Лингвогуманитарный колледж Учреждения образования

«Минский государственный лингвистический университет»

Звуко-буквенные соответствия в английском языке

Практикум

Минск, 2008

Составители: Гуринович Е. А., преподаватель практической фонетики;

Кучерчук Ю. В., преподаватель практической фонетики

Практикум предназначен для учащихся лингвистических колледжей, учащихся старших классов и учителей.

Данные материалы включают теоретические сведения о звуко-буквенных соответствиях в английском языке, упражнения для совершенствования навыков чтения, а также материалы для чтения и заучивания наизусть. Материалы могут быть использованы как для аудиторной, так и самостоятельной работы.

Рассмотрено и одобрено на заседании ПЦК практической фонетики. Протокол №3 от 14 октября 2008 года

Содержание

1. The Syllable. The Principles of Syllable Division. 4

2. The Primary and the Secondary Meaning of Letters. 8

3. The Primary Sound Meanings of Vowels in Different Types of Syllables. 9

4. Reading of Stressed Vowels in Combination with Letter ”r” 18

5. Reading of Vowel Digraphs 23

6. Reading of Unstressed Vowels. 35

7. Reading of Consonants 42

8. Mute Consonants 52

9. Reading of English Consonant Clusters 54

10. Revision and Consolidation Practice 61

11. Additional Practice in Reading and Memory Work 70

1. The Syllable. The Principles of Syllable Division. The nature of the syllable.

Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel-consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not with the exceptions of [l], [m], [n], which become syllabic in a final position preceded by a consonant or between two final consonants: bottle [^|bɒtl], bottom [^|bɒtm], button [^|bʌtn].

A syllable is a speech unit which consists of a sound or a group of sounds one of which is heard more prominent than the others. This sound is the peak or the nucleus of the syllable and is called syllabic (vowels and sonorants are usually syllabic).

The English language has developed the closed type of a syllable as the fundamental one while in Russian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable formation.

The other aspect of this component is syllable division. The problem of syllable division in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters, like in such words as city, extra, standing and others.

Let us consider the word extra. There are two syllables but where should the boundary between them fall?

1. [e-kstrə]. It is unlike that people would opt for a division between [e] and [kstrə] because there are no words in English which begin with consonant sequence [kstr].

2. Similarly, a division between [ekstr] and [ə] would be unnatural.

3. [ek-strə], [eks-trə], [ekst-rə] are possible. People usually prefer either of the first two options here, but there is no obvious way of deciding between them.

In some cases we may take into account the morphemic structure of words. For example, standing consists of two syllables; on phonemic grounds [^|stæn-dIŋ], on grammatical grounds [^|stænd-Iŋ].

Syllable division rules for simple words and parts of compound words

vowel	intersyllabic sounds	boundary	examples	notes
I. Short stressed	a) single consonant	within the consonant	[ le ən] [ rı m]
	b) consonant cluster	between the consonants	[ ek1|s2|t3|rə] [ wın|dəυ] [ rıŋ|kl]	In case of intervocalic clusters we use the distributional criterion: the combination of consonants belongs to the following syllable, if such combinations are typical of English.
II. Short unstressed, long, diphthong	a) single consonant	before the consonant	[ melə|dı] [ k :|nə] [ leı|bl]
	b) consonant cluster	maximally close to the vowel	[ə| dres] [ık| spektıd] [ fα:|stə] [ peı|trən]

! The so-called thriphthongs in English are disyllabic combinations, because they contain two vowel phonemes:[ faI |ə].

Ex. 1.1 ( , track 1)

How many syllables?

One word in each set has a different number of syllables from the others. Decide which it is, then check with the recording.

Example:	lengths	if	table	on
1	destiny	chocolate	computer	afterwards
2	stopped	smashed	wanted	tried
3	Leicester	Lester	Stratford	Manchester
4	altogether	avocado	banana	Argentina
5	rhythm	chasm	through	thorough

Ex. 1.2 ( , track 1)

What stress pattern?

One word in each set has a different stress pattern from the others. Which is it? Define the type of the stressed word. Check with the recording.

Example:	picture ○	nature ○	capture ○	mature ○
1	politics	dynamic	musician	historic
2	create	supply	prostate	dictate
3	teacher	refer	eager	offer
4	edit	debit	submit	credit
5	Angela	Therese	spaghetti	banana

Ex.1.3 Transcribe and divide into syllables. Determine where the syllable boundary lies.

1.	goodness	5.	about	9.	Saturday
2.	hotter	6.	lazy	10.	export
3.	village	7.	family	11.	hourly
4.	cotton	8.	admission	12.	mathematics

Ex.1.4 Transcribe the following words, divide them into syllables and explain the rule.

1.	ninety	6.	sentence
2.	middle	7.	vowel
3.	imitate	8.	cinema
4.	teacher	9.	expensive
5.	advertise	10.	commission

Ex. 1.5 Divide the words into syllables and explain the rule in each line:

1) Ready, pocket, mother, coffee, city;

2) Bottle, couple, cattle, mitten, middle;

3) Breakfast, hedgehog, doctor, country, fifty;

4) Farmer, herself, sleepy, ninety, gloomy;

5) Extreme, abrupt, include, nasty, attract;

6) Fire, towel, vowel, lower, goer.