Reduplication-based idioms 2

The words used below can be found in Wiktionary at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_reduplications

Ex. I Write the following idioms using ordinary (orthographic) English spelling.

a. /'tʃʌŋki 'mʌŋki/ b. /'krɪsˌkrɒs/ c. /'fʌdi-ˌdʌdi/ d. /'heltə 'skeltə/ e. /'hɒdʒˌpɒdʒ/ f. /'dʒɪbə-ˌdʒæbə/ g. /'nɪk-ˌnæk/ h. /ˌlʊki-'luː/

Ex. II Fill in the gaps in the following sentences using the phrases from Exercise I.

1. David Mitchell often plays posh, ..................... characters trying to cope with the standards of modern society.

2. The students were running ........................... instead of coming back to the classroom.

3. Do you think it's a valuable ornament or just an old glass ..................... ?

4. Sally's on a diet. She's always been a ...................... and now she wants to lose weight before summer.

5. Instead of playing games on your phone, you could go outside and play ....................... or hide-and-seek.

6. Let's stop the .......................... and get back to work.

7. When Jason fell off a ladder and spilled blue paint all over himself, several ......................s gathered around him but no one helped him.

8. Our old furniture was a .......................... of the things we'd inherited or bought cheaply in our twenties. It was time to buy something new.

KEY

I. a. chunky monkey   b. crisscross   c. fuddy-duddy   d. helter-skelter   e. hodgepodge   f. jibber-jabber   g. knick-knack   h. looky-loo

II. 1. fuddy-duddy, 2. helter-skelter, 3. knick-knack, 4. chunky monkey, 5. crisscross, 6. jibber-jabber, 7. looky-loos, 8. hodgepodge

Reduplication-based idioms 1

Some English idioms are based on reduplicated pairs or sets of words. The words often rhyme - they can also be minimal pairs - and the exercises below deal with such rhyming pairs (spelt separately, together or hyphenated). Some of these words come from children's puns or nursery rhymes while others can be 'adult' words, even taboo expressions.

The words used below can be found in Wiktionary at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_reduplications

Ex. I Write the following idioms using ordinary (orthographic) English spelling.

a. /ˈɑːdʒi ˈbɑːdʒi/ b. /breɪn dreɪn/ c. /'klæptræp/ d. /'dɪli 'dæli/ e. /'iːzi 'piːzi/ f. /'hændi 'dændi/ g. /'heərəm 'skeərəm/ h. /'hʌm,drʌm/

Ex. II Fill in the gaps in the following sentences using the phrases from Exercise I.

1. The journey was exhausting. The kids had a/an .......................... over where to stop for lunch and there were traffic jams on the motorway.
2. A good comedian should not resort to cheap ........................... like a circus clown.
3. Countries that don't pay their scientists enough usually suffer from .......................... .
4. Now that my Spanish holiday is over, I'm back to my ......................... existence.
5. I don't want you to ............................. and play computer games all night. Your maths exam is tomorrow, remember?
6. 'Young people can be so ......................... - no wonder so many of them can't hold down a job,' said Mr Grumpy.
7. The new online shop has all sorts of clever, ....................... tools for gardeners.
8. Paolo is Italian and fluent in French, and he says learning Spanish was .......................... for him.

KEY

I. a. argy-bargy, b. brain drain, c. claptrap, d. dilly-dally, e, easy peasy, f. handy dandy, g. harum-scarum h. humdrum

II. 1. argy-bargy, 2. claptrap, 3. brain drain, 4. humdrum, 5. dilly-dally, 6. harum-scarum, 7. handy dandy, 8. easy peasy

Rhoticity: linking and intrusive /r/

In rhotic English accents - those of American, Canadian, Irish and Scottish English as well as some accents in the southwest of England - /r/ is pronounced before and after vowels. In accents like RP, however, /r/ is not pronounced after vowels, including in word-final position. There are exceptions to this rule: when <r> appears in spelling and there is no pause but another word beginning with a vowel, the /r/ is retained (perhaps square brackets as in [r] are more suitable here).

Intrusive /r/ is a special case: when a word ends with a vowel and there is no <r> in spelling but the next word also begins with a vowel, intrusive sounds appear: /w/ after /u:/, /j/ after /i/ or /i:/ and /r/ after remaining word-final vowels. Similar rules apply to diphthongs.

Ex. 1 Which of the following phrases are pronounced using linking /r/?

there are some, the bar's closed, more of them, their house, the car is, dear guests, far enough, the bitter end, the computer's broken, the floor is, four per cent, the star and the moon, the mayor of the city, hares and badgers, the fear of heights, dark clouds

Ex. 2. Which of the following phrases are pronounced using intrusive /r/? Write down where it is pronounced.

you and me, the sofa or the couch, Sue is there, vodka and gin, we are tired, the idea of it, to have a bee in the bonnet, India and Cuba and China and Britain, this shoe is too small, Barbara or Sofia or Jane,  this cappucino is cold, this pasta is great


KEY
1. there are some, more of them, the car is, far enough, the bitter end, the floor is, the star and the moon, the mayor of the city, the fear of heights

2. sofa/r/ or, vodka/r/ and gin, the idea/r/ of it, India/r/ and Cuba/r/ and China/r/ and Britain, Barbara/r/ or Sofia/r/ or Jane, this pasta/r/ is great

Diphthong + /ə/ combinations

Some of the following vowel combinations are triphthongs, in that they occur in one syllable, and some others contain a diphthong at the end of a syllable followed by a schwa in the next. This distinction, while important in phonology, is not made below.

Ex. Match the following words with the vowel combinations they contain.
1. /aɪə/, 2. /aʊə/, 3. /eɪə/, 4. /ɔɪə/, 5. /əʊə/

buyer, destroyer, dire, employer, fire, higher, hour, lawnmower, lawyer, layer, liar, lower, our, player, power, rower, sour, sprayer, tower

KEY

1. /aɪə/ buyer, dire, fire, higher, liar

2. /aʊə/ hour, our, power, sour, tower

3. /eɪə/ layer, player, sprayer

4. /ɔɪə/ destroyer, employer, lawyer

5. /əʊə/ lawnmower, lower, rower

Changing vowel sounds: /ʊə/ and /ɔː/

The diphthong /ʊə/ has merged with /ɔː/ in the pronunciation of many words even in RP. Nowadays some British English pronunciation textbooks do not explicitly mention /ʊə/ at all.
The words in the following exercises come from Teflpedia https://teflpedia.com/IPA_phoneme_/%CA%8A%C9%99/

Ex. 1. The following words whose conservative pronunciation includes /ʊə/ are now commonly pronounced with /ɔː/. Find their homophones containing /ɔː/.

boor, moor, poor, sure, tour

Ex. 2. Which of the following words contain the diphthong /ʊə/?

a. sour, door, bureau, endure   b. core, mature, spurious, flour
c. Europe, flue, neuron, bruise   d. fury, security, impure, booed


KEY
1. bore, more, pore, shore, tore
2. a. bureau, endure, b. mature, spurious, c. Europe, neuron d. fury, security, impure