Happy Xmas to all of you!

credit: www.seasonchristmas.com

  |twɒz ðə ˈnaɪt bɪfɔː ˈkrɪsməs | wen ˈɔːl θruː ðə ˈhaʊs |
| nɒt ə ˈkriːtʃə wəz ˈstɜːrɪŋ | nɒt ˈiːvn̩ ə ˈmaʊs |
| ðə ˈstɒkɪŋz wə ˈhʌŋ | baɪ ðə ˈtʃɪmni wɪð ˈkɛː |
| ɪn ˈhəʊps ðət seɪnt ˈnɪkələs | ˈsuːn wʊd bi ˈðɛː|

| ðə ˈtʃɪldrən wə ˈnesl̩d | ɔːl ˈsnʌɡ ɪn ðeə ˈbedz |
| waɪl ˈvɪʒn̩z əv ˈʃʊɡəplʌmz | ˈdɑːnst ɪn ðeə ˈhedz |
| ən ˈmɑːmər ɪn ə ˈkɜːtʃɪf | ənd ˈaɪ ɪn maɪ ˈkæp |
| həd ˈdʒʌst setl̩d ˈdaʊn | fər ə ˈlɒŋ wɪntəz ˈnæp |

phonetic puzzle

Find a word ending in <th> in which the digraph is not pronounced as /θ/.

If you need a hint, lemme know!

Update: My apologies! I forgot to add the /ð/. The word must not end in /ð, θ/. 

Update 2: If you've ever owned an elephant, you will be familiar with the word (and you'd better be!).

pun for fun - #2

Does this pun work for you?

Why is Henry’s wife covered in tooth marks?
-- Because he’s Tudor.

(credit: Adele Cliff)

Do know what thou sayest - #3

credit: Japan Trend Shop

This is an easy one:

What is a beaker used for in a _____?

Do know what thou sayest - #2

Another sentence to be read aloud is this one:




"He must be washed in the blood of the _____."

Do know what thou sayest - #1

In the final orals my students had to pronounce various sentences in English. One of the more frequent mispronunciations lends itself to a rebus - well, almost:

"The moon was hidden behind a _____ of clouds."

Can you guess what the correct missing word is?

Transcriptions can be embarrassing!

This blog entry contains a word which some readers may find upsetting!

The transcription text in one of the final written tests this term contained the sentence:"[...] you can't talk without intonation [...]". Some of my young professionals transcribed it like this: /ju kʌnt tɔːk wɪðaʊt ɪntəneɪʃən/. Ahem!

intrusive r but no linking r

John Wells spotted an interesting combination of using an intrusive r with avoiding a linking r. This nice example was to be heard in a presentation by Mark Tully on the 24th of July, 2016 on BBC Radio 4 in the weekly series Something Understood. Here are Tully's words:

Is the wind one of the wonders of nature which connect us to God, which so overawe us that we lose our self-awareness and experience the transcendent?

[ɪz ðə wɪnd wʌn əv ðə wʌndəz əv neɪʧə wɪʧ kənekt ʌs tə gɒd wɪʧ səʊ ʔəʊvəʔɔːr ʌs ðt wi luːz ɑː selfəwɛːnəs ənd ɪkspɪərɪəns ðə trænsendənt]

Listen particularly to the highlighted section.
Sir Mark is presently the regular presenter of the weekly programme mentioned above.

from an oral exam

In an oral exam in English literature a student of ours was asked several questions about Anne Brontë's novel Agnes Grey. The (German) candidate described the desire of Agnes to become a governess by citing this sentence from the novel:

To train the tender plants, and watch their /bʌts/ unfolding day by day.

Anne Brontë

What are [ˈtuːt̬ərz]?

Do you know what triple homophones are? Here's an example: you - yew - ewe.
Another one is [ˈtuːt̬ərz], which does not work in General British however.

credit: Stephan Pastis

Ze trip to Panama

The German Wikipedia dictionary has a new article on the so-called Panama Papers. The transcription of the compound is given as [ˈpanaˌmaː ˈpeɪpəʳz]. If it is intended to reflect the German pronunciation, there are a few inaccuracies in it:

credit: Amazon/Beltz

• Panama (country or city) is regularly pronounced /'panama/ in German with a (usually) short final vowel and no secondary stress according to DUDEN;
• Papers is a bit more varied in its pronunciation because Germans either adapt it to their native phonology and say ['pe:pɐs] or try to pronounce it the English way and produce a diphthong in the first syllable and/or use an r-coloured schwa in the second syllable if they prefer a GA-like accent. They may stick to a final /s/ as is usual in German or use the lenis variant;
• as a compound I would definitely not assign Papers another primary stress.

Don't trust autocorrect

/r/ in preconsonantal positions in GB

Do you know John Maidment's SID? If not, take a look at it here; it's highly recommendable! Once you're there, click the letter R and then the headword rhotic. The last but one sentence is the one that made me write this short blog. I had never before questioned the claim that in General British as an accent of low rhoticity (or non-rhotic accent as some prefer to call it) the letter <r> is never pronounced in a preconsonantal position, e.g. in harm, form, torture. John draws our attention to one of the admittedly rare exceptions - ferrule, which is pronounced /ˈferuːl/ or /ˈferjuːl/. Are there any other words?

credit:www.maplin.co.uk

Here's a short list:

• erudite, erudition
• garrulous, garrulity
• purulent, purulence
• querulous, querulousness
• sporule
• virulent, virulence

And this is what ferrules look like:

weakform-based pun

Here's a pun which 'relies' on a weakform pronunciation.

credit: John C. Wells

My thanks go to John Wells for spotting this.

Eau d'Ear

credit: Hancock McDonald

New Page

I'd like to draw your attention to a new page I've added. It's to be found on the right-hand side of my blog.In the long run this page will replace six separate blog postings in January of 2015.