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ENGLISH PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY

Daniel Jones. Edited by Peter Roach, James Hartman and Jane Setter. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Scanned by Maung Kan Tun and edited by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.). Not for sale. Prepared for students of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR .

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12. Cardinal Vowel | 13. Clear L | 14. Cluster | 15. Coalescence | 16. Coarticulation | 17. Coda | 18. Compounds | 19. Connected speech phenomena | 20. Consonant |

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12. Cardinal Vowel

p83. One of the vowels of the standard classification system used in phonetics.

UKT: See also Vowels and Diphthongs in the Introduction.

Description

Phoneticians have always needed some way of classifying vowels which is independent of the vowel system of a particular language. With most consonants it is quite easy to observe how their articulation is organized, and to specify the place and manner of the constriction formed; vowels, however, are much less easy to observe.

Early in the 20th century, the English phonetician Daniel Jones worked out a set of "Cardinal Vowels" that students learning phonetics could be taught to make and which would serve as reference points that other vowels could be related to. The vowels are located on the four-sided figures shown on the right.
	UKT: Go on-line and to Peter Ladefoged's A Course in Phonetics to listen to recordings of English Vowels.

UKT: I am an ethnic Burmese born in Myanmar in the 1930's. Using my "Burmese-ears" I have listened to Peter Ladefoged's English Vowels and have come to the conclusion that:
• /a/ = {a} ; /i/ = {i} ; /u/ = {u} ; /e/ = {é} ; /ɛ/ = {è} ; /ɒ/ = {au}
• /o/ = {o}
• In pronouncing the Burmese vowels my mouth is always open and my vocal cords are not vibrating.
• Burmese short vowels are absent in the above diagrams.
• In pronouncing the Burmese vowels according to traditional way:
     {a.} {a} {i.} {i} {u.} {u} {é} {è} {au.} {au} {an°} {a:}
the tip of my tongue remains in the same position, but the middle part of tongue moves from the lowest position to the highest possible position pressing the roof of the mouth, and back to the lowest position.

The cardinal vowel figure is used to specify the qualities of the English vowels and diphthongs in the Introduction to this dictionary.

The Cardinal Vowel diagram is used both for rounded and unrounded vowels, and Jones proposed that there should be a primary set of Cardinal Vowels and a secondary set. The primary includes the unrounded front vowels [i e ɛ a] , the back unrounded vowel [ɑ] and the back rounded vowels [ɔ o u], while the secondary set comprises the front rounded vowels [y ɸ œ ɶ], the back rounded vowel [ɒ], and the back unrounded vowels [ʌ ɤ ɯ].
UKT: Latin small letter phi , U+0278 [ɸ] has been inserted in place of the italicized phi that was present in the original text.

Phonetic "ear-training" makes much use of the Cardinal Vowel system, and students can learn to identify and discriminate a very large number of different vowels in relation to the Cardinal vowels.

	UKT: The Burmese-Myanmar vowels are known as tha-ra {tha.ra.}
	Romabama {a.] {a} {i.} {i} {u.} {u} {é} {è} {au.} {au} {an°} {a:} Burmese-IPA /ˈa/ /a/ /ˈi/ /i/ /ˈu/ /u/ /e/ /ɛ/ /ˈɑ/ /ɑ/   /aː/ English Vowels   /a/   /i/                 Hindi-IPA /ə/ /ɑ/ /ɪ/ /i/ /ʊ/ /u/ /e/ /ɛ/ /o/ /ɔ/

UKT: My life-long wish (since my early teens -- I'm now past 70) is to come up with a scheme to write Burmese language from the keyboard of an English typewriter (now a computer). "Romabama" is one of my attempts to come up a such a system. There are  two kinds of vowels in Burmese: 11 characters of basic vowels, a-chay-hkan tha-ra {a.ché-hkan tha.ra.}, which has been made into 12 characters of functional vowels, thin-roe tha-ra {thin-ro: tha.ra.}. In the above table, the row "Burmese-IPA" is how I would represent the Burmese vowels in IPA characters. However, since I am "phoneme-deaf", my representation is bound to be in error. The Hindi-IPA is from an Internet source.

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13. Clear L

p101. A type of LATERAL sound in which the air escapes past the sides of the tongue, found normally only before vowels. Usually contrasted with DARK L.

UKT: The easiest way to differentiate Clear-L from Dark-L:
Clear-L is /l/ in onset of syllable
Dark-L is /l/ in the coda of syllable.

Examples for English

In the case of an alveolar lateral (e.g. English / l / the blade of the tongue (the part further back than the tip) is in contact with the alveolar ridge, but the rest of the tongue is free to take up different shapes. One possibility is for the front of the tongue (the part behind the blade) to be raised in the same shape as that for a close front vowel [ i ] . This gives the / l / [i]-like sound and the result is a "clear l". It is found notably in BBC English only before vowels, but in some other accents, notably Irish and Welsh ones, it is found in all positions. However, the variant most often found in all positions is "DARK L". e.g.

UKT:
• Burmese-speaking Myanmars can do a simple experiment. First, pronounce {la.} and note the sound of {la.}. Then pronounce {li} slowly and notice the sound of {la.} in it. {la.} in the two cases are quite different. Burmese-speakers should keep in mind that native-English speakers can not pronounce {lha.} which is quite common in Welsh-dialect. From what was written above "... in some other accents, notably Irish and Welsh ones, ... " the so-called "clear-L" seems to be close to {lha.}.
• Examples from: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/eptotd/tip15.htm
clear L: <led> <leap> <follow> <failure> -- (UKT: /l/ is in onset of syllable, not word-initial position.)
dark L: <bell> <film> <belt> <dull>
• Light and Dark /l/ from: http://www.linguistics.utah.edu/Faculty/hayesharb/lec5.pdf
   The /l/ sound at the beginning of words (actually, in onset position of syllables) is referred to as ‘light /l/’ and is transcribed as /l/:
<like> <lead> <learn> <atlas> <imp ly> <play> --  (UKT: /l/ is in onset of syllable, not word-initial position.)
   The /l/ sound that appears at the ends of words (actually, in coda position of syllables) is referred to as ‘dark /l/’ and is transcribed as /l with a squiggle/:
<ball> <alter> <trail>
   Syllabic /l/ is most accurately transcribed as /l with a squiggle/ with a ‘syllabic’ diacritic under it

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14. Cluster

p103. Two or more CONSONANT PHONEMES in sequence, with no vowel sound between them.

UKT: Myanmar clusters are ligatures or conjoined consonants. Simply putting two or more aksharas in sequence, as you would with English consonant phonemes, do not give a ligature unless you kill the inherent vowel of the appropriate akshara. To do this, you need a vowel killer or a virama which is known in Myanmar as {a.thut}. There are two types of clusters in Myanmar, those in the ONSET and those in the CODA. The maximum number of aksharas in the Onset is four, exemplified by  {ma.ra.ris.wa.hswè:ha.hto:} {mhrwa.} commonly pronounced as {mhywa.} in a very common word {a.mhywa-pu:} meaning <twin> -- probably the "shibboleth" of Burmese. (Refer to Judges 12:4-6 in Christian Bible on sibbōleth.).
   Only four types of conjuncts are allowed in Onset-clusters. They are formed by the second, the third, and/or the fourth consonant of the set of four: {ya.}, {ra.}, {wa.} and {ha.}. The cluster-types are: {ya.pin.}, {ra.ris}, {wa.hswè:} and {ha.hto:}, respectively.
   See also:
• Medials and Syllable Chaining in Myanmar in Unicode by Martin Hosken and Maung Tuntunlwin, www.unicode.org/notes/tn11/myanmar_uni.pdf
• Virama (Halant) in Devanagari Script, The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0 by Unicode Consortium, http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch09.pdf
• Vowel Killer in Devanagari Script by UKT

Examples for English

English can allow up to three consonants in a cluster syllable initially in the ONSET, and four syllables finally in the CODA. For example, the word <stray> /streɪ/ begins with three consonants, and <sixths> /sɪksθs/ ends with four.

Some types of grammatical information are shown by adding certain consonants at the ends of words in English, giving rise to consonant clusters, e.g.:

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15. Coalescence

p103. A kind of ASSIMILATION in which a fusion of neighbouring sounds takes place during rapid or CONNECTED SPEECH.

Examples for English

The most frequently observed situation in which coalescence occurs in English is when Alveolar consonants /t d s z/ are followed by / j /, e.g.:

UKT: The above case of a Alveolar consonant /t d s z/ followed by / j / has no parallels in Burmese-Myanmar {ya.pin.} , but we shall test what happens for each consonant:

• /t/ {ta.} + --> {tya.} . This phoneme is not exactly a Burmese phoneme, though this spelling has come into use rather widely in the form of {pan tya} (Pali: "singer"} which many Burmese tend to mispronounce as {pan tra}. At the same time, {tya.} is in no way the same as /ʧ/ (U02A7 -- Latin small letter Tesh digraph), which in Burmese-Myanmar is almost the same as {cha.} (orthographically -- {hkya.})

• /d/ {da.} + --> {dya.} . This is not a Burmese phoneme, though /ʤ/ {gya.} is.

• /s/ {sa.} + --> {sya.} . This again is not a Burmese phoneme, though /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ can be approximated by {za.}, and /ʃu/ and /ʒu/ by {zu}.

• /z/ {za.} --> {zya.} . This is also not a Burmese phoneme.

Because of the absence of {tya.}, {dya.}, {sya.} and {zya.} in Burmese, Burmese-Myanmar speakers can not coalesce <won't you>, <would you>, <miss you>, and <lose you>.

The study of connected speech also involves looking at the process of VOWEL REDUCTION in weak syllables (see also WEAK FORM), at RHYTHM and prosodic phenomena such as INTONATION and STRESS.

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20. Consonant

p115. A speech sound which obstructs the flow of air through the vocal tract or a letter of the alphabet representing such a vowel.

Examples for English

There are many types of consonant, but what all have in common is that they obstruct the flow of air through the vocal tract. Some do this a lot, some not very much: those which make the maximum obstruction (i.e. PLOSIVES, which form a complete stoppage of the airstream) are the most consonantal, e.g.:

UKT: English plosives: [p , b] ; [t , d] ; [k , g]
Burmese plosives: {pa.} , {hpa.} , {ba.} , {Ba.} | {ta.} , {hta.} , {da.} , {Da.} | {ka.} , {hka.} , {ga.} , {Ga.} mainly used for speech, plus four more used mainly for writing Pali: {Ta.} , {hTa.} , {Ða.} , {Ða.}. The character {Ða.} is almost never used in ordinary Burmese writing. It is known as {Ða. ré-mhoat} literally meaning "Ða. that looks like a drinking cup".

NASAL consonants result in complete stoppage of the oral cavity but are less obstructive than plosives since air is allowed to escape through the nose, e.g.:

UKT: English nasals: [m , n] -- [ng] in <sing> behaves as a single unit and behaves like /ŋ/.
Burmese nasals: {ma.} , {na.} , {Na.} , {ña.} , {nga.} -- {{ña.} behaves like /ɲ/ and {nga.} like /ŋ/.

FRICATIVES make a considerable obstruction to the flow of air, but not a total closure, e.g.:

UKT: English fricatives: [f , v] , [s, z] , [x] , [h]. [th] in <think> and <that> behaves like /θ/ and /ð/
Burmese fricatives: {sa.} , {hsa.} | {za.} , {Za.} | {tha.} {ha.}. {tha.} behaves exactly like English [th]

The class of sounds called APPROXIMANTS comprises sounds which make very little obstruction of the flow of air.

The post-alveolar approximant that is the usual pronunciation of /r/ in BBC English involves no contact between the tongue and the palate, e.g.:

UKT: English approximants: [r , l] -- [ l ] is also called "lateral approximant"
Burmese approximants: {ra.} , {la.} , {La.}
English semivowels: [y , w] -- [y] behaves like IPA /j/
Burmese semivowels: {ya.} , {wa.}

LATERAL approximants obstructs the flow of air only in the centre of the mouth, not at the sides, so obstruction is slight, e.g.:

Other sounds classed as approximants make so little obstruction to the flow of air that they could almost be thought to be vowels if they were in a different context. These are sometimes referred to as 'semi-vowels', e.g.:

Finally, AFFRICATES begin as plosives and are released as fricatives, with no intervening gap, e.g.:

The above explanation is based on phonetic criteria. An alternative approach is to look at the phonological characteristics of consonants: for example, consonants are typically found at the beginning (UKT: ONSET) and end (UKT: CODA) of syllables while vowels are typically found in the middle (UKT: NUCLEUS or PEAK of sonority) of SYLLABLES.

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