Inglés

Pronunciation

Topic:
Sounds [ Ɔ]& [oʊ]

Introduction

In this project the reader is going to learn the rules of the pronunciation, specifically with the sounds [Ɔ] & [OU], and the possible pronunciation problems of them. My purpose is to show all the description about them with their common pronunciation problems and to show the solutions for improving the pronunciation. I hope afterread the following pages the reader will be able to have an appropriate oral communication.

General Description Of The Pronunciation

➢ Definition

It is the manner in which someone utters a word or the standard way in which a word is made to sound when spoken; the way in which a person sounds the words of a language when speaking.

➢ Features of pronunciation.

In order tostudy how something works it is often useful to break it down into its constituent parts. The following diagram shows a breakdown of the main features of pronunciation.

▪ Phonemes

Phonemes are the different sounds within a language. Although there are slight differences in how individuals articulate sounds, we can still describe reasonably accurately how each sound is produced. Intranscription, phonemes are placed between slashes / /.

Example:

The word Rat has the phonemes / ræt / if we change the middle phoneme, we get /rɒt/ rot, a different word. If you pronounce /r/ in a slightly different way, the word does not change, and we still understand that we me mean the same thing.

The set of phonemes consists of two categories:

• Vowel Sounds

Vowel sounds are allvoiced. The voiced sounds occur when the vocal cords in the larynx are vibrated. If you are producing a voiced sound, you will feel vibration in the Adam’s apple. By contrast if you are producing a voiceless sound you will not. Vowel sounds may be single sounds like /e/ as in let or in a combination of two sounds like /eɪ/ as in late , this as known as diphthongs. Single vowel sounds may be shortlike / ɪ / as in hit or long sound like /i:/ as in heat.

The following image shows the vibration of the vocal cords in voiced sounds.

Vocal Cords
The following list shows the single vowels and the diphthongs with an example of word in each one.

Vowels are classified in the following way dependingof the position that they are pronounced:

• Front, central and back, depending of the position of the tongue.
• High, middle, and low depending of the position of the jaw.
• Rounded and unrounded, depending of the position of the lips.
• Lax and tense: Some vowels, such as the vowels [i] and [u], are formed with a high degree of tenseness. Such vowels are called tense vowels.Some vowels, such as [ɪ] and [ʊ], are formed without a high degree of tenseness, and are called lax vowels.

This chart shows the classification of the most common vowels and diphthongs in English.

Vowels

Diphthongs

• Consonants Sounds

Consonants sounds may be voiced or voiceless for example the sounds /f/, as in fat, and /v/, as in van. The difference between /f/ and /v/ can beheard putting your top teeth on your bottom lip, breathing out in a continuous stream to produce /f/ and make /v/. Hold your Adam’s apple while doing this and you feel the vibration.

The following list shows the consonant sounds with an example of word in each one.

▪ Suprasegmental Features

Phonemes, as we have seen, are units of sound which we can analyse. They are also known assegments. Suprasegmentals features, as the name implies, are features are the features of speech which generally apply to groups of segments, or phonemes. The features which are important in English are Stress, intonation, and how sounds change in connected speech.

• Stress

Stress refers to the amount of volume that a speaker gives to a particular sound, syllable, or word while saying it....