Step 4: Explore how some syllables are pronounced more loudly and moreclearly than others, resulting in stressed and unstressed syllables.
When words have more than one syllable, one syllable is usually pronouncedlouder than the other syllables. We can feel this by placing our hand under ourchin and feeling which syllable causes our mouth to drop open further.
For example, in about, the mouth drops open further to say/ow/. When we say freedom, our mouth dropsopen further to say /free/.
The syllables where our mouth drops open further and the sounds arepronounced louder arestressed syllables. The syllables that we do not sayas loudly are unstressed. Notice that these unstressed syllables are “lazy.” Wehardly open our mouths. The result is that we often hear the schwa or a lazyvowel sound: /ǝ/.
第四步:发现一些音节是怎样比别另一些音节发音更响更清楚,导致了重读音节和非重读音节
当单词含有一个以上音节时,一个音节通常比另一个音节要发音更响。我们可以把手放在我们的下巴下面来感受,感受哪一个音节引起我们的嘴要张开更大。
例如, about, 嘴要张得更大来发 /au/。 当我们说freedom, 我们的嘴要张开更大来说/fri:/
我们嘴巴张得更大、音发得更响的那个音节,就是重读音节。我们没有大声发音的音节是非重读音节。注意这些非重读音节是“懒惰”的。我们几乎不张开的我们的嘴,结果就是我们经常听到的schwa音,或者说是一个懒惰的元音发音/ǝ/.
|