The difficulty with pronouncing English vowels

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English Pronunciation for CommunicationA
Practical Course for Students of EnglishByWang
GuizhenFaculty of English Language
CultureGuangdong University of Foreign Studies

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Stressed Words Unstressed Words in a Sentence

• What is a syllable?
• A word part and the basic unit of English
  rhythm
• What is a stressed syllable?
• ba NAAAA na
• Syllable 1 Syllable 2
  Syllable 3
• (short) (long) (short)

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Stressed Syllables Unstressed Syllables

• Stressed syllables are strong syllables.
• Unstressed syllables are weak syllables.
• Stressed syllables
• are long
• have a pitch change
• have full vowel sounds.
• Unstressed syllables
• are short
• often have a reduced vowel sound.

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Strong and weak syllables

• The vowel in a weak syllable tends to be shorter,
  of lower intensity and different in quality.
• father the second syllable is shorter than the
  first, is less loud and has a vowel that cannot
  occur in strong syllables.
• bottle the weak second syllable contains no
  vowel at all, but consists entirely of the
  consonant /l/. We call this a syllabic consonant.

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Different types of weak syllables

• The schwa
• a -- attend, character, barracks, again, ballad,
  
• necklace, workaday, workable, elephant
• ar -- particular, molar, monarchy
• ate -- intimate, accurate, desolate
• o -- tomorrow, potato, carrot
• or -- forget, ambassador, opportunity
• e -- settlement, violet, postmen
• er --perhaps, stronger, superman
• u -- autumn, support, halibut
• ough -- thorough, borough
• ous -- gracious, callous

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• Any English vowel letter can be pronounced
  
• with
  the schwa /?/
• allow a
• firemen e
• possible i /?/
• command o
• support u

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4. Sentence stress

• What to stress in a sentence?
• 1.  Information words are usually stressed
  nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
• 2. Unstressed words are usually function words
  like articles, pronouns, possessives,
  prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions.

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• Information words and function words
• Information words nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
  adverbs.
• They give information about who, what, when,
  where, why, how
• They express the main idea or content of the
  phrase or sentence.
• They carry the message and therefore usually
  stressed.

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• Function words
• Unstressed words are usually function words
  like articles, pronouns, possessives,
  prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions.
• These words connect the information words to
  form grammatical sentences.

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• If you stress all the words in an utterance, you
  may sound unpleasant or even cause
  misunderstanding because
• 1. You are giving too much information, and
• 2. English speakers usually stress all words
  only when they are impatient or angry.

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The Distribution of English Stresses

• 1. Form words are typically unstressed.
• 2. Content words are normally stressed.
• 3. Form words are stressed where contrast is
  expressed.
• 4. Any word being repeated is usually not
  stressed.
• 5. No stress on words indicating facts of which
  both
• parties are aware.
• 6. Some words never occurs at all except
  unstressed.
• 7. Stress can be idiomatic or habitual.
• The kettle's boiling.
• The milkman called.
• The phone's ringing.

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• 8. Many stressings are idiomatic.
• 9. Stress expresses different meanings.
• He's back again.
• 10. Further examples
• -- How many times? -- Three times.
• London and districts around London.
• If you want to make good coffee, you must
  use
• plenty of coffee.
• -- I want some money.
• -- You're asking me for money?
• (You must be mad.)
• -- This pen's useless. -- Get a new one,
  then.

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The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

• The tide rises, the tide falls,
• The twilight darkens, the curlew calls
• Along the sea-sands damp and brown
• The traveler hastens toward the town,
• And the tide rises, the tide falls.
•  
• Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
• But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls
• The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
• Efface the footprints in the sands,
• And the tide rises, the tide falls.
•  
• The morning breaks the steeds in their stalls
• Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls
• The day returns, but never more
• Returns the traveler to the shore,
• And the tide rises, the tide falls.

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Thank you.
gzwang_at_mail.gdufs.edu.cn