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Unstressed Vocalism

The system of the unstressed vocalism of the English language is characterized by the following features: vowels in unstressed position may change in quality and in quantity, or remain unchanged. For example, the indefinite article a may be pronounced as [ə] which differs from [ei] qualitatively. The personal pronoun he may be pronounced as [hi] which differs from [hi:] quantitavely. In the word potato the sound [əu] remains unchanged though it occurs in an unaccented syllable [pə'teıtəu].

In the English language articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs which are as a rule, unstressed, are used in speech in the reduced form. The only exceptions are: the interrogative pronouns what, when, where and the demonstrative pronoun that.

It should be borne in mind that the verbs have, has, had are used in their strong form as notional verbs. They may be used in the strong form when they begin the question. When the verbs have, has, had and the pronouns he, him, his, her, who are final or medial [h] may be lost.

Not has the weak form [nt] when it follows the verbs are, should, would, is, has, have, could, dare, might.

The major role in the system of the unstressed vocalism of the English language belongs to the neutral vowel [ə] which may alternate with any vowel of full formation. E.g.

[ə] – [i:] the [ði:]-[ðə]

[ə] – [æ] as [æz] – [əz]

[ə] – [ʌ] but [bʌt] – [bət]

[ə] – [ɒ] from [frɒm] – [frəm]

[ə] – [u] could [kud] – [kəd]

[ə] – [u:] do [du:] – [də]

[ə] – [ɜ:] were [wɜ:] – [wə]

[ə] – [e] them [ðem] – [ðəm]

Qualitative changes of vowel phonemes should not be confused with their quantitative alternations when they are shortened because of different linguistic and extra linguistic factors. Examples of some strong and reduced forms:

Strong form

Reduced form

unless

[ən'les]

[n'les]

until

[ən'tıl]

[n'tıl]

whom

[hu:m]

[hum]

would

[wud]

[wəd, (a)d]

yourself

[jɔ:'self]

[jə'self]

the [ði:] – the lesson [ðə 'lesn]

land [lænd] – England ['iŋglənd]

particle['pɑ:tıkl] – particular [pə'tikjulə]

a combine [ə 'kɔmbaın] – to combine [tə kəm'baın]

toward [tə'wɔ:d] – forward ['fɔ:wəd]

fully ['fulı] -playfully ['pleifəlı]

to him [tu 'hım] – to the table [tə ðə 'teibl]

some [sʌm] – tiresome ['taıəsəm]

up [ʌp] -upon [ə'pɒn]

herd [hɜ:d] – shepherd ['ʃepəd]

face [feıs] – preface ['prefıs]

shire ['ʃaıə] – Yorkshire ['jɒ:kʃə]

mouth [mauθ] – Plymouth ['plıməθ]

folk [fəuk] – Norfolk ['nɔ:fək]

revere [rı'vıə] -reverence [revərəns]

there's [ðɛəz] – there's [ðəz]

The peculiarity of the unstressed vocalism of Russian is that an unstressed vowel never preserves its full form. The cases like potato [pə'teıtou], artistic [a:'tıstık] are very common in English and are never observed in Russian.

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