Gimson's Pronunciation of English

English Pronunciation Practice

Original Material by G. F. Arnold and A. C. Gimson

Revised by Alan Cruttenden

Introduction

These exercises and transcriptions accompany the eighth edition of Gimson’s Pronunciation of English (henceforth GPE)

Type and style of pronunciation

These exercises are intended primarily for the learner of English as an additional language. They are designed to help the beginner towards a good pronunciation and to enable the more experienced student to improve the general standard of his performance in everyday conversation. The type of pronunciation used is General British (GB) which is widely used by speakers in England (and common in Scotland and Wales). Athough most widely heard in the south of England, it is not to be considered only a regional pronunciation (see further in GPE §7.6). The style of pronunciation adopted in the transcribed texts is what is known as ‘Slow Colloquial’: it is colloquial because it uses a style commonly used in conversation between English people but it is slow because most GB conversations will proceed at a more rapid rate than heard here. Both type and style of pronunciation are thus well suited to the needs of the non-native-speaking student.

Recording
Scripts
Phonetic symbols

The following is a list of the phonemic symbols used in the transcriptions, together with illustrative key-words in both conventional orthography and phonetic transcription. See GPE §8.1 (for vowels) and §9.1 (for consonants).

Vowels

i:

bead

biːd

ɜː

bird

bɜːd

ɪ

bid

bɪd

ə

below

bɪləʊ

e

bed

bed

 

above

əbʌv

ɛː

bared

bɛːd

eɪ

bait

beɪt

a

bad

bad

aɪ

bite

baɪt

ʌ

bud

bʌd

ɔɪ

boil

bɔil

ɑː

bard

bɑːd

əʊ

boat

bəʊt

ɒ

pod

pɒd

aʊ

bout

baʊt

ɔː

poured

pɔːd

ɪə

beer

bɪə

ʊ

pudding

pʊdɪŋ

ʊə

boor

bʊə

uː

booed

bud

 

 

 

Consonants

p

pan

pan

s

sue

suː

t

tan

tan

z

zoo

zuː

k

can

kan

ʃ

Confucian

kɒn`fjuːʃn

b

beer

bɪə

ʒ

confusion

kɒn`fjuːʒn

d

dear

dɪə

h

hum

hʌm

ɡ

gear

ɡɪə

m

sum

sʌm

ʧ

chain

ʧeɪn

n

sun

sʌn

ʤ

jane

ʤeɪn

ŋ

sung

sʌŋ

f

fine

faɪn

l

light

laɪt

v

vine

vaɪn

r

right

raɪt

θ

thigh

θaɪ

w

wet

wet

ð

thy

ðaɪ

j

yet

jet

Intonation symbols (see GPE §11.6)

The interlinear-tonetic marks used in the illustrations below

The top horizontal line indicates a very high pitch; the bottom horizontal line indicates a very low pitch. The large black dots (with or without a tail) indicate syllables made prominent (and thus accented) by pitch. The large white dots indicate unaccented syllables made prominent by full vowel alone (see GPE §11.2). The small black dots indicate unaccented, non-prominent syllables.

The tonetic-accent marks used in the drills and connected texts

All marks (apart from / ) indicate accented syllables (i.e. they are pitch accents). / indicates a boundary between two intonational phrases spoken by the same speaker (see further in GPE §11.6.1.1).

Tonetic-accent marks indicating primary accent (called the nucleus) and initiating a nuclear tone

(see further GPE §§11.6.1.2 and 11.6.1.3)

[ ˎ] Low fall

This indicates a tone starting at mid pitch and falling to low. All subsequent syllables continue the low pitch, e.g.

[ ˋ ] High fall

This indicates a tone starting at a high pitch and falling to low with all subsequent syllables on the same low pitch, e.g.

[ ^ ] Rise-fall

  • When [ / ] immediately follows, this indicates a tone on the one syllable starting at mid pitch and rising to high, then falling to low;
  • With one further syllable preceding [ / ], this indicates a tone starting at mid pitch rising to high with the following syllable(s) all low, e.g.

[ ˏ ] Low rise

  • When [ / ] immediately follows, this indicates a tone starting at low pitch and rising to mid;
  • With one or more further syllables preceding [ / ], this indicates a tone starting at low pitch with the following syllable(s) forming a pitch scale rising to mid, e.g.

[ ˊ ] High rise

  • When [ / ] immediately follows, this indicates a tone starting at a low or mid pitch and rising to high;
  • With one or more further syllables preceding [ / ], this indicates a tone starting at a mid pitch with the following syllable(s) forming a pitch scale rising to high, e.g.

[ ˇ ] or [ ˋ ˏ ] Fall-rise

  • When [ / ] immediately follows, this indicates a tone starting at a moderately high pitch falling to low and then rising to mid;
  • With one further syllable preceding [ / ], this indicates a tone starting at a moderately high pitch falling to low with the one following syllable carrying a rise to mid;
  • With two or more further syllables preceding [ / ], this indicates a tone starting at a moderately high pitch falling to low with the rise to mid beginning on the last full vowel (or on the last syllable if no full vowel follows). If the rise falls on a full vowel the transcription is split with ˋ marking the syllable where the fall starts and ˏ the syllable where the rise starts, e.g.

[ > ] Mid level

This indicates a tone of mid level pitch. All subsequent syllables occurring before the following [ / ] have the same mid level pitch, e.g.

[ ˭ ] Stylised tone

This indicates a stylised tone where the syllable with the primary accent has a tone of high level pitch and the following syllable has a mid level pitch. Any further syllables continue on the same level (if there are no syllables following the primary accent, the two levels occur on the same syllable), e.g.

Tonetic-accent marks indicating secondary accent (see further GPE §11.6.1.4)

[ ˈ ] High level

This indicates a tone starting at a high pitch with following syllables having the same pitch; if multiple [ ˈ ] occur in sequence, each is lower than the previous one, e.g.

[↘] Glide-down

This indicates a tone starting at a high pitch with any following syllables forming a descending pitch scale which finishes lower than the beginning of a following [ ˇ ]; in a sequence of [↘] each one starts lower than the preceding, e.g.

[ ˌ ] Low level

This indicates a tone of low level pitch with following syllables having the same pitch, e.g.

[↗] Glide-up

This indicates a tone starting on a low pitch with any following syllables constituting an ascending pitch scale which finishes slightly lower than a following [ ˋ ], e.g.