The origin of phonetics. Subject of phonetics. Segmental and suprasegmental phonetics. Methods of phonetic investigation

1. The origin of phonetics. Subject of phonetics. Segmental and suprasegmental phonetics. Methods of phonetic investigation.

The birthplace of phonetics is considered to be Ancient India. The idea of studying sounds was brought about by the need to understand Veda (1500 BC), i.e. sacred songs (brahmans) sang during religious ceremonies. Correct reading of brahmans was crucial for priests, as those texts were believed to have come from gods and, consequently, could not be mispronounced in any way. The first description of a language was suggested by Panini (Ancient India, 300 or 400 BC) Panini’s grammar was mainly focused on phonetics and morphology of Sanskrit. It included a most detailed and accurate description of sound physiology and articulation.

The term «phonetics» is originated from the Greek word «phonetikos» which means «vocalic», «related to sounds».

At the early period of its development the aim of phonetics as a science was to study individual speech sounds => Today phonetics is understood as a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of speech in human communication.  It studies not only individual speech sounds and their behavior in the flow of speech, but the whole sound matter of a language: sounds, syllables, stress and intonation.

There are two basic levels of phonetic studies:

- segmental phonetics (it studies individual speech sounds)

- suprasegmental phonetics (it studies sound sequences)

Together, segmental and suprasegmental phonetics study the sound matter of a language, i.e. sounds, syllables, stress and intonation.

A human ear recognizes only those parts of speech that have distinctive features – The features of sound that differentiate meaning are called distinctive features. They are not the same in different languages. For example, in Russian palatalization (softening a consonant) can change the meaning of a word ([мел] - [мел’] [быт] - [быт’]). In English palatalization depends on the quality of the following vowel (e.g. light [l] before front vowels)

The major methods of phonetics investigation are the following:

• Phonetic observation. It is understood as listening to the test material, thus being an auditory method. Auditory phonetic observation suggests surveying vicious groups of informants, phoneticians whose ear is phonetically trained and naïve native speakers. The aim of this method is to find out what features in the speech flow are registered by the hearers’ brain as relevant for identifying meaning and which ones are ignored as irrelevant.
• Instrumental analysis originally applied in physiology and physics were introduced into phonetics in the middle of the 20th century. Instrumental analysis requires special equipment to register physiological and acoustic features of sounds and their sequences. Instrumental analysis was contrasted to auditory observation as a more objective method of study.
• Statistical methods in linguistics originate from mathematical statistics. They are applied to confirm the results obtained by other methods.

 

 

2. The branches of phonetics. Application of phonetics

Speech is a very complicated phenomenon, each of its aspects being a separate subject for investigation

1. Articulatory phonetics studies the physiology of speech and the mechanism of sound production. It studies the movements of the speech organs and their coordination in the production of the sounds. So, articulatory phonetics deals with the work of speech apparatus, its organs and their functioning
2. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical features of sounds. It studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear.
3. Auditory phonetics
4. Functional phonetics studies phonetics units as elements of a system in terms of their functions, mutual relations and rules of realization

Applications of phonetics

As a linguistic science, phonetics is naturally connected with other linguistic disciplines, such as grammar, lexicology, stylistics, dialectology and sociolinguistic. Also, phonetics is related to a number of non-linguistic sciences which study the processes of speech production and speech perception.

Here are just a few spheres phonetic investigation results are applied in:

- Communication engineering

- Medicine (speech pathology)

- Psychology

- Psycholinguistics

- Sociolinguistics

- Oratory

- Foreign language teaching

 

3. Articulatory characteristics of speech sounds: place, organs and manner of articulation, the work of the vocal cords. Coarticulation. Types of assimilation.

 

Articulatory phonetics is a branch of linguistics which studies the progress of sound production. All speech sounds are produced by means of the speech apparatus. The speech apparatus is principally the same with all people and consist of 3 parts: the lungs (respiratory apparatus), the larynx (which contains the vocal cords) and organs of articulation located in mouth and nasal cavities.

The air stream released by the lungs goes through the wind-pipe and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. If the tense vocal cords are brought together, the air stream forcing an opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. Such sounds are called voiced. Voiceless sounds are made with the vocal cords kept apart. There is one more state of the vocal cords – the glottal stop. When the vocal cords are brought close together and then opened suddenly by the air stream there comes a sort of coughing noise, a kind of the 'click' of the vocal cords. This sound is called the glottal stop.

The most important organ of speech is the tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four sections, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue; the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the tip. The central part of the tongue is the area where the front and back meet. The tongue may lie flat or move in the horizontal or vertical directions.

The lips can take up various positions as well. They can be brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, or protruded forward.

All the organs of speech can be divided into two groups:

1) Active organs of speech, movable and taking an active part in the sound formation:

(a) the vocal cords, which produce voice;

(b) the tongue, which is the most flexible, movable organ;

(c) the lips affecting very considerably the shape of the mouth cavity;

(d) the soft palate with the uvula, directing the stream of air either to the mouth or to the nasal cavity; (e) the back wall of the pharynx contracted for some sounds;

(f) the lower jaw, which movement controls the gap between the teeth and also the disposition of the lips;

(g) the lungs providing air for sounds;

2) Passive organs of speech:

(a) the teeth,

(b) the teeth ridge,

(c) the hard palate and

(d) the walls of the resonators.

 

In the process of speech production any sound goes through three phases of articulation:

− excursion, i.e. the moment when the speech organs get set to the position necessary to articulate a sound;

- exposure, i.e. the period of time when the speech organs stay in a certain articulatory position;

− recursion, i.e. the moment when the speech organs either return to the state of rest or get ready to articulate another sound.

Speech sounds influence each other in speech flow, thus becoming pronounced in a different way. These modifications of speech sounds are observed both within words and at word boundaries. Such intercourse between sounds in connected speech is termed «coaticulation». Coarticulation results in assimilation, when one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining sound.

There are 3 types of assimilation:

1. Direction. The influence of the neighboring sounds in English can act in:

- progressive direction. When some articulatory features of the following sound are changed under the influence of the preceding sound, which remains unchanged, assimilation is called progressive

- regressive direction.  When the following sound influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive.

- double direction. It means complex mutual influence of the sounds.

2. Degree of completeness. According to its degree, assimilation can be:

- complete (in the case when the two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one (less shy))

- incomplete (when the likeness of the adjoining sounds is partial (For example, the voiced sounds [w, l, r] are partly devoiced when preceded by the voiceless [p,t, k, s, f, Ố) within words: sweet, place, try))

3. Degree of stability. Many assimilatory phenomena have become obligatory in modern English. Changes which have taken place over a period of time within words are called historical. Besides there are a lot of widely spread but non-obligatory cases of assimilation which can be traced mainly at word boundaries

Here are some more examples of sound changes which can result from coarticulation process:

- labialization

- nasalization

- loss of plosion

- palatalization

- velarization

 

Articulatory characteristics of sounds:

1) The place of articulation where organs of sounds can come close to each other

2) Organs of articulation

3) The manner of articulation is determined by the of obstruction

4) The position of the soft palate nasal\oral

 

1) - labial [m] [b] [p] -labio-dental- [v] [f] -inter dental[ θ ] [ ð ] - alveolar [t] [d] [s] [z] [n] [l] -post-alveolar [r] -palatal [j] -velar[g] [k] [ ŋ] -glottal [h]	2) -labial [m] [b] [p] [v] [z] -lingual a) forelingual [t] [d] [s] [z] [ θ ] [ ð ][n] [r] [l] [∫][3 ][ d3] [ t∫ ] b) medialingual [j] c) backlingual [g] [k] [ŋ] - glottal [h]
3) - plosive(взрывной) [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] -fricative [f] [v][ θ ] [ ð ] [s] [z] [h] [∫][3] -affricative [d3] [ t∫ ] - approximants [w] [l] [r] [j]	4) -oral (all the other sounds) -nasal [m] [n] [ŋ]

 

4. Articulatory settings. Articulatory settings in English and Russian: comparison and contrast. Problems of foreign language acquisition.

Although the speech apparatus is the same with all humans, speakers do not use the full of its potential. Every language suggests certain manner of articulation, i.e. certain positions and movements of speech organs used by speakers of this language and tightly connected with its phonetic system. Here we can speak about articulatory settings of a language.

The articulatory settings of a language can be described through the following characteristics:

– activity,  
– localization, (eng- back, rus- front) 
– typical movements of speech organs. (the tongue - the most active; eng- move from the lower jaw upper alvelour; rus- между зубами)

 
As for localization, the Russian articulatory settings are the following:

1. The tip of the tongue is positioned against the lower teeth.  
2. The middle part of the tongue is a little raised and advanced forward.  
3. The lips are a bit protruded.

Finally, the typical movements of the speech organs are the following:

1. The tongue moves forward towards the lower teeth, touching them with the tip.

2. The tongue-tip moves upward towards the hard palate .

3. Light, smooth movements: from position 1 to the vocalic position (dental consonants + front vowels); from position 2 to the vocalic position (palatal consonants + front vowels). 
 
Articulation settings: 
1) Statics - neutral position of speech organs ( when the speaker is silent) 
2) Dynamics - position of articulation in sound to sound 

 
The Russian articulatory settings: 
1) The front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate 
2) The tip of tongue is toward and it touched the lower teeth 
3) The lips are slightly rounded 
 
The English articulatory settings:

1) Energetic, forceful articulation

2) The tip of the tongue tends to be back-retracted

3) The lips are spread and pressed against the upper teeth

4) The tip of the tongue is positioned against the lower alveoli and doesn’t touch it

Problems of foreign language acquisition.

The  articulatory settings of a language together with its prosody (rhythm and intonation) comprise  the phonetic settings of a language. Thus, «good» pronunciation presupposes the right use of both articulatory and prosodic settings. The differences between sounds which do not exist (are not meaningful)  in the native language (e.g. long/short vowels in Russian) are not perceived by the learners unless specially worked through.  The sound characteristics which do not distinguish meaning remain “unheard” by learners.

Thus, teaching pronunciation appears to be quite a problem. The question is how to teach students new phonetic settings (the one of the TL). Here are a few basic strategies applied in teaching pronunciation today: 

−  imitation;

−  contrasting the SL and TL positions of speech organs;

−  familiarizing learners with the new phonetic settings (building the phonetic system of the TL) by focusing on the crucial differences between the systems and contrasting the distinctive features of  sounds, rhythm and intonation of the two systems. 

5. Phonology: the phoneme and allophone. Complementary and parallel distribution. Distinctive features of phonemes.

 
The phoneme and allophone. 
Phonemic means "relevant to differentiate meanings of words " 
Kate-skate           pie-spy      take-stake 
[keit-skate]         [pai-spai]   [teik-steik]

 
These aspirated and non-aspirated realizations are allophones of one phoneme. They appear before in different phonetics contexts: 
-aspirated consonants appear before stressed vowels unless they are preceded by [s] 
-non-aspirated realizations appear when [p] [t] [k] are preceded by [s]

 
These two allophones are in complementary distribution: they complement each other and belong to the set of allophones of one phoneme. 
Although all the allophones are phonetically different, they are not phonologically relevant as they do not differentiate words. 
However, for the native speakers of Hindi or Korean the aspirated and non-aspirated plosives are different phonemes because they can appear in the same phonetic context and differentiate the meanings of words; in Korean they even distinguish non-aspirated, weakly aspirated and strongly aspirated voiceless consonants. Thus in Hindi and Korean [ph] and [p] are different phonemes because they occur in the same context and change the meaning of words:

e.g. Hindi: [pal] = nurture, [phal] =knife blade; [tal] =beat, [thal] =platter.

Conversely, in English and in Russian /r/ and /1/ are different phonemes as they can appear in the same phonetic context and cause semantic difference:

English: right, light— [rait], [lait];

Russian: ром — лом.

In Korean /r/ and /1/ are allophones of the same phoneme: /1/ appears at the beginning and at the end of the syllable, while /r/ is realized between vowels:

Korean: [mal] horse, [mare] at the horse; [mul] water, [mure] at the water.

This is the way Korean girls sang the once popular song in Russian: Мирион, мирион арих лоз...

Another example: in English the dental voiced fricative /ð/ and the alveolar voiced plosive /d/ are different phonemes: they appear in the same phonetic context and by replacing one for the other we get a different word, i.e. bring about a semantic contrast:

English: [dei] day, [ðei] they. 
From the point of view of distribution the English sounds /ð/ and /d/ have parallel distribution: both can occur at the beginning, at the end of a word or a syllable and between vowels: this, mother, booth, day, today, Ted.

By contrast, in Castillian Spanish the dental plosive [d] and the dental fricative [ð] are allophones of the phoneme /d/, as they appear in different phonetic contexts (complementary distribution): the dental fricative is used only between vowels: [naða] nothing, [predo] meadow. In all other contexts the plosive /d/ is used: [dias] days, [andar] to go.

Thus we can conclude that two or more sounds are allophones if they are in complementary distribution and if they are phonetically similar.  
Two or more sounds are realizations of different phonemes if they are in parallel distribution and they serve to differentiate words.

Phonetic similarity is a relevant condition for the case of/h/ and /η/ which have complementary distribution because /h/ occurs only at the beginning of a word, in syllable onset; /η/ can occur only at the end of a word, in syllable coda, but because of their phonetic dissimilarity they cannot be allophones of one phoneme.

In phonology the basic method of establishing the phonemic status of a sound is the method of finding minimal pairs. The method suggests finding at least one pair of words which are different in that sound: pit — bit, man — men, stick — sticks. When 2 words are identical except for 1 sound which makes a contrast in the meaning of words, they are said to form a minimal pair, and the 2 sounds are different phonemes. The 2 phonemes are distinguished by at least one distinctive (phonemic) feature. 
Sounds are then grouped into classes according to the features which are distinctive (phonemic) for the particular language.

In English the following features are distinctive for consonants:

1. the place of articulation
2. the manner of articulation
3. force of articulation
4. the position of the soft palate

 

The manner of articulation is determined by the type of obstruction and the manner of noise production.  
-plosives 
-fricative 
-affricates- complex consonants: they starts being articulated as plosives or occlusive and end as fricatives. The transition from occlusion to constriction is not noticeable 
-nasal 
-approximants take the intermediate position between vowels and consonants as they resemble vowels by the weaker air stream, but on the other hand, they are articulated with quite a significant force of articulation to overcome the obstruction in the mouth cavity( there 4 approximates: central app. [w] [r] [∫]; lateral app.: [l]

Force of Articulation

According to the data of instrumental analysis, consonants are fully voiced only in a formal setting, when the speech tempo is slow and the vocal cords vibrate all through the time of the sound production. On the other hand, in informal communication, when the speech is fast and careless, the vocal cords might not vibrate at all while producing such “voiced” plosives as [b], [d] or [ɡ].

Here the question arises: how are they then be distinguished from the corresponding voiceless plosives [p], [t] or [k]? How do hearers recognize them as such? What is the feature that differentiates meaning?

Researchers suppose that it is aspiration when the consonants are used in the initial position and the length of the preceding vowel when the consonants are in the final position.

e.g. such words as pay-bay, tie-die, Kate-gate are perceived as different not just because  [p], [t] and [k] are voiceless and [b], [d] and [ɡ] are voiced, but because [p], [t] and [k] are pronounced with aspiration. In contrast to English, initial [б, д, г] are always fully voiced in Russian and Romanic languages.

Now let’s consider the quality of consonants in the final position. The difference in meaning between the words  coat-code, leak-league is conditioned by the difference in the length of the preceding vowel ([t] and [k] significantly shorten preceding vowels). Similarly, the final [v], [ð], [z], [ʒ] can get completely devoiced in informal communication, when the speech tempo is fast. Thus, such word as eyes-ice, leave-leaf will be perceived as different only due to the length of the preceding vowel.

Many phoneticians consider English voiceless consonants to be produced with greater force of articulation compared to the voiced ones. Consequently, they find it more logical to differentiate English consonants not as voiced and voiceless, but as fortis (strong) and lenis (weak). This is the classification accepted now. As a rule, fortis consonants are also characterized by greater length. E.g. experiment: when the beginning of ([p], [t] and [k] was erased from the recording, native speakers of English got to identify them as [b], [d] and [ɡ].

The position of the soft palate.

English consonants are classified as either oral or nasal according to this feature.

 
6. The vowel system of English: principles of classification, distinctive features of English vowels. The vowel system of English and Russian: comparison and contrast. Articulation of similar consonants in the English and Russian languages.

The vowel system of English

There are 20 vowel sounds which have a distinctive function in Standard British English. The basic classifying features of English vowels are quality, length and position of the lips, among which quality is the only phonemic one. 
The basic classifying features: 
1) quality 
2) length 
3) position of the lips 

Vowel quality depends on the height and the front-back position of the tongue; according to the vertical position of the tongue, vowels can be close([i:] [u:]), open([o] [a:] [æ]) or mid-open (mid-high[i] [u] and mid-low[e] [ə:] [Λ] [o:]); according to the horizontal position of the tongue, they are classified into front([i:] [i] [e] [æ]), back ([u;] [u] [o:] [o] [a:]) and central ([Λ] [ə:] ). Also, vowel quality includes stability of articulation: if the vowel quality throughout its production is homogeneous it is a monophthongs([i] [e] [a:] [æ] [o] [o:] [Λ] [ə][ ə:] [u]); a change in quality results in a diphthong([ei] [ai] [oi] [au] [əu] [i ə] [u ə] [eə]); however, most of the long vowels are in between, and they are called diphthongoids([i:] [u:]).

Vowel length gives us two groups of vowel sounds, long and short, which are distinct in a number of features, such as tenseness and energy discharge: long vowels, including diphthongs, are tense, short vowels are lax. As for energy discharge, long vowels are always unchecked (free), and short vowels are checked, i.e. produced with accompanying glottal activity, involving a rapid energy discharge in a short time interval.

Position of the lips may distinguish rounded and unrounded vowels.

There is another feature to classify vowels by - position of the soft palate. This feature is not relevant for English, as all English vowels are oral; but other languages, like French, for example, may have nasal vowels; English vowels may be nasalized before a nasal consonant but the nasal quality change is not phonemic as it is not contrastive, it is allophonic.

All the 20 vowel phonemes in English can be distinguished by quality alone, and that makes this feature phonemic.

Thus the 20 RP English vowels are grouped in the following way: twelve monophthongs (seven short vowels and five long ones) and eight diphthongs. 
The vowel systems of English and Russian: major differences.

The vowel systems of English and Russian differ in the following points:

1. Stability of articulation;
2. Tongue position;
3. Length;
4. Tenseness.

 
7. Modification of vowels in connected speech: accommodation, elision. Ways of linking vowels.

There are actually some remarkable differences between the pronunciation of a word in isolation and of the same word in a block of connected speech. These changes are mostly quite regular and predictable. Modifications are observed both within words and at word boundaries.nds influence each other in the flow of speech. As a result of the intercourse between consonants and vowels and within each class there appear such processes of connected speech as assimilation, accommodation, vowel reduction and elision which is sometimes termed deletion. 
 
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphonic effect 
 
The adaptive modification of a consonant by a neighbouring consonant in the speech chain is known as assimilation. 
 
The term accommodation is often used by linguists to denote the interchanges of " vowel+ consonant type" or " consonant + vowel type", for instance, some slight degree of nasalization of vowels preceded or followed by nasal sonorants: never, men; or labialization of consonants preceding the vowel [o] and [y] in Russian : больно,  конь,  думать,  лучше. 
 
One of the wide-spread sound changes is certainly vowel reduction. Reduction is actually qualitative or quantitative weakening of vowels in unstressed position: board-blackboard, man-postman

8. The consonant system of English: principles of classification, distinctive features of English consonants. The consonant system of English and Russian languages: comparison and contrast. Articulation of similar consonants in the English and Russian languages.

In phonology the basic method of establishing the phonemic status of a sound is a method of finding minimal pairs. This method suggesting at least one pair of words which are different in that sound, e.g. pit-bit.

An analysis of the consonantal phonemes of English give a total of 24 phonemes, of which 6 are NB of restricted  occurrence:

[w, j, h, r] can only be used word – or syllable initially

[ŋ, ӡ] – only in the medial or final position

Distinctive features of consonants:

1. The place of articulation

• labial
• labia-dental
• dental
• alveolar
• palatal
• velar
• glottal

2. The manner of articulation – is determined by the type of obstruction and the manner of noise production

• plosives
• fricative
• affricates – complex consonants, start being articulated as plosives/occlusive and ends as fricatives;
• nasal
• approximants –there are 4 app.: CENTRAL [w, r, j] and LATERAL [l.] Take the intermediate position between vowels and consonants as they resemble vowels by the weaker air stream, but, on the other hand, they are articulated with quite a significant force of articulation to overcome the obstruction in the mouth cavity.

There are two types of consonants which are not characteristics of the Standard English pronunciation. They occur in other varieties of English and other languages, e. g. Russian:

• Rills or thrills are articulating with the tongue tip vibration and touching alveoli several times. E.g. Russian [р] like in words рука, река the Scottish pronounce of [r].
• Taps are articulated with the tongue tip as well, but this time it touches alveoli only once. E. g. American Eng [t] pity, [d] rider, [n] manner.

3. The force of articulation.

• fully-voiced – only in a formal setting (the speech is slow and the vocal chords vibrate all through the time of the sound production)
• fast and careless – in informal communication (vocal chords might not vibrate at all while producing such “voiced” plosives as [b, d, k])

The feature that differentiate that meaning is:

• aspiration – when the consonants are in initial position. E. g. pay-bay
• the length of the preceding vowel – when consonant are in final position. E. g. eyes – ice, leave – leaf.

1. voiceless – voiced
2. aspiration – no aspiration

Initial [б, д, г] in Russian and Romanic languages are always fully voiced.

• voiced (lenis) - weak
• voiceless (fortis) - strongs

4. The position of the soft palate

• oral
• nasal

The consonant system of English and Russian languages: comparison and contrast.

English and Russian languages  belong to the some Indo-European family of languages and there are a number of similarities between the vocalic and consonant systems.

Russian belong to a consonant type – the majority of sounds employed by this language are consonants. 36 cons. and 6 vowels.

English employs approximately = equal number of consonants and vowels – 24\20.

1. Differences in the place of articulation.

• no glottal consonants in Rus (like in Eng [h])
• no fricative velar consonants in Eng (like in Rus [х])
• a larger group of dental consonants and few aveolars in Rus VS very few dental consonants and quite a large number of alveolar in Eng
• palatalisation is a distinctive feature in Rus – it characterizes 30 consonants which form 15 oppositions – whereas in Eng it is not significant for differentiating meaning (palatalization and velarisation depend on their phonetic environment)

2. Differences in the manner of articulation

• no ralls in Standart English
• a larger group of approximants in Eng

3. Differences in the work of vocal chords

• In Eng the distinctive feature for noise consonants is force of articulation. Eng voiced consonants can be considered as such only in the intervocalic position, as they are partially or completely devoiced in other phonetic environment.
• In Rus the distinctive feature for noise consonants is the activity of the vocal chords. They are involved all through the time of sound duration. Presence or absence of articulatory tension is an optional feature in case of Rus consonants: it is not relevant for differentiating between them.

Articulation of similar consonants in the Eng and Rus languages.

[t, d, s, z, n, I, r, tʃ, dӡ, ӡ, ʃ]

Eng	Rus
The tongue tip is raised toward the alveoli, and the bulk of the tongue lies deeper in the mouth cavity than it is in Rus	The consonants are dental: tha blade of the tongue is  pressed against the upper teeth
Apical (articulated with the active tip of the tongue)	The tongue tip remains inactive
The contact between the articulators (the tongue tip and the alveoli) is loose (the tip of the tongue is pulled back from the teeth)	The contact between the articulators is close (the tongue tip is against the lower teeth) x in Eng           a different acoustic quality.

 

9. Modifications of consonants in connected speech. Assimilation, accommodation and elision. Glottal stop.

Assimilation.

Assimilation is concerned with one sound becoming phonetically similar to an adjacent sound. Sounds that belong to one word can cause changes in sounds belonging to other words. When a word’s pronunciation is affected by sounds in a neighbouring word, we call this process assimilation.

• If a phoneme is affected by one than comes later in the sentence, the assimilation is termed regressive. If a phoneme is affected by one that came earlier in the utterance, the assimilation is termed progressive.
• Assimilation of voicing

This may refer to assimilation involving the feature [+/- voice]. In a certain environment we can consequently observe the voicing or devoicing of a segment

• Assimilation of place of articulation

The most common phonemic changes at word boundaries concern changes of place of articulation, particularly involving de-alveolarization. A well-known case is that of English word-final alveolar consonants such as /t, d, n/: if a word ending in one of these consonants is followed by a word whose initial consonant begins with a bilabial, a velar or a dental, the word-final alveolar consonant is likely to change its place of articulation to match that at the beginning of the second word. Thus the word ‘that’ /ðat/ may be followed by ‘boy’ /bɔɪ/ and become /ðap/.

• Assimilation of manner of articulation

Assimilation of manner is typical of the most rapid and casual speech, in which case one sound changes the manner of its articulation to become similar in manner to a neighbouring sound. An example can be a rapid pronunciation of “Get some of that soup”, where instead of the expected /gɛt sʌm əv ðat suːp/ an English speaker says /gɛs sʌm v ðas suːp/, with /s/ replacing /t/ in two words

1. / t / changes to / p / before / m / / b / or / p / 
2. / d / changes to / b / before / m / / b / or / p / 
3. / n / changes to / m / before / m / / b / or / p / 
4. / t / changes to / k / before / k / or /g/  
5. / d / changes to / g / before / k / or / g / 
6. / n / changes to /ŋ/ before / k / or / g / 
7. / s / changes to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/ or / j /  
8. /z/changes to/ʒ/ before /ʃ/ or / j / 
9. /θ/ changes to / s / before / s / 

Elision

Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening or disappearance of vowel in unstressed positions. 
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphonic effect

• The neutral sound [ə] represents any vowel or diphthong in the unstressed position. e.g. combine [kəmbain] – combine [kombain]

 

Two different types of reduction are noticed in English:

1. Quantitative – shortening of a vowel sound in the unstressed position. e.g. he [hi:]. When does he come? [wen dəs hi kΛm].
2. Qualitative – obscuration of vowels towards [ə, i, u], affects both long and short vowels, e.g. can [lǽn]. You can easily do it. [ju: kən i:zli du: it]

Assimilation

• Place of articulation 
  • t, d > dental before [ð, θ]: eighth,

• t, d > post-alveolar before [r]: tree, dream

• s, z > post-alveolar before [∫]: this shop

• t, d > affricates before [j]: graduate, could you 
• m > labio-dental before [f]: symphony • n > dental before [θ]: seventh • n > velar before [k]: thank

• Manner of articulation 
  • loss of plosion: glad to see you, great trouble  
  • nasal plosion: sudden, at night, let me see  
  • lateral plosion: settle, at last
• Work of the vocal cords 
  • voiced > voiceless: newspaper, gooseberry 
  has, is, does > [s]; of, have > [f]
• Degree of noise 
  • sonorants > are partially devoiced after [p, t, k, s]

Accommodation

• Lip position 
  • consonant + back vowel: pool, rude, who (rounded) 
  • consonant + front vowel: tea, sit, keep (spread)

Elision

• Loss of [h] in personal and possessive pronouns and the forms of the auxiliary verb have.
• [l] lends to be lost when preceded by [o:]: always, already, all right3.3. In cluster of consonants: next day, just one. mashed potatoes.

Glottal stop

The glottal stop is a consonant sound produced when the flow of air is stopped by the glottis closing, and then released. Many languages use glottal stops, often much more than in English. The sound /t/ in ‘cat' is often a glottal stop sound.

Although it is a consonant phoneme in many languages, e.g. Hebrew and Arabic, in English the glottal stop generally appears as an allophone of /t/. This is called Glottal Replacement and is most noticeable in the form that it takes in several regional accents of British English (e.g. Cockney, Glasgow), where syllable-final /t/ between two vowels is replaced by [ʔ]. For example:

better [ˈbeʔə], Fitting [ˈfɪʔɪŋ], A bit of butter [ə ˈbɪʔ ə ˈbʌʔə]

 

10. The syllable as a phonetic and phonological unit. Syllabic structure of English words. Phonotactic rules of English and Russian: comparison and contrast.

A syllable can be defined as the minimal grouping of vowels and consonants necessary for articulation and for storing strings of phonemes in the mental representation

On the one hand, syllable is a phonetic unit. On the other hand it is a phonological unit. Groups of consonant and vowel sounds in the flow of speech are the phonetic form of the syllable, whereas groups of the corresponding phonemes stored in the memory is its phonological form.

Syllable is made up of nuclear and marginal element, with vowels acting as nuclear, syllabic elements and consonants as marginal or non-syllabic ones. Vowels are nuclear, as they are necessary components of any syllable in any language. In its full form a syllable can consist of three elements: the onset, the nucleus and the coda. The nuclear and the coda constitute the rhyme.

If a syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or a short vowel followed by a consonant, it is called long or heavy. Such syllables attract stress. The syllables with just a short vowel without a covering consonant are called short or light. They are unstressed

e.g. better [bet-ə]: [bet] – long syllable, [ə] – short syllable.

Universal tendencies in syllabification:

- Overall tendency towards open syllables (CV)

- Sound sequences are syllabified according to a sonority scale from the most sonorous to the least sonorous sounds: low vowels – high vowels – approximants – nasals – lenis fricatives – fortis fricatives - lenis stops – fotis stops e.g. blink [blıηk], twins [twınz].

- According to the principle of Maximum Onset more consonant are clustered in the onset than in the coda E.g. approve [ə-pru:v], not [əp-ru:v].

 

Language-specific phonotactic rules: English vs Russia

1.  The maximal number of consonants in an English onset is three, as in splash,

whereas in Russian a syllable onset may have four: всплакнуть. In the coda the number is reversed: the maximal number for the Russian language is three, while an English coda composed of root + affixes may have as many as four consonants.

2.   The dominance of an open syllable in Russian (CV), and a closed syllable in English (CVC).

3.   In English approximants [1], [m], [n], [r] may become syllabic after a consonant, which can be explained by the sonority rule: rhyth-m.

4.   In Russian there is a close connection between the onset consonants and the following vowels (CV-contact), which affects the quality of vowels,

e.g. мило[м’ила] – мыло [мыла] 

In English, like in all Germanic languages, there is a close contact between the vowel and the coda consonants (VC-contact), which affects the length of vowels, 

e.g. code – coat: the diphthong [ou] in “code” will be longer than in “coat”.

Positional length of vowels is present in all English dialects but it is particularly important for General American and Scottish Standard English, which do not distinguish historically long and short vowels.

 

 

 

11. Word stress: components and functions. The degrees of word stress in English. Stress shift

The word stress is understood as making certain syllable (or syllables) in a word more prominent than the others. There are four components, which serve this task: length, loudness, pitch and vowel quality.

However, the relative significance of stress components is language-specific. According to experimental evidence, the basic features of stress in Russian are length and quality of the vowel. In English the most relevant prosodic features are pitch and length of the vowel.

Word stress is classified according to its types and place. 

Types of word stress:

a)  bound (fixed) or free, depending on the position in the word. 

b)  depending on the degree of prominence:

−  main stress, marked by the last major pitch change in a word;

−  BrE secondary stress, marked by the non-final pitch change (e.g. “inter-nAtional”); AmE tertiary stress, marked by the final pitch change (e.g.” terry-tOry”).

−  minor prominence (with a non-reduced vowel and no pitch change)

−  unstressed syllable (with a reduced vowel and no pitch change)

 

Place of word stress :

The factors affecting the position of word stress are:

−  phonological pattern of a word;

−  number of syllables in a word;

−  types of affixes;

−  part of speech the word represents.

Phonological pattern of a word is determined by the correlation of strong/heavy and weak/light syllables. Strong syllables are stressed, whereas weak ones are not.  In multisyllabic words the secondary stress appears. 

The types of affixes affecting the place of word stress are: 

−  accent-neutral – able, age, al, ful, ing, less, ly, ment, ness, ous, en, those ending with -y (-ie), and ish, ism, ist, ise, er, ess;

−  accent-attracting – ade, eer, esque, ette;

−  accent-fixing -ic, ion, ity attract stress to the preceding syllable, ate fixes the stress on the third syllable from the end.

The interrelation between word stress position and part of speech the word represents is brightly illustrated by noun-verb oppositions:  e.g. accent – ac'cent.

The accent pattern of a word can be changed under the influence of rhythm. This is called stress shift,

e.g. We stayed in Belgrade.  We listened to the Belgrade Orchestra.

 

12. Accentual tendencies in English. Other factors affecting the position of word stress in English

There are four accentual tendencies in English:

1.  Recessive – original stressing the initial or the second (the root) syllable.

2.  Rhythmical – placing the primary stress on the third syllable from the end.

3.  Retentive, when a derivative retains the stress of the original word.

4.  Semantic, when the stressed morpheme is the one of greater semantic significance.

 

There are two major functions of word stress:

−  Constitutive – organizing the syllables into a language unit (a word) having a definite accentual pattern.

−  Distinctive – differentiating the meaning of words and their forms,  In English word stress can differentiate:

−  Verbs and nouns: an accent – to ac'cent,

−  Lexical meaning of words: be'low – 'billow,

−  Complex nouns and free word combinations: a 'bluebottle – a 'blue 'bottle,

−  Complex nouns and phrasal verbs: a 'walkout – to 'walk 'out).

In Russian word stress can differentiate:

−  Lexical meaning of words: мука – мука,

−  Grammatical forms of words: руки – руки.

 

The types of affixes affecting the place of word stress are: