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tree, free, green, spleen, seen, ąueen, speed, feed, need, sea, tea, pea, flea, meal, steal, deaL, mean, read, lead, please, field, yield, shield, mień, gricvc. believe

Notę 1. Before voiceless consonants the vowel [i:] is a little shorter than before voiced consonants, or when finał.

Compare the pairs:

beat bead feet feed greel greed sweet Swede heat heed grief grieve belief believe piece peas pleat plead

Notę 2. In an identical context [i:] is always longer than [i]. Compare:

feet fit    beat bit    heat hit    seat sit    seek sick

sleep slip    bead bid    lead lid    read rid    peak    pick

feel fili    meal mili    seen sin    sheep ship    reach rich

Notę 3. [i:] is longer in one-syllable words and shorter in words of morę syllables:

sleep sleepy    greed greedy    sheep sheepish feel feeling

speed speedy speedily peace pcaceful peacefully

c. Eaercise for vowels (i] and |i: ]

§ 18. In this exercise and otheis that follow, it is essential that words be said naturaliy, with even stresses and falling intonation. The student should pat into practice the advice given in the above notes, e.g. the length of [i] should be differentiated in pick and pig, the words themselves being of equal length, etc. Immediate success should not be expected. The primary aim of the exercises is to help the student realize that the 'same’ sounds are not always identical, and to give him an idea of the differences. This awareness will no doubt help improve the pronunciation gradu ally.

§ 19. Words with short [i]:

pick, sit, kick, big, hUl, pienie, rictim, lily, film, rib, pinch.

Wordscontaining long [i:]:

pea, peak, see, tree, trees, we, Swede, sea, seat, yield, niece.

Pairs of words with [i:] and [i] in identical contexts (so-called seek sick    heel hill    seat sit    eel ill    week wiek

scene sin    eat it    feel fili    peak pick    peel pili

reach rich    sheep słiip    wheel will    deed did

least list feast fist

seam, creek, stick, mili, film, hit, stream. Greek, pit

2. Short and long a. Short o, i& [a]

/\

►'!(. II. Knglish [A], tongue position

Fig. 12. Position of the lips

I | 10. This vowel is very similar to Polish a (and for this reason it is i nitru transcribed as [a] in Polish manuals of English), but it is not so open. Ał thcrc are several varieties of the vowel [a] in English, some of them • Unrly different from others, e.g. morę front or morę back, higher or lliwer, the Polish student is advised to pronounce it simply like a very Rhnrl Polish a, with a slightly smaller opening of the mouth.

much, such, pluck, stuck, up, cup, cut, shut, dust, r ludi. Imish, dusk, tusk, duli, skuli

1. In the position between two voiced consonants, the short vowel r |A | i» slightly prolonged.

Homparr the pairs:

Ml|> elub sup mb but bud buck bug ruck mg mt mdd

•I 2. In the position before a nasal consonant [m, n, rj], [a] is not ^pfoosalized:

i, lirtinch, pump, lump, jump, punch, hunt, punt, tmnk, drunk, skunk, mm, l«jWłrf^,n- ^sun8

> short words it is a little longer than in longer words:

“>*•' luck lucky sun sunny duck ducky mum mummy

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