QUESTIONS AND TASKS

Questions:

1.What phonetic phenomenon is called “assimilation”?

2.Is assimilation found in the system of consonants or vowels?

3.Speak on the degrees of assimilation. Give examples illustrating different degrees of assimilation.

4.Speak on the direction of assimilation. Give examples.

Tasks:

1. Transcribe the words and phrases, underline forms affected by assimilation. Identify its direction:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star. White bread and butter. Meet me in the morning.

2. Transcribe the sentences, underline forms affected by assimilation. Identify its degree:

I’m not afraid. It made the children laugh and play. Try it again.

3. Read the following words and word-clusters. Pay attention to the loss of plosion. State the degree and direction of this type of assimilation:

step down; capture, act, night-time, worked, sit down, thick paper, black chairs, big cheese, fact, actress, last time, that chair, quite true, top people, stop

want to speak to you. She wanted to go there, last time, quite true, went to the station, want to speak to you, next to nothing, diamond cut diamond, great boast, last but not least, a velvet glove, quite cheap, a white chair, a hot cheese sandwich. a great chance, a fat child, good company, good dinner.

5. Read these word combinations. Pay attention to the consonants modified

6. Pronounce the following words and phrases observing the assimilation of the phonemes [ t ], [ d ], [ n ], [ l ], [ s ], [ z ] before [ T ], [ D ]. Transcribe the words:

although, breadth, anthropology, enthusiasm, wealth, anthem, aesthetic, healthy, read the book, write the letter, open the door, spell this word, fight the enemy, call the doctor, pass the word, eat the apple, don’t lose the key, mind the rule, all these, write the sentence

8. Pronounce the following words and word combinations observing lateral plosion:

battle, little, cook clean, tickle, cycle, middle, beadle, riddle, eagle, giggle, beagle, read louder, take lesson, don’t like, I’d like , I’d love to, that lesson, good luck

9. Pronounce the following words and phrases observing the assimilation of the phonemes [ t ], [ d ], [ n ], [ l ] before [ r ]. Compare the difference between words.

tie – try, die – dry, hen – Henry, all – already, sent – central, hand – hundred, child - children

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10. Analyse the following words and word combinations from the point of view of assimilation:

tree, three, dread, thread, and Russian, with Russian, thrift, thrill, throat, through, throw, thrush, thrust, dwell, language, bourgeois, always, twinkle

11. Read the following words, observing partial devoicing of sonorants after voiceless consonants. Transcribe them:

1)clay, close, cloth, claim, clap, clash, clerk, class, clasp;

2)place, play, please, plant, plastic, plate, platform, platter, playwright;

3)crab, crack, cradle, craft, cram, crane, crash, crisis, crazy, cream, creep, cricket, cry;

4)practice, praise, preface, press, pray, prefix, predicate, price, prejudice, promise, present

5)thread, three, thrift, thrill, throat, through, throw, thrush, thrust

6)trace, track, trade, traffic, tragedy, train, traitor, tram, trample,

transit, transitive, try, tremble

7)quick, quarter, quench, quiet, squash, quaver, queer, question, quit, quiz

8)twelve, twig, twenty, twilight, twin, twinkle, twist

9)swim, swab, swagger, swallow, swamp, swan, sweat, sweet, swift

12.Read the following phrases and sentences paying attention to the cases of partial devoicing:

No sweet without sweat. He gives twice who gives quickly. Every cook

praises his own broth. Truth is stranger than fiction. As the tree so the fruit. As merry as a cricket.

13.Transcribe and pronounce the words: speak, stand, sky, sport, stare; quick, swim, twinkle, dwarf; beaten, bitten, bottom, needn’t; kettle, bottle, middle, but look; drop, drug, train; thread, through, throat, threw; small, float, flower, slap.

Say what cases of assimilation should be observed in them.

14.Transcribe the following words and phrases and arrange them into groups according to cases of assimilation. There can be odd words.

asleep, o’clock, and bring them, meet me, tell them, at school, keep me, at

once, and laid, ten thousand, what wealth, in the heaven, and dark, couldn’t, wanted to phone, not remember, is that you, what’s the matter, practice, went well.

15. Classify these word combinations according to the type of consonant modification :

Will you read louder please; will you please sit down; read text 1. Write down; next time, I couldn’t match, height limit, improve your English; repeat the noun, don’t drive too fast; in the South; how much is that; at the blackboard; glad to see you; what can I do; and the guest; the doctor looked at the rib; I’ll count them; speed limit; difficult to deal; enjoyed the fair, the

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front bedroom; it’s only twelve o’clock; that clock is three minutes slow; look at the clock.

16. Intone the following rhyme, underline words affected by assimilation and read the whole rhyme correctly:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells And pretty maids all in a row.

SYLLABLE-FORMATION.

Words are divided into one or more syllables. A syllable is a speech unit consisting of one sound or a group of sounds. The main part of a syllable is a vowel sound (V). Some syllables consist of only one vowel sound. For example: eye, oh, air. If we add one or more consonant sounds to the end of these words, they are still one-syllable words: goal, count, bought, belt, etc.

In English some consonants can form a syllable. They are word-final sonorants [m], [n], [l] preceded by consonants: garden [ga:-dn], rhythm [rIðm]. Word-final sonorants are not syllabic when they are preceded by a vowel sound: sand, don’t, belt, etc.

Bear in mind that we speak about the pronunciation of words, not about their spelling. For example, some words can be divided into more syllables in their spelling than in their transcription: interesting [іn-trәs-tiŋ].

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

Questions.

1.What is a syllable?

2.What English speech sounds are syllabic?

3.When are English sonorants not syllabic?

Tasks.

1.Think of 10 words which consist of only one vowel sound. Write them both in spelling and in transcription.

2.Divide the words syllables in transcription:

3. Divide these words into three columns according to the number of syllables

in them:

teacher, photograph, garden. aunt, officer, different, passenger, uncle, fallen, Russian, don’t, arrive, film, people, castle, division, couldn’t, computer, house, programmer, can’t

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