Rain dying out

Much of the weather over Europe will be influenced by a large area of high pressure which extends from the bay of Biscay east into western Russia.

To the north of the high, Atlantic depressions and their associated fronts will skirt northern parts of Britain and Scandinavia.

Today fronts will spread wet and very windy weather into northwestern parts of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.

There will also be some rain preceeded by some sleet and snow in parts of Scandinavia. Much of southern Britain and many parts of central Europe will enjoy a fine spell of weather with a fair amount of warm sunshine.

A weakening cold front will spread some cloud and rain into parts of Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy. Tomorrow this cloud and rain will largely die out and then most parts of the continent will stay dry and quite bright with a fair amount of sunshine.

BRITAIN: Fronts will cross northwest Scotland today.

Northwestern parts of Scotland will have a cloudy and very windy day with gales in places. There will be rain at times, some quite heavy.

Over southern and eastern Scotland it will be largely dry and bright with some sunshine. Much of Northern Ireland will be dry and bright but the north of the province will be cloudier with a little rain or drizzle at times.

England and Wales will stay dry and fairly sunny although it will turn cloudier in northern and western areas as the day goes on.

Combinations of consonants with [w]

Consonants preceding [w] are lip-rounded (labialized) in anticipation of [w] (regressive assimilation affecting the position of lips).

e.g. dwelling, quarter, twenty, this week, pump water

In the combinations of voiceless consonants followed by [w] there is also some devoicing of the sonant (progressive assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords). Thus in the clusters ‘a voiceless consonant + [w]’ double (reciprocal) assimilation takes place.

e.g. sweep, thwart, fresh water, French windows

The devoicing is complete when [w] is preceded by [t, k] in a stressed syllable within a word.

e.g. twice, twin, quite, request

Both labialization and devoicing are most noticeable within a word and are weaker at word boundaries.

!

Avoid wrong assimilation in the sequences [v-w] and [f-w] at word junctures. Keep the labio-dental fricatives [f, v] and the bilabial sonant [w] distinctly different: a bottle of white wine; a brief walk.^*

Sound Drills.

1. Practice the following words and phrases observing assimilation in the consonant clusters with [w]

a) Pay attention to different degrees of devoicing of [w]

win – twin wig – twig weed – tweed weak – tweak which – twitch wine – twine went to – twenty why so – twice

wit – quit ween – queen west – quest white – quite wire – choir wake – quake water – quarter waiter – equator

wing – swing weed – Swede weep – sweep well – swell wash – swash warm – swarm whine – swine ware – sware

wart – thwart ward – outward, backward worm – bookworm wise – likewise word – crossword wear – footwear work – housework water – sweet-water

b)

twin twist twinkle twelve twenty twaddle twice twilight nitwit between knitwear footwear software leftward outward trustworthy swift-winged sweet-water

queen quick quiete choir question quarter quarrel quality quantity awkward request require colloquial quickway earthquake bookworm backward likewise

sweet swim switch swing sweat swirl swam swat swarm sway swine swear sweater swallow persuade crossword housework expressway

dwell dwelling dwindle dwarf headway goodwill bindweed groundwork woodwork midwinter breadwinner hardware Edward

Gwen Gwendolen penguin sanguine languid languish language linguistic distinguish

thwack thwart always railway upward subway onward brainwave someone somewhat somewhere homework dishwasher Frenchwoman

c)

It will, it won’t, this one, at once, those ones, front wheels, to swim well, wild mind, the last word, a lone wolf, a long way, superb woman, a brief walk, a cold war, brain-washing, a deep well, a stone wall, an egg whisk, barbed wire, floral wallpaper, mineral water, sweet wine, extreme west, road works, cotton wool, a formal warning, a living wage, a large wardrobe, French windows, the Ancient world, to bribe workers, to bring water.