mumti MODERN • NGUAGE' SERIES Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/englislisoundsbooOOripmricli ENGLISH SOUNDS A BOOK FOR ENGLISH BOYS AND GIRLS BY WALTER RIPPMANN NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & CO. PREFACE In many of our schools great strides have been made in teaching the pronunciation of French and German. The application of phonetics to the practice of the classroom has afforded the means of teaching the foreign sounds and of cultivating clear and correct articulation in a manner which surprises those who had thought no better result could be achieved than what is obtained by imitation of the teacher's voice. The task of the teacher in imparting the pronunciation of a foreign language is no easy one. It is rendered all the more difficult when (as is too often the case) the boys and girls who are starting the foreign language have not been taught the sounds of the mother tongue in an orderly way. It is time that the spoken language should be restored to honour. Various societies are urging this, and much care is devoted to elocution; but progress is hampered because there is no simple book on English sounds that can be placed in the hands of a boy or girl. The need of such a book has become more and more urgent, and I have written English Sounds to provide teachers with an introduction to English phonetics in simple language and with the least possible number of technical terms. It should not be beyond the pupils who have not yet begun the first foreign language ; at the same time I hope it will not be found devoid of interest for older boys and girls. 393927 IV ENGLISH SOUNDS Those who wish to acquire some further knowledge of the subject may derive advantage from a perusal of the Sounds of Spoken English, with Specimens, issued in this series in which all the books for teaching foreign languages contain phonetic transcriptions. (The signs employed in transcribing French, German, Spanish and Latin, as well as English, sounds are those of the International Phonetic Association.) For class use the English Sound Chart in this series will be found convenient. There is no need to add hints on the use of this book, as it explains itself. Further exercises will suggest them- selves to every teacher. The pupils, too, may be trusted to co-operate eagerly in the study of speech sounds when once its great interest has been brought home to them. They will learn to discriminate sounds which they had not noticed before ; bad pronunciation will shock them as it had never done ; and they will come to esteem the spoken word and help to increase the beauty of our language. Too often in our classrooms voices are faint or shrill, harsh or nasal, and words are slurred and spoilt ; and many when their school days are over still talk with an unpleasant voice and mutilate the language. May this little book find its way into many a classroom and help to produce a generation with clear and vigorous speech. WALTER RIPPMANN. Easter 1911 ENGLISH SOUNDS It is quite a long time since we learnt to speak ; it was 1 from Mother and Father and Nurse that we learnt it. They did not give us regular lessons ; they just talked to us, and we copied them as well as we could. At the very begin- ning we were not able to say everything they did. Some- times they used long words and we cut them short ; they said 'beautiful' and we said 'boofle.' Sometimes they made sounds that we could not imitate, and we used sounds that seemed to us easier : they said * thumb ' and we said ' fum.' After a time, when we had learnt to talk pretty well, we went to school, and then we had regular lessons. The first thing we had to do now was to learn to read and write, and this took some time ; but if we had not learnt it, all books would have been closed to us, and we should have remained uneducated. We might have learnt a good deal without books, — singing and drawing and making things with our hands; but that is not enough. We should have missed a great deal if we had been unable to read ; and how awkward it would be, too, if we had not learnt to write. Now when we write we are really doing a very wonder- 2 ful thing : putting the language on paper. When we speak, our words reach only those who can hear us ; but when we write, our words can be sent ever so far, to the other end of the world. When words are printed, they reach hundreds and thousands of people. 2 ENGLISH SOUNDS How is this wonderful thing done 1 By means of letters. In English there are 26 letters, and these have a long history. The Romans, more than 2000 years ago, used almost all the letters that we use now ; and they were used by other nations before them. The Chinese have letters too ; but they are peculiar letters, for each one stands for a whole word. How many such letters we should require in English ! We may well be sorry for the poor Chinese boys and girls who have to learn so many signs for reading and writing. 3 We are very fortunate in having a different kind of alphabet. Our letters do not stand for whole words, but for sounds. But does the same letter always stand for the same sound in English ? And is the same sound always written in the same way? If that were so, it would be very easy to read and to write English. Let us try to answer these questions. The first question is : Does the same letter always stand for the same sound 1 Just look at these examples of English spelling : cat, city ; get, gem ; e.cact, extra ; ba?id, barik ; m^n, human, master ; bin, bind ; woman, women ; show, cow. The second question is : Is the same sound always written in the same way ? Look at these examples : cat, bitten ; sit, city ; sucA, hutch ; bed, head, said ; win, women ; huys, lies, li^^t ; shows, goes. THE SPELLING OF ENGLISH WORDS 3 Sometimes a word contains letters that are not pro- 4 nounced at all. Which of the letters in the following woi'ds are silent ? knot, gnaw, sign, doubt, bough, could, guard, buy, right, write, psalm, calm, castle, handkerchief, programme, fatigue, taught, heard, active. Find other words that contain silent Sometimes a letter is written twice when once would be enough. We write almost with one I, all with two ; but we do not pronounce two Ts. Compare welcome and well^ big and bigger, sit and sitting. Find other examples. This has shown us that our spelling is irregular. We 5 cannot tell, by seeing the letters of a word, what the sounds are. A foreigner, who does not know the spoken language, has to learn that g in gem must not be pronounced in the same way as g in get. We who knew the spoken language before we learnt to write it, had to be told that torite has a w in front, and know a ^; we could never have guessed that. After a good deal of trouble we learnt these and many- other things, until we could spell without making many mistakes. We can say what letters any ordinary word contains ; but can we split up a spoken word into the sounds of which it is made up? That is what we are now going to try. We know that there are 26 letters in the alphabet ; how many sounds are there in English speech ? Write down as many different sounds as you can find. 4 ENGLISH SOUNDS 6 We call some of these sounds vowels and others con- sonants. ' Vowel ' is another form of ' vocal,' and that means ' having voice.' ' Consonant ' means ' sounding with ' something. Once upon a time people thought that only a vowel could be uttered by itself (as when we call out ' O ! '), and that a consonant could not be uttered apart from a vowel. But it can. When we want to stop some- body from making a noise, we sometimes say ' Sh ! ' We have all read Rudyard Kipling's story of the Cat that Walked by Himself : when the milkpot that stood by the fire cracked in two pieces it went ' Ffft ! ' and we can say that quite easily. And in Andersen's tale of the Nightin- gale we read that the Emperor of China had a Cavalier who was so grand that when anybody of lower rank put a question to him, he merely answered ' P ! ' — which was rude of him, but at any rate helps to show that a consonant can be uttered by itself. Still, we may go on using the terms ' vowel ' and * consonant ' because it is convenient to do so. 7 'Vowel,' we saw, meant 'having voicu.' The ordinary meaning of ' voice ' we know ; but we are now going to learn about a special meaning of this word. When we say s (as in hissing) and z (as in buzzing) like this : s — z — s — z — s, not making any pauses in between, we notice that there is a buzzing sound every time we say z. We notice the same when we say : f_v— f— V — f. Here there is a buzzing every time we say v. VOICED AND VOICELESS SOUNDS 5 We all know what it is to whisper. Let us say ah ! in our ordinary voice, and then whisper it. all : ordinary voice — whisper — ordinary voice — whisper. Every time we say it in our ordinary voice we again notice a sort of buzz. This ' buzzing ' is what we call voice. A sound like z, v or ah (in the ordinary voice) is voiced. A sound like s, f or whispered ah is voiceless. Let us put our Imnds against our ears and say those sounds again : s — z — s — z — s; f — v — f — v — f; ah: ordinary voice — whisper — ordinary voice — whisper. fFe notice the ' buzzing ' ar vibration still better now. Put a metal ring (a curtain ring will do) irito a pill box or a metal matchbox. Hold it against the side of the throat while you utter a voiced sound. Notice Iww the vibration imikes it rattle. What gives rise to this vibration 1 We use breath in speaking. Is it the breath as we draw 8 it in (inhale it), or as we give it out (exhale it) '? Where does the breath come from ? Slaioly Jill your lungs with air, keeping your mouth shut. How long can you hold your breath ? Quickly inhale a good supply of air through the nose ; then exhale slowly through the mouth. Do this several times. Again inhale quickly through the nose, and as you exhale say ah in your ordinary voice. (There is no need to shout.) Make the ah last as long as possible. Do this again, but say z w/ien you exhale, making the sound last as long as possible. Do the same with v. 6 ENGLISH SOUNDS 9 When the breath leaves the lungs it passes out through the windpipe. At one part of the windpipe (men have the ' Adam's apple ' just there) there is a marvellous contriv- ance by which the passage can be made quite wide or closed completely. From left and right two lips can be drawn together. When we are not talking, but just breathing, they remain apart ; just as the lips of the mouth are apart when we breathe through the mouth. When we require a great deal of breath (for instance, when we are blowing), they separate more still, so as to leave a large passage for the air. These * lips in the throat ' are called the vocal chords ; but we must not think that, because ' chords ' sounds like ' cords,' they resemble strings stretched across the throat. 10 When these vocal chords are placed against each other, not very tightly, and we let breath out of the lungs, it forces them apart for a moment, and it does this again and again. It is done very, very quickly. We can do just the same thing with our lips ; we sometimes do it when we feel very cold, or when we have just swallowed some nasty medicine, and babies often do it, just for the fun of the thing. It is called a lip trill. Trill your lips half a dozen times. We have made our lips vibrate, and the vocal chords vibrate very much in the same way ; this vibration of the vocal chords is what we call voice. They vibrate when we say V or z or ah (in our ordinary voice). Which of the following sounds are voiced and which are voiceless? f, b, 1, s, k, d, g, v, p, z. Underline the letters that stand foi' voiceless sounds : sisi/er, brother, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, nej^ew", niece. STOPS AND CONTINUANTS 7 We are going to talk about the vowels later ; about 1 1 the consonants we now know that they may be voiced or voiceless. Let us look at them in another way. We can let the breath pass out through the mouth. Let us exhale — then say ' P ! ' like the Cavalier of the Emperor of China — then exhale. Let us try to say ' P ! ' and nothing else, like this : exhale — p — exhale — p — exhale. Now instead of exhaling, we are going to say a long all : ah — p — ah — p — ah. We notice that every time we say p, the lips close and the breath is stopped. Let us say once more ; ah — p — ah — p — ah, stopping the breath as long as possible at the p. Now let us say f instead of p, like this : ah — f — ah — f — ah. This time the breath is not stopped. It continues to make its way out ; but it does not go out so easily for f as it does for ah, because for f the passage has been made quite narrow by the upper teeth and the lower lip coming together. We notice then that p and f are different kinds of sounds. Sounds like p, for which the breath is stopped, we call stops. Sounds like f, for which the breath is not stopped and which allow it to continue on its way out (the passage having been narrowed, but not closed altogether), we call continuants. 8 ENGLISH SOUNDS Which of the foUmoing sounds are stops and which are continuants ? g, p, z, t, sh, b, v, k, f, s, d, 1, w. In the following words underline the stops once and the con- tinuants twice : fit, bad, push, call, zest, shake, white. Consonants, then, may be produced by closing the passage through which the breath passes (when we get stops), or by narrowing it (when we get continuants). When the passage is neither closed nor narrowed, we get vowels. 12 There are some other sounds that we have not yet talked about, which are rather peculiar : m, n and ng (as in ring). How are these produced ? Let us say : ah — m — ah — m — ah. We notice that the lips are closed, just as in : ah — p — ah — p — ah. Is the sound m voiced or voiceless ? It is voiced ; then is it the same as the b in : ah — b — ah — b — ah ? What is the difference between m and b? It is this: when we say b the breath is stopped ; but, although the lips are closed for m, we can say a very long m. Do so. If we can dwell on it like this, it is clear that the breath has not been stopped. The lips are closed. Where does the breath pass out ? Through the nose. Why does the breath then not go out through the nose when we say b ? BREATHING THROUGH NOSE AND MOUTH To find the answer we must get some idea of the inside 13 of the mouth. If we touch the roof of the mouth (the palate) with our finger, we notice it is hard ; as we pass the finger farther back, it is soft. We call the front, hard part of the roof of the mouth the hard palate ; and the back, soft part, the soft palate. Now let us take a mirror, open the mouth wide and have a good look at the inside of it. (If we turn our back to the light, the mirror will throw light into the mouth, so that we can see it better.) We notice that the end of the soft palate hangs down and at the very end there is something that looks like a little grape. (The Latin word for a little grape is ' uvula,' and that is what we call the very end of the soft palate.) This end can be moved backwards and forwards. Open ymir mouth wide and hold a mirror befare it^ so that you can see wliat is going on inside. Exhale through the mouth and through the nose in turn, like this : mmdh — nose — mouth — nose — mo^dh. If you keep your tongue out and do not move it, ym.i will then see how the soft 'palate moves hack lohen you breathe through the mouth and foi'ward when you breathe through the nose. End of soft palate End of soft palate The breath passing through the mouth only, through mouth and nose. lO ENGLISH SOUNDS It is by moving the end of the soft palate back or for- ward that we can close or open the passage through the nose. When we say m, the breath is stopped at the lips ; but the end of the palate is brought forward, so that the breath can pass out through the nose. The breath is stopped but for m it passes at the lips for b, out through the nose. End of soft palate Let US say : ah — m — ah, ah — n — ah, ah — ng — ah. In each case the breath is stopped on its way through the mouth, but continues to pass out through the nose. Because the nose is so important for these sounds, we call them nasals. 14 Sometimes we are unfortunate enough to have a very bad cold, and that stops the nose passages. Then we can- not say these sounds. Instead of saying ' Good morning ' to our friends, we have to say ' Good bordig ' ; that is, we say b for m, d for n, and g for ng. This shows that there is some connection between b and m, d and n, g and ng. We have already seen that b and m are both voiced, and in the case of both the breath is stopped by the lips. The sounds d, n, g, ng are also voiced ; but where is the breath stopped when we utter these sounds ? NASALS; LIP SOUNDS ii Take your mirroi\ open your mouth well and say : a — d — a — d — a a — t — a — t — a a — n — a — n — a pi'oiwuncmg a as in father and watch what happens. Then say : a — g — a — g — a a — k — a — k — a a — ng — a — ng — a arw^ watch what happens. We notice that in both cases the breath is stopped by the tongue ; but the part of the tongue used for d, t, n, is nearer the end than the part of the tongue used for g, k, ng, which is farther back. The part we use for d, t, n, is the tip or point of the tongue. We shall consider later what part of the tongue we use for g, k, ng. We are now able to go through the consonants one by 15 one. We shall begin with the stops and nasals ; and first we take the lip stops and nasal^ that is, sounds in which the breath is stopped at the lips, namely : the voiced b, the voiceless p, the nasal m. We have spoken about them and not much remains to be said. Find wwds containing the somid b at the beginning {initially), inside {medially), at the end {finally). [Examples : bed, table, cab.] 12 ENGLISH SOUNDS Find words containing the sound p initially^ medially and finally. [Examples : pet, taper, tap.] Find words in which the letter b is nx)t p'oruni7iced \ the same for p. [Examples : debt, empty.] Find woi'ds in which the letter b is doubled ; the same for p. [Examples : sob, sobbing ; lap, lapping.] Some people use too much effort in speaking, sending out more breath than is necessary. Instead of saying p they say p followed by breath; for instance instead of saying p — e — n, they say p — [breath] — e — n. 16 Find words in which the sound m occurs initially , medially and finally ; and wwrls in which the letter m is doubled. If we utter these words we shall find something fresh to notice. Take, for instance, Tuat, hammer^ ham. We remember that m is a continuant ; we may let the breath ' continue ' for a moment only or for some time. In other words a continuant may be long or short. Is the m in mat of the same length as that in hammer and that in ham 1 If we watch carefully we shall notice differences of length (or quantity, as it is sometimes called). The initial m is longer than the medial m ; final m is longest of all. 17 The point stops and nasal come next. They are formed when the tip or point of the tongue rises and closes the passage. What part of the mouth does the tongue touch when it rises 1 Take your mirroi' and watch what happens when you say : Try to say it with the tongue touching the teeth fm- 1. Can you notice any difference in the soimd 1 POINT SOUNDS 13 In this place too there are three sounds : the voiced d, the voiceless t, the nasal n. Find words with initial^ medial and final d ; woi'ds in which the letter d is not p-onounced or is doubled ; and the same for t and n. Some people make the same mistake of wasting breath over t as in the case of p ; they say, for instance, t — [breath] — e — n. fFhat do yo^i notice abmd the length of initial, medial and filial n1 We may turn next to a further set of three sounds : 18 the voiced g, the voiceless k, the nasal ng. How shall we call them 1 The breath is stopped inside the mouth. The mirror has shown us that the tongue rises ; but which psirf' of the tongue is it ? It is not the point ; for when that rises we get a point consonant. Take your mirrm; open your mouth well and say key and cool several times. Then whisper these words several times. Watch the tongue. For the sound k we do not always raise the same part of the tongue. Sometimes we raise the front of the tongue (as when we say key) and sometimes the back (as when we say cool). [When the tongue lies at rest in the mouth, the front is under the hard palate, and the back under the soft palate.] 14 ENGLISH SOUNDS Say key — coo —key — coo aloud and in a whisper. Do you notice any difference in the sound of the k (or c) ? We may then call these three sounds the front and back stops and nasal. Find wwds with the sound g occurring initially, medially and finally. [Note that gem, age, would not he examples of what we want.] Find words in which the letter g is silent, or is doubled. Find words with the sound k occurring initially, medially, and finully. [Note that the sound is not always spelled k ; cat uill he as good an example of the sound as kitten.] Find words in which the letter k is silent, or is doubled. Some people waste breath over k, as they do over p and t. 19 There are some things to notice about the sound ng. We spell this sound by means of two letters, but it is only one sound. That is an awkward arrangement. What is more, when we write ng we do not always mean this sound. If we say these words : long, longer, engage, engine we notice that ng stands for four different things. In long the two letters stand for the nasal sound only ; and we are going to use a special sign for this in future : t), that is, an n with the tail of a g. In longer, ng has the value of T)g. What is the value of ng in the following words ? singer, linger, Bangor, hanger, hunger, talking, singe, angle, clin^, angry, England, jingle. FRONT AND BACK SOUNDS 15 Careless people sometimes ' drop their g's.' They say 20 Mmtdn' and ridin', instead of hwnting and riding. When we come to think about it, we find that there is no g sound in the ending -ing at all ; and that what they really do is to say n in place of t). An odd thing is that some quite educated people (who ought to know better) mal?e this mistake, as well as people whose education has been neglected. Sometimes we say t) when we write n, as in thank, anchw\ tranquil. Some people even do so in pincushimi, income; but that is careless. Find other words in which the letter n has the value of t). Here is another rather common mistake : in order to 21 pronounce the nasals m, n, t) we have to let the breath pass out through the nose, and to make this possible we open the passage to the nose by moving the end of the soft palate forward. Thus in lar)ip, land, long, when we have finished the vowel, we open the nose passage for the nasal. Some people do this too soon, while they are still uttering the vowel; then the vowel is pronounced with the breath passing through mouth and nose at once (as in the right-hand diagram on p. 9). Such a vowel is nasal, and does not sound at all well in English speech. We must be careful not to open the nose passage before it is required for the nasal consonant. If you make this mistake, you should practise : ma — ma, mama may — maim foe — foam nay — name na — na, nana my — mine sigh — sign lay — lane low — loan lea — lean dew — dune flit — fling hat — hang slot — long hut — hung until the vowels are no longer nasal. i6 ENGLISH SOUNDS 22 We can now draw up a little table of the nine sounds we have had : voiced voiceless nasal Lips Tongue ; Point Front or back b d g P t k m n D 23 We know what is meant by a continuant. Give some examples of contimmnts. We have had voiced and voiceless stops ; continuants may also be voiced and voiceless. Arrange the continimnts that you have just given in two groups^ acceding as they are voiced or voiceless. The lip continuant is produced when the breath passes between the lips which have been brought close together, so that the breath has to make its way through a narrow slit. As it passes through, it makes a noise. Take a piece of thick blotting paper and cut two holes in it, one the size of a shilling, the other a narrow slit. Hold the holes in front of the lips {without actimlly touching them) and blow through the holes. Notice the noise made when you bloio through the slit. LIP AND LIP-TEETH CONTINUANTS 17 The voiced lip continuant is w. Notice that when we say w the back of the tongue is raised. Find wwds containing the sound w initially^ and woi'ds in which tJie letter w is silent. What is the first sound of who, one ? Read these words : Greenwich, Harwich, Woolwich, Norwich ; Keswick, Warwick ; Southwark. The letters qu stand for the two sounds kw. Read these wmxls : wart, quart wick, quick wake, quake wail, quail west, quest will, quill inquest, conquest {what do yait notice about conquer ?) WTmt do you Twtice about quay 1 Many of us pronounce the letters wh (in which^ white, etc.) 24 in just the same way as w. Others pronounce it as h followed by w. Others again pronounce it like w, but without any 'buzzing,' that is, they utter the voiceless lip continuant. If we want to have a single sign for the voice- less sound we may use ia, that is, a w upside down. Nobody pronounces wh as w followed by h. The next continuants are v and f. How are they 25 produced ? 2'ake your mirror and watch your lips as you say : a — V — a — V — a a — f — a — f — a. We may call v and f lip-teeth continuants. Find wards containing the sound f initially^ medially and finally, and words in which the letter f is doubled. How do you pronounce the letter f m of ? B i8 ENGLISH SOUNDS Find words containing the somid v initially and medially. {The only case of doubled v occurs in the wwd navvy.) Find pairs of words with f and v, like wife — wives, thief — to thieve. 26 In some words the sound f is written j^h. When we come to think of it, that is a very strange spelling. This is how it arose : The Greeks had a number of words with ph, for instance the name of Philippos (our Philip), and at one time they really did pronounce them with the sounds p and h ; so that Philippos began p — [breath] — i — . (This is just the same sort of p that we talked about in section 15.) The Greeks had a special sign (p for it. When the Eomans wrote Greek words in their alphabet (from which we obtained ours) they had no special sign for this p — [breath], so they wrote it PH, because these were the sounds they heard. In course of time the Greeks, how- ever, changed their pronunciation, and used the sound f where the Greek spelling had a (p ; but the Romans stuck to the old spelling and so do we. Find words containing the letters ph pronmmced as f. How do you p'onmrnce the letters ph in nephew ? 27 We now come to three pairs of continuants in which the tongue is used for narrowing the passage. They are some- times called the lisping, hissing and hushing sounds. The lisping sounds are those for which we use the letters th. There are two : the voiced th is the first sound of this, and the voiceless th is the first sound of thing. We do not pronounce the letters th as t followed by h ; we are going to use the sign S for the voiced th and 6 for the voiceless th. Find woi'ds containing the sounds S and 0. Find pairs of woi'ds with B and S, like breath — to breathe. LISPING SOUNDS 19 How did th come to be used as the spelling of these con- tinuants? We have already seen how^/i came to represent f ; and the explanation of th is similar. The Greeks had a real th (that is, the sound t followed by the sound h) in such words as Theodoras (our Theodoi'e, which really means 'God's gift'), and they had the sign B for this t pronounced with much breath. As we have seen, the Romans wrote Greek words in their alphabet. As they had no special sign, they used the letters th, because these were the sounds they heard. In course of time the Greeks changed the pronunciation of their 6, giving it the sound of our th in Theodore; but the Romans kept the spelling to which they were accustomed, and we have followed their example. Where is the passage narrowed for these sounds 1 28 Say : a — S — a — S — a a — 9 — a — 6 — a mid notice what happens. The breath passes out between the tongue and the upper teeth. If we push our tongue between our teeth, and let the breath through, we are bound to say 5 or 6, That is the way to t^aach the lisping sounds to foreigners, who often find it difficult to make them. Babies, and some boys and girls, — and even some grown-up people, — find it difficult too. They often use v or f instead. For S and 6 the breath passes between the upper teeth and the soft flesh of the tongue ; for v and f the breath passes between the upper teeth and the soft flesh of the lower lip. That is why they are rather alike, and why people use v, f, for 3, 0. Why is it easier to see how v, f are pioduced than how 5, 6 are produced ? 20 ENGLISH SOUNDS 29 The hissing sounds are the voiced z and the voiceless s. Say: a — z — a — z — a a — s — a — s — a and notice what happens. The passage is narrowed by means of the tongue, which is raised to the roof of the mouth. A peculiar thing is that the breath does not pass through a slit, as it does for the continuants we have had so far. For s or z the point of the tongue is shaped in such a way that it forms a little channel in the middle. The breath is not allowed to spread from left to right, but is directed to one point, like a jet of water, and ' plays ' upon the middle of the teeth. We find this quite easy, because we have done it so often. Babies find it very hard, and take some time to learn it. Some children do not place their tongue in the right way, but push it forward ; then they lisp, which is not at all ' pretty ' (as foolish people sometimes say it is). If you have this had way of saying s, try your best to learn how to speak without lisping. Begin with : s — 1 — s — 1 — s — i i — s — i — s — i — s lifting up the point of the tongue as much as you can. Get others to tell you if your s sounds right. Practise it with other vowels also. Deal with your z in the same way. Then you may test yowrself hy saying : Is this smith's son a smith too ? This is just as thick as that. The Leith police dismisseth us. 30 The letter s is not used only for the sound s ; it often stands for z. W^hat is the value of the letter s i7i the following words ? dogs, cats, hits, hides, playj, backs, beds, bets, goes. Can you find any rule ? HISSING SOUNDS 21 JVhat is the value of the letter s in the following wwds ? (He) used (a brush) ; (he) used (to do it) ; (I have no) use (for this). (This is getting) loose ; (take care you do not) lose (it). (He) refused (it). (There was) refuse (in the street). Close (the door). (He watched him) closely. As this was his. He has seen us. The letter c is sometimes used with the value of s. Wliat is the value of c in the following words 1 call, city, cut, cease, corn, acid, scene, cat, crew, acute, centre, cot, acre, cost, curious, cistern, cow, cell, receive, clown, scorn, sceptre. Find the rule. The letter x represents two sounds, but not always the 31 same two sounds. Say the following iVo^'ds: example, exercise, exert, extent, extreme, excellent, exhaust, exist, express, exceedingly, exorbitant, external. The sounds are sometimes voiceless ( = ks), sometimes voiced ( = gz). Can you find any rule for this ? Say the following itords : box, tax, six, fox, vex, hoax, sex, fix, text, mixture. Except in the case of ex-, the letter x at the end of words and before t always stands for the voiceless sounds ks, box rhymes with cocks ; find rhymes to six, vex, hoax. There are some words (mostly proper names, such as Xerxes, XeTwphon) that begin with x; it is then pronounced as the one sound z. 22 ENGLISH SOUNDS 32 There are two hushing sounds. The voiceless sound is written sh in shut, the voiced is written s in pleasure. We are going to use the sign $ for the voiceless hushing sound, and 3 for the voiced sound. Say several times : a — S — a — S— a a— 5 — a — 5— a Watch what the tongue does when ymt utter these soimds. The passage for the breath is again narrowed by the tongue ; but this time it is the part behind the point (we call it the blade of the tongue) which rises for the narrow- ing. The breath does not pass out through a little channel in the tongue, as was the case with s, but spreads out. It is not directed against the middle of the teeth, but blows against all the front teeth. 33 The voiceless sound J is spelt in many ways. In the following words underline the letters which have the value of 5 : sure, mission, nation, chandelier, ocean, partial, censure, conscience, anxious, sugar, social, passion, vicious, mansion, luxury, machine, fashion. The letters ch sometimes have the value of J ; but usually they stand for two sounds. Say: hush, such wish, which shin, chin The first sound is t, and this is sometimes written too, as in hutch, witch. What do the letters ch stand for in the following wards ? chat, chagrin, watch, chord, check, sachet, chamber, Christian, brooch, echo, chill, church, technical. Find as maiiy" rhymes as you can to the following wm'ds : catch, hitch, watch, fetch. HUSHING SOUNDS 23 The voiced 5 does not occur so commonly as the voiceless 34 sound. It is generally written s ; very rarely z. Say : vision, evasion, pleasure (find same rhymes to this wm'd), collision, erosion, azure, seizure. It is fairly common, however, in combination with another sound. Say: leisure, ledger ; vision, pigeon ; evasion, contagion. The combination of voiced dj reminds us of the voice- less tj. Say. edge, stretch ridge, flitch budge, hutch journey, churn jest, chest jump, chump The sounds d5 are variously written. In the following words imderline the letters that have the value of dj. jet, gem, age, ledge, pigeon, lodge, jolt, engine, jut, bridge, aged, college, vegetable. It may seem rather odd that we should use the ' hushing ' sounds when we write s or t, a^ in sugar, action. In all words of this kind the s (and the t which was pronounced s) was at one time followed by i (or rather by the sound of y in yes); and the s + y became J. Stogar was pronounced syugar before it became \ugar. The s in vision was pro- nounced z, and the z + y became 5 ; vizyon became vi^^on. We may notice the same change still taking place. People who speak badly say, not six ( = siks) years, but sikj years ; not here's ( = z) yours, but here — 5 — yo^irs ; not as ( = z) usiuil but aj itsuul. 24 ENGLISH SOUNDS Sometimes we find the 'hushing' sounds where the spelling does not suggest them. Say : nature, creature, soldier. Distinguish : due, Jew ; verdure, verger ; (en)dure, {ad)jure. 35 We have yet to notice something in connection with the voiced continuants v, 5, z, 3. iJ Say slowly : By your leave. He ceased to breathe. If you please. What is your age ? Pay particular attention to the last sov/nd in each group of words. When these voiced continuants are followed by a pause, they are not voiced from beginning to end. The 'buzzing' stops before we reach the end, so that it sounds as though V passed over into f, and S into 0, and z into s, and 3 into 5. Here are some more examples : Yes, it is. Look above. It is on the ledge. Shall we bathe % Such a blaze ! Cross the bridge. Long may you live. 36 The next continuant we meet with is 1. Find words in which the smmd 1 occurs initially^ medially and finally ; woixls in which the letter 1 is silent and in which it is doubled. How is the 1 produced ? Open your mmith wide and say : a — 1 — a — 1 — a Watch the tongue with your mirrm\ THE 1 SOUNDS 25 We see and feel that the point of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth, but the breath is not stopped. Where does it pass out ? It goes to left and right of the point of the tongue. Which part of the roof of the mouth does the tongue touch 1 Say, in a whisper : lock, callow, call laugh, fellow, fell I will, I am willing cockle, little, waggle Ymi can feel where the tongue touches. The tongue does not always touch the same place. When the sound 1 is at the end of a word, the body of the tongue rises. Say, mth the body of the tongue flat /w the 1 : i — 1 — i— 1 — i aThd with the lady of the tongue rising as far as possible /w the 1 : u — 1 — u — 1 — u TVe may use the sign \fm' the sound of 1 when the body of the tongue is raised. Say : making as much difference as you can between them. It does not sound well to utter the 1 with the body of the tongue raised ; we must avoid it. If you are inclined to make this mistake, practise these sentences : She held a milk pail. Will you tell this old tale ? The bottle fell off the table. He was unable to toll the bell. When consonants are followed by the letters le, as in 37 cattle, angle, fickle, the 1 is the chief sound of the syllable. We then call it syllabic 1. 26 ENGLISH SOUNDS Say slowly, separating the syllables : battles, uncles, needles, struggles. Read the following : idle, idol ; able, label ; metal, mettle. The same thing happens sometimes with m and quite often with n. There is a syllabic m in prisms, and a syllabic n for instance in Open the dow and, when we talk quickly, the word am? in hread and butter becomes just a syllabic n, nothing more. We do not let that happen when we speak carefully. 38 One of the most interesting — and also most troublesome — continuants is r. Can you trill this sound ? If so, trill it foi' as long as you can, several times. If you cannot trill it, you should learn to do so. Some people learn it by saying d — d — d — d very quickly. Or you may say a long S, and as you are saying it, draw the tongue hack and let the h'eath flap it to and fro. It nmy take you some time, but you must persevere. Once upon a time, every r was trilled. This was a fine sound that could be heard a long way off, and such sounds were convenient when people lived much in the open air and shouted to each other across fields. When people spoke more slowly than we do now, they did not mind the trouble of trilling all their r's. Gradually, however, people in many countries would not do this any more. Some made a sound like it, by trilling the uvula. You can see the uvula if you open your mouth well : it is the far end of the soft palate, and we have already talked about it in section 13. Try whether you can trill it. Others kept the trilled r, but only pronounced some of the written r's, and the rest became silent. THE r SOUNDS 27 When the r is trilled, the point is curled back, and the 39 breath makes it shake to and fro, quickly. Some people curled the point of the tongue back, and let the breath pass out between that and the roof of the mouth, without any- trilling. The passage was narrowed and a continuant was the result. It is this untrilled r that most of us pronounce, — when we pronounce the letter at all. Notice that the back of the tongue is raised. Say these wards, dwelling on the r as long as possible : bread, red ; crown, round ; bright, right. Whisper them, again dwelling on the r. Whisper tree, dry ; here the passage foi' the breath is parti- cularly n/irrow. Noio say a long r, without any other sound. {Of c&iirse you must not say ah, /a?' that is Twt the sound, but the imme of the letter.) Find woi'ds containing the sound r initially and medially; and woi'ds in which the letter r is doubled. If you hnxyw how r should be p'onownced, but are inclined to iise a bad r instead, you may practise siich sentences as this : Ked roses grew all around. i Rory Rumpus rode a rawboned racer. Will you play rounders or cricket or run round the playground 1 Say the following wards in which r is silent : 40 hard, firm, mother, labour, work, stir, form, murmur, beard, fear, four, former. ^ When do we not pronounce the letter r % 28 ENGLISH SOUNDS When the letter r is at the end of a word and the next word begins with a vowel, the r is generally pronounced. The r is silent in a better pen, but we pronounce it in better ink It is silent in Sir Thomas, but pronounced in Sir Anthony. It is silent in whoever comes, but pronounced in whoever it be. We may say that better has two forms, one with the sound r added, the other without. We may say the same of Sir, of ever, and other words. Make up pairs of short sentences, in which the following words occur with the r proTiouTiced and with the letter r silent : four, bear, or, care, for, stir. 41 This possibility of having the sound r in some cases and not in others has led careless people to add the sound r where it has no business to be ; they say the idea-r-of it, china-r-07-naments, the India-r-office. That does not sound very agreeable. Other people think it necessary to put e between a con- sonant and r ; for instance, they say umberella, Henery and even Enery. That is dreadful. Another mistake is made by careless people, when they find two r's in a word and drop one of them. They say, for instance, Febuary, instead of February, Make up sentences containing the following words and pay great attention to their pronunciation : library, literary, temporary, supernumerary, itinerary. Some people say w in place of r, which seems very strange until we remember that there is something common to both of them : for r we raise the back of the tongue, and we do the same for w (see section 23). THE FRONT CONTINUANT 29 For all the continuants we have recently had, the 42 narrowing was made by means of the point or the blade (see section 32) of the tongue. We had front and back stops. Are there any front and back continuants 1 Yes, there are ; but in English we only use one of them. Take your mirror y open y&u/r mouth well atid see what happens when you say : he, hue ; see, sue ; ee, you. The front of the tongue rises towards the roof of the mouth for the ee^ and when you say the first sound of you it rises a little more, so that the passage becomes quite narrow and a continuant is the result. We are going to use the sign j for this ; we must not confuse it with the letter y, which stands for the sounds dj (see section 34). Find words containing this sound, initially and after consonants. The sound is sometimes written y. It also sometimes forms the first part of what is written u, eu, ue, etc. (see section 72). Which of the following words contain the sownd j 1 you, use, true, few, pure, sure, rude, feud, beauty, illumine, luminous, Europe. Some people write a youth (which is of course right)^ but an university, an European, and this is a mistake. We do not write an when the next word begins with a consonant and the sound j with which these words begin is a consonant. This sound sometimes (for instance in soldier, nature) passes into one of the hushing sounds which we met in section 32. We have all heard people say dontcherhiow, and wJmtcher may call. Sometimes I shall hit you becomes Ishal hitshoo; and Tuesday sounds like Choozday. We must be careful not to make such mistakes. 30 ENGLISH SOUNDS 43 There is no back continuant in English, but Scotch people have one. It is the sound they utter at the end of the word loch. Try to produce this sound ; the sign fm- it is x, which yon must nx)t confuse with the letter x. Say : 44 There is only one consonant left, and it is the least substantial of them all; indeed it often disappears alto- gether. It is the sound for which we have the letter h. ha — ha, hi — hi, hoc — hoc, first with an oi'dinary h, then making the h as loud as possible. Then do the same, but in a whisper. This is clearly a continuant ; it is the sound made by the breath passing through the mouth. There are some words in which the initial letter h is silent. Some in which it used to be silent, have recovered it. For a long time people pronounced {h)erb, {h)umble, and some still say {h)umour, with silent h. The letter h is often silent when it begins the second part of a compound word. Read these wards : shepherd, forehead, Clapham, Sydenham, exhibit, exhaust, exhilarate, exhort. If you find it difficult to pronounce the letter h at the begirming of woi'ds, practise such sentences as these : He had a high hat on his unhappy head. Had he ordered cold ham or cold lamb 1 Here's health and happiness to all ! Up the high hill he heaved a huge round stone. SILENT LETTERS 31 In section 22 we made a table of six stops and three 45 nasals. We can now draw up a table of thirteen con- tinuants (fifteen, if we include al and x) : Lips Lip Teeth Tongue . Point Front ' Back w V ^zs 1 r 1 J h (M) f Osl 1 (X) voiced voiceless We have found instances of letters that are not pro- 46 nounced. We can arrange some of them in groups. (i) Underline the silent letters in the following woi'ds ; handkerchief, handsome, Windsor ; hasten, listen, castle, rustle, Christmas; empty, symptom, attempt ; muscle. When three consonants come together, the one in the middle is often silent. Find other exam-ples. (ii) Underline the silent letters in the following wards : gnaw, gnome ; knee, knot, knuckle ; psalm, pneumatic ; wrist, wrong. When two consonants at the beginning of a word are awkward to pronounce, the first is often silent. Find other exanvples. 32 ENGLISH SOUNDS (iii) Underline the silent letters in the following words : limb, tomb, dumb ; hymn, solemn. When two consonants at the end of a word are awkward to pronounce, the second is often silent. Find other examples. (iv) Underline the silent letters in the following words ; talk, yolk ; light, weight, though ; yacht ; physiognomy, sign, foreign. There are also cases of silent I, gh, ch, and g within words. Find other examples. 47 We must now pull ourselves together, for we have come to the vowels, and they are very troublesome. By the time we have reached the last we shall wonder at the number of them, and at the very slight changes in the tongue that give rise to this variety. Change its position by the fraction of an inch, and the sound changes too. For a vowel we need 'voice,' using that word in its special sense (see section 7) ; a vowel is without voice only when we whisper, and that is exceptional. VOWELS 33 When the breath has set the vocal chords vibrating, it passes out through the mouth. Nowhere is it stopped, nowhere is the passage sufficiently narrowed to produce a consonant. But the passage may assume all kinds of shapes, according as we move the tongue forward or back- ward, up or down. We may also open the mouth more or less, or alter the shape of the lips in various ways ; but the position of the tongue remains our chief concern. Say these words without separating your teeth : I hope you will come to-morrow. It is quite possible to speak without separating the teeth at all; the vowels can still be quite easily distin- guished. But the words have a kind of muffled sound, and our speech is not so distinct and agreeable as it should be. Say the sound a (as in father ; we are always going to use the sign a fm' this sound), opening your mouth well. Then say i (as in marine ; we are always going to use the sign i for this sound). Look at your mirror as you repeat : Notice how fm' a it rises for i. a — 1 — a — 1 — a the tongue lies flat in the mouth and how 7 i0 ^ r-u 1 1 c ^ 1^ ) ^ 1 ^- f Ather / fa) =A- i;i.>rK ^ aw '"l I Y ' ' cqi J . L? 4 marinelL "' f :A- 34 ENGLISH SOUNDS 48 When we are breathing through the nose the tongue lies quietly in the mouth ; it has much the same position when we say a, only for this we open the mouth and let the breath pass through it. If we draw the tongue back ever so little, the sound changes : the a then sounds a little bit like the a in allj which is quite different from the a in father. Some people do this and pronounce park almost like poi-k^ and part almost like po)-t, and fast almost as though it were spelt fawst. We must not draw the tongue back when we say this sound. We must also not push it too far forward. If we do, it again changes, but in another way : command then almost rhymes with hand, and answer with / can, sir, and grant with pant. This also is a mistake. 49 Read the following wards : card, cart hard, hart marred, mart starred, start tarred, tart barge, starch bars, farce starve, scarf halve, half calves, calf Observe the length of the vowel. What connection is there between the length of the vowel and the Hnd of consonant that follows ? The sound a is rarely quite short in English. If we say quickly We are coming to-7nm'row, the word are is often pronounced as a short a. Some people also have a short a in the first syllable of translate, participate. THE SOUNDS a AND a 35 A short a, with the tongue a little forward, for which 50 we shall use the sign a, is the first part of two diphthongs. Say : aisle, owl ice, house mice, mouse Each of these words contains a diphthong, and the first part of the diphthong is this kind of a. We shall have more to say about these diphthongs in sections 57, 68. Not very different is the vowel in hut. The back of the 51 tongue is raised a little for this sound ; we shall use the sign A for it. In the following wwds underline the letters which stand for the sound a : such, mother, butter, trouble, comfort, blood, blush, above, rough. The sound a is only found in syllables that have some stress, not in unstressed syllables. Read the following : until, uncover, tea-cup; and observe the difference in the following : come, welcome. circumference, circumnavigate. Some flowers are yellow : Here are some yellow flowers. We noticed that when we said i (as in the second syllable 52 of manne) we raised the front of the tongue. Say a and, still letting the breath pass out and the vocal choi'ds vibrate, slowly raise the front of the tongus until the sound is i. Do this three times^ more slowly each time : a...i a i a i Many sounds lie between a and i, far more than we need for English. 36 ENGLISH SOUNDS 53 The first common sound we reach on our way from a to i is the vowel of glad, for which we shall use the sign se. Say^ with your mouth quite open : pa, a glsed, Ised, sed, ae, then say : a — SB — a and watch the tongue with your mirroi: Some people raise the tongue too high, and say thenks for thanks, ceb for cab, cerriage for carriage ; but this raising is only right in any, many (not in manifold), Thames. Say the following : cab, cap stab, sap fad, fat cad, cat bad, bat sad, sat mad, mat pad, pat bag, back hag, hack lag, lack nag, nack rag, rack sag, sack stag, stack tag, tack badge, batch cadge, catch Does the same ride apply here as the one you fownd after reading card, cart, etc., in section 49 ? 54 If we raise the tongue a little more in front, we reach he first vowel sound in fairy, there ; for this sound we shall use the sign e. The mouth is less open for s than for ae. Say : a — se — e e — se — a 7 7^ /]" M>^ h ^^^H /\ ^^^1^ __ ) mI I fA ther / (a) y =»- THE SOUNDS ae, e AND e 37 FiThd words containing the sownd e. The sound e is always followed by the letter r, which may or may not be pronounced. When the letter r is silent, the vowel e is followed by another, rather dull sound, for which we use the sign 9. This is heard also when the r is pronounced, but then it is very faint. Say : fair, fairy, fairest ; care, caring ; ami notice this difference in the value of the a. Say : fair, fat ; hair, hat ; bare, bat. The sound e is longer than the sound se. We also use more effort in saying it ; the tongue is more strained. We therefore call e a tight sound and se a loose sound. The next front vowel is the e in pen^ for which we shall 55 use the sign e. Say : a — as — 6 — e e — e — ae — a Watch mth your mirror what happens when you say : 6 — e — 6 — e — 8 — e / • ^I T^ thEre"T. 7 iVU- Z ZmL I ^^B X I 1^ l i^ rEin UAi -^. f =A - Find wmrls containing the sound e. Say the following : bed, bet dead, debt led, let said, set beg, beck peg, peck edge, fetch sedge, stretch What do you notice ? Of what does it remind ymi ? 38 ENGLISH SOUNDS 56 The sound e is the first part of the diphthong in rem, for which we shall use the signs ei. Find words containhig this diphthong. (Here are some examples : aim, fame, way, whey.) Say this diphthong quite slowly : i Notice how the tongue moves from the e position to a higher position. Say it again, after placing the tip of your little finger between yo^ir teeth. Notice Iww the lower jaw moves up at the same time. Some people do not keep the tongue so high when they utter this diphthong. Instead of starting with e, they start with s ; and they end with e instead of i. In bad speech the diphthong is lower still, starting with se or even with a. We have all heard this pronunciation and should not like to make it our own. Bead these words : he says, he said, he ate bargain, captain, fountain curtain, villain In a few common words of one syllable, and in the unstressed syllables of some other words, the diphthong has been reduced to e or a looser sound. We shall talk about these very loose sounds later. JFTiat do you notice abmit the foUoiving woi'ds ? babe, tape braid, bait fade, fate made, mate laid, late staid, state grade, grate raid, rate wade, wait vague, wake THE DIPHTHONGS ei AND ai 39 There is another diphthong to which we may now 57 return, that spelled ai in aisle. In section 50 we noticed that the first part of it is the sound a. We may use for it the signs ai, but as a rule the tongue does not rise high enough for i to be reached ; it does not get beyond e. Some people do not begin with a, but with a ; that is they do not lift the tongue a little forward. Others even draw it back, so that by almost sounds like boy, and like like l&iJce. This we find in common or provincial speech. Others lift the tongue too much and start the diphthong with se or even e. This has an affected sound. We do not want our speech to be either common, or provincial, or affected. Find looi'ds containing this diphthong, and arrange them according to the way in which it is spelt. Find pairs like the following : bide, bite ; eyes, ice. How is the letter y pronounced when it comes at the end of a word? When the tongue is raised higher in front than for e we 58 obtain the sound of i in bit. This is a loose sound, like the other short vowels that we have had. Say, looking at the mirroi' : a — 38 — 6 — 6 — i i — e — e — ae — a Notice how the lower jaw rises as you pass from a to i, and how in consequence the lower row of teeth approaches the upper more and more. The lips also change their shape ; when i is reached they form a slit opening, as is shown on the next page. 40 ENGLISH SOUNDS a e I Find words containing the sound i, and collect pairs like bid, bit. 59 In some unstressed syllables there is a very loose i sound. Say several times : lily, lily, lily, stressing the first syllable well. Notice that the second rowel {mitten y) is different from the first. Some people give the unstressed sound the same value as when it is stressed, which sounds odd ; and others actually make it a diphthong. Then fancy ! sounds like fansay. This very loose i is more common than the spelling would lead us to think. In the following words underline the letters which have the value of the very loose i sound. houses, fountain, because, deceive, very, silly, before, wishes, James's. Find other instances of this sov/nd. 60 What is the second vowel sound in Tnarine ? Say bid, drawling it so that the vowel becomes long. Then say bead. The vowel in bead is not merely the lengthened i of bid. Place the tip of your little finger between your teeth, and then say bee several times. Notice how the lower row of teeth moves up and the tip of your finger is pinched. When the lower jaw Tnoves, we know that the tongue moves too. THE i SOUNDS 41 When we say this sound, our tongue moves ; and that always means that the sound is not the same from beginning to end. It is a diphthong. We start with i and raise the tongue until the passage is so narrow that a continuant ( j ) results. The tongue is fairly tight while we do this. We might then represent this diphthong by ij. Say ij in such a way that you end with a distinct j. But not all of us have the tongue quite so high. We may start just a little lower and end without producing a continuant. Then, if we use the sign i for the lower sound we may use the signs li for this diphthong. As a matter of fact, for ordinary purposes, we simply use i: ; the sign : is used to indicate length. Some people have the tongue lower still, and then please almost sounds like plays and tea like tay. This is not found in good speech. Find words containing this diphthong. Yon will n/)tice that it is spelt e (as in cedar), ee (as in proceed), ea (as in seal), e + consonant + e (as in cede), ei (as in ceiling). Collect pairs like feed, feet. When the letter ?• (silent or pronounced) follows, we do 61 not get this rising of the tongue. Say : dear, dearest ; fear, fearing. We then have a long low i followed by another sound which is quite distinct when the r is silent, but faint when the r is pronounced. The sign for this sound is a, and we might therefore write the above words as follows : dl9, di'rist; fi9, fi'riT). 42 ENGLISH SOUNDS 62 We have now come to the end of the front vowels, and we may arrange them as follows, using words that contain them : Short vowels Long vowels and diphthongs lily (loose and very loose I) bed (e) glad (x) bead (i: [ij or li]) bait (ei) fairy (s) We have also had the sounds a in father^ a (part of the diphthong in aisle\ a in hut, and 9 (at the end of air). 63 The back vowels will appear fairly simple, now that we have dealt with the front vowels. Say a .... u, passing very slowly from a to the somd of u in true. 7 id /[-Nk »-" c _ — \ f/i ahe.r 7 (a) ;r =/ - Notice^ with the help of the mirrm\ how the lower jaw gradually rises ; at the same time the tongiis rises at the hack. Do your lips change their shape while you pass from a ^o u ? The back vowels may be uttered with lip-rounding, and they sound better when this is done. BACK VOWELS 43 Say i — u — i — u, giving the space between the lips the shape of a slit when you say i and the shape of a small rmmd hole when you say u. Now pass slowly frma a ^o u, g^-adually rounding the lips more and moi'e. The first sound we have to consider is that of the o 64 in not^ for which we shall use the sign o. Find wards containing this sound. Utter the sounds keeping your mouth well open, and watch the position of the tongue. For we draw the tongue back ; the tongue is loose. Find pairs of words like the following : hob, hop; rod, rot; dog, dock. Some people make the o quite long before a voiced sound; for instance, they pronounce dog as if it were written dawg. This is not to be imitated. Sometimes the o is made long before the voiceless sounds f, s, 6, as in off, coffee, soft, officer ; cross, cost ; cloth, froth. It is better not to make it long in these words. 44 ENGLISH SOUNDS 65 There is a long sound oz, which is, however, rather tighter than the short o. This o: is found in caw, foughty stalk ; and those who do not pronounce the letter r in core, f mm All 7 /r^'Wi 46 ENGLISH SOUNDS We notice that ou among the back vowels is just like ei among the front vowels (see section 56). Say slowly ei and ou, and notice in each case a similar rising of the lower jaw. Some people keep their tongue lower when they say this diphthong ; they start with the lower vowel o and do not get beyond o at the end. Some actually begin with the front vowel and then pass through o to o. Try to say this aeoo. You will not like the residt. Find wm'ds containing the diphthong ou, and collect pairs like road, wrote. Make a list of words beginning with thep'efix pro- and notice how the o is pronownced. 58 There is a diphthong that we may notice here, which is written ov, in house. The first part of it is a, as we saw in section 50 ; from that the tongue rises until it reaches o or a low u. It is therefore somewhat similar to ai (section 57). Find wo7'ds containing this diphthong ; also pairs like loud, lout. Some do not begin the diphthong with a, but with the higher vowel se (as in fat). Try to say house with the diphthong aeu. If you have any tcTidency to this p'onmiciationj learn at once that it must he avoided at all costs, 69 The last front vowels were the short and loose I and the 1: which is really a diphthong (ij or li). The last back vowels are a short loose U and the u: which is really a diphthong. For the short, loose vowel in pid, foot, we may use the sign U, though u does well enough for ordinary purposes. Find words in which this vowel occurs (a) before voiced sounds, (b) before voiceless sounds. Find instances of silent u and ue. THE u SOUNDS 47 We were able to determine that the i in machine repre- 70 sents a diphthong. Say this sounds and then the u: mitten oo in food. Watch carefully what happens. If you see no change at ally and feel none, then ymt are uttering pure long voioels. This may he your rmtural way of producing the sounds. The sound u: is usually a diphthong, and may begin with a fairly high u with small lip opening, and end with a higher u and the lip opening so small that a continuant (w) results. Or it may begin lower (with U) and end lower (with u). The correct signs for the diphthong would then be uw or Uu \ but ui will do for ordinary purposes. Say : poor, poorer, poorest ; assure, assuring. 71 Generally speaking, when oo or u is followed by the letter r, silent or pronounced, we have the long and rather low sound U:. Sometimes this sound has become ox, for instance in dooi', floor. Some people change the sound of pom' to some- thing like paw, and sure sounds as though it were written shaw ; but we shall do well not to copy them. In quick speech the vowel of the word your is short o or o. Find words containing u: and others containing U: ; also pairs like rude, root. Very often we find the combination jui or ju (see 72 section 42). In the following wwds linderline twice the letters that have the value o/ jui, and once those that have the value of in. union, unite, few, sue, value, feud, you, use, dew, hue, usurp, beauty. Find pairs like feud, refute. 48 ENGLISH SOUNDS Read the following words : lute, flute, absolute, blue, luminous, illumine, allude, allusion ; jury, June, sure, sugar ; rude, true, ruby, ruse. What do you notice about the words with lu- 1 Read the following words : creature, nature, feature, venture; leisure, pleasure, measure, censure ; seizure, azure; usual, casual, sensual, visual. 73 The back vowels are now complete, and we may arrange them as follows, using words that contain them : short vowels put (u) poetic (o) pot (o) long vowels rude (u: [uw or uu]) and diphthongs poor (u:) pole (ou) paw (o:) poison (oi) pout (au) 74 We have met with the dull sound a several times. It is short and loose, and occurs only in unstressed syllables, as in the second syllable of father^ or aftw other vowels, as in aw", pooi\ dear. Say: beggar, beggars, gather, gathered, leopard, shepherd, dotard. Notice that before a voiced sov/nd the 9 is lengtfiened. The long sound o:, rather less loose, occurs in stressed syllables. PHONETIC SPELLING 49 In the foUomng wai'ds imderline twice the letters that have the value of 91 and once those that have the value of a : bird, labour, turn, learn, fir, furl, murmur, work, enter, inter, interfere, fern, purpose, burr, pearl, curl, burner, performer, surplice, word, surprise, certain, concert, absurd, word. Find pairs like heard, hurt. We have now learned the signs that we are going to use 75 for all the sounds of our language; and it will improve our knowledge if we take words, split them up into sounds, and then write them down with these signs, — the phonetic signs. Write doum, by means of the phonetic signs, the following woi'ds : split, grin, twist, himself, rest, met, kept, best, left, spend, put, spirit. Some words are the same in the phonetic and in the ordinary spelling, but usually there is a difference. Write down the following woi'ds phonetically : resting, then, intense, inch, bell, thing, filling, render, think, fish, limbs. In some words only the consonants show a difference. Write down the following wards phonetically : faint, take, not, man, very, only, several, pond, time, won, duty, life, into, talent, wait, heaven, freedom, glorious, unfold, treated. In some words only the vowels show a difference. 50 ENGLISH SOUNDS fFrite down the following woi'ds in the m-dinary spelling : feis, bikoz, kAnit), roiol, fi^goz, lou, djuiti, peznt, fo:^, 91^, oid9, iitj, biznis, Qpobdsi, gud, okwaia, sitjueijn, sould50, 5ouz. Each of the following rep-esents two m' more wmds {for instance houl represents hole and whole) : houl, rait, stoik, nait, neiv, nou, alaud, roud, friiz, witj, au9, SAn, dAn, nAn, wAn, hoil, fai, sAm, haia, soul, dai, siiz, wiik, teil. 76 This has given us some practice in using the phonetic signs, but we do not speak in single words. Words are uttered in groups. We do not say : We I have \ lessons \ every | morning with intervals between the words, but we say the whole sentence without stopping anywhere. When we say We have lessons every mo7-ning, and also on four aftenixxms that is too much for one group; we divide it into two groups, with a break after mm-ning. The punctuation marks often show where there is a break; but sometimes we do not have this help. A good reader does not laboriously read single words; he looks ahead and knows where to make his pauses, when he can draw breath. It is the necessity of drawing breath that makes us divide speech into groups ; and we therefore call them breath groups. Take ymir reading hook and copy mit a paragraph, then divide it into breath groups by means of upright lines. STRONG AND WEAK FORMS 51 In a breath group the syllables are not all uttered with 77 the same force. Some are stressed, others are unstressed. In the follomng sentences imderline the stressed syllables. He came to see me. When did he arrive 1 There were not many people on the river. I wish I could see him more frequently. Did they win or lose ? Go and ask her to stop playing the piano. Some words in common use are sometimes stressed and 78 sometimes unstressed. When they are unstressed they appear in a shortened form. We say that such words have a strong form and a weak form. As examples we may take the very common words a and the. When we refer to them we say, for instance, / said a [ei] rrmiiy not the [Six] man. These are the strong forms. As a rule, however, we use the weak forms [a] and pa] before consonants, as in [Sa kau], [5i] before vowels, as in [Si oks]. Write phonetically : A man sat at the table, by the open window. In our language there are many words with strong and weak forms : (i) common verbs : has, have, had ; is, are, was, were ; can, could, shall, should, will, would. The weakest forms of some of these are shown in the ordinary spelling : He's done it^ Fve seen him, I'd been there , he's old ; I'll do it, I'd like to. There are other weak forms, however, of which the ordinary spelling gives no hint. Thus we pronounce was as [woz] and had as [haed] only when we stress them; the usual forms are the weak [woz] and [had]. Find the weak farms of all the verbs given above. 52 ENGLISH SOUNDS (ii) pronouns : he, him, she, her, his, we, us, you, your, them, who. The weak forms of some of these (he, she, them, us, you, your) yovj will find without difficulty. In your speech there may he no weak forrm of him, his m^d some others. If you listen carefidly to quick conversatimi, you will often find that him, his, when unstressed, lose tJie h sound. You will find this in the quick speech of quite well-educated people. (iii) prepositions : of, to, from. When unstressed, of becomes [av] and, in a few expres- sions such as o'clock, [a] ; to becomes [to] before consonants, but remains [tu] before vowels, except in very careless speech ; from becomes [fram], (iv) conjunctions : and, but, as, or. Find the weak fm'ms of these. Read the following sentences in a natural tone of voice, and then underline the words of which the form is weak : He had been there as often as I had. We were going to see them. I should have liked to visit you. He was going for a walk with his brother. I gave her her hat. I wonder whether he can do it. We are always getting letters from him. What are you thinking of ? It was not I but you who did it. He said that that was not what he had hoped for. I have sold many of the books. How many of them ? 79 In compound words the stress is generally on the first part, and the second part (being unstressed) is often shortened. STRESS 53 Write phonetically : penny, halfpenny, sixpence board, cupboard day, Sunday fast, breakfast land, England mouth, Portsmouth ford, Oxford WTiat do you notice about the first part of the following com- pound woi'ds ? halfpenny, threepence, breakfast, forehead, shepherd. Some words of two syllables sometimes have both 80 syllables stressed and at other times only one. Bead the following sentences : It fell by the wayside. He came to a wayside inn. He was fifteen. Here are fifteen shillings. These pictures are Chinese. We had some Chinese lanterns. Put accents on the vowels of the stressed syllables in the High Street, Park Lane, season ticket, steel pen, baking powder, Hyde Park, blotting paper. Put accents on the vowels of the stressed syllables in the follow- ing sentences : He absented himself. He was absent. He conversed with him. The converse is true. She presented it to me. It was a nice present. What is the chief produce of this country 1 It produces corn and wool. They protested against these proceedings. They made a formal protest. Can you find a i-ule ? Stressed syllables are not all uttered with the same 8 amount of force; some are more strongly stressed than others. 54 ENGLISH SOUNDS Put aceents on the stressed syllables, marking with two accents (") those vith stronger stress : A friend in need is a friend indeed. Half a loaf is better than no bread. Do not put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine, And after one hour more 'twill be eleven. She sat like patience on a monument. A maid whom there were few to praise, And very few to love. 82 We may now test our knowledge of the sounds by writ- ing in the phonetic script connected passages. Here are some examples : When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh wen Sa foist beibi laift | f9 Sa faist taim||hiz laif | broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping brouk intu 9 miljon piisiz {| 9nd Sei oil went skipip about. That was the beginning of fairies, obaut I — I Sset W9z Sg biginii) av fs9riz | — | They all gathered round Peter to hear what was the Sei oil gseSa'd raund piit9 || tu hi9 | wot W9z Sa wish of his heart, but for a long time he hesitated, wij 9V hiz halt || bAt | f9r 9 lor) taim | hi heziteitid || not being certain what it was himself. * If I chose not biiii) S9itn | wot it woz | himself | — | if ai tjouz | to go back to mother,' he asked at last, ' could you give to gou baek t9 mA^g || hi aiskt 9t laist || kud ju giv me that wish '\ ' mi Sset wij | — | PITCH 55 You will notice that we have not marked the stresses. This we might do by underlining the vowels of the stressed syllables, or by putting accents on the vowels or before the syllables, thus : him'self. There is something else that is not shown : the raising 83 and lowering of the voice, what we call the pitch of the voice. Read the following sentences^ paying particular attention to the pitch : Where are you going "? I am going home. Here are some apples and pears. Which do you like better, apples or pears ? He was very sorry to hear it, so he said. I wonder what he will do next. AVhat is the good of writing such a letter ! Write the letter at once ! You are writing the letter ? Yes, I am. I am simply delighted ! Is your exercise book tidy or untidy ? Bead a paragraph from your reading hook, first in a mono- tonous voice, then with suitable raising and lowering of the voice. (' Monotonous ' originally meant ' all in one tone,^ that is, keeping the same pitch all through.) If we change our pitch very little, our speech sounds dull and uninteresting ; if we change it too much, it sounds unnatural. If we always speak in a high-pitched voice, it gets on other people's nerves ; if we speak with too low a pitch, it sounds gloomy and depressing. We must speak so as to express our meaning well, with an agreeable voice. 56 ENGLISH SOUNDS 84 We do not always speak at the same rate. In ordinary conversation we speak more quickly than when we are reading a fine poem aloud or reciting. When we speak slowly, we pause more frequently to take breath, and so our breath groups are shorter. We also do not reduce the unstressed syllables so much as in ordinary conversation. If we recite a poem in the same way as we talk to a friend about the latest cricket or net-ball match, we take away a great deal of its beauty. On the other hand, if we talk to a friend as if we were reciting poetry, it sounds silly. Sometimes we hear a passage very well read, or a poem finely recited, or at the theatre an actor or an actress speaks beautifully. Then we feel how splendid our language is. It is a great thing that we should have books; but the written language falls far short of the spoken words, — when they are well spoken. Not many of us are called upon to address large gather- ings of people, to preach, to lecture, or to perform in plays ; but all of us have to do some speaking, and we can all speak well if we make up our mind to do so. Few of us, perhaps, can play a musical instrument well ; but we have a wonderful instrument in our voice. Although we may be unable to sing, we can speak in such a way as to give pleasure. 85 What must we do in order to speak well ? We must breathe properly, filling the lungs well. We must speak in breath groups of the right length, not gabbling hurriedly, and not becoming faint (dropping the voice) at the end of every breath group. We must speak at a suitable pitch; our speech must not be shrill or sepulchral, it must not become monotonous or sing-song. HOW TO SPEAK WELL 57 We must use the sounds that educated people make, and not copy the sounds we hear vulgar or affected people use. We must pronounce the letters that educated people pro- nounce, and not utter those which are silent in their speech. We must not jerk our words out, or mumble. We must avoid all peculiarities of our own. Speech is given us to express our thoughts and we want people to know our thoughts without being disturbed by anything unusual in the pronunciation. When we read a letter that is badly spelt or in a bad handwriting, it disturbs us by drawing our attention from the thoughts it contains to the faulty way in which the thoughts are presented. When we listen to a person speaking badly (whether it be slipshod or affected speech), it disturbs us in the same way; we keep on noticing the faulty and disagreeable form in which he expresses his thoughts. A great deal of course depends on what we have to say. 86 If we talk without being sure what we mean to say, our words will get tangled up, and not be pleasant to the listener. If we do not distinguish properly between important and unimportant things, we put our thoughts in the wrong order. If we talk foolishly, we shall give no pleasure, however well we may use our voice. In the same way, when we are reading aloud, we must let our eyes run on, so that we may take in the meaning and read with good expression, pausing at the right places. When we are reciting, we must always understand what we are saying, or else our expression will be wrong. We must therefore think before we speak, and speak so as to convey our thoughts in the clearest and most pleasant manner. Then our words will have the best effect; then they will be really living words. EXERCISES. 1. Arrange the following words in groups according to the value of the ch : fetch^ such, chemistry, rich, stitch, imechanic, machine, church, reach, hatch, chivalry, 2. Arrange the following words in groups according to the value of the g : gem, age, edge, gone, gaol, goal, fatigue, weigh, lodge, girl, gin, gimlet, garage, wedge, night, guest, gnat. 3. Arrange the following words in groups according to the value of the u : butter, busy, burden, regular, minute, flute, sun, pidl, duty, lettuce, solution, hush, push. 4. Arrange the following words in groups according to the value of the o : women, pot, poet, potato, pony, wolf, folly, foliage, police, fond, to-day, glo^'y, whose, fog, do, dot. 5. What is the first sound of the following words : whether, one, chair, whom, journey, psalm, wiite, whole, gnaw, photograph 'i 6. In the following words underline the vowels that are silent : guest, business, head, heart, leisure, venison, leopard, buoy, guide, doid)le, build, handkerchief, definite, more, plague, build, fugitive, bread, guardj breakfast, barley. 58 EXERCISES 59 7. Give the phonetic spelling of th« following words : cough^ though, thrmigh, hough ; gone, stone, one, done, bone, shone ; goes, shoes ; shows, cows ; good, food, floai', poor, door, mood ; sure, pure, nature, leisure. 8. Write in the phonetic spelling the past tense of the following verbs : sleep, kneel, read, flee, creep, leave, deal, meet, ., feed. 9. "Write in the phonetic spelling the days of the week, the months and the numbers from one to twenty ; also as many Christian names as you can think of. 10. Find other words having the same sounds as the following : threw, fur, not, hare, right, fined, missed, daze, place, rowed, steak, poll, nave, isle, miner, dye, red, steel, hole, bawl, h-ake, no, new, nose, week, wood, praise, peace, due, co^irse. 11. Each of the following words has two meanings; make up short sentences containing them : lead, row, hear, art, hound, read, leaves, bowls, sticks, sow, felt, well, spoke. 12. Make up sentences containing the following words : trough, gaol, committee, illustrated, inquiries, anemone, zoological, aghast, balsam, forfeit, colonel, mither, valiant, viscount, math, trophy. 13. The third person singular of the present indicative is formed by adding the letter s. When is this letter pronounced z ? 6o ENGLISH SOUNDS 14. The past participle of many verbs is formed by adding ■ed. When is this pronounced t ? When is the e pronounced ? 15. What do you think of the following rhymes : slower J dom^; desirey higher-, hour, flower-, store, poor; clerk, spark ; wm'ds, birds ; chanted, haimted ; men, again j rose, clothes ; forehead, horrid ; college, knowledge ; pretty, witty ; aye, day ; jolly, melancholy ? TORNBOLL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH m' THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. DEC 19 164 2tM«WMrf 1 ■•:i't> ijo J UN 2 1 156D - - LD 21-100m-12, '43 (8796s) (^^K^ <' ' O U I 07 f ^'-' ^^ 393927 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY