: /O:/

 Central vowels are the vowels made with neither the back nor the front of the tongue The tongue is neither high or low in the mouth when central vowels are produced, like /V/

- How long or short is the vowel? Long vowels tend to be longer than short vowels

in a similar context They are different from the short one not only on length but also in quality resulting from differences in tongue shape and lips position, for examples: /I:/,/I/,/O:/,/Q/

- How is the shape of lips? Although the lips can have many different shapes and

positions, at this stage the researcher will consider only three possibilities( Roach P15) These are:

 Rounded : where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips pushed forwards, like: /u/, /O:/, /U/

 Spread: with the corners of the lips moved away from each other, as for a smile: /I/, /&/, /E/

 Neutral, where the lips are not noticeable rounded or spread The noise most English people make when they are hesitating (written "er") has neutral lips position: /J/, /V/,ect

I.1.2 English consonants classification

Roach(2000) points out that consonants are the sounds of the production of which one articulator moves towards another or two articulators come together obstructing the airstreams and the airstreams cannot get out freely

Consonants are classified according to criteria, place of articulation and manner of articulation Based on the first criterion people will know for sure if they put their speech organ in the right place to produce correct sounds As a listener, if one happens to listen to English sound he will immediately know how well the speaker is making the sounds

English consonants are classified according to three criteria ( Kelly.p47,48)

-According to the place of articulation: the place of articulation is the location of the

obstruction of air stream in the articulation of the consonants It describes the point at which

the articulation actually touches or it is at its closest Describing the consonant sounds this way gives more information about what the various articulators actually do

 Bilabials: are the sounds made with the two lips pressing together or coming

together: /p, b, m ,w/

 Labio-dentals: are the sounds which are produced with the lower lip touching the

upper front teeth: /f, v/

 Dentals: are the sounds produced with the tip of the tongue touching the upper front

teeth, such as /T, D/

 Alveolar: are the sounds produced with the tip of the blade of the tongue touching or

approaching the alveolar ridge, for example : /t, d, s, z, n, l/

 Palato alveolar : are the sounds produced with the tongue tip or blade coming close

to the area between the back of the alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate, such as in /S, Z, tS, dZ/

 Post alveolar: is the sound produced with the front of the tongue towards the roof of

mouth, but do not let the tip touch: /r/

 Palatal: is the sound produced with the front of the tongue coming close to the hard palate, the consonant: /j/

 Velars: are the sounds produced with the back of the tongue touching the soft palate

/k, g, N/

 Glottal: are the sounds produced without the active use of the tongue and other part

of the mouth /h/

- According to the manner of articulation: manner of articulation is the way in which the

airstreams are obstructed and so altered the production of speech sound It describes the time of obstruction caused by the narrowing or closure of articulators

 Plosives (stops): are the sounds in the production of which there is a complete

closure of the articulators involved so that the airstreams cannot escape through the mouth Plosives sounds are also sometimes referred to as stops There are two kinds

of plosives:

1 Oral plosives: are the sounds which are produced with the airstreams being

stopped in the oral cavity and the soft palate is raised blocking off the nasal cavity Then the two articulators come apart quickly and the air escapes through the mouth

2 Nasal plosives: are the sounds produced with the airstreams being stopped in

the oral cavity but the soft palate is lowered so the air can go out through the nose

 Fricatives: are the sounds produced by letting articulators come close together but

there is still a small opening between them so the airstreams is partially abstracted and an audible friction noise is produced Fricatives are continuant consonants, which means that speakers can continue making them as long as they have enough air in their lungs

 Affricates: they occurs when a complete closure is made somewhere in the mouth,

and the soft palate is raised Air pressure increases behind the closure, and then is released more slowly than in plosives

 Lateral: is the sound made with an obstruction of the airstream at a point along the

centre of the oral tract with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the tongue

 Nasals: are the sounds made when a complete closure is made somewhere in the

mouth, the soft palate is lowered, and air escapes through the nasal cavity

 Approximants: are the sounds in the production of which two articulator come close

together but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a friction noise is produced

- Acceding to the voicing: with regard to this, the following terms are used: fortis and lenis

A voiceless/ voiced pair such as [s, z] are distinguished not only by the presence or absence

of voice but also by the degree of breath and muscular effort involved in the articulation

We shall see that on the linguistic level, in certain situation, the voice opposition may be lost, so that the energy of articulation becomes a significant factor Those English consonants which are usually tend to be articulated with relatively weak energy, whereas those which are always voiceless are relatively strong Thus, it maybe important to define [s], for instance, as strong or fortis and [z] as weak or lenis Fortis consonants normally shorten the preceding vowels, while lenis consonants often lengthen the preceding vowels(

Tam, p15-16) In spoken English, fortis happens to equate with unvoiced sounds, which in

English happens to be voiced As far as English consonants are concerned, the distinction is most useful when it comes to distinguishing between sounds that are articulated in essentially the same way one using the voice, the others not

I.2 PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS

Palatal Velar Glottal

Table 1 Chart of English consonant phonemes

I.2.1 Plosives consonants (stop consonants)

A plosive is a consonant articulation with these following features:

1 The closing stage, during which the articulating organs move together in order to form the obstruction; in this stage, there is often an on-glide or transition audible in

a preceding sound segment and visible in an acoustic analysis as characteristic curve

of formants of preceding sound

2 The hold or compression stage, during which lung action compresses the air behind the closure; this stage may or may not be accompanied by voice, i.e vibration of the vocal cords

3 The release or explosion stage, during which the organs forming the obstruction part rapidly, allowing the compressed air to escape abruptly; if stage (2) is voiced, the vocal cord vibration may continue in stage (3); if stage (2) is voiceless, stage (3) may also be voiceless (aspiration) before silence or before the onset of voice

English has six plosive consonants /p, t, k, b, d, g/ These plosives have different places of articulation:

 Bilabial plosives /p, b/

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary

obstacle to the air stream is provided by the closure of the lips Lung air is

compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are held wide apart for / p/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for

/b/ according to its situation in the utterance Then the closure is released suddenly for the air to escape with kind of explosion

In short, /p/ and /b/ are bilabial; total closure is made by using both lips The soft palate is raised /p/ is unvoiced and fortis /b/ is voiced and lenis, and /b/ is devoiced at the end of a word

 Alveolar plosive /t, d/

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the primary

obstacles to the airstreams is formed by a closure made between the tip and rims

of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth Lung air is

compressed behind this closure, during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart for /t/, but may vibrate for all or part of compression stage for /d/

according to its sudden separation of the alveolar closure

In short word, /t/ and /d/ are alveolar; the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge, the soft palate is raised Normally the tongue does not touch the front teeth as it does in dental plosive found in many languages /t/ is unvoiced and fortis while /d/ is voiced and lenis, and /d/ is devoiced at the end of a word

 Velar plosives /k, g/

The back of the tongue is in firm contact with the soft palate, and the soft palate

is raised, so that the breath is trapped for a short time When the tongue is lowered suddenly from the soft palate, the breath rushes out the mouth with a slight explosion or popping noise Lung air is compressed behind the "trap" ( a closure made between the back of the tongue and the soft palate), during which stage the vocal cords are wide apart for /k/, but may vibrate for all or part of the compression stage for /g/ acceding to its situation in the utterance These escape with noise upon the sudden separation of the velar closure

To sum up, /k/ and /g/ are velar; the back of the tongue is pressed against the area where the hard palate ends and the soft palate begins

All six plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position) between other sounds (media position) and at the end of a word (final position)

Examples:

pin happen cap bin cabbage cab class lacking lack

glass bigger dog two water hot down wedding led

I.2.2 Fricatives

Fricative are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound sometimes called "friction" Fricatives are continuant consonants, which means that speakers can continue making these consonants without interruption as long as they have enough air in their lungs In the articulation consonant, two organs are brought and held sufficiently close together or the escaping airstreams to produce strong friction, fricatives are, therefore, like plosives and affricates, characterized by a noise component This friction may or may not be accompanied by voice

 Labio-dental Fricatives /f, v/

The soft palate begin raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the inner surface of the lower lip makes a light contact with the edge of the upper teeth, so that the escaping air produces friction For /f/, the friction is voiceless, whereas they may become vocal cord vibration accompanying /v/, according to its situation

In short, /f/ and /v/ are labiodentals, that is, the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth The fricative noise is never strong and is scarcely audible in the case

 Alveolar fricatives /s, z/

The soft palate is beginning raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the tip and blade of the tongue make a high contact with the upper alveolar ridge, and side rims of the tongue a close contact with the upper side teeth The airstream escapes through the narrow groove in the centre of the tongue and causes friction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge In other words, in the articulation of these sounds the air escapes through a narrow passage along the centre of the tongue, and the sounds produce a comparatively intense /z/ is the weak sound, so when speaker is satisfied with the strong friction for /s/, he/ she will push air through more slowly so that the friction is weaker

of air is diffuse (compared with that of /s z/ ) the friction occurring between a more extensive area of the tongue and the roof of the mouth In the case of /S/, the friction is voiceless, whereas for /Z/ there may be some vocal cord vibration according to its situation

All the fricatives described so far can be found in initial, medial an final positions In the case of /Z/, however, the distribution is much more limited Very few English words begin with /Z/ (most of them have come into the language comparatively recently from French) and not many end with this consonant Only medially, in words such „measure‟, „usually‟ is founded at all commonly

 Glottal fricatives /h/

The place of articulation of this consonant is glottal This means that the narrowing that produces the friction noise is between the vocal folds When we produce /h/ in speaking English, many different things happen in different contexts In the word „hat‟, the /h/ must be followed by an /&/ vowel The

tongue jaw and lip positions for the vowel are all produced simultaneously with the /h/ consonant, so that the glottal fricative has an /&/ quality The same is found for all vowels following /h/

Phonologically, /h/ is a consonant It is usually found before vowels As well as being found in initial position it is found medially in words such as „ahead‟ ,

„greenhouse‟ It is noticeable when /h/ occurs between voiced sounds, it is pronounced with voicing-not the normal voicing of vowels but a weak, slightly fricative sound called breathy voice It is not necessary for foreign learners to attempt to copy this voicing, though it is important to pronounce /h/ where it should occur in RP Many English speakers are sensitive about this consonant; however, they often omit the /h/ in unstressed pronunciations of the words „her‟,

„he‟, „him‟, „his‟ and auxiliary „have‟ ,„has‟, „had‟

I.2.3 Affricates / tS dZ/

The term „affricatives‟ denotes a concept which is primarily of phonetic importance Any plosive, whose release stage is performed in such a way that considerable friction occurs approximately at the point where the plosive stop is made, may be called „affricative‟ The friction present in an affricate is of shorter duration than that which characterizes the fricatives properly In the articulation of /tS dZ/ the soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the obstacle to the air-stream is formed by a closure made between the tip, blade and rims of the tongue and the upper alveolar ridge and rise teeth At the same time, the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate in readiness for the fricative release The closure is released slowly, the air escaping in a diffuse manner over the whole

of the central surface of the tongue and the alveolar/ front palatal section of the roof of the mouth During both stop and fricative stages, the vocal cords are wide apart for /S/, but may

be vibrating for all or part of /j/ according to the situation in the utterance

I.2.4 Nasals

The basic characteristic of a nasal consonant is that the air escapes through the nose For this to happen, the soft palate must be lowered; in the case of all the other consonants and vowels, the soft palate is raised and air cannot pass through the nose In nasal consonants,

however, air passes through the nose The three types of closure are: bilabial (lips), alveolar(tongue blade against alveolar ridge) and velar (back of tongue against the palate)

 Bilabial nasal: /m/

The lips form a closure as for /p, b/; the soft palate as lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to those of those of the pharynx and the mouth chamber closed by the lips; the tongue will generally anticipate or retain the position of the adjacent vowel

 Alveolar nasal: /n/

The tongue forms a closure with the teeth ridge and upper side as for /t, d/; the soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to those of the pharynx and of that part of the mouth chamber behind the alveolar closure; the lip position will depend upon that adjacent vowels

 Velar Nasal /N/

A closure is formed in the mouth between the back of the tongue and the velum

as for / k, g/(the point of closure will depend on the type of vowel preceding) the soft palate is lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity to that of the pharynx and the small part of the mouth chamber behind the velar closure The velar nasal consonant /N/ is, in summary, phonetically simple(it is no more difficult to produce than /m/ or /n/) but phonologically complex (it is, as we have shown, not easy to describe the context in which it occurs)

I.2.5 Approximants

This consonants is important in that considerable differences in its articulation and its distribution are found in different accents of English As far as articulation of sound is concerned, there is really only one pronunciation that can be recommended to the foreign learner, and that is what called a post-alveolar approximant

An approximant, as a type of consonant, is rather difficult to describe; informally, it can be said it is an articulation in which the articulators approach, each other but do not get sufficiently close to each other to produce a „complete‟ consonant such as a plosive, nasal

or fricative

 Alveolar approximant /r/

The most common allophone of Received Pronunciation (RP for short) /r/ is a voiced post – alveolar frictionless approximant The important thing about the articulation of /r/ is that the tip of the tongue approaches the alveolar area approximately in the way it would for /t/ or /d/, but never actually makes contact with any part of the root of the mouth; the central part of the tongue is lowered with a general contraction of the tongue The air- stream is thus allowed to escape freely, without friction, over the centre part of the tongue

 Palatal approximant: / j /

The vocalic allophones of RP / j / are articulated by the tongue assuming the position for front half-close to close vowel and moving away immediately to the position of the following sound; the lips are generally neutral or spread From the phonetic point of view the articulation of /j/ is practically the same as that of a front close vowel such as /i:/, but is very short When /j/ follows a fortis consonant such as /p/, /k/, devoicing takes place (that is, become voiceless)

 Labio-velar approximant /w/

The vocalic allophones of RP /w/ are articulated by the tongue assuming the position for a back half-close to close vowel and moving away immediately to the position of the following sound, the lips are rounded The soft palate is raised and the vocal cords vibrate When /w/ follows a consonant, it closes the voice which it usually has, but the lips are rounded ready for /w/ before the previous consonant is finished

To sum up, the most important thing to remember about /j/ and /w/ is that they are phonetically like vowels but phonologically like consonants (in earlier works on phonology they were known as „semi-vowels‟)

I.2.6 Lateral

A lateral consonant is one in which the passage of air through the mouth does not go in the usual way along the centre of the tongue; instead there is complete closure between the centre of the tongue and the part of the roof of the mouth where contact is to be made (the alveolar ridge in the case of /l/ ) Because of this complete closure along the centre, the only way for the air to escape is along the side of the tongue

Only one alveolar, lateral phoneme occurs in English, there being no opposition between fortis and lenis, voiced or voiceless, or fricative and non-fricative /l/ is formed laterally, that is, instead of the breath passing down the centre of the mouth, it passes round the sides

of an obstruction set up in the centre Within the /l/ phoneme three main allophones occur:

- clear [l], with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/

- voiceless [lo], following aspirated /p, k/

- dark [l], with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel, before a consonant, and as syllabic sound following a consonant

The soft palate is being in its raised position, shutting off the nasal resonator, the tip of the tongue is in contact with the upper teeth ridge, allowing the air to escape on both sides of the tongue on the upper side teeth

For clear [l], the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate at the same time as the tip contact is made For dark [l], the tip contact is again made on the teeth ridge, the front of the tongue being some what depressed and the back raised in the direction of the soft palate, giving a back vowel resonance

Both clear [l] and dark [l] are voiced, though partial devoicing may take place when a preceding consonants is fortis The actual point of contact of the tongue for /l/ is

conditioned by the place of articulation of the following consonant; thus, in the word health,

will they, the /l/ has a dental contact, but in „already, ultra, all dry’ the contact for /l/ is likely to be post-alveolar

I.2.7 Variants of the plosives

As has been mentioned, all plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position), between other sounds (medial position), and at the end of a word (final position)

a Initial position : the closure phase for /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ takes place silently During the whole phase there is no voicing in /p, t, k/; in /b, d, g/ there is normally very little voicing

The release of /p, t, k/ followed by audible plosion, that is a burst of noise There is then,

in the post-release phase, a period during which air escapes through the vocal folds, marking a sound like /h/ this is called aspiration The most noticeable and important

difference, then, between initial /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ is the aspiration of the voiceless plosives /p, t, k/

Initial position /b, d, g/ cannot be preceded be any consonant, but /p, t, k/ may be preceded by /s/ When one of /p, t, k/ is preceded by /s/ it is not aspirated From what was said above it should be clear that the unaspirated /p, t, k/ of the initial combinations /sp, st, sk/ have the sound quality that makes English speakers perceive a plosive as one

of /b, d, g/

b Media position: depending on whether the syllable preceding and following the plosives are stressed or not, the medial plosives may have the characteristics either

of final or of initial plosives

c Final position: the final /b, d, g/ normally have little voicing: if there is voicing, it is

at the beginning of the phase /p, t, k/ are, of course, voiceless The plosion following the release of /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ is very weak and often not audible The difference between /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ is primarily the fact that vowels preceding /p, t, k/ are much shorter

 Incomplete plosive : stop +stop

When one stop consonant is immediately followed by another, as in /kept/ and /akt/ or

at word boundaries such as white post (/t/ +/p/), top boy (/t/+ /b/) the closure of the

speech oranges for the second consonant is made whilst the closure for the first consonant is still in position In the sequence of /pt/ this is what happens: the lips are closed for /p/ and air is compressed as usual by pressure from the lungs; then, with the lips still closed, the tongue-tip is placed on the alveolar ridge ready for /t/, so that there are two closures

Then, and only then, the lips are opened, but there is no explosion of air because the tongue closure prevents the compressed air from bursting out of the mouth; finally, the tongue-tip leaves the alveolar ridge and air explodes out of the mouth So there is only explosion for the two stops, the first stop is incomplete However, note that when two stops follow each other, there is only one explosion, but the closure is held for double the usual time, if three stop consonants come together as in /strikt ΄pE:sn/, there is still only one explosion that of the third consonant What happens is that the first consonant

is formed and held for longer than usual, the second consonant disappears altogether, and the third is formed and exploded normally

 Nasal plosion : (stop + nasal)

When /t/ or /d/ are followed by a syllabic /n/ as in /'bIJtn/ and /'ga:dn/ the explosion if the stop takes place through the nose This nasal explosion of plosion happens in this way: the vocal organs form /t/ or /d/ in the usual way, with the soft palate raises to shut off the nasal cavity and the tongue-tip on the alveolar-ridge to give the explosion we have leaved it in the same position and lower the soft palate, so that the breath explodes out of the nose rather than out of the mouth

When the stop consonant /t/ or /d/ is followed by lateral /l/ the /t/ and /d/ are made with the tongue-tip firmly touching the alveolar ridge, but the sides of the tongue are away from the sides of the palate so that the breath passes out laterally The simplest way to

go front /t/ or /d/ to /l/ is to leave the tongue-tip on the alveolar ridge and only lower the sides, and that is what speakers do It is called lateral explosion

I.3 CONSONANT CLUSTERS

A survey of the literature of English phonology makes it clear that different authors brought out different syllable structures According to Celce-Murcice, et.al (1996:175), he holds that the

shape of the possible English may include up to 3 consonants in the onset (e.g spring) and four

in the coda (e.g text )

I.3.1 The onset

ONSET

Initial Consonant Initial Consonant Cluster

(1 consonant) (> 1 consonant)

Initial 2-cosonant cluster Initial 3-consonant cluster

I.3.2 The Termination / coda

Termination/ coda

Final consonant Final consonant cluster

(1 consonant) (> 1 consonant)

Final 2-consonant Final 3-consonant Final 4-consonant

cluster cluster cluster

Consonant clusters definitions:

In Introducing English Pronunciation, A Teacher’s guide to Tree or Three and Ship or Sheep,

Baker (1982) defines that „In linguistic, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel‟

However, the research concentrates on analyzing the definition given by Well consonant clusters are a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them (Well, p.834)

Consonant clusters may occur at the beginning of a word (an initial cluster), at the end of a word (a final cluster) or within a word (a medial cluster) (Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic, Longman 1992) Gimson (1980, p.238) declares that many more consonant clusters will naturally occur medially at syllable boundaries in polysyllabic words, but a knowledge of the tolerated word initial and final sequence will usually give a guide to the point

of phonological syllable boundary where onset of accent or other phonetic features not supply the solution Thus in the pronunciation /"n&tSJli/ (naturally), it is reasonable to assume that the syllable boundary fall-s between /tS/ and /r/, since /-&tS/ and /rJ-/ are possible word final and initial sequences, whereas word final /-&/ and initial /tSrJ-/ do not occur Therefore, within the limit of the paper, the author will focus only on initial and final consonant clusters

a Initial consonant clusters

According to Gimson (1980) and O‟Connor (1967), there are two main kinds of initial consonants:

- /s/ followed by one of /p, t, k, f, m, n, l, w, j/

- One of /p, t, k, b, d, g, f, v, m, n, h/ followed by one of /l, r, w, r/

But not all of these sequences are found (e.g /pw/, /d/ do not occur) From above, it can be shown in these list:

/p/ followed by /l, r, j/ play, pray, pure

/t/ followed by /r, w, j/ tray, twenty, tune

/k/ followed by /l, r, w, j/ climb, crew, quite, cure

/b/ followed by /l, r, j/ blow, bread, beauty

/d/ followed by /r, w, j/ drew, dwell, duty

/g/ followed by /l, r/ glass, grey

/f/ followed by /l, r, j/ fly, fry, few

/T/ followed by /r, w/ throw, thwart

b Final consonants at the end of words are more varied than at the beginning mainly because /s/ or /z/ have to be added to most nouns to give their plural forms and also be added to most verbs to form their past tense

In English, there are up to four consonant clusters at the end of a word If there is no final consonant we say that there is a zero termination When there is one consonant only, this is called the final consonant Any consonant may be a final consonant except /h, r, w,j/

* Two-consonant clusters

There are two sorts of two-consonant final clusters, one being a final consonant followed by

a post-final consonant The pre-final consonants form a small set /m, n, N, l, s/ We can see these in:

bump /bVmp/ belt /belt/ bent /bent/ ask /a;sk/

The post-final consonants also form a small set ://; example words are:

bets /bets/ beds /bedz/

backed /b&kt/ bagged /b&gd/ eighth /eifT/

* Three- consonant clusters

There are two types of final three clusters; the first is pre-final plus final plus post-final helped /helpt/ bonds /bOndz/

The second type is one of post-final consonants can occur in a final cluster: final plus-final

1 plus post-final 2 (post-final two is one of /s, z, t, d, T/):

fifths /fifTs/ lapsed /l&pst/

next /nekst/

* Four-consonant clusters

Most four-consonant clusters can be analyzed as consisting of a final consonant preceded

by a pre-final and followed by post-final 1 and post final 2

twelfths /twelfTs/ prompts /prOmpts/

A small number of cases seem to require difference analysis, as consisting of a final consonant with no pre-final but three post-finals:

Sixths /siksTs/ texts /teksts/

As we communicate we never utter words in isolation Instead, we connect words together

to make a chain of connected sounds Considering pronunciation of consonant must, therefore, be put in combination with the pronunciation of connected speech

I.4 CONNECTED SPEECH OF ENGLISH SOUNDS

I.4.1 Rhythm

It has often been claimed that English speech is rhythmical, and that the rhythm is detectable in the regular occurrence of stressed syllable The theory that English has stress-timed rhythm implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals whether they are

separated by unstressed syllable or not The stress-timed rhythm theory state that the times from each stresses syllable to the next will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of intervening unstressed syllables (Roach.2000, p.134-138) Example is given below In this sentence, the stress syllables are given number: syllable 1 and 2 are not separated by any unstressed syllable, 2 and 3 ones are separated by one unstressed syllable, 3 and 4 ones by two and 4 and 5 by three

Example:

1 2 3 4 5

´Walk ´down the ´path to the ´end of the ca´nal

1 2 3 4 5

´Walk ´down the ´path to the ´end of the ca ´nal

In English there‟s a very important differences between strong and weak syllables Some language do not have such a noticeable difference (which may, perhaps, explain the subjective impression of „syllable – timing‟), and for native speakers of such languages who are learning English it can be helpful to practice repeating strongly rhythm utterances since this forces the speaker to concentrate on making unstressed syllables weak

I.4.2 Assimilation

A significant difference in natural connected speech is the way that sounds belonging to one word can cause changes in sounds belonging to neighboring words Assuming that we know how the phonemes of particular word would be realized when the word was pronounced in isolation when we find a phoneme realized differently as a result of being near some other phonemes belonging to a neighboring word we call this an instance of assimilation Thus, assimilation is the influence of one sound upon another neighboring sound so that they become more alike Assimilation is something which varies in extend according to speaking rate and style: it is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in slow, careful speech Sometimes the difference caused by assimilation is very noticeable, and sometimes it is very slight Generally speaking, the cases that have most often been described are assimilation affecting consonants (Roach, p139)

Assimilation may occur

 Across word boundary : meat pie /mI:p paI/

 Within a morpheme or a word :

Tenth /tenT/ bank /b&Nk/ bump /bVmp/

 Across morpheme boundary

Cats /k&ts/ begged /b&gd/ dogs /dOgz/

a, In term of the direction of change:

 Regressive assimilation:

+ Definition : regressive assimilation is assimilation in which the following sound assimilates the preceding sound and the direction of assimilation is backward

Final consonant (Cf) changes to become more similar to initial consonant (Ci)

Example : good girl /gUg g3:l/

Cf Ci

 Progressive assimilation:

* Definition: Progressive assimilation is a assimilation in which the preceding sound assimilates the following sound and the direction of assimilation is forward In progressive assimilation: Ci changes to become like Ct in some ways:

Example: would you /wUd É ju/

↓

dZ

b, In term of the way in which phonemes change:

 Assimilation of place: is most clearly observable in some cases where a Ct

with alveolar place of articulation is followed by an Ci with a place of articulation that is not alveolar: Example: that person →/D&p 'pJ:sn/

Light blue → /laip blu:/

Or before a dental consonant, /t/ will be change to a dental plosive, for which the symbol is t:

get them →/get DJm/ → /get tJm/

Get those →/get DJUz/ → /get tJUz/

 Assimilation of manner is much less noticeable, and only found in the most rapid and casual speech; generally speaking, the tendency is for regressive assimilation and the change in manner is most likely to be forwards an “ easier” consonant one which makes less obstruction to the airflow It is thus possible to find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal:

Example: That side →/D&s said/

 Assimilation of voice is also found but again only in a limited way Only regressive assimilation of voice is found across word boundaries, and then only of one type If ct is

a lenis( voiced) consonant and Ci is a fortis (voiceless) we often final that the lenis consonant has no voicing When Ct is fortis and Ci lenis, a context in which in many languages Ct would become voiced, assimilation of voice never takes place; consider the following example: „I like that black dog‟ /aI laIk D&t bl&k dOg/ It is typical of many foreign learners of English that they allow regressive assimilation of voicing to change the final /k/ of „like to /g/, the final /t/ of „that‟ to /d/ and the final /k/ of „black‟ to /g/

* Some rules for assimilation:

1 The phonemes /t/, /d/ and /n/ often become bilabial before bilabial consonants /p/, /b/ and /m/:

Example: He‟s a rather fat boy (/t/ assimilates to /b/)

She‟s got an apartment in New York (/t/ assimilates to /m/) He‟s a very good boy (/d/ assimilates to /b/)

There are ten men in the class, and two women (/n/ assimilates to /m/)

2 /t/ assimilates to /k/ before /k/ or /g/ /d/ assimilates to /g/ before /k/ or /g/

Example: Where has that cat been all night? (/t/ assimilates to /k/)

Can you see that girl over there? (/t/ → /g/)

It was a very good concert (/d/ → /k/) She is very good girl (/d/ → /g/)

3 /s/ can assimilates to /S/ before /S/:

I really love this shiny one over there

4 /z/ can assimilates to /Z/ before /S/:

We found this lovely little cheese shop in Paris

The above examples are cases of anticipatory assimilation, where one sound changes to another because of the sound which follows Here are some cases of coalescent assimilation, where two sounds combine to form a different one:

5 /t/ and /j/ coalesce to form /tS/

Example : You went to Spain last year, didn‟t you?

6 /d/ and /j/ coalesce to form /dZ/

Example: Would you like a cup of tea?

I.4.3 Elision

The term elision describe the disappearance of sounds in speech when speakers speak quickly and by the influence of the surroundings Under certain circumstance sounds disappear and phoneme may be realized as zero or have zero realization (Roach, p.142)

Example: potato → /phteitJU/

Today → /thdei/

In these words the vowel in the first syllable may disappear; the aspiration of initial plosive takes up the whole of the middle portion of the syllable

There are some rules for elision which are listed as follows:

1 The most common elisions in English are /t/ and /d/, when they appear within a consonant cluster

Example: We arrived the next day (/t/ elided between /ks/ and /d/)

When we reached Tokyo, we stopped for dinner (/t/ elided between /tS/ and /p/, and between /p/ and /f/)

2 Complex consonant clusters are simplified

Example: She acts like she owns the place (/&kts/ can be simplified to /&ks/)

Teachers use authentic texts to teach (/teksts/ can be simplified to /teks/)

3 /J/ can disappear in unstressed syllables:

Example: I thick we should call the police ( /J/ can disappear)

That‟s an interesting film (/J/ is not pronounced by many speakers

4 /v/ can disappear in „of‟, before consonants:

Example: My birthday‟s on the 12th of January

That‟s the least of my worries

I.4.4 Liaison (Linking)

The linking final sound of a word with the initial sound of the following word for the convenience of speaking that we can liaison

There are two types of liaison:

1 Link consonant with the vowel

Come in /kVm in/

Like you /laik ju/

Think of you /TiNk Jv ju/

2 Link vowel with vowel More and more

/mOr &nd mO/

Father and mother /faDJr &nd mVDJ/

There is /DEJ iz/

In real connected speech we sometimes link words together In RP the phoneme /r/ can not occur in syllable final position but when a word is spelling suggests a final /r/ and a word beginning with a vowel follows the usual pronunciation for RP speakers is to pronounce it with /r/:

Example: four → /fO:/ but four eggs → /fO:r egz/

I saw it has been broken → /O:ri/

I.4.5 Stress

A stress syllables is produced by pushing more air out of the lungs A stress syllable thus has an increase in respiratory activity It may also have an increase in laryngeal activity Stress can always be defined in term of something a speaker does (Ladefoged,

1975, p.197)

According to Roach (2000, p94-95), many experiments have been carried out on the perception of stress, and it is clear that many different sound characteristics are important in making a syllables recognizably And at least there are four main different factors that make stressed syllable prominence

 Most people seem to feel that stressed syllables are louder than unstressed; in other words, loudness is component of prominence In a sequence of identical syllables, if one syllables is made louder than the others, it will be heard as stressed

 The length of syllables has an important part to play in prominence If one of the syllable in our „nonsense word‟ is made longer than the others, there is quite a strong tendency for that syllable to be heard as stressed

 Every voiced syllable is said on some pitch; pitch in speech is closely related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal fold and to the musical notion of low and high-pitched notes It is essentially a perceptual characteristic of speech If one syllable of our „nonsense word‟ is said with a pitch that is noticeably different from that of the others, this will have strong tendency to produce the effect of prominence

 A syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is different

in quality from neighboring vowels

To sum up, these four factors work together in combination, although syllables may sometimes be made prominent by means of only one or two of them Experimental work has shown that these factors are not equally important; the strongest effect is produced by pitch, and length is also a power factor

* Function of stress

Ladefoged (1975) in „A course in phonetic‟ refer to the function of stress He shows that stress has several different functions in English

1 In the first place, it can be used simply to give special emphasis to a word or

to contrast one word with another

Example: the word „and‟ can be given a contrastive stress The contrast can be implicated rather than explicated

John or Mary should go

I think John and Mary should go

2 Another major function of stress in English is to indicate the syntactic relationships between words or parts of words

Example:

Noun 'record 'contrast

Verb re'cord con'trast

'import 'insult

im'port

To in'sult

In all these pairs of words the noun has the stress on the first syllable, the verb has

it on the last The placement of the stress indicates the syntactic function of the words

3 Stress also has a syntactic function in distinguishing between a compound noun

Example: Cn Np

A 'hot dog a 'hot 'dog (a form of food) (an overheated animal) 'Whitehouse 'White 'house Compound nouns have a single stress on the first element, and the adjectival phrases have stresses on both elements

4 Many other variations in stress can be associated with the grammatical structure of the words Follows are examples exemplify the kind of alternations that can occur:

Example:

'_ _ _ Diplomat Photograph monotone

_'_ _ _ Diplomacy Photography monotony

_ _'_ _ Diplomatic Photographic monotonic

All the words in the first column have the main stress on the first syllable When the noun-forming suffix „-y‟ occurs, the stress in these words shifts to the second syllable But it can be seen in the third column, the adjectival suffix „-ic‟ moves the stress to the syllables immediately preceding it, which in these words is the third syllable

I.4.6 Intonation

Every language has melody in it; no language is spoken on the same musical notes all the time The voice goes up and down and the different notes of the voice combines to

make tunes Speakers can say a word or word group definitely or they can say it hesitantly; angrily or kindly, speaker can say with interesting or without interesting and these differences are largely made by the tune speakers use: the words do not change their meaning but the tune speakers use adds something to the words, and what is added

is the speakers‟ feeling at that moment; this way of using tunes is intonation

I.5.6.1 What is intonation?

According to Roach (2000), „no definition of intonation is completely satisfactory, but any attempt at a definition must recognize that the pitch of voice plays the most important part.‟

In „Phonetic‟ (A book for students of Foreign Languages Faculty at HPUN2), the author identify that „when we are speaking, the voice is going up and down continuously causing the pitch change that we call intonation‟

Example: The 'girl gave the 'money to her 'brother

I.4.6.2 Functions of intonation

The ways in which intonation does are very complex, and many suggestions have been made for ways of isolating different function Roach (2000) in English Phonetic and Phonology has introduced four functions of intonation They are attitudinal function, accentual function, grammatical function and discourse function

1 Attitudinal function

Intonation is enabled to express emotion (happy, angry, sad, polite…) and attitudes as speakers speak, and this adds a special kind of „meaning‟ to spoken language

Example: | I hate you | | I hate you |

2 Accentual function