English Pronunciation for Icelanders

29
7 Surely Shirley's short summer slips risk shrinking in
2 16
Joan's Chinese washing machine
± ± l^ ± ±li± ± ± ± s±m0 sl± ± ± r± ± ± ±ri~ki~ in
±± ±±±n± ± ±n± ± w± ± i~ m0± ± n
2.2.2 Glottal fricative: h
There's one more fricative in R.P.English - unvoiced h, which
doesn't have a voiced counterpart. Icelandic also has h, so this
is not a problem for you: but it's interesting that very many
languages don't have this sound (Spanish, Italian, French and
Russian, for instance) and also that h is also missing from most
regional varieties of English in England (although it's there in
Scotland and Ireland, USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia and
New Zealand). Londoners, for instance, regularly "drop their
aitches", and say "'Ow did you know I 'ad an 'ouse in
'Untingdon?"
Several words in RP English are spelt with a silent h: hour,
honesty, vehicle, etc. Some words, like herb, have h in RP but
not in American. Also there are quite a few words which begin
with h when the word is stressed or spoken by itself, but lose it
otherwise. See if you can find examples of these words in the
following sentences:
2 17
TRANSCRIPTION EXERCISE 21: sentences with h
¦
1 I hear Harry held his head high in Huntingdon.
ai ±±±±± ±±ær^ ±±±l±± ±±± h±±d ±±ai in h±±nti±±d0n
2 Hey, Hilda, how long have you been hoping for a husband?
±±±± hild0 h±±± l±±±± 0v ju bin h±±±p±±±±± f0r 0 h±±±±b0nd
3 Horace fell head over heels for Hanna when he first beheld
her.
±±±oris f±±±±± h±±±± ±±±v0 ±±Il±±± f0 hæn0 wen ^ f±±±± bi±±±±
0
Words with missing h in these sentences are his, have, he, her.
We'll be looking at words like these later in this course.