The Pronunciation of English
Daniel Jones
~ This version of Daniel Jones’ The Pronunciation of English may be freely reprinted to be made available to the public. ~ This work is edited from the fourth edition of The Pronunciation of English.
~ The text of the body set in Times New Roman.
A word on this edited version
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anguages change drastically with time. The last publication of this book by Jones was back in the late 1950s when English was a lot different from what it is today. Fifty years have passed and the changes that have occurred in this period have brought the need to edit Jones’ original work to suit the modern reader, to the fore. In this edited version, I have—as said already, made the book suited to people familiar with English only in its present form. Over this, I have made the book more suitable to learners of English phonetics, who have no prior knowledge of the topic whatsoever. It must not be mistaken here that I have changed this masterpiece of a work altogether; I have merely restructured the book while retaining the very methods, diagrams and words Jones’ used in the fourth edition of this book. Also, I have omitted parts of the book that involve writings in phonetic hand, and, it follows, I have also omitted part two of the book as it involves an extremely detailed study of many famous English texts, based on the phonetics of the words involved; and this would be too complicated for a first time reader of phonetics, at whom this book is aimed. Parenthetically, all cursive forms of phonetic symbols have been left out. I have placed the lists of illustrations and phonetic symbols as appendices two and three, respectively, at the end of the book, to make it more easily accessible; and because I thought such a layout would be better. Jones’ preface to the fourth edition has also been left out. No indication of any editing of the fourth edition has been made anywhere in this edition to retain neatness in its presentation. pr esentation.
It would be of no particular use to mention—though I feel I must— that all the spellings that are no longer in use, have been altered to suit their present versions. An example would be the earlier use of connexion instead of the present connection. I would also like to add add to what I have said earlier (that Jones’ usage of words has been retained) that the numbering of paragraphs has also been retained to give the reader a feel of the original edition. I hope this edited version will appeal to all. Venkatram Harish Belvadi
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A word on this edited version
T
here can be little doubt that the name of Daniel Jones will remain in linguistic history as the great authority on the pronunciation of British English in the twentieth century. Although The Pronunciation of English (first published in 1909) was the author’s earliest descriptive work on English pronunciation, it was during the next half-century completely revised in several new editions, the author’s last corrections being made in 1962, when Daniel Jones was eighty-one. The present book can therefore be said to incorporate the final results of his research and observation. Linguistic history and descriptive techniques have taken new directions in the last twenty years, but The Pronunciation of English remains a reliable account of British pronunciation usage, not only of the so-called ‘received’ form but also of several regional varieties. Although this book was originally intended for the native speaker of English, it has always been used as widely abroad as in Britain, as it provides much basic information which is valuable for the foreign learner. There is no need to justify reprinting the definitive version of this popular, lucid work in order to keep it available to the public. A. C. Gimson Professor of Phonetics University College London
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Contents A word on this edited version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page i Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
PART I – PHONETIC THEORY 1. TYPES OF PRONUNCIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ‘Good’ Speech and ‘Bad’ Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. ORGANS OF SPEECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Vocal Cords. Breath and Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. SOUNDS AND LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. CLASSIFICATION OF SOUNDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classification of Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cardinal Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diphthongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . English Vowel Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classification of Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. PRINCIPLES OF TRANSCRIPTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS IN DETAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pure Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Strong and weak forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diphthongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Closing Diphthongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Centering Diphthongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rising Diphthongs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plosives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affricates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nasal Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lateral Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Rolled Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flapped Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fricatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Semi-vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. THEORY OF PLOSIVE CONSONANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. NASALISATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9. SIMILITUDE, ASSIMILATION, ELISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10. SYLLABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11. DURATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12. STRESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13. BREATH-GROUPS, SENSE GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14. INTONATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15. PRACTICAL EXERCISES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16. EAR TRAINING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17. PHONEMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18. SYLLABLE SEPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PART II – APPENDICES 19. APPENDIX 1: Books for Further Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20. APPENDIX 2: List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21. APPENDIX 3: List of Phonetic Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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PART I PHONETIC THEORY
The Pronunciation of English
Daniel Jones
1. TYPES OF PRONUNCIATION
§ 1. No two people pronounce exactly alike. The differences arise from a variety of causes, such as locality, early influences and social surroundings; there are also individual peculiarities for which it is difficult or impossible to account. § 2. It is thought by many that there ought to exist a standard, and one can see from several points of view that a standard speech would have its uses. Ability to speak in a standard way might be considered advantageous by some of those whose home language is a distinctly local form of speech; if their vocations require them to work in districts remote from their home locality, they would not be hampered by speaking in a manner differing considerably from the speech of those around them. A standard pronunciation would also be useful to the foreign learner of English. § 3. But though attempts have been made to devise and recommend standards, it cannot be said that any standard exists. Londoners speak in one way, Bristolians in another, Scotsmen in several other ways, and so on. American speech too (of which there are many varieties) is very different. § 4. There are also styles of speech for each individual. There is a rapid colloquial style and slow formal style, and there are various shades between the two extremes. § 5. The science dealing with such matters is called Phonetics. This book is an elementary manual of Phonetics dealing particularly with the pronunciation of the English language, and the subject is treated from the view-point of the English student. In it is given a fairly detailed description of one form of English pronunciation which, though not a standard, can at least be said to be easily understood throughout the English-speaking world, and attention is called to some of the more outstanding divergences commonly heard in various localities and to differences of style employed by individual speakers. The widely understood pronunciation here described may be termed Received Pronunciation (abbreviated RP). This is not a particularly good term, but it is doubtful whether a better one can be found. § 6. Nearly every reader is likely to find points in which his pronunciation differs from the RP here described. It is to be hoped that users of this book will take note of the discrepancies. It will probably be found in the majority 1
