Better English Pronunciation by O'Conner J D CUP

82 Pages·2008·5.29 MB·English

Better English
Pronunciation

NEW EDITION

ie
UN.
This is che new edition ofa highly suevessful andl widely-used
text on pronunciation. It provides a systematic and thorough
introduction to the pronunciation of English to help intermediate
and more advanced students improve their production of the
spoken language.

After a short introduction to pronunciation problems the author
explains how the speech organs work; he then deals with each
sound separately before dealing with words in combination,
rhythm-patterns and intonation. Practice material is given at
intervals throughout the book. The particular difficulties of the
speakers of certain other languages are noted, and remedial
exercises provided. A recording of all the practice material in the
book is available on cassettes,

"can quite safely be said to be the most effective [book] ever
written to help the ordinary leamer to improve his pronunciation.”
J. Windsor Lewis in The Tines Educational Supplement

‘The complete course consists of:
Book
Set of 2 cassettes

EERE SETAE TA SNES EE I SS
ISBN 0-521-23152-3

‘i

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY PRESS

21)
Better English
Pronunciation

Second edition

J.D. O'Connor

Professor of Phonetics in the University of London

BRITISH COUNCIL,
moscow

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY PRESS
“The Pit: Build ng Tunmpuayon Stset, Caulnilgr ena eer, Cutted Kingdom
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Contents

Acknowledgements vit

Foreword to chesecond edition ix

Problems in pronunciation
tt Introduction

1.2 ‘Lendmeyourears’ 3

1.3 WhichEnglih? 5

14 Thebasicsounds 6

15 Lettersandsounls 7

1.6 Sounds andsoundegeoups 9
7 Wordsand utterances 11
18 Exercises 12

How the speech organs work in English 13
24 Thevocateotds 13

22 Thepale 1s

23 Theecch 17

24 Thetongue 17

25 Thelips ar

26 Exercises 22

The consonants of English 24

341 Friction consonants: /f,¥,6,6,5,25.5,h/ 24.
3.2 Stopconsonants: pb. 4, kg.tid3y 39
3.3 Nasalconsonants:/m,nqf 48

3.4 Lateral consonant: lf 53

3.8 Gliding consonants: 1.W.r' 57

38 Exercises 43

Consonant sequences 64
41 Initidlsequences 64
42 Finalsequences 67
Contents

4 Longer consonantsequences 76
44 Exercises 78

5 The vowels of English 79

$1 Simple vowels jlz,,e @, A,B, 3%, 0, U5, 35, p
5.2 Diphthongs /2u, 20, e1,91.31,19, 0,09) 8g
5.3 Vowel sequences 87
5.4 Exercises 88

& Words in company 90
6.1 Word groupsandstress 90
6.2 Stressed and unstressed syllables gt
63 Weakformsofwords 92
54 Theuseofitrongforms 95
6.5 Rhythmunits 95
6.6 Fluency 100
67 Changing word shapes 02
68 Exercises 105

7 Intonation 108
7 Tuneshapes 109
7a Thefalling tunc-theGlideDown 111
33. Thefirstrising tune—the Glide-Up 174
74 Thesecond rising tune—theTake-OR 116
75 Thefalling-rising eane—the Dive 117
7-6 Howtowethetunes 120
pr Exercises 125
Conversational passages for practice 128
Answers to exercises 134

Appendix 1 ‘The dificultes of English pronunciation for speakers of Arabic,

Cantonese, French, German, Hindiand Spanish 138
Appendix 2 Useful materials for furthersendy 147

Glossary 149

Acknowledgements

Every writer off textbook owes a debt to his predecessors, ta his
teachers, to his colleagues and to his pupils; I gratefully acknowledge
amy deep indebeedness to all of these, In addition T wish to express
particular thanks to Mrs M. Chan of Hong Kong, Miss AGE M. E.
Elmenouf of Cairo and Dr R. K. Bansal of Hyderabad for very
kindly helping mie with regard to the pronunciation difficulties of
Cantonese, Arabic and Hindi speakers respectively. Last, but far from.
least, mny very sincere thanks go to my friends Pauline Speller, who
typed che whole of a by no means casy manuscript and did it admirably,
and Demis Speller, who drew for me the original illustrations.

‘The responsibility for the book is mine; any credit Uhappily share
‘with all those mentioned above,

BD. oe,
Foreword to the second edition

Since this book was fist published, in 1967, my attention has been.
drawn by users of ie to various errors and omissions, and suggestions
ave been made for improving its uscfulness, In this second edition T
havenow remedied the errorsand omissions and Thave adopted those
suggestions which [think improve the book. To all those readers wha
were kind enough to write to mic on these matiets Tolfer my sincere
thanks,

My old readers will no doubt consider che greatest change in this
edition ta be the use of a different phonetic trauseription, atid I agree.
‘The reason why I decided to change the cranscription is this: when the
Ibook was first published I wsed the transcription of Daniel Jones's
English Prouvuneing Dictionary (Dene}, which I considered to be the best
guide co English pronunciation for foreign learnersas still do). The
presen cditor of the distionary, A. C. Gimson, decided, rightly in my
opinion, 1o change his transcription for the 14th edition of 1977. This
meant that my transcription no longer corresponded to any of those
foondin the major dietiouarics commonly used by forcign Ieamers.
Thave now rectified this quite unacceptable situation by adapting the
Ginnson transcription which is ako used in the Longinan Dictionary of
Contemporary English (1978) andthe Oxford Adeaced Learner's
Diationary of Current Luglish (4th edition 2980).

There have often been understandable complains from students that
different wrivers on English pronunciation wed different transcriptions.
{escers wy me that theze is a least ammovement towards using &
standard transctipcion, namely, the one now used in this book, and ehis
isa wholly welcome development.

‘The new transcription differs from the old enly in the matter of
symbols for the English vovses, and for the convenience of ald keaders
lise both old and new forms below:

Old fonn Key word New forms

Ik fal is
i fll x
e fall e
Foreword

cs fall oa
ll
fol ur
fal a
ou fea oo
ai le =
au foul au
i fell 2
= cat =
> cot .
cut A
curt *
cart e
ter 6
teat ©
tour va
2 banana 2

Voweb which were previously differeneianed only by the length mark
2) are now distinguished both by the length mark and by letter-shape,
cg. fifi This miakes for easier visual recogeition and underlines the

face that che pars of vowels differ nol only in length but also in quality.

A recording of all the practice rmuerial is available on cassottes. The
symbol [ax] in the cext indicates exactly whatis recorded,

‘The book bas been emirely re-designed and re-set, and the diagrams
have been realtawn; for thisand much other help ny thanks arc due
tothe Cambridge University Press.

Thope thac my book will continue w serve 4 uscful purpose for both,
ceachers and learners of English in helping chem towardsa better
English pronunciation.

1 Problems in pronunciation

1 Introduction

The purpose of th's book is very simple: to help you, the reader, to
pronounce English better chan you do now. Millions of foreign seulents
want to leara English as wellas they cin; for some nts golya matter of
reading and writing ic, and acy wil find no help here. But niany
stadents want to heable to speak English well, with a pronunciation
which can be easily understood both bycher fellow-studentsand by
Englsh people, cndicis fo them that this book is specially incended.

‘Written English and spoken Buglsh are obviously very different
things. Writing cons sts of marks or. paper which make nonoise znd
retaken in by the eye, whilse speaking 1s organized sound, taken in by
theear. How can a book, which mocking but marks on pupee, hel
anyone to make thelr Fnglish sownd better? The answer to thisis chacit
can’t, not by naelE, But if you will co-operate, sad listen to English as
anuzch as yor cat, along the lines that [shall suggest to you, then you
vill find that the instructions given in the following pages will make
your ears sharper for the sound of English and when you can hear
English property you can yo on and improve your performance.

Tangutge starts with the ear. When a baby starts to talk he does i¢by
hearing the soundsh s mother makesand imitating them. Ifa baby is
born deaf he cannot hear ehese sounds and therefore cannot iavitate
them and wall oot spzak. Bueniormal kahies can hear and can imitate;
thoy are wondeefub imitacors, and this gift of imitation, which gives us
the gift ofspeech, ast fora number of years. Tes well known that a
child of ten years ald or less can Tearn any language perfectly, itis
brought up surrounded by that language, no matter where it was bora
‘oe whoiits parents wee. Bur after this age the ability to imicate perfectly
Ibecomes less, and we el] know nny too well char adults have great
difficulty in mastery the promunciation (as well as cher patts) of
foreign languages. Sme peaple are more talented than others; they
find prononncing other langssagrs les dificult, but they never find
thom easy. Why is this? Why shoud this pif chat weall have as
Problems in pronunciation,

children disappeor in later life? Why can’t grownenp people pick up the
characteristic sound ofs foreign languages a child ean?

The answer to hiss that our nativelanguage won'tlet us. By the
time we are grown up the habits of ox nen langage aneco stromg

chat choy are very diffknle to break. Ta our own language we bavea
fairly small number of sound-units which we put rogcther in many
different combinations ve foem the words and sentences we use every
day. And as we get older we are dominated by this small number of
units [is asf we had in our headsa certain fixed number of boxes for
sourds; when we listen to nue ovr language we hear the sounds ane
swe puteach into theright Sox, and when we speak we go to the boxes
and takeout the snonds we wantin the order we want chem. And sswe:
do this over the years the boxes get stronger and stronger until every-
thing we hear, whether ivis our osndanguage or another, Jus vo be pur
inty one of these boxes unl everything we say coos ont of one of
them, But every lsuguage has a different number of boxes, and the
Loses arearanged dilecently. For example, theee-of uur English boxes
contain che sounds ache beginning of che words fin, hi and sin, chav is,
fil this is one sound, of course) ands. Like this;

ee fms

Now, many other languages have boxes which are similar to the
English ones for fand s, but they donot have a special box for the
Hh-sound. And we can pictute thisin the following way:

eftals

f :

“When the foreign listener heats the English th-sound he has to put it in
‘one ofhis own boxes, his habits force him to do so, and he has no
special th box, so he pots it into either the fbox ot the s box:

«als
fl

In other words, he ‘kears' the th-sound as either for-sa fanny fora

feany sno doubt, but he has nowhere else to putit. And in speaking
the sine thing happens: if he has to sty thin, he has no zh box t> goto
so he gocs tothe ncarcst box available to him, either the for che s, and

2

12

Inteodetion

besayseither fin ot si (or it may be fin, fhe has 2 £box in his language).

‘The main problem of English pronunciation sto build a new set of
boxes corzespondnig to the sound of English, and to break dowrn the
arrangement of boxes which che habits of oot native language haveso
steongly built p. Wedo this by establishing new ways of heating, new
sways of using our speech orgims, neve speech habits

This may sound cesy, bee isn’t. Unfortunately, itis never easy to
establish good habits, itis always the bad ones which come tacse
‘naturally, and you will peed to doa prestdleal af hard work if you want
to build yourscl set of English boxes which are nearly as firm as chose
of your own langnage. Anyone who says erat you can get a good
English pronuneianon without hard work is talking rubbish. unless you
happen to be one of the very sinall nutnber of ucky people to whom.
pronunciation comes fairly easily. Most of us nced to work hae att,
aad this book is for people who are prepared to work hard. Ifyou work
hard and regula-ly along the lincs suggested in this book, you will
improve. One ofthe most important chings to remeraber is tha: every=
‘one can improve, even iE they have no grcat talent for language. Quite
apat Bont anyching cls, theres gucat satisfaction to he go: from. the
development of wht talent you have, You may never sound like a
native English speaker, buc at last you will have got a close to it as
youcan,

“Lend me your ears’

fspovehs depends on heating, and books don’t talk, what are you to do?
Fortunaccly there is lot of English spoken about the wed, Ou fins,
oon the radio, an tapes, on grammuphone records; most peuple car et
sheopportunity oflistening to Fuglish in some way, and this what
‘you must do, You mut heor FugHsh, But just cating its not enough;
‘you mus listen to ie, and you must listen to it not for the meaning but
for the sound of c. Obviously when you are listening to a radio pro~
gramme you will be crying to understand it, trying to get the meaning
from it; but you must try also for at least a short part uf the timeto
forgetabout whit che words mean and to listen co them ssnply as
sounds. Take one of the Fnglish sounds at a time, it might be the
English ¢,andliscen for iceach time it comes; concentrace on catching
ic, on picking itout, on hearing what itsoundsbike, Don’ just be
satisfied to hear it vaguely, as iit were a sound of your own language;
aryand pick out the Englishness of it, whac makes it different from the
nearest Soundin your language. And when you chink you have got it,

3
Problems in pronunciation

then say it ia some of the words that you have heard, and say ie aloud,
Itisno use practising silently; all of us ure much better at pronautcing
ifvwe do it silently, inside ourselves. But you cun’t talk English inside
‘yourself is has to come out, so practise dowd, even if ir puzzles your
family oF your fiends, Later in chc book you will find pronunciation
exerc:ses to be done; these too nmst bedoneatoud,

Films or radio programmeshave the disadvantage duat you can't
stop thera and ask tor something to be xepeated. Graxnophime records
and tapes do nut have this disidvancage, With theon you eat repeat any
pectuftbe text esofien as you need, and you mmust da this: cig mich
beeticr for your ea if you listen to the samme passage sx times chan if you
Tisten te die differnt possoges: bbe carcfil._ listen closely each time,
don't celixafiee two oc three hearings, try co keep your cars 6 closely
cconcencrated om the sound of the passage at the sixth hearing as tthe
first. To this way you will bulld up store ofsound-mamory which will
form a firm base for your performance.

Now, performance. When you pructisefaloud, of course), you must
listen carefully and accurately. ff you have listened prozcrly in the firse
place you will know what the English words and sentences sonnd like,
andl yon mast compare as lovely s¢ you ean che sounds that come out of
your mouth with the sounds char you are holkling in your head, in
yout sound-memory. Don’tbe satisfied tao easily, try to match your
sounds exactly with the sounds that you have listened ta,

Some of you may be able to make usc of tape-recorder; ifyoucan,
‘you will be able ta hear what yousound like to other people and this
is very helpful. If yostean, reeord ton the tape-recorder a sentence or a
longer passage with which yout sre firiliae through hearing it said by
sn English speaker. Then listen to it, closely and earef lly, and sce
where your peeformance dacs not match the original; mark the places

.on are dissatisfied, and practise chese bies unl you think you
Jrave them sight; then rocord tae passage, lien exitically again, and.
repeat chesequence. One word of warning acape-recordcr will aot
da the job for you: ita usefi instrament, duit snot a magic wand
which will make your English pesfict without oy effort from you. It
is wefid only because it enables you to listen to yourself irom the
‘outside, which nuvsesic casicr for you to heat what is wrong, ba sis
‘youwho 2ave to pnt rnght, and the machine cannot do this far you.
In che end itis absclutely essential fre you to be uble to match what
you say with your soundememory of English. So alchough a tape-
recorder is helpf el, chistloes net mean chat you haven't got one Your
English will notimprove, and, jas.2s important it doesnot uncan that

4

13

“Lend me your eas!

if you havea cape-recorder your English will necessarily be better.
Careful listening is che anest important ching and careful matching of
performance with listening will bring youncarer to the ideal of
perfect English pronunciation. And makeno mistake, your aim must
be co acquirca perfevt Feglish pronunciation. You will most cerainly
‘not succeed in this aim because it requires, as Lave said, a very rare
gift; but unless thisis your aim you will notanskeall the prageess of|
which you are capable: keep working towards perfection until you are
quite sure thaeit is neither necessary nor pevfitable for you co continue,
Thea you will have done yourself justice,

Which English?

‘What da we mean by a perfece Fnglish pronmnciation? In one sense
there are as many different kinds of English as there ate speakers of ¢;
‘no two peaple spesk exactly alike we can always heat differences
fhetweet them and the pronunciation of English vatiesa great deal in
different geographical areas. How do we decide whatsort ef English
touse as a model? This ismota qusstion which can be decided in the
samme way for all foreign learnces of English. If ye live ina part of the
world like India or West Africa, where there isa tradition ef speaking
English for genetal communication purposes, you should atm to
acquire 2 good variety of the pronunciation of this area: such varieties
of indian English or African English and the likeare to be respected and
used as. model by all hose who wil! nced theic English mainly for the
[purpose of communication with their fellows in these areas. Tt would
bea misrakein these cizcumstances to use a¢4 model B.B.C. English ot
anything of the sort

(On the other hand, if you live in an area where there iso teaditional
tse of English and no body of people who speak it for general con
‘munication purposes, then you must take as your model samme form of
ative Fnglish pronunciation, and which form yan choose docs not
vvory much matcer, The most sensible thing to do isto take as your
model che sort of English which you can hear most often. If yin have
gramophone records of English specch based on, Jet ussay, att American
pronnnciation, make American your modeis#f you can listen regularly
tothe B-B.C., usc that hind of Englsh. But whatever you choose to do,
remember this: all these different accencs of English havea grest deal
in common, they have fir mace similarities than defferences, 30 ont
‘worry too tntich what sort of English you are hstening co provided it
is English,

5
14

Problems i pronunciation

Inn dis book Tcannot describe all the posible promnciations of
English chat mighe be useful t you so shall concentrate om one, the
sort of English used by edveated sutive speakers in south-east England,
often referted to as Received Pronunciation (R.P. for short), thats
‘accepted’ pronunciation, K.P. will be the basis; but Tam lessintecested
ip making you speak with chis particular accent of English chan in
helping you to make the necessary differences between the basic sounds
‘which arc found in all kinds of Fogish: these are found in RP. and
because of this sas useful co describe RP. as to describe any other
native pronunciation, and ifycu really want to speak with a British
accent, ther this is as good as any, in the sense that itis widely aocep-
table.

‘The basic sounds
“The sounds at the begitaing ofeach of the words in the following list,

areal different; te liters which stand for these sounds (usually one
letter per souti, bt sometimes two} ate prinve in take ype

pier veer scar
eer see weir
fice hear year
dese leer ‘heer
sor rear jece
fear ace

Itis the sound atthe beginning of the word, the initial sound, which
snakes one word diffcrent from all the otaer wordsin thelist. Since chis
is 0 sinve these sounds are distinctive. itis obviously necessary to be able
(o niake them sound diffecent: they ate basie sounds of English all
Kinds o€ English, Sore the sounes ofthe leteesin italic typein these
lists:

base wrath
baize wrong
ithe
beige
hake

Ti these lise the sounds at the end of the word arc distinctive, the final
sounds. Ifyou count up the sounds which are distinctive in initial

‘6

18

"The basie sounds

position and those which are distinctive in final postion you will find.
that chere are twenty-four altogether, These tweaty-four sounds which
occur initially and finally, hough they occurin other positions 100, ate
called consonants.

Now look at these lists:

feel cat tier
fal et ear
fall out tour
fall curt

fill cart

fool

fl

foal

file

foul

fell

Most of these sounds, represented again by lettersin italic type, occur
surrounded by consonants, and this is typical, although most of them,
can also occur mitialy and finally too. These soundsare called vowels,

nomice

1 Fiveof these words, curt crt, ter, tear, tour, have a letter rin thesn,
Intmany English accents, c.g. American, Canaduan, Scottish, Ish,
this would be pronounced exactly like the consonant ar the beginning.
of red, but in K.P. and various other accents the letter represents patt
ofa basic vawel nie. Theres mote detail about this on p. 6x.

2 Thercisone other vowel, making rw:enry in all, which occursin the
‘word banane. This isa very special and very important vowel it
Faiglish and its discussed in fll on pp. 82-4.

Letters and sounds

‘These must hever be mixed up. Lettersare written, sounds are spoken.
Teis very usefil to have written letters to remind us of corresponding
sounds, bot thisisall they da; they cannot make ws pronouncesounds
which we donocalready know; they srmply remind us. In ordinary
English spelling itis not always easy to know whatsounds the letters
stand for; for example, in the words city, busy, women, prerp, village,
thelenrs yy. a, ean ll ean forte cae vowel sooed the sxe
which occurs in sit, And in harcta, bather, mas, many the liter a stands

7