Table Of Content3
PRONOUNCING ENGLISH:
A Stress-Based Approach
with CD-ROM
Richard V. Teschner
and
M. Stanley Whitley
Georgetown University Press
Washington, D.C.
Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C.
O 2004 by Ge rgetown University hess. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10987654321
20{J/-
This volume is prinfed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Stan-
dard for Permanence. rn Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tesclner, Richard V
Pronouncing English : a sffess-based approach, with CD-Rom / Richard
V, Teschner and M. Stanley Whitley.
p-cm-
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index,
ISBN l-58901-002-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
l. English language-Pronunciation. I. Whitley, Melvin Stanley, 1948-
II. Title.
PElt37.T44 2004
4283-4e22 2003019467
This book is dedicated by Richard V. Teschner to the me.nlory of his father, Richard
Rewa Teschner (1908-97), germanophone by birth and an avid learner of Englistr, and
to the memory of his mether, Dorothea Joy Griesbach Teschner (1909-20AT, model
speaker, writer, and editor of her native tongue.
It is dedicated by M. Stanley Whitley to his family-l,4ary Jo, Steven, and Philip-for
their love and support, and to his students for what they continue to teach him in their
efforts to master the pronunciation of a second language.
CONTENTS
Preface xl
List of Symbols xltl
Chapter L The Metric Foot I
1.1 The notion of stress: Present stress and absent/null stress 1
1.2 Metricalism aJ
1.3 The five major metric feet: Spondees, trochees,
iambs, dactyls, and anapests 5
I.4 Weak stress, null stress, and vowels t2
1.5 The English drive toward monosyllabicity l9
1.6 Teaching the topics of chapter I to students of ESOL 2l
Notes z3
Wrap-Up Exercises 24
2
Chapter Strong Stresses and Weak:
How to Know Where They Go 27
2.1 Strong stress moves leftward, but only so far 4L.I1
2.2 Three main factors in strong-stress position 31
2.2.1
Syllablestructure 31
2.2.2 Part of speech JZ
2.2.3 Affixation 32
2.3 Strong-stress retention on the same base vowel JJ
2.4 Word families with shifting stress JJ
2.5 The effect of suffixation on strong-stress position 36
2.6 The shiftless, stress-free life of the prefix 40
2.7 Applying strong-stress rules to bisyllabic words 42
vl CONTENTS
2.8 Applying strong-stress rules to trisyllabic words 44
2.9 Strong-stressing words of four, five, and more syllables 45
2.IO Weak stress: Placing the strong, locating the weak 47
2.lI
Weak stress on bisyllabic words 47
2.ll.I
Bisyllabics that strong-stress the ult 47
2.11.2 Bisyllabics that strong-stress the pen 48
2.12 Weak-stressing trisyllabic words 49
2.I3 Weak-stressing "four-plus" words 50
2.13.1 Ult stress patterns 50
2.13.2 Pen stress patterns 50
2.13.3 Ant(epenultimate) stress patterns 51
2.13.4 Pre(antepenultimate) stress patterns 53
2.13.5 Qui stress patterns 54
2.I4
Vowel reduction: The price we pay for shifting stress 55
2.15 Teaching the topics of chapter 2 to students of ESOL 57
Notes 58
Chapter 3 Intonation-The Melodic Line 61
3.1 "Peak" stress for contrast and emphasis 61
3.2 Some analogies with music 64
3,3
Stressing compound words and phrases 66
3.3.1 Two-word compounds and phrases 66
3.3.2 Multiple-word compounds and phrases 7l
3.3.3 Pitch adjustment in compounds'post-peak words aI-J
3.4 Peak stresses and info units 75
3.5 Melodic lines long and short, falling and rising, and so on 79
3.5.1 Falls and rises, statements and questions 79
3.5.2 Fall-rise and rise-fall 82
3.5.3
Some other melodies 82
3.6 Melodic lines and compound melodies 84
3.6.1 Enumeration 84
3.6.2 Selectionquestions 84
3.6.3
Tags 85
3.6.4 Complexsentences 86
CONTENTS vtl
3.7 Approaches to intonation 88
3.8 Teaching the topics of chapter 3 to students of ESOL 90
9l
Notes
Wrap-Up Exercises 92
Chapter 4 From Orthography to Pronunciation 95
4.I
Even Englisft spelling can be reduced to rules 95
4.2 Consonants: The (somewhat) easy part r00
4.2.1 The fairly easy equivalencies: Phonemes /tJ h p 0 6 w j/ 104
4.2.2 The tough equivalencies: Phonemes /k s z I S dSl 108
4.2.3 Grapheme 'i' and the consonants that precede it lll
4.2.4 When is 's(s)' lsl and when is it lzl, /[], or even ftl? lt3
4.2.5 Grapheme 's' and lsl,lzl, and $/ ll4
4.2.6 Grapheme 'x' and the five things it renders 116
4.3 Vowels: Which are easy and which are tough to spell II7
4.3.1 Vowels that are fairly easy to spell t2l
4.3.2 Vowels that are tough to spell r23
4.3.2.1 The four tense vowels /i e o u/ r23
4.3.2.2 Diphthong /ail t25
4.3.2.3 The mid lax vowels lcl and lt.-l 125
4.3.3
Vowel phonemes and graphemes:
An encapsulated review t26
4.4 Vowel reduction redux l2'l
4.4.1 General guidelines for spelling the schwa 128
4.4.2 How to spell unstressed final /erl 128
4.4.3 The three ways to spell stressed /erl t29
4.5 Teaching the topics of chapter 4 to students of ESOL r30
Notes 131
Wrap-Up Exercises 132
5
Chapter Vowels 135
5.1 Vowels, broadly and narrowly 135
5.2 How to make vowels: Tongue and lip position 136
5.3 Other vowels, other languages t31
vill CONTENTS
5.4
Stressed vowels 139
5.4.1 Low lo,l and lal 140
5.4.2 Mid and high vowels: Tense li e o tl versus
laxheucl r4l
5.4.3 Full diphthongs: /ai oi au/ 145
5.4.4 Uh, er . . . : The lax vowels lN and lerl 147
5.5
Unstressed vowels: The schwa zone 150
5.6 Shifting vowels make the dialect 152
5.6.1 Low back problems r52
5.6.2
Vowel breaking 153
5.6.3
Diphthongs on the move 154
5.6.4
Smootheddiphthongs r54
5.6.5 Lexical incidence: "You say tomayto and I say
tomahto . . ." 155
5,7
Rules and regularities 156
5.8
Other analyses of English vowels 159
5.9 Teaching pronunciation: Vowels and consonants l6l
Notes t63
Wrap-Up Exercises r64
Chapter 6 Consonants 169
6.1
Consonants and syllable position r69
6.2 Types of consonants 17l
6.2.1 Voicing t7l
6.2.2
Place of articulation 172
6.2.3
Manner of articulation t75
6.2.4
Secondarymodifications 176
6.3 English consonant phonemes 171
6.4
Consonants that can behave like vowels 178
6.4.1 Liquids: /s and rs 178
6.4.2
Nasals 182
6.4.3 Goin's'llabic
184
6.5
Stops 185
6.5.1
Stops and VOT 186
6.5.2
Stops that flap 189
