SYLLABES - PATTERNS

A syllable is a basic unit of written and spoken language. It is a unit consisting of uninterrupted sound that can be used to make up words. For example, the word hotel has two syllables: ho and tel. These will be marked here as in ho/tel.

Counting Syllables   

To find the number of syllables in a word, use the following steps:

1. Count the vowels in the word.
2. Subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent e at the end of a word, or the second vowel when two vowels are together in a syllabl.e)
3. Subtract one vowel from every diphthong(diphthongs only count as one vowel sound.)
4. The number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables.

The number of syllables that you hear when you pronounce a word is the same as the number of vowels sounds heard. For example:

• The word came has 2 vowels, but the e is silent, leaving one vowel sound andone syllable.
• The word outside has 4 vowels, but the e is silent and the ou is a diphthong which counts as only one sound, so this word has only two vowel sounds and therefore, two syllables.

Kinds of Syllables 

There are six different kinds of syllables in English:

1. Closed Syllables: A closed syllable has one and only one vowel, and it ends in a consonant. Examples include in, ask, truck, sock, stretch, twelfth, and on.
2. Open Syllables: An open syllable has one and only one vowel, and that vowel occurs at the end of the syllable. Examples include no, she, I, a, and spry.
3. Silent-E Syllables: A silent-e syllable ends in an e, has one and only one consonant before that e, and has one and only one vowel before that consonant. Examples include ate, ice, tune, slope, strobe, andthese.
4. Vowel Combination Syllables: A vowel combination syllable has a cluster of two or three vowels or a vowel-consonant unit with a sound or sounds particular to that unit. Examples include rain, day, see, veil,pie, piece, noise, toy, cue, and true.
5. Vowel-R Syllables: A vowel-r syllable is one which includes one and only one vowel followed by an r, or one vowel followed by an r which is followed by a silent e, or a vowel combination followed by an r. Examples include car, or, care, ire, air, and deer.
6. Consonant-L-E Syllables: In these syllables, a consonant is followed by le. The vowel sound in these syllables is the schwa sound that occurs before the l. Examples include -ble, -cle, -dle, -fle, and -gle.

Dividing Words Into Syllables 

There are four ways to split up a word into its syllables:

1. Divide between two middle consonants.

Split up words that have two middle consonants. For example:

hap/pen, bas/ket, let/ter, sup/per, din/ner, and Den/nis. The only exceptions are the consonant digraphs. Never split up consonant digraphs as they really represent only one sound. The exceptions are "th", "sh", "ph", "th", "ch", and "wh".

2. Usually divide before a single middle consonant.

When there is only one syllable, you usually divide in front of it, as in:

"o/pen", "i/tem", "e/vil", and "re/port". The only exceptions are those times when the first syllable has an obvious short sound, as in "cab/in".

3. Divide before the consonant before an "-le" syllable.

When you have a word that has the old-style spelling in which the "-le" sounds like "-el", divide before the consonant before the "-le". For example: "a/ble", "fum/ble", "rub/ble" "mum/ble" and "thi/stle". The only exception to this are "ckle" words like "tick/le".

4. Divide off any compound words,prefixes, suffixes and roots which have vowel sounds.

Split off the parts of compound words like "sports/car" and "house/boat". Divide off prefixes such at "un/happy", "pre/paid", or "re/write". Also divide off suffixes as in the words "farm/er", "teach/er", "hope/less" and "care/ful". In the word "stop/ping", the suffix is actually "-ping" because this word follows the rule that when you add "-ing" to a word with one syllable, you double the last consonant and add the "-ing".

http://www.phonicsontheweb.com/syllables.php. (n.d.). . Retrieved , from Phonics on the web



NOW YOU CAN SURF ON THIS LINKS:

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/syllables/syllable-patterns-lesson/

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/syllables/syllable-patterns-lesson.html

WHAT IS STRESS?

Stress, as a sound phenomenon, can be studied from two points of view: production and perception. 

The production of stressed syllables is said to imply a greater muscular energy than the production of unstressed syllables. From the perceptive point of view, stressed syllables are prominent. 

Prominence is the sum of different factors such as loudness, length, pitch and quality. 

There are three possibilities of stress in a word:

a primary stress: characterised by prominence and, basically, by a rise-fall tone; 

a secondary stress, weaker than the primary stress but stronger than that of the unstressed 

syllables (,photo’graphic); 

and unstressed syllables, defined by the absence of any prominence, becoming then the background against the prominent stressed syllables appear. 

Unstressed syllables normally have the short closed vowels /i/ or /u/ and the schwa

Trujillo, F. English Phonetics and Phonology Stress . Lecture conducted from Roach, Peter. 1991. English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., .

HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE SCHWA AMERICAN ACCENT

Schwa is the name for the most common sound in English. It is a weak, unstressed sound and it occurs in many words. It is often the sound in grammar words such as articles and prepositions. 

Getting the schwa sound correct is a good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural. 

The phonemic symbol for this sound is . 

LINKS: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM9NxK74JSE

Bbc learning english. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/features/schwa/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu51ECdLkIU

COMPONENTS OF THE LANGUAGE

SEMANTICS: The study of meaning in a language

PRAGMATICS: The study of meaning of a language in a context.

PHONOLOGY: The study of word formation in a language

MORPHOLOGY: The study of word formation in a language.

SYNTAX: The study of principles that govern a language.

LINGUISTICS

GRAMMAR: Deals with sets of rules that structure a long.

IPA: Set of symbols that represent the sound of a language

PHONETICS: Studies how sounds are produced.

MONOPHTHONGS, DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS

Monophthongs: A single vowel sound.

Diphthongs: Two vowel sound put together. A More open position glides into more close position.

Triphthongs: A dipththong plus another vowel sound.

All sounds are important in English so we must constantly practice with all Vocal sounds, so the impotence of phonetics and phonology.   The monophthongs and diphthongs total 14 vowel sounds, perhaps the smallest vowel system of any long-established variety of English. Urban Texas is also abandoning the ‘y’ sound after ‘n’, ‘d' and ‘t’, exchanging diphthongs for monophthongs. A study of Tunisian women in Morocco showed that older women categorically use diphthongs/aw/and/aj /, while middle-aged women alternate between diphthongs and monophthongs.

                   

                             
                                           

                                         

SPEECH SOUNDS

SPEECH SOUND STRUCTURES

An understanding of the speech mechanism and some knowledge of the landmarks of the oral cavity is necessary if we are to be competent teaching children speech sounds. 

SPEECH SOUNDS STRUCTURES 

TONGUE: The tongue is a large muscular structure that nearly fills the oral cavity. The tongue is not one large muscle as some might suppose but consists of several muscles grouped as intrinsic and extrinsic tongue muscles. 

The tongue is able to produce incredibly fine and complex movements, by either directing the breath stream during consonant production or elevating and lowering to form a resonance vessel for vowel sounds. 

VELUM: If we refer to the above drawing we can see that the velum elevates and lowers during speech production. Like the tongue, the velum is incredibly coordinated and capable of very fast and fine movements. During speech the velum's prime function is to close off the nasal cavity. This is a necessary function as most speech sounds are non-nasal. 

If we didn't have the velum closing off the nasal cavity, we would all be talking through our noses, which would not be pleasant to listen to or produce. The velum does open for three consonant sounds - the nasal sounds /m/ /n/ and /ng/. 

ALVEOLAR RIDGE: The alveolar ridge is a structure that lies directly behindthe upper front teeth. It's considered an important structure in speech because the tongue tip continually touches the ridge to form consonant sounds. In fact, in the creation of speech sounds, the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge more than any other oral cavity structure. 

LIPS: The lips play a role in changing the resonance of different speech sounds. By altering the shape of our lips we can form different speech sounds. For instance, for plosive sounds such as /p/ and /b/ the lips are compressed and then opened to produce a rapid, explosive release of the breath stream. 

David newmonic language resources . (2013, 2016). Retrieved from http://www.speechlanguage-resources.com/speech-sound-structures.html