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IPA-B asedTranscripton for Czech Studentsof English

T.JNWERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE NAKLADATELSTV KARoLINUM PRAHA 2OO3

Contents

Foreword 1'. Introduction1.1. Thepurpose of transcription 1,.2. TheInternational Alphabet ............. Phonetic L3. Basic assumptions 13.1. A reference accent 1,.3.2.Inner variation 1.33. Transcription material 1.3.4. Graphic conventions 7 7 8 :................... 10 10 11 L2 13 1.4 L4 L4 L7 19 21, 22 24 24 28 31. 3L 32 33 34 35 36 37 39 39 42 43 44 45 46 47 47 50 52 54

2. Individual Phonemes- ElementaryExercises .............. 2.L. Vowels 2.1.L. Monopthongs 2.I.2. Diphthongs 2.2. Consonants

2.3. Other symbols in phonemic transcription .......... 2.4. Combined practice

3. Isolated Words 3.1. Frequentvocabularyitems 3,2. Wordswith standardweakforms .......... 3.3. Words with selectedorthographic units 3.3.1. Wordswith theletter'x' ............. 3.3.2. Wordswith theletter'q' ............ 33.3. Wordswith thed.igraph'ch'.......... 33.4. Wordsbeginningwith thegroup 'pro' ......... 3.3.5. Wordswiththedigraphs'ou','au.', and'eu.' 33.6. Wordswith thedigraph'ea' .......... 3.3.7. Words with silent letters 3.4. Words with selectedphanological units 3.4.1. Wordswith the reducedvowel / a / ......... 3.42. Wordswith themid central / s'^ / 3.4.3. Words with the openfront /a/ 3.4.4. Words with the closing diphthong / eu / 3.4.5. Wordswiththevehr nasal /U/ ......... 3.4.6. Words with the dentalfricatives / 0 / and / / 3.5. Well-luown international words 3.5.1. International falsefriends ............. 3.5.2. Tameinternationalwords 3.5.3. Selectedterminologyof phonetic sciences 3.6. Wordswith unusualgrapheme-phonerne espondences corr ..........

4. Phonological Consequences of Morphological Processes

4.I. Progressive assimilation with -s, -es, -'s, and -s' 4.2. Progressive assimilation with'-ed'

4.3. Derivations 5. Connected Speech bound.aries 5.1. Transcriptionwithoutword. 5.2. Linkingphenomena...."......... 5.2.1. Pseudo-resyllabification 5.2.2. Linkingtrl ............ 5.2.3. Intrusive ............. trl 5.2.4. Transient ............. tjl 5.2.5. Transient ........... [*] 53. Assimilation across word bound.aries 6. Allophonic Transcription consonants ......... 6.1. Labialized. 6.2. Vowel duration beforefortis and lenis 6.3. Aspiration andpartial voicing 6.4. Clear fr-l anddark | 1l ............ 6.5. Nasalisation 6.6. Stap releases6.7. Dental alveolars, {ronted velars 6.8. Rich allophonic transcription

55 55 57 59 62 62 63 64 64 65 66 66 67 69 69 70 71. 72 73 73 74 75

7. Answer Key 8. Vocabulary:Non-Elementary Words9. References......

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Introducti.on

L. Introduction1.1. The purpose of transcriptionThe reason for acquiring transcriptionskills has ways been clear to linguists. Their anyses of soundpatternsof a languagewould be impossiblewithout a tool which helps to captureunambiguously what lies behind ephemeracts of speaking.This is clearly reflected position which transcriptionoccupies within university courses throughoutEurope. in the Bloothooft et al. (1999)presenta detailedoverview of Europeantertiaryeducationcurricula ranging in speechcommunication sciences.In numerousand diversespeciized progrunmes only transcription always is from philology throtrgh speechpathologyto speechtechnologies, markedas a core subject, a subjectthatis obligatoryand indispensable. i.e. There are various types of transcription, which fulfil various scientific or didactic requirements. They help to record and later recoveindividual phonetic and phonological units of utteranceswith varyng degreesof precision and detail. Common orthographic systemsof languages not suitablefor the task.They havebeendevelopedto enablepeople are to encodeand decodemeaningsof morphemes words and not to record the exact speech or soundsthat are producedby communicators(Vachek, L942; Mattingly, 1992).Thanks to that, written language can function as a stabilizing factor over regions and centuries. We can understandthe semantic contentsof what was said and recordedin writing in different parts of the country in different times. From this point of view, it is quite irrelevant that it was not pronouncedthe way we speak here and now. If, on the other hand,we want to understandthe logic of historic or dialectalchangein languages, becomesessential.It would transcription be quite complicated to study phonological or phonetic units of a languagewithout having unambiguoussynrbolsfor them. A large area of practic need for transcription is foreign languagelearning. It is selfevdent that many learnerscan advancefaster, if, insteadof strugglingwith incomprehensible chunks of sounds, they can read transcriptionof those sounds. Visu signs can help to accumulate knowledgeof the soundstructure, which, over time, leads to importantconscious and subconscious generalizations essentialfor the learningprocess.kr addition,a learner so who can use transcriptionactively,is not dependent the presenceof the teacher.Minimal on transcription notes facilitate independent practice and make individual work less cumbersome. Even passiveknowledgecan be helpful, if only for betteruse of pronunciation cluesprovidedin dictionaries. Foreign languagemethodologyemphasizesthe role of so called silent models. It is arguedthatmindlessrepetitionof words or phrasesis not as effectiveas a consciouseffort to ponounce somethingconectly with the aid of silent clues and silent feedback.Transcription symbols can serye as such silent clues to a large portion of population. (Some people, unfortunately,cannot make use of abstractsymbols of phonological units. These should have accessto ailernative methodsinsteadof being ruthlessly forced to learn English foom printed materials.) It is very importantto choose a suitable transcriptionsystemfor a particularpurpose. Many Czech publishersand educationalists believethatcrude,to a maximumsimplified set of symbolswill make English transcriptioneasier.Such approachdoes not sen'o anyone.It is clear that if someonecannotmap phonologicalunits onto graphicsymbols,thenthe natureof the syrrbols s not the core of the problem.The price to pay for our uselesssimplification is quitehigb"Primitive transcription to leadsto primitive approaches pronunciation with serous consequences listening skills. English, especiallybecauseof its complex vocic system, for does not lend itself easily to inventori reductions.Fortunately,IPA-based transcription which has been internationallyadoptedfor English is gradually gaining popularity even in our

Transcription CzechStudents English IPA-Based of for country.It is used,for example,in a very good dictionary published by NakladatelstvLidov noviny (Abdlaov et aI.,1998) and in the series of quality teachingmaterialscalled Easy English. It is quite realistic to expect that when IPA-based transcriptionis widely introduced in our countf,thelevel of masteryin Englisb studieswillincfease.

1.2. The International Phonetic AlphabetSince L886, the members of the IPA (International Phonetic Association) have been undertakingcontinuous work on one of their prioritites: to provide a transcription system which could servewide puposes relatedto speechstudies.This transcription systemis called theInternation PhoneticAlphabet (IPA) and it is highly praisedfor being: a) consistent, b) convenient, c) comprehensive. (SeeIPA, L999) ad a ) To create a consistent transcription system one has to try to define important featuresor units in speech events and always use the same symbol to transcribethem. If we discoverthat a voicelessvelar plosive is used in a languageand accepta symbol k for it, we should not transcrbe sometimesas k', while other times as b', bk', bh', o 'q'. This is it preciselywhat the English orthographic systemdoes.k'is usedto spell the initi phonemein king, Korea and kind, but the same phonemeis spelt b' in words such as those denoting the above mentioned IPA principles: consistency, convenience, comprehension. In certain positionsthe lettersbk'are used and they are still pronouncedas a voiceless velar plosive: neck,chicken,cl.ock. The samesoundcan be heardin chemistry, epochal, anddichotonry,but this time it is spelledas 'ch'.In quiet,quality, anduniqueyet anothersymbol is used.As if it were not enough,someof the slmr.bols have found for the voicelessvelar plosive /k/ arc we quitedifferentsounds.The digraphbh'from chemistrystandsfor a voiceless usedto represent postveolar affricate in champion and for a voiceless postalveolar fricative in chef. We can say thatthe English orthographic systemis from thephoneticpoint of view quite inconsistent. (Absolute phonetic consistencyis actually not desirable, as it would hinder rather than simplify everydayuse of written language- seeVachek, 1942 andPinker, L994.) Consistencyis a leading principle in all phonetic and phonological transcriptionsystems. You may be surprisedto find that in older American phonology,male,lal