1. Lesson 10: L, R, and Syllabic Consonants
The sounds /l/ and /r/ are formed with more movement of
the speech organs than most other consonant sounds.
These two sounds are called liquids. They are characterized
by extensive movements of the speech organs from one
position to another. Unlike other consonants that are made
with the speech organs in a fixed position, liquids are
sometimes described as vowel-like consonants produced
without friction. In English, /l/ is produced with the tip of
the tongue moving to or away from the tooth ridge, and the
sides are lowered so that the air goes out laterally. It is a
voiced sound. The sound /r/ hardly seems to be pronounced
in certain places except at the beginning of a word or
syllable. Most English speakers, however, pronounce it with
both sides of the tongue touching the back part of the tooth

2. ridge and the back teeth. The tip does not touch anything.
The middle of the tongue, including the tip, is lower than
the sides, and the air goes out through the channel formed
between the middle of the tongue and the roof of the
mouth. The lips are slightly open. This liquid sound is made
as the speech organs move to this position from a vowel
(are) or away from this position to a vowel (red). In
whatever direction it may end, it always begins by a motion
toward the back of the mouth, which is called retroflex.
As we know, /iy/, /ɪ/ , /ey/ , /ε/ and /æ/ are front vowels.
iy
ɪ
ey
ɛ
æ

3. The movements of /l/ and /r/, especially following a vowel
sound, are produced far in the back of the mouth. So it is
more complicated to pass from a front vowel sound to /l/
and /r/ than from a back vowel to either liquid. As the
tongue moves back from the position of the front vowel, it
passes through the middle, central zone where /ə/ is
formed. In doing so, it produces a centering glide that is
heard as /ə/. We may say that,
WHEN A FRONT VOWEL IS FOLLOWED BY /l/ or /r/, AN
INTERMEDIARY /ə/ IS INSERTED.
/iy/ + /ə/ seal /siyəl/ /ɛ/ + / ə/ well /wɛəl/
/i/ + / ə/ fill /fiəl/ wear /wɛər/
fear /fiər/ /æ/ + / ə/shall /ʃæəl/
/ey/ + / ə/ tale /teyəl/

4. Most of us are accustomed to thinking that every syllable
must include at least one vowel, yet in words such as little,
sudden, and wouldn’t there are only consonant sounds in
the final syllable. These are known as syllabic consonants,
since they may make up a syllable without the
accompaniment of vowel.
Syllabic consonants occur when a syllable ends in /t/, /d/, or
/n/ and the next syllable is unstressed and contains an /l/ or
/n/. This may be expressed by an equation:
/t/ /l/
/d/ } + unstressed syllable containing { > syllabic consonant
/n/ /n/

5. Three of the items in the following exercise are not
pronounced with a syllabic consonant.
1. little 23. gardening
2. didn’t 24. certainty
3. student 25. penalty
4. couldn’t 26. finally
5. article 27. fertilize
6. tunnel 28. ordinary
7. Latin 29. ventilate
8. harden 30. monotonous
9. idle 31. bread and butter
10. important 32. bright and early
11. mountain 33. salt and peppe
12. hospital
13. travel
14. curtain
15. oriental
16. bottle
17. saddled
18. broadened
19. attention
20. battleship
21. suddenly
22. sentences

6. Lesson 13
Consonant Substitution 1
The sounds /θ/ and /ð/ make up a voiced – voiceless pair
and neither is found in Spanish thus, they are often
substituted by /d/. Keep in mind that one of these two
sounds will be present with the spelling –th.
In the case of/ d͡ʒ/and/y/,the first one is often substituted
with the second one by Spanish speakers.
Classified as a semi-vowel, /y/ occurs after a vowel sound in
diphthongs such as /ɔy/ and /ay/, where /y/ begins in
position of the first vowel then moves towards the front of
the mouth. However, it also occurs before a vowel sound
like in young /yə ŋ/, where it is thought as consonant
formed as a glide but moving in opposite direction: from the
front of the mouth toward the back taking the position of
the following vowel.
As the symbol indicates /d͡ʒ/ is a stop plus a continuant.
This sound is classified as an affricate and it is voiced like the
phonemes that compose it.
On the other hand, /ʧ/ is also an affricate but it is voiceless,
as is /ʃ /, the counterpart of /ʒ/.

7. Lesson 14
Consonant Substitution 2
Remember that /b/ is a voiced stop made between the lips,
while /v/ is a voiced continuant made between upper teeth
and lower lip.
The sound /hw/ is a consonantal glide and it is often
substituted by /w/. 1
The nasal sounds are /m/, /n/ and / ŋ/ and the name comes
from the fact that when making them, the air escapes from
the nose and not the mouth as in the orals. It is the soft
palate or velum that will determine which way the air will
escape (by being drawn up or relaxed).
It should be understood clearly that the g of the ending –ng
is silent; the g changes the preceding /n/ to / ŋ/, but it is not
itself pronounced. In the case of singer, the g not only
changes the n, but it is also pronounced.
The problem with /h/ is usually omission, probably
influenced by the fact that in a few common words in
English, the h should be left silent: heir /ɛər/, honor /´anər/,
1
See e-mail with infomation for this sound.

8. and hour /awr/. Furthermore, native speakers often omit
the /h/ is short words such as he, him, his, her, has, have.
Lesson 15
Consonant Clusters
Consonant clusters are a sequence of two or more
consonants within one syllable. The simplified formula of
syllable structure of English is (C )(C )(C ) (V) (C)(C)(C )(C ).
An example of this structure would be strengths /strɛŋkθs/
Four of the clusters, which include an alveolar consonant
followed by /y/ as part of diphthongal vowel /yuw/, are
regularly heard in extensive regions of the United States,
but not in other regions. These are /dy/ as in due, /ny/ as in
new, /ty/ as in tune, and /sty/ as in stew. For a student of
English, either pronunciation - /yuw/ or /uw/ is acceptable.
In the pronunciation of words such as warmth, prince and
amongst a voiceless stop /p/, /t/ or /k/ (that is not in the
spelling) is inserted in the final cluster /wɔrmpɵ/, /prɪnts/,
/əməŋkst/. These inserted stops seem to occur most
regularly when a voiced nasal continuant /m/, /n/ or /ŋ/ is
present in a final cluster where it is followed by a voiceless
sound, usually a continuant. In passing from the voice nasal
to the voiceless sound, a speaker is almost forced to

9. produce the voiceless stop that corresponds to the voice
nasal in its point of articulation.
Phonetic syllabication can occur when a word ends in a
consonant sound and the following one begins with a vowel
as in has it, hide ´em, give up. The final consonant of the
first word can be pronounced at the beginning of the second
word: /hǽ-zɪt/, /hay-dəm/, /gɪ-vəp/.
In the same way, the consonant of a final cluster can be
moved forward and pronounced with the vowel of the
following word: /sɪks-ϴǽvənyuw/ and /ʧeynd͡ʒ-dədrƐs/.
The second way to make consonant clusters more
pronounceable is simply to omit one of the consonant
sounds:
Arctic - /artɪk/
Raspberry- /ræzbƐrɪ/
Handsome- /hǽnsəm/
Lesson 16
The Sandhi of Spoken English
The word Sandhi means “placing together” in Sankskrit and
it refers to the differences in the pronunciation of words or

10. endings that depend on the environment in which these
occur.
Examples:
 Insertion of /ə/ after front vowel and /l/ or /r/
 articles a / an
 ed endings in /t/, /d/ and /ıd/
 s endings in /s/, /z/ and /ız
 syllabic consonants: /t/, /d/, /n + unstressed syllable + /l/,
/n/
 medial /t/ that sounds like a /d/ between voiced sounds,
usually vowels but not at the beginning of a stressed
vowel: /lɛdər/, /pardɪ/ also in /hɪd ɪm/ and /rayd ər rɔŋ/.
The basic reason for these phonological changes
is that speakers tend to make the pronunciation of
words easier.
These are the main processes to do so:
Assimilation: changing the voicing or the point of articulation
to make the adjacent sounds more similar
Obscuration: pronouncing a sound with reduced clarity
Omission: ignoring a sound present in spelling

11. Insertion: adding a sound that puts speech organs in a better
position to pronounce the following sound
Highly literate speakers with more contact with written
language tend to make less use of these processes. In formal
situations some forms are acceptable but others are less;
however, these forms are natural and even essential.
The reduction of unstressed function words is pervasive and it
is accompanied by the obscuration or omission of some
sounds that are heard when the words are fully stressed. The
main factors responsible for the degrees of reduction are the
following:
Sentence stress: the less stress, the more reduction
Frequency of use: the more often a word is used and the
more its presence can be assumed
Speed of utterance: the faster a speaker talks, the more
reduction
Formality of situation: the more informal, the more reduction
A great deal of formality is inappropriate in most other social
environments beside the classroom.
The disappearing /t/
In the following environment, the /t/ is omitted:
Stressed syllable ending with nt + unstressed syllable
-winner /wɪnər/

12. -winter /wɪnər/
-twenty /twɛnɪ/
-plenty /plɛnɪ/
-Atlanta /atlænə/
-county /kaunɪ/
-quantity /kwanɪtɪ/
In phonetic terms, the reason seems to be that the speaker
pronounces the stressed /n/ then introduces the following
unstressed vowel by a nasal release of the consonant sound.
The disappearing t is much more common in American
English than in British English. And in American English it is
more informal than, for example, syllabic consonants. You
may or may not want to incorporate this form into your
speech, but you should certainly be prepared to recognize
such forms and to understand words where they occur.
Omission of to
The unstressed particle to is used frequently, so I can it often
be assumed which makes the word susceptible to reduction.
1. going to gonna /gənə/ or /gownə
2. got to gotta /gadə/
3. has to hasta /hǽstə/
4. have to hafta /hæftə/
5. ought to oughta /ɔdə/
6. used to usta /yuwstə/
7. want to wanna /wanə/
See processes on page 195.
Palatalization

13. The hard palate is that part of the roof of the mouth just
behind and above the tooth ridge. The chief difference
between /z/, /s/ and /ʒ/ /ʃ/ is that the first two are made just a
little farther back and higher up, with the blade of the tongue
near the hard palate. Another closely related sound /y/, is
made with the blade of the tongue approaching the hard
palate still farther back and higher up.
With the above relationship in mind, it is instructive to consider
the historical changes in the pronunciation of –tion, a very
common ending for nouns in a number of Germanic and
Romance languages, including English. The –ti- of the ending
was once pronounced /ty/, which required the tongue to move
to all the way from the dental position for /t/ backward an
upward through the position of /s/ and /ʃ/ , to the high palatal
position of /y/.
In modern English the two distant sounds of /t/ and /y/ were
reduced to the one intermediate sound /ʃ/, as in nation
/neyʃən/ and position /pəsɪʃən/. This change fro /ty/ to /ʃ/ is a
type of palatalization (the raising of the tongue toward the
hard palate.
The same type of palatalization also occurs across word
boundaries:
-miss you /mɪʃuw/
-loves you /ləvʒuw/
-hit you /hɪʧuw/
-did you /dɪʤuw/

14. The formulas are as follows:
Final /-s/ + initial /y-/ give /-ʃ/
Final /-z/ + initial /y/ give /-ʒ/
Final /t/ + initial /y/ give /ʧ/
Final /-d/ + initial /y/ give /ʤ/
Although English teachers may sometimes be too
conservative about the use Sandhi-forms, there are indeed
some of these forms that are so informal as to be
inappropriate on most occasions. Some may be interpreted
as sings of inadequate education. Others label speakers as
having a particular ethnic background or social status. When
you are talking with close friends, it may be very satisfying to
use the special language of the social group to which you
belong. But there are surely many occasions on which it
would not be in your best interests to emphasize through your
speech a particular ethnic or social background. There are
finally Sandhi- forms that are so reduced as to lessen the
intelligibility of what is said:
What did you do ? /wəʤə duw/
Why don’t you say it? /wayownʧə seyɪt/
Did you eat yet? / ʤɪyʧɛt/
Surprisingly, native speakers of English often create
unnecessary and unexpected consonant clusters by omitting
some unstressed vowel that are ordinarily heard:
ballon /blown/

15. believe /bliyv/
below /blow/
collapse /klæps/
correct /krɛkt/
parade /preyd/
It is suggested to avoid these pronunciations which do not
make the formation of words easier and hearers may label
you as somewhat illiterate.*
There are other words in which vowels that look as though
they should be pronounced are regularly omitted by even the
most literate speakers:
Average /ævrɪʤ/
different /dɪfrənt/
every /ɛvrɪ/
natural /næʧrəl/
separate /sɛprɪt/
several /sɛvrəl/
Prator, C. H. & Robinett, B. W. (1985). Manual of American English Pronunciation (4th Edition).
Orlando, Fl: Harcourt Brace & Co.