My owners think this is coffee...
Hello and happy 2013 everyone! I hope you're in a better mood this January than poor Jeff in the picture, it seems he's fallen off the wagon again - some things never change...
So, what's this post all about then?
Pre-fortis clipping is the shortening effect that fortis (voiceless) consonants have on the preceding vowel or sonorant consonant / m, n, ŋ, j, w, r, l / in a word. Consider the minimal pairs in this sentence:
The sad dog sat in the dock and poured the port in his cup.
- sad / sat
- dog / dock
- poured / port
Read them aloud. Did you notice that the first word in each pair has a slightly longer vowel sound than the second? This is because of the shortening effect of the following fortis consonant. I realise that this is minimal but it could help you solve problems like this in class:
Problem:
 |
| Rude Dog... and the Dweebs! |
Lizz: Vanessa, what's your favourite animal?
Vanessa: A dock.
Lizz: What? Like Donald?
Vanessa: No. A dock. Like Rude Dock.
Lizz: Not 'doK', 'doG'!
Vanessa: That's what I said!
Now, just shouting 'doG' at Vanessa and hoping she'll catch on isn't going to help. The two things she needs to know are:
- The /ɡ/ at the end of 'dog' is not fully voiced and therefore should not be emphasised as such. Word final voiced consonants in English tend not to keep full voice - we don't say 'baG', 'fooD' or 'huB'. If you need to transcribe this devoiced /ɡ/, use a small empty circle below it /dɒɡ̥/.
- In order to make the distinction between 'dog' and 'dock' clear, you need to try and lengthen the vowel in 'dog'.
Practice Exercises
- Practise by over-emphasizing the lengthening before the voiced consonant then go shorter and shorter until it sounds natural.
- Then see whether your student can hear the difference; insert one word from your minimal pairs in the sentence below and ask them to point at the word you say.
I'm going to say _______ again.
e.g. I'm going to say dock again / I'm going to say dog again.
- Using the same phrase, change over; the student reads, you guess.
Minimal pairs
- made / mate wade / weight aid / ate
- bag / back wag / whack Jag / Jack
- hob / hop rib / rip cub / cup
- flung / flunk felled / felt grand / grant punned / punt
