diff --git a/1000-hours/sounds-of-american-english/draft.md b/1000-hours/sounds-of-american-english/draft.md index c1894e7ca..9702831b0 100644 --- a/1000-hours/sounds-of-american-english/draft.md +++ b/1000-hours/sounds-of-american-english/draft.md @@ -1,8 +1,8 @@ # Sounds of American English -## 00. Introduction +## Introduction -## 01. English Alphabet +## 1. English Alphabet Modern English is composed of *26* letters, each with both *uppercase* and *lowercase* forms. English stands out among European languages for not using [diacritics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic), which are special marks added to letters to alter their pronunciation or meaning, such as *â*, *é* or *ç*, etc. @@ -43,3 +43,27 @@ In British, letter *z* is pronounced as `/zed/`。 > > 1. The synthesized audio files primarily utilizes OpenAI's TTS (Text-to-Speech) and Microsoft Edge's TTS. The blue speaker iconrepresents a male voice, whereas the brown speaker iconsignifies a female voice. > 2. The IPA ([International Phonetic Alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet)) notation used for phonetic transcription is generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT, which may occasionally make mistakes that need to be corrected. + +## 2. Phonemes + +In natural speech, indivisible sound segments are referred to as *phonemes*. English language categorizes these phonemes into two main types: *vowels* and *consonants*. + +> [!Note] +> +> The phonetic notation system employed in this tutorial is the D.J. Phonetic transcription, introduced by [Daniel Jones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Jones_(phonetician)) who published his *English Pronouncing Dictionary* (EPD) back in 1917 and continually revised it over many years. Eventually handed over to Cambridge University Press, its name was revamped as the [*Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary*](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/dictionary) (CEPD). The CEPD rolled out its 15^th^ edition sometime around 1997 with an additional set of symbols for American pronunciations tallied along. Now on par with their [18^th^](https://www.cambridge.org/gb/cambridgeenglish/catalog/dictionaries/cambridge-english-pronouncing-dictionary-18th-edition) outing, this sitely respin of Jone's original framework has been widely adopted amongst major authoritative dictionaries - including but not limited to [Oxford](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/dictionary)'s upstanding series or [*Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English*](https://www.ldoceonline.com/) down till [*Collins COBUILD*](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english). + +### 2.1 Vowels + +English approximately has *20* vowels. + +Vowels can be classified into *long* and *short* vowels, or alternatively, they can also be grouped as *monophthongs* and *diphthongs*. + +| Monophthongs | | Diphthongs | +| ----- | --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | +| Short vowels | `ʌ`, `e`, `ə`, `ɪ`, `ʊ`, `ɒ` | | +| Long vowels | `ɑː`, `æ`, `əː`, `iː`, `uː`, `ɔː` | `aɪ`, `eɪ`, `ɔɪ`, `aʊ`, `oʊ`, `eə`, `ɪə`, `ʊə` | + +English may well be the language with the most regional accents on Earth, leading to frequent debate over the actual number of vowel sounds. Take American English for instance, `ʌ` is pronounced as `ə`, effectively reducing one vowel sound compared to British English. Additionally, some linguists argue that `eə`, `ɪə`, and `ʊə` shouldn't count as independent diphthongs but *rhotic* versions of existing vowels: `e`, `ɪ` and `ʊ`, thus stripping off three more distinct vowels... + +A prominent feature of American English is the rhotacized `ə`. The IPA developed two specific marks to note this, with `ɚ` corresponding to `əʳ`, and `ɝ` to `əːʳ`. Bear in mind not all instances of `ə` will be subjected to rhotacization; certain words like *focus* retain their original pronunciations as `/ˈfoʊkǝs/` rather than veering towards a rendition such as `/ˈfoʊkɚs/`. +