In English there are two principal ways of linking two adjacent speech sounds:

- Merging of stages

- Interpenetration of stages

The type of junction depends on the nature of the sounds that are joined together.

Merging of stages

Merging of stages is a simpler and looser way of joining sounds together. The end of the first sound and the beginning of the second are articulated almost simultaneously. MoS takes place when sounds of different nature are joined together, the sounds articulated:

- By different organs of speech

C+V part [pa:t], V+C arm [a:m], C+C few [flu:]

- By different parts of the tongue

C+V give [giv], C+C queue [kju:], V+C eagle [i:gl], V+V curiosity [ kjuəri`ositi]

- Both by different organs of speech and by different parts of the tongue

C+V we [wi:], V+C the employee was talking [-i:w-]

Interpenetration of stages

IoS usually takes place when consonants of a similar or identical nature are joined together. In this case the end of the first sound penetrates not only into beginning but also into the middle part of the second sound.

- Similar sounds articulated by different parts of the tongue: [kt], [gd] – backlingual + forelingual occlusive sounds

- Similar sounds articulated by the same part of the tongue:

[tn], [dn], [bm] – nasal plosion

[tl], [dl] – lateral plosion

[n, t, d, l, s, z] + [Ɵ, ð] alveolar – dental

[t,d] + [ʧ, ʤ] – loss of plosion or two plosives [t] + [d], [d] + [t] hard times

- Identical sounds: hot tea, unknown

- [h] + any vowel

Cases of loose and close articulatory transition can be observed in

- the mechanism of the aspiration of the initial stressed English /p, t, k/ – loose CV transition; in Russian /п, т, к/ are unaspirated – close CV transition is observed

- Russian CV transition where a consonant is followed by a front vowel (мил, ли, бить; ср. mill, lee, beat). The result – palatalization, but in Russian close type (a more obvious softening of the consonant)

- labialization in English and in Russian: the lip-rounding in addition to the primary articulation – close CV transition: tool – Тула

22. The phenomenon of assimilation

Two adjacent(смежный) consonants within a word or at word boundaries often influence each other in such a way that the articulation of one sound becomes similar to or even identical with the articulation of the other one. This phenomenon is called assimilation.

Assimilation may affect all the features of the articulation of a consonant or only some of them:

- The work of the vocal cords and the force of articulation (used to, plate, gooseberry, what’s)

- The active organ of speech (horse-shoe)

- The place of articulation (trip – [t] – post-alveolar)

- The manner of noise production (loss of plosion, lateral plosion – act, candle) + the position of the soft palate (nasal plosion – button)

- The lip position (labialization – twin)

Assimilation may be of three degrees:

1. Complete – the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating one, horse-shoe

2. Partial – the assimilated consonant retains its main phonetic features and becomes only partly similar in some feature of its articulation to the assimilating sound, in the.

3. Intermediate – the assimilated consonant changes into a different sound, but does not coincide with the assimilating consonant, gooseberry

Assimilation may be of three types as its direction is concerned:

1. Progressive – the assimilated consonant is influenced by the preceding consonant (desks, pegs)

2. Regressive – the preceding consonant is influenced by the one following it (at the; five pence, gooseberry, raspberry)

3. Reciprocal – two adjacent consonants influence each other (twice)

Stability

Historical vs contextual / living / contemporary: nature – can’t you

Obligatory vs non-obligatory (in rapid colloquial speech): is [dental] this – this [ʃ] year

Non-obligatory Assimilation

- [s] + [ʃ] or [j] → [ʃ]: this year, nice shoes

- [z] + [ʃ] or [j] or [ʒ] → [ʒ]: as you, tells you

- [t] + [j] or [ʃ] → [ʧ]: can’t you, what shall we do?

- [d] + [j] → [ʤ]: did you, education

- [t] + [p, b, m, w] → [p]: fat boy, white bird

- [d] + - // - → [b]: good boy, good morning

- [n] + - // - → [m]: gone back, ten men

- [t] + [k, g, ŋ] → [k]: that cat, white coat

- [d] + - // - → [g]: bad cold, red gate

- [n] + - // - → [ŋ]: one cup, his own car

23. English Consonants in Connected Speech

Assimilation

Accommodation

Elision

Insertion (linking and intrusive sounds)

Two adjacent consonants within a word or at word boundaries often influence each other in such a way that the articulation of one sound becomes similar to or even identical with the articulation of the other one. This phenomenon is called assimilation.

Assimilation may affect all the features of the articulation of a consonant or only some of them:

- The work of the vocal cords and the force of articulation (used to, plate, gooseberry, what’s)

- The active organ of speech (horse-shoe)

- The place of articulation (trip – [t] – post-alveolar)

- The manner of noise production (loss of plosion, lateral plosion – act, candle) + the position of the soft palate (nasal plosion – button)

- The lip position (labialization – twin)

Assimilation may be of three degrees:

1. Complete – the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating one, horse-shoe

2. Partial – the assimilated consonant retains its main phonetic features and becomes only partly similar in some feature of its articulation to the assimilating sound, in the.

3. Intermediate – the assimilated consonant changes into a different sound, but does not coincide with the assimilating consonant, gooseberry

Assimilation may be of three types as its direction is concerned:

1. Progressive – the assimilated consonant is influenced by the preceding consonant (desks, pegs)

2. Regressive – the preceding consonant is influenced by the one following it (at the; five pence, gooseberry, raspberry)

3. Reciprocal – two adjacent consonants influence each other (twice)

The modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent consonant or, vice versa, the modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of an adjacent vowel is called accommodation.

In modern English there are three main types of accommodation.

1. An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme, e.g. tea – too, less – loose.

2. A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its advanced (fronted) variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual phoneme [j], e.g. booty – beauty.

3. A vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before the dark [l] under the influence of the latter’s back secondary focus. Thus the vowel sound in bell, tell is slightly more open than the vowel in bed, ten.

In rapid colloquial speech certain notional words may lose some of their sounds (vowels and consonants). This phenomenon is called elision. Elision occurs both within words and at word boundaries, e.g. phonetics [fəu`netiks]→[f`netiks]

Contemporary

Vowel in unstressed syllables (before or after stressed ones): literature, factory, perhaps, correct

Consonants:

[h] – has, his, etc.

[l] – all right, etc.

[nd] – sandwich, handbag, etc.

alveolar plosives before other consonants – next day [′neks ′deɪ], just one [ʤʌs ′wʌn]

two identical consonants – cupboard

Historical: write, know, listen

Occasionally in connected speech we can find sounds being inserted. When a word which ends in a vowel is followed by another word beginning with a vowel, the so-called intrusive “r” is sometimes pronounced between the vowels, e.g. Asia and Africa [‘eIʃər ənd ‘æfrIkə].

The so-called liking “r”, is a common example of insertion, e.g. clearer

When the word-final vowel is a diphthong which glides to [I] such as [aI], [eI] the palatal sonorant [j] tends to be inserted, e.g. saying [‘seIjIŋ]

In case of the [u]-gliding diphthongs [зu], [au] the bilabial sonorant [w] is sometimes inserted, e.g. going [‘gзuwIŋ]

So the process of inserting the sonorants [r], [j], [w] is apparently easier from the articulatory point of view to insert those sounds than to leave them out.

Insertion occurs in connected speech in order to facilitate(облегчать) the process of articulation for the speaker, and not as a way of providing extra information for the listener.

24. English Vowels in Connected Speech

Accommodation

Vowel reduction (unstressed vocalism in English)

Elision

Unstressed Vocalism of English

The core: the neutral vowel phoneme /ә/, its allophones – schwa-vowels

The independent phonemic status of /ә/:

/ə/ – /i/, e.g. armour — army, officers — offices, accept — except, allusion — illusion

/ә/ – /ou/, e.g. temper — tempo, solar — solo

Semi-weak vowels: e.g. [o] – obey /o'beɪ/, November /no'vembә/, to protest /pro'test/, phonetics /fo'netɪks/

Semi-Weak Vowels

I. Ward: a vowel in an intermediate position between the strong vowels and the neutral [ә]

G.P. Torsuyev: products of partial reduction in a careful and slow style of pronunciation, in recitation, e.g. [eә], [æә], etc.

V.A. Vassilyev: partially reduced vowel in a more careful style of pronunciation instead of the neutral vowel in the rapid colloquial style and instead of the corresponding vowel of full formation in the full style (the basis – the occurrence of the vowels in different styles of pronunciation)

Vowel Gradation

certain correspondences or alternations between

- stressed and unstressed vowels in different derivatives from the same root

- in different grammatical forms of the same word

- in different allomorphs of the same morpheme

Tendencies of Vowel Gradation

1. Practically any English vowel of full formation in a stressed syllable may alternate with the neutral vowel, cf.

2. The stressed /i:/ tends to alternate with the unstressed /ɪ/: compete – competition

3. The stressed /e/ often alternates with the unstressed /ɪ/: definite – define

4. The stressed /eɪ/ sometimes alternates with the unstressed /ɪ/: day – Sunday

Reduction

There are three degrees of the reduction of strong forms:

1. The reduction of the length of a vowel without changing its quality (quantitative reduction)

2. The second degree of reduction consists in changing the quality of a vowel (qualitative reduction)

3. The omission of a vowel or a consonant

In rapid colloquial speech certain notional words may lose some of their sounds (vowels and consonants). This phenomenon is called elision. Elision occurs both within words and at word boundaries, e.g. phonetics [fəu`netiks]→[f`netiks]

The modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent consonant or, vice versa, the modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of an adjacent vowel is called accommodation.

In modern English there are three main types of accommodation.

1. An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme, e.g. tea – too, less – loose.

2. A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its advanced (fronted) variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual phoneme [j], e.g. booty – beauty.

3. A vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before the dark [l] under the influence of the latter’s back secondary focus. Thus the vowel sound in bell, tell is slightly more open than the vowel in bed, ten.

25 . Principal theories of syllable formation and syllable division

It’s generally known that speech is a continuum [kən`tInjuəm]. However it can be broken into minimal pronounceable (удобопроизносимый) units. These smallest phonetic groups are called the syllables. We might say that a meaningful language unit has 2 aspects: syllable formation and syllable division which form a dialectical unity.

It is necessary to mention that the syllable is a fairy complicated phenomenon and like the phoneme it can be studied on 4 levels:

acoustic, articulatory, auditory, functional;

So it means that the syllable can be approached from different points of view. The severe complexity of this phenomenon gave rise to many theories.

The Vowel Forming Theory

The number of syllables: the number of vowels

BUT:

- Syllable forming sonorants:

1 or 2 – люстр, certain ['sɜ:tn]

2 or 3 – корабль, capable ['keɪpəbl]

- The syllable boundary:

[ðæt s fɪə] that’s fear that sphere

Expiratory Theory Chest-Pulse or Breath-Puffs Theory R.H. Stetson

- The number of syllables: the number of ехрirations (выдыхание) (chest-pulses or breath-puffs)

- The borderline between the syllables: the moment of the weakest expiration

BUT:

better – one expiration, two syllables

star – two expirations, one syllable

It fails to explain correctly the mechanism of syllable formation

Sonority Theory

O. Jesperson

The number of syllables: the number of peaks of prominence / sonority (звучность)

Sonority = 'carrying power' (degree of perceptibility ощутимость)

The peaks of sonority / the centre of the syllable – the most sonorous sounds

The Scale of Sonority

The most sonorous sounds [ɑ: ɔ: ɒ æ]

The least sonorous sounds [p t k]

The 'Arc of Loudness' Theory The 'Arc of Articulatorу Tension'

- Shcherba's statement: the centre of a syllable is a syllable forming phoneme

- M.I. Matusevich, V.A. Vassilyev, N.I. Zhinkin

- Sounds which precede or follow the syllable forming phoneme constitute a chain or an arc(дуга) which is weak at the beginning, strong in the middle, and again weak at the end

Consonants taking part in syllable formation

- Finally strong, initially weak – they begin the arc of loudness: may, tea, not

- Finally weak, initially strong – they finish the arc of loudness: it, add, not

- Double peaked / geminate (two identical/ similar sounds): what time, midday, misspell

There are as many syllables in a word as there are 'arcs of loudness'

The point of syllable division corresponds to the moment when the arc of loudness begins or ends (initially weak consonants begin a syllable, finally weak end it)

A syllable is a phonetic unit, which is pronounced by one articulatory effort accompanied by one muscular contraction, which results acoustically and auditorily in one uninterrupted arc of loudness

Syllable Division

As phoneticians point out, in the English language the problem of syllable division exists only in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters like in the word extra [`ekstrə]. In such cases the point of syllable division is not easily found.

An intervocalic consonant tends to belong to the following syllabic sound (about, writing). But this rule holds true only when a consonant is preceded by a long vowel or a diphthong as they are always free at the end and there is no need to close the syllable (music).

But in case of a short stressed vowel followed by a consonant there are 3 view points concerning the syllable boundaries:

1. the intervocalic consonant belongs to the short vowel preceding it (pit|y, bett|er);

2. the intervocalic consonant belongs to the vowel following it (pi|ty, be|tter);

3. the syllable boundary goes through the consonant;

26. Structural types of syllables in English. Function of syllable.

The structure of the syllable is known to vary because of the number and the arrangement of consonants. In English there are usually distinguished 4 types of syllables:

1. Uncovered open (or fully open by Torsyev) syllable which consists of 1 vowel sound (V) – are, or, our

2. Uncovered closed of finally closed syllable. This type of syllable is completed by 1 or more consonants (VC, VCC, VCCC) – on, act

3. Covered closed or fully closed syllable – when syllable has a vowel between consonants (CVC, CVCC, CCVC) – love, place, pen , cat

4. Covered open or initially covered syllable – when one consonant or more precede a vowel in a syllable covered at the beginning (CV, CCV, CCCV) – too, shy, straw

But we can also distinguish 1 more type of a syllable – CS (consonant sonorant) when the syllable consists of plosive consonant and sonorant which can form a syllable (m, n, l) – little, sudden, bottom

Some British linguists (Peter Roach) suggest another classification:

- A minimal syllable, a single vowel/consonant in isolation: [a:], [ɔ:], [m], [ʃ] → Nucleus – the syllabic peak

- A syllable with an onset начальные согласные слога: [ba:], [ki:], [mɔ:]

- A syllable with a coda: [æm], [ɔ:t], [i:z] = Rhyme

- A syllable both with an onset and a coda: [sæt], [fɪl]

Functions of the Syllable

- Constitutive

It lies in its ability to be a part of a word or a word itself.

- Distinctive: a name – an aim, ice cream – I cream

In this respect the syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms.

- Identificatory / Recognitive: pea stalks – peace talks

27. Syllables in English and in Russian

The structure of the English and Russian syllable are similar.

1. In Russian as well as in English a syllable is formed by a vowel sound (Я – I, акт - act). There are 4 main types of syllabic structure in both languages:

a. Uncovered open (V): are, or – а, и

b. Uncovered closed (VC): an, act – ас, ус, яд

c. Covered closed (CVC): love, cat – кот, дом

d. Covered open (CV): too, spy – сто, поле

Some linguists distinguish 1 more type (CS) consonant sonorant: little.

Usually a sonorant with a preceding consonant is never syllabic in Russian.

2. In Russian an intervocalic consonant always belongs to the following vowel and in English it may belongs to the short vowel preceding it or the syllable boundary goes through the consonant: better - поле

3. In English the most common type of the syllable is (C)VC closed: cat act, feel; and in Russian vise versa it’s open type (85%): поле, дома, мама

4. The structures of the syllable are also different a bit.

Final Consonant Clusters(скопление)
More complex – 2/3/4 Cs: seventh, texts	Seldom
Initial Consonant Clusters
2/3 – often: clue, spring, straw 4 – never	More complex 2/3/4 Cs: брат, взрыв, вскрикнуть, вздрогнуть

28. Syllable division in writing

Syllables
Phonetic	Graphic

Orthographic Syllables

The orthographic reflex of a phonetic syllable: subdivisions of words in writing or print = Syllabographs (V.I. Balinskay)

Syllables

Phonetic syllables ['leɪtlɪ] → ['leɪt-lɪ] ['leɪtə] → ['leɪ-tə] ['reɪnʤə] → ['reɪn-ʤə] ['meɪkə] → ['meɪ-kə]

Syllabographs lately → late-ly later → lat-er ranging → rang-ing maker → mak-er

Syllable Division in Writing

The morphological principle: punish → The syllabic structure: table → Meaning: housework →

pun-ish ta-ble house-work

Six rules of syllable division in writing

Never divide

- a word within a syllable

- an ending (a suffix) of two syllables: -able, -ably, -fully

- a word so that the ending of two letters begins the next line: -ed, -er, -ic (BUT: -ly)

- a word so that one part is a single letter: alone

- a word of one syllable: grave

- a word of less than five letters: open, fire

29. The nature of word stress. Functions or word stress.

The sequence of syllables in the word isn’t pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables which are uttered(произносятся) with more prominence than the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented.

The nature of word stress:

1. B.A. Bogoroditsky: an increase of energy + an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity

2. D. Jones: the degree of force + a strong force of exhalation(выдыхание) → an impression of loudness

3. A.C. Gimson: pitch changes in the voice, quality and quantity of the sound

So if we take into consideration all these opinions word stress is an articulatory and acoustic prominence which is accompanied by:

- the change of the force of utterance (or intensity, or loudness)

- pitch of the voice

- qualitative (vowel colour)

- quantitative characteristics of the sound

According to these 4 factors there are 4 types of stress in English:

The Four Factors Force (Intensity / Loudness) Tone (Pitch of the Voice) Length (Duration) Vowel Colour

Types of Stress Dynamic (Force)Stress Musical (Tonic) Stress Quantitative Stress Qualitative Stress

European languages such as English, German, French, and Russian are believed to possess predominantly dynamic word stress. The musical stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese. The quantitative - in Greek.

Our treatment of word stress as of any other component of pronunciation is based on its 3 linguistic functions:

- Constitutive

Word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a language unit having a definite accentual structure; a word doesn’t exist without a word stress.

- Identificatory or Recognitive

Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word. Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the process of communication easier.

- Distinctive: 'import – to im'port; мýка – мукá

Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or their forms.