English Phonology and Pronunciation

📋 Course Outline

1. English and French Sound Systems
2. Vowel Colours and IPA
3. Consonants and Articulation
4. Phonemes Graphemes and Syllables
5. Word Stress and Weak Vowels
6. Stress Patterns and Suffixes
7. Isochrony and English Rhythm
8. Tone Units and Intonation
9. Focus and Contrastive Stress
10. British and American Vowels
11. Core Phonology Glossary

📖 1. English and French Sound Systems

★ Must-know

📌 French vowels are generally described as pure and stable in quality, whereas English vowels vary in length and may change in quality.

• The main differences include:
  • the dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/
  • the English /r/
  • vowel length
  • tonic stress
  • schwa

📌 English is mainly stress-timed, whereas French is mainly syllable-timed.

Further detail

📌 In British English, postvocalic /r/ is generally not pronounced, whereas American English usually pronounces it.

💡 Memory Hook

French keeps vowels pure; English varies vowel length and reduces weak syllables.

📖 2. Vowel Colours and IPA

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions