Medialingual, constrictive, oral sonant

/  /

▼ ▼

[  ] [ ^□ ]

yes cue

The allophones of RP /  / are articulated by the tongue assuming the position for a front half-close to close vowel (depending on the degree of openness of the following sound) and moving away immediately to the position of the following sound; the lips are generally neutral or spread, but may anticipate the lip-rounding of the following sound in such cases as you, yawn, etc.. When it follows a fortis consonant, devoicing takes place; especially when it follows accented

/p, t, k h/, the devoicing is complete.

Unaccented sequences of / tj, dj, sj, zj / coalesced in an earlier state of the language into / In some cases, e.g. statue, residue, issue, both forms may now be heard, the pronunciation with /tj, dj, sj, zj / being characteristic of careful speech; on the other hand, the occasionally heard coalesced forms with // in assume and // in presume occur in rapid, familiar, speech, at unaccented word boundaries, e.g. in not yet, would you, this year, sees you.

yet yard yarn your few yes yield

tune pule tulip tube cube tutor accuse

A. /  +  / = [ ]. B. /  +  / = [  ].

not yet I want you to… to catch your… to approach your…

residual audience idiom could you…

DRILL 47

Forelingual(cacuminal), constrictive, oral sonant

/  /

▼ ▼ ▼

[  ] [ ^□ ] [ ^1f ]

read true three

The soft palate being raised and the nasal resonator shut off, the tip of the tongue is held in a position near to, but not touching the rear part of the upper teeth ridge; the back rims of the tongue are touching the upper molars; the central part of the tongue is lowered, with a general contraction of the tongue, so that the effect of the tongue position is one of hollowing and slight retroflexion of the tip. The air-stream is thus allowed to escape freely, without friction, over the centre part of the tongue. The lip position is determined largely by that of the following vowel.

A completely devoiced [^□ ] may be heard following accented /p, t, k /, e.g. try, cream, across. A partially devoiced variety of /^□/ occurs when /r/ follows an unaccented fortis plosive initial in a syllable and, in rapid speech at syllable or word boundaries, e.g. upright, nitrate, beetroot.

Within RP [r] is frequently replaced by an alveolar tap [^1f] in intervocalic positions, e.g. sorry, very, following /   /, e.g. three, with respect, and with some speakers, after other consonants, especially /b, g /, e.g. grow, bright.

rest ready rust rack ruler carry sorry ferry

press priest tram true attract cream across Christmas

through thrash thrill thread frock frost friend Africa

When / d / precedes / r /, the allophone of / r / is fricative, the /d/ closure being post-alveolar and its release slow enough to produce friction, e.g. drive, bedroom, wide rode. /tr/ and /dr/ sequences may be treated phonetically as affricates when close-knit.

headrest paltry

dress at rest

dream not ready

address atrocity

adrift atrophy

DRILL 48