So, this week is season 4 recap week. This season, we started with some consonant sounds: looking at the /h/ sound and when it’s dropped, and then moving on to /p/ and /b/ and /b/ and /v/. Then, we went to syllable-level speech for word stress in two-syllable verbs and nouns, and we looked at disappearing syllables. And over the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at the vowel sounds /e/ and /ɪ/, the diphthongs /ɪə/ and /eə/, and intrusive /w/ in connected speech. I’ve tried to include as many of these features as possible this week, as well as by now bringing in a lot of the sounds we’ve focused on in previous seasons.
Let’s start with a couple of tongue twisters.
The first really works that /h/ sound, with no elision of it here (unless you wish to follow one of those English accents where /h/ is routinely dropped).
In, Hereford, Hertford and Hampshire,
Hurricanes hardly happen.
The second is great for contrasting /b/ and /p/, and also has one of those words from the two-syllable nouns and verbs episodes – see if you can remember which one.
Beautiful presents perfectly packed in pretty paper.
The third is a longer tongue twister, and probably one of the most famous in the English language. It’s great for those of you who struggle with word-initial /p/, for practising /e/ and /ɪ/, and a brilliant review of the schwa /ə/ sound and the weak forms of of, a, and the, too.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Great. No let’s move on to a couple of rhymes. For this recap, we’re looking at two limericks: these are rhymes with a particular rhythm pattern, and tend to be on humorous or often quite rude subjects. Today’s limericks both happen to be about birds. As with any rhythmic poetry, these are great for reviewing weak forms and features of connected speech, as well as any individual sounds which may recur.
The first one is by the American poet Dixon Lanier Merritt, and is great for /p/, /e/ and /ɪ/, as well as dropping the /h/ - in fact, if you check out the script, you’ll see that the last line is actually written to reflect that /h/ dropping.
A wonderful bird is the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak enough food for a week,
But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican!
The second is by the very famous comic poet Edward Lear. In terms of our season review, it’s also great for /b/, and the /ɪə/ diphthong.
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!—
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.
Finally, we’re going to finish on another well-known kids’ song: Twinkle, Twinkle,
little star. There are actually a few verses of this song (which was written as
poem by a Jane Taylor over 200 years ago), but most people only know and sing
the first, and that’s all we’ll do today.
Here we find one of those words from the dropped syllable episode
(“diamond”) and some intrusive /w/. The second and final line also include the
phrase “what you are”, which, if you remember back to
season 2, you’ll know can be pronounced either “what you are” or “what
you are” (/tʃ/).
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky,
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.
So, there we go, that’s the end of season 4. I still have plenty of ideas for future seasons, and I’m hoping to be back in a couple of months with season 5. As always, use the time between seasons to go back over past episodes and to practise, practise, practise! Enjoy sound building, and I’ll see you then!