A Strange Meal

ˈtuː ˈkænəbl̩z | ər ˈiːtɪŋ ə ˈklaʊn || ˈwʌn ˈsez tə ði ˈʌðə | dəz ˈðɪs ˈteɪs ˈfʌni tə ju

Key at bottom of page.

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.]

funny: The key to this joke is the two meanings of the word funny: 1) humorous, 2) strange. In fact, utterances containing the word are sometimes ambiguous (for example, if you say John is funny) and people often use the expression Do you mean funny ha ha, or funny peculiar? to ask what meaning was intended.

cannibals: Phonemically, the final syllable of cannibals is /əlz/. When this syllable is preceded by /b/, however, the schwa /ə/ isn't pronounced. Instead the articulators move directly from the position for /b/ to the position for /l/. This is easy to do in the case of /b/ because /b/ is articulated with the two lips and /l/ is articulated with the tongue-tip. These articulators can move independently of each other and so when the lips move apart to release the /b/, the tongue tip is already in position for the /l/ and no intervening schwa /ə/ occurs.

Note that in English, syllabic /l/ is not a phoneme in its own right, but merely a special way of realising the syllable /əl/. This means that when we use a special symbol [l̩] for it in transcription, it makes our transcription non-phonemic (because we are now using more than one symbol for each phoneme and introducing a special symbol to show a particular phonetic detail). It is worthwhile including this feature in transcriptions for EFL purposes, however, because it is a difficult area for learners and this draws their attention to it.

are: When unstressed, as it usually is, are has the weak form /ə/.

When a word ends in schwa /ə/ and is immediately followed (without a pause) by a word beginning with a vowel, the consonant /r/ is inserted between the vowels. This process is known as /r/-liaison and also occurs after /ɑː ɔː ɜː eə ɪə ʊə/.

a: When unstressed, as it usually is, the indefinite article a has the weak form /ə/.

says: The pronunciation of the word says is a little irregular. While say is pronounced /seɪ/, says is pronounced /sez/.

When a verb ends in a voiced sound (i.e. a vowel or one of the voiced consonants /b d ɡ ʤ v ð z ʒ m n ŋ l/), the third person singular is formed by adding /z/. The same pattern applies to possessive s and plural s.

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/.

the: The 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).

does: When unstressed, as it usually is, auxiliary does has the weak form /dəz/.

taste: When /t/ is at the end of a word (more specifically, in a syllable coda) and is immediately preceded by a consonant (except /l/ and /n/), it is commonly elided/deleted when another consonant immediately follows (i.e. without a pause) in another word or in a suffix.

you: The symbol u represents the same vowel phoneme as the symbol uː. We use u in unstressed syllables and uː 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).

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other, “Does this taste funny to you?”