美语口音训练第一册02

A Few Words On Pronunciation

I'd like to introduce you to the pronunciation guide outlines in the following chart. There aren't

too many characters that are different from the standard alphabet, but just so you'll be familiar

with them, look at the chart. It shows eight tense vowels² and six lax vowels and semivowels.

Tense Vowels? Lax Vowels?

In some books, tense vowels are called long and lax vowels are called short. Since you will be

learning how to lengthen³ vowels when they come before a voiced consonant⁴, it would be

confusing to say that hen has a long, short vowel¹. It is more descriptive to say that it has a lax

vowel that is doubled or lengthened⁵.

Tense Vowels Lax Vowels

Symbol Sound Spelling Example Symbol Sound Spelling Example

ā εi take [tak] ε eh get [gεt]

ē ee eat [et] i ih it [it]

ī i ice [is] ü ih + uh took [tük]

ō ou hope [hop] uh some [sm]

ū ooh smooth [smuth]

ah caught [kt] Semivowels

+ ε cat [kt] r er her [hr]

o + o down [don] l ul dull [dl]

Voiced Consonants⁶? Unvoiced Consonants?

A consonant is a sound that causes two points of your mouth to come into contact, in three

locations—the lips, the tip of the tongue, and the throat. A consonant can either be unvoiced

(whispered) or voiced (spoken), and it can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

You'll notice that for some categories, a particular sound doesn't exist in English.

1 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

2 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

3 lengthen   

vt.使伸长，延长

参考例句：

• He asked the tailor to lengthen his coat.他请裁缝把他的外衣放长些。
• The teacher told her to lengthen her paper out.老师让她把论文加长。

4 consonant   

n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的

参考例句：

• The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
• These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。

5 lengthened   

（时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The afternoon shadows lengthened. 下午影子渐渐变长了。
• He wanted to have his coat lengthened a bit. 他要把上衣放长一些。

6 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》