Question №5. Assimilation, accommodation, elision, juncture.

1. Assimilation- the adaptive modification of a consonant by a neighbouring consonant in a speech chain. Fortis/Lenis assimilation (with /wɪð/ in ‘with thanks’ becomes /wɪθæŋks/ OR of /ov/ in ‘of course’ becomes /ofkɔːs). Assimilation in a place of articulation (plosives, nasals): /t/ turns to /p/ before /p, b, m/ (that pen) OR to /k/ before /k, g/ (that girl) OR /d/ turns to /b/ before /p, b, m/ (good boy) OR /s/ changes to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/, /j/ (nice shoes, this year) OR /z/ changes to /ʒ/ before /ʃ/, /j/ (rose show) OR /θ/ changes to /s/ before /s/ (both sides).

2. Gemination- sounds twinning, for example, ‘a bit tired’ is pronounced like ‘ə bɪtaɪəd’.

3. Accommodation- the interchanges of "vowel + consonant type" or "consonant + vowel type", for instance, some slight degree of nasalization of vowels preceded or followed by nasal sonorants: knee- need- neat.

4. Vowel reduction- weakening of vowels in unstressed positions, for instance, ‘the boys have eaten fish’ is pronounced like ‘the boys of Eton fish’ (/əv i:tn/).

5. Weak forms. Grammatical words are words that help us construct the sentence but they do not mean anything: articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, etc. For example, we pronounce ‘will he go’ as /wɪl ɪ ‘gou/.

6. Elision- the loss of sounds which are normally present if words are pronounced slowly. For instance, mostly - /məusli/ OR loss of final /v/ in “of” before consonants (‘lots of them’).

7. Liaison- connecting of the final sound of one word or syllable to the initial sound of the next. Linking /r/ (far away = /fa:ʳəweɪ/).Intrusive /r/also involves the pronunciation of an /r/ sound, but this time there is no justification from the spelling as the word’s spelling does not end in ‘r’ or ‘re’ (China and India = /tʃaɪnəʳændɪndɪə/). Linking /j/ (seeing = sɪ:ʲɪɳ). Linking /w/ (how old = hauʷəuld).

8. Juncture- the way sounds are combined at word boundaries. For example, grey tape = great ape, a name = an aim, I scream = ice-cream.

The processes mentioned above are usually used by native speakers (rapid colloquial style) to ease pronouncing. However, the foreign learner may be aware of these processes for proper comprehension.

Билет 6

• 27. The system of English vowels.

Vowels are speech sounds pronounced so there no ‘’obstacles" to airstream (unlike the way consonants are pronounced, for example). There are 20 vowel phonemes, both monophthongs and diphthongs. Vowels are the principal sounds of syllables. They are grouped into the long and short ones.

• 28. How vowels are produced.

For the production of vowel phonemes the air comes from the lungs and goes out of the mouth without any friction. It is modified by the upper resonators of the mouth, pharyngeal and nasal cavities. The movable organs responsible for shaping these resonators are the soft palate, the tongue, and the lips.

• 29. The principles of vowels description

A description must note. The position of the of the soft palate raised for oral vowels, lowered for nasalized vowels The kind of aperture formed by the lips degrees of spreading or rounding The part of the tongue which is raised and the degree raising A vowel description is mainly based on auditory judgments together with some articulatory information especially as regards the position of the lips

• 29a The principles of vowel classification Vowels are classified according to the part of the tongue which is activated front, central and back and the degree of elevation of the tongue close, half close, half open, open

• Cardinal vowels chart

Daniel Jones devise a linguistic construction to organize a consistent vowel sound classification cardinal (основные) vowels chart. The classification of vowel sounds in the cardinal organization is based on two possible tongue positions:

1) front-to-back 2) high-to-low

• Cardinal vowels chart

-Front-to-back signifies the positions of the tongue range from farthest forward at the teeth to farthest backward at the throat in vowel formations

-High-to-low signifies the positions of the tongue that range from closest to the palate of the mouth to the furthest from the palate vowel formations.

-The vowels of all languages can be located within the variations of this cardinal quadrilateral for purposes of language transcription

• Cardinal vowels and the system of English vowels

The vowels of all languages can be located within the variations of this cardinal quadrilateral for purposes of language transcription. Since the cardinal system is imperfect and rigid, very narrow, precise transcriptions are needed to record the deviations from the Primary and Secondary cardinal vowels in various languages.

• 30a. Vowel chart explained Vertical position on the diagram denotes the vowel closeness, with close vowels at the top of the diagram, and horizontal position denotes the vowel backness, with front vowels at the left of the diagram. Vowels differ only in the position of the tongue The tongue moves vertically and horizontally within the oral cavity.

• 31. Vowels:monophthongs

The monophthong is a vowel in the production of which the organs of speech do not change their position throughout the whole duration of a vowel. l All English front vowels have the following features

1. The bulk of the tongue ispushed forward

2. Its front is raised in the direction of the hard palate.

3 The tongue-tip is placed at the lower teeth

• 32 Vowels: monophthongsll

All the back vowels are characterized by the following common features

1. The bulk of the tongue is pushed backward.

2. Its back is raised in the direction of the soft palate to different heights (high, mid, low).

3 The tongue-tip is drawn from the teeth lul.

• 33. Vowels: monophthongs Ill.

The central vowels have the following features in Common

1. The front and the blade of the tongue are equally raised. They are neither pushed forward nor retracted, occupying an intermediate position.

2. The tongue-tip is at the lower teeth

3. The lips are spread for 3:/or neutral for law.

• 34. Vowels: diphthongs

Diphthong is a monophonemic combination of two vowel elements with gliding articulation. diphthong (which The stressed element of a the always the first one in English) is called nucleus, the second one is called the glide. There are eight diphthongs in English

• 35. Classification of diphthongs According to the type of nucleus they fall into three groups:

-closing (second element is more close than the first) /ei/ai/ɔi/əʊ/aʊ

-centering(begins with a more peripheral vowel and ends with a more central one) /iə/eə/ʊə

• 37 Triphthongs

-a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third.

-triphthongs are not separate phonemes, they are a combination of a diphthong and a schwa sound

-In fast speech only two elements, the central one falls out. Tire, tower, tar- may be indistinguishable

Diphthongs 1 syllable;

triphthong 1 or 2:

lower, player 2. tower, fire-1

• 

• Cardinal vowels chart

Front-to-back signifies the positions of the tongue range from farthest forward at the teeth to farthest backward at the throat in vowel formations High-to-low signifies the positions of the tongue that range from closest to the palate of the mouth to the furthest from the palate vowel formations. The vowels of all languages can be located within the variations of this cardinal quadrilateral for purposes of language transcription