Articulation Basis of English

The summary of all main principles of articulation of a certain language is called the articulation basis. The main points of difference between the articulation basis of English and Ukrainian are as follows:

1. The tongue is tenser and bulkier in English and has a retracted position for most of the phonemes.

2. The lips are also tenser and less movable than in Ukrainian. They are mostly spread (with the lower teeth revealed) or neutral (flat articulation).

3. English forelingual consonants (there are 12 of them) are usually apical: they are articulated with the tongue-tip against the alveoli /t, d, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ, n, l/ or against the teeth /Ɵ, ð/, while the Ukrainian ones are as a rule cacuminal.

4. All English consonants are hard (except for /ʃ, ʒ / and have no palatalized oppositions while the Ukrainian ones have (ліс – лис; люк – лук). Palatalisation in English is a phonetic mistake.

5. The English word-final voiced consonants must not be devocalised, yet they are weak (bag, sad). The English word-final voiceless consonants are strong (night, weak, tape).

6. The English plosive voiceless /p, t, k/ are pronounced with aspiration, while there are no aspirated consonants in the Ukrainian language.

7. The English sonorants /m, n, l/ are tenser and longer than the corresponding Ukrainian ones and they are syllabic when post-tonic and preceded by a consonant.

Vowel Reduction

Vowels in unstressed syllables are pronounced less distinctly than those in stressed syllables. It is possible to speak about three types of vowel reduction:

QUANTITATIVE, QUALITATIVE, COMPLETE (ZERO) REDUCTION.

1. Quantitative reduction results in the change of the length (quantity) of a vowel in an unstressed syllable. It affects long vowels and diphthongs which become half-long or short, e. g.

^|We have done it.|| /wi:/ - long

We have _\done it.|| wi^./ - half-long

We _\did it.|| /w/ - short.

Diphthongs become half-long when followed by an unstressed syllable, or short, when followed by a stressed one, but it is not reflected in transcription, e. g.

^|I’ve done it.

I have _\done it.

I _\didit.

2. Qualitative reduction is connected with the change of the quality of a vowel. There are two types of it.

1. Qualitative soft reduction, resulting in the // phoneme. The letters “e, i, y” correspond to it in spelling: expect, cinema, city, service.

2. Qualitative hard reduction, resulting in the neutral vowel /ǝ/. The letters “a, o, u” and the suffixes –er, -ar, -or, -ous correspond to it in spelling: famous, pilot, melody, actor, polar.

3. Complete reduction results in a full disappearance of a vowel in an unstressed position. It occurs before the syllabic sonorants /m, n, l/ when they are posttonic and preceded by a consonant: conversation, written, pencil.

Full and Reduced Forms

There are some words in English that retain their full forms even when they are unstressed:

1. The following words have no weak forms: ON, WELL, WHAT, THEN.

2. The negative particle ‘not’ is never reduced except when met in contracted forms: can’t, couldn’t etc.: But ^|why _\not?||

3. Prepositions in sentence-final or sense-group final positions are so slightly reduced that the quantity of short phonemes is not changed; long vowels become half-long,

e. g.^|What are you _\thinking _|of?||

4. “to have” as a principal verb has no weak form though unstressed in affirmative sentences, e. g. I ^|have a _\sister.||