The Importance of Phonetics & Phonology in English Assignment

The Importance of Phonetics & Phonology in English - Assignment Example These distinctions usually go unnoticed within the community if they occur regularly, but can attract attention by those of the non-English speaking community, or those learning English. The effect of delay on articulator movement can be seen in English words such as more and now, where the beginning of the vowel is nasalized, partly because of the delay in raising the velum at the end of the nasal consonant. The nasality of the initial consonant thus overlaps onto the following oral vowel. A similar effect tends to nasalize the voiced fricative following [n] in such words as burns and bronze. In most varieties of English, this occurs in particular before // and (in rhotic dialects) before coda /r/ (that is, /r/ followed by a consonant or at the end of a word); it also occurs, to a lesser extent, before tautosyllabic // and /g/. Some examples of neutralization of // to /e/ before // are beg, egg, Greg, keg, leg, and peg's coming to rhyme with Craig, Hague, plague and vague. Some varieties (including most American English dialects) have significant vocalic neutralization before intervocalic /r/, as well.