English Phonetics and Phonology An Introduction

A new edition of the popular introductory text on the phonological structure of present-day English.

A clear and accessible introductory text on the phonological structure of the English language, English Phonetics and Phonology is an ideal text for those with no prior knowledge of the subject. This market-leading textbook teaches undergraduate students and non-native English speakers the fundamentals of articulatory phonetics and phonology in an engaging, easy-to-understand style. 

Rigorously expanded to include new materials on first and second language acquisition of English phonetics and phonology, this third edition, English Phonetics and Phonology boasts two new chapters on first-language and second-language acquisition of English phonetics and phonology. By introducing topics such as the mental lexicon and the emergence of phonological rules and representations, and graphophonemic problems in L2 acquisition, these two new chapters have been added to afford greater flexibility for teachers and increased support for non-native English speakers. Expanded website content includes exercise-linked sound files.

• Based on the author’s 34 years of teaching English Phonetics and Phonology in the UK and France
• Includes coverage of various accents in English and second-language acquisition
• Hugely successful textbook for the introductory Phonetics course, now in its third edition
• References and exercises across all chapters to guide students throughout the work
• Provides access to companion website for additional learning tools, sound files, and instructor resources

English Phonetics and Phonology is an indispensable resource for undergraduate students in courses on Phonetics and Phonology with no prior knowledge of theoretical linguistics and non-native English speakers alike.

PHILIP CARR is Emeritus Professor at Montpellier University, France. He is the author of Phonology (1993), A Glossary of Phonology (2008), and Linguistic Realities (1990), editor of Phonological Knowledge: Conceptual and Empirical Issues (2001) and Headhood, Elements, Specification and Contrastivity (2005). With Jacques Durand, he co-founded the project The Phonology of Contemporary English.

Prefaces to the First Edition ix

Preface to the Second Edition xiii

Preface to the Third Edition xv

Acknowledgements xvii

List of Sound Recordings xix

About the Companion Website xxiii

Figure 1 The organs of speech xxiv

Figure 2 The International Phonetic Alphabet xxv

1 English Phonetics: Consonants (i) 1

1.1 Airstream and Articulation 1

1.2 Place of Articulation 2

1.3 Manner of Articulation: Stops, Fricatives and Approximants 5

2 English Phonetics: Consonants (ii) 11

2.1 Central vs Lateral 11

2.2 Taps and Trills 11

2.3 Secondary Articulation 12

2.4 Affricates 12

2.5 Aspiration 13

2.6 Nasal Stops 13

3 English Phonetics: Vowels (i) 17

3.1 The Primary Cardinal Vowels 17

3.2 RP and GA Short Vowels 19

4 English Phonetics: Vowels (ii) 23

4.1 RP and GA Long Vowels 23

4.2 RP and GA Diphthongs 24

5 The Phonemic Principle 29

5.1 Introduction: Linguistic Knowledge 29

5.2 Contrast vs Predictability: The Phoneme 30

5.3 Phonemes, Allophones and Contexts 37

5.4 Summing Up 38

6 English Phonemes 43

6.1 English Consonant Phonemes 43

6.2 The Phonological Form of Morphemes 45

6.3 English Vowel Phonemes 49

7 English Syllable Structure 55

7.1 Introduction 55

7.2 Constituency in Syllable Structure 55

7.3 The Sonority Hierarchy, Maximal Onset and Syllable Weight 59

7.4 Language‐Specific Phonotactics 63

7.5 Syllabic Consonants and Phonotactics 64

7.6 Syllable‐Based Generalizations 65

7.7 Morphological Structure, Syllable Structure and Resyllabification 66

7.8 Summing Up 69

8 Rhythm and Word Stress in English 71

8.1 The Rhythm of English 71

8.2 English Word Stress: Is it Entirely Random? 72

8.3 English Word Stress: Some General Principles 75

8.4 Word Stress Assignment in Morphologically Simple Words 76

8.5 Word Stress Assignment and Morphological Structure 80

8.6 Compound Words 85

8.7 Summing Up 87

9 Rhythm, Reversal and Reduction 91

9.1 More on the Trochaic Metrical Foot 91

9.2 Representing Metrical Structure 94

9.3 Phonological Generalizations and Foot Structure 98

9.4 The Rhythm of English Again: Stress Timing and Eurhythmy 100

10 English Intonation 109

10.1 Tonic Syllables, Tones and Intonation Phrases 109

10.2 Departures from the LLI Rule 111

10.3 IPs and Syntactic Units 116

10.4 Tonic Placement, IP Boundaries and Syntax 121

10.5 Tones and Syntax 123

10.6 Tonic Placement and Discourse Context 124

10.7 Summing Up 125

11 Graphophonemics: Spelling–Pronunciation Relations 129

11.1 Introduction 129

11.2 Vowel Graphemes and Their Phonemic Values 130

11.3 Consonant Graphemes and Their Phonemic Values 135

12 Variation in English Accents 143

12.1 Introduction 143

12.2 Systemic vs Realizational Differences between Accents 144

12.3 Perceptual and Articulatory Space 148

12.4 Differences in the Lexical Distribution of Phonemes 152

13 An Outline of Some Accents of English 155

13.1 Some British Accents 155

13.2 Two American Accents 164

13.3 Two Southern Hemisphere Accents 167

13.4 An Overview of Some Common Phenomena Found in Accent Variation 170

14 First‐Language (L1) Acquisition of English Phonetics and Phonology 181

14.1 The First Six Months 181

14.2 The Second Six Months 183

14.3 The Second Year of Life 184

14.4 The Mental Lexicon and the Emergence of Phonological Rules and Representations 187

14.5 The Bilingual Child 188

15 Second‐Language (L2) Acquisition of English Phonetics and Phonology 193

15.1 Introduction: General Issues 193

15.2 Types of Problem in L2 Acquisition of English Phonetics and Phonology 195

15.3 Phonetic Inventories and Phonemic Systems 195

15.4 Graphophonemic Problems 200

15.5 Phonotactics 201

15.6 Rhythm and Word Stress 202

15.7 Intonation 204

15.8 Concluding Remarks on L2 Acquisition of English Phonetics and Phonology 205

Suggested Further Reading 209

Index 213

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