美语口音训练第一册34

Complex Intonation¹

Word Count Intonation Patterns CD 1 Track 34

This is the beginning of an extremely important part of spoken American English—the rhythms and intonation patterns of the long streams of nouns and adjectives that are so commonly used.

These exercises will tie in the intonation patterns of adjectives (nice, old, best, etc.), nouns (dog, house, surgeon, etc.), and adverbs (very, really, amazingly, etc.)

One way of approaching sentence intonation is not to build each sentence from scratch. Instead, use patterns, with each pattern similar to a mathematical formula. Instead of plugging in numbers, however, plug in words.

In Exercise 1-2, we looked at simple nounverbnoun patterns, and in Exercise 1-22 and 1-23, the syllable²-count intonation patterns were covered and tested. In Exercises 1-24 to 1-37, we'll examine intonation patterns in two word phrases.

It's important to note that there's a major difference between syllable stress and compound noun stress patterns. In the syllable count exercises, each syllable was represented by a single musical note. In the noun phrases, each individual word will be represented by a single musical note—no matter how many total syllables³ there may be.

At times, what appears to be a single syllable word will have a "longer" sound to it— seed takes longer to say than seat for example. This was introduced on page 3, where you learned that a final voiced consonant⁴ causes the previous vowel⁵ to double.

1 intonation   

n.语调，声调；发声

参考例句：

• The teacher checks for pronunciation and intonation.老师在检查发音和语调。
• Questions are spoken with a rising intonation.疑问句是以升调说出来的。

2 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

3 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

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 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。