Tone units

A TONE UNIT is the “basic unit of intonation” .It is also known as an "Intonational phrase", "speech unit" or "tone group" 

A tone unit is a unit generally greater in size than the syllable.

Most tone units are of a type that we call “simple”. Each simple tone unit has one and only one “tonic syllable” which is and obligatory component of the tone unit. 

Each tone unit has four components:

The tonic syllable

It is the syllable on which the mayor pitch movement begins. It is a syllable which carries a tone. It has a high degree of prominence and it not only carries the tone, but also a type of stress that will be called tonic stress.  

The head

It is all of that part of a tone unit that extends from the first stress syllable up to (but not including) the tonic syllable. If there is no stressed syllable before the tonic syllable, there cannot be a head.

The pre – head

It is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone unit preceding the first stressed syllable. It is found in two main environments

    a. When there is no head. I.e. no stressed syllable preceding the tonic syllable.

    b. When there is a head

The tail

 Any syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone unit.

• When we analyse longer stretches of speech, it is necessary to mark the places where tone unit boundaries occur – that is where one tone unit ends and another begins, or when a tone unit ends and is followed by a pause, or where a tone unit begins following a pause. 

• Tone units are sometimes separated by silent pauses and sometimes not. Pause type boundaries can be marked by double vertical lines and non-pause boundaries with a single vertical line. 

• Although there are no rules about how we divide speech into nits, some words are more likely to go together than others in order to help make sense of the message.

                 //we stuck a picture//of an elepehant//

• Sometimes the division of speech units can make a difference in meaning

              //we were rather naughty// once// we stuck a picture// of an elephant//
             //we were rather naughty once// we stuck a picture// of an elephant//

• When we want to emphasise words in order to draw particular attention to them, we can put them into very short speech units.

Within a speech unit, some words are made prominent and other non-prominent. Words are made prominent in order to emphasise them because they carry important or interesting information.

Non-prominent words are not so important. They may repeat information that has already been given or give information that is already understood. 

Some speech units have more than one prominent word in them. Each prominent word is emphasise because it carries important information. The last prominent word is where the main falling or rising tone starts. 

INTONATION

What is INTONATION?

Intonation is crucial for communication. It is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the way the voice rises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the language. Without intonation, it's impossible to understand the expressions and thoughts that go with words.

It has the following features:

• It's divided into phrases, also known as 'tone-units'.
• The pitch moves up and down, within a 'pitch range'. Everybody has their own pitch range. Languages, too, differ in pitch range. English has particularly wide pitch range.
• In each tone unit, the pitch movement (a rise or fall in tone, or a combination of the two) takes place on the most important syllable known as the 'tonic-syllable'. The tonic-syllable is usually a high-content word, near the end of the unit.
• These patterns of pitch variation are essential to a phrase's meaning. Changing the intonation can completely change the meaning.

Just as words have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of stressed words. In addition, the voice tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending on the meaning or feeling we want to convey (surprise, anger, interest, boredom, gratitude, etc.). Intonation therefore indicates the mood of the speaker. 

There are two basic patterns of intonation in English: falling intonation and rising intonation.

Falling Intonation (➘)

(The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.)

Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern in English. It is commonly found in statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions), confirmatory question tags and exclamations.

Statements
- Nice to meet ↘you.
- I’ll be back in a ↘minute.
- She doesn’t live here ↘anymore.
- Dad wants to change his ↘car.

Commands
- Write your name ↘here.
- Show me what you’ve ↘written. 
- Leave it on the ↘desk.
- Take that picture ↘ down.

Wh- questions (requesting information.)
(questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how')
- What country do you come ↘from?
- Where do you ↘work? 
- Which of them do you ↘prefer?
- When does the shop ↘open?

Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than questions. (Not all tag questions are really questions. Some of them merely ask for confirmation or invite agreement, in which case we use a falling tone at the end).
- He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he?
- She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she? 
- I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I?
- It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?

Exclamations
- How nice of ↘ you!
- That's just what I ↘need!
- You don't ↘ say!
- What a beautiful ↘ voice!

Rising Intonation (➚)

(The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.)

Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking. It is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real questions.

Yes/no Questions

(Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.)

- Do you like your new ➚teacher?

- Have you finished ➚already?

- May I borrow your ➚dictionary?

- Do you have any ➚magazines?

Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions).

- We've met already, ➚haven't we?

- You like fish, ➚don't you?

- You're a new student ➚aren't you?

- The view is beautiful, ➚isn't it?

We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling intonation in the same sentence. The combination is called Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise intonation.

Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘)

(The intonation rises and then falls.)

We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional sentences.

Choices (alternative questions.)

- Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad?

- Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday?

- Does he speak ➚German or ➘French?

- Is your name ➚Ava or ➘Eva?

Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)

Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished.

- We've got ➚apples, pears, bananas and ➘oranges

- The sweater comes in ➚blue, white pink and ➘black

- I like ➚football, tennis, basketball and ➘volleyball.

- I bought ➚a tee-shirt, a skirt and a ➘handbag.

Unfinished thoughts (partial statements)

In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall intonation indicates reservation. The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts.

- Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice... ( but I don't like it.)

- What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚fish was ➘good... (but the rest wasn't great).

- So you both live in Los Angeles? Well ➚Alex ➘does ... (but I don't).

Conditional sentences

(The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.)

- If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message.

- Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go.

- If you have any ➚problems, just ➘contact us.

Fall-Rise Intonation (➘➚)

(The voice falls and rises usually within one word.

The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the speaker is not certain of the answer they are giving to a question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling tone used when there is no hesitation). It is also used in polite requests or suggestions.

Hesitation/reluctance:

- So you'd be willing to confirm that? ...Well ... I ➘sup➚pose so ...

- You didn't see him on Monday?   I don't quite ➘re➚member ...

Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty: (You are not sure what the answer might be.)

- Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place?

- Should we ➘cop➚y the list?

- Do you think it's ➘al➚lowed?

ELISION

ELISION - HEARD OF IT? DID YOU KNOW THAT USING ELISION COULD MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE TO YOUR PRONUNCIATION?

In some words, a written vowel letter does not always indicate a spoken vowel. For example, in ‘every’ standard British English speakers often elide the second ‘e’, so instead of being three syllables, it is only two syllables, sounding much more like ‘ev-ry’. The same is true for the ‘e’ in ‘lovely', which should sound more like ‘lov-ly’. This is called elision.

SO, WHAT'S ELISION?

'Elision is the omission of sounds, syllables or words in speech. This is done to make the language easier to say, and faster.'

EXAMPLES

• I gave her the book /aɪ 'ɡeɪvɚ ðə 'bʊk/

• What happened? / wə 'æpən/

• I gave her the book /aɪ 'ɡeɪvɚ ðə 'bʊk/

• Family /ˈfæmli/

• Chocolate /ˈtʃɒklət/

• I would like to travel a lot /aɪd 'laiktə 'trævəl ɘlot/

• There are few trees in the wood. /ðərɚ fju 'tri:z ɪnðə 'wʊd/ 

• I don't know what to say  /ai doʊn(t) noʊ wət tə seɪ/

• I must have asked it before /aɪ məst ɘv 'æskt ɪt bɪfɔ:r/

KINDS OF ELISION

There are 3 main kinds of Elision:

a) When the final syllable has /t, d/

Examples:

Conscripts   /’kɒnskrɪps/

The next day   /ðə ˈneks ˈdeɪ/

The last car     /ðə ˈlɑ:s ˈkɑ:/

Hold the dog!  /ˈhəʊl ðə ˈdɒg/

Send Frank a card. /sen ˈfræŋk ə ˈkɑ:d/

Facts  /fæks/

Helen’s machine stopped printing      /’hlənz mə’ʃi:n ‘stɒp ‘prɪntɪŋ/

b) The elision of /ə/

This can often occur. In connected speech /ə/ can easily disappear at word end when the sound comes at the start of a word, positioned between two stressed syllables, as in:

Go away is pronounced /’gəʊ_’weɪ/

Or when it is followed by a stressed syllable beginning with /r/ or /l/

Secretary /ˈsekrətri/     

Police       /pli:s/

Memory    /ˈmemri/

* Elision can also happen when the sound is produced in the middle or final combinations

Preferable is pronounced /’prefrəbļ/ 

Library is pronounced /’laɪbrɪ/

c) The loss of /h/

The sound /h/ is lost in pronominal weak forms. The elision occurs at the end of sentences with this sound.

For example, the /h/ of the two masculine pronouns is retained at the beginning of the sentence

He passed his exam is pronounced       /hɪ ‘pa:st ɪz ɪg’zæm/

Did you see him last night?                    / dɪd ju: si: ɪm lɑːs naɪt/

At Chile, Both of them, live happily        / ət ‘tʃɪli boʊθ əv əm lɪv ‘hæpɪli /

LINKS AND VIDEOS

What is ELISION in the English language?

Elision and Liaison

ASSIMILATION

Assimilation is a process where sounds in separate words change when they are put together in speech. One way this happens is by the second sound changing to be more similar to the first.

Example:The phrase 'white bag', which becomes 'wipe bag' when it is said.

When speaking, people make many assimilations, most of them can only be noticed by the trained ear of an academic speaker and are not important for us.

Assimilation of /t/ and /p/

When a word ending in a /t/ sound is followed by a word beginning in a /p/ sound, sometimes, the two sounds come together - with the /t/ sound changing to /p/. Some examples of phrases where this might happen include:

A piece of white paper
A split personality
I hate pears

Assimilation of /d/ to /g/

In fluent speech the sound /d/ changes to /g/ if it comes before a /g/ or a /k/. This  helps the words to flow together smoothly - and it’s easier to say.
Some examples of phrases where this might happen include:

He's a really good cook
She's a bad girl.
We've got a red carpet.

Assimilation of /d/ and /b/

When one word ends in /d/ and the next begins in /b/, the /d/ becomes /b/ and then merges with the /b/ in the following word.

Good boy!
You should buy me a present!

Assimilation of /t/ followed by /k/

When the letter 't' comes after a vowel sound and before another word that starts with the sound /k/, its pronunciation changes from /t/ to /k/.

Note that some words that begin with the letters qu, like quite and quick, also start with the sound /k/.

Did you see Usain Bolt run in the race? I didn't realise he ran that quickly!
Would you pass me that carrot? I need it for this stew I'm cooking.
Fat cat bosses in the city earn far more than the average worker.

Assimilation of /s/

When one word ends in /s/ and the next begins in /j/, the /s/ becomes /ʃ/. This change also happens if the next word begins with a /ʃ/ sound itself.

Bless you!
This yacht is beautiful.

This can also happen if the /s/ is followed by a /t/ and then /j/ or/ʃ/.

Can you just shut the door please?!

Assimilation of /t/ followed by /j/ 

When we pronounce the sound /t/ and it comes before a word that starts with the sound /j/, then these two sounds can come together and change to the sound /ʧ/. This is like the sound made by the letters ch in church.

Did you like the present I got you for your birthday?
Have you been to that new restaurant yet? It's fantastic – we went yesterday.
Won't you come to the party?

Assimilation of /n/ 

When fluent speakers of English say a word that ends in the sound /n/, followed by a word that begins with a /p/, /b/, /w/ or /m/ sound, the /n/ often changes to an /m/ as the mouth gets ready to pronounce the next sound.

Some examples of phrases where this might happen include:

Green Park.
I live in Paris.
See you on Wednesday.

SENTENCE STRESS

Sentence stress is the pattern of stressed and unstressed words across a sentence. Normally this emphasis is on words that carry important information, although this can change significantly, depending on the specific meaning the speaker wants to communicate.

Example
'She bought a new car' probably has main stress on 'car' and secondary stress on 'bought'.


* English is a stress-timed language. This means that stress in a spoken sentence occurs at regular intervals and the length it takes to say something depends on the number of stressed syllables rather than the number of syllables itself.

TIME TO PRACTICE!

Transcibe into IPA.  

Transcription 1 - Audio

A: Didn’t you know? Tom and Barbara are going to get married.

B: Really? Tom and Barbara? I don’t believe it.

Transcription 2 - Audio

Well, I work in the city. In the next two years, I’m going to be even more successful. I

hope I’ll be earning twice what I’m getting now. I’ve set myself this goal: before I’m

twenty-five, I’ll have made a million.

Transcription 3 - Audio

A: Do you mind if I change seats?

B: Yes, all right. What’s the problem?

A: I can’t see because of the sun.

B: OK, then. Why don’t you sit there? Next to Andrea.

Transcription 4 - Audio

A: David, do you have your mobile phone with you?

B: Er… yes. Why?

A: Can I borrow it, please? I need to make a quick call to my mother.

B: OK, here you are.

Transcription 5 - Audio

Waiter: Can I help you, madam?

Customer: Yes. Where are the toilets, please?

W: Over there. Next to the bar.

C: Thanks. And then, can we have the bill, please?

W: Certainly, madam.

Transcription 6 - Audio

A: Excuse me? How much does this cost?

B: £12.99.

A: OK. Right. I’ll take it then.

B: Anything else?

A: No, that’s it. Thank you.

B: How do you want to pay?

A: By credit card if that’s OK?

B: Sure.

Transcription 7 - Audio

A: Is it all right if I leave my rucksack on the back seat?

B: Yes, of course, go ahead.

A: And erm… would you mind if I took off my shoes? My feet are killing me.

B: Well I’d rather you didn’t. It’s a rather hot day.

Transcription 8 - Audio

A: I think I’ll get a bus to London.

B: Don’t do that, it takes much too long.

A: Does it? Well, in that case, I’ll go by train instead.

C: Train? Don’t be silly, it’s terribly expensive.

A: Is it? Oh, well in that case, perhaps I’ll hitchhike.

D: Hitchhike?

Transcription 9 - Audio

Pat: Hello.

Dave: Hello, Pat. It’s me, Dave.

Pat: Dave. Hi. How are things?

Dave: Not bad. Busy, busy, busy…but life’s like that. How’s everything with you?

Pat: Oh, you know, we all got the flu, and Mike’s away on business, so I’ve got to do

the lot. School…Shop… Kids… Cook… Clean. It’s great. What are you up to?

Dave: This and that.

Pat: How’s your mother by the way?

Dave: She’s a lot better, thanks. Really on the mend.

LIAISON

The word LIAISON is borrowed from French. It means ' A LINK OR CONNECTION'. 

Linking is very important in English. If you recognize and use linking, two things will happen:
1. you will understand other people more easily
2. other people will understand you more easily.

LINKING /r/

INTRUSIVE /r/

LINKING /j/

LINKING /w/

STRONG & WEAK FORMS

Vowel reduction affects the frequent monosyllabic grammar words of English, and many of them have two or more accepted pronunciations, one when stressed or spoken in isolation, the strong form, and one when reduced in their more usual unstressed position, the weak form. Learners’ dictionaries list both the strong and weak forms for such words, which have the following characteristics:

• They have only one syllable;
• They act as function words;
• They usually occur in their weak forms unless the speaker wishes to emphasize them to underline the message;
• The weak forms occur in speech only and are not (usually) shown in writing;
• They are high frequency words, though few in number (about fifty).

'Structural words, such as prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries and articles are often pronounced in their weak form, since they do not carry the main content, and are therefore not normally stressed.'

STRESSING WORDS

'THE IMPORTANCE OF WORD STREES'

• Stressing the wrong syllable in a word can make the word very difficult to hear and understand.

• Stressing a word differently can change the meaning or type of word. 

• Even if the speaker can be understood, mistakes with word strees can make the listener feel irritated, or perhaps even amused, and could prevent good communication from taking place.

When we stress syllables in words, we use a combination of different features.

A stressed syllable ...

• is l-o-n-g-e-r 
• is LOUDER 
• has a change in pitch 
• is said more clearly 
• uses larger facial movements 

TENDENCIES

Many common two syllable nouns and adjectives have stress on the first syllable:
WAter - FINGer - PEOple - UGly


Two syllable words acting as a noun have the stress on the first syllable. however, if they act as verbs, the stress falls on the second syllable.
DEsert - deSERT

Generally prefixes and suffixes aren't stressed in English. However, the following suffixes are stressed:
-ee => employEE, payEE,
-ese => BurmESE, VietnamESE
-eer => enginEER, voluntEER

If a word has the following suffixes, the stress is usually on the syllable before the syllable with the suffix, no matter what the stress of the base word is.
-ive => deCIsive, exCLUsive
-ity => disaBIlity, QUALity
-graphy => phoTOGraphy, geOGraphy
-logy => techNOlogy, geOlogy
-ious/-eous => PREcious, simulTAneous


The same is also true for the following suffixes:
-ient, -iant, -ial, -ion, -ic, -ian, -ical, -iate, -iary, -iable, -ish, -ify, -ium, -ior, -io, -iar, -ible

Easy & important word stress rules for better pronunciation

Stress in long words + activities

SCHWA

Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions. 

Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural. 

The phonemic symbol for this sound is 

In unstressed syllables

Any vowel letter can be pronounced as schwa and the pronunciation of a vowel letter can change depending on whether the syllable in which it occurs is stressed or not.    

Example:

In the word 'man' the letter 'a' has its full sound - represented by the symbol /æ/. 

In 'postman' the syllable 'man' is not stressed and the letter 'a' is pronounced as schwa, represented by the symbol Schwa.

Not just a letter

The sound schwa does not only represent a single letter. In some words it is the sound of several letters or even a whole syllable. 

This is often, but not only, seen in words which have a syllable made up of a vowel letter followed by the letter 'r'. Remember the schwa sound is only used if the syllable which it is in is not stressed.

A LITTLE REMINDER!

ORDINARY WRITING AND TRANSCRIPTION

There are some important differences between writing and transcription.
the following devices DO NOT OCCUR in transcription.

• Capital letters
• Double consonants (except when there is a syllable boundary)
• The letters X and C
• Punctuation marks such as full stops, commas, exclamation and question marks. Instead, a vertical bar is used to mark tone - unit boundaries.

SOUNDS & SPELLING

It's important to note that the spelling of a word is not always an accurate guide to how it is pronounced. Similarly the pronunciation of a word is not always helpful when working out how that word should be spelt. 

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet but there are many more sounds in the English language. This means that the number of sounds in a word is not always the same as the number of letters.

For example, the word 'CAT' has three letters and three sounds but the word 'CATCH' has five letters but still only three sounds.

If we write these words using sound symbols, we can see exactly how many sounds they have.

CAT  is written - 
CATCH  is written - 

In 'CATCH' the three letters TCH are one sound represented by one symbol 

THE ENGLISH SOUNDS

The alphabet which we use to write English has 26 letters but (British) English has 44 sounds. 

Inevitably, English spelling is not a reliable guide to pronunciation because ...

• Some letters have more than one sound

• Sometimes letters are not pronounced at all

• The same sound may be represented by different letters

• Sometimes syllables indicated by the spelling are not pronounced at all.

The letters of the alphabet can be a poor guide to pronunciation. Phonemic symbols, in contrast, are a totally reliable guide. Each symbol represents one sound consistently.