Section V

1. Absence of assimilation in some consonant clusters.

2. Two-stress rhythm. Structures with two stressed and inter­vening unstressed syllables.

3. Intonation of conversational formulas. ' 1. Absence of assimilation in some consonant clusters

Clusters of alveolar and labio-dental fricatives with interdental sounds [s 8, z 6, s 3, 3 s, 9 z, v 6, f 3] and those of labio­dentalfricatives with the bilabial sonorant [v w, f w ] at syllable and word junctures present special difficulty for learners of English because these consonants are only slightly different in their articulation and perception and also because such contrasts as [v —w], [s —9]etc.,arenot to be found in Russian or Belarusian. In pronouncing these clusters care should be taken to avoid assimilation according to the place or manner of articulation, which means that t h e quality of the adjacent sounds should be preserved.

SOUND DRILLS

1. Pronounce the following words and phrases. Avoid wrong assimilation in the clusters [3 z, 9 s, s 9, z 8, s 6, z 9 ].

baths bathes Elizabeth's things

booths clothes Smith's theme

truths breaths a few months

paths depths two-fifths

wreaths months three-sixths

2. Keep the consonants at word junctures distinctly different.

All I know is this. What's that? It was always the same.

Here's the play. Is there anything else? That's the latest news. That's the idea. Who owns this place? I suppose that's right.

The fact that [s], [z] become dental instead of alveolar before [0] [Ö], does not affect this rule, since it does not lead to a change in the quality (type) of the consonant (sibillant). .

It was as simple as that It was the best time to meet them.

It was the end of the story. It happened less than 4 hours ago. Her name was Thatcher. It was the day of our first meeting. This I suppose is the most difficult problem. It is the same style as the cathedral we saw in London.

3. Avoid assimilation in the [V w, f jv] clusters in these phrases and utterances.

a glass of warm milk a pair of worn-out shoes

a piece of white cloth a lot of wide streets

a fortnight of wet weather leave wonderful memories twelve white sheets of paper give wise advice receive warm letters receive wide recognition

There was a smell of wet grass in the air. The face of one of them was familiar to us. I can't believe what you say about them . There's no hope of winning the game.