 Welcome to our series of videos that explains to you the techniques of phonetic transcription using an actual example. The exercise I'm going to explain to you is the first task taken from the VLC transcription series. It is entitled Our Four Lettered Friends. And here is our task. We have to transcribe this text phonemically using the transcription system exhibited in the Longman pronunciation dictionary, the so-called LPD notation. And the phonological reference dialect we have to use is received pronunciation. To make the task a bit easier, single quotes have been inserted into the text to mark the stress syllables and line numbers have been added. For reasons of better readability, the text has been split into three parts, and here is the first. But before we start, my advice is to have a list ready which displays the 20 vowel phonemes of RP. With such a list, we can easily avoid errors with vocaleic symbols. Note that we have added the two weak vowels, E and OO, which are not RP phonemes but which the LPD notation uses in unstressed positions as in happy or like you. The consonants are much easier to remember so we don't need them, do we? If you do, prepare another list. Okay, let's start and look at the result line by line. Here is the first headline, Our Four Lettered Friends. Well, something should be added. In R-E-D endings, lettered, we always have the schwa and not the short E. Apart from that, there is no particular problem in the first line. In the second line, we have two occurrences of weak vowels as in funny and quickly, which is the LPD variant. And you may remember that some of the vowels have names, for example, the wedge over here for reasons of referencing and the ash over here. And of course, you know the schwa, the vowel, the upside down, the character E. Okay, and well, let me add this. This vowel is often mixed up with the epsilon, but as you can see, the epsilon does not exist in the set of monophones of RP. So let's continue with line three. You know, when I was a youngster, and again, we have a weak vowel in U, but we will say something about weakening in a second. Another occurrence of the wedge in youngster can be found. And in line four, well, another occurrence of the item word. And we have diphthongs in out and I. And just look at the symbols in the list of vowels. Apart from that, I don't think there are enormous problems in this line. Let's now take a look at weakening effects. Well, all the items framed blue are weak forms. You remember weak forms are monosyllabic function words that are reduced. Primarily, the vowel is reduced to the vowel schwa, to the central vowel if they occur in unstressed position. But we will have further examples in a second. So let's continue with the second part. In line five, my dear old grandmother, God bless her. I know that many students have trouble with this short O sound as in God. Apart from that, there are no real phenomena that deserves special attention. In line six, we have a weak vowel in terribly and another occurrence of the short O as in shocked and a wedge in upset. In line seven, there are no real difficulties nowadays. Young people don't bat, don't bat. Here is the ash of pronounced too high by many foreign speakers of RP. And in line eight, an eyelid at no end of wicked words. Okay, here is now quite interesting. The past participle, wicked or past tense form, the ED forms are transcribed by the short E and D. Let's now take a look at connected speech effects. First of all, weak forms. So you see the weak forms B and and in line eight. And then quite interestingly, we have some illusion effects, but I strongly advise not to transcribe all these effects because they are optional. So illusion, assimilation and liaison are optional. My dear old grandmother. So here were the three consonant rule and the weak form and can be weakened to and and even if a vowel falls and upset. Assimilation occurs in can occur. Of course, as I said, don't transcribe it necessarily. You can transcribe it. But if you do, make sure you get it right. So I'd rather not transcribe assimilation effects. And I said they're optional would be regressive assimilation. So the bilabial closive influences the alveolar closive. So this is a regressive effect. And the same effect can be seen in don't bat. So if we allied the term in don't bat, then we eventually will assimilate don't bat. So the bilabial nasal influences the alveolar nasal after the effect of illusion. So this is quite an interesting effect over here. And finally, liaison, we have a linking are in my dear old grandmother. But as I said, this is optional. So I recommend not to transcribe it if this is a task you have to hand in at your university. But many of the ones so well known. I know that many students have trouble with the word many. We often have the feeling that the vowel is lower than the symbol then represented by the symbol a mini. However, if you look at the system of monophones in the LPD notation, then the short a is the only symbol we have. Also note that we have a weak vowel at the end. Many of the ones so well known now. Apart from that, there is no real problem. The next line, I'm sure she never even knew of. Well, sure is also represented like this. So you have the choice. It depends on how you want to pronounce this word. I'm sure she never even knew of the existence of it makes you wonder line 11. Not really problematic. And in line 12 where it'll all stop. And again, let's take a look at connected speech effects. First of all, at the weak forms. Well, here they are unstressed monosyllabic function words. And you see in two of them, we have the weak monothone E and O. Quite interesting. Interestingly, here we have some strong forms. That is these monosyllabic function words either if they occur in stress positions. As in many of the ones so well known now. And another strong form is the with a weak vowel. Because in this particular case, the occurs before a vowel, the existence. And off is either stressed or it occurs at the end of a sentence. So here we have the stranding effect, which makes off strong. Assimilation effects can be found in it makes you quite interesting. Well, here we have first of all, regressive assimilation where the bilabial nasal influences the alveolar plosive and turns it into a bilabial plosive. And in the second case, we have coalescent assimilation where the alveolar fricative and the palatal fricative merge to a post alveolar fricative. Sure, it makes you. But as I said, this is optional. So I would never transcribe it if this was a graded exercise. And finally, liaison. Well, liaison occurs in never even or may occur in never even. This is a linking R. And another case of the linking R is where it'll wear it'll wear it'll all stop. Well, that's it. Relatively easy. You might have some mistakes in it, but don't worry. We'll have more exercises for you to come. Okay, that's it. If you want to print it version of the solution, either visit the VLC e-lecture library where you can get the slides of this video as a PDF printout or take part in one of our phonetics and phonology classes. So thank you and see you again.