10. Fill in the table:

STRONG AND WEAK FORMS

ARTICULATORY PECULIARITIES OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS

1.There are 24 consonant phonemes in English as compared with 36 in Russian.

2.Russian has no consonant phonemes like the following English phonemes:

[ w ], [ D ], [ T ], [ t ], [ d ], [ r ], [ N ], [ h ].

3.The English voiceless consonants are pronounced more energetically than the similar Russian consonants.

4.The English voiced noise consonants are much weaker than the similar Russian consonants.

5.The English voiceless plosives [ p ], [ t ], [ k ] are pronounced with aspiration in a stressed position when followed by a vowel, whereas the similar Russian consonants are pronounced without aspiration.

6.Many of the English forelingual consonants, such as [ t ], [ d ], [ 1 ], [ n ], [ s ], [ z ] have alveolar articulation whereas the similar Russian consonants have dental articulation.

7.The English consonants [ t ], [ d ], [ 1 ], [ n ], [ s ], [ z ] have apical articulation, whereas the similar Russian consonants have dorsal articulation. There is no dorsal articulation in English at all.

8.The English phonemes [S ], [ Z ] are short whereas the similar Russian consonants are long. There are no long consonant phonemes in English at all.

9.The English word-final sonorants [ m ], [ n ], [ N ], [ 1 ] are lengthened before a pause, especially when they are preceded by a short stressed vowel, whereas the similar Russian consonants are short in the same position.

10.Palatalization of consonants is not a phonemic feature in English, whereas it is a phonemic feature in Russian which has 16 pairs of palatalized and nonpalatalized consonant phonemes.

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QUESTIONS AND TASKS

Questions:

1.How many consonant phonemes are there in English? Transcribe them.

2.Why is the number of consonants in English smaller than in Russian?

3.Name English consonants that do not occur in Russian.

4.What can you say about the peculiarities of the English voiced and voiceless consonants?

5.What is aspiration? What English consonants are aspirated? Are Russian plosives aspirated?

6.What consonants are long in English? Are there long consonants in Russian?

7.What are the peculiarities of the English forelingual consonants [t, d,l, n, s, z]?

8.What consonants are called sonorants? How many sonorants are there in English? Write them in transcription.

9.What English consonants are lengthened before a pause? Give examples. Compare them with similar Russian consonants.

10.What is palatalization? Are there any palatalized consonants in English? And in Russian?

Tasks:

1. Transcribe the following sentence and underline voiced, voiceless and aspirated consonants.

The young teacher worked hard and noticed nothing around.

2.Transcribe the words and read them. Observe aspiration of the initial /p, t, k/. people, paper, purpose, possible, put, pence, pity, poor, pieces, port, penny, take, time, town, ties, tennis, took, taxis, till, teachers, turned, total, toss, tin, tons , courts, cold, careful, car, cook, covered, cost, kissed.

3.Which consonants in the following phrases and sentences are pronounced with aspiration?

Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves. To carry coal to Newcastle. To call a spade a spade.

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4. Comment on the pronunciation of sonorants in the following poem.

Those evening bells, those evening bells,

How many a tale their music tells.

Of love and home and that sweet time

When last I heard their soothing chime.

5. Compare the articulation of consonants in the following pairs of English and Russian words. What’s the difference?

6. Read the following Russian and English words. Avoid palatalization of English initial consonants before the front vowels [i ] , [i], [e], [ei]:

пей – pay; Пит – pit; кит – kit; гей – gay; тик – tick; тел – tell; дел – dell; бил – Bill; сил – sill; зил – zeal; сел – sell; мил – mill; мел – mell; Нил – nill; вилка – veal; Филя – feeling; белый – bell; тип – tip; бедный – bed; лет – let; сед – said; лес – less; бег – beg; нет - net; Вена – when; рек – reck.

7. Are there any labialized consonants in Russian? Read the following words and word combinations:

why, well, when, one, will, work, word, walk, wait, war, want, was, watch, always, twins, twelve, quick, quite, quiet, question, quantity, dwell, twelve, swell, swim, twice, worse and worse, it’s worth doing, without saying a word. What is the weather like there in winter? – It’s quite warm.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

8. Observe the difference between sounds [ w ] and [ v ]: