Standard Listening Speech - Level 1
Rhythm of English
今回は「英語のリズム」についてです。
英語音は各単語の発音だけでなく、連続した単語のリズム、アクセント、抑揚の組み合せ。
これらの要素を一つ一つ分解し、説明します。英語を話す際にも応用可能です。
3. Rhythm of English
Each Japanese syllable has the same amount of
emphasis
English words have many syllables which produce
various vowel sounds
Some English words have more emphasis -
"intonation"
4. Example:
Rhythm of English
“I’m going out to have lunch with my friend today.”
私は今日、友達とランチに出かけます。
5. Pronunciation
• Vowels: a, e, i, o, u (sometimes y)
• Consonants: all other letters of the alphabet
6. Pronunciation
[Examples]
I baked an apple pie.
私はアップルパイを焼きました。
They have a test on Thursday.
彼らは木曜日にテストがあります。
7. Pronunciation
• A word is made up of units called "syllables“
e.g.
"Pronunciation" has 5 syllables:
pro-nun-ci-a-tion
8. Accent
• An emphasis given to a particular syllable in a
• The vowel sound has the strongest accent in
each word
e.g.
"American" - accent on the "e"
"Pronunciation" - accent on the "a"
word
9. Accent
• Sometimes an accent changes the
definition and part of speech
e.g.
"Project" - accent on the "o" means "assignment, work“ (noun)
"Project" - accent on the "e" means "to calculate" (verb)
10. Intonation
• Intonation is a special emphasis given to a
particular word or a phrase
• Can be used to clarify the meaning
11. Intonation
• Stressing a word in a sentence can
change the implied meaning
e.g.
You told me to finish that work by noon today.
あなたは私に、その仕事を今日の正午までに終わらせるように言いました。
Rhythm of English
The objective of this lesson is to understand the sound and rhythm of English.
In order to understand spoken English, you need to first learn the composition of English sounds.
In this lesson, we will take three different approaches (pronunciation, accent, and intonation) to learn about the sound and rhythm of English.
Japanese is often said to be a “flat” language where its sound and accent are almost completely dependent on the vowel sounds. In other words, each syllable gets the same amount of emphasis - this makes it difficult for any native Japanese speaker to differentiate English sounds because English words are composed of multiple syllables, each containing various vowel sounds. While the accent falls on to the vowel of each word, when spoken in a sentence, some words get more emphasis than others - and this is called “intonation.” In short, Japanese is a syllable-based language whereas English is based on emphasizing words distinctly.
Here’s an example:
“I’m going out to have lunch with my friend today.”
As you can hear, in English, some words are more emphasized than others while in Japanese, each syllable is equally emphasized.
Point 1: Pronunciation - understanding English sounds
All English words are made using only 26 letters of the alphabet. Among these 26 letters, some letters are called “vowels” and some are called “consonants.” The vowels are a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. Consonants are all the other letters. We say “sometimes y” because the letter y is the only letter that is used as both a vowel and a consonant. Every English word must have at least one vowel in it. But some words are spelled using y instead of a, e, i, o or u. For example, the word “why” is spelled w, h, y. This is a complete English word because y acts as the vowel.
In English, letters and sounds do NOT always match. Vowels especially all have several different sounds that change based on the word. This is why it’s important to hear and speak English as much as possible. Even if you can spell a word correctly, it may be pronounced differently than how it looks.
Here are some examples:
I baked an apple pie.
They have a test on Thursday.
An English word can be broken into single units of speech, which are called “syllables.”
For example, the word “pronunciation” has five syllables, pro-nun-ci-a-tion. A syllable contains a vowel.
Point 2 What is an accent?
An accent is an emphasis given to a particular syllable in a word.
A word is a collection of syllables and the vowel sound has the strongest accent in each word.
Examples:
American (accent is on the e)
Pronunciation (accent is on the a)
In some cases, an accent changes the definition and part of speech
Here’s an example.
project - accent on the o means “assignment, work” (noun)
project - accent on the e means “calculate” (verb)
Point 3: Intonation
What is intonation?
Intonation is a special emphasis given to particular words or phrase usually for the purpose of clarifying the meaning of a sentence
A sentence is a collection of words, each of which has an accent on various vowel sounds. Intonation is a word stress in a sentence which, in some cases, changes the implied meaning of the sentence itself.
Consider the following example:
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (no emphasis)
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (It was your order)
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (I heard your order)
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (I was the assignee)
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (The task was to complete the work)
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (Points to a particular assignment)
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (emphasis on the time - deadline)
You told me to finish that work by noon today. (emphasis on the deadline)
