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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.]
Explanation: It is a common belief in
the UK that eating cheese before going to bed will give you nightmares. The
teller pretends that he believes that the reason for this is because of the
fear of cheese, not its effects on the digestive system.
gives:
When a verb ends in a voiced sound (i.e. a vowel or one of the voiced
consonants /b d ɡ v ð m n ŋ l/, (but not ʤ, z, ʒ)), the third person singular
is formed by adding /z/. The same pattern applies to possessive s, plural s and the contracted form of is.
youː
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).
amː
When unstressed, as it usually is, and immediately preceded by I, am
has the weak form /m/, which attaches to the preceding I to form the contraction I’m
/aɪm/.
nightmares,
not:
When /t/ is at the end of a syllable (i.e. in the syllable coda), preceded by a
sonorant (i.e. a vowel, a nasal or an approximant) and immediately followed by
a consonant (within a word in the the following word), it can be realised as a
glottal plosive/stop [ʔ].
scaredː
When a word ends in a voiced sound (i.e. a vowel or a voiced consonant (except
/d/)), the regular <-ed> ending has the form /d/.
ofː
When unstressed, as it usually is, of
has the weak form /əv/. When a consonant immediately follows in the next word, of can have the form /ə/. This is
particularly common before /ð/ (e.g. of
the, of those, of them, of this, of that) and in high-frequency phrases
(e.g. a cup of tea, a bunch of grapes).
I would not recommend using the glottal stop to my EFL students unless they are very advanced. They should, however, be aware of the fact that natives [sic] use it in such sound environments.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
ReplyDeleteIt's a common problem among advanced learners that they 'pick up' the glottal stop/plosive, but use it in inappropriate places, often for all voiced plosives.