- •1) Phonetics as a branch of linguistics
- •2) The system of English consonants
- •3. The system of English vowels (20 phonemes)
- •1. Stability of articulation.
- •4. Comparison of English and Russian consonant system
- •5. Comparison of English and Russian vowel system
- •6. Articulatory differences between consonants and vowels
- •7. Modifications of vowels in speech
- •8. Modifications of consonants in speech
- •9. The notion of articulatory basis. Its difference in English and Russian.
- •10. L.V. Scherba classifies the pronunciation errors as phonological and phonetic.
- •11. The physical properties of a sound and their articulatory correlations and acoustic qualities
- •12. Classification of articulation transitions from sound to sound
- •13. The aspects of a sound
- •15. The notion of allophone. Classification
- •16. Functions of segmental and suprasegmental phonetic units
- •20. Accommodation
- •21. Syllabic structure of English words: formation, division, functions
- •22. Word accent: types, tendencies of place and force, function
- •23.English intonation
- •24. Speech melody as a component of English intonation
- •25. Sentence stress as a component of intonation
- •27. Phonostylistics
- •28. American English
- •29. Dialects and variants of English
- •30. English phonemes in writing
8. Modifications of consonants in speech
Speech is performed in larger units: words, phrases and texts. There are very big differences between pronouncing a word in isolation and a word in connected speech.
There is a problem of defining the phonetic status of sounds in connected speech. As a result there are some processes of phonetic changes in connected speech:
assimilation;
accommodation;
vowel reduction;
elision.
Assimilation is the adaptive modification of a consonant by neighboring sound:
eighth - at three
alveolar [t] becomes dental [Ɵ]
Accommodation is the adaptation of sounds combinations of vowel-consonants type and consonant-vowel type:
never - man (consonant-vowel type)
nasal pronunciation of vowels
больно - конь - думать
Labialization of consonants is before labialized vowels.
Vowel reduction is a quantitative or qualitative weakening of vowels in unstressed positions:
board - blackboard
man - postman
Elision is a complete loss of sounds, both vowels and consonants. In informal speech we can lose many sounds. The process cannot be neglected in defining the
phonemic status of speech sounds. These phenomena represent the economy of energy from the part of the speaker. Usually the listener doesn’t even notice this
because these changes don’t influence the meaning. The target of listener is usually to understand the meaning but sometimes the meaning can also be influenced,
for example [z] can represent has, is, does, plural, possessive, third person singular. Now let us consider which qualitative characteristics of consonants can
be changed in connected speech. Consonants can be modified according to the place of articulation: assimilation takes place when a sound changes its character
in order to look like a neighboring sound and the characteristic which is involved in this is almost always a place of articulation:
eighth - at the - said that
[t] [d] alveolar + [Ɵ] [ð] interdental = dental [t] [d]
Partial regressive assimilation
tree - true - dry - dream
[t] [d] alveolar + post alveolar [r] = post alveolar [t] [d]
Partial regressive assimilation
horseshoe - this shop
[s] [z] alveolar + [ʃ] post alveolar = post alveolar [s] [z]
Complete regressive assimilation
graduate - congratulate - did you - could you
[t] + [j]; [d] + [j] = affricates [ʧ] [ʤ]
Partial regressive assimilation
symphony
[m] bilabial + [f] labiodentals = [m] labiodentals
Partial regressive assimilation
Manner of articulation is also changed as a result of assimilation.
9. The notion of articulatory basis. Its difference in English and Russian.
The differences in the articulation of sounds in different languages are explained by the fact, that each language has it's own tendencies and most of articulation, which form the articulation basis of the language.
The articulation basis of the language is all the articulatory habits, characteristic of all the native speakers of the given language.
The main peculiarities of the English articulation basis are:
1) the tongue is broadened and flattened;
2) the tip is slightly hollowed out and slightly drawn back from the teeth;
3) the lips are neutral, they are deliberately neutralized and spread, the upper lip is tense.
English |
Russian |
|
Consonants |
|
|
Near the teeth reach, apical position of the tongue |
Tends to move to the upper front teeth, it's dorsal position |
Tip of the tongue |
Tends to occupy more retraced, more flat and lower positions, than in the articulation of the Russian consonants |
<-- |
The bulk of the tongue |
Voiceless consonants in final positions are strong, while voiced consonants are weak and partially devoiced, e.g. kept, bag |
Voiced consonants are impossible in final positions and voiceless consonants are weak (sonorants - exception) |
Voice/voiceless distinction |
Vowels |
|
|
In the articulation of the similar English sounds the protrusion does not take place [o,o:,u,u;] |
The lips are deliberately protruded and rounded, especially [a,o] |
Lips |
The tongue is slightly drawn back |
The tongue occupies mostly the front part of the mouth |
The place of the tongue |
|
|
|
Although not very tense objectively, English vowels seem tense in comparison to Russian vowels, because in English an unstressed vowel does not always differ in quality from a stressed one, e.g. [ou]open, window |
In Russian an unstressed vowel is always short, lax and different in quality from the same vowel in a stressed syllable |
Tension |
Vowels differ in length. There are historically long and short vowels. The length of vowels can differenciate words, e.g.bit - beat |
In Russian vowels differ in quality, but not in quantity. They may be pronounced in a longer way for purposes of emphasis, but the length of vowels doesn't differenciate words with different meanings |
Difference between vowels |