martes, 26 de junio de 2012

Intonation

It's the name given to the different levels  of pitch

Level of pitch                


It refer to the level of voice                     
Level 1 = Low
Level 2 = Standard
Level 3 = High


The combination of the different levels gives a result  [ rising  /   falling  / non final]




1. Rising Intonation                                                       
                        
it has levels    

  •  2 = standard (in initial position)
  •  3 = high



it usually found in yes/no question  [question with auxiliaries in initial position]

























The level 3 receives stress   [verbs / adjetives / nouns / adverbs / demostratives / negative form] = key words   - contents                                                                              




2. Falling Intonation                                            


It has levels    

  •  2 = standard
  •  3 = high    
  •  1 = low



it's usually found in
a) short wh/questions  [questions with wh in initial position]   














Link for exercises (rising and falling intonation)
http://usefulenglish.ru/phonetics/listening-for-falling-and-rising-intonation


Intonation of American English
Pitch is raising and lowering the voice while speaking. The use of pitch is called intonation. The most well known use for English intonation is to communicate basic grammar, such as the use of a falling pitch on the sentence, "You're coming." compared to a rising pitch at the end of the question form, "You're coming?"
Statement intonationEnglish Statement Intonationlisten now 
Question intonationEnglish Statement Intonationlisten now 
Beyond that simple example, intonation is a complex world of personal choice and context-driven options. Understanding English intonation patterns will increase not only your spoken English pronunciation competence, but your English listening comprehension as well.
The terms "intonation" and "pitch" are often used interchangeably when talking about the "highness" or "lowness" of our voice when we speak. The difference between the terms is not very significant; in short, intonation is the use of pitch, just as mathematics is the use of numbers, or photography is the use of light and color. Intonation is a broader term than pitch. Being able to perceive pitch (the highness of lowness of our voice) leads to the use of correct intonation.

miércoles, 20 de junio de 2012

Dropped Syllable

The number of vowel = the number of syllables 

to        / tə /     1v = 1s
today  / tə'deɪ /      2v = 2s
vanity   / 'vænIti /   3v = 3s

But sometimes vowels disappear giving as a consequense a reduction in the number of syllables Ex.:

basic            / 'beɪsIk /
basically       / 'beɪsɪkli /
practice        / 'præktɪs /
practically     / 'præktɪkli /
dramatic       / drə'mætɪk /
dramatically  / drə'mætɪkli /

Dropped syllables are syllables which are not pronounced. For example the word "chocolate" would appear to have 3 syllables but in fact the middle syllable is dropped and we only pronounce the first and the last.

example; choc -late



Word
Dropped syllable
aspirin
as-prin
average
av-rage
Barbara
Bar-bra
business
bus-ness
camera
cam-ra
different
dif-rent
evening
eve-ning
every
ev-ry
family
fam-ly
favorite
fav-rite
federal
fed-ral
general
gen-ral
interest
in-trest
Margaret
Mar-gret




LINKS