Vowel Diagraphs Before the Consonant r

1. air, eir [Fq] e.g. air, their

2. eer [Iq] e.g. beer

3. ear [Iq] e.g. ear, hear

[Fq] e.g. bear

[E:] e.g. earth, learn

4.oar [L] e.g. board

5.oor [L] e.g. door

[uq] e.g. poor

6.our [auq] e.g. our, flour

Home assignment: Read the notes thoroughly; look up your own examples to illustrate the pronunciation of certain letter combinations and diagraphs.

Exercise 1. Transcribe the words.

Grey, blew, room, dawn, fruit, coin, food, glow, true, boy, law, loud, they, flea, knew, feat, show, ready, enough, coat, join, feet, pain, blue, beat, cue, flour, loan, pray, feast, frieze, seem, strait, peal, cow, rough, snow.

Exercise 2. Transcribe the words.

World, treasure, bought, blind, walk, measure, bold, brother, fight, kind, work, knight.

Check your knowledge

Exercise 1. Transcribe the words.

Bow, food, die, flower, loan, piece, dew, room, book, feet, sail, waist, bread, weight, squash, light, word, cold, night, bough, sew, fear, mind.

Lesson 9 Syllable Division

Syllable division is the process of dividing words into syllables. Syllable division is based on the phonetic principle. The written form can be divided into syllabographs. Long stressed vowels may occur both in open and closed syllables. Short stressed vowels are found only in closed syllables.

The Rules of Syllable Division

Examples	Rules
['daI-qt] di-et ['greI-IS] grey-ish ['fL-tI-IT] for-ti-eth	I. When there are two vowels on the syllable boundary the point of syllable division (слогораздел) is in between them.
['hqum-'meId] home-made ['An-'nqun] un-known ['dIs-'sx-tIs-'fxk-tq-rI] dis-sa-tis-fac-to-ry	II. When there are two identical consonants (consonant phonemes) on the syllable boundary the point of syllable division is between them.
['teI-bl] ta-ble ['qu-pn] o-pen ['saI-kl] cy-cle ['fLt-naIt] fort-night ['lek-Cq] lec-ture [ig-'zxm] ex-am ['xk-sIs] ax-es	III. When there are two different consonants on the syllable boundary the point of syllable division is: a) before the two consonants if the preceding vowel is stressed and long or a diphthong and the second of the two consonants is a sonorant [n], [m], [l], [r]; b) between the two consonants in all other cases. NOTE When the two consonants on the syllable boundary are [k] – [s] or [g] – [z] represented in spelling by the letter x the letter is shifted to the vowel preceding it but the point of syllable division is between these sounds.
['kAn-trI] coun-try [im'pres] im-press ['Jst-wqd] east-ward ['miks-Cq] mix-ture	IV. When there are three or more consonants on the syllable boundary the point of syllable division is: after the first consonant; after the second consonant.
['peI-pq] pa-per ['kFq-ful] care-ful [q-'lqun] a-lone [q-'raIz] a-rise ['sItI] cit-y ['vIzIt] vis-it ['sItIN] sit-ting ['dISIz] dish-es ['wPCIz] watch-es	V. When there is only one consonant on the syllable boundary the point of syllable division is: before the consonant if the preceding stressed vowel is long or a diphthong; before the consonant if the preceding vowel is unstressed; the point of syllable division is within the consonant sound if the preceding vowel is short; in spelling the single consonant phoneme may be represented in three ways: by a single consonant letter which is shifted to the stressed syllable and marks a closed syllable; by a double consonant letter one of which is shifted to the preceding stressed syllable and marks a closed syllable and the other consonant comes to the unstressed syllable; by a consonant digraph which is shifted to the stressed syllable.

Exercise. Divide the following words into syllables.

Custom, Russian, dinner, forgetful, around, attribute.