Advanced English Phonetics 英语音标

Once again we are going to return to our 3 main questions:
回到我们的三个问题：

Why is English so difficult to learn?
为什么英语这么难学？

How can we learn English if the pronunciation of the letters can change?
如果字母发音有变化该怎样学习英语？

And why is it more difficult for Asian students to learn English?
(Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans in particular)
那为什么对中国人、日本人和韩国人而言为什么英语尤其难学呢？

Although English has only 26 letters in its alphabet, learning the pronunciation of many English words can be very difficult. As we discovered in an earlier lesson, English words can be pronounced very differently from how they are spelt, and this can make it very difficult for English Language Learners to learn how to read, write, and pronounce English words.

虽然英语字母表中只有26个字母，但学习许多英语单词的发音可能非常困难。正如我们在前面的一节课中发现的，英语单词的发音可能与拼写非常不同，这使得英语学习者很难学习如何读、写和发音英语单词。

Let’s review the following example. How would you pronounce the following word if you were to sound it out using the alphabet, and how is the word actually pronounced?

让我们回顾一下下面的示例。如果你要用字母表读出下面的单词，你会怎么发音？这个单词实际上是怎么发音的？

GHOTI
/fɪʃ/

“GHOTI” is actually pronounced the same way as the word fish /fɪʃ/, using the following sounds found in other English words: the “GH” is pronounced like an /f/ as in enough /ɪˈnʌf/ or tough /tʌf/; the “O” is pronounced /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/; and the “TI” is pronounced /ʃ/ as in nation /ˈneɪ̯ʃən/ or motion /ˈməʊʃən/.

“GHOTI”的发音实际上与fish/fɪʃ/（fish/fɪʃ/）的发音相同，使用了其他英语单词中的以下发音：“GH”的发音类似于/f/（enough /ɪˈnʌf/ /或tough/tʌf/）；“O”在women/wɪmɪn/中发音为/ɪ/；而“TI”在nation/ˈneɪ̯ʃən/或motionˈməʊʃən/中发音为/ʃ/。

In addition to the complexity of the English language, Asian students generally find it even more difficult to learn English than individuals who speak other European languages.

除了英语的复杂性之外，亚洲学生普遍发现学习英语比说其他欧洲语言的人更困难。

But why would Asian students find it more difficult to learn English?
为什么亚洲学生会觉得学英语更难呢？

Not only is the grammar structure completely different between English and other Asian languages, there are also many sounds in English that are not present in Asian Languages such as the distinctions between some consonants such as (R&L) or other sounds made by a double consonants like the sound made by (TH). Finally the pronunciation of the consonants and vowels never change in languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The 3 main Asian languages never deviate from their rules on pronunciation, but English on the other hand has an exception to almost every rule. This can make learning English incredibly difficult for Asian students who are used to learning languages that adhere to their own rules.

不仅英语和其他亚洲语言的语法结构完全不同，英语中还有许多在亚洲语言中不存在的发音，例如一些辅音之间的区别，如（R&L）或由双辅音发出的其他发音，如（TH）发出的发音。最后，在汉语、日语和韩语等语言中，辅音和元音的发音从未改变。这三种主要的亚洲语言在发音上从来没有偏离过它们的规则，但另一方面，英语在几乎每一条规则上都有例外。对于习惯于学习遵守自己规则的语言的亚洲学生来说，这会让他们学习英语变得异常困难。

International Phonetic Alphabet 国际音标

The Latin Alphabet has a total of 26 letters, 21 written consonants and 5 written vowels; however, there are actually 44 basic sounds in the English Language. This discrepancy creates a large problem for English Language Learners though since each letter often needs to represent more than 1 sound. This means that the way each letter is pronounced can change depending on how it is used, and this makes it incredibly difficult to learn how to read and write English, even for a native speaker.

拉丁字母表共有26个字母，21个辅音和5个元音；然而，英语实际上有44个基本发音。这种差异给英语学习者带来了一个大问题，因为每个字母通常需要代表一个以上的发音。这意味着每个字母的发音方式可能会因其使用方式而有所不同，这使得学习如何读写英语变得异常困难，即使是母语为英语的人。

Although there are only 26 letters in the Latin Alphabet there are actually 24 consonants and 20 vowels used in the English Language. These 44 unique sounds are the basic building blocks of the entire English language, and these different sounds can be combined in a number of different ways to create all of the unique sound combinations that are used in the English language.

虽然拉丁字母表中只有26个字母，但实际上英语中使用了24个辅音和20个元音。这44种独特的声音是整个英语的基本组成部分，这些不同的音可以以多种不同的方式组合在一起，创造出英语中使用的所有独特的发音组合。

But how can we know how a word is supposed to sound if the pronunciation of the letters in English can change? You might think you would have to memorize the pronunciation of every word. But is it possible to memorize how every word in the English language is supposed to be pronounced? That is simply not possible; however the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) allows you to learn how to read and write English words phonetically, and if you can learn IPA you will be able to pronounce words in any language, not just English.

但是，如果英文字母的发音可以改变，我们怎么知道一个单词应该怎么发音呢？你可能认为你必须记住每个单词的发音。但是有可能记住英语中每个单词的发音吗？这根本不可能；然而，学习国际音标（IPA）可以帮助学习发音，如果你能学习IPA，你将能够用任何语言发音单词，而不仅仅是英语。

When words are written phonetically using the International Phonetic Alphabet they are placed inside two slashes //. This is so you can tell if the word has been written using IPA and not the standard Latin Alphabet. Some words will look very similar to their original English spelling when written using IPA; however other words will look very different.

当使用国际拼音字母表以语音方式书写单词时，它们会被放在两个斜线内/ /。这样你就可以知道这个单词是用IPA而不是标准的拉丁字母写的。当使用IPA书写时，有些单词看起来与原来的英语拼写非常相似，也有些词看起来会非常不同。

Take a look at the following 2 examples: The word “pet” /pet/ looks the exact same when written using the Latin Alphabet and IPA. That is because the word “pet” is pronounced the exact same way that it is spelt, but the word “pronunciation”

/prəˌnʌnsiːˈeɪʃən/ looks very different when it is written using IPA.

请看以下两个示例：“pet”/pet/一词在使用拉丁字母和IPA书写时看起来完全相同。这是因为单词“pet”的发音与拼写完全相同，但是单词““pronunciation”

/prəˌnʌnsiːˈeɪʃən/当使用IPA编写时看起来非常不同。

Words using the Alphabet & IPA

pet & /pet/

pronunciation & /prəˌnʌnsiːˈeɪʃən/

The following page shows the different symbols that are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Each symbol is accompanied by several words that show you how each symbol is pronounced. Once you know how to read and write these symbols you can learn the proper pronunciation of any word in the dictionary.

下页显示了国际音标中使用的不同符号。每个符号都有几个示例单词以及每个符号的发音。一旦学会如何读写这些符号，就可以正确发音字典里任何单词了。

But how many unique sounds are there in English?
英语中有多少独特的发音呢？

The total number of unique sounds In the English language can be determined the same way as we calculated the total number of sounds in Chinese. In Chinese we determined the total number of unique sound combinations that can be created by all of the different combinations of “Initials” and “Finals” multiplied that by the number of “Tones” in Chinese.

英语中独特发音的总数可以用与我们计算汉语中发音总数相同的方法来确定。在汉语中，我们确定了所有“声母”和“韵母”的不同组合乘以汉语中“声调”的数量所能产生的独特声音组合的总数。

We can use the same method to determine the total number of possible monosyllabic sounds in English as well, but in English we use the following values: “Onset” or opening sound, the “Nucleus” or centre cluster of letters, and the “Coda” or ending consonant or vowel. Therefore the equation to calculate the total number of monosyllabic syllables in English is: “Total = Onsets x Nucleus x Coda”

我们也可以用同样的方法来确定英语中可能出现的单音节发音的总数，但在英语中，我们使用以下值：“起始音”或开始音，“核心”或字母群，以及“尾声”或结尾辅音或元音。因此，计算英语中单音节音节总数的公式是：“总数=词组x核心x尾声”。

The English language has a total of 59 unique “Onsets”, 298 “Nucleus” combinations, and 10 different “Codas”. Therefore there are 170,510 possible monosyllabic sounds in the English language; however there are also disyllabic and trisyllabic sounds in English as well. So you can imagine that the total number of unique sounds in the English language is actually much larger than this.

英语共有59个独特的“起始音”，298个“核心”组合和10个不同的“尾声”。因此，英语中有170510种可能的单音节发音；然而，英语中也有双音节和三音节的发音。所以你可以想象，英语中独特发音的总数实际上要比这个多得多。

In comparison there are 104 unique sound combinations in Japanese, just over 1,600 in Chinese, and 10,548 different sounds in the Korean language, but English has more than 170,510 possible phonetic combinations.

相比之下，日语有104种独特的语音组合，汉语略多于1600种，韩语有10548种不同的语音组合，而英语有170510多种可能的语音组合。

In Conclusion 总结

Therefore, although there are only 26 letters in the Latin Alphabet the total number of unique sound combinations in the English language is much larger than any other language that we have reviewed, and unlike Asian languages, the pronunciation of the different letters can change in English and this can make learning English very difficult especially for Asian students.

因此，尽管拉丁字母表中只有26个字母，但英语中独特的声音组合的总数比我们所了解的任何其他语言都要多，而且与亚洲语言不同，不同字母的发音在英语中会发生变化，这会使学习英语变得非常困难，尤其是对亚洲学生来说。

Questions about English Phonology 关于英语语音问题

How many letters are there in the Latin alphabet?
拉丁字母表中有多少个字母？
Are English words always pronounced the same way that they are spelt?
英语单词的发音和拼写总是一样的吗？
How many written vowels and consonants are there in English?
英语中有多少个书面元音和辅音？
How many vowels does the English language actually have?
英语实际上有多少元音？
How many consonants does the English language actually have?
英语实际上有多少个辅音？
What can help us learn to read, write, and speak any language properly?
什么能帮助我们正确地读、写和说任何语言？
How many unique sounds are there in English?
英语中有多少独特的发音？
Describe why Asian students might find English difficult to learn?
描述为什么亚洲学生会觉得英语很难学？