Main topics:
Phonetics as a discipline
Sound aspects of communication
Speech organs
Vowel system, monophthongs and diphthongs
Consonantal system, phonetic features, the voicing category
Plosives, fricatives and affricates
Nasals and approximants
Assimilation and coarticulation
Elision
Syllable
Pronunciation and descriptive skills are checked throughout the course.
This two-semester course introduces the segmental and suprasegmental patterns of English. In the first part, students learn about the system of English phonemes, mainly from the articulatory and perceptual perspective. The course also addresses phonological processes manifested in connected speech, such as coarticulation, assimilation or elision.
The seminar part of the course is dedicated to building skills related to the analysis of English pronunciation, more specifically Standard British, as well as one's own pronunciation, in the form of a seminar work which combines transcription skills and auditory analyses.
Course webpage: http://fonetika.ff.cuni.cz/studium/stranky-kurzu/english-phonetics-phonology/