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  1. The purpose of course.

The purpose of course is not simply to explain how English is pronounced, but this course is to teach the English sounds, how they are used in the English language. Phonetics can be studied form two points of view: 1. From the points of view of phonetics; 2. And from the point of view of phonology. Phonetics is the study of the way humans make, transmit and perceive sounds. It is divided into three main branches, corresponding to these three distinctions: articulatory phonetics: the study of the way the vocal organs are used to produce speech sounds. Acoustics phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech sounds. Auditory phonetics: the study of the way people perceive speech sounds. Phonology is the study of the sound systems of languages, and of the general properties displayed by these systems. By contrast with phonetics which studies all possible sounds, that the human vocal apparatus can make, phonology studies only those contrasts in sound (the phonemes) which make differences of meaning within the language. When we listen carefully to the way people speak English, we will hear hundreds of slight differences in the way individuals pronounce particular sounds. A phonetician would be interested in describing exactly what these differences of articulation are in one word, phonetics deals with describing the sounds that we use in speaking. When we talk about the phonemes function in language and the relationship among the different phonemes we study the abstract side of the sound of the language that is phonology. Only by studying both Phonetics and Phonology it is possible to have full understanding of the use of sounds of English speech.

  1. Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetics and phonology are related, dependent fields for studying aspects of language. Phonetics is the study of sound in speech; phonology is the study (and use) of sound patterns to create meaning. Phonetics is about the physical aspect of sounds, it studies the production and the perception of sounds, called phones. Phonetics has some subcategories, but if not specified, we usually mean the "articulatory phonetics" that is "the study of the production of speech sounds by the articulatory and vocal tract by the speaker". Phonetic transcriptions are done using the square brackets, [ ]. Phonology is about the abstract aspect of sounds and it studies the phonemes (phonemic trancriptions adopt the slash / /). Phonology is about establishing what the phonemes are in a given language, i.e. those sounds that can bring a difference in meaning between two words. A phoneme is a phonic segment with a meaning value, for example in minimal pairs: bat – pat; had – hat.

  1. Phonetic transcription

Phonetic transcription (or phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or phones). The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is one of the most popular and well-known phonetic alphabets. It was originally created by primarily British language teachers, with later efforts from European phoneticians and linguists. It has changed from its earlier intention as a tool of foreign language pedagogy to a practical alphabet of linguists. It is currently becoming the most often seen alphabet in the field of phonetics. With phonetic transcriptions, dictionaries tell you about the pronunciation of words. In English dictionaries, phonetic transcriptions are necessary, because the spelling of an English word does not tell you how you should pronounce it. Phonetic transcriptions are usually written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), in which each English sound has its own symbol. The first of broad transcription was introduced by D. Jones. He realized the difference between sounds (sit – seat). Another type of broad transcription was introduced by Vasiliev.

  1. The organ of speech

Organs of speech are: nasal cavity (полость носа), lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, ‘larynx(гортань), palate (soft and hard), uvula(язычок), tongue (tip, blade(передняя часть), front, back), epiglottis(надгортанник), pharynx(глотка), vocal cords, and tra’chea(трахея). The air stream released by the lungs goes through the windpipe (дыхательное горло) and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two elastic folds (изгибы) which may be kept apart or brought together (сведены вместе). The opening between them is called the glottis (голосовая щель). If the tense(напряженный) vocal cords are brought together, the air stream forcing an opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. On coming out of the larynx the air stream passes through the pharynx. The pharyngeal(глоточный) cavity extends(простирается) from the top of the larynx to the soft palate, which directs the air stream either to the mouth or nasal cavities, which function as the principal resonators. The soft palate is the furthest part of the palate from the teeth. Most of the palate is hard. This hard and fixed part of the palate is divided into two sections: the hard palate (the highest part of the palate) and the teeth ridge or alveolar ridge. The most important organ of speech is the tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four sections, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue; the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the t i p . The lips can take up various positions as well. They can be brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, or protruded (высунуты) forward. Active organs of speech are movable and taking an active part in a sound formation: a) Vocal cords which produce voice. B) The tongue which is the most flexible (гибкий) movable organ. C) The lips affective very considerably (значительно) the shape of the mouth cavity. D) The soft palate with the uvula directing the stream of air either to the mouth or to the nasal cavity. e) The back wall of the faring contracted for some sounds. f) The lower jaw (нижняя челюсть) which movement controls the gap (промежуток) between the teeth and also the disposition of the lips. g) The lungs air for sounds. Passive organs of speech: a) the teeth; b) the teeth ridge or alveolar ridge; c) the hard palate; d) the walls of the resonators.

  1. Classification of speech sounds

Consonants. Consonants are sounds, where noise prevails (доминирует) over tone. Such sounds may be pronounced with or without vocal cords vibration. Consonants are made with air stream that meets an obstruction in the mouse or nasal cavities. On the articulatory level consonants change:

• In the degree of noise. According it consonants are divided into two classes: noise and sonorants. Noise consonant sounds according to the work of vocal cords may be voiced (lenis - слабые) or voiceless (fortis - сильные). When the vocal cords vibrate, we hear voiced: d, b, g, z, δ, v, з, dз. Voiceless: t, p, k, s, θ, f, ι, tι, h. Noise consonants may vary in the degree of force articulation. Voiceless consonants are produced with more muscular energy and breath effort, that`s why they are fortis. Voiced (lenis) consonants are produced with weak breath effort. Sonorants (sonorous consonants) are produced with tone prevailing over noise: l, m, n, η, j (й), r, w.

• In the manner of articulation. The manner of articulation depends on the type of obstruction. Obstruction may be complete (air stream meets closure (закрытие)), incomplete (air stream goes through the narrowing) and momentary. Consonants may be occlusive (смычные), constrictive (щелевые), occlusive-constrictive (affricates) and rolled. Occlusive are sounds, where air stream meets complete obstruction. Occlusive noise consonants are called stops because the breath is completely stopped and then it is released (выпускается) with an explosion (пуск). Noise consonants are divided into voiced (d, b, g) and voiceless (t, p, k). Sonorants (m, n, η) are also made with complete obstruction. During the pronunciation of constrictive consonants the air stream meets incomplete obstruction. Noise are called fricatives, because air stream goes through the narrowing with friction. Fricatives also differ in the work of vocal cords (voiced: z, δ, v, з, voiceless: s, θ, f, ι, h) and in the degree of force articulation (lenis, fortis). Sonorants: l, r, w, j. Affricates are noise consonants, which pronounced with friction (dз, tι).

• In the place of articulation. Consonants may be: labial, lingual, glottal. Labial consonants are made by the lips. They may be bilabial or labiodental. During the pronunciation of bilabial consonants both lips are active (m, w, p, b). Labiodental consonants are articulated with the lower lip against the edge of the upper teeth (f, v).

Lingual consonants are classified into forelingual, mediolingual and backlingual. Forelingual are articulated with the tip of the tongue. They may be: interdental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palato-alveolar. Interdental sounds are made with the tip of the tongue between the teeth: δ, θ. Dental sounds are produced with the blade (скольжение) of the tongue against the teeth, there are no dentals in English. Alveolars are articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge: t, d, s, z, n, l. Post-alveolars are mad when the tip of the tongue touches the back part of the alveohlar ridge or is behind it: r. Palato-alveolars are made, when the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate and the tip of the tongue touches the alveohlar ridge: dз, tι, з, ι. Mediolinguals are articulated with the front part of the tongue: j. Backimguals (are also called velars) are articulated with the back part of the tongue raised to the soft palate: k, g, η. Glottal consonant [h] is articulated in the glottis (голосовая щель).

Vowels. On the articulatory level vowels are divided:

In the stability of articulation. According to the stability of articulation all English vowels are divided into three groups: monophthongs, diphthongs and diphthongoids. In monophthongs vowels the articulation is almost unchanging. The English monophthongs are: i, e, ǽ, a:, o, o:, u, A, ә:, ә (большинство русских). In the pronunciation of diphthongoids the articulation is slightly changing, but the difference between the starting point and the end is not so distinct as in the diphthongs. English diphthongoids are: i, u (о – в русском). In the pronunciation of diphthongs the organs of speech glide from one vowel position to another within one syllable. The starting point is strong and distinct. The glide is very weak. The English diphthongs are: ei, ai, oi, au, ou, iә, еә, uә (в русском нет).

• In the tongue position. Our tongue may move up and down, forward and backward, thus changing the quality of vowel sounds.

1) When the tongue moves forward and backward, different parts of it may be raised to the palate. When the tongue is in front part of the mouth and the front part of it is raised to the hard palate, we pronounce front vowels (such as i:, i, e, әe).

When the tongue is in the back part of the mouth and the back part of it is raised towards the soft palate a back vowel is pronounced: a:, o, o:, u, u:.

When the front part of the tongue is raised to the back part of the hard palate the vowels are called central (A, ә:, ә).

2). When the tongue moves up and down different parts of it raises to different heigh in our mouth. When the front or back part of the tongue is raised high to the palate, such vowels are called high (close): i:, i, u, u:). When the front or back part of the tongue is as low as possible in the mouth low (open) are pronounced: әe:, a, o, o:). When the tip of the tongue is in position between high (close) and low (open), we pronounced mid-level vowels: e, A, ә, ә:).

• In the lip position. When the lips are neutral or spread the vowels are called unrounded: i:, i, e, әе, a:, A, ә:, ә. When the lips are together so and the opening between them is more or less round, the vowels are called rounded: o, o:, u, u:.

• In the vowel length. Vowels are capable of being continued during a long or a short period. All English vowels are divided into long (i:, a:, o:, u:, ә:) and short (i, a, o, u, ә). But for the practical speech training is not enough to know the length of vowel.

• Character of vowel end. The quality of English monophthongs in the stressed position is affected by the following consonant of the same syllable. If a stressed vowel is followed by a strong voiceless consonant it is cut off by it. In this case vowel is called checked. Such vowels are heard in stress close syllables (better).

If a vowel is followed by a weak voiced consonant or by no consonant at all the end of it is weak. In this case the vowel is called free. Such vowels are heard in close syllables or in the open syllable: before.

  1. Lip position

There are between 7 to 10 different mouth positions needed for the complete phonetic range of sounds in the English language. Each mouth position represents one or more phonemes. The shape of the mouth is also largely dependent on the position of the lips. Unrounded – when the lips are neutral or spread [i:, I, e, æ, a:, ˄ , ә:,ә]. Rounded when the lips are drawn together so that the opening between them is more or less round [ͻ, ͻ:, u, u:]. English front and central vowels are always unrounded. English back vowels //, /, /o/, // arerounded (// vowel is unrounded). Vowels are also classified according to the position of lips. They are divided into two categories 1. Un rounded 2. Rounded. Un rounded vowels are those during the articulation of which the lips are spread or natural Eg. In the English word like sit, set, sea, sat. Rounded vowels are those during the articulation of which the lips are rounded Eg. In the English words Cot, caught, put, boot, full. The lips are rounded.

  1. Differences in articulation of English and Ukrainian sounds

English consonants differ from the Ukrainian consonants in many points. 1. The number of consonant phonemes is not the same in the two languages. There are 24 consonant phonemes in the English language: [p], [b], [m], [w], [f], [v], [t] [d], [n], [tS], [dZ], [s], [z], [T], [D], [S], [Z], [l], [r], [j], [k], [g], [N], [h]. The English voiceless [w] which is usually marked by [W] or [w] (i.e. as it may be pronounced in the words which, whale, while) is not included in this number as it is not pronounced by all speakers and may be replaced by the phoneme [w]. In the Ukrainian language there are 47 consonant phonemes (16 of them are long): [П], [Б], [М], [В], [Ф], [T], [Д], [H], [Ч], [ДЖ], [C], [З], [Ц], [ДЗ], [III], [Ж], [Л], [Р], [Й], [K], [G], [X], [Г]; palatalized consonants: [Т'], [Д'], [H'], [C'], [З'], [Ц'], [Л'], [Р']; long consonants: [M], [T], [Т'], [Д], [H], [H'], [С], [C'], [З'], [Л] [Л'], [P], [Ш'], [Ж'], [Ч'], [Ц']. 2. Both Ukrainian and English consonant phonemes are classified according to the manner of the production of noise, according to the active organ, forming an obstruction and according to the work of the vocal chords. According to the active organ causing the obstruction, there are the following groups of consonants in the Ukrainian language: labial (bilabial and labiodental) and lingual (forelingual, mediolingual, backlingual). In the English language, besides the above mentioned groups, there exists a group of pharyngeal consonants, to which the English [h] belongs. The distribution of English and Ukrainian consonant phonemes among the groups of consonants is also different. The Ukrainian group of forelingual consonants includes palatalized and long phonemes and the phonemes [Ц], [ДЗ]. In its turn the English group of forelingual consonants includes the phonemes [T], [D] which do not exist in the Ukrainian language. The group of English backlingual consonants includes the phonemes [k], [g], [N], while in Ukrainian [N] does not exist, but at the same time there are two additional Ukrainian backlingual constrictive consonants [X], [Г]. There is also a difference between the phonematic systems of English and Ukrainian consonants in the articulation of similar consonants, i.e. consonants united by some common feature of articulation. Thus, in pronouncing Ukrainian forelingual consonants the place of obstruction is generally nearer to the front upper teeth than in the corresponding English consonants. The Ukrainian [T], [Д], [H], [C], [З], for example, are dental according to the passive organ of speech, while the English [t], [d], [n], [s], [z] are alveolar; the Ukrainian [P] is alveolar, the English [r] is postalveolar, etc.

  1. General characteristics of sounds

Letters and sounds must never be mixed up. Letters are written, sounds are spoken. It very useful to have written letters to remind us of corresponding sounds, but this is all they do. They cannot make us pronounce sounds which we don’t already know; they simply remind us. In ordinary English spelling is not always easy to know what sounds the letters stand for. We have 24 consonants and 20 vowels to consider. Speech sounds are grouped into language units called phonemes. A phoneme may be thought of as the smallest contrastive language unit which exists in the speech of all people belonging to the same language community in the form of speech sounds and may bring about a change of meaning. The phoneme is realized in speech in the material form of speech sounds of different type. Various speech realizations of the phoneme are called its allophones. The organs of speech are capable of uttering many different kinds of sounds. From the practical point of view it is convenient to distinguish two types of speech sounds: vowels and consonants. Vowels are voiced sounds produced without any obstruction in the supra-glottal cavities and consequently have no noise component. In the articulation of consonants a kind of noise producing obstruction is formed in the supra-glottal cavities. Such sounds may be pronounced with or without vocal cords vibration.

  1. Stress, accent

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense. The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress or lexical stress. The stress placed on words within sentences is called sentence stress or prosodic stress. The latter is one of the three components of prosody, along with rhythm and intonation. The ways stress manifests itself in the speech stream are highly language-dependent. In some languages, stressed syllables have a higher or lower pitch than non-stressed syllables – this is called pitch accent (or musical accent). Other features that may characterize stressed syllables include dynamic accent (loudness), qualitative accent (differences in place or manner of articulation, typically a more peripheral articulation), and quantitative accent (syllable length, equivalent to agogic accent in music theory). Stress may be realized to varying degrees on different words in a sentence; sometimes the difference between the acoustic signals of stressed and unstressed syllables may be minimal. Some languages, such as English, are said to be stress-timed languages; that is, stressed syllables appear at a roughly constant rate, and non-stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate this. In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation. An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside (a geographical or regional accent), the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language (when the language in which the accent is heard is not their native language), and so on. Accents typically differ in quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels and consonants, stress, and prosody. Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, the word 'accent' refers specifically to the differences in pronunciation, whereas the word 'dialect' encompasses the broader set of linguistic differences. Often 'accent' is a subset of 'dialect'.

  1. Rhythm

Rhythm is generally measured in regular flow of speech in which stressed and unstressed syllables occur at definite intervals. There are two kinds of speech rhythm: syllable-timed and stress-timed rhythm. Every language in the world is spoken with one kind of Rhythm or with the other. French, for .example, are syllable-timed language. All syllables are of equal value. They follow each other with fairly equal length and force. We hear smooth flow of syllables without a strong contrast of stress. RHYTHM IN ENGLISH, Russian and some other stress-timed languages is based primarily on the alteration of strongly and weakly stressed syllables. Within each intonation group the stressed syllables occur at fairly equal intervals of time. This means that if there are any unstressed syllables between stressed ones, they have to be fitted in without delaying the regular beat. The greater number of unstressed syllables there is between the stressed ones the more weakly and rapidly they are pronounced. The unstressed vowels in this case have a noticeably different quality — they are shortened and weakened. The English rhythmic structure is different from Russian- all the notional words are stressed, the form-words are fitted in between the stressed ones, when in Rus. almost all the words of an intonation group are stressed. To acquire a good English speech rhythm one should arrange sentences into intonations groups and then into rhythmic groups; weaken unstressed words and syllables, obscuring the vowels in them; making the stressed syllables occur regularly with in an intonation group.

  1. Reduction

Vowels in unstressed syllables are pronounced less distinctly than those in stressed syllables. It is possible to speak about 3 types of vowel reduction: Quantitative, qualitative, complete (zero) reduction. Quantitative reduction results in the change of the length (quantity) of a vowel in an unstressed syllable. It affects long vowels anddiphthongs which become half-long or short. “ ‘We have done it.”/wi:/-long. “We have ‘done it.”/wi’/-half-long; “We ‘did it.”/wi/-short. Diphthongs become half-long when followed by an unstressed, or short, when followed by a stressed one, but it is not reflected in transcription. Qualitative reduction is connected with the change of the quality of a vowel. There are two types of it: 1) Qualitative soft reduction, resulting in the /I/ phoneme. The letters “e,i,y” correspond to it in spelling: expect, cinema, city, service. 2) Qualitative hard reduction, resulting in the neutral vowel / ә/. The letters “a,o,u” and the suffixes –er,-ar,-or,-ous correspond to it in spelling: famous, pilot, melody, actor, polar. Complete reduction results in a full disappearance of a vowel in an unstressed position. It occurs before the syllabic sonorants /m, n, l/ when they are posttonic and preceded by a consonant: conversation/∫n/, written /tn/, pencil /sl/ as well as in.

  1. The system of English vowels.

The vowel is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of the lungs meets no obstruction on its way. The English vowel system consists of 20 vowel phonemes, which can be classified according to the following principles: 1. According to the stability of articulation we distinguish 12 monophthongs (2 diphthongoids among them) and 8 diphthongs. 2. According to the position of the bulk of the tongue we distinguish: a)front vowels with: the fully front /i:,e,æ/ and the front-retracted /I/;b)central vowels /ә,ɜ:,˄/; c)back vowels with: the back advanced /Ʊ, a:/ and the fully back /ʋ,ͻ:,u:/. 3. According to the tongue-height we distinguish: a)high: narrow/i:, u:/ and broad /I, Ʊ/; b) mid: narrow/e, ɜ:/ and broad / ә, ͻ:/; c) low: narrow/ ˄/ and broad / æ,a:,ʋ/. 4. According ti the duration we distinguish long and short vowel phonemes. 5. According to the degree of muscular tension we classify them into tense (all long vowels) and lax( all short vowels). 6. According to the lip position they are distinguished as labialized (rounded) and non-labialized (unrounded).

  1. Monophthongs, diphthongs, triphthongs

Vowels are normally made with the air stream that meets no closure or narrowing in the mouth, pharyngal and nasal cavities. That is why in the production of vowel sounds there is no noise component characteristic of consonantal sounds. According to the stability of articulation there are 3 groups of vowels: monophthongs, diphthongs and diphthongoids. Monophthongs are vowels the articulation of which is almost unchanging. The quality of such vowels is relatively pure. The English monophthongs are: [i, i:, e, æ , a:, ͻ, ͻ:, Ʊ,u:, ˄ , ә, ә:]. The monophthong is a vowel in the production of which the organs of speech do not change their position throughout the whole duration of a vowel. The shape of the mouth cavity is also largely dependent on the position of the lips. When the lips are neutral or spread the vowels are termed unrounded. Diphthongs - in the production the organ of speech glide from one vowel position within one syllable. The starting point, the nucleus is strong and distinct. The glide shows the direction of the quality change and is very weak. The diphthong consist of two perceptible elements [ei, ai, ͻi, au, eә, iә, uә, ͻu, ͻә]. Triphthongs [aiә, auә].

  1. General properties of consonants

  1. Types of consonants

The consonant is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of the lungs has to overcome a certain obstruction on its way. The English consonant system consist of 24 consonant phonemes which can be classified as follows:1) According to the types of obstruction (occlusive, constrictives, occlusive-constrictives or affricates); 2)according to the articulatory organ (labial, lingual, pharyngeal); 3)according to the prevalence of noise over the musical tone (noise consonants and sonorants); 4) according to the work of the vocal cords (voiced and voiceless); 5)according to the position of the soft palate (oral and nasal). There are 24 consonant phonemes in English:

  1. Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic meter and its stress patterns. A word that consists of a single syllable (like English dog) is called a monosyllable (and is said to be monosyllabic). Similar terms include disyllable (and disyllabic) for a word of two syllables; trisyllable (and trisyllabic) for a word of three syllables; and polysyllable (and polysyllabic), which may refer either to a word of more than three syllables or to any word of more than one syllable.

  1. Syllable structure

In most theories of phonology, the general structure of a syllable consists of three segments: Onset – consonant, obligatory in some languages, optional or even restricted in others; Nucleus – sonorant, obligatory in most languages; Coda – consonant, optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others. The syllable is usually considered right-branching, that is nucleus and coda are grouped together as a "rime" and are only distinguished at the second level. However, in some traditional descriptions of certain languages, the syllable is considered left-branching, that is onset and nucleus group below a higher-level unit, called a "body" or "core": Rime – right branch, contrasts with onset, splits into nucleus and coda; Body or core – left branch, contrasts with coda, splits into onset and nucleus. In some theories the onset is strictly consonantal, thus necessitating another segment before the nucleus: Initial – often termed onset, but leaving out semi-vowels; Medial – glide between initial, if any, and nucleus or rime; Final – contrasts with initial, extended rime. Although every syllable has supra-segmental features, these are usually ignored if not semantically relevant, that is in tonal languages. Tone – may be carried by the syllable as a whole or by the rime. In some theories of phonology, these syllable structures are displayed as tree diagrams (similar to the trees found in some types of syntax). Not all philologists agree that syllables have internal structure; in fact, some philologists doubt the existence of the syllable as a theoretical entity. The nucleus is usually the vowel in the middle of a syllable. The onset is the sound or sounds occurring before the nucleus, and the coda (literally 'tail') is the sound or sounds that follow the nucleus. They are sometimes collectively known as the shell. The term rime covers the nucleus plus coda. In the one-syllable English word cat, the nucleus is a (the sound that can be shouted or sung on its own), the onset c, the coda t, and the rime at. This syllable can be abstracted as a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable, abbreviated CVC. Languages vary greatly in the restrictions on the sounds making up the onset, nucleus and coda of a syllable, according to what is termed a language's phonotactics.

  1. Aspects of connected speech

Speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut borderlines between them, and the different aspects of connected speech help to explain why written English is so different from spoken English. In connected speech the sounds are subjected, in general, to two main types of influence: the reciprocal influence of neighboring sounds and the influence on sounds by larger speech units and their elements, first of all — by the stress. The first group of processes is called the combinative changes, the second group — the positional changes. Weak Forms

There are a large number of words in English which can have a "full" form and a "weak" form. This is because English is a stressed timed language, and in trying to make the intervals between stressed syllables equal, to give the phrase rhythm, we tend to swallow non-essential words. Thus, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries and articles are often lost, causing comprehension problems for students, particularly for those whose language is syllable timed. Some examples of words which have weak forms are; The relevance of certain features of connected speech to students' needs is often debated. However, this is not the case with weak forms. Learners must come to not only recognize and cope with the weak forms they hear, but also to use them themselves when speaking English. If they do not their language will sound unnatural and over formalized, with too many stressed forms making it difficult for the listener to identify the points of focus. This, the degree to which connected speech contributes towards "naturalness" or "intelligibility", is a useful starting point from which to measure the value to students of the different features of connected speech.

  1. Assimilation

In linguistics, assimilation is a common phonological process by which one sound becomes more like a nearby sound. This can occur either within a word or between words. In rapid speech, for example, "handbag" is often pronounced [ˈhambag]. As in this example, sound segments typically assimilate to a following sound (this is called regressive or anticipatory assimilation), but they may also assimilate to a preceding one (progressive assimilation). While assimilation most commonly occurs between immediately adjacent sounds, it may occur between sounds separated by others ("assimilation at a distance"). Assimilation can be synchronic— that is, an active process in a language at a given point in time— or diachronic: That is, a historical sound change. A related process is coarticulation where one segment influences another to produce an allophonic variation, such as vowels acquiring the feature nasal before nasal consonants when the velum opens prematurely or /b/ becoming labialized as in "boot". This article will describe both processes under the term, assimilation. There are four configurations found in assimilations: 1. Between adjacent segments. 2. Between segments separated by one or more intervening segments. 3. Changes made in reference to a preceding segment. 4. Changes made in reference to a following segment.

  1. Elision

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphonic effect. Some letters which are between two consonants do not sound; this refers to the sound that will be silenced. This can help the speaker to pronounce words in an easier and quicker way. Some examples of these words are:

comfortable: /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/ → /ˈkʌmftərbəl/

fifth: /ˈfɪfθ/ → /ˈfɪθ/

him: /hɪm/ → /ɪm/

laboratory: /læˈbɔrətɔri/ → /ˈlæbrətɔri/ (American English), /ləˈbɔrətri/ (British English)

temperature: /ˈtɛmpərətʃər/ → /ˈtɛmpərtʃər/, /ˈtɛmprətʃər/

vegetable: /ˈvɛdʒətəbəl/ → /ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/

Elision happens mostly in songs, in poetry, in theatrical plays, in order to maintain a particular rhythm.

  1. Intonation

The process of communication cannot be performed without intonation as it has its own functions in a sentence. These functions are: 1. the constitutive; 2. the distinctive. Intonation forms sentences. Each sentence consists of one or more intonation groups. An intonation group is a word or a group of words characterized by a certain intonation pattern and is generally complete from the point of view of meaning.

E. g. You’ll come early | and stay as long as you can | won’t you ||

Sentences are separated from each other by pauses. The end of a sentence is always recognized by a long pause; the end of a non-final intonation group is usually characterized by a shorter pause.

E. g. He’s passed his exam || He is a student now || Like most old people | he was fond of talking about old days ||

(2) Intonation also serves to distinguish the communicative types of sentences, the actual meaning of a sentence, the speaker’s emotions or attitudes to the contents of the sentence, to the listener or to the topic of conversation.

E. g. He’s passed his exam ||

Low-Fall – a statement of fact

High-Rise – a question

Low-Rise – a question with surprise

High-Fall – an exclamation

One and the same sentence pronounced with different intonation can express different emotions. Intonation is also a powerful means of differentiating the functional styles.

  1. The use of the falling and rising tones

Standard unemphatic falling intonation is the most common type of intonation in English. It is used in statements (declarative sentences), special questions, commands (imperative sentences), exclamatory sentences, in the first part of disjunctive questions and in the last part of alternative questions. (Different types of sentences are described in Basic Word Order in the section Grammar.) The final fall in English is used on the last stressed syllable of a sentence. Falling intonation is used for asking and giving information in normal, quiet, unemphatic style. At the same time, falling intonation conveys certain emotions, such as completion, finality, confidence. Falling intonation sounds more categorical, confident, and convincing than rising intonation. Compare the use of the falling tone and the rising tone in the second part of tag questions.

English rising intonation is a rather complicated phenomenon. It can express various emotions, such as non-finality, incompleteness, question, surprise, doubt, hesitation, interest, request and suggestion, politeness, readiness to continue the conversation, lack of confidence, and even insecurity. Rising intonation in English is very different from rising intonation in Russian. For example, the final rise in English general questions first goes down a little and then up, but not as high as the rise in Russian questions. Rising intonation is quite difficult to describe in words. When we speak, our voices do much more than rise or fall. The sentence may start higher or lower; stressed syllables may be stronger or weaker, higher or lower, louder or quieter, quicker or slower; the unstressed syllables may remain at the same level as the stressed syllable before them or go higher or lower. And the voices are different too. All these factors interact in intonation. rising intonation is used for the emotions mentioned above, but you should understand that rising intonation in different situations may sound differently. For example, a rise expressing surprise may sound a little different from a rise expressing polite interest or a rise asking to repeat. This material will help you understand what rising intonation means and where it is used, but you will need a lot of listening practice in order to master rising intonation. ising intonation is used in general questions, in introductory phrases (at the beginning of the sentence), in the first part of alternative questions (before "or"), in the second part of tag questions (see explanation below), in direct address, and in enumerating items in a list.