Principles of classification of speech sounds.

In all languages speech sounds are divided into two main types - vowels and consonants.

From the articulatory point of view the main principles of the division are following:

• the presence or absence of obstruction;

• the distribution of muscular tension;

• the force of the air stream coming from the lungs.

Vowels are speech sounds in the articulation of which there is no obstruction. The muscular tension is spread evenly throughout the speech organs. The force of the air stream is rather weak.

Consonants are speech sounds in the articulation of which there is an obstruction, the removal of which causes noise -explosion or friction. The muscular tension is concentrated at the place of obstruction. The air stream is strong.

The articulatory boundary between vowels and consonants is not well marked. There are speech sounds that occupy an intermediate position between vowels and consonants and have common features with both. They are sonorants ( m, n, l, ɳ, j, w, r ).

Their characteristics:

• an obstruction in their articulation,

• the force of the air is weak (because of the wide passage for the air stream through oral and nasal cavities).

Because of their strong vocalic characteristics sonorants are often called semivowels.

Sonorants [m, n, l] can be syllabic in some particular positions. But generally they do not perform the function of syllable formation. That is why they are attributed to consonants.

The Sound Structure of a Language The Syllabic Structure of English Words

The syllable as a unit is difficult to define, though native speakers of a language are usually able to state how many syllables there are in a particular word. The syllable is one or more speech sounds, forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which may be a word, or a commonly recognized subdivision of a word.

The syllable can be analyzed from the acoustic and auditory, articulatory and functional points of view. The syllable can be viewed in connection with its graphic representation.

Acoustically and auditorily the syllable is characterised by the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, degree of loudness and length, that is by prosodic features.

Auditorily the syllable is the smallest unit of perception: the listener identifies the whole of the syllable and only after that the sounds contained.

A syllable can be formed by a vowel, by a vowel and a consonant, by a consonant and a sonorant.

The syllable as a phonological unit performs three functions:

1. constitutive

2. distinctive

3. identificatory

The auditory image of a syllable can be shown in transcription.

It is very important to observe correct syllable division when necessity arises to divide a word in writing. Division of word into syllable in writing is based on morphological principles. The morphological principle of word division demands that the part of a word, which is separated, should be either a prefix, or a suffix, or a root. Words can be divided in writing according to their syllable structure, un-kind-li-ness. They can also be divided according to their meaning, spot-light.