- •1. Phonetics as a Branch of Linguistics
- •2. Branches of Phonetics
- •3. The classification of English consonant sounds
- •4. The classification of English vowel sounds
- •5. The phoneme
- •6. Methods of phonetic analysis
- •7. Main phonological schools.
- •8. Main trends in phoneme theory
- •9. The system of consonant phonemes. Problem of affricates.
- •10. The system of vowel phonemes. Problems of diphthongs and vowel length.
- •11. The unstressed vocalism of the English language.
- •12. The notion of alternation and its types
- •13. Contextual alternations in English.
- •14. Modifications of sounds in English. Modification of English consonants in connected speech. Assimilation.
- •15. Modification of English sounds in connected speech. Elision. Accommodation. Vowel reduction.
- •16. Syllable. Functional characteristics of the syllable
- •17.Theory on syllable division and formation.
- •18. He structure and functions of syllables in English.
- •19. Nature of word stress. Place of word stress in English. Degrees of stress.
- •20. Functions and tendencies of the Englishstress
- •21. Interrelation of word stress and sentence stress.
- •22. Typology of accentual structures.
- •23. Intonation and prosody: definition, approaches, functions, spheres of application.
- •24. Components of intonation and the structure of English tone-group.
- •25. Temporal and timber components of intonation.
- •27. Spoken and written language.
- •28. The communicative function of intonation.
- •29. Extralinguistic situation and its components.
- •30. Classification of phonetic styles on suprasegmental level.
- •31. Classification of phonetic styles on segmental level. Stylistic modifications of sounds.
- •Informational
- •32. Othography and its principles.
- •33. National language, national variants, dialects.
- •34. American English as a national variety of the English language.
- •35. Variations of pronunciation within orthoepic norms.
- •36. Received Pronunciation. Classifications of main types.
- •37. The main changes in Received Pronunciation.
- •38. Main differences between southern and northern dialects of England.
- •39. Classification of pronunciation variants in English. British and American pronunciation models.
- •40. Phonostylistics. Types and styles of pronunciation in English. Intonational styles.
- •41. Standard English pronunciation. Tendencies of Modern English pronunciation
- •42. Social and territorial differentiation of English pronunciation.
- •43. Style-modifying factors
35. Variations of pronunciation within orthoepic norms.
the aggregate of norms in a national language that ensure the unity of the language’s phonetic shape. Likeorthography, uniformity in the phonetic shape of the spoken language contributes to rapid and easy languagecommunication. The concept of orthoepy includes pronunciation and the norms of suprasegmental phonetics(stress, tone and so forth). Pronunciation includes the phonetic system of a language—that is, the stock ofphonemes and the quality and realization of these phonemes under given conditions—and the phonetic shapeof individual words and grammatical forms. In Russian, for example, pl[a]tish’ (“you [familiar] pay”) and [sh]to(“what”) are correct, but pl[o]tish’ and [ch]to are not. The orthoepic significance of suprasegmental norms variesin different languages. In Russian, for example, stress that is linked to the creation of various grammaticalforms is of great importance. According to some scholars, orthoepy includes the creation of variantgrammatical forms, such as the Russian traktorá or tráktory (“tractors”).
Historically, the norms of orthoepy are established as a national language is being formed, when differentforms of speech are developing among people and the relative importance of the spoken language in the life ofa society is increasing. The strictness and uniformity of these orthoepic norms vary greatly from language tolanguage and from period to period, as does the sociolinguistic significance. Orthoepic rules have their ownlong history and are usually late in becoming established as norms of the national language.
The basic outlines of Russian orthoepic norms, the norms of the Moscow dialect, were formed as early as thefirst half of the 17th century. Only as the national language developed and was consolidated, however, did theMoscow norms become the national norms. These latter acquired their final form in the second half of the 19thcentury, although certain vacillations persisted. The orthoepic norms that existed before the OctoberRevolution of 1917 have been basically preserved. Some individual rules, however, have changed.Assimilation of soft consonants has become less regular, and, for example, [d]ve (“two [feminine]”) and [z]ver’(“beast”) can be heard along with [d’]ve and [z’]ver’. Pronunciation has in certain instances become closer tospelling.
The theater, which cultivates orthoepic norms in their purest form, was of great importance in the developmentof orthoepy. Orthoepic norms in many languages are based on stage pronunciation. The importance of orthoepyhas increased with the growth of sound motion pictures, radio, and television.
36. Received Pronunciation. Classifications of main types.
The abbreviation RP ( Received Pronunciation) denotes the accent of educated people living in London and the southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak in this way. Because of its association with education rather than region, it is the only British accent that has no specific geographical correlate: it is not possible, on hearing someone speak RP, to know which part of the. Faced with the difficulty of defining RP, many writers have tried to distinguish between different sub-varieties. Gimson (1980) proposed Conservative, General, and Advanced; Conservative RP refers to a traditional accent associated with older speakers with certain social backgrounds; General RP is often considered neutral regarding age, occupation or lifestyle of the speaker; and Advanced RP refers to speech of a younger generation of speakers.[29] Later editions (e.g. Gimson 2008) use General, Refined and Regional. Wells (1982) refers to "mainstream RP" and "U-RP"; he suggests that Gimson's categories of Conservative and Advanced RP referred to the U-RP of the old and young respectively. However, Wells stated, "It is difficult to separate stereotype from reality" with U-RP.[30] Writing on his blog in February 2013, Wells wrote, "the percentage speaking U-RP is vanishingly small" and "If I were redoing it today, I think I’d drop all mention of “U-RP”".
The modern style of RP is an accent often taught to non-native speakers learning British English.[32] Non-RP Britons abroad may modify their pronunciation to something closer to Received Pronunciation to be better understood by people unfamiliar with the diversity of British accents. They may also modify their vocabulary and grammar to be closer to those of Standard English for the same reason. RP is used as the standard for English in most books on general phonology and phonetics, and is represented in the pronunciation schemes of most dictionaries published in the United Kingdom.