- •Aspiration. Degrees of Aspiration.
- •Sound Drills.
- •1. Practise different degrees of aspiration in the following words:
- •In a department store
- •Leisure
- •Loss of Plosion.
- •Sound Drills.
- •3. Practise the following fragments of connected speech focusing on loss of plosion.
- •Nasal Plosion.
- •Sound Drills.
- •Duty of the student
- •Lateral Plosion
- •Sound Drills
- •1. Pronounce the following words and phrases observing lateral plosion.
- •2. Practise lateral plosion in connected speech.
- •Fricative Plosion.
- •1. Pronounce the following words and phrases observing close coarticulation of plosive and fricative consonants.
- •2. Practise fricative plosion in connected speech.
- •To a False Friend
- •Making a Cake
- •Alveolar consonants before [0, 8].
- •Sound Drills
- •1. Practice the following words and phrases. Be sure to make the sounds [t, d, n, l, s, z] dental before [0] and [8]
- •2. Practise the clusters of alveolar consonants preceding [0, 8] in connected speech.
- •Boiled Eggs
- •Sonants
- •General Remarks
- •1. Modifications of the length of English sonants.
- •2. The syllabic function of the sonants in English
- •3. Devoicing of the sonants.
- •Consonant sounds that link words.
- •Linking [r]
- •Consonantal glides [w] and [j]
- •Sound Drills.
- •1. Practise the linking [r], [w] and [j] at the junction of words. Be sure to make the glides [w] and [j] sound very short.
- •2. Practise linking at word-boundaries in connected speech.
- •Rain dying out
- •Combinations of consonants with [w]
- •Sound Drills.
- •1. Practice the following words and phrases observing assimilation in the consonant clusters with [w]
- •2. Practise consonant clusters with [w] in connected speech.
- •Consonant clusters with [r]
- •Sound Drills.
- •1. Practice the following words and phrases observing assimilation in the consonant clusters with [r]
- •1) Complete devoicing of [r]
- •2) Partial devoicing of [r]
- •3) Double assimilation
- •2. Practise consonant clusters with [r] in connected speech.
- •Airport announcements.
- •Travelling by train.
- •Absence of assimilation in some consonant clusters.
- •No assimilation according to the place or manner of articulation of English consonants
- •No assimilation according to the work of the vocal cords
- •Sound Drills.
- •2. Practise the difficult consonant clusters in the following contexts. Observe absence of assimilation.
- •Monday’s child
- •The House That Jack Built
- •A vacant seat
Airport announcements.
1. Would passengers for the 12.10 Iberia flight IB 341 to Madrid please go at once to Gate 16 where this flight is now boarding.
2. Alitalia regret to announce that their 12.15 flight AZ 381 to Rome will be delayed for approximately 30 minutes.
3. This is a call for Mr. Andrew Croydon. Would Mr. Croydon travelling on the 12.45 Sabena flight SN 603 to Brussels report to the airport information desk, please.
In-flight announcement.
This is your captain speaking. We are now passing over the English coast. Our Boeing 737 is cruising at a height of 30,000 feet and our speed is approximately 560 miles per hour. The temperature in Madrid is 18°C and it is a clear and sunny day. We expect to pass through some slight turbulence and would recommend passengers to remain in their seats and keep their belts fastened.
6.
Travelling by train.
Travelling by train has many advantages. First of all, there are no stressful traffic jams, and trains are fast and comfortable. Also, you can use the time in different ways, for example, you can just sit and read, or watch the world go by. You can work, or you can have a meal or a snack in the buffet car.
However, travelling by train also has some disadvantages. For one thing it is expensive and the trains are sometimes crowded and delayed. What is more you have to travel at certain times and trains cannot take you from door to door. You need a bus or a taxi, for example, to take you to railway station.
Despite the disadvantages, I prefer travelling by car, because I feel more relaxed when I reach my destination.
Absence of assimilation in some consonant clusters.
The foreign learner should be aware of the English assimilatory tendencies governing words in context, so as to avoid un-English assimilations.
No assimilation according to the place or manner of articulation of English consonants
Clusters of alveolar and labio-dental fricatives with interdental sounds [s – 0, z – 8, s – 8, 8 – s, 0 – z, v – 8, f – 8] and labio-dental fricatives with the bilabial sonorant [v – w, f – w] at syllable and word junctures present special difficulty for learners of English because they are only slightly different in articulation and perception and also because such contrasts as [v – w], [s – 0] etc. are not to be found in Russian. In pronouncing these clusters care should be taken to avoid assimilation according to the place* or manner of articulation, i.e. the quality of the adjacent sounds should be kept distinct.
No assimilation according to the work of the vocal cords
In English there is no regressive assimilation according to the work of the vocal cords. It means that either within words or at word boundaries 1) voiceless consonants followed by voiced ones are not voiced; 2) voiced consonants followed by voiceless ones are not devoiced.
|
e.g. absent disbelief like this his parents |
right ['#bs9nt] [d$sb$'l$:f] [la$k 8$s] [h$z pe9r9nts] |
wrong ['#ps9nt] [d$zb$'l$:f] [la$g 8$s] [h$s pe9r9nts] |
Note: Progressive assimilation according to the work of the vocal cords in English affects only the sonants [l, r, w] preceded by voiceless consonants: place, cry, twice (see the previous sections).