Тема 5. «Modification of sounds in speech»

Modification of sounds in speech. Juncture

When we listen to a continuous utterance, we perceive an ever-changing pattern of

sounds, which consists of variations of different kinds. Sounds pronounced separately and in

sequences are rather different physically. That is why it is very important not to limit one`s

training in pronunciation only to the pronunciation of a separate sound. In natural speech

there are few gaps, and there are many processes present that result in differences between

isolated words and the same words occurring in connected speech. The study of connected 29

speech also involves looking at the process of reduction in weak syllables, at rhythm and at

prosodic phenomena such as intonation and stress.

When we are articulating sequences of sounds, there is a new phenomenon – the way

of transition between sounds in the stream of speech. It is often necessary in describing

pronunciation to specify how closely attached one sound is to its neighbours. Let us take

those word combinations as examples: night rate, nitrates, Nye Trait. These utterances are

kept apart by the differences in transition between the successive vowels and consonants.

Let us analyze how closely sounds can be connected with each other and what makes them

closely connected. For example, /í/ and /ê/ are more closely linked in 'nitrate' than in 'night

rate', and likewise /â/ and /í/ are more closely linked in the word 'acting' than in word

combination 'black tie'. Sometimes there are clearly observable phonetic differences in such

examples: in comparing 'cart rack' with 'car track' we notice that the vowel in 'cart' is short,

it is shortened by the /í/ that follows it while the same phoneme in 'car' is longer, and the /ê/

in 'track' is devoiced (because it closely follows /í/) while /ê/ in 'rack' is voiced.

It seems natural to explain these relationships in terms of the placement of word

boundaries, and in modern phonetics and phonology this is what is done. Studies have also

been made of the effects of sentence and clause boundaries. However, it was widely

believed that phonological descriptions should not be based on a prior grammatical analysis.

So the notion of juncture was established to overcome this restriction. Juncture appears

when there are phonetic effects in continuous speech that are usually preceding or following

a pause. Since the position of juncture (or word boundary) can cause a perceptual

difference, and therefore potential misunderstanding, it is usually recommended that

learners of English should practice making and recognizing such differences, using pairs

like 'pea stalks/peace talks' and 'great ape/grey tape'.

There are two types of such phonetic effect. When the speaker clearly finishes the

articulation of one macrosegment and starts afresh with the next one, this way of getting

from one sound to the next is called sharp (open) transition – juncture. This is the only kind

of transition that exists across the boundary between macrosegments. This type of transition

provides for no additional contrast between words.

Juncture is present when:

− Two successive vowels are stressed (not necessarily adjacent). Its location is easy to hear:

free Danny – freed Annie.

− When two stressed vowels are adjacent, then no contrast is possible. Juncture is always

present: try ours – see eight.

− When one or more consonants precede a stressed vowel, it is always clear whether the

last consonant or so in the sequence goes with the stressed vowel or is separated from it by

the juncture. It is necessary that the next preceding vowel is also stressed: a nice man – an

ice man.

− After a stressed vowel it is always clear whether the following consonant goes with the

vowel or is separated from it by the juncture: a troop arose – a true parade.

− There are few cases of juncture between successive unstressed vowels. If there are no

intervening consonants at all, there is usually juncture present.

Another type of transition is called muddy transition. It is used more often than

juncture. Muddy transition is usually present between the unstressed vowel and the

following consonant. It is also present when there is at least one consonant between the

unstressed vowels: get aboard – get a board. 30

There was at one time discussion of whether spaces between words should be

abolished in the phonetic transcription of connected speech except where there was an

observable silence. Some linguists said that juncture symbols could have replaced spaces

where there was phonetic evidence for them.

Assimilation, reduction and other phonetic processes

When the sound is articulated separately, it displays all its characteristic features. The

articulation of the sound, which is pronounced separately, can be divided into three stages:

1) the on-glide; 2) the hold; 3) the off-glide. However, in the process of speaking, when we

articulate several sounds in succession, the speech organs change their position. If speech is

a string of sounds linked together, assimilation is what happens to a sound when it is

influenced by one of its neighbours. When articulating sequences of sounds, the initial and

the final stages of articulation for the successive sounds merge into each other. When two

sounds are joined together, they usually influence each other: the articulation of one sound

makes the articulation of the neighbouring sound similar. Vowels and consonants change

differently. The notion of assimilation is full of problems: it is not possible to think about

one sound being the cause of the assimilation and the other the victim of it. In many cases

sounds appear to influence each other mutually; it is often not clear whether the result of

assimilation is supposed to be a different allophone or a different phoneme; and there can be

found many cases where instances of assimilation seem to spread over many sounds instead

of being restricted to two adjacent sounds as the conventional examples suggest. Research

on such phenomena in experimental phonetics does not usually use the notion of

assimilation; the linguists prefer the more neutral concept of coarticulation. The type of

sound modification depends on specific phonetic laws of the language.

Modification of consonantal sounds presents combinatory variants of the phonemes.

Assimilation is a process in which adjacent speech sounds influence each other, so that one

of the sounds becomes partially or fully similar to the other sound. The nature of

assimilation is determined by objective physical and physiological conditions. The laws and

forms of this phonetic process depend on historically formed articulatory tendencies which

are typical of the particular language and specific phonetic structures.

Assimilation can be classified according to several criteria. These criteria are as

follows: 1) direction of assimilation, 2) degree of completeness of assimilation, 3) degree of

stability.

According to its direction, assimilation can be progressive, regressive and reciprocal.

Progressive assimilation takes place when the previous sound influences the following

sound: street, skip. Regressive assimilation takes place when the following sound influences

the preceding sound: width, at the, of the. In English regressive assimilation is more

common than progressive. Evidently, it is more common that the speech organs should be

prepared beforehand for the articulation of sounds. Reciprocal (double) assimilation takes

place when the sounds influence each other: quick, tree, quite.

We may also distinguish between the partial and complete assimilation, dependent on

the degree of assimilation. Partial assimilation is found where one of sounds becomes

similar to the other only partially, retaining its major articulatory features: quickly, stops.

Complete assimilation takes place when the adjacent sounds become entirely alike or merge

into one: cupboard, horseshoe. It happens when the two sounds differ in one articulatory

feature.

According to the degree of stability assimilation may be historical and functional.

Historical assimilation was completed in the earlier epoch of the language development.

The result of historical assimilation is fixed in pronunciation dictionaries as the process has 31

taken place over a period of time: picture, occasion, orchard, question. Functional

assimilation takes place at the moment of speech and is always the attribute of the chain of

speech. Functional assimilation is divided into established and accidental. Established

assimilation appears in speech systematically and its results often are fixed in dictionaries as

variants of pronunciation: rooms, books. The omission of established assimilation leads to

mispronunciation of words. Accidental assimilation appears in careless speech and should

not be encouraged by teachers: did you [Çfde].

In connection with the vowels, we should talk about such phonetic processes as

adaptation (accommodation) and reduction. Adaptation is a modification in the articulation

of a vowel under the influence of the consonant: car – card - cart . Reduction is a process of

the weakening, shortening and disappearance of vowels in unstressed positions. Reduction

has quantitative and qualitative character. Quantitative reduction takes place when the

vowel in an unstressed position is shortened; it mainly affects long vowels: he, she.

Qualitative reduction happens when the vowels are changed towards [è, f, s]: can, to, have,

do. Modified pronunciation of the vowels represents the positional variants of vowel

phonemes. Reduction may lead to elision – omission of the sound.

We should also speak about other phonetic processes. Another phonetic modification

of sounds that should be mentioned is merging. The two sounds are pronounced together in

this specific process. There are two cases of merging in English: nasal plosion: garden,

kitten; and lateral plosion: little, beetle, kettle.

Linguistic change. The causes, origin and spread of the linguistic change

Language is constantly developing. But not all of the variants of linguistic units

become facts of the language system. The problem of explaining language changes, how it

is transmitted around in the society, what is the reason for its becoming systematic seems to

consist of discussing three separate problems: 1) the origin of linguistic variations; 2) the

spread and propagation of linguistic changes; 3) the regularity of linguistic change.

Linguistic variations may be characterized by the source of their origin. Such phonetic

processes as assimilation/dissimilation, analogy, borrowing, fusion, contamination, random

variation may induce variations in speech. Each of those processes is characterized by

specific features.

Sound changes first appear as a characteristic feature of a specific subgroup. As it

progresses with the group, it may be spread outwards in a wave affecting first those social

groups, closest to the originating group. Inevitably, the linguistic feature is associated with

the expressive characteristics of the originating group. Thus, a linguistic change may be

considered desirable if the originating social group possesses high social prestige, it is said

to possess overt prestige. In the course of time a wider range of speakers get involved into

the process. Linguistic changes spread from higher social strata to lower and in opposite

direction. Some changes in pronunciation (like h – dropping, which comes from Cockney)

cannot be explained except through the concept of covert prestige, which is the quality not

acknowledged openly.

We can state several reasons for the innovations to arise. The principle of least effort

forces us to pronounce words and sentences in a way that involves the minimum of

articulatory effect and allows us to transmit maximum information in the minimum of time.

Thus the result of a specific phonetic process becomes systematically used in speech and the

linguistic change is considered established. System preservation runs counter to

simplification – in order to distinguish words the dissimilating process takes place.

Regularization removes irregularity by bringing irregular forms under the general rule. 32

Tendencies in the articulation of English vowels and consonants

English pronunciation changes as the time passes. Pronunciation of English sounds

undergoes now a significant change. Present-day pronunciation patterns reflect the changes,

which have taken place modifying earlier pronunciation patterns. There are some systematic

modifications of sounds, which may be considered as tendencies in the articulation of

sounds in present-day English.

Vowels. Monophthongs. Of the five long vowels [fW, o, çW, ìW, bW] only [nW, bW ] are now

pronounced quite evenly throughout the duration. In every day speech you can hear the high

front and high back vowels [fW, ìW] pronounced with end-glides. So the sounds are

undergoing diphthongization. Instead of see [ëg] and two [íe] you will hear [ëgà], [íeï].

This process reminds one of the changes which marked the beginning of the Great Vowel

Shift (XIX century).

The lower mid-back [i] is pronounced with central vowel or “shwa” [è] as the endglide. It is not enough however to warrant the transcription [sOq] in the word saw. Before

the fricatives [ë, Ñ, q] lower mid-back [i] continues to be shortened: across, frost, boss,

office, cloth. In the word often this shortening is frequently accompanied by the restoration

of the voiceless dental plosive: [iÑå > lÑå > lÑíèå].

Before a velar (dark) [ä] there is a diphthongized [çs] instead of [i]. You hear solve,

involve: [ëçsäî], [fåîçsäî] as well as [ëläî], [fåîläî]. Before “-lt” [l] is often lengthened:

salt [ëiäí] instead of [ëläí].

One of the most interesting changes is the gradual lengthening of [ñ] before final

voiced consonants in words like “bad, bag, jam, man”. Now [ñ] and [o] contrast only by

quality.

The contrasting long and short sounds in English is still based quite definitely on both

quality and quantity. Under the American influence the tendency to lengthen short vowels,

especially in the final position, is increasing. Thus the final vowel is often lengthened in

words like “beauty, city”: [Äàeíf > Äàeíg], [ëfíf > ëfíg] especially in the plural.

In London English there is a regrettable drift on the part of short vowels towards

neutral “shwa” in unstressed positions. The restoration of fuller qualities to the vowels of

weakly stressed syllables in London speech is entirely due to North American influence.

This influence is surprisingly recent and it makes for greater clarity and distinction. The

predominance of “shwa” sounds in RP gave the monotony of successive unstressed

syllables.

Diphthongs and triphthongs. By their nature, diphthongs are the least stable sounds in

any language. Five English diphthongs [Éf, ~f, çs, ~s, lf] are closing and falling. The first

term means that tongue glides from a more open to a closer position in the mouth during

their articulation. The second term means that the sound bears the main stress on the first

element. The diphthongs [Éf, çs] are narrow: the tongue moves through a short space in the

process of articulation. They are easily reduced to the simple vowels or monophthongs [ÉW,

çW]. Increasing numbers of young people neutralize the initial element of the diphthong

[çs>ès] in words like “found, outside”.

A more limited number of people pronounce late as [äcfí] with the lowered first

element or even [ä~fí] (cockney dialect). Young people with a more refined level of speech

tend to say [äÉWí].

Diphthongs [~f, ~s, lf] are wide: the tongue moves through a longer space in

articulation. They are not reduced to monophthongs but they can be varied in several ways

which is motivated by idiolectal and social factors: [~ > n, è, É, c]. 33

The three diphthongs [fè, cè, ìè] are called centering because the tongue glides from a

high-front, mid-front or high-back position to the one which is central in the mouth and

quite neutral. Therefore, there is a tendency to articulate [fè] especially in the final position

as two syllables: [f, -è]. In year we distinctly hear [àfè] for the sake of rhyming with words

like “dear, fear, ear”.

The diphthong [cè] is often monophthongized to [t] even by those people who

denounce it as vulgar. The diphthong [ìè] is reasonably stable. However, there is a

tendency, especially in final position to say it as two syllables: [ì, -è]. The words arduous

and endure are pronounced as [oЗам-ил] , [беЗам-и].

In words like “poor” many Londoners say [i] making it homophonous with “paw,

pore”. Good speakers though hold strictly to [éìè].

The triphthongs [Éáè, çìè, ~áè, ~ìè, láè] are of rare frequency and thus of considerable

stability. They all consist of a closing diphthong plus “shwa” pronounced as one syllable. If

they are articulated with only one breath impulse, they tend to be reduced to diphthongs or

even monophthongs. When articulated as two syllables they cease to be qualified as genuine

triphthongs.

Semi-vowels. After the plosives [é, Ä, í, Ç, Ö, â], glottal [Ü], nasal [ã, å] the palatal

semivowel [à] is preserved in such type-words as “puny, beauty, tune, dune, cue, huge,

music, numeral”. Though one can hear variants like [íeå, ãeëfâ]

After the lateral [ä] and sibilant [ë, ò] this [à] is far from stable. Young people now tend

to say [äeëfÇ], [äeí] for “lucid, lute”. After[ ë ò] you can hear both variants of

pronunciation.

The ancient distinction between wh- and w- is preserved in the Northern counties and

is slowly becoming fashionable again in the South.

Consonants. There is an interesting tendency to pronounce words like “warmth, sense,

length” as [пlгйq], [лЙенл], [дЙkвq]. This tendency to insert such epenthetic consonant is

due to the peculiarities of articulation and it is probably increasing.

Final voiced plosives [Ä, Ç, Ö] are often partially unvoiced. There is a danger that they

will fall in with the voiceless plosives [é, í, â] because the latter have stronger aspiration.

There is also contrary tendency to voice the intervocalic [í] in the American fashion in

words like “better, letter, matter”.

Dark [ł] is frequently vocalized to [ì] in rapid speech: [çìÇ] for “old”, [ïcì] for

“well”.

In the final position [ê] is still pronounced when it is followed in the same breath-group

by a word beginning with a vowel (linking [r]). The tendency to use intrusive [r] is very

frequent in rapid speech nowadays.

Simplification of double consonants occurs in such word groups as “boat train, lamp

post, black cat” when two successive identical consonants are merged and pronounced as

one sound.