Introducing English Linguistics

Lengthening of vowels 
Vowels will differ in length depending upon whether they occur before a
voiced or unvoiced consonant. In the list below, the vowels in the second
column are lengthier because they occur before voiced consonants. The
The sounds of English
207

---

vowels are shorter in the first column because they occur before voiceless
consonants:
bit [bit]
bid [bid]
feet [fit]
feed [fid]
hiss [his]
his [hiz]
leaf [lif]
leave [liv]
Intrusive /
ɹ/ 
Some speakers of English will insert an /ɹ/ in contexts where one is not
ordinarily found. In the 1960s, the former US President John F. Kennedy
made famous the pronounciation of Cuba as [kjub
] rather than [kjubə].
This process occurs when a word ends in a schwa [ə] and precedes either a
pause or a word beginning with a vowel. Therefore, President Kennedy
would have said Cuba [kjub
] is a threat but Cuba [kjubə] threatens us. Other
words in which intrusive /ɹ/ can occur include idea, Toyota, and Rebecca.
The study of suprasegmentals extends the focus of inquiry to units that are
larger than individual segments – syllables, words, phrases, and clauses –
and to the features of sound that describe these units, specifically stress
and intonation. Of key importance to both stress and intonation is the
notion of the syllable.