Concepts in

Pronunciation

Stephen van Vlack

 Foreword
This book is written with Korean students in mind. There
are many comments included which deal concretely with the
Korean language and target some of the problems which Korean
students, in particular, have when learning English pronunciation.
The book is intended for classroom use with a native speaker of
English, but it is possible for the student to work with the book
alone.
The concepts provided in this book are intended to help
the student better understand the mechanisms of human speech.
This includes Korean as well as English. It is, therefore, not out
of the realm of possibility for the student to actually improve
their Korean pronunciation as well as their English by using this
book.
Try to have fun with it and never stop experimenting with
sounds.
 Table of Contents
Page #

Part 1 - The Vocal Process 2

Part 2 - Sounds and Articulation 11

Consonant Sounds 11
Stop Consonants 12
Fricative Consonants 20
Nasal Consonants 31
A Special Fricative 35
Affricate Consonants 39
Glide Consonants 44
Lateral Consonants 48

Vowel Sounds 53
Front Vowels 55
Back Vowels 60
Central Vowels 64
Diphthongs 68

Part 3 - Stress 72
Word-level Stress 72
Sentence-level Stress 75

Part 4 - Intonation 76
Quizzes 77
Quiz 1 77
Quiz 2 79
Quiz 3 81

Appendix 82
 Introduction
Goals
This book has two purposes. The first one is to get the
students to pronounce English better. The second goal is to give
the students the ability to turn around and teach pronunciation
effectively to their own students. In order to do this, the
students must learn some of the basic underlying principals
which guide pronunciation, and English pronunciation in
particular. The concepts the students learn in this course will
enable them to think in a very concrete way about what actually
occurs as they make sounds. By learning the IPA (International
Phonetic Alphabet), hopefully their knowledge of pronunciation
will be converted from a more passive into a more active state
and that is exactly what we need to be effective teachers.
A large part of what I want students to do in this course is
to play with sounds. I hope that this book, and the course
designed to compliment it will give the students the chance to
play with their voices. By using and viewing pronunciation in a
different light, they should acquire a better feel for the
mechanisms that are used in the vocal process and hopefully
find their English voice.

Point of View
There are many different aspects of phonetics. For the
purposes of this course we are going to focus on very basic
sound in meaning. That means that we are not going to go into
excessive little details of pronunciation. Instead, we are going to
look at sound patterns that change meaning in English or those
which are necessary for intelligible pronunciation. The
transcriptions the students will encounter, and will ultimately be
responsible for producing, are what is called broad transcription.
The dialect we will be looking at is SAE (Standard American
English) or something as close to that as possible. On occasion,
interesting facts will be made about other dialects and particular
points will be pointed out.
In general, to lessen confusion we will not be looking at
allophones, or different phonemes that hold the same meaning.
We will also be looking at more rapid forms of speech to a
smaller extent. In no way is this book intended to be a definitive
text on English phonetics. The book will just scratch the surface
of this immensely interesting field.

Organization
The book is organized into several sections. The two main
sections cover the sounds themselves. After an introduction of
how sounds are made, the sounds are broken into consonants
and vowels. Consonant sounds are grouped according to their
manner of articulation. Vowel sounds are divided according to
their place of articulation. Lastly, there are some very short
sections on some of the higher level phonetic peculiarities of
English, like tense and intonation which are followed by an
appendix. The appendix includes information on some Korean
phonetic features.
 Part 1
The Vocal Process
Turning air into sound
How sound is made is really quite simple. Sound begins with air.
Air is pumped out of the lungs and into your larynx, a pipe in your throat.
As the air moves up the larynx, it moves through your voice box. Your
voice box is that lump which sticks out on your neck. It is larger for men
than for women.
Children have small
voice boxes.

It is in the
voice box that air is
first changed into
sound. Air enters the
voice box and moves
across the vocal cords.
Your vocal cords are
stringy muscles
which are stretched
across the inside of
your voice box. As
the air moves across
the vocal cords,
friction is created
which creates sound.
Air flow out of the
voice box is
controlled by the
vocal folds, muscles which cover the voice box and are able to open or
close. Think of the vocal folds as two doors which, when open, allow air to

2
pass and when closed stop the flow of air.
Once the air gets out of the voice box it winds up in one of two
places; the mouth or the nasal cavity. Often, it goes to both. Where the air
goes is determined by the uvula. When the uvula is lowered, air passes into
the nasal cavity and out the nose. When the uvula is raised, air flow to the
nose is blocked and it must move through the mouth alone.

Articulators
Inside the mouth, there are many parts which determine exactly
how a particular sound is made. These are called articulators. The most
important articulator is the tongue. What part of the mouth the tongue
touches determines which sound will be made. The lips are also important
articulators. It is important to remember that the articulators in our
mouths are able to move. A good definition for articulators would be the
parts of the mouth which move around or touch other parts in order to
create specific sounds.

3
Classifying sounds
Sounds are classified based on two different criteria; Manner of
Articulation and Place of Articulation. Manner of Articulation refers to
how the flow of air is controlled during the process of making a sound.
For example, is the flow of air stopped or somehow impeded? The vocal
folds are the most important factor in determining Manner of
Articulation (MOA). Place of Articulation (POA) refers to what the
articulators are doing as the sound is being made. Usually we are
concerned with what part of the mouth they are touching or where they
are located. The tongue is the most important factor in determining Place
of Articulation (POA).

4
Sound Groupings Based on MOA.

Consonant Sounds - In these sounds the vocal folds are not completely
open and the flow of air is somehow restricted.
Stop - In these sounds the vocal folds are entirely closed before the sound
is made. Air pushes against the closed vocal folds until the pressure
becomes too great and forces them open. The vocal folds burst
open releasing a large amount of air and then close again slowly.
Fricative - In these sounds the vocal folds are open, but only slightly. Air
flow is halted but never completely stopped. The small opening in
the vocal folds causes a large amount of friction in the voice box
and that is why these sounds are called fricatives.
Nasal - These are sounds in which the uvula is lowered causing the air to
move through the nasal cavity instead of the mouth. Both fricative
consonants and vowels can be nasal, but there are no nasal vowels
in Standard American English.
Affricate - These sounds are a mix of two sounds; one stop and one
fricative, and share elements of both. Affricates begin with the
vocal folds closed. As the air begins to put pressure on them, they
open up slightly and the air is allowed to escape. There is no
explosion of air, as in stop sounds.
Glide - The flow of air is almost completely free. For this reason these
sounds are sometimes called `Semi-vowels`. They differentiate
themselves by having some sort of movement going on inside the
mouth.
Lateral - These sounds also fall under the Semi-vowel classification but are
different because the air moves along the sides of the tongue.

Vowel Sounds - These sounds have no obstruction of the air flow. This
means that the vocal folds are completely open as the sounds are made.

5
Sound Groupings Based on POA.
Bi-labial - These sounds are made using both lips. The lips are either closed
completely and open up or are rounded, like you are kissing
something a little bit far away from you.
Labio-dental - In these sounds the upper teeth are touching the lower lip.
Inter-dental - The tip of the tongue sticks out from between the two
front teeth.
Dental - The tip or front of the tongue touches the back of the teeth as
the sound is made.
Alveolar - The front of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge as the sound
is made.
Palatal - In these sounds, the middle of the tongue is pushed up again the
palate.
Velar - The back of the tongue pushes against the uvula in these sounds.
Glottal - These sounds are articulated in the glottis, the space between the
two vocal folds. A very small opening in the glottis allows for a
small puff of air to escape. As the air escapes it creates friction
which makes the sound.

Consonant Chart
It is helpful to put all 24 consonant sounds of English into a single
chart. That way we get look at how the sounds are grouped. It is easy to
tell which ones are similar and which ones are very different.
Below is a chart which shows the Manner and Place of Articulation for
Standard American English (SAE) consonant sounds.

6
 Stop Fricative Nasal Affricate Glide Lateral
+voice -voice +voice -voice +voice +voice -voice +voice +voice

Bi-labial b p m w

Labio- v f
dental

Inter-  
dental

Dental d t

Alveolar z s n l

Palatal     j r

Velar g k 

Glottal h

7
One last Point: Voicing
As shown in the chart above, voicing is one of the most important
features of English pronunciation. Voicing is when your vocal folds vibrate
during articulation (the moment when you make a sound). If you put
your hand on your voice box as you make a voiced sound like /v/, you
should feel a strong vibration in your throat. That is voicing. Sounds that
have voicing are said to be +voice. Sounds with no voicing (the vocal folds
do not vibrate) are called -voice.
Because voicing is so important in English, you must make sure
you master this simple process. You must be able to hear differences in
voiced sounds and also be able to control voicing in your own
pronunciation. Practice a lot if you have any problems.

IPA Consonant Symbols and Their Sounds

IPA Dictionary English Examples
Symbol Symbol

/p/ p pay, apple, stop

/b/ b bat, rabbit, tub
/t/ t top, cutter, cat
/d/ d dog, ladder, bed
/k/ k car, cookie, cake
/g/ g go, begin, egg
/f/ f fun, office, scoff
/v/ v very, savory, have
// th think, bathtub, month
/ð/ th these, father, breathe
/s/ s sit, whisper, kiss
/z/ z zoo, busy, buzz
// sh shoe, luscious, wish

8
// zh rouge, vision, measure
/h/ h hat, behind
/m/ m me, sophomore, slum
/n/ n no, running, gun
//  swing, singer, swimming
// ch chair, catcher, witch
// j jaw, magic, age
/w/ w we, away
/j/ y yes, emulate
/l/ l lamp, pillow, pull
/r/ r red, marry, car

IPA Vowel Symbols and Their Sounds

IPA Dictionary English Examples
Symbol Symbol

/i/  me, sea, deed

// i or  bit, skin, win
/e/  ate, fate, they
// e or  bet, head, egg
/æ / a or  fat, happy, at
// a or  pot, father, slobber
// ur herb, first, urchin
// r father, after, further
// u or  up, come, slum
//  America, Korea, upon

9
/u/  soon, you, rule
// oo or  book, put, should
/o/  no, open, own
//  dog, all, caught

Diphthongs

/o/  open, own, no

/e/ y fate, they, hey
// ou cow, out, ouch
//  hi, fire, pie
// oi noise, coy, oil

10
 Part 2
Sounds and Articulation
There are two main types of sounds in English; consonants and vowels.
They can be differentiated mainly in their manner of articulation.
Consonants occur with some sort of stopping or at least some slowing
down of the air flow. This means that the vocal folds do not remain
completely open as we make a consonant sound. In consonants, the vocal
folds somehow impede the flow of air. Vowels, on the other hand, are
produced with no halting or impeding of the flow of air. The vocal folds
are completely opened and air moves with no restrictions.

Consonant Sounds

There are 24 consonant sounds in Standard American English.

Because sound systems, are above all, systematic, it is important to know
how and where they are made in the mouth. Look for patterns that repeat
themselves. It is important that you be able to group certain sounds
together. This should make it easier for you to be able to understand and
feel how sounds are interrelated. If you can make one sound in a group
well, then you must be able to make the others well as long as you can
understand the system of similarities and differences. Have fun with this.

11
 Stop (Plosive) Consonants
/p/ and /b/ /t/ and /d/ /k/ and /g/

Stops, for the most part, are not that difficult for speakers of Korean. All
the same sounds are found in Korean, but voicing is a problem. Korean
stops come in groups of three and are differentiated by laryngealization1
and aspiration while English stops come in pairs differentiated by voicing.
Be careful to acquire the differences in English. Remember, even though
the stop sounds in Korean are similar, they are not the same. Try to
pronounce the sounds carefully.

Articulation
Stops are made with a series of movements in the voice box.
1. When you get ready to make a stop sound your vocal folds close tight.
2. Your tongue and lips (articulators) move into the correct position for
the sound you want to make.
3. Air is pushed into the voice box. Pressure builds on the vocal folds.
4. The vocal folds respond to the pressure and burst open, releasing a very
short rush of air.2

1
Laryngealization is also known as creaky voice. It is believed to be a
specific type of voicing but don`t let that confuse you. It sounds a little like
an old dirty door closing slowly. Think about Korean and which words might
be made using this creaky voice. You should be able to feel creaky voice in
your voice box.
2
This is where the word plosive comes from. In stops, the air pops out
of the voice box violently like an explosion. It might be helpful to think of
these sounds as sounds which include an explosion of air.

12
5. The vocal folds slam closed again, thus stopping the flow of air.

Voicing Review
When the vocal folds, not the vocal cords (The vocal cords always
vibrate. That is how sound is made.), vibrate during articulation, we call
this voicing. Sounds that include voicing are called voiced sounds (+voice).
If a sound has no voicing, it is called voiceless (-voice). All consonants are
either voiced or voiceless and the difference is often very important. All
vowels in English are voiced.
An interesting thing to note is that voiced sounds are quite a bit
louder than voiceless sounds. This should help you in recognizing them
when you listen to English.
For practice, it is good to be able to feel the voicing. The easiest
way is to simply put your fingers, gently, on your voice box and see what
you can feel as you talk. You should be able to feel the voicing turn on
and off as you make certain sounds. If you cannot feel this, or you feel
yourself voicing sounds you should not be voicing, then try to speak more
slowly and carefully and see what you can feel. If it feels good, it should
sound good. Feeling is believing.

Sounds
The stop consonants in English can be thought of as occurring in
three pairs. Each of the pairs share the same place of articulation. This
means your tongue or lips should be in the same position when you make
both a /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, and /k/ and /g/ sound.

-voice +voice Place of Articulation

/p/ /b/ These are bi-labial sounds. Your lips should be

together.
Examples: please /pliz/, stop /stp/, and slip /slp.
blouse /bls/, and dribble /drbl

13
/t/ /d/ These are dental-alveolar sounds. The tip or
blade of the tongue can either touch the back
of the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge or
both.
Examples: to /tu/, take /tek/, and foot /ft/
door /dr/, food /fud/, and fodder /fd/

/k/ /g/ These are velar sounds. The back of the

tongue moves back to touch the upper part
of the velum.
Examples: clink /klk/, couch, /k/, and lock /lk/
greet /grit/, leg /lg/, and logger /lg/

Differentiating Pairs
The most obvious way in which the pairs of sounds are different is
voicing. There are, however, some other ways of differentiating pairs.
Aspiration occurs in voiceless stops when they are the first sound in a word.
Aspiration is basically an extra puff of air.
Compare these words: peas and bees /piz/, /biz/
try and dry /tr/, /dr/
coo and goo. /ku/, /gu/
When you say these words you should put your hand or dangle a piece of
paper in front of your mouth. You should see the piece of paper move
with the aspirated sounds. With some practice you should be able to feel
the difference in your mouth.
Try saying these pairs of sentences being very careful of aspiration:
Please, put the pudding in the pot.
/pliz pt  pd n  pt/
But the bad boy wouldn`t budge.
/bt  b d b wont b/
Try to take it easy with that toy.
/tra t tek t izi w  t t/

14
 Dennis, do not make my drink too dry.
/dns du nt mek m drnk tu dr/
Colleen, can`t you husk that corn in the kitchen?
/klin k nt ju hsk  t krn n  kn/
Go and get the gown you`re going to wear.
/go nd gt  gn jor go tu wr/
Releasing is a way to tell the difference between pairs when they come at
the end of a word. The basic rule is that voiceless stops are unreleased when
they happen at the end of the word. If a sound is left unreleased this means
that your lips and tongue move into the correct position to make the
sound, but the explosion of air never happens. The sound is never really
made because the air that is being held behind the vocal folds is not
released.

Compare these word pairs: tap and tab /t p/, /t b/

pot and pod /pt/, /pd/
buck and bug /bk/, /bg/

The last sound of the first word should be left unreleased. In the second
word all the sounds should be released.3 Practice saying words with the last
sound both released and unreleased.
When stop sounds occur in the middle of a word, they are neither
aspirated nor unreleased. Look at the following words:
bubble, puppy /bbl/, /ppi/
waddle, otter /wdl/, t/
wagon, welcome. /w gn/, /wlkm/

3
Remember, unreleased word-final stops are not part of all dialects of
English. They are, however, part of SAE. North Americans, even in quite
formal situations, will usually not release word-final voiceless stops. If you
want to speak very carefully or if you are angry you will release all sounds
completely.

15
Review and Practice: Stops
Answer the following questions.
1. Which stop sounds are made furthest forward in the mouth?
________________

2. Which ones are made furthest back? ________________

3. What vibrates when we make voiced sounds? ________________

4. Which articulators do we need to make stop sounds?

________________

5. What are the three ways of differentiating pairs of stops?

________________

Practice for Fun

The Stop Song

There are many ways that you can practice stop sounds. One of the
best ways to practice pronunciation is to sing. In order to practice stops
you do not sing songs in a normal way. You have to sing special songs.
Here`s how.
Take any song you like. It does not matter if the words are in
English or Korean or any other language, because you are going to replace
the normal lyrics with sounds. Instead of signing the regular words sing
stop sounds instead. So, for example, if you like the song Strangers in the
Night, sing bupubupubu instead of the normal words. Simply replace all
the words with /p/ or /b/, or any other pair of stops you want to practice.
Make sure you keep the rhythm of the song, but simply insert your
favorite pair of stops and sing only those sounds.
It will be very hard at first to be able to distinguish the two sounds,
or to make them sound different when you sing quicky, but if you keep
on trying you will get the feel for it. Concentrate on the voicing. Keeping

16
you fingers on your voice box to feel for vibration as you sing will help
you develop a better feel for what is going on inside your mouth as you
are doing this. Try to have fun with it.

Some Tongue Twisters

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of
pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

The beastly boys of the barnyard were busy bouncing rubber balls on their
bare bottoms.

Betty tripped on her baby`s rubber buggy bumper and fell into a
tremendous bunch of beets.

Darren, the dog-training dingbat, dared Donna to drink all the liquid
dynamite Dougal left lying on the round table.
To touch the top of the toupee that Teddy always took with him to the
track was Tom`s terrific fantasy.

The cotton that Cornelius got to kill the cockroach in the cupboard got
caught in the catch of the doorknob as he was running to enter the
kitchen.

Cornelius was confounded by the incomplete comfort of the couch so he

couldn`t catch a wink of sleep that night.

The garbage that Gill was going to take to the game was composed of gum
wrappers, chicken guts and gizzards, and goop from his dog`s kitchen.

17
Dialogues

Pete: Pauline, pass the pepper.

Pauline: Isn`t it proper to say `please` when you want the pepper?
Pete: OK, please pass the pepper.
Pauline Impossible
Pete: Impossible, please tell me why?
Pauline: I`m feeling peculiar today and just want to be a pain.

Betty: Bill, do you have a better way for basting beef than with this thin
tube?
Bill: Betty, you boob. Nobody bastes beef.
Betty: What are you blabbering about?
Bill: Beef, it`s never been basted. Never has been, never will be.
Betty: But it says in my book to baste the beef.
Bill: That can`t be right.
Betty: It`s the complete truth.
Bill: No, look, it says to marinate the beef, not baste it.

Todd: To be or not to be? That is tough question that I ask of me.

Tabitha: Todd, what in tarnation are you doing?
Todd: Isn`t it completely obvious, Tabitha?
Tabitha: No, Todd, I`m afraid it isn`t.
Todd: Well, I will tell you. Is it not true that I am an actor extra
ordinaire?
Tabitha: An actor, yes. Extra ordinaire, don`t kid yourself.
Todd: Doubters. But I will not let you tempt me away from my
enticing new rendition of Hamlet.
Tabitha: Ah, is that what you were trying to do; Hamlet? It sounded
more like a huge ham to me .

Dave: Debs, have you seen a dirty dog around here?

18
Debs: Actually, yes. A tremendously dirty dog just ran by around thirty
seconds ago.
Dave: Was the dog doing anything strange? Did it look dangerous?
Debs: No, it was just doing what dogs usually do. Why do you want to
know?
Dave: I have a new job. I am the town`s new dog catcher. I have a dozen
dirty dogs that I have to capture toady or I`m dead. Now where did
that damned dirty dog disappear to?

Kyle: Could you get those chickens in the coop. It`s cold.
Kath: What`s the big deal Kyle? The chickens won`t freeze.
Kyle: No, but if we leave them out the coyotes will certainly kill them.
Kath: Chickens killed by coyotes might be contaminated.
Kyle: Could you explain that, Kath?
Kath: Of course, Kyle. Coyotes carry cooties which can kill humans, Kyle.
Kyle: Kath, How could cooties from coyotes kill?
Kath: Quite easily, Kyle. Can`t you consider the concept of
contamination?
Kyle: No, Kath. I can`t.

Gill: Oh my God, Gwen, have you gotten your gums cleaned lately?
Gwen: Of course, Gill. The cleaning of the gums is a great way to glean
good health. Why?
Gill: Well, gosh. How can I say this? Gwen, I think your gums are no
good. They are gushing blood.
Gwen: Gushing blood? That`s no good. What am I gonna do?
Gill: Well, Gwen, that`s easy. Go to the gum doctor. You`re a lucky girl,
your cousin is a dentist. She has gums like a goat. Go see her.
Gwen: Wow Gill, you`re a great friend. I`m glad I got to see you today.
But, please don`t look at me so goo-goo eyed.
Gill: Oh Gwen, you know I`m gaga over you.
Gwen: Oh, Gill, forget about that. My gums, they`re gushing blood,
remember?

19
Gill: Oh gosh, I almost forgot. Hurry, let`s go. Swing it.

IPA Practice
Put the following into standard English orthography.

/bbl/ /krik/
/drv/ /hrb/
/psn/ /hrt/
/grms/ /hd/
/trki/ /slp/
/kri/ /slg/

Fricative (Continuant) Consonants

// and // /f/ and /v/ /s/4 and /z/ // and //5

Fricatives are tough for Korean speakers. Korean has very few

4
The sounds /s/ and // are allophones in Korean. This means
that they are both used as the same basic sound. Which one you
use in a certain phonological environment is predictable. // is
used when the sound which follows it is a high front vowel. /s/ is
used in all other environments. Koreans make a lot of mistakes
with these two sounds because they often cannot hear the
difference between the two sounds. Be careful.
5
This sound has come into English through French and is still mostly,
but not entirely, found in words of French origin.

20
fricative sounds. There is a tendency to pronounce the fricatives of English
as affricates in Korean speech. Be careful to keep the air flow going as you
make these sounds.

Articulation
Like stops, fricatives are made with a series of movements in the
voice box. The articulation of fricatives is, however, much simpler than for
stops.
1. When you get ready to make a fricative sound, your vocal folds move to
a position where they are mostly closed. The vocal folds never close
entirely when you are making a fricative sound.
2. Your tongue and lips move into the correct position for the sound you
want to make.
3. Air is pushed through the voice box. The flow of air is restricted by the
vocal folds, but never stopped. The vocal folds do not actually
move during the articulation of the sound.
4. The sound does not finish until you are ready to go onto the next
sound or you have run out of air.6

Sounds
The fricative consonants in English can be thought of as occurring
in pairs. Each of the pairs share the same place of articulation. This means
your tongue or lips should be in the same position when you make both a
// and //, /f/ and /v/, /s/ and /z/, and // and // sound.

-voice +voice Place of Articulation

6
This is why fricative sounds are also called continuants. The sound
is able to be continued for as long as the speaker wants or has air in her/his
lungs. The fact that fricatives can be continued is one main difference
between them and stops. Take a deep breath and try making some fricative
sounds for as long as you can.

21
 // // These are inter-dental sounds. The tip
of your tongue should be placed
between your teeth.
Example: think, this /k/, /s/

/f/ /v/ These are labio-dental sounds. The upper

teeth are placed gently on the lower lip and
most of the air moves out the sides of the
mouth.
Example: finger, very /fg/, /vri/

/s/ /z/ These are alveolar sounds. The front or the

middle of the tongue is rested against the
back part of the alveolar ridge7. The tip of the
tongue should dip down to a low spot in the
mouth, behind the bottom row of teeth.
Example: sing, loser, zoo /s/, luz/, /zu/

// // These are palatal sounds. The middle of the

tongue should be pushed against the rear part
of the hard palate at the highest part of the
roof of your mouth. The tongue tip is raised
slightly and should point toward the upper
row of teeth.
Example: harsh, garage /hr/, /gr/

7
For some English speakers /s/ and /z/ are alveolar-palatal sounds.
This means that when some people make the sound, their tongue is resting
partly on the alveolar ridge and partly on the hard palate. See if you can feel
where your tongue is when you make this sound.

22
Differentiating Pairs
The most obvious way to differentiate fricative sounds which have
the same place of articulation is our familiar friend voicing. All the
fricatives we mentioned above are either voiced or voiceless and each one
has an equal counterpart. In fricatives, voicing has a few side effects which
make it easier to further differentiate sounds.
Loudness or volume is a side effect of voicing which allows us to
differentiate fricative pairs. Voiced sounds, especially among the fricatives,
will be much louder than voiceless sounds. This will help you in trying to
recognize the sounds when you hear them. Practice saying each sound as it
appears at the end of a word.
love /lv/ and loaf /lof/
cars /krz/ and kinks /kks/
breathe /bri/ and worth /w/
beige /be/ and shush //

Length is the last major difference. Voiceless fricative sounds tend

to be longer than their voiced counterparts. This means that the voiceless
sounds will last longer. (Can you notice the difference between soon
/sun/ and zoo /zu/. The /s/ sound in the first word should definitely be
longer than the /z/ in the second.) Just bear in mind that this is not a rule
and that the difference is not huge. We are talking 100th`s of a second
here. As you gain more experience and your ear becomes better trained,
you should be able to hear the difference.8

Potential Problems
Non-native English speakers have two big problems with fricatives:
voicing and place of articulation. The only way to get around these two
problems is through practice. Most languages have similar sounds, but the

8
It is important to note that length, whether of consonants or of vowels,
does not change the meaning of a word in English. It helps us to recognize the
sound and not much more.

23
tongue might be placed in a slightly different place to make a sound that
might be the same. Work hard to make sure that your tongue falls into
the right place for the English sound.
Korean speakers have special problems with fricatives because there
are very few of them in their language: /s/ and its three Korean renditions
is the only one. You will have to work hard to place your tongue in all
these strange places. In order for your pronunciation to sound natural and
flow well making these weird sounds must become like second nature.
The best way to do this is to practice. There are many different ways
of practicing. One of the best is to take a book or anything written in
English and read it out loud. Listen carefully to what you sound like, or,
better yet, tape record yourself as you speak. Then listen and compare your
pronunciation to that of a native speaker. Don`t be too scared to do this.
Shyness won`t help you be a good language learner.
For fricatives, one of the characteristic problems that Koreans face
is smoothness. Because Korean has so many stop sounds, Koreans tend to
halt the flow of air after every consonant vowel combination. This makes
their speech sound very choppy at best, and wrong as well. Koreans tend to
replace the fricatives of English with stop sounds or affricate sounds. This
can make it very hard for non-Koreans to understand you.

Practice hard to try to make smooth transitions between fricatives

and the vowel sounds that follow them. If, for example, you are going to
the zoo, and you want to tell someone, make sure that the air flow does
not stop as you move from the /z/ to the /u/. There should be a smooth
progression, in which your lips slowly become rounded and your tongue
moves up toward the roof of your mouth. Try it.

Hints for Excellence

Voicing, especially for fricatives, is a huge problem because some of
these sounds are represented by non-equivalent characters in the Hangul

24
writing system.9
One way of practicing voicing is to put your articulators into the
right position to make a fricative sound; for example /f/. Put your upper
teeth on your bottom lip. Now, make the sound. First make it voiceless.
Without moving your teeth or lips, try to turn on the voicing. Do this
continuously and with all the different pairs of fricatives until you have
learned to control your voicing. It will not be easy, so don`t be
discouraged.
Another practice you can do, is the same song-based practice that
was mentioned in the last section, except this time replace your favorite
song`s lyrics with pairs of fricatives like /f/ and /v/. This will be even
harder than singing in stops, but try hard and try to make your singing
sound smooth. There should be no stoppage of the air flow. Smooth,
smooth, smooth.
It will help a lot if you can relax your throat when you make these
sounds. Korean requires a more tense throat . Loosen up a little bit and
keep the flow and you should be OK.

Review and Practice: Fricatives

Answer the following questions.

1. How many pairs of fricatives are there in English?
________________
2. What are the two most difficult things about fricatives?
________________

3. What never stops when you make fricative sounds?

________________

9
The sounds /z/ and /s/ in many words Korean has borrowed from
English are pronounced // or //. A typical example is the word sports
/sprts/. Koreans pronounce this word /sp/. Be very careful to
avoid making mistakes like this.

25
4. Which fricative is of foreign origin? ________________

5. Which fricative sounds are louder? ________________

Some Tongue Twisters

She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

Zorgon, the singer from Mars zoomed in a zig- zag motion towards his
secret destination.

The swell shoes she was wearing showed Sheila to be a shopper of super
sense.

George decided to secretly shove the shiny beige bobsled into the garage
as his wife Madge was applying rouge.

This, these, that, those, and many other things made Thorfinn think twice
about throwing away his fabulous throng of thoughts.

When her thoughts were low Gwyneth, often thought about things that
no one thought enough of to bother thinking about, like throwing thick
pudding out the window.

For Sylvester, plants are better than flowers for a gift because flowers are
dead, and plants are alive forever.

Valerie valued her valet very much because he vanquished the vampire who
was bothering her.

26
Dialogues

Thelma: Theron, through which thought process did you become

such a thorough person?
Theron: Through my very own thinking, Thelma.
Thelma: What is the secret to this, Theron?
Theron: Through thinking of things related to myself I find I become
more thorough.
Thelma: What kind of things do you think about?
Theron: Things of which I am freely allowed to think about.
Thelma: Thanks anyway, Theron. I`ll go ask Beth.

Thanatos: Thane, I want to thank you for that book you lent me.
Thane: That was nothing. I have many more books.
Thanatos: Please accept this gift as a sign of my thanks.
Thane: What is this?
Thanatos: It`s a model of a theropod, one of my favorite dinosaurs.
Thane: It`s a lovely thing and an excellent thought.
Thanatos: Yes, these theropods were very powerful in their day.
Thane: Kind of like the way we are now?
Thanatos: Yes, but not as smart.

Phil: Frank, go fly a kite.

Frank: Phil, what form of fool do you take me for?
Phil: Not a fabulous fool, but a rather fun one for everyone.
Frank: That`s it. Stop floundering or I will force the truth from you.
Phil: OK. But if you try to force the truth from me the folks will be
frightened.
Frank: But I want other folks to be frightened of me. I think it`s fantastic.
Phil: Then Frank, you are a fool.
Frank: Now, Phil, my friend, you will help me find the frosting
immediately. Without frosting, there is no way we can finish
Fiona`s birthday cake.

27
Vern: Hey Velma! You were very vicious to Bev the other
afternoon.
Velma: Bev is a villain. She was very rude to the visitors I had in our
villa. She even tried to vomit on them.
Vern: That`s awful! Did she become violent?
Velma: She tried, but Valerie ventured to play the violin.
Vern: That calmed her nerves?
Velma: Bev was visibly better after that.
Vern: Boy, that Bev, sure is crazy.

Suzie: Sam, you slimy sad sack. I can`t swallow how you sacrificed yourself
for Selma.
Sam: Well, Selma is one super somber chick. I had to help her.
Suzie: But, she loves to suck the energy from someone, anyone.
Sam: I know, but you know all scatologists love to be abused. We are all
sadists deep down.
Suzie: I suggest you sail away soon on a schooner bound for Salvador. At
least you`ll be safe from Selma.

Zack: Zelda, which do you love better zebras or zebus?

Zelda: I think I really love zebus but only because I practice zen.
Zack: Do you think that Zeus created zoos, or are they a person`s
creation?
Zelda: I can`t be sure.
Zack: Well, what do you think of the xylophone and the zither as
excellent musical instruments?
Zelda: I think I wish you would go to Zimbabwe to your ask annoying
questions to someone else.
Zack: Do you like horses?
Zelda: Do you like cuts and bruises?

28
Zack: OK, I`ll be as quiet as a zygote.

Sasha: Shucks Sheila, you shouldn`t shove short people and babies face
first into the mud.
Sheila: Shut up Sasha! I can do whatever I want. Only a shyster
would not love to have me shove his face in the mud.
Sasha: Don`t be shrewish. It`s shkotzim.
Sheila: Don`t you use your Yiddish on me.
Sasha: Yiddish is the best, It`s a shoe in for fun.
Sheila: Why don`t go out to the shed, shellac yourself, eat some
shell beans and forget the whole shebang.
Sasha: Sure, you she-devil.

Zuzu Zaza, what do you do for leisure?

Zaza: Darling, in my leisure time, I usually apply rouge to my beige skin.
Zuzu Lovely! That sounds luscious. What`s up for your next vacation?
Zaza: If I could only eat the soup de jour at Jacques` Famous Shack
Restaurant, I`d be happy. I think I`ll go to Paris to partake in that.
Zuzu Mmmm, mmmmm good.
Zaza: I also would love to have a seizure from too much pleasure.
Zuzu I know, you do love leisure along with your pleasure.
Zaza: But not as much as you dear.

IPA Practice
Write the following words in standard English.

/iss/ /r/
/frut/ /vn/
/sup d r/ /sm/
/ziro/ /rk/

29
/sf/ /bzr/
/sst/ /fv/
/wl/ /f/
/ru/ /l/

Try to write the following words in the IPA.

live
disease
throng
forth
shack
sling
measure
brother
dogs
fish
treasure

30
 Nasal Consonants
/m/, /n/ and //

For all intents and purposes, the nasal sounds are fricatives. Their
manner of articulation is exactly like the fricatives we mentioned above
with one little difference. The velum is lowered somewhere in the process,
thus allowing air to flow into the nasal cavity and out of the nose. English
nasals are easy for Korean speakers because they are essentially the same in
both languages.10

Articulation
Nasals are basically fricative sounds with a slight twist.
1. When you get ready to make a nasal sound your vocal folds close
mostly but not entirely.
2. Your velum lowers, allowing air to flow into the nasal cavity.
3. Your tongue and lips move into the correct position.
4. Air is pushed through the voice box. As in all fricatives, the flow of air is
restricted by the vocal folds but never stops completely.
5. The sound is finished when you have run out of air or are ready to move
onto the next sound. You may also raise the velum, thus stopping
the flow of air into the nasal cavity and out of the nose.

10
There is one simple way to tell if the sound you are making is nasal
or not. Hold your nose as you make the sound. Then try to say the same
sound again without holding your nose. If the two sounds are different then
the sound is nasal. For example, make an /s/ sound and hold your nose. No
difference, right? Now make an /n/ sound and hold your nose. It sounds weird
because you are stopping the air from getting out the nose.

31
Sounds
The three nasal consonants are just fricatives in which the air flows
through the nasal cavity and out the nose instead of through and out of
the mouth. The three sounds do not share place of articulation. All nasal
sounds in English are voiced.

Voiced Place of Articulation

/m/ bi-labial. This means that your two lips are touching
each other. Your mouth is closed. The location of
the tongue does not affect the sound. Put your
tongue wherever it feels most comfortable.
Example: mummy /mmi/, humdrum /hmdrm/

/n/ alveolar. In this sound, the tip and front of the

tongue are touching the alveolar ridge.
Example: nun /nn/, nibble /nbl/, moon /mun/

// velar. This means that the back of the tongue is

moving back to touch the velum
Example: dung /d/, dong /d/, ding /d/

Nasals in English are just about the same as they are in Korean.
They even have the same distribution. /m/ and /n/ can occur in the
beginning, middle, or end of a word, while // only comes at the end of
syllables. Since they are all voiced it is not hard to differentiate them. Their
places of articulation are also widely spread, so the sounds do not sound
alike. The nasals should not cause you any great trouble.

Review and Practice: Nasals

Answer the following questions.

1. What is the main difference between nasals and other fricatives?

32
2. Is it possible to make a non-nasal, bi-labial fricative? Why not?

3. In what position must // come?

4. Which nasal fricative is made furthest forward in the mouth?

5. Which nasal shares the same place of articulation as /k/ and /g/?

Some tongue twisters

There was nothing the nimble mind of Nellie could not master in a single
night.

Morris was a major badminton player for the Mimicker`s Midgets, an

impressive team from Missoula, Montana.

The nipping cold prohibited Niles form reaching Nirvana on the mountain
top.

Quentin was running for the phone when he heard a strange language
coming from the room next door where the Nimsinging family lived.

The mythological Minotaur tormented millions of Minoans in the town in

Knossos on the magnificent island of Crete over many millenniums.

Laughing Lester was caught running along the lane screaming and telling
about the coming of the Martians.

33
Dialogues

Mimi: Mom`s making me meatballs for my birthday.

Mini: What is she making me for my birthday?
Mimi: Maybe nothing. Mom loves me more, you moron.
Mini: Moron, moron?? I`ll make you eat mud.
Mimi: You and which militia?
Mini: Mom!! Mimi is mimicking and mocking me.
Mom: Mimi, stop mimicking and mocking Mini. Don`t make me come
smack you.
Mimi: But Mom, Mini started making funny faces at me.
Mini: She`s lying Mom. I`ve been quiet as a mouse.
Nora: Neil. Let`s not go to nowhere.
Neil: Nora, you`re a nincompoop. Let`s not go anywhere. Well, we
could go to the Neverland Concert Hall to see Aaron Neville
perform his nimble nocturne. Hmmm, sounds great.
Nora: No! Not on your knuckles, buddy.
Neil: My name is Neil, not Buddy.
Nora: Nobody tells me what to do, Neil you Nimrod.
Neil: Now, Nora, be noble.
Nora: Alright, how about a nightcap?
Neil OK, but only after I have my daily allotment of nicotine.

Link:: Hey Blink, I`m beginning to think of becoming a shrink?

Blink: Why Link? Shrinks are never in the pink.
Link: Interesting point Blink, but shrinks get to drink from the sink and
they can sing all the time.
Blink: What sink, Link? Have you ever drank from a sink while singing?
Link: Not a real sink, Blink. The sink of being. The sink of human
kindness, Blink`o boy.
Blink: Now Link, no philosophizing with the Blinker. It makes my head
ache.
Link: Then there`s no philosophizing with anybody, Blink. You`re my

34
 only friend, you stinker.
Blink: I`m going to bed. We have to sling the hash early tomorrow.
Link: Be seeing you, Blink. McDonald`s time.

IPA Practice
Write the following words in standard English.

/muv/ /lmn/
/r/ /rk/
/nowr/ /sn/
/hæ mbg/ /s/
/fg/ /n/
/hnd/ /hom/

A Special Fricative
/h/11
/h/ is a little different than all the other fricatives in English. First of
all, it has no real place of articulation. Our traditional articulators don`t
need to be in any special place because the sound is really made in the
glottis. /h/ also, does not have a partner sound. It stands alone among the
fricatives. It is also the easiest fricative sound for Koreans to pronounce.

11
Beware. In some dialects of British English there is no /h/ sound in
the beginning of a word. For most dialects of English when you see an `h` at
the beginning of a word you will make the sound. There are a few exceptions,
such as the word herb /b/.

35
Don`t worry too much about it.

Articulation
/h/ is pronounced in much the same way the other fricatives are.
The vocal folds are open but not completely and they must never close.
1. When you get ready to make an /h/ sound, your vocal folds move to a
position where they are mostly closed. The vocal folds never close
entirely when you are making an /h/ sound.
2. Your tongue and lips move into the correct position for the sound you
want to make after the /h/ sound.
3. A single puff of air is pushed through the voice box.
4. The sound comes from the glottis, the space between the two vocal
folds, which resonates when the puff of air comes out.
5. The puff of air moves through the throat and out the mouth.
6. Unlike the other fricatives, /h/ can not e continued for as long as you
want or have air. It is like a stop in that the air comes like a puff.
The flow of air, however, is regulated by the lungs and not the vocal
folds.

Sound

-voice Place of Articulation

/h/ In the glottis, but there is no distinct placement of

the standard articulators (tongue, lips, teeth).12
Example: here /hir/, behind /bihand/

12
You can feel /h/ if you put your hand to your voice box. Your voice
box should move up slightly as you make the sound.

36
 Think of /h/ as being similar to aspiration; a big puff of air. The
placement of the tongue will probably be wherever it should be for the
next sound. There is no voicing. All that happens during /h/ is that a huge
puff of air is sent up from your lungs. It is not stopped or but only
impeded from the vocal folds. The air just rolls out of your mouth.

Review: the Special Fricative /h/

Answer the following questions.

1. Where would we never expect to find the /h/ sound in a word?

2. What is the place of articulation for /h/?

3. Is /h/ really a continuant like other fricatives?

4. Does /h/ have voicing?

5. Why is /h/ easy for Korean speakers?

Try saying these fun sentences:

Happy Herman and his sister heavy Hester have a horrible haughty
demeanor.

The hearty winds of Hurricane Hortense whipped their way towards the
unsuspecting island of Haiti.

The house that humble Hazel has is humility itself except for all the
horrendous hues which haunt the walls.

Humanity believes in the humid humbug of a hybrid hunger for the

hunting and hurting of hurdles less hysterical.

37
Dialogues

Harry: Hey Howard, have you had the hamburgers here?

Howard: Here, hamburgers? Do they have hamburgers?
Harry: They have happy hamburgers. It says so here on the happy
menu.
Howard: I have never heard of happy hamburgers and thus have never
had one.
Harry: How fortunate, I heard from Hoary that happy hamburgers
are horrendous.
Howard: I hope you don`t have one.
Harry: I hope I won`t either.

Hazel: Hey Helen, How do you call your most hated havens here?
Helen: I have to say Houston, Tallahassee, Hawaii, Hot Springs, and
Hamburg are all horrible.
Hazel: How so?
Helen: Having to do housework there is especially horrendous.
Hazel: Have you ever had the advantage of traveling in Hungary?
Helen: Is Hungary next to Turkey?
Hazel: No Greece is next to Turkey, but Hungary is close by.

IPA Practice
Write the following words in standard English.

/host/ /hn/
/gost/ /het/
/hsptl/ /hrvst/
/hrs/ /hp/
/læ f/
/r/

38
/flf/ /mdl
/nhsptbl/ /nir/
/nhæ pi/ /nevl/
/kshzbnd/ /riflks/
/hg/
/mlodrm/

Affricate Consonants
// and //

Affricate sounds are interesting in their manner of articulation

because they share properties of both stop and fricative sounds. Basically,
they begin as stops and turn to fricatives, but end as stops again. Affricates
are also found in Korean but they are slightly different. Be careful.13

Articulation
Affricates are hybrid sounds. They are a combination of stops and
fricatives.

1. When you get ready to make an affricative sound your vocal folds close.
2. Your tongue and lips move into the correct position to make the sound.
3. Air is pushed into the voice box, where it is trapped.
4. At this point the vocal folds open just a little bit and the air moves out.
There is no great explosion of sound like we find in the stop sounds.
5. Your tongue moves back to push up against the hard palate.

13
Take a look at the Korean consonant chart in the appendix to give
you a better idea of the similarities and differences between the English and
Korean sounds.

39
6. The sound is finished quickly when the vocal folds start to close slowly.

Sounds
The two affricate consonants in English can also be thought of as
occurring in pairs. Each pair member has the same places of articulation.
This means your tongue or lips should be in the same position when you
make both a // and //.

Voiceless Voiced Place of articulation

// // These are dental-alveolar-palatal sounds.14
The tongue touches some
different places during the
actual articulation.
Examples: (cheap /ip/, church //)
(jeep /ip/, judge //)

Differentiating Pairs
The most obvious way in which pairs of affricate sounds are
different is our familiar friend voicing. Korean has these sounds, so most
people have no major problems with them. Even if you make them using
creaky voice, English speakers will probably be able to tell which sound you
mean to make.
Loudness is also important here. The voiced affricate will be louder
than the voiceless one. This could help you in differentiating them in
speech.

14
The tongue doesn`t actually move here. It merely rolls back. So, it
might start out with the tip of the tongue touching the back of the teeth. Then,
the blade of the tongue will come to rest on the alveolar ridge and finally the
front of the tongue will move up against the hard palate .

40
Point of Interest: Articulation
The most interesting thing about affricates is how they are made.
They are a combination of fricative and stop sounds. They also have
tongue movement within the sound itself. Tongue movement starts with
the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge. As the
air starts to move out of the voice box, the tongue rolls back to where to
front of the tongue is touching the hard palate.
These are good sounds for helping you get a good feel for how
your tongue moves in your mouth. As you make these sounds, close your
eyes and try to feel how your tongue rolls back from the teeth to the
palate. Also, try to get a good feel for the way the air flow is controlled.

Having Fun with These Sounds

The Choo-choo train

There are a few fun things we can do with these sounds. The first
one is to try to imitate the sound a train makes. What you want to do is
start making the sounds // followed by //. Stick thee vowel //. So,
you want to say // to the rising and falling
rhythm that a train makes. This is a lot of fun, especially if you try to speed
the train up and slow it down .Make it sound like the train is trying to go
over a steep hill.
Have fun with this. It might seem stupid at first, but will help you
get a better feel of how you can control the articulators inside your mouth.

Review and Practice: Affricates

Answer the following questions.

1. How are affricates differentiated in English?

2. Why are affricates called hybrid sounds?

3. Is there any explosion of air in affricates?

41
4. Can affricates be continued for as long as you have air?

5. Does the tongue move dramatically while affricates are being

articulated?

Tongue Twisters

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck

wood?

George the judge drove his jeep into a deep gorge.

The junk that Ginger juggled made Joseph jitter.

Chester chose to close the chest filled with chunks of chickens and
chestnuts just as the chump hit his chest.

Dialogues

Chuck: Chad, did you chuck those chunks of chutney into the
church?
Chad: Which church had chunks of chutney chucked into it?
Chuck: The Chuvash church I chiseled out of chocolate.
Chad: Oh that church. I just thought that the chutney and the
chocolate would go great together.
Chuck: Well, you chipped it as you threw the chunks of chutney.
Chad: I`m sorry. Chuck, does chutney always have chunks in it?
Chuck: Actually chutney chosen by champion chefs is chunkless.
Chad: Shucks Chuck, you know I can`t eat chunky chutney.

Gen: Gene, do you figure many Georgians have ventured to Germany?

42
Gene: Georgians to Germany? Do you mean Georgia in the Caucasus or in
the US?
Gen: Is there a Georgia in Europe?
Gene: Not Europe, Asia. It`s just right by Europe though.
Gen: But Gene, are there many Georgians in Germany?
Gene: Most Georgians in Germany came through Genoa and then Geneva.
Gen: Are Genoa and Geneva near Germany?
Gene: Boy, Gen, you`re not a genius are you? Genoa and Geneva are not
too far from Germany.
Gen: How long does it take to walk from Genoa or Geneva to Germany?
Gene: Which part of Germany?
Gen: Do you know any geography?
Gene: No.
Gen: Go learn it.

IPA Practice
Write the following words in standard English

/nt/ /l/
/emb/ /m/
/k/ /hn/
/k/ /w
/æ kt/ /f/
/ok/ /m
/l/ /spl/
/p/ /ln/
/inz/ //
/g/ /ln/

43
 Glide Consonants
/w/ and /j/

In general, glides are pretty easy sounds for Koreans. Koreans has
both glides; /w/ and /j/ and while they are articulated somewhat
differently, they are still very similar sounds.15

Articulation
The glide sounds are also called semi-vowels. This means that the
vocal folds are open more when you make glides than with any other
consonant sounds. As a result there is very little restriction of the airflow
and thus very little or no friction. For these reasons, their MOA is more
similar to vowels than to other consonants.16
1. Glides are called glides because there is some sort of large scale
movement occurring in the mouth as you make these sounds.
2. As you make the sound, the back of the tongue should be moving
towards the uvula. This happens in addition to what the front part
of the tongue might be doing.

15
Remember, it is not necessary for your sounds to made exactly as
they are described in this book for people to understand you. Think of all
these sounds as the keys on a computer keyboard. You don`t have to hit the
key exactly in the center to type the letter you want. If you hit it on the side or
the bottom or even the corner the letter will appear. Sounds are the same way.
If your tongue does not hit the exact right spot the sound might still be
recognizable, but will not sound native-like.
16
We identify these sounds as consonants, because phonologically,
they function more like consonants than vowels. In Korean, the same sounds
are definitely seen as vowel sounds functioning within diphthongs. Koreans,
therefore, run into problems when they encounter these sounds followed by a
vowel and particularly a vowel of a similar place of articulation; for example,
woo /wu/ and yeast /jist/

44
3. As in the fricative sounds, your vocal folds never close as you are
making glides.

Sounds

Voiced Place of articulation

/w/ Bi-labial. When you make a /w/ sound your lips

move during articulation. They thrust forward and
achieve a round configuration. Your tongue will also
move forward slightly. Your tongue should be
resting low in your mouth. It does not have to touch
anything.
Example: water /wt/, away /we/

/j/ Palatal.17 With /j/ the middle/back of the tongue

should be touching your palate. As you make the
sound your tongue should move forward slightly.
You should be able to feel a small movement in your
throat. You voice box should rise slightly. It`s kind
of like a pulse of movement that comes out of your
voice box and moves up and through your mouth.
Example: yellow /jlo/, music /mjuzk/
Review and Practice: Glides

Answer the following questions.

1. What moves in your mouth as you make glides?

2. How are glides different from other consonants?

17
This sound is made a little further forward in Korean. The difference
is not huge, however.

45
3. What do your vocal folds do as you make a glide sound?

4. How do you write these sounds in the Korean writing system?

5. In which position or a word do glides never occur?

Some Tongue Twisters

Wimpy William Wiggins wagged his wobbly canoe over the wild white
water of the Wichita Falls.

Prof Yeum loves to eat yeast, yams, yellow cucumbers and positively
yearns for Yaweh as she listens to music.

Wendy, Wallace`s woman friend ran through rough wild ragweed every
Wednesday, except in winter when it is too cold.

Yesterday morning, Yolanda yelled obscenities at Yvonne for spilling

lemon juice all over the linoleum.

Dialogues

York: Yoohoo, I separated the yolk from the white.

Yol: But that yolk isn`t yellow and the white isn`t white. That egg was
on the yacht too long and is yucky.
York: Yol, is it too yucky to eat it?
Yol: You bet ya. That egg is super yucky.
York: Yackety-yack., yackety-yack. I`m going to eat it anyway.
Yol: Well, you can eat that yucky egg but don`t come crying to me
when you get sick.
York: But I ate an egg yesterday.
Yol: Was it a yucky egg?
York: No.

46
Yol: I warned you.
William: What in the world were you wearing yesterday?
Wendy: You saw me? Where?
William: Was that some sort of gown? It was see-through and small.
Wendy: What I wear is my own business, William. You don`t own
me.
William: I would if I could. Gowns are supposed to be white.
Wendy: Not all gowns are white, some are yellow, or even black.
William: I only want you to wear white gowns for me Wendy.

IPA Practice
Write the following words in standard English.

/ju/ /wr/
/wont/ /wd/
/jlp/ /jr/
/j /w/
/wr/
/wt/

/wp/ /wev/
/jt/ /js
/wl/ /wæ ks/
/jrn/ /jist/
/wt/
/jn/

47
 Lateral Consonants
/r/ and /l/

These two sounds are viewed with dread by almost every language
learner. The laterals seem to be the hardest sounds for language learners to
master. In every language they seem to be difficult. This is probably
because the laterals have many varieties and are somewhat less stable then
other sounds.18

Articulation
These consonant sounds are called laterals because the air moves
through the mouth along either side of your tongue. In these sounds, as
in the glides, the vocal folds are open more than when you make other
consonant sounds, such as fricatives or stops. They also fall under the
distinction of semi-vowels.

1. These sounds are like fricatives in that there is no stopping of air flow.
The vocal folds, however are opened more than in our friends the
fricatives.
2. Your tongue should be sitting in the middle of your mouth. You must
be able to feel the air moving on either side of your tongue as you
make these sounds.
3. Both lateral sounds are voiced.

18
Laterals are called resonants. This means that the air moves through
the vocal tract with a smooth flow and that there is no friction. In this respect
they are like vowels, but the air must move on the sides of the tongue. This is
a very broad criteria, which allows for many different types of laterals,
especially /r/ sounds. Be careful of this sound, no matter what language you
are learning.

48
Sounds
/r/ and /l/ differ primarily in their POA. If you pay careful
attention to the height of the tongue, you should be fine.

Voiced Place of Articulation

/r/ The /r/ sound in English is similar to the /w/sound.

Your tongue is in very much the same place for both
sounds, laying nice and relaxed at the bottom of
your mouth. Be careful not to round your lips when
you make an /r/ sound. When you make an /r/
sound you want to think of yourself as a barking dog.
There are many different types of /r/ sounds.
American English generally uses what is called a
retroflex /r/. In this sound the tip of the tongue curls
back toward the back of the mouth. While you are
doing this make sure you keep your tongue as low as
possible. Only raise the front part of your tongue.
When making an /r/ sound your tongue must never
come even close to touching the roof of your
mouth.
Example: hard /hrd/, right /rat/, correct /krkt/

/l/ Alveolar. Many people have huge problems

differentiating /l/ and /r/.The one main difference is
that when you make an /l/ sound the tip of your
tongue must touch the roof of your mouth at the
alveolar ridge. If your tongue does not make contact,
you are not making an /l/ sound. Also, in /l/ your
whole tongue stretches toward its goal. The back of
your tongue is not laying flat at the bottom of your
mouth as in the /r/ sound. Practice a lot to get the
feel of the difference between these two sounds.
Example: little /ltl/, yellow /jlo/

49
Confusion
One interesting thing about laterals is that native speakers of
English don`t have problems differentiating /l/ and /r/. Often, however,
children or adults with speech impediments will mix up /r/and /w/ or /l/
and /w/. The laterals are probably the last type of consonant sounds which
children acquire when they are learning English. If you are having big
problems with them, don`t feel so bad. Everybody does at one point or
another.

Review and Practice: Laterals

Answer the following questions

1. What sound is this a diagram for?

2. How can you tell?

`
3. Why are laterals especially hard?

4. In which lateral sound does the tongue

touch something?

5. What`s the easiest way to make sure you do not make an /l/ when you
want to make an /r/?

Fun Practice

There are some fun ways of practicing these sounds. Again, singing
comes into play. One of the best practices for /l/ is to sing the Smurf work
song. Do you remember the cartoon series The Smurfs, well they sang a
happy song that is made up principally of the syllable /l/. The song goes;

50
lalalalalala, lalalalala. As you sing this happy song make sure your tongue
touches the roof of your mouth.
The best way to practice the standard North American retroflex /r/
is to pretend you are an angry dog and make a strong growling sound. As
you do this, you should feel that your tongue is curled backwards and is
not touching the roof of the mouth. Sound angry.

Try saying these fun sentences.

Harold is a horrible robber of little children`s lollipops.

Lilith loves to feel limber in real lamb`s wool leggings.

Rex the Rottweiler ran all around the grounds of the lovely ranch where he
rightfully lived.

The weather for the afternoon, I heard, should be rainy, cold, and
miserable, but tomorrow should be wonderful.

Dialogues

Lucy: Linda, quick, look at all those lemmings to the left.

Linda: Do you like lemmings Lucy?
Lucy: Yes, I love lemmings. I think they are wonderful.
Linda: Actually, I am full of wonder about lemmings.
Lucy: Yes, lemmings certainly do love life.
Linda: If they love life so much why do they all run into the ocean and
drown together.
Lucy: Nobody knows. Lucy. It`s part of the process of being a lemming.
Linda: Lemmings are losers, condemned to die.
Lucy: Lemmings are not losers. They lose their lives to protect the lives of

51
 the young.
Linda: I don`t believe you.

Ralph: Being a lumberjack is rough work for the wrong person.

Rory: Well, Ralph who would be the right person for being a lumberjack?
Ralph: A lumberjack must be strong and not afraid of loneliness. A
lumberjack must also love trees.
Rory: You mean love to kill trees.
Ralph: No, Rory. All the lumberjacks I have lived with or met loved trees.
Rory: Did the trees love the lumberjacks.
Ralph: Trees radiate love for the Earth.
Rory: Are you sure?
Ralph: Of course.

IPA Practice
Write the following in Standard English.

/r/ /fr/
/lvli/ /gl/
/rv/ /mrk/
/lv/ /lo/
/robt/ /hir/
/low/
/fl/

52
 Vowel Sounds
Vowels are great and not half as confusing as you might think.
They differentiate themselves from the consonants basically in the amount
of air that is used. The vocal folds for vowels are wide open and there is no
obstruction inside the voice box. Therefore, there is also no friction so
vowel sounds are much cleaner than consonant sounds. When we are
discussing vowels we do not have to think much about MOA, because it
will always be the same.
The tricky thing about vowels is their place of articulation. This is
made especially difficult because in vowels the tongue should not actually
touch any particular place in the mouth. That is there is no physical
contact between the tongue and the mouth in vowels sounds. This sounds
like hell doesn`t it? How are we to tell where the POA is if there is no
contact? Well, the tongue does move in certain directions.
The Place of Articulation in vowels is differentiated along two
different planes: relative height and relative frontness. There are three
distinctions in each category. Look at the vowels chart below to find the
distinctions.

53
 Standard American English Vowel Chart

Rounding
One other criteria used to differentiate vowels is rounding. If the
lips are rounded when you make a sound we say that the sound is round,
as in the high, back vowel /u/. In standard dialects of North American
English there are no front, rounded vowels. Only back vowels are rounded.
Learning Vowels
One of the most important things we need to do to learn the
sounds of a second language, especially the vowels, is to play with our
mouths. Because it is difficult to know where to put our tongues when we
make vowels, we need to experiment with the sounds. Don`t be afraid to
just make sounds. Revert to your childhood and do just what babies do
when they are learning their first language: try sone cooing exercises. Just
make sure you do this when you are alone. It could be embarrassing if
someone were to hear you.
The important thing in any exercise you do is to get a feel for what

54
your tongue is doing within your mouth. Try to match tongue movement
with changes in sound. Have fun! Try to mimic voices you hear on
television or in the movies. Have fun with sound.
If you are teaching, try to get your students to do lots of practice as
well. Have them make what seem to be weird sound patterns and strange
sounds. Little kids love this: being able to say things like
`hamdalangdadingdong` and `fuvubapa` in their English class.
Practicing saying meaningless combinations of weird sounds might
also have the side effect of lowering their effective filter of both you and
your students. Try it at home and in the classroom.

Front Vowels

/i/, //, /e/, //, / /, and //

There are a few tricky sounds among the front vowels of English.
You will need to be careful about the relative height of the tongue as you
make these sounds, particularly the higher ones.

Articulation
The manner of articulation is not very important in vowels. Just
remember, with vowels, the vocal folds are completely opened and air flow
is not obstructed. Remember as well that all vowels in English are voiced.
This can have an effect on the voicing of consonants which are located
between vowels on the word level.19

19
One prime example of this is that voiceless consonants located
between two vowels tend to become voiced. Take, for example, the word
house /has/. The word final /s/ sound is voiceless. When we make this word
plural, the /s/ is no longer word final and is followed by a vowel: /hazz/.
The fact that the /s/ is now located between two vowels forces it to become
voiced as well. This is one of the most basic phonological phenomena in
English.

55
Place of Articulation
The place of articulation for vowels, like consonants, is based on the
location of the tongue within the mouth. Because the tongue does not
touch anything, this makes finding the location much harder. For the
front vowels, the tongue is obviously more forward in the mouth. As was
seen in the vowel chart above, the higher the location of the tongue as the
sound is made, the further forward the tongue will be. In the same vein,
for the lower sounds the tongue will be furthest back. If you keep this in
mind it should make things easier. Remember, location is everything in
vowels, even though it`s much harder for us to feel where our tongues are.

Sounds

/i/ This is the highest and most forward front vowel.

Examples: beat /bit/, feed /fid/, city /sti/, and sheep /ip/

// This is a bit lower and further back than /i/.

Examples: bit /bt/, fit /ft/, slid /sld/, and ship /p/20
/e/21 This is a mid-front vowel.
Examples: bait /bet/, raid, /red/, and made /med/

// This is a mid-front vowel that is beginning to get a little low.

Examples: bet /bt/, red /rd, lead /ld, and bed /bd/

20
The difference between the vowels /i/ and // is not length. Yes, one
does tend to be longer than the other, but this is not part of its phonetic
character. Length never changes meaning in English. POA is the difference
here. One other difference is that /i/ is a tense sound while // is lax.
21
There is some confusion between this sound; /e/, and the
diphthongized version of the sound; /e/. Generally speaking, they are the
same sound in English, one is simply longer than the other. See Diphthongs.

56
/æ / The tongue is getting quite low here, but it is sill near the front of
the mouth.
Examples: bat /bæ t/, ladder /læ d/, fad /fæ d/

// This is the lowest and furthest back of the front vowels.
Examples: body /bdi/, pot /pt/, and hobby /hbi/

One funny thing about front vowels that helps you feel the
location of your tongue is the position of your jaw. As you say the sounds
moving from the higher to lower ones in succession, your jaw should drop.
That is, your mouth opens wider as you say them. If you say them in the
opposite order (from lower to higher) your mouth will close tighter.

** A Warning: Length, or how long we might say a vowel, is not an

important feature in English. Some vowels are sometimes longer than
others, but this in no way has an effect on the semantic meaning of the
word you are saying. If someone says that any one sound in English is long
and another is short, or that there are long and short vowels in English,
they are wrong. If you are teaching English, do not teach your students a
long/short distinction in sounds. It will only confuse them. The difference
is POA.

Review and Practice: Front Vowels

There is a nice easy way to remember each of the front vowels. Each
sound can be equated with a certain emotion. In order to do this you
must scream the sound. So, lets try it.

/i/ It is the sound of surprised fear.

This is the sound you make when you see a mouse run across the
floor of the school cafeteria. Eeee! I saw a mouse.
// It is the sound of disgust.

57
 This is the sound you make when you see something disgusting.
IIIIh! The mouse just got stepped on.

/e/ This is the sound of trying to get someone`s attention.

You make this sound when you want someone to notice you. Ey,
adjumma! Come over here and clean up this dead mouse.

// This is the sound you make when you are confused.
You make this sound when you didn`t understand what someone
said. Eh, what`s that you said?

/æ / This is the sound of falling.

You might make this sound when you have fallen over a cliff.
Honey, would you please just follow me along this path,
aaeaeaeaeaeaeaeh.

// This is the sound of great pain.

When you feel great pain you should make this sound. What`s that
elephant doing? Aaaaaaah. It stepped on my foot. Aaaaaaaah!

A good way to practice the /i/, // distinction is like this. When we scream,
we tend to pronounce much more clearly and carefully so lets scream. Say,
/iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii h/. As you change from one vowel sound to the other,
you should be able to feel your tongue shift positions. Do this over and
over and over again until you get a good feel for where your tongue is
when you make each sound.
You can do this exercise with all the vowels, because English vowels,
like consonants, come in pairs; /e/ - //; / / - //. Have fun with it.
One more trick. Because // is a lax vowel, we have a special practice
for this. Pretend that you are really tired and that every step you take is a
tremendous effort: imagine you have been walking in the dessert for 3
days with no water. What sound would you make as you walk? /h/ of
course. So, practice walking as if you were in a stupor and all you could say
was /h/ each time you put your foot down. It`s fun. Try it.

58
IPA Practice
Match the following words with their IPA equivalents.

1. hat A. /hit/
2. hot B. /het/
3. heat C. /h t/
4. hit D. /nt/
5. hate E. /ht/
6. heart F. /ht/
7. net G. /hrt/

Write the words below in the IPA.

1. May _____________________
2. he _____________________
3. said _____________________
4. mad _____________________
5. dot _____________________
6. sea _____________________
7. met _____________________
8. bathe _____________________
9. not _____________________
10. sit _____________________

Read the sentences in the IPA and write them out in standard English.

1. /hi me nt wnt mi hir/

_____________________________________

59
2. /hz sst iz f t nd skeri/

_____________________________________

3. nz her meks mi vri gri/

_____________________________________

Back Vowels

/u/, //, /o/, and //

The back vowels of English are not that difficult for Korean speakers.
There is one tricky sound which Korean doesn`t have: //, but the rest of
it should be no real problem.

Articulation
Among the back vowels there are few little tricks to remember.
Back vowels in English are rounded. Front and central vowels are not. The
basic problem with this is that they are not all rounded to the same degree.
To make matters more confusing, rounding for the /o/ sound is
optional.22

22
This means that there is also a diphthongized version of this sound:
/o/. The big difference between /o/ and /o/ is in length and rounding. The
latter is much longer and has a much more pronounced rounding o the lips
during articulation. One, however can be replaced with the other at any time.
They are viewed, as are /e/ and /e/, as one in the same sound. Generally,
speakers of British or Australian English always used the heavily
diphthongized versions. Speakers of Hiberno (Irish, Scottish)English never
use the diphthongized version. North American speakers of English use either.
The tendency is, however, to use the diphthong version, so that is what is
generally shown here.

60
Place of Articulation
The place of articulation for back vowels, like front vowels and
consonants, is based on the location of the tongue within the mouth.
Because the tongue does not touch anything, this makes finding the
location much harder. When taking about POA of back vowels we talk
about vowels as being high, mid, or low.

Sounds

/u/ This is the highest and most back of the English vowels. This
is a tense sound in that the lips are taut when you are
making the sound.
Examples: you /ju/, dude /dud/, food /fud/, and fuel /fjul/

// This is a little bit further forward and lower than /u/. This
sound is lax. Your lips are rounded but in a relaxed way.
Examples: book /bk/, could /kd/, and wood /wd/

/o/ This is a central back vowel. This sound also has a longer
more rounded version which is sometimes written /o/
Examples: boat /bot/, over /ov/, drove /drov/, and show
/o/

// This is the lowest and furthest forward of all the back vowels.
Examples: call /kl/, awful /fl/, horse /hrs/, and halt
/hlt/

61
 You can do the same thing with back vowels that you did with
front vowels. Try to feel the location of your tongue by how low your jaw
drops. As you say the sounds from high to low, your jaw should drop. That
is, your mouth opens wider. If you say them in the opposite order your
mouth will close tighter. Do this to try to get the feel for where your
tongue is and why it might force your mouth to open wider as we move
down in tongue length.

Practice and Review: Back Vowels

There is also a fun and easy way to remember the back vowels and
its pretty much the same concept as we used on the front vowels. Try to
associate each particular sound with an emotion or event. Here goes.

/u/ This is the sound of embarrassed surprise or sympathy.

You might make this sound when you see something
terrible happen to someone else. Uu, the bride fell down the
steps, uu.

// This is a sound of dull pain.

If you experience a dull pain, like an old lady punches you in
the arm, this is what you can say. Oeoeoeoe, my back is
killing me.

/o/ This is a sound of pleasant surprise.

If you are surprised by something like a secret birthday party,
you can say this. Ooooh, my baby is home
from school.

// This sound is a reaction to extreme cuteness.

If you see something really cute, like a baby or a puppy, you
can say this. Awwww, that sleeping baby is soooooo cute.
This can also be used as an accompaniment to /u/.
Sometimes /u/ and // go together. So, for example, you

62
 see someone bungee jumping in the distance and their cord
breaks, you would first say /u/ and then //. Practice saying
them together. Oooh look the beautiful rat was run over by
the truck, ooawww, that`s terrible.

In addition to what was mentioned above, you can also use some
of the practices that were mentioned above for the front vowels. Don`t be
afraid to experiment with sound.

IPA Practice
Write the following words in the IPA.

1. draw ______________________
2. should ______________________
3. note ______________________
4. use (verb) ______________________
5. cart ______________________
6. court ______________________

Read the sentences below and write them out in standard English.

1. /h frnd lus ks hiz fnu bt hiz nt/

2. /drs wntd tu it s krim bt t wz tu kold/

3. / dstns btwin tu pnts z nmprtnt/

63
 Central Vowels

//, //, // and //

In English, as well as in Korean, the central vowel is considered as

the default sound.23 It is the reduced form of all the other sounds. This
makes it easy for Koreans to make this sound, sometimes too easy. It
often seems to appear in may places that it should not be. Be careful of
inserting // to often.

Articulation
Strictly speaking, there is really only one central vowel in English,
but we have different signs for stressed and unstressed sounds. Thus, we
have stressed // and unstressed // central vowels. For central vowels, in
American English there is also an r-coloring distinction.24 This brings the
total to 4 different central vowels.

Sound Distinction

// This is the unstressed central vowel. It is so important

a sound it even has a name: schwa.
Examples: America /mrk/, and Korea /kri/

// This is the stressed central vowel. No one cares what

it is called.

23
This means that we use this sound to replace other sounds, or where
a sound must be inserted. For examples just look at some English words
which have been borrowed into Korean. Consonant clusters like /st/ in stop
are broken up by the insertion of schwa: /stp/.
24
Be warned that dialects of British English do not have r-coloring and
the symbols // and // are not used when we are describing British English.

64
 Examples: lucky /lki/, up /p/, and but /bt/

// This is the r-colored unstressed central vowel.

Examples: lover /lv/, and sister /sst/

// This is the stressed central vowel.

Examples: dirt /dt/, herb /b/, and fur /f/

Basically, // and // are the same sound. The difference in
location of the tongue when they are produced is tiny. They have been
given different symbols because, in English, it is very important that we
distinguish between stressed and unstressed sounds. In Korean, stress is
unimportant, but you will need to worry about it in English.
An important phenomenon that occurs in English is that, in rapid
speech, all unstressed vowel sounds become schwa or //. Yes, the vowels
in the same word change quality depending on how carefully the speaker
wishes to pronounce the word. This can be very confusing, so please take
note of it.

A Problem

One main problem here is how to tell if the central vowel is stressed
or not. One easy way is to count the vowels. Only one vowel per sentence
receives primary stress. If there is only one vowel in the sentence, it must
be stressed. For example, in the word slurp, there is only one vowel sound,
it must be stressed so we transcribe this word /slp/.
If the word has more than one central vowel sound, you want to
listen for the vowel that is made longer and louder than all other vowels.
Let`s look at the word butter. Do we say /bt/ or /bt/? Of course, we
say the latter one.25

25
One good way to test for stress is to sing the word in question using
some different stress patterns. If you exaggerate the stress, you will probably
be able to figure out which one sounds correct.

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Practice and Review: Central Vowels

Answer the following questions.

1. How many central vowels are there?

2. What percentage of central vowels are r-colored?

3. Why do we have two different central vowels in English?

4. Do r-colored central vowels have a different POA from schwa?

Some Tongue Twisters

Hester, her sister Jennifer, and their brother Lester together splurged on a
sweater for their cat, Twister.

Upon running up the upper escalator, Tuppence found she had the hiccups.

Double the trouble and boil the bubble for the hubble of a rumble`s
mumble.

IPA Practice

Match the following words with their IPA equivalents.

1. lover A. /wnd/
2. cut B. /vnk/
3. wonder C. /glnd/
4. work D. /lv/
5. Glenda E. /wk/
6. Veronika F. /kt/

66
Write the following words in the IPA.

1. dirt
2. harbor
3. Virginia
4. peculiar
5. window
6. butter
7. hundred
8. ginger
9. dull
10. hurt

Read the sentences in the IPA and write them in standard English.

1. /t wd bi bt f ju kd wk hir jrslf/

2. /wn   t bgz mi z roz/

3. /n  edi ples z wer wn d bi n  ht de/

4. / k t lf wz no fn/

5. /bti kt  dg tr tu it  kn/

67
 Diphthongs

//, //, //, (/o/, and /e/)

Diphthongs are tricky, but luckily English lost a good many of its
diphthongs several hundred years ago. We have been left with either three
or five diphthongs, depending on how you look at it. Compared to all the
diphthong sounds of Korean, they should not be a problem

Articulation

Diphthongs are the combination of two vowels sounds. In the past,

English had many more diphthongs sounds, but the number of real
diphthongs (those sounds which initiate a meaning difference) is limited
to three. There are two other optional diphthongs (/o/ and /e/) which
appear in quite a few dialects of English and are merely diphthongized
versions of standard vowels (/o/ and /e/). These two sounds are not
thought of as separate sounds of themselves because they do change the
meaning of the word.

Place of Articulation

The place of articulation for diphthongs, like for affricate

consonants, changes. Diphthongs are generally identified as being either
rising or falling. In modern English, because so many diphthongs have
disappeared this distinction is no longer important, but should be known
anyway. All diphthongs in English today are rising. For example, when you
go to articulate the diphthong // your tongue starts out very low and
fairly far forward as the sound continues your tongue moves up and back.
This is a rising diphthong because your tongue is moving up.

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Sounds Places of Articulation

// This sound starts out at the bottom of your mouth

and moves up and back.
Examples: out /t/, house /hs/, and cow /k/.

// This sound starts out in the bottom of your mouth

and moves up and forward
Examples: height /ht/, write /rt/, and delight /dlt/.

// This sound starts out in the bottom and back of the
mouth and moves up and forward.
Examples: boy /b/, boil /bl/, and embroil /mbrl/.

/o/ This is the diphthongized version of /o/.26

/e/ This is the diphthongized version of /e/.

26
Can you see the difference between our real diphthongs and the last
two? The tongue moves much further away in the real diphthongs. For the
last two, the tongue merely moves up a little bit.

69
Review and Practice: Diphthongs

Answer the following questions.

1. How are diphthongs different from other vowel sounds?

2. How many diphthongs are there?

3. Can you make a diphthong without moving your tongue?

4. Are there any falling diphthongs in English?

Some Tongue Twisters

Howard thought about eating a brown cow.

The height of the night gave Mike a fright.

The coy boy named Roy played with a bright toy.

70
IPA Practice
Write the following sentences in English.

1. /h n brn k/

2. / ht v  fr wz mez/

3. / b nemd r wz vri k/

4. /w het z  hrbl we tu lv/

71
 Part 3
Stress
Stress is not only what many of us feel while learning English, but is
also a part of the English pronunciation system. In order to be a good
speaker of English, stress must be understood. There are two main types of
stress in English.

Word-level Stress
This is the stress that falls on one syllable in each word. Each word
has one main stress and stress is marked on the vowel in the stressed
syllable. Stressed syllables are produced, higher, longer and louder than
other syllables. For one syllable words, the stress will be easy to find. In
multi-syllable words stress can be difficult.

If you have been studying English for a while, you will begin to
develop feelings for what sounds good and what may be not so good.
Stress is a great place to try to use your intuition. Say the word to yourself
using different stress patterns. Your good intuition should tell you which
one sounds better and is, therefore, acceptable.

Here are some examples. Try saying these words changing the stress
patterns. Mark the stressed syllable.

1. photographer

2. equipment

3. stadium

4. walkway

72
5. newspaper

Some Problems

Sometimes words that look identical have different stress patterns.

This is most common between nouns and verbs.

Below is a list of some nouns and verbs which have different stress patterns.
See if you can mark the stress on each side.

Nouns Verbs

combat combat
digest digest
export export
suspect suspect
survey survey
progress progress
record record
contest contest
insult insult
object object

Compound Nouns and Phrasal Verbs

Compound nouns and phrasal verbs have predicable stress. In

compound nouns the stress is almost always in the first part of the word.
Take, for example, the word mailman. The stress is on the first syllable. In
phrasal verbs the stress is on the second or prepositional part of the phrasal
verb.

73
Look at the two sentences below and as you pronounce them try to find
the one which is the phrasal verb.

Please put the toy armadillo up on the shelf.

I am no longer going to put up with this kind of laziness.

Unstressed Syllables

In the section on vowels, we were introduced to the central vowel

schwa. Schwa is an unstressed vowel. // is also an unstressed vowel in
English. In unstressed syllables the vowels are very often reduced to a
schwa or // sound in rapid speech. Thus, stress has a very large effect on
the actual pronunciation of a word.
For example, the word carburetor in careful speech would be
transcribed /krbret/. In rapid speech it is /krbrd/. If the stress
were changed to the third syllable, it would be /kbred/ in rapid
speech. This could cause a lot of confusion.

Word stress is sometimes pretty tricky. There are many ways to go

about learning it, but nothing can replace simple practice. The more
exposure you have to English, the more you will be able to use the correct
stress patterns. As you have seen incorrect word stress can change the
meaning of a word or make a fairly common word unrecognizable. Be
careful.

74
 Sentence-level Stress
Just like some syllables in words are stressed so are some words
within a sentence. Stressed words with a sentence are also produced higher
and longer than the other words.
The rules of what words in a sentence receive stress are easy.
Basically, content words are stressed, while function words are not.
Content words are words which carry some sort of semantic meaning, like
nouns, verbs, and modifiers. Function words are words which have
grammatical or functional significance, like prepositions, article, and
pronouns.

Look at the sentences below and mark the words which receive word stress.

The large woman with all those children looks like an old friend of mine.

Chunky chickens and their children are wonderful to eat.

The postcard that Bob sent me is chock full of all sorts of fun stuff.

Sentence stress is not that difficult. You just have to practice in

order to get used to following the simple rules. One of the best ways to
practice pronunciation is to read aloud. Take any material and read it out
loud as fast or as slowly as you want. Try to play a little with your voice.
Have fun with it.

75
 Part 4
Intonation
English has three different tones. These tones are like musical notes
and are differentiated by pitch. We, thus, have High, middle, and low tones
in English. Intonation is the patterns of use these tones enjoy in language.

Example
High _______________ are
Mid __________ How
Low ____________________ you?

In English there are two main intonation patterns: rising and falling.
Rising is when the tones rise at the end of a sentence.

High ___________________ fat?

Mid _________ Is
Low _____________John

Falling is when the tones fall at the end of the sentence.

High ___________ are

Mid _______ We
Low _________________thin.

In English, rising intonation is used in yes/no questions. Yes/no

questions are questions to which you must answer either yes or no. Falling
intonation is used in all other types of sentences, from direct statements
to wh-questions, and finally commands.

76
 Quizzes

Quiz 1
Enjoy the following quiz.

Part 1
Rewrite the following in standard English

/w wz  m n wk w  t stren lk n hz fes mebi t

wz  t hi h d st stoln ov  bljn wn frm  por old
wmin wt  trbl psn hi wz lkli hv hi wz sun
rstd ba  plis nd  ledi gt h mni b k/

77
Part 2
Write the following words in the IPA. Mark them for stress and
syllables.

luggage majoring

discover unresponsive

mystery cooperate

refrigerate applications

technology screen

encourage bitter

Part 3
Write the following sentences in the IPA.

Why do you have to keep on bothering me like this?

It`s going to school that Bob really hates.

Betty is the woman who John thinks he is going to marry someday.

78
 Quiz 2
Enjoy quiz number 2.

Part 1
Rewrite the following in standard English orthography.

/ wmin wntd tu pn  m n hu bd h n  sbwe/

/w du ju nsst n mek s du s bor z n s kl s/

/f pit pp pkt  pk v pkld ppz h mni ppz dd
pit pp pk/

Rewrite the following words in the IPA dividing them into syllables and
marking stress on the correct syllable.

walk

surprise

subject

negotiate

79
order

environmental

radio

treatment

moisture

goodbye

80
 Quiz 3
Take it. Enjoy it.

Part 1
Show the difference in sound between the following words by
writing them in the IPA.

who will

work wow

wok awoke

weak walk
why
when
where
whack

Rewrite the following short story into standard English.

/t wz  reni de nd vribdi wz rili bord ivn  bg dg n 
korn ivn so nown kspktd  sml ivl m n tu bt  por
dgz p t wz trbl h  dg krd v kors  b dli bord m
n wnt tu prsn for mni jirz for hz momntri l ps v slf
kntrol/

81
 Appendix
Below is a chart which shows the Manner and Place of Articulation for
Standard Korean consonant sounds.

Stop Fricative Nasal Affricate Glide Lateral

-voice -voice +voice -voice +voice +voice

+asp +lar +lar +asp +lar

Bi-labial p ph p m

Dental- t th t s s n l
Alveolar

Palatal-  h 
Alveolar

Palatal j
Velar k kh k 
Labial- w
Velar

Glottal h

(Adapted from, Maddieson. 1984. Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge: CUP.)

The manners asp. and lar. are abbreviations for aspiration and
laryngealization. These are features used to distinguish different stops and
affricates, as well as fricatives. Aspiration is shown by the addition of a
small `h` to right of the consonant. Laryngealization is indicated by a bar
under the consonant.
Study the chart above to see the differences between English and
Korean. Compare the Korean consonant chart above with the English
consonant chart on page 6.

82
One More English Vowel Chart

Take a look at the chart above and compare it to the Korean chart
on the next page. Comparing the two might help you figure out where
your tongue is in your mouth as you make sounds. Once you know where
your tongue is and what it is doing, the next step will be to be able to take
conscious control of your tongue; the primary articulator.

83
A Korean Vowel Chart27

27
Adapted from Maddieson. (1984). Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge:
CUP.

84