Dropped Syllables
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
There are many examples: aspirinExample; choc -late
Definition:
The linguistic term for the loss of a syllable in spoken word is syncope, but I simply refer to it as dropped syllables.
The linguistic term for the loss of a syllable in spoken word is syncope, but I simply refer to it as dropped syllables.
Other examples of dropped syllables are the words every, favorite, and different.
That was:
Dropping syllables occurs mostly on high-frequency words, and dictionaries are pretty good about showing both options when two choices of pronunciation are available.
The syllable that can be dropped, not surprisingly, follows a pattern. The syllables before or after a stressed syllable in a word are often unstressed. (This is opposed to a secondary stress that can occur two syllables apart from a stressed syllable.) Only the vowel sounds of unstressed syllables can get dropped, and usually the original word needed to have at least three syllables to begin with. I mentioned four words above, which I'll repeat now.
Here are some more examples. (I'm only going to pronounce these the less formal way, with the dropped syllable):
That was:
- ev-er-y versus ev-r
- fav-o-rite versus fav-rite
- dif-fer-ent versus diff-rent
Dropping syllables occurs mostly on high-frequency words, and dictionaries are pretty good about showing both options when two choices of pronunciation are available.
The syllable that can be dropped, not surprisingly, follows a pattern. The syllables before or after a stressed syllable in a word are often unstressed. (This is opposed to a secondary stress that can occur two syllables apart from a stressed syllable.) Only the vowel sounds of unstressed syllables can get dropped, and usually the original word needed to have at least three syllables to begin with. I mentioned four words above, which I'll repeat now.
- interesting
- every
- favorite
- different
Here are some more examples. (I'm only going to pronounce these the less formal way, with the dropped syllable):
- laboratory
- family
- vegetable
- camera
- mystery
- beverage
- restaurant
I also want to tell you the most common 2-syllable word can be reduced to a single syllable: s'pose (for suppose), as in "I s'pose I can help you tomorrow."
Also, like most informal options of pronouncing English, they may go away is the word is emphasized in a sentence. For instance, the word every. In normal speech, it drops to 2 syllables, every. However, if I were emphasizing that word, it may go back to the more proper 3 syllables, every. For example, in the sentence:
You don't need to practice every day, but you should try to most days.
I stressed the word every, and it was said with three syllables, as ev-e-ry.
Now, I do need to say, North Americans and British do this differently. So if you are more exposed to British English, you will not notice this to the same extent.
One last thing I found interesting when double checking facts for this episode, when I went to Merriam Webster Online to listen to their audio, they almost always pronounce the word with the less formal pronunciation. However, they sometimes show the syllabic breakdown with the extra syllable, and the phonetic transcription with the dropped syllable. It's an interesting discrepancy.
Well, that's enough information for one day.
As always, you can read the transcripts for this podcast for free at www.pronuncian.com. That is also the place you can buy either of my books, "Pronunciation Pages, Sounds of American English," or "Rhythm and Intonation of American English" as either a physical book, or a downloadable PDF book. You purchases directly support creation of these podcasts and Pronuncian content.
You can also support this show by leaving a review wherever you go to download these shows, whether it is from iTunes, Zune, Podcast.com, or anywhere else. Those reviews really help other people find this show, and we appreciate the reviews more than you can imagine. Plus it is free to do, so why not help spread the word!
Don't forget, you can also visit the forums from Pronuncan.com and post questions and comments there for free as well.
That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.
This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.
Bye-bye.
The number of vowel = the number of syllables
But sometimes vowels disappear giving as a consequense a reduction in the number of syllables Ex.:
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
INTONATION SYLLABLE
English is called a stress-timed language (so are Russian and Arabic) and Chinese is a syllable-timed language (so are French, Telugu and Yoruba).
The stress-timed theory states that the time taken from a stressed syllable to the following one will tend to be the same. It is again not exact and experiments showed that we tend to hear speech as more rhythmical than it actually is.
To cope with this phenomenon, a poetry concept called 'foot' is borrowed. A foot begins with a stressed syllable and includes all the following unstressed syllables up to the next stressed syllable.
E.g. 'Walk 'down the 'path to the 'end of the ca'nal.
There are 5 feet in the above utterance.
Segmental phonology (sound segments, syllable structure)
Prosodic phonology/suprasegmental phonology (tone, stress, intonation)
Pitch plays the most important part in intonation. Perception <> acoustic measurement.
It is relative in nature and we may talk about high and low pitch though we know it is a continuum.
Contrast in an utterance is what we are concerned about. What are the form and function of intonation?
5 tones in English
A tone unit may consist of one syllable or more and is difficult to define.
Hierarchical structure
Utterance
Tone units
Syllables (pre-head, head, tonic syllabic (carries a tonic stress which is of one of the five tones mentioned above), tail)
Phonemes (Cs & Vs)
The structure of a tone unit:
(pre-head) (head) (tonic syllable (tail))
For example,
In an hour.
The head is all that part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable.
The pre-head is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable.
The tail consists of any syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit. The tonic stress will spread from the tonic syllable to the tail for rising, falling and level tones.
High head vs. low head
It is usual for unstressed syllables to continue the pitch of the stressed syllable that precedes them.
When there is more than a stressed syllable in the head, there is usually a slight change in pitch from the level of one stressed syllable to that of the next, the change being in the direction of the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable.
In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are the three main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation patterns in some languages, such as Swedish and Swiss German, can lead to conspicuous fluctuations in pitch, giving speech a sing-song quality.
Fluctuations in pitch either involve a rising pitch or a falling pitch. Intonation is found in every language and even in tonal languages, but the realisation and function are seemingly different. It is used in non-tonal languages to add attitudes to words (attitudinal function) and to differentiate between wh-questions, yes-no questions, declarative statements, commands, requests, etc. Intonation can also be used for discourse analysis where new information is realised by means of intonation. It can also be used for emphatic/contrastive purposes.
All languages use pitch pragmatically as intonation — for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch for distinguishing words in addition to providing intonation.
Generally speaking, the following intonations are distinguished:
Transcription
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, global rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right [↗] and falling left-to-right [↘], respectively. These may be written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have a broader scope:
Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question hinges on that word, on where he found it, not whether he found it.
More detailed transcription systems for intonation have also been developed, such as ToBI (Tones and Break Indices), RaP (Rhythm and Pitch), and INTSINT.
Uses of intonation
The uses of intonation can be divided into six categories: :ch.
In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch whilst speaking which is not used to distinguish words. (Compare tone.) Intonation and stress are two main elements of linguistic prosody.
All languages use pitch semantically, that is, as intonation, for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch to distinguish words in addition to intonation.
Rising intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time; falling intonation means that the pitch decreases with time. A dipping intonation falls and then rises, whereas a peaking intonation rises and then falls.
The classic example of intonation is the question-statement distinction. For example, northeastern American English, like very many languages (Hirst & DiCristo, eds. 1998), has a rising intonation for echo or declarative questions (He found it on the street?), and a falling intonation for wh- questions (Where did he find it?) and statements (He found it on the street.). Yes or no questions (Did he find it on the street?) often have a rising end, but not always. The Chickasaw language has the opposite pattern, rising for statements and falling with questions.
Dialects of British and Irish English vary substantially, with rises on many statements in urban Belfast, and falls on most questions in urban Leeds.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, "global" rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right [↗] and falling left-to-right [↘], respectively. These may be written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have a broader scope:
Also, like most informal options of pronouncing English, they may go away is the word is emphasized in a sentence. For instance, the word every. In normal speech, it drops to 2 syllables, every. However, if I were emphasizing that word, it may go back to the more proper 3 syllables, every. For example, in the sentence:
You don't need to practice every day, but you should try to most days.
I stressed the word every, and it was said with three syllables, as ev-e-ry.
Now, I do need to say, North Americans and British do this differently. So if you are more exposed to British English, you will not notice this to the same extent.
One last thing I found interesting when double checking facts for this episode, when I went to Merriam Webster Online to listen to their audio, they almost always pronounce the word with the less formal pronunciation. However, they sometimes show the syllabic breakdown with the extra syllable, and the phonetic transcription with the dropped syllable. It's an interesting discrepancy.
Well, that's enough information for one day.
As always, you can read the transcripts for this podcast for free at www.pronuncian.com. That is also the place you can buy either of my books, "Pronunciation Pages, Sounds of American English," or "Rhythm and Intonation of American English" as either a physical book, or a downloadable PDF book. You purchases directly support creation of these podcasts and Pronuncian content.
You can also support this show by leaving a review wherever you go to download these shows, whether it is from iTunes, Zune, Podcast.com, or anywhere else. Those reviews really help other people find this show, and we appreciate the reviews more than you can imagine. Plus it is free to do, so why not help spread the word!
Don't forget, you can also visit the forums from Pronuncan.com and post questions and comments there for free as well.
That's all for today. Thanks for listening everyone.
This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.
Bye-bye.
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
INTONATION SYLLABLE
English is called a stress-timed language (so are Russian and Arabic) and Chinese is a syllable-timed language (so are French, Telugu and Yoruba).
The stress-timed theory states that the time taken from a stressed syllable to the following one will tend to be the same. It is again not exact and experiments showed that we tend to hear speech as more rhythmical than it actually is.
To cope with this phenomenon, a poetry concept called 'foot' is borrowed. A foot begins with a stressed syllable and includes all the following unstressed syllables up to the next stressed syllable.
E.g. 'Walk 'down the 'path to the 'end of the ca'nal.
There are 5 feet in the above utterance.
Segmental phonology (sound segments, syllable structure)
Prosodic phonology/suprasegmental phonology (tone, stress, intonation)
Pitch plays the most important part in intonation. Perception <> acoustic measurement.
It is relative in nature and we may talk about high and low pitch though we know it is a continuum.
Contrast in an utterance is what we are concerned about. What are the form and function of intonation?
5 tones in English
- fall - assertion, finality
- rise - prompt to say more
- fall-rise - limited agreement, response with reservation
- rise fall - strong feeling of approval, disapproval, or surprise
- level - boredom
A tone unit may consist of one syllable or more and is difficult to define.
Hierarchical structure
Utterance
Tone units
Syllables (pre-head, head, tonic syllabic (carries a tonic stress which is of one of the five tones mentioned above), tail)
Phonemes (Cs & Vs)
The structure of a tone unit:
(pre-head) (head) (tonic syllable (tail))
For example,
- John, is it you?
- Give me those.
- 'Bill 'called to 'give me those.
In an hour.
The head is all that part of a tone-unit that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic syllable.
The pre-head is composed of all the unstressed syllables in a tone-unit preceding the first stressed syllable.
The tail consists of any syllables between the tonic syllable and the end of the tone-unit. The tonic stress will spread from the tonic syllable to the tail for rising, falling and level tones.
High head vs. low head
It is usual for unstressed syllables to continue the pitch of the stressed syllable that precedes them.
When there is more than a stressed syllable in the head, there is usually a slight change in pitch from the level of one stressed syllable to that of the next, the change being in the direction of the beginning pitch of the tone on the tonic syllable.
In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are the three main elements of linguistic prosody. Intonation patterns in some languages, such as Swedish and Swiss German, can lead to conspicuous fluctuations in pitch, giving speech a sing-song quality.
Fluctuations in pitch either involve a rising pitch or a falling pitch. Intonation is found in every language and even in tonal languages, but the realisation and function are seemingly different. It is used in non-tonal languages to add attitudes to words (attitudinal function) and to differentiate between wh-questions, yes-no questions, declarative statements, commands, requests, etc. Intonation can also be used for discourse analysis where new information is realised by means of intonation. It can also be used for emphatic/contrastive purposes.
All languages use pitch pragmatically as intonation — for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch for distinguishing words in addition to providing intonation.
Generally speaking, the following intonations are distinguished:
- Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice rises over time [↗];
- Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls with time [↘];
- Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [↘↗];
- Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [↗↘].
Transcription
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, global rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right [↗] and falling left-to-right [↘], respectively. These may be written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have a broader scope:
- He found it on the street?
- [ hiː ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↗ˈˈstɹiːt ‖ ]
Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question hinges on that word, on where he found it, not whether he found it.
- Yes, he found it on the street.
- [↘ˈjɛs ‖ hi ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↘ˈstɹiːt ‖ ]
- How did you ever escape?
- [↗ˈˈhaʊ dɪdjuː | ˈɛvɚ | ə↘ˈˈskeɪp ‖ ]
More detailed transcription systems for intonation have also been developed, such as ToBI (Tones and Break Indices), RaP (Rhythm and Pitch), and INTSINT.
Uses of intonation
The uses of intonation can be divided into six categories: :ch.
- Informational: for example, in English I saw a ↘man in the garden answers "Whom did you see?" or "What happened?", while I ↘saw a man in the garden answers "Did you hear a man in the garden?"
- Grammatical: for example, in English a rising pitch turns a statement into a yes-no question, as in He's going ↗home? This use of intonation to express grammatical mood is its primary grammatical use (though whether this grammatical function actually exists is controversial).:pp.140, 151 Some languages, like Chickasaw and Kalaallisut, have the opposite pattern from English: rising for statements and falling with questions.
- Illocution: the intentional force is signaled in, for example, English Why ↘don't you move to California? (a question) versus Why don't you ↗move to California? (a suggestion).
- Attitudinal: high declining pitch signals more excitement than does low declining pitch, as in English Good ↗morn↘ing versus Good morn↘ing.
- Textual: linguistic organization beyond the sentence is signaled by the absence of a statement-ending decline in pitch, as in English The lecture was canceled [high pitch on both syllables of "cancelled", indicating continuation]; the speaker was ill. versus The lecture was can↘celed. [high pitch on first syllable of "canceled", but declining pitch on the second syllable, indicating the end of the first thought] The speaker was ill.
- Indexical: group membership can be indicated by the use of intonation patterns adopted specifically by that group, such as street vendors, preachers, and possibly women in some cases (see high rising terminal.)
In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch whilst speaking which is not used to distinguish words. (Compare tone.) Intonation and stress are two main elements of linguistic prosody.
All languages use pitch semantically, that is, as intonation, for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch to distinguish words in addition to intonation.
Rising intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time; falling intonation means that the pitch decreases with time. A dipping intonation falls and then rises, whereas a peaking intonation rises and then falls.
The classic example of intonation is the question-statement distinction. For example, northeastern American English, like very many languages (Hirst & DiCristo, eds. 1998), has a rising intonation for echo or declarative questions (He found it on the street?), and a falling intonation for wh- questions (Where did he find it?) and statements (He found it on the street.). Yes or no questions (Did he find it on the street?) often have a rising end, but not always. The Chickasaw language has the opposite pattern, rising for statements and falling with questions.
Dialects of British and Irish English vary substantially, with rises on many statements in urban Belfast, and falls on most questions in urban Leeds.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, "global" rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right [↗] and falling left-to-right [↘], respectively. These may be written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have a broader scope:
- He found it on the street?
- [ hiː ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↗ˈstɹiːt ‖ ]
- Yes, he found it on the street.
- [↘ˈjɛs ‖ hi ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ðə ↘ˈstɹiːt ‖ ]
- How did you ever escape?
- [↗ˈhaʊ dɪdjuː | ˈɛvɚ | ɨ↘ˈskeɪp ‖ ]
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