Unity and Reconciliation

Lessons

Senior 4 · English (Languages)

Unity and Reconciliation

5 lessons

Lesson 3 of 5

Rec-on-cil-i-A-tion: Vowels, Consonants, Syllables and Intonation

40 min

Let's begin

Say the word reconciliation aloud. It has six syllables, and only one of them, the fifth, carries the main stress: re-con-ci-li-A-tion. Say it with equal weight on every syllable and a listener will struggle to recognise it; put the stress on the wrong one and they may not recognise it at all. Clear English depends on three layers: the individual sounds (vowels and consonants), the way sounds group into syllables and stress, and the intonation, the rise and fall of the voice across a whole sentence. This lesson works through all three, using words from this unit.

Before you start

Say unity, forgiveness and community. Clap once for each syllable. Which syllable is the loudest in each word?
Say "She forgave him." as a statement, then as a surprised question. What did your voice do differently?
Which English sounds do you or your classmates find hardest to say? Make a list; you will come back to it.

Definition

Key terms

phoneme (n): the smallest sound that changes the meaning of a word: /l/ and /r/ in light and right. Phonemes are written between slashes in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
vowel (n): a sound made with the air flowing freely through the mouth: /iː/ in peace. A diphthong glides from one vowel to another: /eɪ/ in day.
consonant (n): a sound made by blocking or narrowing the air with the lips, teeth or tongue: /p/, /s/, /m/. It is voiced if the vocal cords vibrate (/z/) and voiceless if they do not (/s/).
syllable (n): a unit of pronunciation built round one vowel sound, with or without consonants around it. Peace has one syllable; harmony has three.
word stress (n): the extra length, loudness and pitch given to one syllable of a word: comMUnity.
schwa /ə/ (n): the short, weak vowel of most unstressed syllables, as in about and the last syllable of mediator.
intonation (n): the pattern of rising and falling pitch across a phrase or sentence, which shows grammar (statement or question) and attitude (certain, doubtful, polite).

1. The vowels of English

English, in the standard British accent used by most dictionaries, has 12 pure vowels (monophthongs) and 8 diphthongs. Length marks (ː) show the long vowels.

Short vowels	Long vowels	Diphthongs
/ɪ/ sit, live	/iː/ peace, leave	/eɪ/ day, nation
/e/ bed, friend	/ɑː/ heart, calm	/aɪ/ my, unite
/æ/ hand, act	/ɔː/ law, talk	/ɔɪ/ voice, choice
/ʌ/ trust, love	/uː/ truth, school	/əʊ/ hope, home
/ɒ/ job, hot	/ɜː/ word, learn	/aʊ/ now, house
/ʊ/ good, put		/ɪə/ near, here
/ə/ about, mediator		/eə/ share, fair
		/ʊə/ pure, tour (many speakers now say /ɔː/)

2. The consonants of English

There are 24 consonant phonemes. In each pair the first is voiceless and the second voiced: put your fingers on your throat and feel the difference between /s/ and /z/.

How the air is stopped	Phonemes	Examples
plosives: closed, then released	/p b/, /t d/, /k ɡ/	peace, build; truth, deal; care, give
fricatives: narrowed, with friction	/f v/, /θ ð/, /s z/, /ʃ ʒ/, /h/	forgive, value; think, together; sorry, zero; share, decision; heal
affricates: a plosive released as a fricative	/tʃ dʒ/	choice, justice
nasals: air through the nose	/m/, /n/, /ŋ/	memory, nation, belong
approximants: tongue or lips close but not touching	/l/, /r/, /w/, /j/	listen, respect, welcome, unity /ˈjuːnəti/

Pairs of words that differ in only one phoneme are called minimal pairs. They are the best way to practise a difficult contrast: collect / correct, lead / read (/l/–/r/); think / sink, thank / tank (/θ/–/s/, /θ/–/t/); live / leave, fill / feel (/ɪ/–/iː/); then / den (/ð/–/d/).

3. Syllables and stress

Every syllable has a nucleus, normally a vowel. Consonants before it form the onset; consonants after it form the coda. English allows up to three consonants in an onset (strength, split) and up to four in a coda (texts /ksts/). Learners whose first language rarely puts consonants together sometimes add a vowel to break up a cluster ("sitrong" for strong), which adds a syllable the word does not have.

In a word of two or more syllables, one syllable is stressed. Unstressed syllables are often reduced to the schwa /ə/, which is why mediator ends in /ə/ and not "tor".

Word	Syllables	Count	Stressed syllable
peace	peace	1	(one syllable)
respect	re · SPECT	2	2nd
unity	U · ni · ty	3	1st
forgiveness	for · GIVE · ness	3	2nd
mediator	ME · di · a · tor	4	1st
community	com · MU · ni · ty	4	2nd
reconciliation	re · con · ci · li · A · tion	6	5th (a lighter stress on the 1st)

Two patterns help with stress. (1) Words ending in -tion, -sion and -ic are stressed on the syllable just before the ending: NA-tion, de-CI-sion, his-TOR-ic, re-con-ci-li-A-tion. (2) Many two-syllable words that are both nouns and verbs are stressed on the first syllable as nouns and on the second as verbs: a CONflict (noun), to conFLICT (verb); a REcord, to reCORD; PROgress, to proGRESS.

4. Intonation: the tune of the sentence

Kinyarwanda is a tonal language: a high or low tone on a syllable can distinguish one word from another. English uses pitch differently. The tune runs over the whole phrase, rising or falling mainly on the stressed syllable of the most important word, and it tells the listener what kind of sentence it is and how the speaker feels.

Tune	Used for	Example
fall ↘	statements; wh- questions; commands	We meet on WEDnesdays. ↘ / Where do you LIVE? ↘ / Sit DOWN. ↘
rise ↗	yes/no questions; checking; every item of a list except the last	Are you READy? ↗ / We need trust ↗, patience ↗ and TIME. ↘
fall-rise ↘↗	reservation, partial agreement, polite correction; "there is more to say"	I AGREE ↘↗ (but …) / It's POSSible. ↘↗
question tags	fall = "I expect you to agree"; rise = a real question	You signed it, DIDn't you? ↘ (sure) / ↗ (not sure)

Worked example: marking a mediator's sentence for speaking

Sentence: "So you're saying that you felt ignored. Is that right?"

Find the key words (the ones that carry the new information): saying, ignored, right.
Mark the stress inside each key word: SAY-ing, ig-NORED, RIGHT.
Weaken the small words: that /ðət/ and you're /jə/ are said quickly with a schwa.
Choose the tunes. The first sentence is a statement, so it falls on ig-NORED ↘. The second is a yes/no question, so it rises on RIGHT ↗.
Say it aloud: so you're SAY-ing that you felt ig-NORED ↘. Is that RIGHT? ↗

A flat tune on "Is that right?" would sound like a statement, or like impatience: the opposite of what a mediator wants.

Warning

Spelling is not sound. The letters -tion are said /ʃən/, not "ti-on"; the ending -ed adds a syllable only after /t/ or /d/ (de-cid-ed, 3 syllables); after other sounds it does not (helped is one syllable, /helpt/; listened is two). Count syllables by vowel sounds, not vowel letters: peace has three vowel letters but one syllable.

Tip

Use a dictionary as a pronunciation teacher. Every good learner's dictionary gives the IPA for each word and marks the main stress with ˈ before the stressed syllable: reconciliation /ˌrekənsɪliˈeɪʃn/. The low mark ˌ shows a lighter, secondary stress. Copy the IPA of new words into your vocabulary notebook.

Syllables and Word Stress, an English pronunciation lesson from Oxford Online English (about 14 minutes, 2019). Watch the first part on counting syllables, then pause and count the syllables in this lesson's word table before the video gives its own examples.

Speaking

Minimal-pair bingo (pairs). Partner A says one word from each pair, at random: collect / correct, lead / read, think / sink, live / leave, then / den. Partner B points to the word heard. Swap after ten words.
Stress shift. Say each sentence, stressing the right syllable: "There was a conflict at the meeting." / "Their stories conflict." / "Keep a record." / "Please record the agreement."
Tune the dialogue. In threes, read the mediation script from the previous lesson aloud. Before you start, mark one statement ↘, one yes/no question ↗ and one fall-rise ↘↗ on your copy.

✦

Practice

Count the syllables: (a) peace (b) together (c) harmony (d) forgiveness (e) reconciliation.
Underline the stressed syllable: (a) unity (b) respect (c) community (d) decision (e) mediator.
Which sound is different? (a) peace, leave, live, feel (b) think, thank, then, thought (c) helped, decided, wanted, needed (number of syllables in the -ed ending).
Noun or verb? Mark the stress and say which: (a) We made great progress. (b) The talks will progress slowly. (c) I object to that. (d) What is this object?
Mark the tune (↘, ↗ or ↘↗): (a) Where is the meeting? (b) Is the meeting today? (c) We need honesty, patience and time. (d) "Was it a good plan?" "Well, it was a start …"
Explain the difference in meaning: "You'll come to the meeting, won't you?" said with a falling tag, and with a rising tag.
Draw the onset, nucleus and coda of (a) peace /piːs/ (b) strength /streŋθ/ (c) act /ækt/.

Show answersHide answers

(a) 1 (b) 3 (c) 3 (d) 3 (e) 6.
(a) Unity (b) reSPECT (c) comMUnity (d) deCIsion (e) MEdiator.
(a) live, with short /ɪ/; the others have long /iː/. (b) then, which begins with voiced /ð/; the others begin with voiceless /θ/. (c) helped: -ed adds no syllable (/helpt/); in the others it adds /ɪd/.
(a) PROgress, noun (b) proGRESS, verb (c) obJECT, verb (d) OBject, noun.
(a) ↘ (wh- question) (b) ↗ (yes/no question) (c) honesty ↗, patience ↗, time ↘ (d) a start ↘↗ (reservation).
Falling: the speaker expects you to come and is asking you to confirm. Rising: the speaker really does not know and is asking.
(a) onset /p/, nucleus /iː/, coda /s/ (b) onset /str/, nucleus /e/, coda /ŋθ/ (c) no onset, nucleus /æ/, coda /kt/.

Quick check

Key points

English has 12 pure vowels, 8 diphthongs and 24 consonants; practise hard contrasts with minimal pairs.
A syllable is built round one vowel sound: onset + nucleus + coda. Count vowel sounds, not letters.
One syllable per word carries the stress; unstressed syllables weaken to /ə/. Noun-verb pairs shift stress: CONflict, conFLICT.
Intonation: fall for statements, wh- questions and commands; rise for yes/no questions and list items; fall-rise for reservation.

Sources and credits

Explanations, diagrams, tables, worked example, questions and practice written by Ganzaa.
The fact that Kinyarwanda is a tonal language with a high and low tone contrast: Kinyarwanda, Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; fact only, no text copied.
Video: Syllables and Word Stress - English Pronunciation Lesson, Oxford Online English, embedded from YouTube.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1Before you start

21. The vowels of English

32. The consonants of English

43. Syllables and stress

54. Intonation: the tune of the sentence

6Speaking