I was braying all day on Sunday - aspiration and voiceless consonant clusters

Bassam: I spent my weekend braying*.

Lizz: Oh, why's that?

Bassam: Because of my religion.

Lizz: Oh, er, do donkeys feature a great deal in your religion?

Bassam: Eh?

I'm braying and praying baby!

* Cute donkey braying

Now, although I absolutely love the mental image of my serious business student spending the weekend dressed as a donkey and braying, this is clearly not what he meant. The phonetic problem here is two-fold:

1. The /p/ pronounced without aspiration and therefore sounding to an English ear like /b/
2. The following /r/ remaining voiced in its articulation.

Aspiration

Aspiration is the little puff of air from the glottis, which is released when the lips are parted in the production of an English /p/. In fact, all voiceless English plosives /p t k/ are aspirated. Try saying 'pin, tin, kin' and notice the little release of air that follows the consonant before the onset of the vowel.

In many of the world's languages /p/ is pronounced without aspiration. The result to an English ear is what sounds like our /b/. Try it for yourself, again say 'pin, tin, kin' but try not to release the puff of air. You'll probably end up with something similar to 'bin, din, gin' (/ɡɪn /, not the drink, that is). Unfortunately, this can cause heavily accented English in speakers and some confusion for those on the receiving end.

Approximants following voiceless English plosives

The second problem with Bassam's production was that the /r/ following the /p/ remained voiced. This may sound ok to you, but now try saying these words 'pray, pluck, pure, true, tube, twins, cry, cluck, queen, queue'. Hopefully you noticed that the second sound in each word actually loses its voicing since the preceding voiceless consonant, with its aspiration, has a carry-over effect to the normally voiced English approximants /r l j w/.

Practise

Aspiration

First, deal with the aspiration problem. I like to get my student to hold up a piece of A4 paper so that the top edge is about 3cm in front of their mouth. Now they should try to say /p t k/ but think about pushing a little /h/ out after the release. If they do this well, the paper should move. If they're still having problems, encourage them to put a hand on their diaphragm and feel the outward breath at they practise.

TIP: You can turn this into a game if you like. Keep moving the paper further and further from their mouth and see if they can make it move. Have a class competition - but make sure you're ready for all the spit and possible fainting that comes with it!

Consonant clusters

Once they've got to grips with aspiration, start on the consonant clusters:

/pr pl pj tr tw tj kr kl kw kj/

Encourage them to whisper the clusters. You can add to this by making them put a couple of fingers over their glottis to see whether they are producing any vibrations. If they are, the clusters are not correct. Keep practising until there is no vibration present.

TIP: You could get your students to do this in pairs, listening out for any signs of voicing. If the class is particularly friendly, why not get them to feel for vibrations on each other's glottis. If any of your students show signs of strangling their partner, stop the activity*.

Why, you little ****!!

* depending on which student is on the receiving end, of course ;)

Final Steps

Now encourage your students to add the clusters to the words in the list:

 'pray, pluck, pure, true, tube, twins, cry, cluck, queen, queue'. 

Cluster Bingo!

To make this fun, use the words in a game of Bingo. 

1. Get each student to draw a 3x3 grid and choose nine of the words to put into it in any order.
2. Call out the words at random until one student has two lines of three. 
3. They can only win the game if they then read out the words to you with the correct cluster pronunciation and audible aspiration.

 

I hate lice! - Minimal Pairs

Just last week a colleague told me of the following situation:

Abby: What makes you blood boil?

Alex: Lice. I really hate them!

Abby: Oh, erm, perhaps you could pop to Boots in the break, get some shampoo or something... [backing away from Alex]

Alex: ??????

It took a while and a lot of effort on poor Alex's part to explain that he was in fact talking about lies rather than lice and that Abby could therefore return to her normal position free from the fear of catching said lice.

On such an occasion, a minimal pair would save the day.

Say what?????

A minimal pair is two words in a language which differ in respect of one single phoneme. So, chin & gin, gin & Jean, Jean & John and John & job qualify but chin & China, gin & grin, Jean & joint and John & yawn don't. Have a look at the phonemic transcription, I have highlighted the differing phoneme in each pair:


Minimal Pairs

/tʃɪn/ & /dʒɪn/

/dʒɪn/ & /dʒiːn/

/dʒiːn/ & /dʒɒn/

/dʒɒn/ & /dʒɒb/

Non-Minimal Pairs

/tʃɪn/ & /ˈtʃaɪnə/ - another syllable is added as well as the diphthong /aɪ/.

/dʒɪn/ & /ɡrɪn/ - the affricate /tʃ/ is replaced by two singular phonemes /ɡ/ and /r/.

/dʒiːn/ & /dʒɔɪnt/ - the vowel is changed and /t/ added.

/dʒɒn/ & /jɔːn/ - the affricate is replaced and the vowel is changed.

Minimal pairs are incredibly useful in teaching pronunciation. Students will often offer up the pair that they can't distinguish. Going back to an earlier post 'This time next week I'll be lying on a bitch', I'm sure you will have been asked the difference between bitch & beach before, if not that then shit & sheet or cock & Coke. Don't blush, you know it's happened!

On other occasions you'll need to come up with a minimal pair for your student to practice with. This can sometimes be tricky but luckily it's all been done for you! Follow this link Minimal Pair for English RP - John Higgins to find a useful table of minimal pairs to use with your students.

Note, the examples given are minimal pairs for RP speakers but might not be so in your dialect. For example, being a speaker of Northern English, I make no distinction between book & buck and other such cases of /ʌ/ and /ʊ/, where I use /ʊ/ in both.

Practice Exercise

1. Taking chin & gin,  for example, first transcribe them on the board. 
2. Now explain the difference between /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ -  in this case it's a simple voiceless vs. voiced distinction. 
3. Next write up the carrier phrase: 'I'm going to say ________ again.'
4. Number your transcriptions on the board: 1. /tʃɪn/  2. /dʒɪn/
5. Now choose one of the two - don't tell your students which one - and read the carrier phrase at least twice with your chosen variant in the gap: e.g. 'I'm going to say chin again.'
6. Invite students to guess which word you're saying, they must respond with the number not the word.
7. Once you've done this a few times, making sure they've heard plenty of examples of both, get them to try in pairs - or with you if it's a small class.

This can easily become a game with a big class. Perhaps get students to run and slap the word they think you're saying, or put one student in a 'hot seat' and fire minimal pairs at them from a larger group on the board. Whatever you do, don't forget how useful minimal pairs are.

Enjoy!

Tools of the trade - IPA part 2.

So, we've had a quick tour of the consonants, now let's focus on the vowels. This is the vowel quadrilateral found on the IPA. As you can see there are lots of symbols, some will be familiar and others not. Before we get into specific symbols I'll explain how to read this chart.

The shape you can see here is a stylized version of the vowel space within the vocal tract where each one is formed. The figures below should make that a bit clearer.

Labels on the chart

Front - made with the body of the tongue bunched towards the front of the mouth. In reality this is not right at the front. If you start trying to make vowels with the tongue near the teeth, this will result in one of two things... either you'll make a fricative (see IPA part 1.) or end up looking like this...

Fabulous gurning from Les Dawson - legend.

Central - made with the body of your tongue bunched up towards or pulled down away from the roof of your mouth, practice by producing a schwa.

Back - made with the body of your tongue pulled back in the direction of your throat.

Close - the space between the body of the tongue and the roof of the mouth is minimal. However, not close enough to cause friction (see 'fricatives' IPA part 1.)

Mid - more open than close vowels. The jaw moves down slightly to achieve this, unless you are a ventrilaquist - in which case, you are creepy so stop reading my blog!

Open - more open again, but not jaw-swingingly so.

Rounded - produced with rounded lips (circular). These symbols are found to the left of each bullet point at the edge of the chart.

Unrounded - produced with spread lips (wide). The symbols to the right of each bullet point.

To help you think about this, consider the following British English vowels and their labels:

/iː/ close-front unrounded
/ɪ/ close-front unrounded
/e/ close-mid front unrounded
/æ/ open-front unrounded
/ɑː/ open-back unrounded
/ɒ/ open-back rounded
/ʌ/ open-mid unrounded
/ɔː/ open-mid back rounded
/ʊ/ close-back rounded
/uː/ close-back rounded


The more familiar you become with the vowel quadrilateral and the concept of the vowel space, the more able you'll be to correct your students. Whether it's Vlad and the /e, æ/ distinction, Marta with her love of /iː/ or the universal absence of poor old schwa /ə/, helping students with vowels will greatly improve their chances of being understood.

Practice activity

I use a vowel warm up activity with my students (link below), this helps them to feel the position of each vowel in the list above. If they can do this activity in front of a mirror then all the better.

Vowel warm ups

Tools of the trade - IPA part 1.

Have you heard of the IPA? Nope? Well, it could turn out quite useful for you and your students.

The IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet, it's where the phonemic symbols you're used to using come from so you should be familiar with some of it already. The other symbols are useful to learn as you might hear your students pronounce some. So, let's take a tour of the IPA together!

The full IPA Chart (2005)

The bit that I use most with students is the top table of consonants...

How to read the IPA - Consonants

Manner: the left-hand column tells you the type of sound made, let me explain what each label means...

Nasal - air-flow from the lungs comes out through the nose.
Plosive - an closure is made, released with a little exPLOSion and air-flow comes out through the mouth.
Fricative - an obstruction is put in the way of the air stream, which then has to pass through at high speed, making a characteristic whistling/buzzing sound.
Approximant - imagine a vowel masquerading as a consonant, a very close, but not quite touching consonant.
Trill - one of those lovely 'arrrrrriba' sounds when the tongue or lips make a series of beats.
Tap, Flap - like an 'arrrrrriba' but with just one hit of the tongue or bottom lip. (Try saying 'better' in an American accent).
Lateral fricative - a fricative where the air-flow comes over the side of the tongue rather then straight down the middle. (Try saying 'Llandudno' in a Welsh accent).
Lateral approximant - one of those almost-vowels but with the air-flow coming over the side of the tongue again.
Lateral flap - a single fluid tap movement with air released over the side of the tongue.

Place: the top of each column tells you where the sound is made, it starts at the lips and ends at the vocal folds - i.e. front to back.

Bilabial - made with both lips.
Labiodental - made with the bottom lip and top row of teeth.
Dental - made at the teeth.
Alveolar - made at the hard gum ridge behind your top teeth.
Post-alveolar - a bit further back than alveolar.
Retroflex - made by curving your tongue tip back, a bit further back than Post-alveolar. (Try saying 'really' with an Indian accent)
Palatal - made at the middle of the roof of your mouth.
Velar - made at the soft fleshy bit of the roof of your mouth.
Uvular - made slightly further back than velar. (Try using the back of your tongue to make a 'k' sound in an Arabic accent).
Pharyngeal - made by pulling the tongue body back to squeeze the pharynx.
Epiglottal - made at the epiglottis.
Glottal - made at the glottis (the gap between your vocal folds).

• To help you hear what the symbols sound like, have a listen to this interactive IPA chart:

Clickable IPA chart

• When you click on a sound you'll hear it  in initial, medial and final position accompanied by /ɑː/. 
• For example, when you click on /p/ you'll hear /pɑː ɑːpɑː ɑːp/.

Hope this helps you get a better understanding of the IPA. Please note that the information given here is by no means the whole picture. 

Part 2. coming soon...

A wooden SPOON on OXFORD street - Compound Nouns part 2.

One sunny day in 1980 an old tramp was walking down Oxford Street when he happened upon a plastic bag of discarded kitchen tools. He looked inside excitedly and found a wooden spoon, a pie dish, a funnel and a tin can. 'What joy!' he said to himself, yet at the time he didn't know why...

Later that evening the happy tramp bedded down for the night in the doorway of M&S. Stretching his weary body he was pained to see the last button on his jacket pop clean off. 'If only there'd been a needle and thread in that bag,' he thought, 'I could have sewn it back on and saved my poor empty belly from the cold London air'. Sad at such a turn of events he looked to the sky and wept in the light of the moon.

In the morning the tearful tramp awoke to a strange feeling of excitement. He'd dreamt that the moon was a huge button in the sky and that a man, called Mr. Spoon, had adventures there with his friends. Wandering through the streets the tramp played the stories over in his mind and then he had an idea. 'This would make a great TV series!' he thought, 'kids will love it!'... 

... and love it they did for that very day, the tramp got a series commissioned by ITV. The series was called Button Moon and had eight successful years on telly. And the tramp? He now lives in a huge mansion with 80s TV legend, Pat Sharp.

We've been to Button Moon,
We've followed Mr. Spoon,
Button Moon. Button Moon.

So, here we are, Compound Nouns part 2. Last time I went through the typical stress pattern for compound, the first element. Now let's look at the exceptions.

In the true story above try to find the compounds. You should have: wooden spoon, tin can, Oxford Street, doorway and pie dish.

The first two, 'wooden SPOON' and 'tin CAN' are stressed on the second part because the first element describes what the thing is made of. So we don't get 'pie DISH' unless that dish was actually made of pie!

Other compounds that go in this group:

• where the first element is a name: Bermuda TRIANGLE, Euston STATION, London ROAD.
• where the first element is a value: 100% EFFORT, ten pound NOTE, fifty p. PIECE.
• where the second element is 'window': bay WINDOW, sash WINDOW.
• other exceptions include: combine HARVESTER, county COUNCIL, kitchen SINK, trade UNION.

Pat Sharp - confused.

Pat Sharp: Hold on! If the first noun is a name then what's going on with OXFORD Street?

Lizz: Any name with 'Street' is stressed on the first noun.

Pat Sharp: And what about CHRISTMAS cake?

Lizz: 'cake' words are another exception, I'm afraid. CHEESEcake, ECCLES cake, all of them.

Pat Sharp: Anything else?

Lizz: Nope.

Practice exercise

Using the spot the difference from the previous blog post (The green ONE - Compound Nouns part 1.) ask students to find compound nouns following both stress patterns, they should have:

• Compounds stressed on the first element: lighthouse, baseball cap, banana skin, rowing boat, fishing boat, power boat, seagull, seal trip, life ring, litter bin, recycling bin, fishing rod, coastline, ponytail.
• Compounds stressed on the second element: rubber boat, rubber ring, steel drum, cotton T-shirt, wooden mast. 

Follow up with the sitting/standing drill in the previous post.

For those of you who haven't seen the amazing Button Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f20BLJGHNXY

The green ONE! - Compound Nouns part 1.

I’m sure my old professor Michael Ashby won’t mind me pinching his story as this really is the best… It happened in Spain just as the changeover from signing to chip and pin came in.

Michael: How do I work this thing?

Cashier: Use the buttons, Sir.

Michael: Sorry?

Cashier: Push the green ONE.

Michael: (to self) where’s the green ONE? Hmmmm… Ah, the GREEN one.

I find incorrect stress patterns in compound nouns particularly jarring and the rules are really so easy to learn that I thought I’d share them with you, along with a fun activity to do.

So, what is a compound noun?

A compound noun is a noun that is made up of two or more words. In English, most compound nouns are combinations of:

•  NOUN + NOUN (book + case = bookcase)
•  ADJECTIVE + NOUN (white + board = whiteboard)

Other possibilities do exist but are not as frequent, for example:

• PREPOSITION + NOUN (under + ground = underground)
• NOUN + PREPOSITION (check + in = check-in)
• NOUN + VERB (sun + rise = sunrise)

Where does the stress go?

In compound nouns the general rule is to stress the first part, so you get: BOOKcase, WHITEboard, UNDERground, CHECK-in, SUNrise. If you don’t like writing this way, simply underline the stress – bookcase, whiteboard etc.

Confusion arises when the second part is also stressed as, in most cases, this is simply a phrase. Consider the following:

Waiter: What can I get you?

Diner: A HOT DOG and some fries, please.

Waiter: This is not that kind of restaurant, get out!

Please don't eat me... whimper whimper...

Other such confusing cases exist, for example GREEN HOUSE and GREENhouse...

You can't grow nowt in a GREEN HOUSE...

...but a GREENhouse will give you plenty.

Tone - practice activity

The examples of HOT DOG and GREEN HOUSE will often be accompanied by a rising tone on the first element, followed by a fall on the second. This is not quite right for compound nouns so try to encourage your students to produce a falling tone from the beginning of the first element. If they can't hear the difference try some physical movement:

• put three chairs in the middle of the classroom and ask for three volunteers.
• the first two students will be 'GREEN' and 'HOUSE', the third will be 'GREENhouse'.
• ask the first two to stand up when they hear their word in the sentence 'You can't grow nowt in a GREEN HOUSE.'
• ask the third student to stand when they hear 'GREEN' and then to sit when they hear 'house' in the clause '...but a GREENhouse will give you plenty.'
• hopefully this visual will help the rest of the class to recognise the pitch movement on 'GREENhouse'.
• follow this up by drilling students in pairs, making them stand up and sit down as they say compound nouns - this could end up in chaos, but if they're really good you can almost get a Mexican wave on the go!
• don't be afraid to try this in a one-to-one class either, I've had a right laugh with it recently.

Spot the difference - practice activity

This activity is designed to get your students thinking about compound nouns and (hopefully) producing the correct stress pattern naturally.

• Give each pair of students a copy of the spot the difference picture below, folded in half so only the left side is visible:

• ask them to describe what they can see in the picture.
• then to find and label as many compound nouns as possible.
• after this, get them to open the paper and 'spot the difference' (discussing the changes should encourage the use of compound nouns).
• monitor and correct any incorrect stress patterns.
• get oral feedback from the class and write up a few sentences on the board, e.g. 'The seagull is eating rubbish in the first picture', 'The seal trip is busy in the second picture'...
• drill the sentences as a class.

You could follow this up with a discussion based on the environmental concerns in the picture. Or find an alternative spot the difference to use and discuss (Google images is great for this).

Answers - compound nouns in the pictures: lighthouse, baseball cap, banana skin, rowing boat, fishing boat, power boat, seagull, seal trip, life ring, litter bin, recycling bin, fishing rod, coastline, ponytail.

Coming soon...

A wooden SPOON on OXFORD street - Compound Nouns part 2.

The sad dog sat in the dock and poured the port in his cup - pre-fortis clipping.

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.

1. sad / sat
2. dog / dock
3. 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:

1. 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/.
2. 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