Lab Work Manual

What is IPA ?

IPA is a set of symbols which represent speech sounds. It has been devised by phoneticians to help foreign students learn the pronunciation of the words of the language they are learning. It has a symbol for all the sounds  used in all the known languages of the world. There is only one symbol for one sound and one symbol stands for one sound only. Therefore, when we use these symbols to write words, there is no doubt left about the correct pronunciation of the word.

Why do we need International Phonetic Alphabet?

•      Learning the correct pronunciation of English words is a very difficult job for the non-native speakers who learn the language through reading rather than hearing. The root of the problem lies in the fact that English spelling is not a reliable guide to pronunciation because there is no one to one relationship between the phonemes (sounds) of English and the letters of the alphabet. The same letter of the alphabet represents different sounds in different words. Conversely, the same sound is spelt in different words by using different letters or combinations of letters. IPA is the solution to this problem. It is a set of symbols representing the sounds used in all the known languages of the world. By using these symbols, we can depict the pronunciation of words in such a way that we are left with no doubt about the correct pronunciation.

•      IPA Symbols for English Consonants and Vowels

I PA Symbols for the Sounds of English

Vowel Sounds      

Short Vowels

Note - All vowel sounds are voiced.

IPA Symbol	Word examples
e	Went, intend, send, letter.
æ	Cat, hand, nap, flat, have.
ʌ	Fun, love, money, one, London, come.
ʊ	Put, look, should, cook, book, look.
ɒ	Rob, top, watch, squat, sausage.
ə	Alive, again, mother.

Note - Two more short vowels have been added to this list.

          i                                 The last sound in the words City, Crazy, Beauty, Healthy

            The sound resembles i: in quality but its length is much less.

In the earlier version of IPA, the symbol for the vowel in SHIP was used to cover this sound also. But then it was felt that the two sounds differ so much in quality that they neede to be distinguished.  

           u          Educate, Emulate, Fortunate, Monument,

             

           This sound resembles u:  (the vowel in the word fool) but it is much shorter in length.

The case of this sound is also similar to that of i. In the initial version of IPA, this sound was covered by the symbol used for the vowel sound in the word FOOT. In this case also, the quality of the two sounds was felt to be so different that it was felt that a new symbol was needed to distinguish it from the vowel in POOL and PULL.

Long Vowels

The two dots on the right side of the following symbols denote that the sound is a long drawn one. 

IPA Symbol	Word examples
i:	Need, beat, team.
ɜ:	Nurse, heard, third, turn.
ɔ:	Talk, law, bored, yawn, jaw.
u:	Few, boot, lose, gloomy, fruit, chew.
ɑ:	Fast, car, hard, bath.

Diphthong Vowels

IPA Symbol	Word examples
ɪə	Near, ear, clear, tear, beer, fear
eə	Hair, there, care, stairs, pear
eɪ	Face, space, rain , case, eight
ɔɪ	Joy, employ, toy, coil, oyster.
aɪ	My, sight, pride, kind, flight
əʊ	No, don’t, stones, alone, hole
aʊ	Mouth, house, brown, cow, out

Note - All vowel sounds are voiced.

Consonants Sounds: Fricatives

IPA Symbol	Word examples
f           Voiceless	Full, Friday, fish, knife.
v           Voiced	Vest, village, view, cave.
θ            Voiceless	Thought, think, Bath.
ð                Voiced s           Voiceless	There, those, brothers, others. Sit, Seal, Cent, Cell
z                  Voiced	Zoo, crazy, lazy, zigzag, nose.
ʃ                  Voiceless	Shirt, rush, shop, cash.
ʒ                  Voiced	Television, delusion, casual
h              Voiceless	High, help, hello.

Consonants Sounds: Plosives

IPA Symbol	Word examples
p              Voiceless	Pin, cap, purpose, pause.
b                Voiced	Bag, bubble, build, robe.
t               Voiceless	Time, train, tow, late.
d                Voiced	Door, day, drive, down, feed.
k               Voiceless	Cash, quick, cricket, sock.
g                  Voiced	Girl, green, grass, flag.

Consonants Sounds: Affricates

IPA Symbol	Word examples
ʈʃ               Voiceless	Choose, cheese, church, watch.
dʒ              Voiced	Joy, juggle, juice, stage.

Consonants Sounds: Nasals

IPA Symbol	Word examples
m                     Voiced	Room, mother, mad, more.
n                      Voiced	Now, nobody, knew, turn.
ŋ                    Voiced	King, thing, song, swimming.

Consonants Sounds: Approximants

IPA Symbol	Word examples
r                          Voiced	Road, roses, river, ring, ride.
j                          Voiced	Yellow, usual, tune, yesterday, yard.
w                         Voiced	Wall, walk, wine, world.
l and ɫ               Voiced	Law, lots, leap, long, pill, cold, chill, melt.

                                       The Syllable

•      Speech Sounds - Sounds used in a language are called speech sounds

•      Phoneme – Sounds used in a particular language are called its phonemes.

•      Vowels and Consonants – Phonemes of all languages are divided into two groups: Vowels and Consonants

•      Consonants: Phonetically, consonants are sounds which require a complete closure at some point in the speech tract or narrowing sufficient to produce friction when breath air is forced out through it.

•      Linguistically, they are sounds which functional as marginal elements in a syllable and are optional. They are also by the indefinite article ‘a’ rather than ‘an’ wherever it is required.

•      Vowels: Phonetically, vowels are sounds which do not need any closure or narrowing sufficient to produce friction when air is forced through it for their articulation.

•      Linguistically, they form the central element and are mandatory in a syllable. Moreover, they are preceded by the indefinite article ‘an’  instead of ‘a’ wherever required.

Syllable

While pronouncing a word, we divide it into parts. These parts are called syllables. For example, we divide the word PSYCHOLOGY into four parts when we pronounce it. These are – PSY     CHO     LO     GY. So we say that the word ‘psychology’ consists of four syllables.

 A syllable may be a word or a part of a word. It consists of 1-8 phonemes.

•      The central element (nucleus) of a syllable is a vowel.

•      It is a mandatory (compulsory) part which means that we cannot have a syllable without a vowel.

•      There is one and only one vowel in a syllable. We cannot have more than one vowels in a syllable.

•      Therefore, the number of syllables depends on the number of vowels in it. The number of syllables in a word is the same as the number of vowels.

•      Consonants are optional elements in a syllable. They may or may not be there.

•      The number of consonants in a syllable is 0-8. It means that the minimum number of consonants in a syllable is zero (0) and the maximum number is 7.

•      Out of these, a maximum of 3 can occur before the vowel and a maximum of 4 can occur after the vowel. We cannot have 4 consonants before the vowel and 5 consonants after the vowel in a syllable

•      Structure of syllables

•      No. of Phonemes                                                                       Syllable Structure

•      1   (1 v)                       One  possibility                                  v

•      2          (1 v + 1 c)        Two  possibilities                       cv  /   vc

•      3  (1 v + 2 c)              Three  possibilities                             ccv  /  cvc   /  vcc

•      4.  (1 v + 3 c)             Four  possibilities                               cccv  /  ccvc  /  cvcc  /  vccc

•      5  (1 v + 4 c)              Four  possibilities                               cccvc  /  ccvcc  /  cvccc  /  vcccc

•      6  (1 v + 5 c)             Three  possibilities                             cccvcc  /  ccvccc  /  cvcccc

•      7  (1 v + 6 c)             Two possibilities                                 cccvccc  /  ccvcccc

•      8  (1v + 7 c)              One possibility                                     cccvcccc

Word Accent or Word Stress

•      In any English word having 2 or more syllables, one syllable is always uttered with greater force than the other or others. This syllable is said to be stressed or to carry stress. For example, in the word important, the middle syllable (por) is stressed and the first and the second syllables(im and tant) are unstressed.

•      In a long English word, two syllables can be stressed.

•      One of them is stressed more than the other.

•      The syllable carrying maximum stress is said to carry primary stress. The other one which is uttered with a slightly lower degree of force is said to have secondary stress.

•      The mark of primary stress is a small vertical line above and before the stressed syllable and the mark of secondary stress is a small vertical line below and before the syllable

Help for locating primary stress

•      Word stress in English is variable in the sense that it can fall on different syllables in different words – the first, the second, the third, the fourth and so on.

•      But it is fixed in the sense that in a given word, it has always to be on the same syllable.

•      There are no strict rules regarding which syllable in a word is to be given primary stress.

•      However, there are a few guidelines which can be helpful in most of the cases.

•      1. In disyllabic nouns and adjectives ending in …..ate, the primary stress is always on the second syllable.

•      2. In verbs ending in ………ate, the following rules are helpful:

•      Two syllables – Pr. Stress on the last syllable.

•      Three or more syllables – Pr. Stress on the third syllable from the end.

•      Verbs ending in ………ise/ize

•      1. Verbs having 2 syllables – Pr. stress on the last syllable

•      Comprise, Devise, Capsize

•      2. Verbs having 3-4 syllables – Pr. stress on the 3rd syllable from the end

•      Politicise, Capitalise, Antagonise, Agonise, Symbolise

•      Idealise, Characterise, and Nationalise are exceptions to this rule.

•      3. Verbs having five or more syllables – Pr. Stress on the the 4^th syllable from the end

•      Internationalise, Americanise, Cosmopolitanise, Americanise

Prefixes and Suffixes

•      Prefixes

•      1. Re – The prefix re…… is given secondary stress and is pronounced ri: if it means again.

•      2. If it does not carry the meaning ‘again’, it remains unstressed and has the vowel found in the word ‘ship’.

•      Suffixes

•      1. Inflexional Suffixes – Inflexional suffixes are suffixes which are added to a word

•      to form plurals of nouns (s/es) or

•      to form the past and past participle of a verb (d/ed) or

•      to form the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives and adverbs (er/est)

•      They do not change the location of stress in the original word.

Derivational Suffixes

•      The following derivational suffixes do not change the location of the stress in the original word:-

•      ….ance,  ....age,  ….ant, ….ence,  ……ent,  ……en,  ……er, ……or,  ……ess,  …….ful, ……fy, ……….hood,  ……….ice,  ……ish,  ......ism,  ….ive,  …….less,  …….ly,  …….ment,  …….ness,  ……..ship,  …….ter,  …….ure,  …..er

•      Exceptions – Refer  -  Reference,  Defer – Deference

                          Prefer – Preference,   Infer -- Inference                    

•      1. ….aire,  ….eer,  ….ier,  ….ee  --    Pr. St. on the last syllable

•      Millionaire, Questionnaire, Doctrinaire,  Opinionaire

•      Engineer,  Gazetteer,  Profiteer,  marketer

•      Addressee,  Guarantee, Payee,  Employee,  Lessee

•      2. ….ental – Pr. St. on the second syllable from the end

•      Dental, Parental, Accidental, Ornamental, Fundamental

•      3. ….graphy, ….logy, ….metry, ….sophy, ….cracy, ….crisy, ….gamy, ….nomy, ….phony, ….  ----- Pr. St. on the 3^rd syllable from the end

•      Biography, Bibliography, Geography, Telegraphy,Photography

•      Biology, Psychology, Geology, Physiology, Zoology

•      Biometry, Geometry, Trigonometry,

•      Philosophy, Theosophy

•      Democracy, Autocracy, Bureaucracy,

•      Hypocrisy

•      Bigamy, Monogamy, Polygamy

•      Astronomy, Economy, Agronomy,

•      Telephony, Euphony

•      4. ….grapher, ….logist, ….sopher, …sophist, ….nomer, ….nomist

            Pr. St. on the 3^rd syllable from the end

•      Biographer, Geographer, Photographer, Oceanographer

•      Biologist, Geologist, Theologist, Psychologist, Zoologist

•      Philosopher, Theosophist, astronomer, Economist,

•      5. ….ian, ….ial, ….ion -------- Pr. St. on the 2^nd syllable from the end

•      Ceremonial, Memorial, Remedial, Commercial, Dictatorial, Tutorial

•      Electrician, Magician, Musician, Physician, Civilian, Comedian,

•      Admission, Permission, Commission, Competition, Occupation, Examination, Civilisation

•      6. ….ic, …ics --------- Pr. St. on the 2^nd syllable from the end

•      Academic, Artistic, Electric, Dramatic, Generic, Philosophic, Romantic, Specific

•      Dialectics, Economics, Linguistics, Mathematics, Phonetics, Ethics

•      Important Exceptions to this rule   =  ‘Arabic, A’rithmetic, ‘Catholic, ‘

            Lunatic, Ma’tric, ‘Politics, ‘Rhetoric(s), ‘Turmeric, ‘Heretic

When …al or …ally is added to these words after c, the stress does not change. But ‘Heretic – He’retical, He’retically, and ‘Politics – Po’litical, Po’litically are exceptions to this rule.

•      7. …..ious ------ Pr, St. on the 2^nd syllable from the end

•      Atrocious, Judicious, Notorious, Delicious, Hilarious, Fallacious

•      8. ….ity ------ Pr. St. on the 3^rd syllable from the end

•      Quality, Ambiguity, anonymity, Deity, Durability, Electricity, Facility, Futility, Magnanimity, Opportunity, Popularity, Possibility, Publicity, Sagacity, Spontaneity, Suitability, Unanimity, University

•      9. ….ette ---------- Pr. St. on the last syllable

•      Gazette, Cigarette, Casette

•      11. ….oo ---- Pr. St. on the last syllable

•      Bamboo, Voodoo, Tatoo

•      12. …..ive ------ Pr. St. on the 2^nd syllable from the end

•      Restive, Elective, Expensive, Responsive

•      13. …. A vowel letter (a,e,i,o,u) + tive-------Pr. St. on the 3^rd syllable from the end = Fricative, Positive, Executive, Imperative, Relative, Secretive,

Sentence Stress

•      All the words in an English sentence are not stressed when it is delivered. Rather some words are stressed and others are left unstressed. The stressed words stand out from the neighbouring words i.e. they are more prominent than the others. Sentence stress refers to this practice of selecting some words in a sentence for giving greater prominence.

•      Stressed and Unstressed Categories:- Under normal circumstances, some categories of words are stressed and others are left unstressed.

•      Stressed categories – Content words i.e. the words which are important from the point of view of meaning are generally stressed. They belong to the following categories:

•      1. All nouns              2. Demonstrative and Interrogative pronouns: Who, what, whom etc.

•      3. Lexical (content) verbs             4. All adjectives                   5. All adverbs

•      Unstressed categories:  Form words are generally left unstressed. They belong to the following categories:-

•      1. Pronouns other than interrogative pronouns      2. Auxiliary verbs  

•      3. Prepositions        4. Articles     5. Conjunctions

Exceptions to sentence stress rules

•      Content words are not stressed when

•      1. they are repeated in the same context. ( You want me to come? I won’t come    

•      2. words in their neighbourhood are stressed. I haven’t got an idea    

•      3. rhythm demands it` Lives there the man with soul so dead

                                         Who never to himself hath said

                                         This is my own my native land?

                                         Whose hear within him never hath burned

                                        As home his footsteps he hath turned

                                       From wandering on a foreign strand?         

•      4.  one word in a sequence of two content words is habitually contrasted with some other word e.g. acute angle v/s obtuse angle                       

•      5. ‘Be’ and ‘have’ are used sentence medially as main verbs in the sense of possess

•      6. Demonstrative pronouns are used like the article ‘the’ without their demonstrative force.

•      On the other hand, form words are stressed when

•      1. they are the focus of contrast          

•      2. they are polysyllabic prepositions and occur before pronouns          

•      3. auxiliaries are stressed            

•      i. when rhythm demands it. Lives there the man with soul so dead

                                         Who never to himself hath said

                                         This is my own my native land?

                                         Whose hear within him never hath burned

                                        As home his footsteps he hath turned

•                                             From wandering on a foreign strand?         

•       ii. when they are attached to n’t                     

•      iii. when they are  sentence final          

iv. when they are sentence initial in a yes/no question

8. Prepositions are always stressed when they are sentence final.        

Contrastive Stress

•      Sometimes, a sentence conveys a contrast of meaning between two things. In such sentences, a certain word or phrase (group of words) forms the focus of this contrast. The word which is the focus of contrast is not only stressed irrespective of the category to which it belongs but is stressed even more than the other stressed words in the sentence. This extraordinary or unusual stress given to this word is called the contrastive stress. When we move the contrastive stress from one word to another, the meaning of the sentence also changes because the implied contrast of meaning undergoes a change. We can say that the sentence becomes a different sentence as a result of the change in the contrastive sentence. So the same written sentence can represent a number of spoken sentences.

•      Contrastive Stress – Examples

•      We will take a simple sentence to illustrate what we have said.

•      The boys are playing on the road. (not the girls)

•      The boys are playing on the road. (It is wrong to say they are not.)

•      The boys are playing on the road. (not just sitting or standing)

•      The boys are playing on the road. (not near the road)

•      The boys are playing on the road. (not on the field)

Intonation – the use of Rising and Falling Tones

•      If the stress on the vocal cords increases, and the volume and the pitch rise as we come to a certain part of a sentence, it is said that we are using the rising tone.

•      But if the volume and pitch of voice decreases and the vocal cords feel relieved as we approach a certain part of a sentence, we are said to be using the falling tone.

•      The change of tone can also change the meaning or grammatical function of a sentence. The same written sentence spoken with a different intonation becomes a different sentence or changes its grammatical function.

Functions of Intonation

A.    Grammatical Function

•      1. Intonation distinguishes statements from yes/no questions.

•      A statement is delivered with a falling tone at the end. The same sequence of words becomes a yes/no question if it is delivered with a rising tone at the end.

•      The teacher is coming. (Falling tone at the end.)

•      The teacher is coming? (Rising tone at the end.)

•      2. Intonation distinguishes a polite request from a command (order).

•      The same imperative sentence serves as a polite request if it is delivered with a rising tone at the end. But it becomes a command if it is delivered with a falling tone at the end.

•      Open the door. (RIsing final tone – Polite Request)

•      Open the door. (Falling final tone – Command)

•      3. Intonation shows whether the sentence is complete or incomplete.

•      If we pause in the middle of a long sentence, we have to use the rising tone in order to indicate that the sentence is incomplete and something more is going to follow.

•      You must work hard if you want to succeed in life.

•      (In the above sentence, if deliver the word ‘hard’ with a falling tone, the listener will get the impression that the sentence is complete, that we have reached the full stop. He will be surprised and confused when we go on to add something more to the same sentence. But we use the falling tone. So, we have to use the rising tone here. But we have to use the falling tone while delivering the word ‘life’ to indicate that the sentence is complete now. )

4.     Intonation distinguishes a defining adjective (relative) clause from a non-defining one.

•      If the relative clause is made a part of the same tone group as includes its antecedent, it is non-defining. But if it forms a separate tone group, it is a defining one.

•      The security guard who stands near the main gate is very rude. {Non-defining. It means that there are more than one security guards and we are talking of the one who stands at the main gate.}

•      The security guard, who stands at the main gate is very rude. {Defining. It means that there is only one security guard. He stands at the main gate and he is very rude.}

Attitudinal Function

•      Tone can also indicate attitude and feeling. Look at the following sentences:

•      1. When will you arrive? (Falling tone: normal question neither polite

       nor impolite)

       When will  you arrive? (Rising toe: a very polite question showing

       deep respect)

•      2. Your friend is very nice. ( Falling tone: Genuine feeling)

       Your friend is very nice. (Rising tone: expresses doubt about his

       being nice)

•      Thank you. (Falling tone: Genuine gratitude)

   Thank you. (Rising tone: Casual attitude, no sincere feeling)

•      You will harm yourself. (Falling tone: Casual attitude)

    You will harm yourself. (Rising tone: Deep concern)

Accentual Function

•      We can make any part of our utterance more prominent than the rest of the sentence to indicate its relative importance in accordance with the meaning we want to convey by raising the tone as we utter that part.

•      We are playing a friendly match tomorrow. (The information that the match is friendly is more important than the rest of the sentence.)

•      We are playing a friendly match tomorrow. (The information about the time is more important than the rest of the sentence.)