15. Phonemic variants and their classification Modification of English consonants in connected speech.

Phonemic variants and their classification Modification of English consonants in connected speech.

Variants of the phoneme or allophones are sounds which occur in different environments. They are entirely predictable according to the phonetic environment. They are not opposed to one another and can’t differentiate meaning. Allophones have one or more articulatory and therefore acoustic features in common and at the same time differ from each other in some degree and belong to the same phoneme.

There are two main types of allophones:

1) principle or typical allophones which do not undergo any distinguishable changes in the chain of speech;

2) subsidiary allophones which have quite predictable changes in the articulation due to the influence of the neighbouring sounds in different phonetic situations.

Ex. The phoneme [d] when not affected by the articulation of the preceding or following sounds is a plosive, forelingual, apical, alveolar, voiced, occlusive. This is how it sounds in isolation or in the intervocalic position when it retains its typical articulatory features (leader). In this case [d] is the principal allophone. But there are the following articulatory modifications of the phoneme [d] in various phonetic contexts.

[d] is slightly palatalized before front vowels and the sonorant [j] (deal, day, did you);

[d] is pronounced without any plosion before another stop consonant (bed time, bad pain, good dog);

[d] is pronounced with the nasal plosion before the nasal consonants [n] and [m] (sudden, admit, could not, could meet);

[d] is pronounced with the lateral plosion before the lateral sonorant [l] (middle, badly, bad light);

[d] followed by [r] becomes post alveolar (dry, dream);

[d] followed by interdental [θ], [ð] becomes dental (good thing, lead the way);

[d] followed by the labial [w] becomes labialised (dwell);

[d] in the word-final position is devoiced (road, raised, old).

These modifications cause the appearance of slightly palatalized, non-plosive, nasal, lateral, post-alveolar, dental, devoiced variants of the phoneme [d] which are subsidiary.МОЖЕТ НЕ НАДО

Subsidiary variants of a phoneme are subdivided into combinatory and positional. Combinatory allophones appear due to the influence of neighbouring speech sounds (as a result of assimilation or accommodation) and to the specific way in which adjacent sounds are joined together. Positional allophones are used in different positions (word-final, initial, stressed, unstressed) traditionally according to the orthoepic norm of the language. (Ex. [l] is clear in the initial position, dark in the final: lip – pill; the variants of any vowel are longer in the word-final position than before a consonant and are longer before a voiced consonant than before a voiceless one). But the boundary between combinatory and positional variants is not clear-cut.

Thus, although allophones of the same phoneme possess similar articulatory features they may frequently show considerable phonetic difference.

Positional and combinative changes of consonants in connected speech.

Subsidiary variants of English phonemes appear due to the positional and combinative modifications of vowels and consonants in connected speech.

The appearance of variants of consonants is determined by the process of assimilation when the articulation of one sound influences the articulation of a neighbouring sound making it similar or even identical to itself. The consonant that influences a neighbouring one is called the assimilating. The consonant which is under the influence of a neighbouring one is called the assimilated.

The process of assimilation has three degrees:

1. complete - when the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with the assimilating one, in other words, when the allophone of one consonant is replaced by the allophone of a neighbouring consonant: (ex. horse-shoe [ho:∫∫u:]

2. partial – when the assimilated consonant still has some of its main phonemic features, in other words, when the subsidiary variant of the same phoneme appears (ex. twins, place, cry).

3. intermediate - when the assimilated consonant changes into a different phoneme which does not coincide with the assimilated one, in other words, when the allophone of one consonant is replaced by the allophone of some other consonant (ex. goose [gu:s] + berry = gooseberry [gu:zbəri]; news [nju:z] + paper = newspaper [nju:speipə].

According to the direction assimilation may be:

1. progressive - when the assimilated consonant is influenced by the preceding one (ex. speak);

2. regressive - when the assimilated consonant is influenced by the following one (ex. little);

3. reciprocal, or double - when the consonants influence each other (ex. twilight).

Due to the cases of assimilation the following subsidiary variants of consonants appear:

• Dental variants of the alveolar consonants [l, n, t, d, s, z] appear under the influence of interdental consonants [θ, ð] (ex. tenth, at the table, read this).

• Non-plosive variants of stop consonants [p, t, k, b, d, g] appear when two plosives occur together or when plosives are followed by affricates [d3, t∫] (ex. sit down, black chair).

• Nasally exploded variants of the stop consonants [p, b, t, d, k, g] appear before the nasal sonorants [m, n] (ex. garden, help me).

• Laterally exploded variants of the consonants [p, b, t, d, k, g] appear before the lateral sonorant [l] (ex. that lesson, middle).

• Labialized variants of consonants appear before labialized consonant [w] of the same word. (ex. dwell)

• Partially devoiced variants of the sonorants appear after syllable-initial voiceless consonants (ex. try, clean).

• Unaspirated variants of the aspirated phonemes [p, t, k] appear before an unstressed vowel and after [s] (ex. speak, skate, style).

• Post-alveolar variants of the alveolar consonants [t, d, n, 1] appear before post alveolar consonant [r] (ex. try, Henry, already).

• Alveolar variant of the post-alveolar consonant [r] appear after interdental consonants [θ, ð] (ex. three, with Russian).

The appearance of variants of consonants is also determined by the process of accommodation of consonants to the adjacent vowels. The consonant [l], for instance, has two variants in English: clear variant [l], which occurs before vowels and [j] (ex. lesson [lesn], value [vælju:]), and dark variant[l], which occurs before consonants and in word-final position (ex. children [t∫ildren], bell [bel]). An unrounded variant of a consonant is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of the following rounded vowel [o, o:, u, u:] (ex. too [tu:], call [ko:l].