British English Phonetic Transcription

185 Pages·2021·22.515 MB·English

by  Paul Carley, Inger M. Mees

BRITISH ENGLISH PHONETIC

TRANSCRIPTION
British English Phonetic Transcription provides an accessible introduction to
phonemic, phonetic and intonational transcription with a focus on British
English. Featuring exercises, revision tasks and recordings to help students
gain hands- on practice, the book takes a learning-b y- doing approach and
ensures students gain practice using each new symbol or concept introduced
before moving on to the next. Consisting of three parts, the book covers:
• transcribing individual words, including consonants, vowels, primary
stress, secondary stress, syllabic consonants and inflections;
• transcribing phrases and sentences, including liaison, weak forms, elision
and assimilation;
• transcribing intonation, including the structure of English intonation
and recognising pitch patterns.
Ideally suited as a standalone workbook or for use alongside American
English Phonetic Transcription, British English Phonetic Transcription is key
reading for undergraduate students of linguistics as well as anyone teaching
or learning English as a foreign language.
Paul Carley has held posts at the University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, the
universities of Bedfordshire and Leicester, UK, and the Fakeeh College for
Medical Sciences, Jeddah. He is a regular lecturer on the UCL Summer Course in
English Phonetics and an examiner for the International Phonetic Association.
Inger M. Mees is Associate Professor Emeritus at the Copenhagen Business
School and a part-t ime lecturer in the Department of English, Germanic and
Romance Studies, Copenhagen University. She has formerly held lectureships
at the universities of Leiden and Copenhagen. She is on the academic staff of
the UCL Summer Course in English Phonetics.

BRITISH ENGLISH

PHONETIC
TRANSCRIPTION
Paul Carley and Inger M. Mees
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Paul Carley and Inger M. Mees
The right of Paul Carley and Inger M. Mees to be identified as authors of this work
has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Carley, Paul (Linguist), author. | Mees, Inger M., author.
Title: British English phonetic transcription / Paul Carley and Inger M. Mees.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020051806 (print) | LCCN 2020051807 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367441364 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367441371 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003007890 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: English language– Phonetic transcriptions. |
English language– Transcription.
Classification: LCC PE1135.C275 2021 (print) |
LCC PE1135 (ebook) | DDC 421/ .58– dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2020051806
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2020051807
ISBN: 9780367441364 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367441371 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003007890 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
Access the Support Material: paulcarley.com
To Jack Windsor Lewis, a great phonetic mind and a dear phonetic friend.

CONTENTS

Symbols for phonemic transcription xiii

Phonetic symbols and diacritics xiv

The International Phonetic Alphabet xvi

Preface and acknowledgements xvii

Before you start transcribing… xix

PART A
Transcribing words 1

1 The familiar consonants / p b t d k ɡ f v s z h m n w l r/
and the vowels /​ɪ æ e ɒ ʌ ʊ/ 3
1.1 Consonants with familiar symbols 3
1.2 The kit /ɪ / vowel 4
1.3 The trap /æ / vowel 5
1.4 The dress / e/ vowel 5
1.5 The lot /ɒ / vowel 6
1.6 The strut /ʌ / vowel 7
1.7 The foot /ʊ / vowel 7
1.8 Chapter revision 8
2 Primary stress, schwa / ə/ and unstressed kit /ɪ / 9
2.1 Word stress 9
2.2 Schwa /ə / 9
2.3 The unstressed kit /ɪ / vowel 11
2.4 Variation between schwa /ə / and kit /ɪ / 11
2.5 Chapter revision 12
viii Contents
3 Consonants with unfamiliar symbols / ʃ ʒ ʧ ʤ j ŋ θ ð / 13
3.1 The unfamiliar consonant / ʃ / 13
3.2 The unfamiliar consonant / ʒ / 13
3.3 The unfamiliar consonant / ʧ / 14
3.4 The unfamiliar consonant / ʤ / 14
3.5 The unfamiliar consonant / j/ 15
3.6 The unfamiliar consonant / ŋ / 15
3.7 The unfamiliar consonants / θ / and / ð / 16
3.8 Chapter revision 17
4 The FLEECE / i / and G OOSE / u / vowels 18
4.1 The F LEECE / i / vowel 18
4.2 The unstresːsed F LEECE / i / vːowel 19
ː
4.3 The G OOSE / u / vowel 20
ː
4.4 The unstressed G OOSE / u / vowel 21
ː
4.5 Chapter revision 22
ː
5 The PALM / ɑ / , T HOUGHT / ɔ / , N URSE / ɜ / and
SQUARE / ɛ / vowels 23
5.1 The P ALM ː/ ɑ / vowel 23 ː ː
5.2 The T HOːUGHT / ɔ / vowel 24
ː
5.3 The NURSE / ɜ / vowel 26
ː
5.4 The S QUARE / ɛ / vowel 27
ː
5.5 Chapter revision 27
ː
6 The FACE / eɪ / , P RICE / aɪ / and C HOICE / ɔɪ / vowels 29
6.1 The F ACE / eɪ / vowel 29
6.2 The P RICE / aɪ / vowel 30
6.3 The CHOICE / ɔɪ / vowel 30
6.4 F ACE / eɪ / , P RICE / aɪ / and C HOICE / ɔɪ / before vowels 31
6.5 Chapter revision 31
7 The GOAT / ə ʊ / and M OUTH / a ʊ / vowels 33
7.1 The G OAT / ə ʊ / vowel 33
7.2 The MOUTH / a ʊ / vowel 34
7.3 GOAT / ə ʊ / and M OUTH / a ʊ / before vowels 34
7.4 Chapter revision 35
8 The NEAR /ɪ ə / and C URE / ʊ ə / vowels 36
8.1 The N EAR /ɪ ə / vowel 36
8.2 The C URE / ʊ ə / vowel 37
8.3 Diphthong revision 37
Contents ix
9 Syllabic consonants 39

9.1 Syllabic consonants 39
9.2 Syllabic / l/ 40
9.3 Syllabic / n/ 41
9.4 Sequences of syllabic consonants 43
9.5 Syllabic / m/ and /ŋ / 43
9.6 Desyllabification 43
9.7 Chapter revision 44
10 Secondary stress 45

10.1 Secondary stress before the primary stress 45
10.2 Secondary stress after the primary stress 47
10.3 Word- stress pairs 49
10.4 Sequences of unstressed syllables 50
10.5 Stressing of compounds 51
10.6 Chapter revision 52
11 Inflections and epenthesis 54

11.1 The - ed inflection 54
11.2 The - s inflection 56
11.3 Epenthesis 58
11.4 Optional consonants 59
11.5 Chapter revision 59
PART B
Transcribing connected speech 61

12 Connected speech and liaison 63

12.1 Introducing connected speech 63
12.2 Liaison 65
12.3 Analogical / r/ - liaison 66
12.4 Liaison in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
(TEFL) 67
12.5 Chapter revision 68
13 Stress and weak forms 69

13.1 Transcribing stress in connected speech 69
13.2 Weak forms and contractions 70
13.3 Weak forms and contractions: personal pronouns 70
13.4 Weak forms and contractions: possessive adjectives 72
13.5 Weak forms and contractions: articles and quantifiers 73
13.6 Weak forms and contractions: prepositions 74