17. Vowels

Vowels are voiced sounds in forming which the airstream passes freely without any obstruction through the larynx the mouth cavity make the vocal cords vibrate. Vowels are classified:

in the stability of articulation: (1.l) monothongs - are vowels the articulation of which doesn’t change. The quality of such v-ls is relatively pare [i,e,a:, o:,);, u,3:, ?] ;(1.2) diphthongs in the pronunciation of diphthongs the organs of speech slide from one v-l position to another within one syllable. The nuclear of diphthongs is strong distinct the glide is very weak [ei, эi, au, ?u, є?, u?]. (1.3) In the pronunciation of diphthongs the articulation changes just a little bit.

But the difference between the nuclear the end is not so distinct as it is in the case of diphthongs; [i:, u:].

The tongue position: horizontal movement of the tongue. When the tongue is in the front part of the mouth and the front part of it is raised up to the hard palate a front v-1 is pronounced [i:, e].

When the front of the tongue is raised towards to the back part of the lard palate the vowel is called

central (or mixed) [ ]. When the tongue is in the back part of the mouth and raised up to the soft palate a back vowel is pronounced [a:, э, э:, u:]. Vertical movement high (or closed) vowels: [i:, u, u:], open (low) vowels [a:, o;].

The lip position. When the lips are neutral or spread the vowels are called unrounded.When the lips more or less round they called rounded [u;u].

Vowel length. All Eng. Monophthongs are divided into long[I:, a: u:,?:] and short[I e u a].

Diphthongs and diphthongoids

According to Russian scholars vowels are subdivided into: a) monophthongs (the tongue position is stable); b) diphthongs (it changes, that is the tongue moves from one position to another); c) diphthongoids (an intermediate case, when the change in the position is fairly weak).

diphthong, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. In most dialects of English, the words eye, boy, and cow contain examples of diphthongs.Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where only one vowel sound is heard in a syllable. Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables, as in, for example, the English word re-elect, the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds (phonemes) ı – [eı, aı, ɔı]; u – [au, ǝu]; ǝ – [ıǝ, ɛǝ, ɔǝ, uǝ].

Дифтонгоид - это ударный неоднородный гласный, имеющий в начале или конце призвук другого гласного, артикуляционно-близкого к основному, ударному. [i:, u:]

Modification of vowels. Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening or disappearance of vowel sound in unstressed positions. This phenomenon is closely connected with the historical development of the language. R. reflects the process of lexical&gramm. Clanges. The neutral sound represents the reduced form of almost any vowel in the unstressed position. But the quality of an unstressed vowel sound m.b. retained ▪in compound words ▪in borrowings from Latin/French, e.g. [‘gæra:з] R. is connected also with rhythm & sentence stress. R. is realized: ▪in unstr. syll. within words ▪in unstr. form-words, auxiliary and modal verbs, pers, and possessive pronouns. Types of reduction 1. Quantitative (shortening of a long vowel sound) Qualitative (both long and short vowels are shortened till [ə, i, u] Elision (the omission of vowel).

18. All English phonemes can be divided into consonants phonemes and vowels phonemes. The phonological analysis of English consonant sounds helps to distinguish 24 phonemes.. Principles of classification suggested by Russian phoneticians provide the basis for establishing of the following distinctive oppositions in the system of English consonants:

1.Degree of noise: bake - make, veal - wheel

2. Place of articulation labial vs. lingual: pain — cane lingual vs. glottal: foam — home, care — hair, Tim - him

3.Manner of articulation 3.1 occlusive vs. constrictive pine -fine, bat - that, bee – thee 1.constrictive vs. affricates fare — chair, fail –jail 2. constrictive unicentral vs. constrictive bicentral same – shame

4. Work of the vocal cords and the force of articulation 4.1 voiceless fortis vs. voiced lenis pen — Ben, ten - den, coat - goal

5. Position of the soft palate 5.1 oral vs. nasal pit — pin, seek — seen

By the degree of noise English consonants are devided into two general kinds: a) noise consonants; b) sonorants. If it is sound in which noise prevails over tone it is noise consonant (ex. p, b, fv, s, z, ð, θ )

Sonorants are sounds that differ greatly from other consonants. This is due to the fact that in their production the air passage between the two organs of speech is fairly wide, that is much wider than in the production of noise consonants. As a result, the auditory effect is tone, not noise (m, n, w, r, ŋ, l).

Consonants and sonorants may be occlusive and constrictive.

Occlusive and Constrictive consonants

According to the manner of articulation consonants may be of 3 groups:

Occlusive consonants are sounds in the production of which the air stream meets a complete obstruction in mouth.

Occlusive noise consonants ( stops ) – the breath is completely stopped at some point of articulation and then it is released with an explosion ( plosive ).

Occlusive sonorants ( nasal ) – made with a complete obstruction but the soft palate is lowered and the air stream escapes through the nose.

2. ^ Constrictive consonants apw the air stream meets an incomplete obstruction in the resonator, so the air passage is constricted.

Constrictive noise consonants ( fricatives ) – apw the air passage is constricted and the air escapes through the narrowing with friction.

Constrictive sonorants ( oral ) – made with an incomplete obstruction but with a rather wide air passage; so tone prevails over noise.

3. Occlusive – constrictive consonants ( affricates ) – noise consonant sounds produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released and the air escapes from the mouth with some friction.

labial, lingual, glottal consonants

According to the position of the active organ of speech against the point of articulation (the

place of obstruction) consonants are classified into: 1) labial, 2) lingual, 3) glottal.

Labial consonants are subdivided into: a) bilabial and b) labio-dental. Bilabial consonants are produced with both lips. They are the /p, b, m, w/. Labio-dental consonants are articulated with the lower lip against the edge of the upper teeth. They are /f, v/.

Lingual consonants are subdivided into: a) forelingual, b) mediolingual and c) backlingual.

Forelingual consonants are articulated with the tip or the blade of the tongue. According to the position of the tip of the tongue they may be: apical articulated by the tip of the tongue against either the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge /t, d, s, z, n, l/ and cacuminal /r/. According to the place of obstruction forelingual consonants may be: (1) interdental / /, (2) alveolar /t, d, s, n, l/, (3) post-alveolar /r/, (4) palato-alveolar / /

Mediolingual consonants are produced with the front part of the tongue. They are always palatal. Palatal consonants are articulated with the front part of the tongue raised high to the hard palate /j/.

Backlingual consonants are also called velar, they are produced with the back part of the tongue raised towards the soft palate “velum” /k, g, /

The glottal consonant /h/ is articulated in the glottis.

Ph mod-ns take place w/in the words which are connected and at their boundaries. All the sounds are prone to change.

19. The syllable is one or more speech sound forming a single uninterrupted unit, which may be a word or a commonly subdivision of a word. In English a syllable is formed by any vowel alone or in combination with one or more consonants and by a word-final sonorant [m,n,l] immediately by a consonant. Are, it, man – 1 syllable,table, paper – 2 syl. The English Syllable has

onset : bar/more/; Initial segment of a syllable (Optional)

nucleus: or/are Central segment of a syllable (Obligatory)

coda : ought/ art Closing segment of a syllable (Optional). English syllable : starts with either 1, or 2 or even 3 consonants. nset: the beginning sounds of the syllable; the ones preceding the nucleus. These are always consonants in English. The nucleus is a vowel in most cases, although the consonants [ r ], [ l ], [ m ], [ n ], and the velar nasal (the 'ng' sound) can also be the nucleus of a syllable.

Coda

Final : any consonant except for h,r,w,j may be final consonant. / 2 kinds of

Final Cluster : pre-final+final/final+post final

Pre-finals(m,n,nasal,l,s : bump,belt) /

Post-finals(s,z,t,d,th : bets,beds)

So the structure of English Syllable is asOnset Nucleus Coda Ex. "texts, sixths, helped, bonds, play, strings, students"

^ Functions of s-s:

1) constitutive - constitute words, phrases & s-ces through the comb-n of their prosodic features: loudness-stress, pitch-tone, duration-length & tempo. May be stressed, unstr-ed, high,mid, low, rising, falling, long, short. These pros-c features constitute the stress pattern of words, tonal& rhythmic str-re of an ut-ce, help to peform dist-ve variations on the s-le level. 2) distinctive & differentiatory f-n - word dis-ve f-n of a s-le. There are many comb-n dist-ed by means of the dif-ce in the place of the syl-c boundary. Close juncture – b-n sounds within one s-le, open – b-n two s-s, marked with+.

3) identificatory - is conditioned by the pron-n of the speaker. The listener understands if he perceives the correct s-c boundary – ‘syllabodisjuncture’ might rain – my train.

The syllabic structure has two aspects, which are inseparable from each other: syllable formation and syllable division. The syllable is one or more speech sound forming a single uninterrupted unit, which may be a word or a commonly subdivision of a word. In English a syllable is formed by any vowel alone or in combination with one or more consonants and by a word-final sonorant [m,n,l] immediately by a consonant. Are, it, man – 1 syllable,table, paper – 2 syl.

syllable division - this is a way of working out how to spell most two-syllable words and what happens when adding suffixes.

Vowels are: a e i o u and sometimes y.

They can be short or long, e.g. căp or cāpe, hŏp or hōpe. ‘Y’ acts like a vowel if it sounds like a vowel, e.g. in ‘cry’ (ī) and ‘happy’ (ē) or (ĭ), depending on your accent.

A syllable: is a beat in a word, e.g. pic nic.

Syllables can be open as in ‘no’ or ‘be’.

Here the vowel is long because there is no consonant wall blocking it.

Or they can be closed as in ‘not’ and ‘bet’.

Here we have a consonant wall blocking in the vowel and keeping it short.

Two syllable words

In words of two syllables, if we treat each syllable independently, we can easily work out how to spell and read them.

To split words logically into syllables, mark the vowel with a ‘V’ for vowel and mark the consonants between the vowels with a ‘C’ for consonant.

If there are two consonants, always divide between the consonants as in: vc/cv met/ric Here, the first syllable is closed and therefore has a short vowel sound – met. If there is only one consonant between the vowels, we usually divide before the consonant like this: v/cv o/pen The first syllable is open: ‘o’, therefore it has a long vowel sound (ō).

Regrettably, there are some exceptions, e.g. ‘robin’, but these tend to be common words, which are either already known or can be learnt as exceptions.