UNIVERSIDAD DE ALICANTE

Departamento Filologa Inglesa

Estudios de Filologa Inglesa

Fontica Inglesa (8905)

Credits: 12
Year: First
Lecturers : Dra. Victoria Guilln Nieto & Dra. Isabel Balteiro Fernndez (First term). Dr.
Antonio Lillo Buades & M Carmen Stubbs (Second term)
Session: 2008-2009

I. OBJECTIVES: The main objectives of this course are:

(a) To acquire the necessary theoretical background to English phonetics and
phonology.
(b) To gain practice in phonological transcription, ear training and oral
production.
II. SYLLABUS:
1. Introduction. Philology and linguistics. The main branches of linguistics.
The main branches of phonetics. Language and languages. Main characteristics of language: redundancy and double articulation. The dichotomous
approach to language. Language and medium.
2. Phonetics and phonology. British and American formulations of phonetics and phonology (phonemics). Segmental and suprasegmental phonology.
Phonemes and allophones.
3. Articulatory phonetics. The production of speech. The organs of speech:
the initiator, the vibrator and the resonators. The lungs: the air stream
mechanism. The vibrator: the larynx and the vocal cords. The resonating
cavities: the mouth, the nose and the lips: positions of the lips. Articulation:
active and passive articulators.
4. Description and classification of speech sounds. The analysis of
speech segments. The syllable. Vocoids and contoids, vowels and consonants.
5. Acoustic and auditory phonetics. The perception of speech. Sounds
between mouth and ear: the speech wave. Perceptual categories: timbre,
pitch fluctuation, loudness, length. Auditory phonetics: sound between ear
and brain. Listening and feedback.
6. Phonetic notation. Phonetic and phonemic transcription. The choice of a
pronunciation model: Received Pronunciation (RP) and Estuary English (EE).
Educational phonetics and accent reduction.
7. The English vowel system. The cardinal vowels. Dimensions for the
description of English vowels. Comparison of the English and Spanish vowel
systems.
8. The front vowels. History, articulatory and acoustic description. Most
important allophones. Most representative graphemes. Neutralization (1): [i]
Practice in minimal pairs and in connected speech.
9. The back vowels. History, articulatory and acoustic description. Most
important allophones and most representative graphemes. Neutralization (2):
[u]. Practice in minimal pairs and in the spoken chain.

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10. The central vowels. History, articulatory and acoustic description. Most
important allophones. Most representative graphemes. Practice in minimal
pairs and in the spoken chain.
11. Semivowels and diphthongs. History, description and spelling. Most
important allophones. Most rsrepresentativegraphemes. Practice in minimal
pairs and in the spoken chain.
12. The English consonants (I): The stop consonants. History, description
and spelling. Most important allophones. Most representative graphemes.
Practice in minimal pairs and in the spoken chain.
13. The English consonants (II): The fricative consonants. Special
description of /r/. History, description and spelling. Most important allophones. Most representative graphemes. Practice in minimal pairs and in
the spoken chain.
14. The English consonants (III). The affricate, nasal and lateral
consonants. History, description and spelling. Most important allophones.
Most representative graphemes. Practice in minimal pairs and in the spoken
chain.
15. Combinatory phonetics. Phonotactic rules. Clusters. Secondary and
double articulations: similitude. Assimilation, juncture and elision. Practice.
16. Suprasegmentals (I). Suprasegmental phonemes: prominence. English
stress. Word stress: practice. Gradation: stress in derived and compound
words. Sentence stress: strong and weak forms. Practice.
17. Suprasegmentals (II). English rhythm. Isochrony. The main rhythmic
patterns. Practice.
18. Suprasegmentals (III). English intonation. Tones and tonemes. The
expression of emphasis. Attitudinal meaning. Paralinguistic features. Practice.
19. Phonetic variation (I). Variation: accent and dialect. Regional dialects.
Diglossia. Social dialects. Style and register. Variation in British English. NearRP: the pronunciation of Australian, New Zealand English and South African
English.
20. Phonetic variation (II). The pronunciation of American English. Vowels
and diphthongs in American English. The consonants /r/, /t/, /l/. The nasal
twang. Stress, rhythm and intonation in American English. Symbols used in
the notation of American English.
21. Phonetic change. Evolutionary phonetics. The explanation of phonetic
change: causes of change. Types of change. Main traits of the evolution of
English vowels, diphthongs, semivowels and consonants from Old English to
Contemporary English.
22. British and non-British formulations of phonology. The London
school of phonetics. Feature systems. Binarism in Jakobsons distinctive
features. Generative phonology: distinctive features in Chomsky and Halles
The Sound Pattern of English.

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III. METHODOLOGY: Lectures, seminars and workshops.
A. LECTURES

& SEMINARS. Set books:

Alcaraz Var, E. and B. Moody (1984): Fontica inglesa para espaoles.

Alcoy: Marfil.
Bradford, B. (1988): Intonation in Context. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Lpez Soto, T. & D. Barrera Pardo (2000): Applied English Phonemic
Transcription. Sevilla: Mergablum.
(3 hours per week)
B. WORKSHOP:

The aim of the Phonetics Workshop is to offer students the guidance and
opportunities to fluently read phonologically transcribed texts and a wide
variety of written genres, ranging from English nursery rhymes, tonguetwisters, and American jazz chants to poems, drama dialogues, descriptions
and narrations.
Practice will be carried out through a series of 15 Moodle workshops over
each term. These will include: (a) Reading Phonological transcription tasks,
(b) Phonological transcription, (c) Phonological dictation, and (d) Storytelling.
(1 hour per week).

IV. ASSESSMENT:
(a) One paper on theoretical English phonetics and phonology. This paper will
also include a phonological transcription of a passage of English, a dictation
of a passage of English to be transcribed phonologically, and a phonological
analysis from a contrastive point of view. (50% of the final mark)
(b) Oral assessment. (50% of the final mark)
Students oral production will be assessed as follows:
(b1) Students will have to accomplish and record three oral tasks each
term. These will be submitted to the lecturer via the Moodle platform.
The students who fail to submit the oral tasks on due time will be
given the opportunity to hand them over to the Lecturer on the
examination day.
N.B.: To pass the subject, it is compulsory for the students to carry out all
their assignments and submit them via the Moodle platform for the report
that will be issued at the end of the term.

Fontica Inglesa (8905)

V. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
ALCARAZ VAR, E. & M A. MARTNEZ LINARES (1997): Diccionario de
lingstica moderna. Barcelona: Ariel.
& B. MOODY (1984): Fontica inglesa para espaoles. Alcoy: Marfil.
BOLINGER, D.L. (1989): Intonation and its Uses: Melody in Grammar and
Discourse. Stanford: Stanford UP.
BRADFORD, B. (1988): Intonation in Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
CLARK, J. & C. YALLOP (1995): An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology.
2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
(1st ed 1990)
CRYSTAL, D. (1991): A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 3rd edn
Oxford: Blackwell. (1st edn 1985)
GARCA LECUMBERRI, M L. & J.A. MAIDMENT (2000): English Transcription
Course. London: Arnold.
GIMSON, A.C. & A. CRUTTENDEN (2001): Gimsons Pronunciation of English.
London: Arnold.
HANDKE, J. (2000): The Mouton Interactive Introduction to Phonetics and
Phonology. CD-ROM. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
HANCOCK, M. (2003): English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
JOHNSON, K. (1997): Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell.
JONES, D. (1960): An Outline of English Phonetics. 9th edn Cambridge: Heffer.
(1st edn 1918)
KNOWLES. G. (1987): Patterns of Spoken English. London: Longman.
LADEFOGED, P. (2001a): A Course in Phonetics. 4th edn Orlando: Harcourt
Brace. (1st edn 1975)
(2001b): Vowels and Consonants & A Course in Phonetics. CD-ROM.
Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
LILLO, A. (1999): El ingls del Estuario y las innovaciones fonticas del habla
londinense. Atlantis 21: 59-77.
LPEZ SOTO, T. & D. BARRERA PARDO (2000): Applied English Phonemic
Transcription. Sevilla: Mergablum.
MORRIS-WILSON, I. (1984): English Phonemic Transcription. London:
Blackwell.
POLDAUP, I. (1985): English Word Stress. London: Pergamon.
SPENCER, A. (1996): Phonology: Theory and Description. London: Blackwell.
TENCH, P. (1996): The Intonation Systems of English. London: Cassell.
TRUDGILL, P. et al. (1982): International English. A Guide to Varieties of
Standard English. London: Arnold.
WELLS, J.C. (1982): Accents of English. 3 vols: I. An Introduction, II. The British
Isles. III. Beyond the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
. (2000): Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. 2nd edn Harlow: Longman.
(1st edn 1990)
Phonetics & Phonology on the Internet:
On-Line Phonology Course
<http://www.stir.ac.uk/epd/celt/staff/higdox/stephen/phono.html>The
Sounds of English: Pronunciation Help for Learners of American
English
<http://mason.gmu.edu/~swidmaye/sounds.html>
The Click and Listen Project for Scots
<http://wheecher.arts.ed.ac.uk/public/demos.html>
SIPhTrA Tutorial on the Basics of Voicing
<http://holtz.phon.ucl.ac.uk/htbin/wtutor?tutorial=siphtra/vbl.html>
The Vowel Quadrilaterals for Stereotypical National Dialects
<http://weber.u.washington.edu/~dillon/newstart.html>
OUCs ESL Pronunciation Online
<http://www.faceweb.okanagan.bc.ca/pron.html>

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