Final Assessment Questions on “Theoretical phonetics” Card-1 Connection of Phonetics with Other Sciences

Canadian English pronunciation

Canadian pronunciation is different from British pronunciation. Canadian and American (USA) people speak with North American accent.Canada is a big country. But it’s also a young country so most Canadians speak with the same accent – there are no dialects or big regional differences. Only people in Newfoundland have their own special way of speaking. In other parts of the country – whether you go to Vancouver or Toronto – people speak almost the same.Canadians speak very much like Americans.Canadian pronunciation is more nasal than British (Canadians speak ‘through their noses’).
If you are used to British pronunciation (or Australian, or Indian, or of another English-speaking country), it will be difficult for you to understand Canadian English for the first couple of months. It’s a good idea to get used to it by listening to TV/radio a lot.Canadian words are called Canadianisms.Canadians pronounce ‘r’ sound in all the words where it is written, including ‘r’ at the end of the words. E.g : car // for // four // your
‘t’ changes to ‘d’ E.g: better –> bedder thirty –> thridy party –> pardy computer –> compuder city –> cidy
‘t’ disappears //twenty –> twenny center –> cenner most –> mos
just –> jus must –> mus Short sound ‘o’ is often changed to sound more like a short ‘a’. For example:
hot // got // dot // a lot // not

Card-20

1. 
   Degrees of Stress.
   

According to G.P. Torsuyev, M.A. Sokolova that there are three degrees of stress in English: primary, secondary and unstressed, e.g. ‚funda'mental; ex‚peri'mental; in‚vesti'gation. .Stress, in phonetics, intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance, resulting in relative loudness.In phonetics, stress is the degree of emphasis given a sound or syllable in speech, also called lexical stress or word stress. Unlike some other languages, English has variable (or flexible) stress.Some syllables are louder and longer, some syllables are shorter and quieter, and some syllables are in-between.The 3 Levels Of Syllable Stress In English 1. Primary Stress: The syllable with the Primary Stress is the loudest and longest syllable in a word. It has a very noticeable change in pitch on the vowel. In one-syllable words, that one syllable gets the primary stress. Examples: “blue” = /BLUUU/ “ten” = /TEHN/. The only exceptions to this rule are a handful of function words like “the” which are usually unstressed or reduced. 2. Secondary Stress: These are the syllables that are stressed, but not as much the primary stress, so they are loud and long with a change in pitch, but not as loud or as long as the syllables that get the primary stress. The change in pitch on the vowel is not quite as noticeable. Example: “disappear” = /DIH-suh PEEER/ (syllable with secondary stress is underlined) 3. Level 3 is the completely Unstressed Syllable: These are the syllables that have no stress at all so we rush through them and shorten them so much that the vowel in the syllable is almost completely gone. The change in pitch on the vowel is barely noticeable, but it is there. Example:“prepare” = /pruh-PAIR/ (unstressed syllable is underlined)

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