3. Classification of sounds of speech.

Consonants.

The first classification is manner of articulation which refers to how the sounds is produced and the way in which the airstream is modified as it passes through the vocal tract. According to the manner of articulation there are: 1. stop (is a cons characterized by complete obstruction of the outgoing airstream by the articulation, a built up of intraoral air pressure and a release – p, b, t, d, g, k); 2. fricative (is a cons produced by forcing the breath stream through a constriction formed by articulators in the vocal tract – f, v, th, TH, s, z, ш, ж, h); 3. affricative (is a cons characterized as having both a fricative and a stop manner of production – тч, дж); 4. nasal (refers to a cons produced with complete closure on the oral cavity along with a lowered velum to allow airflow through the nasal cavity – m, n, n (nasal)); 5. liquid (is a generic label used to classify two English approximant consonants – r, l); 6. glide (is a cons characterized by a continued, gliding motion of the articulators into the following vowel; also referred to as a semi-vowel, f.e. j, w).

Secondly, there is a division regarding with the place of articulation which refers to which articulators are involved in the production of particular sound. There are consonants: labio-dentals (are produced by the lower lip contacting the upper front teeth - f,v), lingua-dental (is produced with the tongue contacting the teeth - th, TH), lingua-alveolar (refers to a cons produced with tongue contacting the upper alveolar ridge - s, z, t, d, n, l), lingua-palatal (is produced with the tongue contacting the hard palate - ш, ж, r, j), glottal (is a place if articulation referring to a consonant that is produced by completely or partially constricting the glottis - h), bilabial (produced by contact of the upper and lower lips - p, b, m, w), lingua-velar (refers to a cons produced with the tongue contacting the velum - k, g, n(nasal)).

Thirdly, all the consonants can be divided by voicing. Voicing refers to whether the vocal folds are vibrating during a production of a particular consonant. There are: voiced (is produced with vibration of the adducted folds in the larynx - b, d, g, m, n) and voiceless (cons produced without vibration of the vocal folds - p, t, k, s, h).

Vowels.

Monophthongs are a sound of a single vowel: 1. Front (is produced with a forward shift of the tongue from its neutral or rest positin – i, e, бабочка); 2. Central (produced with the tongue in its neutral or rest position – a(домик), ё, э); 3. Back (produced with a backward shift of the tongue from its neutral or rest position – u, o, a). Diphthongs are two vowels produced consecutively in the same syllable by moving the articulators smoothly from the position of one to the other (ai, ou, oi).

4. Notion of phoneme and phonological system.

Phonology – the study of the sound system of the language. It studies only those contrasts in sounds, which make difference of meaning within the language. It investigates sounds as units, which serve communicative purposes. The unit – a phoneme. (linguistic level of speech chain). It a branch of phonetics that studies the linguistic function of consonant and vowel sounds, syllabic structure, word stress and prosodic features.

Phoneme – minimal abstract unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes.

- It’s a smallest unit of speech

- It distinguishes one word or word element from another.

- It’s an oppositional unit of speech.

Components of phonetic system: segmental phonemes; word stress; syllabic structure; intonation (4 components of intonation: pitch, loudness, tempo (prosodic components of intonation) timbre (not recognized unanimously, according to Sokolova) The role of intonation in speech: auditory level - realization of into in speech. Each syllable of speech has a special pitch coloring. The general function of intonation - is a communicative function. It differentiates informational content, text structure, meaning of lexical units, stylistic functions, attitude, statements\questions\commands etc.)