10 Lecture 07.11.11

5) Sound Interchange

In English as well as in the other languages there are cases when different speech sounds occur in different derivatives from the same root. E.g. speak – speech, speak – spoke. Such changes are known in linguistics as sound interchange (=alternation of sounds). The substitutions of one sound by another is not accidental, but a regular phenomenon, possessing definite functions in a language. The sounds that can replace each other in definite cases form a so-called alternation series. The causes of sound interchange may be synchronic and diachronic.

Synchronic causes are those, which are connected with the influence of phonetic laws operating in the language at a given stage of its development. E.g. contextual assimilation, reduction of vowels due to the laws of stress, peculiarities of pronunciation of the sounds in different positions, etc. Such sound interchanges are called phonetic alternations or positional alternations of sounds. In most cases the most important phonetic alternations accompany grammatical phenomena: 1) /t||d||ɪd/ - alternation series in the suffix -ed of the past tense of regular verbs; 2) /s||z||ɪz/ -occurs in the plural forms of nouns and in the 3^rd person singular in verbs; 3) /s||z||ɪz/ - in the 3^rd person singular of nouns.

Diachronic causes of sound interchange date back to some previous periods in the historical development of the language. E.g. gradation and mutation of sounds. Sound interchange caused by diachronic causes is called historical alternation of sounds. Historical alternation play an important part in present day form and word building. Vowel alternations are used: 1) to form the plural of some nouns, e.g. man – men /æ - e/; 2) to build the basic forms of the irregular verbs, /ɪ – æ – ʌ/ (begin – began - begun), /iː – e – e/(meet – met – met) and so on; 3) to distinguish different parts of speech, e.g. /ɔ – iː/ (hot -heet); 4) to distinguish causative verbs from other verbs, e.g. to rise – to raise /aɪ – eɪ/; 5) to distinguish words which are etymologically related, e.g. mead (used in elevated style) – meadow (neutral), shade – shadow.

Consonant alternations are used: 1) to distinguish forms of words, e.g. send – sent – sent; 2) to distinguish parts of speech, e.g. to speak – speech, n house /s/ - v house /z/, to applaud – applause; 3) in word building when a suffix is added, e.g to correct – correction, to express – expression, to decide – decision; 4) to form the plural of some nouns, e.g. leaf – leaves, house – houses.

6. Types of Transcription

Transcription is a visual system of notation of the sound structure of speech (will be on the exam, learn by heart!!!). The first attempts to represent speech sounds date back to the 16^th century. Nowadays there exist 2 types of transcription. The 1^st type is called phonemic transcription, the 2^nd one is called allophonic transcription. A phonemic transcription (also called a broad transcription) is based on the principle one symbol per phoneme. That's why the transcription denotes a phoneme as an abstraction and generalization. The symbols of the phonemic transcription are placed between diagonals //.