Rules
This was written by Ben Piscopo, whose website can be found here.
He speaks English with a standard American accent.
Glottal Stops
Standard glottal stops occur with a physical stopping/blocking of sound. For example, “night” becomes nait, or more natively nai‛. Notice how the “t” is stopped? This is very common among words ending with t.
Other endings include:
Diphthongs: “might” becomes mait, or mai‛
Long vowels: US – “bought” becomes baat, or baa‛
UK- “bought” becomes boot, or boo‛
Short vowels: US – “forget” becomes f‛rget, or f‛rge (no apostrophe needed after short vowels)
UK – “forget” becomes fəget, or fəge (no apostrophe needed after short vowels)
Consonants: US – “short” becomes ʃo‛rt, or ʃo‛r‛
*Notice how the apostrophe could follow a vowel or a consonant.
Liaison changes a dark ending
A common expression like “in a minute” is written /i‛n/ /ə/ /minit/, but natively pronounced in-ə mi‛ni. Notice how i‛n becomes in when liaison happens. That means the second syllable is stressed beginning with n, bridging the two syllables. Remember, dark sounds ALWAYS end syllables and never begin syllables.
Other examples:
“stop it” UK stop-it, or stop-i US staap-it, or staap-i
“its a…” its-ə
” this is a” ðis-iz-ə
Dots for non-hiatus situations
You should already be aware of the “forgotten” example, which is f‛rgaa‛·‛n in the US accent. In this case, the apostrophe after gaa creates a glottal stop. The dot separates the glottal stop from the dark sound ‛n. Without the apostrophe and dot it would sound like gaa‛n, which expresses the sound of the word “gone”.
Here are some other examples in the US accent:
“cotton” becomes kaat‛n or kaa‛·‛n.
“apartments” becomes əpaa‛r‛·m‛nts. Without an s it looks like this: əpaa‛r‛·m‛n‛.
“fluently” becomes fluu·i‛n‛·lii.
Using y and w glides
Long and Short Vowels with Dark R
In order to create consistency in S4, the following comparisons show when it is appropriate to use short and long vowels with dark-r.
[word] [US] and [UK]
fork, fo‛rk and fook
short, ʃo‛rt and ʃoot
horse, ho‛rs and hoos
sword, so‛rd and sood
or, o‛r and oo
ball, baa‛l and boo‛l
jaw, dʒaa and dʒoo
author, aaþ‛r and ooþə
[word] [US] and [UK]
her, h‛r and həə
verb, v‛rb and vəəb
dirty, d‛rdii and dəətii
work, w‛rk and wəək
[word] [US] and [UK]
fear, fii‛r and fii·ə
beer, bii‛r and bii·ə
we’re, wii‛r and wii·ə
[word] [US] and [UK]
sure, ʃuu‛r/ʃ‛r and ʃuu·ə
cure, kyuu‛r/ky‛r and kyuu·ə
endure, i‛nduu‛r/i‛nd‛r and i‛ndyuu·ə
mature, mətʃuu‛r/mətʃ‛r and mətʃuu·ə/mətʃəə
[word] [US] and [UK]
bar, baa‛r and baa
dark, daa‛rk and daak
star, staa‛r and staa
farm, faa‛r‛m and faa‛m
bun, ba‛n and ba‛n
bus, bas and bas
truck, trak and trak
* The short a in US pronunciation frequently reduces to ə, as in bəs, gə‛n, sə‛n, however this is not taught as “standard” in the S4 Native English course series.
[word] [US] and [UK]
hair, he‛r and hee·ə
bear, be‛r and bee·ə
Claire, kle‛r and klee·ə
plan, plee‛n and plæ‛n
jam, dʒee‛m and dʒæ‛m
and, ee‛nd and æ‛nd
Using two dark consonants at the end of a word
/ðə/ /piip‛l/ /i‛n/ /mai/ /hou‛mtau‛n/
ðə piipəl-i‛n mai hou‛mtau‛n.