Beauty Queen

ɪf ˈbɑːbiz ˈsəʊ ˈpɒpjələ | ˈwaɪ ʤə ˈhæf tə ˈbaɪ ə ˈfrenz

If Barbie's so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

Commentary
[Don't worry if you find this overwhelming. Don't let yourself be put off. The same phenomena will come up again and again in these transcriptions. There'll be plenty of opportunities for them to sink in over time. Slow and steady, a little each day, is the key to success.]

Barbie: The final symbol i represents the same vowel phoneme as the symbol iː. We use i in unstressed syllables and iː in stressed syllables. This distinction isn't very helpful for TEFL purposes and learners should simply treat the two symbols as the same. Because we are using two different symbols for one phoneme, this means our transcription isn't truly phonemic (phonemic transcription = one symbol for each phoneme).

Barbie's: When unstressed, as it usually is, the word is frequently forms a contraction with the immediately preceding word.

• If the final sound of the preceding word is voiced (as in this case), then is has the form /z/. 
• When the final sound of the preceding word is voiceless, then is has the form /s/, e.g. Jack is well /ˈʤæks ˈwel/.
• When the final sound of the preceding word is /s z ʃ ʒ ʧ ʤ/, then is has the form /ɪz/, e.g. Chris is well /ˈkrɪs ɪz ˈwel/.
• This is the same pattern as with possessive s and the third person singular s.

so: In this example, so is stressed, but it isn't always, in which case it can sometimes have the weak form /sə/, e.g. So far as I know... /sə ˈfɑːr əz aɪ ˈnəʊ/.

do you: Unstressed do has the weak form /də/ before a word beginning with a consonant, e.g. Do they know? /də ðeɪ ˈnəʊ/. In quite casual speech you can have the weak form /jə/ before a word beginning with a consonant, e.g If you like /ɪf jə ˈlaɪk/. The sequence do you is so common in spoken English that it has developed a 'contracted' or 'reduced' pronunciation where the /ə/ of do is lost, and the /d/ and /j/ combine (an example of 'coalescent assimilation') to form /ʤ/, resulting in /ʤə/ before consonants and /ʤu/ before vowels, e.g. How do you know? /ˈhaʊ ʤə ˈnəʊ/, Why do you ask? /ˈwaɪ ʤu ˈɑːsk/.

have to: When have to means must, it is usual to pronounce have with a final /f/. This is a kind of assimilation: the /v/ becomes its voiceless equivalent /f/ in anticipation of the following voiceless consonant /t/. This kind of voicing assimilation is unusual in English and only happens here because have to is such a high frequency word-combination. Perhaps a little less frequently, the same process can occur with has to, resulting in the pronunciation /ˈhæs tə/. Probably less frequently again, but still commonly, this process also occurs with had to, resulting in the pronunciation /ˈhæt tə/.

Compare two possible pronunciations of What do they have to sell?

• /ˈwɒt də ðeɪ ˈhæf tə ˈsel/ means What must they sell?
• /ˈwɒt də ðeɪ ˈhæv tə ˈsel/ means What things do they have and intend to sell?

to: When unstressed, as it usually is, to has the weak form /tə/ when the immediately following word begins with a consonant. This is true for both the preposition, e.g. Go to hell /ˈɡəʊ tə ˈhel/, and the 'to infinitive', e.g. Go to see /ˈɡəʊ tə ˈsiː/.

her: Our joke is ambiguous and could have two different meanings depending on whether the word her is a pronoun (and the indirect object of the sentence) or a determiner (and her friends the direct object of the sentence).

• Pronoun: Why do you have to buy friends for her?
• Determiner: Why do you have to buy the friends that she has?

On paper there's no way of telling the difference. In speech, the pronoun more usually has the weak form /ə/ than /ɜː/, and the determiner more usually has the weak form /ɜː/ than /ə/. For example, when I took her home means I took her to her house, then her will usually be pronounced /ə/, but when it means I took her house, then her will usually be pronounced /ɜː/.

friends: When /d/ is at the end of a word (more specifically, in a syllable coda) and is immediately preceded by a consonant, it is commonly elided/deleted when another consonant immediately follows (i.e. without a pause) in another word or, as in this case, in a suffix.