If Phonetics is a comparatively recent subject for European students of foreign languages and is eyed by them with some susยญ picion as an invention that is meant to make their studies difficult, it is even more so with English Phonetics for African students. Have not Africans been learning English for over a century, and with good results in many cases, without giving a thought to its phonetics? Why introduce this new subject and add to the number of books they have to read and the number of examinations they have to pass before they can get their degree? Yet if the study of a foreign language is to be up to date its phonetics cannot be neglected; on the contrary, it is as important as the study of its spelling, if not more so. With the invention of radio and telephone, of gramophone and tape-recorders, the importance of the spoken word has increased immensely and it is far more essential now than it was a hundred years ago that those who learn a foreign language should learn to speak it properly. Thus a new subject has been added to the schedule of language students and teachers: the study and practice of the sounds of the language, and for the teachers also the study of how to teach these sounds
CONTENT
Methods of Teaching -- The Teaching of Intonation -- Tone Marking -- The Use of Phonetic Transcription -- List of Phonetic Symbols -- Specimens of Phonetic Transcription -- Questions -- Answers -- I. General Phonetics -- II. Monophthongs -- III. Diphthongs -- IV. Triphthongs and Semi-vowels -- V. Nasalized and Nasal -- VI. โ{128}{156}Vowellikesโ{128}{157} and the Syllable -- VII. Glottal Sounds and Phonemes -- VIII. The Beginning and Ending of Vowels -- IX. L -- X. R -- XL Alveolar, Palato-Alveolar and Palatal Sounds -- XII. Plosives -- XIII. Th -- XIV. Assimilation -- XV. Inflectional Endings -- XVI. Word Stress -- XVII. Sentence Stress and Intonation -- XVIII. Spelling (Vowels) -- XIX. Spelling (Consonants) -- XX. Some โ{128}{156}Realโ{128}{157} Examinations
