English Phonetics

and Phonology II
Contenidos
Eje Nº 1: La Acentuación
1. Características Suprasegmentales. Características fonéticas que afectan trozos más largos del
habla: la sílaba, la palabra, y la oración. ad de entonación.
2. Prominencia. Tono. Volumen. Longitud. Calidad. Correlatos auditivos de la prominencia.
3. Stress versus acento. Acento y prominencia. Grados y niveles de stress. El sistema de
marcación de tono de stress de Kingdon. Sistema de notación Interlinear. Variación en las
estructuras de acentuación de palabras. Cambio de stress. La adquisición del acento de los
estudiantes nativos. Tendencia en el español.
4. Idea de unidades de entonación. Reconocimiento de sílabas prominentes en una unidad de
entonación.

Eje Nº 2: Acentuación en Palabras Simples

1. Acentuación en palabras simples. Reglas. Excepciones.
2. El sistema fonológico vocálico en inglés.
3. Formas débiles: reglas. Citación en el habla. Neutralización de formas débiles.
4. Ubicación del acento en las palabras: Palabras simples y complejas. Prefijos, sufijos y
acentuación.
5. Acentuación de palabras de acuerdo a las categorías gramaticales.
6. Estructuras de acentuación alternativas. Estructuras de acentuación en: palabras de dos, tres,
cuatro, cinco, seis y siete sílabas.

Eje Nº 3: Acentuación en Palabras Compuestas

1. Acentuación en palabras compuestas: Terminología. Acentuación en palabras compuestas y
colocaciones.
2. Acentuación simple en palabras compuestas y colocaciones. Diferentes categorías.
3. Acentuación doble en palabras compuestas y colocaciones.
4. Palabras compuestas de tres palabras.

Eje Nº 4: Acentuación en el Habla o Acentuación de la Oración.

1. Acentuación de oraciones. Acentuación y prominencia. Acentuación y ritmo.
2. Acento núcleo. Teoría de la ubicación del núcleo.
3. Ítems de contenido versus ítems estructurales. Regla del “Last Lexical Item”.
4. Los modelos sintáctico y semántico. Focos “Broad y Narrow”. “Newness and Giveness”.

Eje Nº 5: Ritmo.
1. La distribución de la prominencia en las oraciones.
2. Características del ritmo en inglés y sus diferencias/similitudes con el ritmo en español.

4
Originalmente publicado como Cuadernos de lo Facultad,
colección 16th Monografias Temáticas N9 16.
facultad de Historia, Geografíla y Letras.
Universidad Metropolitanaa de Ciencias de la Educación.
Santiago de Chlle. mayo de 1998.
Hector Ort-iz - Lira 1998
 9 Accentuation

Until now we have been cutting up speech into segments, and analysing segmental .

_ features. We . a r e now going to study another set of phonetic features, which do

not affect one segment, but long stretches of utterance, such as the syllable, 'the

word and the sentence. These features, which are so to speak superimposed on
. 1 .

segments, and are known as suprasegmental or prosodic features include

· accentuation, rhythm and intonation.

2 Prominence

When we speak we give more emphasis to sorne parts of an utterance than t o .

others. We can make a syllable stand out with respect to its neighbouring syllables

in a word, and sorne words stand out with respect to the rest of the words in a

longer utterance. Let us consider those elements that produce prominence at

- syllable level: pitch, quality, quantity and stress.

· In the past, these terms - particularly stress - were not very strictly defined,

in that articulatory and auditory criteria were often confused. When we gave

articulatory definitions for consonants and vowels, we did not have much difficulty

in feeling and sometimes seeing what was happening · in our vocal tract. That

was because we were dealing with fairly accessible articulators. Now, however,

owing to the elusive nature of the elements producing prominence, it will be

necessary to refer to each of them in terms of how they are produced, and how

the listener perceives thern.

· Let us ñ r s t considenpit(;�• In chapter 2, section 4 we explained that the tenser

· the vocal -folds, the faster they vibra te, and the higher the note that is produced

... an articulatory definition. But we cannot actually feel our vocal folds vibrating

. faster or slower. What we hear is a higher or lower note. �

-si>'1articüla:
t mily.Jmj�

- ;,A_
� ����:�1}�:
� �Xt�Q;i}!h��!SUfil:9..�tng���-
� !!rlU��:
t,t;!tS:t.�.
f iú�ib.
� ali?--
� till.b.
� �

• f-Qfüs\i11r;\udtfortly.1l'.;J;Í,
1

·-· . ,, .•
•JS\that:,mna,1tt-u}n-F:i'a;i:SOUllA·jgn4el".fflS:,()-F,:'WbiCh
�,,,..,,,_., ,
.,.
" ,
.1lli\'J.
:J.1
� ��WJ:,l.�.ti,
� � ......
. �. . ...... 1.,_._� ..H.Í,•
lt·'C8fl1ibe),n}A'i'""di -
1

,J;,f.t.n ...........,,,.i._,.:..·•·�i,\Aw..'l..:_.�!¿,¡.;.11.:1,;i.,,�:,i��rJi\.;;,¿.t�U-�-:.���

.
ón,.,,a;�1;scale.!rúnnih·g�·-fr.om/bi ....... _�,:tt"i:;tow.;;t,ortiacut'et,to'tg'
����iii,ü , ,. . . _ , , Jl.t::!��
,."'.·"'···
r.
,�
av:e,iitI:t:�is�:
Jf;
6d-1
��· :.!M..1.::..
:··-·:..,,:.\i,.<..:��!:�,l �����..i��.i:!l:..L.�11�-- .:,!
Jsi �.
• J..
.,.
t,
-"�!Qns"'

1 Ml��B._.,,.,9
1
'"'· �·-,:'0111

cl,;,anoP�:of,·nitc ' 1

tó'·occ··.;7.;1,J;'""if;;SQfflf'6Sü1l!lbles·;dn-iia,rt>utt'e�artcAt .·
-:.:!lt.....-.�::r;:���·.. �.tt J..'!l...-:.. �,, HJ--·· -�,-�· ��it\�); �,a)l\�¡'iiu��t-- �¡..,:,,. . �.�:::.r�,--�;.- .•• R . � · - · · � . . .·.. .

. I no r d e r to consider quality we shall once again refer to the s p e e c hrn e c h a n i s m .

. In cha p ter 2, section 5 we said that v i b ration of the vocal folds pro d uc e s an

almost i n a udible note, that .is modified by the r e s o n a t o rs _ as it

· passes. through . .

t h ern , thus varying the quality of a sound. �tiiculitt6ñl�f�üilli'1f

1

({dep'". �nds Tmfürtlié\s·

1 úíp'
r ;
:
é if5íJtñé'�ftesWrtlíto.rs
..
.:
.
, }'i,'-"A-:u"'."'dit'o'·-iily·ft.�t:ÁS 1
i;: ..... á t,::·,'"''�'f_i¡¡�.i,¡;ri-,.:,t"""�m .
. '11'!' .... _ . . .. . · � - · n . . , . . . , .. ,:}.�.....��!w,:iA:...����.
�· . . .

..
 88 . Englisñ phonetics for Spanisli speakers

1
.
� mvm:cmr�.
� c(Uft'éfs7's'
i mírar1y7pres1�ntectªncr::ii1Niñ'
g 'lñe s'a"íneIOud:ñ.essFqii'aiif fff; ·
. -�..-f
. e
�'· �c�
'.' """1ve
· "'1""ª,·���1�-
· mº·'1·íl
· '"a!�· "f'.'"'�:J'!',tg'")
· fJ'"tfi
·' ''e""":�'1•a-e"·':r""e'""n">
·�
: ¡:,¡rq
: :¡-e'"�·¡<e'·"ºe""'n""'°;'°t-Yfls''·'l0°a"'(n>'a
.: • �(P/�
�.r.\,�t.y,::�·��.11i·{·a . ,-.· 1,,;,1: · . :/�_:,·;'f.Ul�� ,-:·.L�· •·\ .·.·.u 111 . . . \...� .... � .\:,� .. ¡: ·. . :.. ;. . . ¡ Jf,

•ONftTlláñQWAW/1.
It i s · not necessary for our purposes to define �ílán1if1 from the articulatory

point of view. :i\1ídircwilymitrisfth11r:·prop�rty�,_:-p_ft;·,ars9un�r�hat1.7enabl��0-1.1s;rr:usin1

0
0J:1'lEPUt:t:!J�ó""."place'1'.í:f'"o"rr1l�'ailé'']tliJ1gffc5'iñffoñ"g'.fO"ShOf:t::i:Fr<>.m¡-(he:'.Pefc�pttialt
: -�Pffin1T&�:Nii�'f'."1srererfecrI
: cFts:terrgrh� · · . . . · · ... � · ··· ·

· Finally we shall examine .sttt;q;;}ff,giITJhe!'"ªrJi�'!!f�ry]5<;>'irit_9txi_e,,5;it,j�··�aµsedf ·

'�Yatgr��tei;rdtµs�Ulitt�ñergy�J���7Pte�ttii:'(<?.tii![��l'.di.tp[.PY.":�'Iit�'.isr�i;eic;�iv·ect�,

ifü]µi.f[(s$rJt..t:1Jt�J!:t:t:J�t�?fi�J1ñeé,frasftffáTpr.opéttyc,9r:a:spun4:\Vltlc}Je·nabJ��¡,:�sr::ll§_iqg

_· l'oñfyí>1IJ;f�1itsTJo;pI�é�7if�ñ?��'.séi!l,e·�oi��,ft<>.Jn.J&üff téflótt, So t he speaker . feels

·. this feature in one way - extra energy - and the lis tener hears it in another way

., extra l o u d n é s s ,

What kind of syllables are associated with prominence in the light of these

four elernents? In the case of pitch, those which can act as pitch movement

initiators; in the case of quality, those containing a strong vowel; as to quantity,

those containing a long vowel and/ or consonant, and in the case of stress, those

containing · a loud sound. Lack of prominence is associated with syllables that

cannot u s ú a l l y act as pitch movement initiators, those containing weak vowels

or syllabicconsonants, and short, soft sounds.

Ali of the elements described above can play a part in making a syllable stand

out with respect to its neighbours. They do not ali play an equally important ·

part, though, nor are ali four always present together. ·

Until fairly recently stress was considered to be the most important element

. i n producing prominence. The third syllable in Sp. embajada, or the second one

in Eng. dictation would be said to be stressed, that is, pronounced with a greater

degree of force than the surrounding syllables. But stress· is not the only factor

that makes these two syllables more prominent. This can easily be demonstrated

if wé interfere with the normal pitch pattern of the words. Their normal citation

forms are /emba'xada/ . ; ... . and /dik'teiln,' . .. . . Let us try saying them

· on a monotone, · applying only .stress - or greatér energy - to the prominent

· syllables, but making no pitch movement. The pattern would then be embajada

. . • . and dlctation . • . � We shall find that when said on a monotone, it is

not so easy to distinguish which syllable is the most prominent one. Try the

same · experiment with the English words "tnsult (noun) and in 'sult (verb), or

the.Spanish words ca' mino - e ami' nó. Here it is e ven more difficult to distinguish

. the prominent syllable when said on a monotone.

Obviously, it .is incorrect to say that syllables are made prominent by stress

· alone. There is also pitch movement on these syllables, which is far more

important than · stress i n · conveying prominence. This .movement need not

necessarily be ·downwards; we may say the word in a questioning tone, e.g.

/d1k.,tedn/ · � · , i n which case the movement would be upwards. Toe impor­

tant fact is that sorne sort of pitch movement can start on these syllables, i . e . ·

they ·can actas pitch movement initiators. . . .

Let us n ó w consider the English word cigarette /'siga 'ret/ • . 9' • This has

two prominent syllab]es, but they are prominent in different · ways. In the ·
 ••• •• > ...
, •

· A c c é n t u a t io n . �9 ·
: · . · . , :
'

first syllable the chief element causing prorninence i s ' 'sfr�Js'�_.·whe�eas in the

third syllable the rnain factor i s : change of pitch . . Notice aÚq · {hat the non­

prominent syllable contains the short weak vowel 1�1. : : . : . . • . .

Finally, syllables may receive sorne prorninence due to' the. quality a n d /o r

quantity of the vowelsound in them, without any extra' muscular energy or pitch

movement; e·.g. the Iast ·syllable in attitude /'retitjud/,·-.._ . • '. : o : '. ·. . may: be said to

have inherent prominence, produced rather by the inherent quality a n d quantity

of ·the strong vowel/u/than ,by a voluntaryaction on,thf.P:i;irt ófthe speaker. '

3 Acceyt

When a syllable is a starter of pitch movement, or has: t h e ' ri a ú f r a l potential to

be one, we shall say that it is accented, Irrespective of whatever ó t h e r elements

are present. When any of the elements causing prorninencéare present, but the

syllable is íncapable of acting as a pitch movernent initiator.we shallsimply say

that it is prominent. · . .' . . . ;:. · ·; · ·. · ·

Let us examine a few English words in their citation forms .. 'The second syllable

in install ·. 9'. is accented beca u s e · it contains a long; strong, stressed vowel

with a change of pitch, and is at the same time actually .ac ti n g a s . the pitch

movernent initiator,· In ability '. .. . . . the second syUab.Ie:'i_s::accehted beca use it ·

is stressed, has pitch movernent and is the pitch movement. initiator, The first

syllable in millionaire . . ... ' is accented due to stressand thé. potential t o . act

as pitch movernent initiator. The first syllable of · aftemoon? :' •· . .. . · is accented

beca use of stress, a strong vowel, and the poten tia} for ,Startihg pitch 'movement,

Although the first syllabies of the .last two examplesarenot' actually acting as

pitch movernent initiators, they could do so if .we changéd :théif 'citation pa t t é r n s

to .. . ..., . The last syllable in diagram, however, is notaccerited even when said

in a falling-rising tone, i . e . ... c1 , since the pitch rnovement b e g i n s : on · dia-,

but could never. begin on -gram. This last syllable is· _merely:p,qniinent; To sum ·

up, ali accented syllables are promineni,<but·n.ot . . aíl. pf?ti1iri,ertt syllables are ·

accented. · ·, , , ·. . ·

· ' . : .

· 4 Types of accent
: � ',' . ', : .

. When a word has two or more accents, pitch n1o'vement<wiU�atura1Iy:start on

the last one. We shall c a l l . t h i s the primary accent a:nd.maÍ:kit./'/,or � in the

scalar notation. The previous accent (or accents). are Jess:,Í_ikely to initiate pitch
2
movernent; we shaÚ callthem secondary .accents and rnark thern / ' / , ' or -:- .

SyHabte.s with inherent prorninence, and unaccented.vnon-prominent syllables

will be rnarked.in the scalar notation only, Le. .: an,d: : ./.:r�spectively.: .

. ' . . · . . . . - -. . · . : · . . . . . · � , . · ' .

5 Perception · of accent ·_.

The native speaker and listener do not always depend on the sarne clues as the

foreign student for the perceptiori of 'accent. Wh�n two native speakers com­

. municate, .they are sharing t h e sarne linguisticcode, andconsequently will often

ma k e judgernents based not on w h a t t h e y actually hear, but on what they know

90 English phonetics for:Spanish speakers

they should hear. The native listener's perception of accent is then subjective -

it is infíuenced by his previous knowledge of the language, He always knows

where accent is 'a11:d will 'never confuse it with prorriinerice. An often-quoted

.extreme exarnple of thisis Thánk you pronounced / ,,--kju/, which a· native listener

will hear as unaccented: t h ea c c é n tí s on a n o n - e x i s t i n g fí r s t syllable, the second .

one bearing only prorninence . .· Ouestions of this type, which are of course

irrelevantin the case of native speakers and listeners, . rn a y cause learners with

weak knowledge of Englísh accentual patterns t o · confuse accentuation with

prorninence given by pitch movernent, when asked to discriminate between them,

e.g. V comment r- 'com,,ment;_t�e latter being n o n - E n gl í s h .

6 . Accentuation of simple words

By simple words we meanthose rnade up of roots alone or with the additíon of

affixes. It is difficult to establish rules f or the accentuation of simple words in

English, so students �hould l�arn · the accentual pattern of each new word just

as they must learn its pronunciatíon. The following lists include exarnples of the
3
main word accentual patterns in English in their citation forms.

(i) Two-syllable words ·

(1) Primary accent+unaccented syllable ( � .)

,·. .

'teacher 'apple . . . ·'illness sena te 'Monda y

'husband 'chocol_ate. . 'colour· ·. 'little · 'region

'circus 'island . 'preface 'moUntain 'en trance

- . • ·
�

(2) Primary accent + prorninent syllable (�o)

'female 'eniplre: .. . 'conduct 'expert 'epoch

'access . \·colleag.ue. . 'climax 'aspect 'forecast

'fortune 'borrow 'contact 'confrast 'proverb

(3) Unacce.nted syllable+ pdmary accent (. �)

a 'gain · .. a'lóne: . · fa'tigue ca'reer a'bove

re 'mark .be'Ííeve • ca 'ress · pa 'trol · of'fence

(4) Prominerit syllable +primary accent ( o � )

can'teen ·a·r'éade . . car'toon bou'tique

bru'nette charn'pagne aug'ment al'though

campaign sham'poo do'nate tech 'niqtie

(5) Secondary accent,+:�;ima;y accent (• �)

.. . . \ .

'un 'knowil . ··chi'nese 'decode . non- stop

'mis 'use tf'·�) . :: 'ma yon 'naise 'f are 'well . . 'eigh 'teen

'else 'where <i·!···---'.� i:'re'w;ité. . 're 'build 'vio'Iin

(ii) Three-syllable words : ·

(1) (�· • • )

'fortunate .· 'lunatic · 'comparable . · · 'generally

 Accentuation 91

'catholic 'literature 'necessary . 'decora ti ve

'subseqtient 'commentary 'comfortable 'fashionable

(2) (� .o), ( � o . ) .

'corridor 'absolute . 'catalogue 'caravai1

'handicap 'paragraph 'subtitle 'corpuscle

'pullover 'cucumber 'triangle 'rectangle

(3) (.�.)

im 'portant behaviour con'fu�n a'bandon

j a 'lopy sub 'stantial ad'vantage de'termine

de'velop con'sider ho'rizon hi'storic

(4) ( o � . ) , (.�o)
. . .

am'bition · fan 'tas tic par'tition au'thentic

op'tician trans 'mission to'mato to'bacco

at'taché di'stribute fi' a n c é e con 'tribute

(5) (•�.)

'sub 'standard !
1 J 'pre 'judgement 're'rnarry 'non- 'fiction

'scien 'tific 'non 'smoker 'up'country 'sub 'conscious

(6) (• . � )

'guaran 'tee 'se ven 'teen 'ciga 'rette 'maga'zine

'pictu'resque 'serviette 'recorn 'mend . ' u n d e rs ta n d

'oran 'geade 'millio 'naire 'refu'gee 'volun'teer

(iii) Four-syllable words

(1) (� . . . )

'category 'arbitrary 'delicacy .'eligible

'preferable 'irritable 'memorable 'testimony

'ceremony 'accuracy 'imitative 'matrimony

(2) ( � . o .), (� • • �

'centimetre 'commentator \ calcula tor 'demonstrator

'architecture 'operator 'characterize · 'capitalize

'aristocrat 'regularize 'systematize 'automobile

(3) (.� . . )

ge'ography o 'bligatory com 'bus ti ble ac'companiment

de'rnonstratíve ia "boratory pre 'para tory cer'tificate

a'rithmetic . ad'vertisernent particular de 'plorable

(4) (.�.o),(o� • • l

pre 'occupied ap 'precia te en 'thusiast a'pclogize

si'militude e'conomize or'thography au'thority

tee 'totaller di'ameter an'tíquíty

�pr'tality

(5). (• . � . )

'vari''ation 'círcu 'Iatíon 'expía 'nation 'ele'rnentary

.92 · Bnglisñ phonetics for Spanish speakers

'demon 'stration 'caf e'te ria ' i d i' o t i c · 'ado'Iescence

'conver'sation 'ad v a n ' t a g e o u s ' i n t e r' f e r e n c e ' e m ig r a t i o n

(6) {•o�.)

'accep'ta tion 'conur'bation 'ex p e e 'ta t i o n ' r e t a rd a t i o n

'depart'mental 'relo 'cation ' d e rn a rc a t i o n 'impor 'ta tion

(iv) Fine-syllable words

(1) ( S\ • • • • )

'capitalism 'puritanism ' fi g u r a t i v e l y 'cannibalism

'monosyllable 'radicalism 'qualitatively 'speculatively

(2) ( . � . . .)

i'nevitable ca ' t h o l i c i s m in'adequacy c o mrn u n i c a t iv e

ad'ministrative me ' t a b o l i s m im ' p r a c t i é a b l e vo ' c a b u l a r y

(3) ( . 9\ . o .)

a c' c e l e r a t o r re ' f r i g e r a tor in 'cinerator so ' p h i s t i c a t e d

en ' t h u s i a s m a d ' rn í n i s t r a tor i n :-- g r a t i a t i n g a" p o l o g i z i n g

(4) ( • . 9\ . . )

'curi'osity ' a ris t o c r a c y 'archae '.ology 'uni'versity

' p e d a 'gogical ' i d eo l o g y 'capa ' b i l i t y ' i r r e 'sistible ·

·

'possi'bility ' i n e x ' p l i c a b l e 'i n con 's idera b le ' a rn b ig u i t y

(5) (• .9\.o)

' d i ff e ' rentiate ' u nder ' estimate 'reha ' b i l i t a t e 'decon ' t am i nate
,

(6) (•· .�.)

'c l assi fi ' cat i on ' c h aracte 'ri st ic ' M e d i t e rr a n e a n 'quali fi ' cation

(7) ( . • • 9\ .)

con'tinu ' ation c o n ' s i d e 'ration a p' p r e c ia t i o n . e n ' t h u s ia s t i c

pro'n u n c i' a t i o n a b ' b r e vi ' a t i o n a s' s o c ia t i o n

e ' x a m í ' n a t i o n

(8) ( ... �.)

' pre ' d i s p o 'si ti on 'pre'occu'pation ' s e l f - l p r e s e r ' v a t i o n

' p r e ' í a b r ic a tion

' r e ' v a l u ' a t io n ' m i s ' c a l c u 'I a ti on

(v) Stx-syllable words

(1) (e .9\ . . �)

' u n e x 'cepti ona ble 'indi'vidualisrn . 'indistinguishable

' lle ' g i t

i i mac y 'unpro 'fessionally 'uni'rnagina tive

(2) t• . . 9\ . .)

' i r r i t a ' b ili t y . 'characte'ristically 'etyrno ' I ogical

'disconti'nuity ' u n s y s te ' m a t i cally 'sen t i men 'tal i ty

(3) ( • • • 9\ . . )

f a ' mili' a r i t y a'vaila 'bili t y in'f e r i' o r i t y '

re spon s i'bi l it y
 Accentuation 93

(4) ( . • . . 9\ .)

e'lectrifi'cation so'lidifi'cation ex'perimen 'tation

per'sonifi'ca tion ex'emplifi'cation d is'qualifi'ca tion

(5) ( .... � .)

' d i ñ e ' r e n t ia t i o n 'insu'bordi'nation ' i n d i v i d u a'listic

'rnispro'nun ci'ation 'misap'propri'ation 'reca'pitu 'la tion

(vi) Seven-syllable words

·. (1)

( . • . . 9\ . . )

in 'telligi" b ili ty i'nevita 'bility in'vulnera 'bility

irn'practica 'bility un'altera 'bility irn'pressiona 'bility

(2) (• ... � . .)

'irre'sponsi'bility 'in di'vid u'ali ty 'uncon'vention "ality

'super'fici'ality 'incorn'pa ti 'bili ty 'unre'lia 'bility

7 Alternative accentual patterns

There exists a large number of words with optional accentuations , of w h ic h

a b o u tL á ü are in a r e la t ive state of equilibrium," O f th ese we shall include

those of m ore fre q u ent usa g e . P ro m inent s y l l ables are not indicated:

1 Two-syllable words

. ( a) (� .)""' (. 9\)
3:

adult brochure � bureau c h au ff e u r Ch ristine

contact ( v.) d ecade de f ect ( n.) deta i l ( v.) fi nan ce

mean ti m e m ishap

( b ) ( . �)- (� .)

bou q uet · disc h arge (n.) elsewhere m eanwhile P au l ine

. .

perfu m e (v.) q u m m e r é gi m e re s earc h ( n.) syr mge

terrain wee k end

2 "--: Three-syllable words

. . (a) . . ( . � . ) "'; ( � • •)

disputant e xq uisite sonorous uprising

. (b) ( • . e\)- ( 9\ . �)

. discothéque gabardine regi s trar so u venir sub m arine

..·• u n d e r s i g n e d

. : (e) (� • • )� (• .9\)
. . .

. · . : caravan caviare E c u ador k erosene parac h u te

 94 English phonetics for Spanish speakers

3 Four-syllable words

(a) (� • • •) "" ( . � • • )

applicable controversy exigency · formidable

kilometer nornenclature

(b) ( . � • • )---(� • • • )

demonstrable despicable disputable explicable

hospitable rnetallurgy

(e) (� • • • ) � ( e . � . )

television

4 Five-syllable words

(a) ( e . � • •) - ( � . • . )

momentarily necessarily

.
. 8 Accentuation of , c o m p o u n d words

By compound we mean words made up of two and less frequently three roots,

and certain collocations, all of which may or may not be written with a hyphen
5
in the spelling. As with simple words, it is difficult to reduce the accentuation

of the total inventory of English compounds to rules. The following lists, based

o n grammatical or lexical patterns, rather than on number of syllables, by n o ·

means cover the entire range of possibilities, We shall refer to (i) single-accented, ·

and (ii) double-accented compounds. Of the two, single-accented cornpounds

are commoner, and take the accent on the first element.

\�(i) Single-accented compounds .

6
1 \The largest group is forrned by the combination of two nouns.

(a) The second noun indica tes 'the performer of. the action; as in:

'baby-sitter 'car dealer 'pain-killer 'holiday-maker

'book seller 'dish washer 'hous�keeper · 'record-player

'tin-opener 'typewriter 'Iawn-mower 'bartender

'líe-detector 'taxi-driver 'egg-beater 'vacuum cleaner

'dress-hanger 'hair-dryer 'ballet-dancer 'stamp-collector

(Exception: 'stage 'manager).

'(b) In the following cases the resulting compound may be a noun or an .

radjective:

( 'breath / 'leave- / 'pain s ) taking 'windo w (-dres s i n g / -shopping)

( 'bee- / 'book- / 'ho us e) keeping 'time (saving/ -consuming)

(�) The first noun delimits the .meaning of t h e .s e c o n d , bystatingrwhat type

'of thing" it is ; e.g.':

 Accentuation ·. . 9 5 '

('current/ de 'posit/'joiitt/'private/'savings) account

('head/'tooth/'ear /'stomach/'back) ache

('egg/ des 'sert-/'soup-/'table/'tea/'salt) spoon

('hand/'ki t/'mail/'tool-/'school) bag

('base/'foot/'tennis-/'snow /'beach) ball

('book-/'toy /'porn/'frui t-/'record) shop

('birthday /'Christmas/'time-/'credit/i'dentity /'post) card

'school (boy /-days/girl/age/-time/-book)

'bed (-bug/-clothes/room/side/spread/time).

'sea (food/ gull/ -level/ plan e/ port/ side/ man/ -water)

'blood (-relation/bank/-group/ pressure / hound/ -transfusion)

'clothes (-brush/-basket/-l�ne/-peg/-hanger)

'air (-craft/hostess/letter /mail/port/-pump/raid/terminal)

'time (-bomb/ �sheet/-limit/-signal/table/-work)

'news (agent/boy /letter /paper /reel/ sheet/stand)

'water (-biscuit/ -bottle / -colour / fall/ melon/ mill/ -power / proof)

. .

,2 . Another' important group of compounds is formed by the combínation of

·, adjectives and nouns . .

(a) .Norrnally, when a -noun is preceded by an adjective; both · are accented .

. \H o wev er , w h e n thís combination constitutes a spec i fi c, long-established co m­

\ po u nd , the fi rst componen t tends to carry the primar y accent, as i n :

' black ( berr y /bird/board/leg/list/mail )

'g rand (child/daughter /father /ma/mother / pa/parent/son)

' high (brow / chair / ump/light/ j street/timez -school/way)

' folk m usi c ' greengrocer ' <;l ark room ' secondary school

' me n tal h o m e ' postal order ' g ey matter

r ' sweet pota to

tb) I n the following c a ses the adjective i s 'an -ing f o r rn , e . g r; ..

' dri v ing ( -belt/licence/ mirror / school/ test)

' shopping (ba g /basket/ centre/list/street)

' writing ( desk/-ink/-p - a d/-p a per)

(' bo x ing/ c ' o oking/ 'd ancing/ drawing/ driving/ singing) lessons
' ' '

(' adding/ mincing/ printing-/ sewing-/ washing-/ weighin

' ' ' ' ' g -) machine

.' he ring-aid
a ' w iting list
a ' swi m ming pool

"boarding school ' fi ling cabinet ' steering-wh e el

' parking z one ' free ing point

z ' selling pri ce

· ' catchword ' coo k book ' pickpocket ' playbo y

' tell tale ' cork-screw ' daybreak ' ti re-escape

' heartbre a k ' roll-call ' pushchair ' swearword

(Ex c e ption : 'cease ' fi re.)

· 9 6 English phonetics for Spanish speakers

�'4}\Many two-wordverbs give origin to nouns, e . g . : .

a 'hold-up a 'let-dow·n a 'take-off a 'walk-over

(Main exception: a ' l i e - t d o w n . )

{ii). Double-accented compounds

\1,.. Compounds made of nouns may be double-accented in the Iollowing cases:

(a) The first noun indica tes the position of the second o n e , as in:

'country- 'house 'camp-rbed 'shop 'window "kitchen 'cupboard

(b) The second noun 'is rnade' of the first o n e , as i n :

'apple 'sauce 'cotton 'wool 'cherry 'brandy 'fruit 'salad

'lernon 'squash 'olive 'oil 'plum 'pudding 'pork 'pie

(Main exceptions: 'corn-flakes, 'fruit-cake, and all compounds with juice.)

\(c) Other common noun + noun compounds are:

'mother 'tangue 'bank 'holiday 'city 'centr e

'íell ow- 'ci t i z en 'ground 'floor 'head ' m aster

'level 'crossing 'science 'fiction 'mass 'media

'w oman 'doctor 'woman 's 'li b 'wornan 'driv er

2t . . Sorn e common dou b le-accented compounds for m ed by nouns and adjectives

are:

,, (a). A d j ective + n o u n :

'barbed 'wire ' best 'man 'best- 'seller

' b lack ' m a rk et 'civi l 'war 'cold ' war

'comrnon 'sense 'loud- 'speak e r ' prime 'minister

'short 'circuit 'vicious 'circle 'wet 'blanket

de'veloping 'countr y 'íalling ' st a r 'leading 'article

' livin g 'wa g e 'ñying 'colo urs 'sliding 'door

tb) N oun + ad j ective:

'stone ( - 'blind / - 'cold /- 'dead / - 'deaf /- 's a ber)

('duty- /' post- /' rent -/' tax -) 'free

' brand - 'new 'navy ' blue 'snow- 'w h ite 'world- 'wi d e

-3. Participles .. rnake up sorne com m on compounds, e . g . :·

'high (- 'minded /- ' p itched / - 'po w ered / - 'pri c ed / - ' s pirited)

(' absent- /' broad -/' mean -/ 'narrow -/' open -/' strong -/'w ea k - ) 'minded

'close-tfisted 'deep- 'frozen 'f ar- ' f e t c h e d 'old- ' f a s h io n ed

'air-con 'ditioned 'bell- 'botto m ed 'hand- ' k ni tt ed ' home - 'mad e

'easy- ' g oing - 'far- 'reachi n g 'good- 'I oo k i ng 'hard- ' w o r kin g

C':1:��'TheJonowing threé-rootcompoúnds are arranged l:icd::irafniftéf their accen-

,µ�fPa.He}ñ:· · · · · · · · ·
 Accentuation 91

'bed- 'sitting-room 'great- ' g r a n d f a t h e r

' h o t - 'water bottle 'teacher 'training-college

. ' v a l u e - r a d de d tax 'waste- 'paper basket

'audio-visual 'aids 'back seat 'driver

'ballpoint-'pen 'cod-liver 'oil

'four-letter 'word 'take-home 'pay

S i n g l e- a c c e n t e d three-root c o rn p o u n d s are less common, e.g.!

'merry-go-round for'get-me-not

'findscreen-wiper 'crosswbrd puzzle

'�re-insurance policy 'test-tube baby

9 The distinctive function of accent

Just as accent in Spanish may function d i s t i n c t i v el y (cf. 'término - ter'mino -

termi'nó), so in English it may distinguish between pairs of words of identical

spelling and identical or similar phonemic pattern. This function may operate

both in simple ·words and nouns + m o d i fi e r s .

In the case of simple words the tendency is for nouns and/or adjec�ives to be

accented on the first syllable, and verbs on the last:

(i) In most verbs the unaccented syllables contain a weak vowel, but this

tendency is not so strong in the case of nouns, e.g. abstraer / ' re b s t r re k t /

( a d j . / n . ) - / � b � s t r re k t / (v. ) Sirnilarly:

accent anne x attribute conduct con fl i c t · c o n test

contract: convict de crease defect desert e xport

e x tract contrast fre quent object permit pervert

present progress pro ject pro test re bel record

sub ject survey suspect

( ii ) In a few cases i t. is only the accentual pattern which distinguishes between

noun and verb , as in increase /'1 n k r i s / ( n . ) - /m' k r i s / ( v . ) . Similarl y:

dictate digest discount import insu lt tor ment transport

There a re a few cases where accent <l o e s not function distinctively, i.e. verbs

and nouns /adjectives have the same phonemic and accentual forms , e . g.:

ad'dress 'comment 'concrete de ' posit di'rect ex'press 'process

'A s to nouns + modi fi e r s , di ff e r e n t accentual patterns may distinguish between

no un phr ases and establish ed compounds . For instance, a 'green 'house

denotes a h ou se p ainted that colo ur; but a "greenhouse is a special buildin g used

for growing pl ants. 'Cooking 'apples co u ld be the the answer to the questioñ

Wh a t ' s she doing?; but 'cooking apples are apples suitable for cooking.

Accent can a lso distinguish between verbs followed by adverbs , which are

accented, and prepositions, which are unaccented, e.g. :

'Don't let the oppor'tunity go ' by ( = p a s s )

T h at ' s ' n o t a 'good 'map to 'go by ( =f o l l o w )

98 Englisb phonetics for Spanish speakers

'What 'time did she 'come 'to? ( =regain consciousness)

Just 'look what we've 'come to (=reached)

At 'seven o''clock the 'doctor carne 'by ( =called) .

'During the re'cession 'jobs were ' d i ffi c u l t to 'come by. ( = fi n d )

'What 'time will the 'troops be 'marching 'in?

What a 'Iovely 'uniform you'll be 'marching in

'This is the 'music that 'turns me 'on (=excites)

'This is the 'pivot the 'wheel 'turns on ( = gyrates)

1O Accentuation in connected speech

In connected speech we make sorne words stand out with respect to others,

according to the amount and type of information they carry. Justas the learner

must know which syllable(s) to accentuate ín a word, he must also know which

words to accentuate in connected speech. Although f,e same applies to his

mother tangue, the Spanish speaker will be faced wii ! �1 series of d i ffi c u l t i e s in

English. In the cases where correspondence between both languages does occur,

the student is not s u ffi c i e n t l y linguistically aware of the accentual characteristics

of his own language to b e n e fi t from . t h e similarities. lt will now be necessary to

indicate primary accent with a rising pitch movement [/], a falling one [,], and

a falling-rising one [v].

In general , content words are likely to be ac cented in an utterance: nouns ,

principal verbs , ad jectives and adverbs ¡ structura/ words tend to be unaccented :

au x i l i a r y verbs, personal, re fl e x i v e and r elative pronouns , prepositions , articles ,

possessive ad jectives, and con junctions. T here is , howe ver, a group o f structural

words which are frequently accent e d : demonstrative and possessi ve p ronouns,

inte rrogative words , and negative anomalous fi n i t e s . The following sentence

e x e m p l i fi e s this rule :

' P eopl e who hav e . 'never 'co me to 'E n g l a n d be.tore, and 'think their 'E n g l i s h

is .good, 'oft en 'ask th emselves 'why the 'ma n in the 'street 'doesn ' t under.stand

them.

T he above rules will often suffer modi fi c a t i o n s . T here exist s a certa in degree

o f elasticity in accentin g wo rds, a s can be s een if we ex a mine a g iven u t t e r a n c e

s p o k e n either by differentspeakers, a r by th e same spea k e r in di ff e r e n t circum ­

stances . The f ollowing s e n t e n c e , for instance , could be accented in a v ariety of

ways , alt hough the acce n t u ation of ce rtain wo rds i s ine vitable:

' D o e s h e 'always 'have to ' com e .late?

Does he 'always 'have to ' c o m e .late?

Does he ' a lwa y s have to come .Iate?

A more com plex set o f modifícations o c c u rs in arder to satisfy Engli sh rhythm

and usage , and to co nvey di fferent mea ning s.

 Accentuation 99

(i) Rhythmical modlfications

English rhythm requires accented syllables to be separated by unaccented ones

- a tendency which functions both at word and at connected speech level.

1 In sequences of three content words, the second one tends to lose its accent

it if has not more than two syllables, e . g .

a 'nice old ,chair I 'can't speak Chi.nese

a 'nice cosy .chair I 'can't study Chi.nese

cf. a 'nice 'cornfortable .chair cf. I 'can't trans'late Chi.nese

./

2 Phrasal verbs that can take a direct object adopt different accentual

pa.rerns, depending on the position and the nature of the object, as i n :

'put on your .shoes ' . ' t u r n off the vtap

'put your .shoes on 'turn the .tap off

'put them .on 'turn it .off

Pl.rasal verbs that cannot take a direct object are accented on both verb and

particle, unless they are immediately preceded and/or followed by another

accented word, e . g . :

1 •

come ,m he 'woke . u p

you 'can 't come . i n he 'soon woke .up

you can 'come in .now he 'woke up .early

3 Many double-accented compounds and sorne simple· words may lose the

accent which is closest to another accent in the utterance, e . g . ; "

'during the week.end 'tell the head.master

a 'weekend .party the 'headmaster's .office

on 'Friday aíter.noon 'near the g r o u n d - c fí o o r

the 'afternoon .concert the 'ground-fíoor .Iights

he 'often inter.rupted 'nineteen nine.teen

an 'interrupted .visit

When adjectives are used attributively ( i . e . next to a noun) they drop their

primary accent; when they are used predicatively ( i . e . as part of the predicate)

they lose their secondary accent, e . g . :

a 'good-looking .boy my 'sweet-ternpered , wife

I 'find him good- 'Iooking she's 'very sweet-xtempered

a 'well-chosen .book a 'hand-rnade ,sweater

the 'words are well- 'chosen · i t ' s 'totally hand-'made

English place names provide the following examples:

in 'Hyde Park .Corner on 'Piccadilly , Circus

'opposite Hyde ,Park she 'lives near Picca.dilly

. from 'Waterloo ,Station · at 'Heathrow ,Airport

an 'office in Water.loo a 'taxi to Heath.row

100 · E n g l i s hphonetics for Spanisk speakers

4 Less frequently single-accented words may suffer this rhythmical

modification, e . g . :

he 'eats in ex 'cess he's 'there al'ready

'<lid you pay 'excess .,luggage he's 'already .gone

he 'said hel'Io a 'photo of 'Princess .Ann

1 . •

Yhello, Stephen a young pnn.cess

To sum up, we have dealt with four groups of words: single- and double­

accented simple words, and single- and double-accented compound words. The .

following is a surnmary of the rhythmical behaviour of these words:

(a) Only a small number of single-accented simple words suffer rhythmical

modifications.

(b) Ali double-accented words, both simple and compound, may be affected

by these modifica tions.

(e) Single-accented compound words do not undergo rhythmical

modifications.

All these rules, however, may be broken for contrastive or emphatic purposes

(see (iii) below). .

Let us now see what happens when double-accented words are used in noun

phrases: ·

••
'Japa.nese (A) i c e - c c r e a rn

a 'Japanese .picture (B) an 'ice-cream .soda

a 'Japa.nese lesson (C) an 'ice-ccream bowl

I n ( B ) above rhythm modifies the accentual pattern of the citation form (A).

In (C), on the other hand, the rule governing compounds prevails, since these

phrases follow the patterns of similar established compounds, such as .English

lesson and .soup-bowl.

(ii) Accentuation and usage

A number of announcements, set phrases and collocations follow accentuation

tendencies that depend m a i n l y o n usage:

1 In announcements the accent tends to fall on the noun about which

something is being said, rather t h a n on the following c o n t e n t word, e . g . :

There are 'no .buses today, ' K a t e ' s o n the phone

I ' m 'doing .French this year The ' m i l k m a n ' s here

1 'saw 'Nora yesterday There's a 'cat o n my bed

We had sorne 'rain last night There 's a mi'stake in this letter

Your 'taxi's waiting 'Where's that 'shirt I gave y o u ?

The 'baby's crying 1 'found the 'book I wanted

The 'kettle's b o i l i n g ' L e t ' s have t h a t «írink you suggested

The 'phone 's ringing 'What a b o u t that .dress you bought?

 Accentuation 1O1

2 Set phrases may take their own particular accentual p a t t e r n :

The 'new 'play brought the 'house down

They 'get on like a .house on fire

I've 'just seen , what's-his-name

He 'has a 'screw loose

I ' m 'leaving in a ,day or two

I ' m 'staying for a ,year or so

We'll 'get there in 'no time

He 'didn't 'win by a .Iong chalk

3 The word street is unaccented when it forms part of a place narne, e . g . :

,Oxford Street ,Regent S treet Vic.toria Street

cf. 'Oxf ord , Circus cf. 'Regent's .Park cf. Vic'toria . S t a t i o n

4 Nouns used in a wide, unspecific sense, are normally unaccented, e . g . :

I'm a'fraid you're 'seeing things

'Do you en'joy .meeting people?

We've 'lived in 'several places

(iii) Emphatic and contrastive patterns

Special meanings can be conveyed by varying the rule of accentuation of content

and structural words.

1 Structural words may be accented for purposes of emphasis, e . g . :

Y ou were 'driving 'fa st 'This is the 'book to .read

cf. Y ou 'were dr i vin g fast cf. This is 'the .book toread

Y ou m ust 'g o now Yo u've ' rn a d e a 'm e ss of it

cf. Y ou 'must .go n o w, cf. Y ou 'have made a mess of it

W ords u sed speci fi cally for purpose s of emphasis always ta k e an accent:

I ' rn a 'stran g er here 'C ome .in

cf. I ' m a 'stranger here my'self cf. 'Do come .in

•y e s, 1 'w i l l l t's a 'dull ' book

cf ..... Y es , o f 'course I wil l cf. It ' s a 'terribly dull boo k

2 W hen an explicit contrast i s expressed, the elements w hich are in opposition

attract the accent , leaving the repeated elements unaccented, e . g . :

I 'didn't 'say O x fo rd "S t r e e t , 1 said Oxford 'Road

He 'plays both ' popular music and .classical music

D id ' he divorce .her, or <l id 'she divorce . h i m ?

' I must see 'John before h is 'parents see ' m e

'A re you working .indoors or .outdoors?

. 1 0 2 English phonetics for Spanish speakers

In general, repetitions and synonyrns are left unaccented, e . g . :

A: 'What's your . n a m e ? B: .Mills. .Gordon Milis

A: You 'haven't 'made that 'phone call. B: 1 'know I haven't

I 'hate the .institute, and the 'people con.nected with the institute

'J anuary was a 'wonderful month

Exceptions can be found in sorne sayings, and echo utterances, e . g . :

A: 'Buy me 'six .pairs. B: 'Buy you 'six .pairs?

'First .come, 'first .served

'Out of .sight, 'out of .mind

Note the accentuation of the following implicit contrasts:

As far as vl'm concerned, you can 'go a'head

A: 'Did they .both come? B: 'Osear did

11 English v. Spanish word accentuation

If we grouped languages according to the mobility oí the primary accent in the

word; we would conclude that both English and Spanish have free accent, i . e .

the place of the accent is variable, and .accentuation rules - with their exceptions

- have to be learned in order to know which syllables to accentuate. Within this

freedom, however, Spanish shows a marked tendency towards fixed position of

word accent, and English a tendency towards greater variability. The following ·

figures show the relationship between place of word accent and number of
8

syllables in the word:

..
2-syllable 3-syllable 4-syllable

words words ( words

'
_}
J
lst 2nd lst 2nd 3rd lst 2nd 3rd 4th

English 39 36 29

Spanish G[JD 2
[s� 74 2�] ( 3�
11 80
�J
Table 12 English and Spanish accent in words of 2, 3, and 4 syllables. The figures are

'given in percentages.

Table 1 2 reveals that the main differences are found in t h r e e - and four-syllable

words. Whereas Spanish shows a clear tendency towards accent on the

penultirnate syllable, English favours accent on the first syllable.

12 Teachíng problems .

We shall now examine a series of points concerning accentuation, which

frequently cause difficulty to the Spanish learner, and suggest sorne pos si ble

solutions.
 Accentuation 103 ·

(1) Word accent

Toe above confrontation reveals that Spanish speakers are not used to a c c e n - .

tuating three- and four-syllable words on their first syllables. Furthermore, .

English derivatives do not always follow the accentual and/or phonemic patterns ·

of their roots, e.g. �person > per'sonifi'cation, com 'pare> 'comparable, etc.

Spanish speakers must also be aware of the presence and placing of secondary

accents in English. Although they may exist in sorne styles of Spanish, secondary

accents do not bring about any perceptible vowel quality modifications, as they ·

do in Engltsh, e.g. con 'verse +'conoersation. Toe existence of cognate words

seldom proves helpful in accentuation, cf. "supermarket - supermer'cado,

'atmosphere - atrmásfera, 'comfortable <confortable. A further difficulty occurs

whenever accent breaks a vowel sequence into separate syllables, as in

'gradu 'ation, 'oarir ation, where the learner tends to triphthongize the vowel

sequences, i.e. pronounce /-je1-/ instead of /I'e1/ � etc. The last problem concerns

syllables with inherent prominence. Spanish learners will generally have little

trouble in recognízing syllables made prominent by diphthongs (e.g. mo 'te/,

di' lute ), but will find difficulty when these syllables contain pure vowels , especially

after they have maste r ed English vowel weakening, e.g, 'congress, 'programme,

sar'castic, "apricot, etc. · .

The rules governing the so-called accentual alternations provide s o rn e clues

which may help the learner to predict accentual patterns in simple words, as can

be seen in:

(� . .) ++ (. � . .) ++
(• -� .)

diplomat diplomacy diploma tic

photograph photography photographic

bene fi t beneficence beneficial

democrat d emocracy democratic

politics political politician

(. � ) ++
(• - � .)
e x plain e x planation

compete c o rnp e t í t i o n

incline inclination

derive de r ivation

repeat repet i t i on

lt is also u se fu l for the lea r ne r to remembe r the accentual tendenc i es p r od u ced

by th e a dd i t i on of c e rtain su ffi xes , since so rn e of them attract the accent to w a r ds

themselves, wh i le othersreject it to p r eceding syllables, In this respect it may

. be eas i e r for the learner to re m ember the e x ceptions, e.g.:

1 Toe su ffix es -ee and -ette attract the accent towards them. M ain exceptionsr.

c o m t mittee ; 'etiqueite, 'omelette.

2 · The endings -ic ·and -ible re je ct the accent to the i mme d iately p recedin g

s y l la ble . .Main e x ceptions : 'Arabic, a 'rithmetic, 'catholic, 'lunatic, "politic,

. ,; . .

'rhetoric; 'eligible, in "telligible, 'negligible.

\.104 English phonetics far Spanish speakers

:3 · The s u ffi x -ute rejects the accent to the antepenultimate syllable. Exceptions:

· ar tribute (v.), con 'tribute, dirstribute.

· 4 Sorne derivatives follow the pattern of the word from which they are derived,

e.g. adjectives ending in -able. Main exceptions: 'admirable, 'comparable,

'preferable, 'reputable.

The following clues give s o rn e indication as to the placing of secondary accents:

5 In words of three or more syllables, primary accents are generally separated

from s e co n d a r y ones by o n e , two, and exceptionally three syllables, e . g .

'engi'neer, i'deruifivcation, 'nationali'zation.

6 When the p r e fi x e s re- and de- mean 'to do again' and 'to undo' respectively,

they carry a secondary accent, cf. 're- 'form - re 'form; 'de 'code, etc.

At co m p o u n d word level the p r o b l e rn is twofold: in the fi r s t place the student

must learn whether the word is single- or double-accented; in the second place,

he must know which of the words that are double-accented in their citation form

lose one of their accents when used either attributively or predicatively. Further­

more, the student must be careful not to alter the information he wishes to

convey (cf. a "dark-room - a 'dark 'room), nor produce nonsense expressions ( e . g .

a 'walking "stick would imply a , stick that is walking, instead of the correct

compound 'walking-stick).

There are two Iurther p o i n ts which apply both to simple and compound words.

The fi r s t one deals with generational d i ff e r e n c e s in accentuation: certain accentual

patterns which were the r e c o rn m e n d e d forms s o rn e generations ago are no longer

accepted as such, and others which were considered as secondary options may

now have become the fi r s t , or d isappeared altogether ( e . g . ex'plicable has

superseded 'explicable, and 'birthday present h a s displaced 'birthday 'present).

The sec o n d one deals with di ff eren ce s brought a b out by RP and G eneral

American usage ; e . g . :

"'
RP GA

(. � ) (�o) - address, and disyllabic verbs in -ate, e. g . donate,

locate, vibrate, etc.

(�o} ( . �) - ba llet, caf é , clich é, deta il , gar ag e, p é

r cis

( . . �) (� . o ) - ci g arette, mag azi ne

( � . o) (• -�) - c a b a r e t

(.� o) (•o�) - fi a n c é (e)

(.� . . ) ( • . � .) .- advertisem e nt

(.� . .) (�.o.) - laboratory

(ii) Accent in connected speech

In the initial stages th e learner tends to over - acc e nt u ate, d u e to both a lack of

fl uency and ignoran ce of the accentual tenden c ie s o f connected s peech i n E nglis h ,

in spi t e of the fact that t h e s e are , on the w h ole, q uite simi l ar to S p a n is h . E n gli sh

wo r d orde r p r ovides a f u r th er di ffi culty ; fo r i n s ta n c e, the lea r n er t end s to

 Accentuation 105

accentuate the last words in Gioe it to me and Who are you writing to? because

in the first case Spanish personal pronouns in final position are only used

emphatically and are therefore accented, e . g . 'Dámelo a ' m í ; and in the second

case, because Spanish sentences do not normally end in prepositions. Another

common problem arises from the fact that Spanish auxiliary verbs tend to be

accented, whereas English ones do not, cf. "Todos es'taban can.tando 'Eueryone

was .singing.

Ali rnodifications of the accentuation rule - i.e. those concerning rhythm,

usage and emphasis - constitute an even greater diffi.culty, which even advanced

students often fail to master. In the case of rhythm the learner will have to adopt

different habits, because Spanish citation accentual patterns are kept invariable

in connected speech. As to usage, the student will have to master the accentual

pattern corresponding to each ready-made expression. Contrastive and emphatic

devices are perhaps easier to learn, since they follow roughly· similar tendencies

to Spanish.

Owing to the fact that most accentuation rules in English are so elusive, we

advise learners to try also to get the 'feel' of the problem, since this will enable

them to know instirictively whether a word should be accented or not. Accen­

tuation should be- dealt with from the earliest stages of language learning. For

this we suggest the selection of good models, constant and systematic listening

to English, and practice in imitation - o f these models with the question of

accentuation in mind. Further practice can be obtained by reading aloud passages

9
from phonetic readers.

Notes

1 The most complete work on prosodic features is that of D . Crystál ( 1 9 6 9 ) . Under

'prosodic systems' he includes pitch direction, pitch range, pause, loudness, tempo,

and rhythmicality, and under 'para-linguistic systems', voice qualifiers (e.g. whisper)

and voice qualifications (e.g. laughter), with tension belonging to both systems.

2 We have preferred J. Windsor Lewis's notation ti and l'I to the traditional l./ and
ll mainly because the slant of the primary accent is a visual indication of the pitch
movement typical of all citation forms. R. Kingdon ( 1 9 5 8 a ) also uses marks to indicate

prominent syllables; he refers to them as 'partial (or subordinate) static stresses'.

3 The rnost complete study of word accentual patterns has been carried out by R.

Kingdon ( 1 9 5 8 a ) and L. Guierre ( 1 9 7 0 ) . The latter analysed sorne 40,000 words by

mea ns of computational methods. N. Chomsky & M. Halle ( 1 9 6 8 ) investigated English

word accent within the framework of generative phonology.

4 See our 'The CPD Alternative Accentual Patterns', forthcoming.

5 We have solved the difficulty of deciding whether two separate roots can be considered

a compound or not by accepting as compounds those which have attained dictionary

status in OALD and/or LDCE.

6 R. Kingdon ( 1 9 5 8 a : 148) examined sorne 7,000 English compounds. The analysis of

· his corpus revealed that compounds with a noun as the second component formed

8 4 . 3 % of the list. Of these the noun + noun type of compound was over 6 2 % .

In both EPD and LDCE the polysyllabic second elements of compounds show

secondary marks following the primary accent; these marks merely indicate rhythmic

stresses.
106 English phonetics for Spanish speakers

7 There are two pronouncing dictionaries in which these rhythmical modifications are

indicated - EPD and LDCE.

8 Adapted from P. Delattre ( 1 9 6 5 ) . .

9 See E. L. Tibbitts ( 1 9 4 6 , 1 9 6 3 ) , N. C. Scott ( 1 9 6 5 ) , G. F. Arnold & A. C. Gimson

( 1 9 7 3 ) , G. F. Arnold & O . M . Tooley ( 1 9 7 1 , 1 9 7 2 ) , and J. D . O'Connor ( 1 9 7 1 , 1 9 7 3 b ) .

 11 Rhythm

We have already examined the elements which make certain parts of a n utterance

stand o u t with respect to others. We are now going to take a closer look at the

way in which these 'peaks of prominence' are distributed in the utterance; in

other words, we shall deal with the rhythmic pattern of English. We have seen

that one of the basic principies governing English rhythm is the fact that the

accented syllables tend to be separated from each other by unaccented ones (see

chapter 9 , section 1 0 ) , a tendency which also occurs in polysyllabic words . .

2 English rhythm

Although it is possible to find English utterances of the type 'First 'Mike 'took

'John 's 'book .back, where every syllable is liable to be accented, this pattern

constitutes the exception rather than the norm. A pattern of more frequent

occurrence is the type found in 'Later 'Mike 'uisited 'Millington's 'oncient .book­

shop. If we were to use a large circle to represent an accented syllable, and a

small circle to represent a n unaccented one, the two sentences would look like

this:

(a)
o o o o o o
First Mike took John's book back

(b)
o o o ÜooÜoo o
La

Both patterns
ter Mike

(a) and
vi

(b) show that the

ººº
sit ed · Mil lington 's an cient book shop

large circles are separated by equal

distances from each other, irrespective of the presence or absence of unaccented

syllables separating the accented ones . . This would appear to indica te that in

actual speech the accented syllables are separated from each other by equal

units of time, or in more technical terms, that the rhythmic beats are isochronous.

This absolute isochrony displayed in the examples will seldom be found in

real speech. It will be easier to detect isochrony in carefully organized, flowing

sentences, particularly in reading aloud, but it will be far less evident in a jerky,

. informal, conversational style full of stammerings, false starts and interruptions . .

It is therefore more exact to say that English rhythm shows a tendency towards
 -
114 English phonetics for Spanish speakers

isochrony. Furthermore, utterances (a) and (b) display the maximum number of

accents possible, which means that they have been said in a slow, deliberate

style. We could, however, reduce the number of accents by quickening the

tempo, e . g . :

(e) Üo o Ü o o Ü o O O O Ü O
La ter Mike vi sit ed Mil ling ton's an cient book shop

Each accented syllable constitutes the peak of prominence in a rhythmic group,

which mayor may not include other unaccented syllables. In (b) and (e) above

each accented syllable marks the beginning of a rhythrnic group. Boundaries

between thern are not always absolute, as sometirnes unaccented syllables could

be equally attributed to the end of one group or the beginning of the next. They·

are more easily definable when they coincide with a definite grammatical

boundary.
1
A stricter concept of rhythmic group is the one held by sorne phoneticians

who have taken the foot as the unit of English rhythm, each foot always starting

with an accented syllable. We have preferred the more e l a s t i c notion of rhythmic

group, because its respect for natural grammatical b o u n d a r i e s serves as a better

indicator of where pauses should be made.

3 Spanish rhythm

Spanish rhythm has sorne characteristics in common with English. As explained

before, very much the same types of words - content, as opposed to structural

- are liable to be accented in Spanish. This leads to easily identifiable rhythmic

groups, each one containing an accented syllable with or without the addition

of unaccented o n e s . Furthermore, the nurnber of accents in an utterance can be

reduced as tempo is quickened, as can be seen i n :

(d) ooooo o oo o o o o o
'Es el a con te ci . 'mien to 'más im por .tan te

(e) O o o o o o O o o o o o·o
'Es el a con te ci 'mien to más im por ,tan te

One of the differences between English and Spanish rhythrn lies in the fact

that Spanish vowel wea k ening in terms of quality and quantity is very sl i ght

compared with English. A further di ff erence can be seen in Spanish polysyllabic

words, whích may take extra stresses apart from those that would normally occur

in the citation form, thus producing an affected or emphatic rhythm, e.g.:

(f) O o O o Oo.OoOOo Oo
'Es el 'a con 'te · et 'mien to 'más 'im por · , t a n · te
 Rhythm · 115
I

4 Stress-timed v. syllable-timed rhythm

In 1945 K. L. Pik e coined the terms ' s t r e s s - t i rn e d ' and 'syllable-tirned'f to

describe two diffcrent types of rhythm. English has a stress-timed rhythm because

the accented syllables tend to occur at fairly regular intervals. When two accented

syllables are separated by u n a c c e n t e d ones, these tend to be compressed and

quickened, so that the time between each beat will be approximately the same

as the time taken by two consecutive accented syllables. This means that because

exarnples (a) and (b) above contain six accented syllables each, both take roughly

the same amount of time, although (b) has seven extra unaccented syllables.

Similarly, example (g) takes longer than (h) beca use, though both have the same

m.rnber of syllables, (g) has more accented o n e s : '· ·

'!

(g) 'Jean 'Craig ' d i d n ' t 'post 'Bob the 'letter at .once

(11) I'd have 'thought it was going to be 'posted

, .lthough Spanish rhythm is also determined by rhythmic beats, their occur­

renco is not so regular as in English. Spanish can be said to have a syllable-timed

rhythm because it is the syllables, either accented or unaccented, which tend to

occur at more or less regular intervals. The time taken to produce a Spanish

utterance will be proportionate to the number of s y l l a b l e s . it contains, since

unaccented syllables are only slightly shortened and weakened, a fact that has

caused Spanish rhythm to be likened to the staccato effect of a machine-gun.

This can be seen wlÍen comparing (i) with (j) below, which have the same

accentual pattern. Medium-size indicators show Spanish unaccented syllables:

(i) ºººººoººººº
'Mine was of a 'bet ter 'qual i ty than ,his

(j) ooo o oo oo o o o
'Fui mos se pa 'ra da 'men te a a ve ri ,guar

'--''--'

Rhythm has traditionally been conceived as the way in which accented and

unaccented syllables follow each other in the utterance. For purposes of

classification we have considered the elements whichtend to occur regularly in

the utterance - in Spanish the syllables in general, in English only the accented

o n e s . These criteria are sufficient for purposes of cornparison, but not if we wish

to make a more general statement of the nature of rhythm. Rhythm cannot only

· be s a i d to depend on the occurrence of beats or syllables; rather it is a more·

cornplex set of elements. From the auditory point of v i e w the rhythrn of a .

language can be described as that overall impression caused by the prorninent .

and · non-prominent parts, · and the way in which they succeed each other in an .

. utterance. · -· ·. . .

< . In the case of English, its rhythm is based on a marked contrast between the

:prominent and non-prominent parts, The íormer consist of syllables whích.aré.,

 116 English phonetics for Spanish speakers

made p r o m i n e n t by one or a l i f o u r of the e l e m e n t s described i n chapter 9 , section

2 - p i t c h m o v e rq e n t , a strong vowel q u a l i t y , l e n g t h , and s t r e s s . As i m p l i e d befare,

E n g l i s h s y l l a b l e I e n g t h in actual speech is governed by much m o r e c o m p l e x r u l e s

than those given in chapter 6 , section 3 . F o r e x a m p l e , i n arder to comply with

the t e n d e n c y of E n g l i s h r h y t h m towards i s o c h r o n y , s y l l a b l e l e n g t h w i l l be g r e a t l y

d e t e r m i n e d by the n u m b e r of s y l l a b l e s Iorrning part of a r h y t h m i c g r o u p . T h u s ,

the s y l l a b l e / t J e m d 3 / w i l l b e c o m e s h o r t e r as we go from ( k ) to ( m ) :

(k) to 'change ' t r a i n s

(1) a 'change of ' m i n d

ººº
(m) this 'changeable 'weather .o
º º,º. º
o.

The way in which the phonemes of a Ianguage combine together also helps

to s h a p e the rhythm of a language. The p o s s i b l e occurrence of fortis s t o p s , a l o n e

or i n c l u s t e r s , and t h e i r i n c r e a s i n g t e n d e n c y to be g l o t t a l l y reinforced in s y l l a b l e

fi n a l position, thus allowing syllables to end abruptly, makes English rhythm

s o u n d j e r k y to the S p a n i s h e a r .

The non-prominent, c o m p r e s s e d parts c o n s i s t of s y l l a b l e s l a c k i n g o n e or ali

f o u r of the e l e m e n t s d e s c r i b e d a b o v e . Their degree of c o m p r e s s i o n w i l l d e p e n d ,

apart from the number of non-prominent syllables in the rhythmic group, 00

w h e t h e r they occur befare or after the rhythmic b e a t : n o n - p r o rn i n e n t s y l l a b l e s

p r e c e d i n g t h e beat are n o r m a l l y e v e n less p r o m i n e n t ( s h o r t e r , s l u r r e d ) t h a n those

following it, and consequently more d i ffi c u l t to disentangle for the Spanish

Iearner. It is a l s o i n the n o n - p r o m i n e n t s y l l a b l e s where p h o n e t i c and p h o n e m i c

m o d i fi c a t i o n s (i.e. elisions, assimilations, and compressions) tend to occur:

plosives are articulated so weakly as to become fricatives; fricatives are very

e a s i l y r e a l i z e d as a p p r o x i m a n t s , and d i p h t h o n g s are n o r m a l l y m o n o p h t h o n g i z e d .

A graphic r e p r e s e n t a t i o n of the s e n t e n c e But I d o n ' t k n o w [bct a · 1 ' d o - u n ? ' n � : u ]

would l o o k l i k e t h i s :

º º º o

6 Pause

C l o s e l y connected with r h y t h m is pause, a feature which may e i t h e r be grarn­

m a t i c a l l y p r e d i c t a b l e , and w i l l therefore fit in n a t u r a l l y with the r h y t h m i c groups,

or may break them up in unpredictable places - particularly in spontaneous

: s p e e c h . P r e d i c t a b l e pauses, such as those r e q u i r e d for the speaker to take b r e a t h ,

or for .the s e p a r a t i o n of g r a m m a t i c a l u n i t s ( e . g . s e n t e n c e s , sorne types of c l a u s e s ,

· e t c . ) .wiíl c o i n c i d e with rhythmic group b o u n d a r i e s . The unpredictable o n e s , such

as those p r o d u c e d by hesitations, false s t a r t s , etc. may occur at any place in the

u t t e r a n c e . E i t h e r type of pause may be fi l l e d with s o rn e k i n d of sound - n o r m a l l y

a vowel of a c e n t r a l q u a l i t y , or the l e n g t h e n i n g of a s o u n d - or may c o n s i s t o f

silence.
 Rhythm 117

7 Teaching problems

Since English rhythm constitutes the m e e t i n g place of a series of features, it can

conveniently be tackled from two angles. On the one hand, students should

previously have drilled and mastered step by step each one of the component

e l e m e n t s - basically s y l l a b l e length, accentuation and vowel weakening - and

on the other, they should have been exposed to the language as a whole from

the i n i t i a l stages, so as to have become accustomed to its overall auditory effect.

The latter type of activity will obviously affect students d i ff e r e n t l y , 'd e p e n d i n g

on their natural a b i l i t y , or 'ear for l a n g u a g e s ' .

Accentuation is perhaps the most important p r e r e q u i s i t e , which the student

s h o u l d ideally come to feel almost physically. This is why any kind of accom­

panying movement, such as tapping or gesturing to the rhythmic beat of an

utterance is u s e f u l .' A good technique to learn to control timing is the type

of exercise to be found in Appendix B , where the learner is required to repeat

a given utterance with different rhythmic p a t t e r n s . Spanish speakers find special

d i ffi c u J t y i n producing utterances introduced by severa) n o n - p r o rn i n e n t s y J J a b l e s .

Reading aloud is an indispensable s k i l l for the future teacher to develop. Good

organization into rhythmic groups and correct placing of pauses are necessary

in arder to acquire fluency in this respecL I n spontaneous speech," on the

other hand, the student must learn to fi l l in his pauses with the correct English

hesitation noises, such as / m / , / 3/, / s m ] , and not the typical Spanish o n e s .

Notes

1 See D . Abercrornbie ( 1 9 6 4 a , l 964b, 1 9 6 7 ) , and other phoneticians of the Edinburgh

School of Phonetics, e . g . M. A. K. Halliday ( 1 9 6 4 , 1 9 6 7 , 1 9 7 0 ) . See also C. Mortimer

(1976).

2 See K. L. Pike ( 1 9 4 5 : 34f . ) .

3 See E. L. Tibbitts ( 1 9 6 7 : introduction, 1 9 6 6 ) .

4 For EFL material based on spontaneous, unscripted speech, see D. Crystal & D.

Davy ( 1 9 7 5 ) , and J. Windsor Lewis ( 1 9 7 7 ) .