Information panels -- general
ENGLISH PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY

• [   ̬ ] (U032C) -- Voiced (Combining caron below)
-- Combining Diacritical Marks, Range 03033-036F, The Unicode Standard, version 4.0, www.unicode.org

• [   ̩ ] (U0329) -- Syllabic (Combining vertical line below)
-- Combining Diacritical Marks, Range 03033-036F, The Unicode Standard, version 4.0, www.unicode.org

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24. Diphthong

p152. A sound in which there is a glide from one vowel quality to another.

UKT: See MONOPHTHONG and TRIPHTHONG in Information panels for comparison. Also see British English in Vowels and Diphthongs in Introduction.

Examples for English

BBC English and US English contain a large number of diphthongs: in both accents, there are three ending in [ɪ] (/eɪ  aɪ  ɔɪ/), sometimes referred to as 'front closing', and two ending in [ʊ] (/aʊ  əʊ/), sometimes referred to as 'back closing'. In US English, the preferred transcription of the BBC vowel /əʊ/ is /oʊ/, which indicates a rounded initial vowel.

UKT: My key to the vowels ( 2.2 Vowels and Diphthongs) is the set of three short English vowels /ə/ /ɪ/ /ʊ/ and their closest B-Myanmar {a} {i} {u}. Notice that {a} for this particular case is the {a.} in words like {a.ni} and {a.na} -- a schwa.    The closest I can get to in teaching English diphthongs to Myanmars is to ask them to split up the diphthongs and then to train them individually -- the way my American friends had found out in their efforts to teach the diphthongs to me!

BBC English also has three diphthongs ending in [ə] (/ɪə  eə  ʊə/), which are sometimes known as 'centring'. The /ʊə/ diphthong is now less commonly used than /ɔː/. These diphthongs usually appear in US English with an /r/ final (/>ɪr  er  ʊr/), as words containing them generally end with an r in the spelling, e.g.:

Opinions differ as to whether diphthongs should be treated as phonemes in their own right, or as combinations of two phonemes.

UKT: Bama and its script Myanmar has no diphthongs as can be seen from the following:
• The entry in DJPD16 for <poor>: / pɔːʳ , pʊəʳ (us) pʊr/
• To a Myanmar, <poor> sounds like:
   something between {po-wa:} and {pu-wa:}, but not .
• There is no way in which to transcribe <poor> in Myanmar, unless we introduce special vowels like (which would make my old Burmese teachers turn in their graves) or introduce {ra.thut} --

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25. Elision

p175. The omissions of sounds which are normally present if words are pronounced slowly and clearly but appear not to be pronounced when the same words are produced in a rapid, colloquial style, or when the words occur in a different context. These missing sounds are said to be 'elided'. See also CONNECTED SPEECH PHENOMENA.

UKT: See also Elision in the Introduction.

Examples for English

It is easy to find examples of elision, but very difficult to state rules that govern which sounds may be elided and which may not. Elision of vowels in English usually happens when a short, unstressed vowel occurs between voiceless consonants, e.g. in the first syllable of <perhaps>, <potato>, the second syllable of <bicycle>, or the third syllable of <philosophy>.

Elision also occurs when a weak vowel occurs between a PLOSIVE /p, b/ /t, d/ /k, g/ or FRICATIVE  /f, v/ /θ, ð/ /s, z/ /ʃ. ʒ/ /x, h/ consonants and a consonant such as a NASAL /m, n, ŋ/ , or a LATERAL /l/ : this process leads to SYLLABIC CONSONANTS, e.g.:

UKT: It seems that in English only 5 syllabic consonants can be formed (written with a small vertical line or a dot below): in English, /ṃ, ṇ, ŋ̣/ and /ḷ, ṛ/ -- from: http://www.hi.is/~peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/syllcons.html

Elision of consonants in English happens most commonly when a speaker 'simplifies' a complex consonant cluster, e.g.

In <twelfth night> above, it seems much less likely that any of the other consonants could be left out: the /l/ and the /n/ seem to unelidable.

It is very important to note that sounds do not simply 'disappear' like a light being switched off. A transcription such as /æks/ for <acts> implies that the /t/ phoneme has dropped out altogether, but detailed examination of speech shows that such effects are more gradual: in slow speech the /t/ may be fully pronounced, with an audible transition from the preceding /k/ and to the following /s/, while in a more rapid style it may be articulated but not given any audible realisation, and in very rapid speech it may be observable, if at all, only as a rather early movement of the tongue blade towards the /s/ position. Much more research in this area is needed (not only on English) for us to understand what processes are involved when speech is 'reduced' in articulation.

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26. Flap

A type of consonant sound that is closely similar to the TAP. It is usually voiced, and is produced by slightly curling back the tip of the tongue, then throwing it forward and allowing it to strike the alveolar ridge as it descends. The phonetic symbol for the sound is [ ɽ ] (U027D -- Windows XP character map calls it "Latin small letter R with tail).

UKT: Another Tap or Flap given by IPA (revised to 1993, corrected 1996 -- See table given by IPA). is ɾ (U027E -- Latin small letter R with Fishhook). Both [ ɽ ] (U027D) and ɾ (U027E) seem to be related to /r/ and POA is alveolar to retroflex.

Examples in English

This sound, although occurring in some accents of English, is not a PHONEME, and is uncommon in British English. It appears, however, in US English, where it is sometimes heard in words like <party> and <birdie>, where the /r/ consonant causes retroflexion of the tongue and the stress pattern favours a flap-like articulation, e.g.:

In other languages

A flap is most commonly heard in languages which have other RETROFLEX consonants, such as languages of the Indian sub-continent; it is also heard in the English of native speakers of such languages, often as a realization of /r/.

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27. Fortis

p212. Fortis sounds are said to be made with a relatively high degree of effort.

Examples for English

It is claimed that in some languages (including English) there are pairs of consonants whose members can be distinguished from each other in terms of whether they are 'strong' (fortis) or 'weak' (Lenis). These terms refer to the amount of energy used in their production, and are similar to the terms TENSE and LAX more usually used in relation to vowels. It is argued that English /b d g v ð z  ʒ/ often have little or no voicing in normal speech, and it is therefore a misnomer to call them voiced. Since they seem to be more weakly articulated than /p t k f θ s ʃ/ it would be appropriate to use the term lenis instead, e.g.:

UKT: "/k/ and /g/ are one of the pairs of consonants said to be distinguished from each other by being FORTIS or LENIS rather than voiced or voiceless." From DJPD16: VELAR consonants.

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28. French words and phrases

p215. French has provided a substantial proportion of English vocabulary since the Norman Conquest in 1066, with new words being incorporated all the time. The longest-established and the most commonly-used words are usually the most completely anglicized, and the most noticeable changes from the French original are found where English phonology does not easily accommodate them. Often there are many possible anglicised pronunciations: see for example the many listed for <restaurant>.

Examples

Word-final /r/: this is not usually pronounced in British English unless followed by a vowel in a following word. However, it is pronounced in US English, e.g.:

Nasalized vowels: although some English speakers who have a good command of French may attempt to produce the French nasalized vowels /ɛ̃/ (U025B U0303) /ɑ̃/(U0251 U0303) /ɔ̃/(U0254 U0303) and even occasionally /œ̄/ (U0153 U0304), these are pronounced by many people with a following /ŋ/(U014B). <Croissant> is given the pronunciation /ˈkwæs.ɑ̃ːŋ/ for British English, indicating that the vowel in the last syllable will be pronounced with a nasalised vowel but possibly also a velar nasal consonant. In US English, however, a velar nasal is not usually produced following a nasalised vowel, and <croissant> is pronounced /kwɑːˈsɑ̃ː/. (It should be noted that in both cases other pronunciations exist.) This example also shows the simplification of the initial consonant cluster /krw/, which occurs in French but not in English.

Word-final stress: many French words and names with final stress are modified by British English speakers to have the stress at the beginning of the word. In US English, this occurs in some words, but not in others, e.g.:

The phoneme /ʒ/: while this phoneme occurs frequently in the middle of words, it is rare at the beginning and end. Many such cases are in words of French origin. English speakers sometimes substitute /ʤ/ for this sound, e.g.:

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29. Fricative

p216. A type of consonant made by forcing air through a narrow gap so that a hissing noise is generated. This may be accompanied by VOICING, in which case the sound is a voiced fricative, such as [z] {za.}, or it may be voiceless, such as [s] {sa.}.

UKT: See English Consonants in Introduction. There are:
• 11 fricatives: /f v/, /θ, ð/, /s z/, /ʃ ʒ/, /(x)/, /h/, and /ç/ (/ç/ in <huge> /hjuːʤ/ [çʉːd̥ʒ̊])
• and 2 affricates: /ʧ ʤ/

Examples for English

British and US English have nine fricative phonemes: /f θ s ʃ h/ (voiceless) and /v ð z ʒ/ (voiced).

All except /h/ are permitted to occur in all positions in English, but /ʒ/ as in <measure> /ˈmeʒə/ is of rather low frequency compared to the other eight sounds. /h/ may not end a syllable.

UKT: It is interesting to note that at one time British colonialists called the country of Myanmar as Burmah which they later changed to Burma. Also, note that in the Old Testament, the name of the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac is spelled Sarah, whereas, Sara is an American girl name.

The quality and intensity of fricative sounds varies greatly, but all are acoustically composed of energy at relatively high frequency -- an indication of this is that much of the fricative sound is too high to be transmitted over a phone (which usually cuts out the highest and lowest frequencies in order to reduce the cost), giving rise to confusion that often arise over sets of words like English <fin>, <thin>, <sin> and <shin>. In order for the sound quality to be produced accurately, the size and direction of the jet of air has to be very precisely controlled.

A distinction is sometimes made between 'sibilant' or 'strident' fricatives (such as [s] {sa.} and [ ʃ ]) which are strong and clearly audible and others which are weak and less audible (such as [θ] {tha.} and [f]).

UKT: The greatest confusion between the pronunciation of M-Pali and E-Pali is in the pronunciation of {tha.} and {sa.}. Out of this confusion arose the mistake made by linguists that the B-Myanmar {tha.} is a sibilant, and their mistaken transcription into [s]. B-Myanmar {tha.} is pronounced like the English /θ/  [th] in <thin>, and not as [s] in <shin>. More over B-Myanmar {tha.} behaves like English /ð/ in <that> and not as [z]. [th] {tha.} in B-Myanmar is pronounced as /θ/ in {ma.tha} <funeral>, and as /ð/ in {nan°.tha} <sandalwood>.

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Glottal fricative [h]

UKT: See VOCAL FOLDS. See the Anatomy of the Mouth.

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30. Glottal stop

p229. A consonant made by closure of the VOCAL FOLDS (UKT: See the Anatomy of the Mouth). The phonetic symbol for a glottal stop is [ʔ] (U0294 Latin letter Glottal Stop).

Examples for English

In some British accents, a glottal stop can actually replace the voiceless alveolar plosive [t] as the realisation of the /t/ phoneme when it follows a stressed vowel, e.g.:

This type of pronunciation is found in many urban accents, notably London (Cockney), Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and others, and is increasingly accepted among educated young people.

Sometimes a glottal stop is pronounced in front of a /p t/ or /k/ if there is a not vowel immediately following (see GLOTTALISATION).

In a true glottal stop there is complete obstruction to the passage of air, and the result is a period of silence. In casual speech it often happens that a speaker aims to produce a complete glottal stop but instead makes a low-pitch creak-like sound.

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31. Glottalisation

p229. The addition of a glottal stop before a consonant.

Examples for English

Adding a glottal stop before certain consonants has the effect of making the preceding vowel somewhat shorter. In English this usually happens before a voiceless PLOSIVE /p t k/ or AFFRICATE /ʧ/ {ch.} consonant if there is not vowel immediately following (e.g. in <captive>, <catkin>, <arctic>; a similar case is that of /ʧ/ when following a stressed vowel or when syllable-final, as in <butcher>). This addition of a glottal stop is sometimes called 'glottal reinforcement', e.g.:

This feature of English is an important one for perception. As the difference in voicing between /p t k ʧ/ and /b d g ʤ/ in syllable-final position is negligible, it is the length and the vowel rather than the voicing of the final consonant which contributes strongly to a native speaker's decision of whether a speaker has produced e.g. <back> or <bag>.

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