2. Study how to pronounce English aspirated consonants. Aspiration

An aspirated consonant is one that is accompanied by a brief [h] - sound.

In certain environments the English plosives / p, t, k / are aspirated. That is to say, there is a delay between the release of the primary closure of the articulators and the beginning of voicing for the sound that follows. In the word pan [pæn], for example, the voicing for [æ] does not begin immediately after the lips separate for the end of the p. There is a moment’s delay, during which the air escapes freely through the mouth, impeded neither by the lips nor by the vocal folds. This constitutes the aspiration of the p. It is one of the ways we recognize the plosive as being a p rather than a b.

Aspiration of / p, t, k / can be lost or lessen in the following phonetic environments:

- before a short vowel: pity, ton, cut;

- before an unstressed vowel: prospect, shorter;

- in final position: stop, mute, look;

- when these stops are preceded by / s /: stand, skills, speak.

3. Study the rules for the following consonants and practice them in proverbs and tongue twisters.

a) / k / Graphical rules: 1. “k”, “ck” - kite, kitten, black; 2. “c”, “cc” + “a, o, u” - card, accord, cute; 3. “qu” -- /kw / or /k / -- conquer, quiet; 4. “ch” in the borrowed words – school. Proverbs and sayings: 1. Curiosity killed the cat. 2. To carry coals to Newcastle. 3. A man is known by the company he keeps. 4. Christmas comes but once a year. 5. Cut your coat according to your cloth.

b) / l / Graphical rules: 1. “l”, “ll” - glad, tell. Proverbs and sayings: 1. Be full of bull. 2. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. 3. Live and learn. 4. Lend your money and loose your friend. 5. As large as life.

c) / p / Graphical rules: 1. “p”, “pp” - pin, capable, approach Proverbs and sayings: 1. As pretty as a picture. 2. To be like two peas in a pod. 3. To be penny-wise and pound-foolish. 4. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Tongue-twister: Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers, A pack of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers, Where’s a pack of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

d) / t / Graphical rules: 1. “t”, “tt” - take, attend; 2. “th” (in proper names) - Thomas, Minas-Tirith; 3. “ed” after voiceless consonants except “t” – jumped. Proverbs and sayings: 1. Dead men tell no tales. 2. Don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles you, it only doubles troubles and troubles others too. 3. To be too good to be true. 4. It takes two to tango.

4. Find the Ukrainian equivalents for the proverbs, choose 2-3 of them to explain.

E.g. “as pretty as a picture” means extreme beauty, perfectness of something.

5. Read the following words and transcribe them.

a) Count, cantaloupe, cult, catch, account, knick-knack, chemistry, doctor, case, score, kept, queen, liquor;

b) fall, allow, will, full, learn, Lorien, cool, bell, library, traveling;

c) happy, speak, sloppy, keeper, stopped, post-office, except, happen, practice;

d) Thane, Thames, Thailand, settlement, worked, talked, stand, steam, sent, cotton, liked.

6. Transcribe the following words, pronounce them with aspiration where necessary. Single out the words which contain the phonemes with the loss of aspiration.

Pit, poke, aspiration, talk, cup, stop, school, top, port, calm, take, claim, proper, lip, scheme, together, tilted, snap, strong, coal, timeless, count, still, skate, splash, pot, tock.

7. Answer the questions for self control.

1. What is articulation?

2. What are the main criteria for classification of consonants?

3. What is aspiration?

4. What are the cases when aspiration is lost?

5. What consonants do we call ‘semivowels’?

UNIT 4

1. Study the rules of pronouncing vowels in different types of syllables.

The main terms of the unit: syllable, speech unit, sound sequence, prominent sound, peak of a syllable, nucleus, syllabic sound, sonorant, syllabic consonant.