O`ZBEKISTON RESPUBLIKASI

OLIY VA O`RTA MAXSUS TA’LIM VAZIRLIGI

BUXORO DAVLAT UNIVERSITETI

O`RGANILAYOTGAN TIL NAZARIY ASPEKTLARI

(Nazariy fonetika)

O’QUV QO`LLANMA

BUXORO - 2022

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2
 ANNOTATSIYA
Ushbu o’quv qo’llanma 60 230 100 – Filologiya va tillarni o’qitish (roman-
german filologiyasi), 60 230 200 – Tarjima nazariyasi va amaliyoti (ingliz) ta’lim
yo’nalishi talabalari uchun mo’ljallangan bo’lib, unda talabalarning til modellari va
strukturalari haqidagi bilimlarini oshirish bilan birga ingliz tili fonetikasini
muloqotda to’g’ri qo’llashni, muloqot jarayonida Fonetik formalarni to’g’ri
ishlatishni o’rgatish orqali lingvistik kompetensiyani rivojlantirishga qaratilgan.
Barcha mavzular kommunikativ yondashuvni qo’llash orqali taqdim etilishi muhim
ahamiyatga ega.
O’quv qo’llanmadan o’qituvchilar va filologiya ve tillarni o’qitish (ingliz
tili) ta’lim yo’nalishi talabalari ham foydalanishlari mumkin.

Muallif:
QOBILOVA NARGISA

Taqrizchilar:
BAQOYEV N.B., dotsent, pedagogika fanlari nomzodi.
RASULOV Z.I., filologiya fanlari nomzodi, dotsent.

O’quv qo’llanma Buxoro davlat universiteti kengashi yig’ilishida ko’rib chiqildi va

ma’qullandi (kengashning 2022 yil “ __ ” ___________ № __ -yig’ilishi
bayonnomasi).

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 MUNDARIJA

KIRISH
ASOSIY QISM
INTRODUCTION. PHONETICS AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS
TRANSCRIPTION
PHONOLOGICAL THEORIES.
THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
THE SYSTEM OF CONSONANT PHONEMES IN ENGLISH
THE SYSTEM OF VOWEL PHONEMES IN ENGLISH
THE SYLLABIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH
TYPES OF SYLLABLE
WORD STRESS.
SENTENCE STRESS
INTONATION
TYPES OF INTONATION

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 KIRISH

O`rganilayotgan til nazariy aspektlari fani uch moduldan iborat bo’lib ular
“Ingliz tilli nazariy fonetikasi”, “Ingliz tili nazariy grammatikasi” hamda
“Leksikologiya” fanlarini o’z ichiga oladi. Ushbu fanlar bir-biri bilan chambarchas
bog’liq bo’lganligi uchun tizimlashtirilgan holda “O`rganilayotgan til nazariy
aspektlari” nomi bilan umumiy ataladi hamda modullarga bo’lingan holda
o’rgatiladi. Ingliz tili nazariy fonetikasi tovush strukturasi, talaffuz normalari,
bo’g’in yasalish qoidalari, urg’u, intonatsiya kabi fonetik birliklarni o’rgatadi.
Leksikologiya so‘z ma‘nosi xususiyatlari, til lug‘at tarkibining asosiy birliklari,
so’zning morphologik, leksik, semantik tuzilishi so‘zlarning yasalishi, frazeologik
birikmalar, so‘zlarning kelib chiqishi haqidagi bilimlarni o’rgatadi. Ingliz tili
tovush strukturasini o’rganadigan nazariy grammatika lingvistik nazariy fanlarning
ajralmas qismi bo’lib, ingliz filologiyasi bo’limlarida alohida fan sifatida o’qitiladi.
Nazariy Fonetikaning asosiy maqsadi talabalarga ingliz tilining tovush
strukturasini o’rgatish, ularni ilmiy maktablar, oqimlar hamda lingvistik
konsepsiyalar hamda tilshunoslikning munozarali muammolari bilan
tanishtirishdan iborat.

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 THEME 1: INTRODUCTION. PHONETICS AS A BRANCH OF
LINGUISTICS
Plan
1. Phonetics and its aspects.
2. Types of phonetics.
3. Phonetic elements and its functions.

Key Words
Phonetic substance - human speech, Physical media - sounds, syllables, stress,
intonation, Phonetics - a special science of phonic substance, Phoneme - the
smallest meaningless unit of the language

By the term language we mean the typically human ability to encode

introaudible, or otherwise, meaning signal. Human speech is called the "Phonetic
substance" in which linguistic forms are manifested. The speech maybe either
oral or written. Phonetics (from the Greek word "phone" - meaning sound, voice
and "-tika" a science) is a special science which studies the phonic substance and
the expressions area of the language, or otherwise the physical media of a
language (sounds, syllables, stress and intonation). The linguistic form and
content are described by other branches of linguistics, namely grammar
(morphology and syntax), lexicology (lexicon or vocabulary, the formation and
the meaning of the words) and stylistics (expressive -emotional meanings).
Phonetics has four aspects.
1. Articulatory aspect - it studies the movement of organs of speech, during
pronunciation.
2. Methods of articulatory1st - method is called the method of direct of
observation. 2nd - method is X - ray photography. 3rd - method is Palatagraphy.
This method is used in investigation of consonant sounds.
3. Acoustic system - there is a science which is call physics. (In this aspect
phonetics -calls acoustical phonetics). They have there own names. Methods of
acoustic:
Spectography - used in modern phonetics. Here used viserable speech.
Intonography.
Oscilography.
Subjective methods - to put that what we thinking. Objective methods -
include all aspects.
4. Perceptual aspect or auditory aspect - each of them has 3-4 names. The
human' speech is perceive in different may. Ex, ice - cream - мороженое, I
scream - я кричу, a name - an aim.
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 5. Phonological and functional aspect. Language functions with its own
function. Language is a social phenomena.
The articulatory & acoustic features, which served to distinguish one
phoneme from another is called -a phonological or a distinctive feature of
phoneme.
The phoneme is the smallest meaningless unit of the language - which
serve to distinguish~words arid morphemes. The contrasts, which distinguish two
phonemes, are called phonological oppositions. Ex, [k. - g], [p -1], [t - s], [1 - r]
etc.
The words, which are used to illustrate ph - cal words.
Take - make, hat - cat.
There are 4 types of phonetics exist in English language.
2. Historical phonetics - (anachronical, evolutional) studies all the type of ph - tic
changes in the course of the development of the science "the history of the
language".
3. Comparative typological phonetics - studies similar and different features of
two or ' 1 more languages, which compares two or more phonetic structure of
the languages.
4. Descriptive phonetics. This type of ph - tics describes the theory of the English
or other phonetics. According to its aim ph - tics maybe: 1. Practical (normative
course); 2. Theoretical.
Theoretical phonetics gives the theory of the ph - tic system. Now this type of
phonetics, which we are studying, is called theoretical course of phonetics. It
gives the whole system, explanation how the system organized.
The functions of phonetic elements
The phoneme, syllable, stress, intonation are phonetic elements.
1. Constitutive functions means, all ph - tic elements is used as material carries of
words. W. С - s and phrases. Ex, take - has phonemes. This word is constituted
from 3 phonemes. This word "take" - taking is formed from the combination of 5
phonemes and two syllables. May I take your book? - a phrase - stressed -
intonation.
2. Distinctive function. .Ex.. take - mistake, a name - an aim syllables maybe
distinctive from each other.
a. Distinctive features of stress of words: Pres'ent - "present
Infport - "import
b. Intonation: she came - she came? Intonation is used in human speech.
3. Precognitive function: this function is used not to mix the syllables, the
pronunciation of the sounds instead of aspirated without aspiration.

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 4. Phono - stylistic function - when two parts sciences in a very close contact, all
these phonetic elements stress, syllable, phoneme used in stylistic, in order to
pronounce the word we use them as sounds. Oh, she сатеУ
Phonetics as a branch of linguistics
Phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds
(phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception,
and neurophysiological status. Phonology, on the other hand, is concerned with
abstract, grammatical characterization of systems of sounds.
The difference between phonetics and phonemes
Phonemes include all significant differences of sound, including features of
voicing, place and manner of articulation, accents, and secondary features of
nasalization and labialization. Whereas phonetics refers to the study of the
production, perception, and physical nature of speech sounds.
Phonetics as a branch of linguistics structure and functions of the speech
sounds. - This branch of linguistics is called phonetics. Phonetics is an
independent branch of linguistics like lexicology or grammar. These linguistic
sciences study language from three different points of view. Lexicology deals
with the vocabulary of language, with the origin and development of words, with
their meaning and word building. Grammar defines the rules governing the
modification of words and the combination of words into sentences. Phonetics
studies the outer form of language; its sound matter. Phonetics occupies itself
with the study of the ways in which the sounds are organi-zed into a system of
units and the variation of the units in all types and styles of spoken language.

Investigations show that there are 4 aspects of a speech sound:

 articulatory aspect;
 auditory aspect;
 acoustic aspect;
 functional aspect (linguistic, social).

Fom the point of view of the aspects of speech, four traditional branches of
theoretical phonetics are generally recognized:
Articulatory phonetics is the study of the way speech sounds are made
('articulated') by the vocal organs, i.e. it studies the way in which the air is set in
motion, the movements of the speech organs and the coordination of these
movements in the production of single sounds and trains of sounds. These refer to
the human vocal tract (or to the speech organs) and are used to describe and
classify sounds. This branch of phonetics refers to speech production, giving the

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basic understanding of speech anatomy. Articulatory phonetics employs
experimental methods.
Auditory phonetics studies the perceptual response to speech sounds, as
mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain, i.e. its interests lie more in the
sensation of hearing, which is brain activity, than in the psychological working of
the ear or the nervous activity between the ear and the brain. The means by which
we discriminate sounds – quality, sensations of pitch, loudness, length, are relevant
here. This branch of phonetics refers to speech perception. Auditory phonetics
also employs experimental methods.
Articulatory and auditory phonetics are sometimes combined into one
branch called physiological phonetics. The reason lies in the fact that sound
production and sound perception are physiological processes.
Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sound, as
transmitted between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear with the help of
spectrograms (quality, length, intensity, pitch, and others). This branch of phonetics
refers to speech physics, it is interdisciplinary. It also employs experimental
methods.
Functional phonetics – is concerned with the range and function of sounds
in specific languages. It is a purely linguistic branch, typically referred to as
phonology. The human vocal apparatus can produce a wide range of sounds; but
only a small number of them are used in a language to construct all of its words
and utterances. Phonology is the study of those segmental (speech sound types)
and prosodic (intonation) features which have a differential value in the language.
This branch of phonetics studies the units serving people for communicative
purposes. It studies the way in which speakers systematically use a selection of
units – phonemes or intonemes – in order to express meaning. It investigates the
phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use.
The primary aim of phonology is to discover the principles that govern the
way that sounds are organized in languages, to determine which phonemes are
used and how they pattern – the phonological structure of a language. The
properties of different sound systems are then compared, and hypotheses developed
about the rules underlying the use of sounds in particular groups of languages, and
in all the languages – phonological universals.
Phonology also solves:
1) the problem of the identification of the phonemes of a language;
2) the problem of the identification of the phoneme in a particular word,
utterance. It establishes the system of phonemes and determines the frequency of
occurrence in syllables, words, utterances. The distribution and grouping of
phonemes and syllables in words are dealt with an area of phonology which is

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called phonotactics. People engaged in the study of phonetics are known as
phoneticians (фонетисти). People engaged in the study of phonology are known
as phonologists (фонологи) [Врабель 2009, p. 6].
Phonology was originated in the 30s of the 20th century by a group of linguists
belonging to the Prague school of linguistics – Vilem Matesius, Nickolai
Trubetskoy, Roman Jakobson. The theoretical background of phonology is the
phoneme theory whose foundations were first laid down by
I. O. Baudouin de Courtenay (1845–1929) in the last quarter of the 19th century
(between the years of 1868–1881) [Врабель 2009, p. 5]. The theory was
developed by his pupils, such as
L. V. Sherba, M. S. Grushevskiy, and some others.
The most important work in phonology is "The groundwork of phonology"
[1939] by Nickolai Trubetskoy. He claimed that phonology should be separated
from phonetics as it studies the functional aspect of phonic components of
language. According to him, phonetics is a biological science which is concerned
with physical and physiological characteristics of speech sounds, while phonology
is a linguistic science and it is concerned with the social function of phonetic
phenomena.
Nevertheless, contemporary phoneticians hold the view that form and
function cannot be separated and treat phonology as a linguistic branch of
phonetics. All the above branches of phonetics are closely connected since the
object of their study, that is speech sounds, is the close unity of acoustic,
articulatory, auditory, and linguistic aspects [Паращук 2009, p. 18].
All the branches of phonetics are closely connected with each other as well
as with some other branches of linguistics such as lexicology, grammar, and
stylistics.
The connection of phonetics with lexicology lies in the fact that distinction
of words is realized by the variety of their appearances. The phonetic course of a
given language determines the sound composition of words. For example, Turkish
languages do not admit two or more consonants at the beginning of words while in
some Slavonic languages such a phenomenon is widely spread (вкрасти,
спритний). Only due to the presence of stress in the right place certain nouns can
be distinguished from verbs. (e. g. 'object – to ob'ject) Homographs can be
differentiated only due to pronunciation, because they are identical in spelling (e.
g. lead [lɪ:d], [led], wind [wɪnd], [waɪnd]).
Sound interchange is a very vivid manifestation of a close connection of
phonetics with morphology and grammar. It can be observed in the category of
number (man – men; goose - geese; foot – feet). Sound interchange also helps to
distinguish basic forms of irregular verbs (sing-sang-sung), adjectives and nouns

10
(strong-strength), verbs and nouns (to extend-extent). Through the system of
reading rules phonetics helps to pronounce correctly singular and plural forms of
nouns, the past tense forms and past participle of English regular verbs. (e. g.
begged [d], stopped [t], wanted [id]). The connection is also seen through
intonation. Sometimes intonation alone serves to single out the communicative
centre of the sentence (e. g. He came home). In affirmative sentences, the rising
nuclear tone may show that this is a question.
Phonetics is closely connected with syntax. Any partition of a sentence is
realized with the help of pauses, sentence stresses, melody. Changes in pausation
can alter the meaning of an utterance. For example: One of the travelers / said Mr.
Parker / was likeable (direct speech). If the pause is after "said", then we have
another meaning of this sentence: One of the travelers said / Mr. Parker was
likeable. The rising/falling nuclear tone determines the communicative type of the
sentence: You know him – statement / You know him? – general question.
Phonetics is also connected with stylistics through repetition of sounds,
words and phrases. Repetition of this kind creates the basis of rhythm, rhyme and
alliteration (sound repetition). Repetition of consonants, which is alliteration,
together with the words to which the repeated sounds belong, helps to create a
melodic effect and to express particular emotions. It is mostly used in poems, e. g.:
There are twelve months in all the year… As I hear many men say…
But the merriest month in all the year… Is the merry month of May.
The repetition of sound [m] creates the effect of merriment. It should be
noted that rhythm may be used as a special device not only in poetry but in prose
as well.
Investigations in historical aspects of languages and the field of dialectology
would be impossible without an understanding of phonetics. The practical aspect
of phonetics is no less important. Teaching of reading and writing is possible only
when one clearly understands the difference between the sounds and written forms
of the language and the connection between them. Phonetics is also widely used in
teaching correct pronunciation and allocution of actors, singers, TV announcers
on the basis of established orthoepical norms.
Orthoepy is a correct pronunciation of the words of a language. Phonetics is
important for eliminating dialectical features from the pronunciation of dialect
speakers; in logopedics (in curing various speech defects); in surdopedagogics (in
teaching normal aural speech to deaf and dumb people). Acoustic phonetics and
phonology are of great use in technical acoustics or sound technology that is the
branch of science and technology which is concerned with the study and design of
techniques for the recording, transmission, reproduction, analysis and synthesis of

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sound by means of various devices such as microphone, loud-speaker, radio and
television sets, speech synthesizers etc.
Phonetics is also connected with non-linguistic sciences: acoustics,
biophysics, physiology, psychology, cybernetics, etc.
Nowadays we can also see the development of quite distinct interdisciplinary
subjects, such as sociolinguistics (sociophonetics), psycholinguistics,
phonostylistics, mathematical linguistics, and others.
Sociolinguistics (sociophonetics) studies the ways in which pronunciation
interacts with society. It is the study of the way in which phonetic structures
change in response to different social functions and the deviations of what these
functions are. Society here is used in its broadest sense, to cover a spectrum of
phenomena to do with nationality, more restricted regional and social groups, and
the specific interactions of individuals within them. Here there are innumerable
facts to be discovered, even about a language as well investigated as English,
concerning, for instance, the nature of the different kinds of English pronunciation
we use in different situations – when we are talking to equals, superiors or
subordinates; when we are "on the job", when we are old or young; male or
female; when we are trying to persuade, inform, agree or disagree and so on. We
may hope that very soon sociophonetics may supply Elementary information
about: "who can say, what, how, using what phonetic means, to whom, when, and
why?" In teaching phonetics, we would consider the study of sociolinguistics to
be an essential part of the explanation in the functional area of phonetic units.
Psycholinguistics as a distinct area of interest developed in the early sixties,
and in its early form covered the psychological implications of an extremely broad
area, from acoustic phonetics to language pathology. Nowadays no one would
want to deny the existence of strong mutual bonds of interest operating between
linguistics, phonetics in our case and psychology. The acquisition of language by
children, the extent to which language mediates or structures thinking; the extent
to which language is influenced and itself influences such things as memory,
attention, recall and constraints on perception; and the extent to which language has
a certain role to play in the understanding of human development; the problems of
speech production are broad illustrations of such bounds.
Phonostylistics studies the way phonetic means are used in this or that
particular situation. The aim of phonostylistics is to analyse all possible kinds of
spoken utterances with the purpose of identifying the phonetic features, both
segmental and suprasegmental, which are restricted to certain kinds of contexts, to
explain why such features have been used and to classify them according to their
function.

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 Mathematical linguistics is a field of scientific linguistic inquiry applying
mathematical methods and concepts to linguistic systems, to phenomena observed
in natural languages, or to the metatheory of models of grammars.
Foreign language teaching. A study of phonetics has educational value for
almost everyone realizing the importance of language in human communication.
The study of the complex of various communication techniques is definitely
relevant to teaching a foreign language. Pronunciation in the past occupied a
central position in theories of oral language proficiency. But it was largely
identified with accurate pronunciation of isolated sounds or words. The most
neglected aspect of the teaching of pronunciation was the relationship between
phoneme articulation and other features of connected speech. Traditional
classroom techniques included the use of a phonetic alphabet (transcription),
transcription practice, recognition/discrimination tasks, focused production tasks,
tongue twisters, games, and the like.
When the Communicative Approach to language teaching began to take
over in the mid- late 1970s, most of the above- mentioned techniques and materials
for teaching pronunciation at the segmental level were rejected on the grounds as
being incompatible with teaching language as communication. Pronunciation has
come to be regarded as of limited importance in a communicatively-oriented
curriculum. Most of the efforts were directed to teaching supra-segmental features
of the language – rhythm, stress and intonation, because they have the greatest
impact on the comprehensibility of the learner's English [Celce-Murcia et al 1996,
p. 10]. Later pronunciation instruction moved away from the segmental/supra-
segmental debate and toward a more balanced view [Morley 1994]. This view
recognizes that both an inability to distinguish sounds that carry a high functional
load (e. g. list – least) and an inability to distinguish supra- segmental features
(such as intonation and stress differences) can have a negative impact on the oral
communication and the listening comprehension abilities of normative speakers of
English. Pronunciation curriculum should identify the most important aspects of
both the segmentals and supra-segmentals, and integrate them appropriately in the
teaching process that meets the needs of any given group of learners.
The ability to produce English with an English-like pattern of stress and
rhythm involves stress-timing (the placement of stress on selected syllables), which
in turn requires speakers to take short cuts in how they pronounce words. Natural-
sounding pronunciation in conversational English is achieved through blends and
omissions of sounds to accommodate its stress- timed rhythmic pattern. Syllables
or words which are articulated precisely are those high in information content,
while those which are weakened, shortened, or dropped are predictable and can be
guessed from context. In sum, the acquisition of pronunciation of a foreign

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language involves learning how to produce a wide range of complex and subtle
distinctions which relate sound to meaning at several different levels. Articulatory,
interactional, and cognitive processes are equally involved.
The field of phonetics is thus becoming wider and tending to extend over the
limits originally set by its purely linguistic applications. On the other hand, the
growing interest in phonetics is doubtless partly due to increasing recognition of
the central position of language in every line of social activity. It is important,
however, that the phonetician should remain a linguist and look upon his/her
science as a study of the spoken form of language. It is its application to linguistic
phenomena that makes phonetics a social science in the proper sense of the word,
notwithstanding its increasing need of technical methods, and in spite of its
practical applications.

Theoretical Phonetics has four aspects.

Phonological
Articulatory Acoustic Perceptual
aspect
aspect aspect aspect

Test for Practice

1. What types of phonetics do you know?
A) General, descriptive, historical or diachronically, comparative
B) General, acoustic, phonological, descriptive
C) Descriptive, general, phonological, comparative
D) Historical or diachronically, descriptive, general, acoustic

2. What kind of principle methods are of investigation?

A) Direct observation, definition, and the linguistic
B) Definitions, observation, linguistic
C) Direct observation, the linguistic, and experimental
D) The linguistic, direct observation, experimental

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3. What does lexicology deal with?
A) With their meaning B) With word building
C) With consonants D) A & B

4. What is used in experimental methods of investigation?

A) It analyses in observing actual fact of language
B) It is based up on the use of special apparatuses or instruments
C) It analyses by ear, by sight
D)A&B

5. What does Descriptive phonetics study?

A) history of the language B) discussion of phonetics
C) one certain language D) phonetical figures

6. Where did derive from the word “ phonetic “ ?

A) from Latin word B) from Greek word
C) from Russian D) from German word

7. Find the main terms of phonetics

A) sounds ,stress, flower B) name, language, syllable
C) object, subject, vowel D) stress, consonant, intonation

8. How many branches in phonetics ?

A)6 B)7 C)5 D)3

9. Find the third method of investigation , first is the direct observativation,

the second is the linguistic and the third -?
A) phonetical B) articular C) experimental D) perceptual

10. What does Perceptual aspect study ?

A) The voice producing mechanism B) The way of the hearing speech
utterances
C) The way of the pronouncing D) The way of the transcription

15
 Comprehension questions
1.What types of phonetics do you know?
2.What is object of phonetics?
3. What does Descriptive phonetics study?
4. Where did derive from the word " phonetic " ?
5. Find the main terms of phonetics
6.Find the best answer .....comprises three important modes of phonetics
analyses.
7.The functions of phonetic elements.
8. Phonetics is:
9. What does Perceptual aspect study?
10. Where did derive from the word " phonetic"?

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 Scope (сфера, область действия)
Phonetics
• What are the sounds?
• How are they made in the mouth?
Phonology
• How are sounds systematically
organized in a language?
• How do sounds combine to form words?
• How are they categorized by, memorized
and interpreted in the mind of speakers?

Theoretical phonetics of a particular language

applies the theories formulated by general phonetics
(the phoneme theory, the theory of syllable formation,
theories of stress, intonation).

By practical (applied) phonetics we mean all

the practical applications of phonetics (in teaching for
eign languages, logopedics, telephony, etc.

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 THEME 2: TRANSCRIPTION. PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL
TRANSCRIPTION
Plan
1. Transcription.
2. Phonological theories.
3. The phonological schools.
Key Words
The symbol of a phonetic transcription - [ ]
The symbol of a phonological transcription - / /.
Transcription - a special phonetic alphabet of the sound system

Transcription is a great theoretical and practical value.

It is used in the scientific - theoretical investigation of the phonetic systems
and teaching foreign language pronunciation.
Transcription is a special phonetic alphabet by meaning of which the sound
system or a system of phonemes of a particular language is represented. Usually
two principal types of transcription are distinguished: phonetic and phonological.
Phonetic transcription - represents a system of sounds and changes their
pronunciation undergo. The symbols of a phonetic transcription are enclosed in
square brackets [ ].
Phonological transcription_- denotes the system of segmental phonemes of
the languages. Its symbols are denoted between two slanting bars / /. The
phonetic symbols used in the broad of transcription are as followings.
Vowel sounds are 20 Consonant sounds 24
Besides, there is a narrow form of phonetic t - tion used in some text - books and
dictionaries. Ex, in Oxford students dictionary of current English by A. C.
Hornby the diphthongs are used [i, i, e, a, p, v, u, ov, av, ]
There is no difference between the phonetic symbols of the broad and the
narrow forms of transcription for the consonants.
There are two ways in which we can transcribe speech. Phonemic
transcription, also sometimes known as ‘broad’ transcription, involves
representing speech using just a unique symbol for each phoneme of the
language. Using the Mitchell and Delbridge symbols, we might transcribe the
following three words phonemically like this:
‘strewn’ /strun/
‘tenth’ /tɛnθ/

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‘clean’ /klin/
Here you can see that ‘strewn’ has 5 sounds and ‘tenth’ and ‘clean’ have 4
sounds, and every sound is represented uniquely. Note that phonemic
transcription is placed between /forward slash brackets/. When we transcribe
phonemically, we are representing not actual sounds, but abstract mental
constructs. These are the categories of sound that speakers understand to be
‘sounds of their language’. In the case of Australian English, phonemic
transcription requires using 44 phoneme symbols. The other way we can
transcribe speech is using phonetic transcription, also sometimes known as
‘narrow’ transcription. This involves representing additional details about the
contextual variations in pronunciation that occur in normal speech. Again, using
the Mitchell and Delbridge symbols, we might transcribe the same three words
phonetically like this:
‘strewn’ [stru:n]
‘tenth’ [tʰɛñ ̪ θ]
‘clean’ [kl̥ i:n]
Here you can see that:
 ‘strewn’ has a long vowel, represented by the colon diacritic [:].
 ‘tenth’ has an aspirated initial [tʰ] shown by the superscript [ʰ]; and the
vowel is nasalised, represented by the tilde diacritic above the vowel [ɛ]̃ ,
because it immediately precedes a nasal; and the nasal is actually
articulated at the interdental place of articulation, represented by the
diacritic [n̪], because it immediately precedes an interdental fricative.
 ‘clean’ has a long vowel, represented by the diacritic [:]; and a voiceless
[l̥ ], represented by the small subscript circle diacritic, because the normal
voiced quality of [l] is suppressed by the aspiration of the [k] before it.

Note that phonetic transcription is placed between [square brackets]. When

we transcribe phonetically, we are representing not abstract mental constructs, but
rather the actual sounds in terms of their acoustic and articulatory properties.
Note that speakers of a language are deaf to these kinds of contextual variations
in pronunciation. For example from these phonetic transcriptions you can see that
the ‘t’ sounds are phonetically different – the ‘t’ in ‘strewn’ is not aspirated,
while the ‘t’ in ‘tenth’ is aspirated. Likewise the ‘n’ in ‘strewn’ is alveolar, while
the ‘n’ in ‘tenth’ is interdental. Speakers of English hear both [tʰ] and [t] as
instances of the phoneme /t/, and they hear both [n̪] and [n] as instances of the
phoneme /n/. Phonemic and phonetic transcription both have their purposes.
The goal of a phonemic transcription is to record the ‘phonemes as mental
categories’ that a speaker uses, rather than the actual spoken variants of those
19
phonemes that are produced in the context of a particular word. An English
speaker has internalised a rule that says ‘sounds like /t/ are always aspirated when
word-initial’, so they’ll automatically make the /t/ in ‘tenth’ aspirated. Phonetic
transcription on the other hand specifies the finer details of how sounds are
actually made. So a non-English speaker trained in the IPA could look at a
phonetic transcription like [tʰɛñ ̪ θ], and know how to pronounce it accurately
without knowing the rules about English phonemes. So phonemes are abstract
mental categories in people’s minds, and these /categories/ are realised as [actual
sounds] from people’s mouths. The spoken variants of each phoneme are known
as its allophones. Now we can say things like: The phoneme /t/ has two
allophones [t] and [tʰ].

The symbols of TRANSCRIPTION

The symbol of Phonetic The symbol of phonological

transcription transcription
(A square brackets) [ ] (two slanting bars) / /

20
 Tests for practice
1. £, 8, ¥, E, b - what are they meant?
A) £ - the vocal, parts, B - the tongue, ¥ - the lip, E - uvular, b - soft palate
B) £ - the tongue, B - soft palate, ¥ - vocal parts, E - the lip, b - uvular
C) £ - soft palate, B - the lip, ¥ - the tongue, E - the vocal parts, b- uvular
D) £ - the lip, B - the tongue, ¥ - the tongue, E - the vocal parts, b- the soft
palate & uvular

2. Find the best answer .....comprises three important modes of

phonetics analyses by ear ,by sight and muscular sensation.
A) the linguistic B) experimental C) perceptual D) direct observation

3. Choose the line in which letter “g” is pronounced like [dз]

A)Longing, giraffe B)Dialogue, badge
C)Liege, encourage D)Singer, bridge

4. Which ending is appropriate for the following verb COOKED

A)[t] B)[d]
C)[id] D)[ed]

5. Which ending is appropriate for the following verb PLAYED

A)[d] B)t]
C)[id] D)[ed]

6. What is the phoneme?

A)A unit of a language
B)The biggest unit of a language
C)The smallest undivided unit of a language
D)The middle unit of a language

7. Which ending is appropriate for the following verb STAYED

A) [id] B) [t]
C) [d] D) no right answer

8. What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word WIFE?
A) [i] B) [ə:]
C) [aiə] D) [ai]

21
 THEME 3: THEORY OF PHONEMES

Plan
1. English pronunciation in Great Britain.
2. The pronunciation types of English in the USA as compared with General
British.
3. The pronunciation of English in other countries.

Key Words : Pronunciation, Southern English, Standard English,

description, accentuation

A.BAUDOUIN DE COURTENAY'S THEORY OF PHONOLOGY

The formation of the phonological theory may be divided into two periods:
1. The «prephoneme» period, i. e. when there was no distinction between
«speech sound» and «phoneme» until 1870;
2. The «phonemic»'period, which began in 1870 and includes the twentieth
century. In this period the basic phonetic and phonological terms and concepts
were proposed, and the distinction between the actually pronounced speech sounds
and the phonemes as functional units of the language was recognized.
The first linguist to point out this distinction was I. A. Baudouin de
Courtenay (1845 — 1929), an outstanding Russian and Polish scholar. I. A.
Baudouin de Courtenay defined the phoneme as the «psychological» equivalent of
the speech sound». But he was aware of the fact that acoustic and motor images of
the speech sound do not correspond to each other. I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay
also tried to analyse phonemes on the bases of phonetic alternations in morphemes.
Besides psychological and morphological definitions of the phoneme, he could
propose the distinctive function of the speech sound in notions as he considered
that words may be realized in notions. I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay repeatedly
stated that semantically the utterance breaks up into sentences, sentences into
significative words, words into morphological components or morphemes and
morphemes into phonemes. As a morpheme is only divided into components of
the same nature as it self: these components — phonemes must also be
significative. He admitted the division of morphemes into physical or physiolo-
gical elements to be unjustified in linguistic analysis. He criticized N. V.
Krushevsky’s conception of this problem. Incidently, N. V. Krushevsky, was one
of his students who introduced the term «phoneme» at the same time as F. de
Saussure, an eminent Swiss linguist did. I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay’s
fundamental ideas had a great influence on the development of later phonological

22
theories both in our country and abroad. In early phonological works many
linguists defined the phoneme as «sound image», «conscious sound image»,
«sound intent» (N. S. Trubetzkoy), and also as the sum of acoustic impressions and
of articulatory movements (F. de Saussure) but none of them suggested any other
to substitute the term «phoneme».

THE LENINGRAD PHONOLOGICAL SCHOOL. L. V. SHCHERBA’S PHONEMIC

CONCEPT
The Leningrad Phonological School’s theory is closely connected with the
name of academician Lev Vladimirovich Shcherba (1880— 1944), a talanted
student of I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay. L. V. Shcherba developed the phonemic
concept represented by his research advisor. L. V. Shcherba re peated ly stressed
the differential function of the phoneme. He gave the following definition of the
phoneme: «The shortest general sound image of a given language, which is capable
of associating with images of meaning differentiating words, ..., is called pho-
neme». In this definition besides the term «sound image», which shows the
influence of psychology, everything is clear from the phonological view point.
Although L.V.Shcherba realized that phonemes are not general images in
the logical sense, he considered phonemes as concrete sound images which are the
result of different perceptions. LV.Shcherba illustrated his phonemic theory with
examples from various languages. The quantitative and qualitative variations in the
pronunciations of languages may depend on their phonetic structures and
linguistic habits the sum of which L.V.Shcherba called the articulation basis.
Shcherba emphasized the practical value of sound types in the pronunciation of a
given language. He explained th at in concrete speech we pronounce a number of
speech sounds which may be summed up in a comparatively small number of
sound types capable of distinguish ing words and word forms. Such sound types
are called phonemes. Actually pronounced speech sounds, in which phonemes may
be realized, would be called the phoneme shades (allophones or variants of the
phoneme). But among those shades of the phoneme usually there may be one that
is the typical representative of the phoneme which can be pronounced isolately,
actually, this is what is perceived by us consciously as an element of speech. All
other shades can not be understood consciously and it is difficult to perceive them
all by ear normally. These explanations make it clear to understand the distinction
between general sound types and concrete speech sounds, which can prove the
distinction between a phoneme and allophone (speech sound). Shcherba invented
his own system of transcription. He wrote about different pronunciation styles and
advanced very interesting ideas on the subjective and objective methods of
scientific investigation. L. V. Shcherba’s phonological theory was developed and

23
improved by many Soviet and foreign linguists. His followers and pupils L. R.
Zinder, М. I. Matusevich, L. V. Bondarko, A. N. Gvozdev, V. I. Litkin, Y. S.
Maslov, О. I. Dickushina are representatives of the Leningrad phonological school.

THE MOSCOW PHONOLOGICAL SCHOOL

Another scientific approach to the phoneme concept in the USSR is known
as the Moscow phonological school. This school is represented by R. I. Avanesov,
V. N. Sidorov, A. A. Reformatsky (1901— 1978), P. S. Kuznetzov (1899—
1968), A. M. Sukhotin, М. V. P anov, N. F. Jakovlev. One of the first linguists to
give a definition: of phoneme void of psychologic elements was N.F.Jakovlev:
«Phonemes are understood those phonic properties that can be analysed from the
speech flow as the shortest elements serving to differentiate units of meaning. The
representatives of the Moscow phonological school based their definition of a
phoneme on the concept of the morpheme. A. A. Refor matsky gave the following
definition of the phoneme: «Phonemes are minimal units of the sound structure of
a language, serving to form and differentiate meaningful units: morphemes and
words». Phonemes are meaningless units of a language but they are capable of
distinguishing meaningful units as their sequences may form morphemes and
words. Analysing the sound changes in the morphemic structure of a language, it
is possible to establish two different positions: stressed and unstressed. In a
stressed position phonemes can preserve their phonetic characteristics, while in an
unstressed position they change their articulatory and acoustic features. This fact is
very important in the phonetic analysis of Russian vowels. The Moscow
phonologists described the supersegmental features of syl lables, stress and
intonation.
THE PRAGUE PHONOLOGICAL SCHOOL
The fundamental scientific works have been done by the representatives of
the Prague phonological school— well-known linguists W.Matezius (1882—
1945), B. Havranek (1893— 1978), N. S. Trubetzkoy (1890— 1938) and others.
Among them very important phonological ideas were advanced by the Russian
scholar N.S. Trubetzkoy. In his book «Principles of Phonology» first published
in German in 1939, N. S. Tru betzkoy discussed the relation of phonology to other
studies, the nature of phonemes and their variants, how to determine the phonemes
of a language, relations between phonemes in general analysis and in particular
languages, the classification of phonological and non-phonological oppositions,
neutralization, mono- and biphonemic combinations, phonological statistics,
boundary-markers (junctures) and prosodic elements (syllables, stress and
intonation). Trubetzkoy presented the classification of phonological oppositions in
terms of logic. Two things which have no features in common cannot be

24
contrasted, likewise two phonemes which have no common features cannot be
opposed. Firstly, oppositions are classified in relation to the entire system of
oppositions. According to this principle oppositions may be unidimensional and
pluridimensional (or bilateral and multilateral). Two phonemes possesing a
common feature, which no other phoneme has, are in unidimensional opposition.
For example, in English /t — d /, /р — Ь/, /к — g /, /b — m/, /d — n/, /g — rj/, / f
— V /, /s — z/,/s — .(/, / z — 5 /, / t — tj'/, Id — d ?/, /г — 1/ are unidimensional
(bilateral) oppositions. Two phonemes, whose feature is common to some other
phoneme, are in pluridimensional (multilateral) opposition. For example, the
opposition l b — d l in English is pluridimensional as the common features of the
members of this opposition (plosive + voiced — lenis) are characteristic of the
phoneme /g/.
THE LONDON PHONOLOGICAL SCHOOL
There is a long tradition of phonetic and phonological studies in England.
One of the first linguists who made a serious study in English phonetics was Henry
Sweet. He distinguished broad and narrow transcriptions and gave the
classification of English vowels and consonants in his «Handbook of Phonetics»
(Oxford, 1877). Under «The London Phonological School» we mean the theory
and methods of phonetic and phonological analysis proposed by the British
linguists. This school is represented by J.R.Firth, D.Jones, I.Ward, L.Armstrong,
H.Kingdon, A.C.Gimson. The British linguists presented original ideas on
phonemic and prosodic analysis. Well - known British linguists D. Jones and J.R.
Firth gave brief explanations of the phoneme concept. D. Jones admits the fact that
the idea of the phoneme was first introduced to him by Leningrad professor
LV.Shcherba in 1911, but both the theory and the term itself had existed for more
than thirty years even then. D. Jones wrote: «According to J.R. Firth the term
«phoneme» was invented as distinct from «phone» in 1879 by Krushevsky». Thus,
both outstanding English linguists were familiar with the theory and term
«phoneme» used by Russian linguists. D. Jones prefers to speak about an
«explanation» of phoneme rather then a «definition», the latter is impossible with
out making use of terms such as «language», «speech sounds» and «words». He
gave the following explanation of a phoneme: « . . . a phoneme is a family of
sounds in a given language which are related in character and are used in such a
way that no one member ever occurs in a word in the same phonetic context as
many other members». D. J o n e s ’ explanation of a phoneme is a physical
(acoustic) one, since the phoneme is treated as a «family of sounds». His physical
interpretation is distinct from the articulatory approach to the phoneme. J.R.Firth
purposely avoided the term «phoneme» in his work as «sound» is sufficient for his
analysis.

25
 PHONOLOGICAL TRENDS IN THE USA
There are several phonological trends in th e USA. The head of the
American descriptive linguistics L. Bloomfield was one of the first phonologists
whose ideas were very fruitful in the further development of phonological theories
in the USA. Another well- known American linguist E.Sapir also formulated his
own approach to phonemic solutions. Below we give a short review of
phonological trends in the U SA. Bloomfieldian descriptive phonology is also
called the relative — acoustic theory, as it is based on the analyses of structural
functions and acoustic features of phonemes. According to L.Bloomfield, a
phoneme is a minimal distinctive unit of a language, which has no meaning itself
but may be determined as a special unit, owing to its physical and structural
contrasts in relation to all other sound types of a particular language. His other
definition of the phoneme as a minimal unit of the phonetic feature is purely a
phonetic one. He sometimes mixed up the notions of a «speech sound» and a
«phoneme». His idea on the primary and secondary phonemes was very important
in the further classification of segmental and suprasegmental phonemes. He also
gave a description of the phoneme combinations in initial, medial and final
positions of the words. L. Bloomfield’s theory was developed and improved by a
number of linguists and is called the post-Bloomfieldian theory of descriptive
phonology. The representatives of this trend are Z. Harris, Ch.F.Hockett, H.A.
Gleason. According to this theory a phoneme is a class of sounds or a class of
allophones (phones) which have both phonetic similarity and functional identity, in
the sense that the substitution of one for another in the same context does not
change the phonological structure of an utterance, and consequently does not
change its syntactic or semantic function, makes no change in its meaning. This
theory defines a phoneme on the basis of the distributional method. Almost all
phonological theories in the USA regard variations in phonological format or
across morphological boundaries as them orphophonemics of a language. N.
Chomsky and M. Halle suggest the principle of cycle to predict accent elements in
their work «The Sound Pattern of English» (N. Y., 1968). Discussions on the
problems of adequacy and predicative power in recent phonological theories are
still going on among American linguists.

26
 A.BAUDOUIN DE COURTENAY'S
THEORY OF PHONOLOGY
The formation of the phonological theory may be
divided into two periods:
1. The «prephoneme» period, i. e. when there was no
distinction between «speech sound» and «phoneme»
until 1870;
2. The «phonemic»'period, which began in 1870 and
includes the twentieth century. In this period the basic
phonetic and phonological terms and concepts were
proposed, and the distinction between the actually
pronounced speech sounds and the phonemes as
functional units of the language was recognized.

THE LENINGRAD PHONOLOGICAL

SCHOOL. L. V. SHCHERBA’S
PHONEMIC CONCEPT
The Leningrad Phonological School’s theory is closely connected
with the name of academician Lev Vladimirovich Shcherba
(1880— 1944), a talanted student of I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay.
L. V. Shcherba developed the phonemic concept represented by
his research advisor. L. V. Shcherba re peated ly stressed the
differential function of the phoneme. He gave the following
definition of the phoneme: «The shortest general sound image of
a given language, which is capable of associat­ing with images of
meaning differentiating words, ..., is called pho­neme». In this
definition besides the term «sound image», which shows the
influence of psychology, everything is clear from the phonological
view point.

27
 Phonological schools

The Sanct-Peterburg The Moscow The Prague The London

pholological school pholological pholological pholological
school school school

Tests for practice

1. Who were the representatives of the Moscow Phonological School?
A) L.R. Zinder, L.V. Shcherba, V.N. Sidorov, M.V. Panov, A.A. Reformatsky
B) R.I. Avanesov, V.N. Sidorov, A.A. Reformatsky, M.V. Panov
C) L.R. Zinder, V.N. Sidorov, G.P. Torsuyev, L.V. Shcherba
D) L.V. Shcherba, LA. Badouin de Courtenay, V.N. Sidorov

2. We know that the formation of the phonological theory may be divided

into 2 periods. What are they?
A) The phenomena period; the phonemic period
B) The phonemic period; the centurial period
C) The centurial period; the phenomena period
D) The phenomena period; the phonological period

3. Whom the London. School of Phonology is headed by?

A) Daniel Tones B) L.R. Zinder
C) Edward Sapir D) Leonard Bloomfield

4. Who is the one of the representative of the Leningrad phonological school?

A)L.V.Shcherba B) A.A. Reformatsky C) N.S. Trubetzkoy D) D.B.Fry

5. J.R.Firth, D.Jones, D. Abercrombie, I.Ward, L.Armstrong from what

phonological school they were?
A) from Prague B) from London C) from USA D)from Russian

6. Who used the terra phoneme in the meaning of the speech sounds ?
A) L.V.Shcherba B) Ferdinan de Saussure C) M.V.Panov D) N.V.Sidorov

7. Which School's representatives based their definition of a phoneme on the

concept of the morpheme ?
A) Moscow B) Prague C) London D) The USA

28
8. Who's theoty may be called "atomistic " ?
A) L.V.Shcherba B) D.Jones C) F .De Saussure D) S.Edwerd

9. Find the bets answer. Bloomfieldian descriptive phonology is a called the

relative ... .
A) syllabic theory B) phonetical theory C) acoustic theory D) perceptual theory

10. Baundonin de Courtenay defined the phoneme as the:

A)“psychological” B)“psychology” C)“psychologically” D)“psycho lingual”

29
 THEME 4: THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION
Plan
1. English pronunciation in Great Britain.
2. The pronunciation types of English in the USA as compared with General
British.
3. The pronunciation of English in other countries.
4. Accents and Dialects
Key Words
Pronunciation, Southern English, Standard English, description, accentuation

One of the vital features of literary language, which distinguish it from its
dialects, is the act ors of more or less uniformed norms. A literary language has
its own lexical, grammatical, orthographic and pronunciation or phonematic
norms. Every national language possesses two forms: the written form, which is
the literary uniform of a language, and spoken form, which is not uniform and
characterized by the ind vidual features of the speaker. English is represented in
writing and printing by the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, a dozen of punc-
tuation marks, and such devices as capitals and italics. In the spoken form of
English we evidently use about a hundred sounds and variations in pitch , stress,
pause etc. Each sound is used with some modifications in actual speech; for
example, some people have a full /г/ and others a very slight indication of the
sound. The pronunciation of words varies considerably among the different regions
in which English is spoken, so that we can easily distinguish speakers according to
their pronunciation. However, there is no strict boundary between written and
spoken forms of a language because some elements of the spoken form may be
found in the written form. As to the dialects they are the linguistic varieties of the
language used by some group of speech com m unity only in th e oral or spoken
form and differ from the spoken literary form of a language in more or less degree.
Dialects may be distinguished from each o th e r by their pronunciation , grammar,
lexicon and stylistics. A special branch of linguistics which studies the variability
of a given language is called dialectology. Dialectology has a close relationship to
history, geography and other sciences as dialects may be important in the
formation of nations and any change in the process of migration and urbanization.
ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN GREAT BRITAIN
Usually, owing to the political, economic, social and cultural act ors, one
of the regional dialects becomes literary, as it constitutes the orthoepic norm. At
present there are the following regional pronunciation types exist in Great Britain:
1. Southern English pronunciation;
2. Northern English pronunciation;

30
3. Scottish pronunciation;
4. Irish pronunciation;
Among which the Southern English pronunciation is chosen as the orthoepic
standard for Modern English. This type of pronunciation is often called Standard
English or Uniform English. D. Jones calledjflt) Received Pronunciation (RP) by
which he meant “… merely widely understood pronunciation… in the English –
speaking world…”. It should be mentioned that definite the fact there are some
differences between GB and Australian English (abbreviation AuE) as well as New
Zealand English (abbreviation NZE) pronunciations tfky are very close to each
other
As we have already started that GB’rsa literary type of pronunciation in
most countries where English is spoken and taught at schools and colleges there is
an essential need to give a theoretical description of GB pronunciation, i.e. its
phonemic, prosodic and morphological systems in this book.
…But in order to give a general idea about the literary and regional (also local)
types of English pronunciation we should give a short description of them.
Northern English pronunciation is used in the region between Birmingham
and the border of Scotland. The following basic differences between GB and the
Northern English pronunciation maybe observed, which cause the inventory of
phonemes and their distribution
In the Scottish type of pronunciation some phonetic features of old English
the Northubrian dialect of the Anglo – Saxon language, were preserved. In the
seventh century the German tribe angles and Saxes migrated to Scotland.
There is no difference between the written forms of Scottish and British
English. But there are a number of marked differences between British and
Scottish speech which maybe noticed in the inventory and distribution of
phonemes, as well as in word accentuation and intonation.
Instead of GB /æ / the vowel /аi/ is used in words bad /bad/, man /man/. /a: /
For GB in such words as path / /, ask / /, glass / /etc.
The pronunciation types of English in the USA as compared with General
British. The English colonists in the first half of the 16 th century brought English to
the America continent. There are at least three major speech areas in the USA:
1. The Eastern type of pronunciation.
2. The Southern type.
3. The Western General American types
The Eastern type of pronunciation is spoken m New England (Maine), New
Hampshire, the eastern parts of Vermont. Rhode and in a part of the Atlantic sea –
boards, i.e\ part of the New York state. This type is also called Eastern New
England speech, In New England and in the Boston State has some common

31
features with GB pronunciation. Found in such words like dock / /, hot / /, dance /
/, sir / /, far / /_etc.
The southern types of American pronunciation is used in Pennsylvania, in
the eastern area of Texas State, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia, North and South
Caroline, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi. One of the specific phonetic features of
this type of pronunciation is the so – called “Southern drawl” which is
characterized by the diphthongization both.
…Both long-and short vowels in certain positions (in stressed position, before
voiced consonants and fricatives).
The distinction between long and short vowels is not perceived in word pairs
like pot /- part /pad’/, cut /- caught 1.
The Western types of American English are accepted as the literary
pronunciation in the USA, It is also called Standard American English. /We, do not
use the latter term in order to have analogical terms GB and GA. General
American in spoken in Mid – Atlantic States: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan and etc.
The pronunciation of English in other countries
The Canadian English came to Canada in type of pronunciation the 17 th
century When the British colonists arrived the English is one of the national
official languages (about 14 million speakers) together with French (about 4
million speakers) in Canada.
Canadian English (CaE) has common phonetic features both with GB and
GA English which is spoken in Ontario region, is more similar to GA than other
parts of Canada as this region is situated very close to the USA. The Australian
English is one of the types of pronciation literary national types used since the end
of the 18th century.
Accents and Dialects
Languages have different accents: they are pronounced differently by people
from different geographical places, from different social classes, of different ages
and different educational backgrounds. The word accent is often confused with
dialect. The word dialect refers to a variety of a language which is different from
others not just in pronunciation but also in such matters as vocabulary, grammar
and word order. Differences of accent, on the other hand, are pronunciation
differences only [Roach 2009, p. 3]. The accent that we concentrate on and use as
our model is the one that is most often recommended for foreign learners
studying British English. It has for a long time been identified by the name
Received Pronunciation.
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent of Standard English in the United
Kingdom, with a relationship to regional accents. RP enjoys high social prestige in

32
Britain. It has been seen as the accent of those with power, money, and influence.
However, since the 1960s, a greater permissiveness towards regional English
varieties has taken hold in education and mass media. The introduction of the term
“Received Pronunciation” is usually credited to Daniel Jones. In the first
edition of the “English Pronouncing Dictionary” (1917), he named the accent
“Public School Pronunciation”, but for the second edition in 1926, he wrote, “In
what follows I call it Received Pronunciation (RP)”.
RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak Standard English.
In other words, they avoid non-standard grammatical constructions and localised
vocabulary characteristic of regional dialects. RP is also regionally non- specific,
that is it does not contain any clues about a speaker’s geographic background. But
it does reveal a great deal about their social and/or educational background.
We are to study the “norm” of English, as a whole, and the “norm” of English
pronunciation in particular. There is no much agreement, however, as far as the
term “norm” is concerned. This term is interpreted in different ways. Some
scholars, for instance, associate “norm” with the so-called “neutral” style.
According to this conception stylistically marked parameters do not belong to the
norm. More suitable, however, seems to be the conception which looks upon the
norm as a complex of all functional styles. It is clearly not possible to look upon
the pronunciation norm as something ideal which does not, in fact, exist in
objective speech. We shall look upon the norm as a complex unity of phonetic
styles realized in the process of communication in accordance with varying
extralinguistic and social factors.
In talking about accents of English, the foreigner should be careful about the
difference between England and Britain; there are many different accents in
England, but the range becomes very much wider if the accents of Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland are taken into account (Scotland and Wales are included in
Britain, and together with Northern Ireland form the United Kingdom). Within
the accents of England, the distinction that is most frequently made by the majority
of English people is between northern and southern. This is a very rough
division, and there can be endless argument over where the boundaries lie, but
most people on hearing a pronunciation typical of someone from Lancashire,
Yorkshire or other counties further north would identify it as “Northern” [Roach
2009, p. 4]. This course deals almost entirely with RP (or BBC pronunciation).
There is no implication that other accents are inferior or less pleasant- sounding;
the reason is simply that BBC is the accent that has usually been chosen by British
teachers to teach to foreign learners, it is the accent that has been most fully
described, and it has been used as the basis for textbooks and pronunciation
dictionaries.

33
 A term which is widely found nowadays is Estuary English, and many
people have been given the impression that this is a new (or newly-discovered)
accent of English. In reality there is no such accent, and the term should be used
with care. The idea originates from the sociolinguistic observation that some
people in public life who would previously have been expected to speak with a
BBC (or RP) accent now find it acceptable to speak with some characteristics of
the accents of the London area (the estuary referred to is the Thames estuary), such
as glottal stops, which would in earlier times have caused comment or disapproval.
If you are a native speaker of English and your accent is different from BBC you
should try, as you work through the course, to note what your main differences are
for purposes of comparison. If you are a learner of English you are recommended
to concentrate on BBC pronunciation initially, though as you work through the
course and become familiar with this you will probably find it an interesting
exercise to listen analytically to other accents of English, to see if you can identify
the ways in which they differ from BBC and even to learn to pronounce some
different accents yourself.

Test for practice

1. What is a biological science and is concerned with physical and
physiological characteristics of speech sounds .
A) Physiology B) Phonetics C) Phonology D) Sound
2. Where does the Southern type of a pronunciation is used ?
A) In Florida, Texas, North and South Carolina, Georgia Virginia
B) in USA, Holland, Ireland C) In Russia, Japan, South Korea, India
D) In Texas , Virginia, Netherlands
3. How many Pronouncing types exist in Great Britain ?
A) 5 B) 3 C) 4 D) 7
4. Where does Northern English pronouncing is used ?
A) In Northern Ireland B) In Wales
C) In London D) In the region between Birmingham & Scotland
5. Speech sounds have:
A) 4 aspects, B) 5 aspects, C) 3 aspects D) 6 aspects.
6.How are the speech sounds produced?
A) When the air passes into the lungs through the mouth cavity
B) When the vocal cords vibrate
C) When the air coming from the lungs passes out through the mouth or the
nasal cavity
D) When the air passes through the nose
34
7. Find the wrong answer. Passive organs of speech are
A) The teeth, the teeth ridge
B) The hard palate, the walls of the resonators
C) The teeth, the lips
D) The hard palate, the teeth ridge
8.According to the direction of assimilation we distinguish:
A) regressive assimilation, elision
B) elision, progressive assimilation, quantitative assimilation
C) qualitative assimilation, reciprocal assimilation quantitative
D) regressive, progressive, reciprocal assimilation
9. Progressive, regressive and double are
A) Types of accommodation
B) Types of assimilation
C) Types of reduction
D) Types of palatalization
10. Try to find progressive assimilation in the following words
A) sandwich, bags, grandfather
B) speech, meet, pencil
C) know, light, blackboard
D) honey, dirty, parent

35
 ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN GREAT BRITAIN
Usually, owing to the political, economic, social and cultural fac­ tors,
one of the regional dialects becomes literary, as it constitutes the
orthoepic norm. At present there are the following regional
pronunciation types exist in Great Britain:

The pronunciation types of English in the USA

as compared with General British. The English
colonists in the first half of the 16th century
brought English to the America continent.
There are at least three major speech areas in
the USA:

The Western
The Eastern General
type of American
pronunciation. types
The Southern
type.

36
37
 THEME 5: THE SYSTEM OF CONSONANT PHONEMES IN ENGLISH
Plan
1. Vowel consonant distinction.
2. The articulatory and acoustic classification of English consonants (in
comparison with Uzbek).
3. The system of the English consonant phonemes.
Key Words
Dichotomic classification - division into 2 parts. Allophonic variations of
consonant phonemes - distribution in words, syllables, junction and also
phonotactic rules (combinations of sound or sound sequences).

Usually the distinction between a vowel and a consonant is regarded to be

not phonetic, but phonemic. From the phonetic point of view the distribution
between a vowel and a consonant is based on their articulatory - acoustic
characteristics, i.e. a vowel is produced as a pure musical tone without any
obstruction of air - stream in the mouth cavity will in the production of a consonant
there is an obstruction of air stream in the speech tract.
There are other criteria to distinguish a vowel from a consonant as well.
Another distinction of vowel - consonant dichotomy is made due to the criteria that
the vowels have the syllabic function forming its peak while consonants are
marginal in the syllable forming its sloper. This criteria is, perhaps, universal as to
vowel - consonant distinction. Therefore some linguists use the terms syllabic and
non-syllabic phonemes. But the existence of the consonants and sonants, which
may be syllabic, contradicts this criterion. Ex, in English [r], Ш> [w] oral sonants
and [m], [n], nasal sonants may have a syllabic function: little [litl], hundred
[handrid].
In the description of the phonemic system of English we use articulatory
terms in the main, which are understandable and important for practical use than
the accoustic terms, as to the terminology used in the dichotomic classification of
distinctive features, such terms are often called mixed as articulatory, accoustic and
even musical terms are used. Ex, the terms vocalic -non-vocalic, oral - noral,
voiceless - voiced, tense - lax are articulatory terms, compact -diffuse, grove -
acute are accoustic terms; the terms - flat and sharp plain are borrowed from the
theory of music.
Analyses of English phonemes is made in the following way:
1. The phonetic (articulatory and accoustic) classification.

38
2. The phonemic classification, which makes clear the distinction between
phonemes and their allophomic variants.
3. The distribution of phonemes and some sound clusters. More often we compare,
the phonemic system of English and Uzbek.
The articulatory and accoustic classification of English consonants (in comparison
with Uzbek). The general phonetic principles of the classification of consonant
sounds are as follows:
1. The place of articulation;
2. The manner of production;
3. The presence or absence of voice;
4. The position of the soft palate.
According to the place of articulation the consonants maybe labial and
pharyngal (ihi). Labial consonants are divided into bilabial (as English [p], [b],
[m], [j], [w]) and labiodentals English [fj, [v].
The lingual consonants may be fore lingual English ([t], [d], [s], [z], [1], [n]) inter
lingual and back lingual ([k], [q]).
The manner of articulation makes it possible to distinguish occlusive [p, b, t,
d, k, q], constrictive [f, v, s, z] consonants and affricates.
The next principle of the classification of consonants is based on the
presence or absence of voice, according to which voiced and voiceless consonants
may be distinguished. This distinction is closely connected by the degree of breath
and muscular effort, involved in the articulation. This distinction indicated by the
feature fortis - lenis (from Latin words which means "tense - lax"), is very
important phonologically. There are eight pairs of voiceless -voiced, resp. fortis -
lenis consonants in English, [p-b, t-d, f-v, s-z, к-q]. The general principles of the
consonant classification exclaimed here are obtained in the comparative table of
English and Uzbek consonant phonemes given below.
Comparative - typological analyses of the English and Uzbek consonant
phonemes. In comparing consonant systems of two languages; it is suitable to
begin with the inventories of phonemes set up in both languages. The inventory of
the English consonant phonemes comprises the following 25 phonemes, [p], [b],
[t], [s], [k], [q], [n], [t], [m], [n] and also consists of among the fricatives the Uzbek
[с, з, ш, ж], maybe produced in a more frontal position of the mouth cavity than
the English counter parts [s, z, з]. The Uzbek [с, з] are dorsa [in, ж] are palato -
alveolar consonants. The English [s, z] have apical, alveolar articulation with
round narrowing and being also palato - alveolar, have two in articulation. Besides,
the consonants [x, r] are specific for Uzbek and cannot be found in English. The
class of affricates is similar except the Uzbek [tc], which is borrowed from
Russian, (book pp. 72 - 73.).

39
 The system of the English consonant phonemes.
As stated, a phoneme is a member of phonological opposition. Thanks to this
definition of the phoneme, the system of the English consonant phonemes is
arranged from various phonological oppositions. According to the place of
articulation the following oppositions (mainly single) exist in English. 1. Labial
(bilabial or labio - dental – fore lingual: between plosives [p-t], [b-d], between
fricatives, between nasals [m-n], between constrictive sonant [w-1], [w-r] in which
the features bicentral - unicentral and round narrowing - flat narrowing are not
distinctive [book pp. 75-80].
Dichotomic, classification of the acoustic distinctive features of the English
consonant phonemes and its articulatory correlates. The theory of distinctive
features, which was suggested by Jacobson - Fant - Halle, is known as the acoustic
classification. We fact, this theory represented the act of communication and shows
the steps involved in inducing the hearer to select the same phonological element
the speaker has selected. This theory is based on the results of the spectrographic
(acoustic) and X - ray (articulatory) investigation, (book pp. 82 - 85).
Allophonic variations of the English consonant phonemes. G. P. Torsuyev
distinguished two types of variations of the English phonemes.
a. Diaphonic variations which does not depend on the position, i.e. the consonant
quality and quantity of the. phonemes.
b. Allophonic variations which depends on the position and changes its quality and
quantity. He also gives a complete description of these variations in English.
Торсуев Г. П. Стр.оение слога и аллофоны в английском языке. М. Изд.
Наука. 1975. Стр. 104-213.
The allophomic variations of the English and Uzbek consonant phonemes depend
on their distribution in words, syllables, and also on the phonotactic rules
(combinations of sounds or sound sequences). The allophones of a phoneme may
be established on the basis of the complementary distribution. The pronunciation
of the allophones may very in different positions of words, syllables, and also in
neighbourhood positions, in stressed complicated to describe all the allophomic
varianty of the consonant phonemes. There for, we give the general rules of the
occurrence of the allophones.
Diaphone variation may be observed when [n] is pronounced instead of [ng] in
words like strength, length. The prefaces con-, in-, syn-, when stressed have [ng]
besides [n] before a following [k], as in conquest, concord, income syncope etc.
The vowel - like allophone of the phoneme [j] may occur in such words as curious,
Indian, Genius etc.

40
 Many other allophones of the English consonant phonemes may occur in the
various sound combinations, English is rich in initial, medial and final
combinations of consonants. Many of them do not occur in Uzbek.

The general
phonetic
principles of the
classification of
consonant sounds
are as follows:
The place of
articulation

The The
The position
manner of
presence or
absence of of soft
production
voice palate

41
 Test for practice
1. How many consonants are there in English?
A) 22 B) 12 C) 20 D) 10
2. How many types of obstruction do you know?
A) 2 complete & incomplete B) I complete
C) 1 bilabial D) 2 voiced & voiceless
3. In the following words come across occlusive, bilabial plosive consonants
A) Idea, sentence, notice
B) Graduate, farm, classroom
C) Blackboard, Peter, bag
D) Magazine, teacher, comrade
4. In what words do we pronounce inter-dental consonants
A) Phonetics, practice grammar
B) Nouns, adjectives, verbs
C) There, through, think, mother
D)Sister, uncle, aunt, daughter
5. Number of English consonant phonemes:
A) 10 B) 24
C) 20 D) 12
6. According to the manner of the production of noise and according to the
type of obstruction consonants are divided into ….. groups.
A) 2 B) 4
C) 3 D) 5
7. Try to find bilabial, constrictive, voiced consonant in the following words
A) Table, chair, sofa, radio
B) Room, kitchen, nursery
C) Library, dining-room, laboratory
D) a wardrobe, wall, window, why
8. English consonants are classified according to the ... principles.
A) 4 principles
B) 5 principles
C) 6 principles
D) 3 principles

42
 The articulatory and accoustic classification of English consonants
(in comparison with Uzbek). The general phonetic principles of the
classification of consonant sounds are as follows:
1. The place of articulation;
2. The manner of production;
3. The presence or absence of voice;
4. The position of the soft palate.
According to the place of articulation the consonants maybe
labial and pharyngal (ihi). Labial consonants are divided into bilabial (as
English [p], [b], [m], [j], [w]) and labiodentals English [fj, [v].
The lingual consonants may be fore lingual English ([t], [d], [s], [z], [1],
[n]) inter lingual and back lingual ([k], [q]).
The manner of articulation makes it possible to distinguish occlusive [p,
b, t, d, k, q], constrictive [f, v, s, z] consonants and affricates.

1 1

43
 THEME 6: THE SYSTEM OF THE ENGLISH VOWEL PHONEMES
Plan
1. Phonological analysis of English vowels.
2. Unstressed vowels English. The phonetic approach.
3. The prosodic system of the English language. General remarks.
Key Words
Monophthong, Diphthong, Diphthongoid, Prosodic system studies by the
division of phonetics.

A vowel is a voiced sound produced in the mouth with no obstruction to the air
stream. The English vowel phonemes are divided into two large groups:
monophthongs and diphthongs.
A monophthong is a pure (unchanging) vowel sound. There are 12
monophthongs in English. They are as follows: [i:], [ɪ], [e], [æ], [ɑ:], [], [:],
[u], [u:], [ʌ], [ə:], [ə].
Two of them [i:] and [u:] are diphthongised (diphthongoids).
A diphthong is a complex sound consisting of two vowel elements
pronounced so as to form a single syllable. The first element of an English
diphthong is called the nucleus. The second element is called the glide (it is
weak). There are eight diphthongs in English. They are: [eɪ], [uə], [aɪ], [au],
[ɪ], [ɪə], [eə], [əu].

The English monophthongs may be classified according to the following

principles:

According to the tongue position

According to the lip position
According to the length of the vowel
According to the degree of tenseness

According to the position of the bulk of the tongue vowels are divided into 5
groups:
(A) front [ɪ:], [e], [æ] and the nucleus of [eə]
(B) front – retracted [ɪ] and the nuclei of the diphthongs [aɪ] and [au]
(C) central [], [ə:], [ə] and the nucleus of [əu]
(D) back [I], [:], [u:] and the nucleus of the diphthong [ɪ]
(E) back – advanced [ɑ:], [u]

44
 According to the height of the raised part of the tongue vowels are divided
into 3 groups:
(A) Close or High [ɪ:], [ɪ], [u:], [u]
(B) Open or Low [æ], [ɑ:], [], [], and the nuclei of [aɪ], [au]
(C) Mid – Open or Mid [e], [ə:], [ə], [:] and the nuclei of [eə], [əu]

According to the lip position vowels may be rounded and unrounded.

Rounded vowels are [], [:], [u], [u:] and nuclei of [əu], [ɪ].
Unrounded vowels are [i:], [ɪ], [e], [æ], [ɑ:], [], [ə:], [ə].

According to the length vowels may be long and short.

Long vowels are [i:], [a:], [:], [u:], [ə:]
Short vowels are [ɪ], [e], [æ], [u], [], [], [ə]

According to the degree of tenseness vowels are divided into tense and lax.
All the English long vowels are tense [i:], [ɑ:], [:], [u:], [ə:]
All the English short vowels are lax [ɪ], [e], [æ], [], [u], [], [ə]

As the American and British vowel systems are not identical, two separate
tables are provided to illustrate the difference.

Basic Tongue Position for English Vowels.

Front (Central) Back

High ɪj uw Rounded
Mid ej  ow
Low æ a

American English Vowels

(tense vowels are underlined)
Front (Central) Back
ɪj uw
ej   ow  oj
æ aj aw a

45
 Table of English Vowels.

Front Central Back

High i:
ɪ
u:

ə:
u
Mid
ə
e  :

Low æ ɑ:

Sounds and their numbers

1. [ɪ:] A friend in need is a friend indeed

2. [ɪ] As fit as a fiddle
3. [e] All is well, that ends well
4. [æ] One man is no man
5. [a:] He laughs best who laughs last
6. [] Honesty is the best policy
7. [:] New lords – new laws
8. [u] By hook or by crook
9. [u:] Soon learnt, soon forgotten
10. [] Every country has its customs
11. [ə:] It’s an early bird that catches the worm
12. [ə] As like as two peas
13. [eɪ] No pains no gains
14. [əu] There’s no place like home
15. [aɪ] Out of sight out of mind
16. [au] From mouth to mouth
17. [ɪ] The voice of one man is the voice of no one
18. [ɪə] Near and dear
19. [eə] Neither here not there
20. [uə] What can’t be cured must be endured

Phonological analyses of English vowels. The phonetic criterion used in

distinguishing the vowel phonemes is not sufficient theoretically, as it cannot
46
clarity the relation between the phonemes in the entire system and characters of
existing phonological oppositions, their quality and quantity. The unstressed
vocalism is more.
The unstressed vocalism is more rich than the stressed vocalism, in which
the vowel and unstressed do not take part. English has a complex system of vowel
phonemes among which we distinguish ten short and long monophthongs, two
diphthongoids and nine diphthongs.
All these vowel phonemes may be established using the commutation test.
However, first we should discuss the phonemic status of the diphthongs and the
vowel and the phonetic features long - short, tense - lax, checked - free, which are
closely connected with each other.
Unstressed vowels of English. The phonetic approach. As stated above the
unstressed vocalism of English includes all vowel phonemes and the neutral
phoneme, which appears as a result of weakening of the vowels in the unstressed
position. The vowel articulated by weak articulatory effect, has an indefinite
tamper and changes its quality under the influence of neighboring sounds
depending on its positions and in certain positions maybe omitted.
Therefore, it may have different variations distinct from each other,
especially, by the height of the tongue and duration.
The vowels of constantly full formation have a relatively stable quality and
may preserve their less clear tamper in an unstressed position: apple - tree,
architect, objective, artistic, programmer, English, idea etc.
The prosodic system of the English language. General Remarks. The
structure of the segments longer than segmental phonemes requires adequate
principles of phonetic and phonological analyses, such longer segments constitute
the syllabic structure, the accentual structure of words and intonation structure.
They are studied by the division of phonetics or phonology named prosody /or
suprasegmental phonetics or phonology/. The phonetic structure of a word
comprises four types of structure interdependent of each other:
1. The phonemic structure;
2. The structure of the combination of phonemes;
3. The syllabic structure;
4. The accentual - rhythmic structure.
Inside the phonological word the signaling of syllable boundaries is option
all as the syllable boundary does not always coincide with the "meaningful
segments". Thus, the syllable becomes very significant was it functions as a
"bridge" between phonemes and prosodies.

47
 According to the stability of their articulation English vowels
may be divided into three groups:

10 monophthongs 9 diphthongs 2 diphthongoids

Tests for practice

1. What is the bulk of the English words are ?
A) A German origin B) a Latin origin C) a Romanic origin D) a, c

2. Find front, unrounded, short vowels in the following words

A) Follow, cut, form, park
B) News, girl, boy, dear
C) Water, wine, oil, butter
D) Difficult, fellow, apple, apricot

3. In what words can we pronounce mixed, central, mid-open, unrounded

vowels?
A) Mother, father, girl, early
B) Nephew, niece, aunt, uncle
C) River, lake, sea, ocean

4. What phonemes does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word FIRM?
A) [i] B) [ə:]
C) [aiə] D) [a]

5.Try to find diphthongs in the following words

A) field, tool, forest, car
B) told, town, boy, find, fine, here
C) kitten, dog, bird, sheep, goat
D) body, court, hockey, April

48
 6.In what words are there long monophthongs?
A)Cinema, theatre, museum
B) Father, mother, sister, brother
C) Feel, arm, tall, bird
D) Film, picture, scene

7.English monophthongs are classified according to the ... principles.

A) 6 principles B) 7 principles
C) 5 principles D) 4 principles

8.According to position of the bulk of the tongue vowels are divided into…..
groups.
A) 3 B) 6
C) 5 D) 2

9.According to the height of the raised part of the tongue vowels are divided
into ….. groups:
A) 3 B) 5
C) 7 D) 4

10.Number of English vowel phonemes:

A) 6 B) 12
C) 24 D) 20

49
 spread
neutral There are position of
two types of lips
position of unrounded
vowels as
lips well;

The prosodic system of the English language. General Remarks. The structure
of the segments longer than segmental phonemes requires adequate principles of
phonetic and phonological analyses, such longer segments constitute the syllabic
structure, the accentual structure of words and intonation structure. They are studied
by the division of phonetics or phonology named prosody /or suprasegmental
phonetics or phonology/. The phonetic structure of a word comprises four types of
structure interdependent of each other:
1. The phonemic structure;
2. The structure of the combination of phonemes;
3. The syllabic structure;
4. The accentual - rhythmic structure.

50
Theme 7. The Articulatory Processes
Plan
1. Assimilation
2. Aspiration
3. Accommodation.
4. Elision.
5. Palatalization.
6. Flapping.
7. Deletion. Dissimilation.
8. Reduction

Assimilation.
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.
In assimilation the consonant whose articulation is modified under the influence
of a neighbouring consonant is called the assimilated sound; the consonant which
influences the articulation of a neighbouring consonant is called the assimilating
sound.
While by assimilation we mean a modification in the articulation of a consonant
under the influence of a neighbouring consonant, 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 adaptation, or accommodation.
Assimilation may be of three degrees: complete, partial and intermediate.
Assimilation is said to be complete when the articulation of the assimilated
consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating one.
For example, in the word horse–shoe [h:u:] which is a compound of the words
horse [h:s] and [u:], [s] in the word [h:s] was changed to [] under the influence of []
in the word [u:]. In rapid speech does she is pronounced ['dʌi˙]. Here [z] in does [dʌz]
is completely assimilated to [] in the word she [i:]
Assimilation is said to be partial when the assimilated consonant retains its
main phonemic features and becomes only partly similar in some feature of its
articulation to the assimilating sound.

51
 In twice [twaɪs], please [plɪ:z], try [traɪ], the principal variants of the phonemes [w],
[l], [r] are replaced by their partly devoiced variants, while their main phonemic
features are retained.
The degree of assimilation is said to be intermediate between complete and
partial when the assimilated consonant changes into a different sound, but does not
coincide with the assimilating consonant. Examples of intermediate assimilation
are: gooseberry [ˈɡuzbərɪ], where [s] in goose [ɡu:s] is replaced by [z] under the
influence of [b] in berry, congress [ ˈkŋɡres], where [n] is replaced by [ŋ] under
the influence of [ɡ].
In That’s all right ['ðæts 'ɔ:l raɪt] [s] has replaced [z] under the influence of
preceding [t]. In handkerchief ['hæŋkəʧɪf] there are two assimilations: complete
and intermediate. The change of [d] into [n] is an instance of complete
assimilation, the subsequent change of [n] into [ŋ] under the influence of [k] is an
instance of intermediate assimilation.
Assimilation may be of three types as far as its direction is concerned:
progressive, regressive and double.
In progressive assimilation the assimilated consonant is influenced by the
preceding consonant. This can be represented by the formula AB, where A is the
assimilating consonant, and B the assimilated consonant.
For example, in the word “place” the fully voiced variant of the consonant
phoneme [l] is assimilated to [p] and is replaced by a partly devoiced variant of
the same phoneme. In “What’s this?” [wts ˈðɪs] [z] is replaced by [s] under the
influence of [t].
In regressive assimilation the preceding consonant is influenced by the one
following it A  B.
For example, the voiced consonant [z] in “news” [nju:z] is replaced by the
voiceless consonant [s] in the compound “newspaper” [ˈnju:speɪpƏ] under the
influence of the voiceless sound [p]. In horse–shoe [ˈh:u:], [s] in horse [h:s]
was replaced by [] and thus become fully assimilated to [] in shoe [u:].
In reciprocal, or double assimilation two adjacent consonants influence each
other B
For example, in “twenty” [ˈtwentɪ], quick [kwɪk] the sonorant [w] is assimilated
to the voiceless plosive consonants [t] and [k] respectively by becoming partly
devoiced. In their turn, [t] and [k] are assimilated to [w] and are represented by
their labialized variants.

Aspiration.
The English voiceless plosive consonants [p], [t], [k] are pronounced with
aspiration before a stressed vowel.
52
 Aspiration is a slight puff of breath that is heard after the plosion of a voiceless
plosive consonant before the beginning of the vowel immediately following.
When a voiceless plosive aspirated consonant is pronounced before a stressed
vowel in English, the pressure of the air against the obstruction is rather strong as
the glottis is open.
In the pronunciation of the English consonants [p], [t], [k] there can be
distinguished 3 degrees of aspiration.

a) it is strongest when [p], [t], [k] are followed either by a long vowel or by a
diphthong.

pass [pa:s] tall [t:l] cause [k:z]

pair [peə] tear [teə] care [keə]

b) aspiration becomes weaker when [p], [t], [k] are followed by short vowels

pull [pul] took [tuk] cut [kt]

pot [pt] top [tp] cot [kt]

c) when [p], [t], [k] are preceded by the consonant [s] they are pronounced with no
aspiration.

park [pa:k] spark [spa:k]

tie [taɪ] sty [staɪ]
cool [ku:l] school [sku:l]

Accommodation
In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its main
phonemic features and is pronounced as a variant of the same phoneme slightly
modified under the influence of a neighbouring sound.
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, as at the
beginning of the following words:

Unrounded variants of Rounded variants of

consonant phonemes consonant phonemes
[ tɪ: ] tea [ tu: ] too
[ les] less [ lu:s] loose
53
 [nʌn] none [ nu:n] noon

(2) A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its lightly advanced
(fronted) variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual phoneme [j]

Fully back variant of [u:] Fronted variant of [u:]

['bu:tɪ ] booty ['bju:tɪ] beauty
[mu:n ] moon ['mju:zɪk] music

(3) A vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before the dark
[ ł ] 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 ( [beł] – [bed],
[teł] – [ten] ).

Elision
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.

phonetics [fəu'netɪks] [ f 'netɪks]

mostly ['məustlɪ ] ['məuslɪ ]
all right [':l 'raɪt ] [':raɪt ]
next day ['nekst 'deɪ] ['neks 'deɪ]

Some effects of [d] and [t] elision.

1. You hear the final [d] or [t] in the root of some words, but not when a suffix is
added. For example:

Without elision With elision

It was perfect It was perfec(t)ly marvelous
That’s exact That’s exac(t)ly right
She’s full of tact She’s very tac(t)ful
What does she want? She wan(t)s some butter
One pound of butter Ten poun(d)s of butter

2. Elision can also affect the <ed> for simple past and past participle. This means
that, at speed, there may be no difference between present and past simple.
Slow version Fast version

54
 I watch television every day. I watch television every day.
I watched television last night. I watch(ed) television last night.
They crash the car regularly. They crash the car regularly.
They crashed the car yesterday. They crash(ed) the car
yesterday.
I wash my hands before I have lunch. I wash my hands before I have
lunch.
I washed my hands before I had lunch. I wash(ed) my hands before I
had lunch.
They usually finish their work at six. They usually finish their work
at six.
They finished work early yesterday. They finish(ed) work early
yesterday.

Elision giving rise to assimilation

In sequences such as ten boys and ten girls assimilation takes place because the
sounds involved are already next to each other.
By contrast in others such as the second boy and the second girl assimilation
only takes place because the intervening sound – the [d] in this case – has been
elided.
There are hundreds of set expressions involving this combination of [d] or [t]

Palatalization
Palatalization is a secondary articulation in which the front of the tongue is
raised toward the hard palate. Palatalization of consonant is not a phonemic
feature in English though the consonants [ʃ], [ʒ], [ʧ], [ʤ] are slightly palatalized.

Flapping
Flapping is a process in which a dental or alveolar stop articulation changes to a
flap (r) articulation. In English this process applies to both [t] and [d] and occurs
between vowels, the first of which is generally stressed. Flaps are heard in the
casual speech pronunciation of words such as butter, writer, fatter, wader and
waiter, and even in phrases such as I bought it [aɪb´rɪt]. The alveolar flap is
always voiced. Flapping is considered a type of assimilation since it changes a
non-continuant segment (a stop) to a continuant segment in the environment of
other continuants (vowels).

Dissimilation

55
 Dissimilation, the opposite of assimilation, results in two sounds becoming less
alike in articulatory or acoustic terms. The resulting sequence of sounds is easier to
articulate and distinguish. It is a much rarer process than dissimilation. One
commonly heard example of assimilation in English occurs in words ending with
three consecutive fricatives, such as “fifth”. Many speakers dissimilate the final
[fs] sequence to [fts], apparently to break up the sequence of three fricatives with
a stop.
Deletion
Deletion is a process that removes a segment from certain phonetic contexts.
Deletion occurs in everyday rapid speech in many languages. In English, a schwa
[ə] is often deleted when the next vowel in the word is stressed.

Deletion of [ə] in English.

Slow speech Rapid speech
[pəˈreId] [preId] parade
[kəˈrəud]
[səˈpəuz] [krəud] corrode

[spəuz] suppose

Comparative Study
Compare the careful speech and rapid speech pronunciation of the following
English words and phrases. Then name the process or processes that make the
rapid speech pronunciation different from the careful speech.

Careful Speech Rapid Speech

a) in my room [ɪn maɪ ˈrum] [ɪmmaɪ rum]

b) I see them [aɪ ˈsɪ: ðəm] [aɪˈsɪ:əm]
c) within [wɪðˈɪn] [wðɪn]
d) balloons [bəˈlu:nz] [blu:nz]
e) sit down [ˈsɪt ˈdaun] [sɪ ˈdaun]
f) Pam will miss you [ˈpæm wɪl ˈmɪs ju:] [ˈpæmlˈmɪ฀฀u]

Strong and Weak Forms. Reduction

In English there are certain words, which have two forms of pronunciation:
(1) Strong or full form
(2) Weak or reduced form

56
 These words include form-words and the following pronouns: personal,
possessive, reflexive and the indefinite pronoun “some” denoting indefinite quantity.
These words have strong or full forms when they are stressed.
He will do it. (and nobody else) [ `hi: l ˌdu: ɪt]
Each of these words usually has more than one reduced form used in
unstressed positions.

E.g. reduced forms of the pronoun he

[hi] [ɪ]
[hɪ]

as in the following sentences

He will do it.
[hi l ˋdu: ɪt] or [hɪ l ˋdu: ɪt]

There are three degrees of full forms of reduction.

1. The reduction of the length of a vowel without changing its quality (the so-
called quantitative reduction)
Full forms Reduced forms with quantitative
reduction
you [ju:] [ ju˙ ], [ ju ]
he [hi:] [ hɪ˙ ], [ hɪ ]
your [j:] [ j˙], [ j]

Compare the length of the vowel [i:] in the pronoun she in the following two sentences.
She looked for it. She looked for her.
[ˋ฀i: ˌlukt ˌf:r ɪt] [ ฀i.ˋlukt f. hə]

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

Strong forms Weak forms with qualitative reduction

for [f:] [fə]
her [hə:] [hə]
he [hi:] [hɪ]
at [æt] [ət]
can [kæn] [kən]
57
 was [wz] [wəz]
but [bt] [bət]

Compare the quality of the vowels in the preposition for also in the following two
sentences:
I’ll do it for him I’ll do it for Ann.
[ aɪl ˋdu: ɪt f:r ɪm ] [aɪl 'du: ɪt fər ˋæn]
Most vowels in weak forms are reduced to the neutral vowel [ə], although the
long vowels [i:] and [u:] are usually reduced to [ɪ] and [u] respectively.

Full forms Reduced forms with qualitative reduction

he [hi:] [hɪ]
do [du:] [du]

Compare also the following sentences.

He will go there.
[ˋhi: l ˌɡəu ðeə] [ hɪ l ˋɡəu ðeə]

3. The omission of a vowel or consonant sound (the so-called zero reduction)

Strong forms Weak forms with zero reduction (the vowels are omitted)
am [æm] [m]
of [v] [v]
can [kæn] [kn], [kŋ] before [k], [ɡ]
do [du:] [d]
is [ɪz] [s], [z]
us [s] [s]
shall [฀æl] [฀l]

(the consonants are omitted)

he [hi:] [i:], [ɪ]
him [hɪm] [ɪm]
his [hɪz] [ɪz]
must [mst] [məs]
had [hæd] [əd]
have [hæv] [əv]
and [ænd] [ən], [n]
has [hæz] [əz], [z], [s]

58
 (both the vowels and the consonants are omitted)
have [hæv] [v]
ha [hæd] [d]
wil [wɪl] [l]
shall [฀æl] [l]
would [wud] [d]

The following form – words in certain positions are used in their strong
forms, even when they are unstressed.
1. Prepositions have their strong forms:
(a) When they are final, e.g.
Do you know where I come from?
[dju 'nəu weər ̗aɪ km ╻frm ]

(b) When they are followed by an unstressed personal pronoun at the end of a
sense–group or a sentence. However in this position the weak form may also
be used, e.g.
She was not listening to them.
[฀i wəz 'nt `lɪsnɪŋ ╻tu: (tə) ðəm]

2. Auxiliary and modal verbs, as well as the link – verb to be, have their strong forms
at the end of a sense – group or a sentence, e.g.
Who is on duty today? I am.
['hu: ɪz `dju:tɪ tə deɪ | `aɪ æm]

Who is absent today? Ann is.

['hu: ɪz `æbsənt tə deɪ | `æn ɪz]

What is hanging on the wall? Pictures are.

['wt ɪz 'hæŋɪŋ n ðə `w:l | `pɪkʧəz ɑ:]

I don’t know where Tom was.

[aɪ 'dəunt 'nəu weə `tm wz]

There are some form – words which are never reduced. They are: which,
what, where, on, in, with, then, when, how, some in the meaning of “certain”.

Well, then go and do as you’re told.

59
 [ˏwel | ðen 'ɡəu ənd 'du: əz juə `təuld]

I stand on my right here.

[aɪ 'stænd n maɪ `raɪt hɪə]

For some reason he hasn’t come to the party.

[fə sm ˏrɪ:zn ≀ hɪ 'hæznt 'km tə ðə ˎpɑ:tɪ]

Reduction
In English, vowels in unstressed syllables are usually reduced.
Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening or disappearance of
vowel sounds in unstressed positions. This phonetic phenomenon, as well as
assimilation, is closely connected with the general development of the language
system. Reduction reflects the process of lexical and grammatical changes.
Reduction may be of the following types:
1) qualitative, which is divided into reduction Type A and Type B.
Type A (when the vowels i, e, y are in an unstressed position). Subjecting to
this type of reduction these vowels are pronounced [ɪ]
'busy [' bɪzɪ] de'cay [dɪ ' keɪ] di 'vide [dɪ 'vaɪd]

Type B (when the vowels a, o, u are in an unstressed position). Subjecting to

this type of reduction these vowels are pronounced [ə]
po 'lite [pə'laɪt] 'lyrical ['lɪrɪkəl ]

2) quantitative. It is shortening of the length of a long vowel sound.

me [ mi˙] he [hi˙]

3) complete. It is the disappearance of a vowel sound. It occurs when an

unstressed vowel occupies the position after the stressed one and it is between a
noiseless sound and a sonorant one.
'cotton ['ktn] 'lesson ['lesn]

In this case the sonorant forms a syllable.

Besides the mentioned above types of reduction, there are special cases of
reduction which include all the vowels. They are:

1) the vowel a if it precedes the combinations “-ate”, “-ade” is subjected to the

reduction Type A in adjectives and nouns and is not reduced in verbs.
60
 'regulate ['regjuleɪt] 'climate ['klaɪmɪt]

2) the vowel e is subjected to the reduction Type B before “-nt”, “-nce”, “-n”, “-
m”.
'silence ['saɪləns] 'student ['stju:dənt] 'solemn ['sləm] 'sullen ['slən]

3) the vowel o in the first type of syllable is not reduced at the end of the word
po'tato [pə'teɪtəu] 'photo ['fəutəu]

4) the vowel i when preceding the combination “–ble” is subjected to the reduction
╻inac'cessible [╻ɪnək'səsəbl], but 'possible ['psɪbl]

5) the vowel u in the first type of syllable at the beginning and at the end of the
word is not reduced and in the middle of the word is subjected to the
quantitative reduction.
'institute ['ɪnstɪtju:t] u'nite [ju:'naɪt]
ˌedu'cation [ˌedju:'keɪ฀n] Note: [ˌedju'keɪ฀n]

6) the vowels are subjected only to the reduction Type B in the third and fourth
types of syllables or are not reduced at all.
'summer ['smə] fore' see [f:'sɪ:] 'writer ['raɪtə ]

7) the digraphs ei, ey, ai, ay, ee, ea are subjected to the reduction Type A.
'mountain ['mauntɪn] 'always [':lwɪz]
'forehead ['frɪd], but 'vengeance ['venʤəns]

8) the digraph ou is subjected to the reduction Type B

er' roneous [ɪ 'rəunɪəs] 'various ['veərɪəs]

9) the digraph ow is not reduced and is pronounced [əu] in an unstressed position.

'window ['wɪndəu]

10) the digraph oa is not reduced either.

'cocoa ['kəukəu]

61
 Questions for Discussion
1. What is assimilation?
2. What are assimilated and assimilating sounds?
3. How many degrees of assimilation are there in English?
4. What is a complete assimilation?
5. Give the definition of partial, intermediate and complete assimilation.
6. How many types of assimilation do you know? Explain each type of
assimilation and give your own examples.
7. What is aspiration? Give your own example.
8. What is accommodation?
9. How many types of accommodation do you know? Give your own example.
10. What phenomenon is called “Elision”? Give an example of it.
11. What is deletion?
12. What phenomenon is called dissimilation?
13. Which process is called flapping?
14. What phenomenon is called “reduction”?
15. Name the sounds which are commonly found in the unstressed syllables.
16. How many types of reduction do you know?
17. What degrees of the reduction do you know? Give an example.
18. Read the following sentence: ‘I can read it alone’. What type of reduction is
observed in the word can?
19. Are the personal and possessive pronouns generally stressed in connected
speech?
20. Are the auxiliary and modal verbs generally stressed in connected speech?
21. In what positions are prepositions generally stressed in a sentence?
22. Which form-words have no weak forms?

62
 THEME 8: THE STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH SYLLABLE
Plan
1. The structure of the syllable.
2. Theories of syllable formation and syllable division.
3. Phonetic and phonological definitions of the syllable.
Key Words
Syllable - the natural segmentation of speech continuum, complex and complicated
unit of utterance.

Speech is a continuum. However, it can be broken into minimal

pronounceable units into which sounds show a tendency to cluster or group
themselves. These smallest phonetic groups are generally given the name of
syllables. The syllable is a very important unit. Most people seem to believe that,
even if they cannot define what a syllable is, they can count how many syllables
there are in a given word or sentence. If they are asked to do this they often tap
their finger as they count, which illustrates the syllable’s importance in the rhythm
of speech. As a matter of fact, if one tries the experiment of asking English
speakers to count the syllables in, say, a recorded sentence, there is often a
considerable amount of disagreement.
The syllable is one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit
of utterance which may be a commonly recognized subdivision of a word or the
whole of a word. Being the smallest pronounceable units, the syllables form
language units of greater magnitude that is morphemes, words and phrases. Each
of these units is characterized by a certain syllabic structure.
Phonetically, (i. e. in relation to the way we produce them and the way they
sound), syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or
no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after
this centre (i.e. at the beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater
obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound.
Articulatorily, the syllable is the minimal articulatory unit of the utterance.
Auditorily, the syllable is the smallest unit of perception: the listener
identifies the whole of the syllable and after that the sounds which it contains.
Phonologically it is a structural unit which consists of a sequence of one or
some phonemes of a language in numbers and arrangements permitted by the given
language. Looking at syllables from the phonological point of view is quite
different. What this involves is looking at the possible combinations of English

63
phonemes; the study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language is called
phonotactics. It is simplest to start by looking at what can occur in initial position
– in other words, what can occur at the beginning of the first word when we
begin to speak after a pause. We find that the word can begin with a vowel, or with
one, two or three consonants. No word begins with more than three consonants. In
the same way, we can look at how a word ends when it is the last word spoken
before a pause; it can end with a vowel, or with one, two, three or (in a small
number of cases) four consonants. No current word ends with more than four
consonants.
A meaningful language unit has two aspects: syllable formation and
syllable division which form a dialectical unity.
Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel
– consonant.
In English the syllable is formed:
1) by any vowel alone or in combination with one or more consonants – not
more than 3 preceding and not more than 4 following it, e.g. are [a:], we [wi:], it
[it], sixths [siksθs];
2) by a word final sonorants [n], [1], [m] immediately preceded by a
consonant: e. g. rhythm ['rIðəm], garden ['ga:𝑑ən].
The English sonorants [w], [j] are never syllabic as they are always syllable-
initial.
Thus vowels and sonorants are syllable-forming elements and every word,
phrase or sentence has as many syllables as it has syllabic elements.
Every English syllable has a center or peak – a vowel or a sonorant. What we
will call a minimum syllable is a single vowel in isolation (e.g. the words 'are'
[ɑ:], 'or' [ɔ:], 'err' [з:]. These are preceded and followed by silence. Isolated sounds
such as [m], which we sometimes produce to indicate agreement, or [ʃ], to ask for
silence, must also be regarded as syllables.
The peak may be preceded by one or more non-syllabic elements which
constitute the onset of the syllable, that is, instead of silence, they have one or
more consonants preceding the centre of the syllable: 'bar' [bɑ:] ‘key’ [ki]: ‘more’
[mɔ:]. The peak may be followed by one or more non-syllabic elements which
constitute the coda – that is, they end with one or more consonants: 'am' [æm],
'ought' [ɔ:t], 'ease' [i:z]. Some syllables have both onset and coda: 'ran' [ræn], 'sat'
[sæt], 'fill' [fil].
Let us now look in more detail at syllable onsets. If the first syllable of the
word in question begins with a vowel (any vowel may occur, though [ʊ] is rare) we
say that this initial syllable has a zero onset. If the syllable begins with one

64
consonant, that initial consonant may be any consonant phoneme except [ŋ]; [ʒ] is
rare.
We now look at syllables beginning with two consonants. When we have two
or more consonants together we call them a consonant cluster. Initial two-
consonant clusters are of two sorts in English. One sort is composed of [s]
followed by one of a small set of consonants; examples of such clusters are found
in words such as 'sting' [stiŋ], 'sway' [swei], 'smoke' [sməʊk]. The [s] in these
clusters is called the pre-initial consonant and the other consonant ([t], [w], [m] in
the above examples) – the initial consonant.
The other sort begins with one of a set of about fifteen consonants, followed
by one of the set [1], [r], [w], [j] as in, for example, 'play' [plei], 'try' [trai], 'quick'
[kwik], 'few' [fju:]. We call the first consonant of these clusters the initial
consonant and the second – the post-initial. When we look at three- consonant
clusters we can recognise a clear relationship between them and the two sorts of
two-consonant cluster described above; examples of three-consonant initial
clusters are: 'split' [split], 'stream' [stri:m], ‘square’ [skweə]. The [s] is the pre-
initial consonant, the [p], [t], [k] that follow [s] in the three example words are the
initial consonant, and the [1], [r],
[w] are post-initial.
We now have a similar task to do in studying final consonant clusters. Here
we find the possibility of up to four consonants at the end of a word. If there is no
final consonant we say that there is a zero coda. When there is one consonant
only, this is called the final consonant. Any consonant may be a final consonant
except [h], [w], [j]. The consonant [r] is a special case: it doesn't occur as a final
consonant in BBC pronunciation, but there are many rhotic accents of English in
which syllables may end with this consonant.
There are two sorts of two-consonant final cluster, one being a final consonant
preceded by a pre-final consonant and the other – a final consonant followed by a
post-final consonant. The pre-final consonants form a small set: [m], [n], [ŋ], [1],
[s]. We can see these in 'bump' [bʌmp], 'bent' [bent], 'bank' [bæŋk], 'belt' [belt], 'ask'
[ɑ:sk]. The post-final consonants also form a small set: [s], [z], [t], [d], [θ];
example words are: 'bets' [bets],
'beds' [bedz], 'backed' [bækt], 'bagged' [bægd], 'eighth' [eitθ]. These post-final
consonants can often be identified as separate morphemes (although not always –
'axe' [æks], for example, is a single morpheme and its final [s] has no separate
meaning). A point of pronunciation can be pointed out here: the release of the first
plosive of a plosive-plus-plosive cluster such as the [g]
(of [gd]) in [bægd] or the [k] (of [kt]) in [bækt] is usually without
plosion and is therefore practically inaudible.

65
There are two types of final three-consonant cluster: the first is pre-final plus final
plus post final:

The second type shows how more than one post-final consonant can occur in a
final cluster: final plus post-final 1 plus post-final 2. Post-final 2 is again one of
[s], [z], [t], [d], [θ].

Most four-consonant clusters can be analysed as consisting of a final consonant

preceded by a pre-final and followed by post-final 1 and post-final 2, as shown
below:

A small number of cases seem to require a different analysis, as consisting of a

final consonant with no pre-final but three post-final consonants:

To sum up, we may describe the English syllable as having the following
maximum phonological structure:

In the above structure there must be a vowel in the centre of the syllable.
There is, however, a special case, that of syllabic consonants; we do not, for
example, analyse the word 'students' [stju:dnts] as consisting of one syllable with
the three-consonant cluster [stj] for its onset and a four-consonant final cluster
[dnts]. To fit in with what English speakers feel, we say that the word contains
two syllables, with the second syllable ending with the cluster [nts]; in other

66
 words, we treat the word as though there was a vowel between d and n, although a
vowel only occurs here in very slow, careful pronunciation

SYLLABLE HAS 4 FUNCTIONS

Constitutive Delimitative
function function
Distinctive
function Recognitive
function

1. What origins words consist of two syllables ?

A) Latin origin B) Roman origin C) German origin D) English origin
2. Try to find words pronouncing according to the II type of syllable
A) such, fat, not, big, man
B) pale, gun, can, must my
C) pencil, full, but, care, sun
D) put, note, name, my, ice

67
 2. The secondary syllables are
1. Genuine syllables, the phonetic unstable and the phonemes have
structure of which has constant not the same functional
functional relevance. relevance as the phonemes
These are two or more
peeks of sonority in
Phonologically it
the secondary
is possible to
syllables.
distinguish two
types of
syllables:

SYLLABLE HAS 4
FUNCTIONS

Constitutive Delimitative
function function

Distinctive Recognitive
function function

68
 THEME 9: TYPES OF SYLLABLE

Plan
1. The definition of the syllable. The functions of the syllable.
2. Theories of syllable formation and syllable division.
3. Phonetic and phonological definitions of the syllable.
Key Words
Syllable - the natural segmentation of speech continuum, complex and complicated
unit of utterance.

There are the various generally accepted classifications of syllables. (1)

According to the syllable division whether a syllable begins and ends with a vowel
or a consonant sound, syllables are classified into open, closed, covered,
uncovered.
V. A. Vassilyev distinguished the following types of syllables:
V — uncovered, open;
VC — closed, uncovered;
CVC — closed, covered;
CV — covered, open
1. G. P. Torsuyev gives the following types of syllables:
V — fully open;
CVC — fully closed;
CV — initially covered;
VC — finally covered.
Besides he distinguishes the sub-types of syllables. A fully open syllable
consists of a vowel or a diphthong and there fore it has no other sub-types.
A fully closed (CVC) syllable may be of the following twelve sub-types
depending on th e num ber of con sonants:
1) CVC — fat,
2) CVCC — fact,
3) CVCCC — facts,
4) CCVC — place,
5) CCCVC— street,
6) CCVCC— speaks,
7) C C V Q X — spinx,
8) CCCVCC — streets,
9) CCCVCCC— (con) — s tru c ts ,
10) CVCCCC — sixths,
11) CCVCCCC — twelfth,

69
 12) CVCCCCC — six th s /siksG/ (with optional til).
The initial covered syllable has three sub- types;
1) CV — sea,
2) CCV — play,
3) CCCV — straw .
The finally covered syllable also has three sub-types:
1) VC — at,
2) VCC — apt,
3) VCCC — a c ts .
Thus, there are nineteen structural sub-types of syllables in modern English
and their peak is formed by a vowel or sonorant when it follows or precedes
constrictiv e consonants. For example, CS (S — indicates a sonorant); /(ri) — tn /
written; CSC /('lai — sns/ license; CCSC: /('saerj) — kjnz/ sanctions;
CSCC:/('skee) — fldz/ scaffolds; CCSCC: /('en) — trnts/ entrants
The above given classification represents the phonemic, to be more strict,
the allophonic structure of syllables. An English syllable is the minimum unit of
the phonetic structure of a monosyllabic word (e. g. /ai/, I, /it/ it, /buk/ book etc).
Nevertheless it can also explain the allophonic structure of polysyllabic English
words, i. e. words with two or more syllables. The English word may contain from
one to eight syllables. There are more than eight syllables in U zbek word as agglu
tination tendency is strong (it is possible to add a n um ber of suffixes) in it.
Typologically the following types of syllables exist in English, Russian and Uzbek
(including borrowings): The universal type of syllable for English is CVC —
closed and covered, which is the most frequently used in it.
1. G. P. Torsuyev gave the statistic data of sound combinations used in
initial, m edial and final positions of words and syllables. All the consonants
except /r)/ may be used in the initial positions of syllables preceding vowels. The
same may be observed in Uzbek in which the consonant It}/ cannot occur in initial
syllables of words, while in R us sian all 36 consonant phonemes m ay appear in
the initial syllables which precede vowels. More than 50 combinations of two
consonants may occur in th e initial syllables of words in which affricates and two
s i miliar consonants (geminates) cannot take part. There are 230 combinations of
two consonants occuring in the initial syllables of a Russian w ord1. T h eir n um
ber is very small in Uzbek as there are no combina tions of consonants used in the
in itia l position of the words of turkic origin. In m odern Uzbek as the result of
linguistic contacts some combi nations of consonants began to be used in the
initial syllables of words (e. g. стакан , стадион, бригада, шнур, старт, прораб,
слесарь, тр ак тор etc.). Many words of this type have been borrowed from
Russian and other languages th ro ugh Russian into U zbek. There are also a great

70
number of com binations of three and four consonants in the medial and final
positions of the Russian and English words which do not exist in Uzbek a t all or
in a very small num ber used only in borrowings. According to the n um ber of
phonemes co nstitu ting syllables they may be classified into sim ple and complex.
(2) As we have stated above a syllable is a constructive unit of pro sodies, i . e . it
can be characterized by a certain degree of stress, i. e. by the force of utterance,
pitch and duration. On the basis of these proper ties syllables may be classified
into: a) stressed and unstressed; b) short and long; c) high, mid, low etc. tones in
tone languages such as Chi nese, T h ai, Japanese etc. in which the change of pitch
is a distinctive prosodic feature. English, Russian and Uzbek are languages with
dynamic stress, i. e. the changes in the force (acoustically intensity) of utterance is
the prim ary p ro perty in them. But duration and pitch are secondary pro perties of
th e English, Russian and Uzbek accent. The stressed syllab les of an English word
may be pronounced by high tone and become longer, while unstressed syllables
are shorter and have a low tone of voice. Besides fully open syllable is longer than
a closed syllable, e. g. bee / b i :/ — longer, bead /b i:d / — long, beat /b i:t/ —
shorter. Eng lish, R ussian and Uzbek are regarded as languages of syllable-count
ing. In L a tin , Greek and Czech d u ra tio n is regarded as a prim ary property and
the syllable length is a distin ctive prosodic feature which is usually known as th e
mora. Such languages are called mora — counting lan guages as contrary to the s
y lla b le — counting languages2. In tone languages (also called languages of
musical stress) various levels of pitch (tone of voice) may serve to distinguish the
meanings of words, w h ile th e force of utteran ce and duration is not very im port
ant. For exam ple: In Thai m aa w ith high tone means «horse», with a mid tone —
«come», w ith a rising to ne — «dog».
The term «syllabeme» is used to indicate the phonological function of
syllables in mora-counting l a n guages, while the term «toneme» characterizes
the phonological f u nction of tones. V. A. Vassilyev distinguishes «word-
accenteme», «phrase accenteme» and «syntagm-accenteme» used to describe the
distinctive function of stress at different levels. He also uses the term «syllabeme»
to indicate the phonological unit which has th e only distinctive featu re based on
syllabicity. E. g. lightening /'laitam rj/ — lightning / 'la ltn ig /, finely /'fainli/ —
fin ally /'fam ali / 1 etc. The above given syllables are called phonetic syllables
which are used in utterances. There are orthographic «syllables» used in w ritin g
and printing for the purpose of application of reading rules. They are also termed
syllabographs. For example, m a k -in g , chang-ing, ta l-k in g etc.

71
 Placement of VOWELS Placement of CONSONANTS
open: the V is at the end, such a S covered at the beginning: the C is
is articulated with the opening of the at the beginning of the syllable: e. g. tie
mouth
by the end: e. g. they, wri-ter
closed: which end in C, at the covered at the end: the C is at the
end of such a S the mouth is closed: end of a S: e. g. on
e. g. hun-
dred, hat

1. Fully open V are, or

2. Fully closed (V between C) CVC 'fat' CCVC 'place' CVCC 'fact'
CCCVC 'street' CVCCC 'facts'
CVCCCC 'sixths' [siksθs]
3. Covered at the beginning CV 'too' CCV 'spy'
(one C or a sequence of C precede CCCV 'straw'
a vowel)
4. Covered at the end (one C VC 'on' VCC 'act'
or more complete the syllable) VCCC 'acts'

Test for practice

1. Try to find words pronouncing according to the III type of syllable
A) coal, told, mine
B) fare, chair, fire, girl
C) good, got, give, garden
D) care, more, fire, here

2.Try to find words pronouncing according to the I type of syllable

A) bit, bite, cut, net

72
B) full, but, care, sun
C) gun, can, must my
D) note, name, my, ice

3.Try to find words pronouncing according to the IV type of syllable

A) more, like, have, top
B) such, fat, not, big, man
C) car, form, turn, first
D) fare, chair, fire, girl

4. How many affricates are there in English?

A) 3 C) 2
B) 5 D) 4

5.What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word SPEECH?
A) [i] C) [ə:]
B) [i:] D) [ai]

6.Try to find qualitative reduction in the following words

A) cotton, garden, suddenly
B) can, have, beautiful
C) he, she, we
D) fast, letter, paper

73
 THEME 10: WORD STRESS IN ENGLISH. DEFINITION OF WORD
STRESS. IT'S TYPES AND COMPONENTS
1. Word stress.
2. The accentual structure of words.
3. Placement and degrees of word stress.
4. The functions of word stress.
Key Words
Stress - degree of force or prominence with which a sound or syllable is
uttered. Phonological stress - degrees of accent can distinguish words and their
grammatical forms. Democrative stress - common for the Second syllable from the
end to be stressed.

The nature of stress is simple enough: practically everyone would agree that
the first syllable of words like 'father', 'open', 'camera' is stressed, that the middle
syllable is stressed in 'potato', 'apartment', 'relation', and that the final syllable is
stressed in 'about', 'receive', 'perhaps'. Also, most people feel they have some sort
of idea of what the difference is between stressed and unstressed syllables,
although they might explain it in different ways.
We will mark a stressed syllable in transcription by placing a small vertical
line (') high up, just before the syllable it relates to; the words quoted above will
thus be transcribed as follows:
['fɑ:ðə] [pə'teitəʊ] [ə'baʊt]
['əʊpən] [ə'pɑ:tmənt] [ri'si:v]
['kæmrə] [ri'leiʃn] [pə'hæps]
What are the characteristics of stressed syllables that enable us to identify
them? It is important to understand that there are two different ways of
approaching this question. One is to consider what the speaker does in producing
stressed syllables and the other is to consider what characteristics of sound make a
syllable seem to a listener to be stressed. In other words, we can study stress from
the points of view of production and of perception; the two are obviously closely
related, but are not identical. The production of stress is generally believed to
depend on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed
syllables. Measuring muscular effort is difficult, but it seems possible, according to
experimental studies, that when we produce stressed syllables, the muscles that we
use to expel air from the lungs are often more active, producing
higher subglottal pressure. It seems probable that similar things happen with
muscles in other parts of our vocal apparatus.

74
 Many experiments have been carried out on the perception of stress, and it is
clear that many different sound characteristics are important in making a syllable
recognizably stressed. From the perceptual point of view, all stressed syllables
have one characteristic in common, and that is prominence. Stressed syllables are
recognised as stressed because theyare more prominent than unstressed syllables.
What makes a syllable prominent? At least four different factors are important:
1) most people seem to feel that stressed syllables are louder than
unstressed syllables; in other words, loudness is a component of prominence. In
a sequence of identical syllables, if one syllable is made louder than the others,
it will be heard as stressed. However, it is important to realise that it is very
difficult for a speaker to make a syllable louder without changing other
characteristics of the syllable such as those explained below (2-4); if one literally
changes only the loudness, the perceptual effect is not very strong;
2) the length of syllables has an important part to play in prominence. If
one of the syllables is made longer than the others, there is quite a strong
tendency for that syllable to be heard as stressed;
3) every voiced syllable is said on some pitch; pitch in speech is closely
related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds and to the musical notion
of low- and high-pitched notes. It is essentially a perceptual characteristic of
speech. If one syllable is said with a pitch that is noticeably different from that
of the others, this will have a strong tendency to produce the effect of
prominence. For example, if all syllables are said with low pitch except for one
said with high pitch, then the high-pitched syllable will be heard as stressed and
the others as unstressed. To place some movement of pitch (e. g. rising or
falling) on a syllable is even more effective in making it sound prominent;
4) a syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is
different in quality from neighbouring vowels. This effect is not very powerful,
but there is one particular way in which it is relevant in English: the previous
unit explained that the most frequently encountered vowels in weak syllables
are [ə], [i], [u] (syllabic consonants are also common). We can look on stressed
syllables as occurring against a "background" of these weak syllables, so that
their prominence is increased by contrast with these background qualities.
Prominence, then, is produced by four main factors: (1) loudness, (2) length,
(3) pitch and (4) quality. Generally, these four factors work together in
combination, although syllables may sometimes be made prominent by means of
only one or two of them. Experimental work has shown that these factors are not
equally important; the strongest effect is produced by pitch, and length is also a
powerful factor. Loudness and quality have much less effect.

75
 Up to this point we have talked about stress as though there were a simple
distinction between "stressed" and "unstressed" syllables with no intermediate
levels; such a treatment would be a two-level analysis of stress. Usually, however,
we have to recognise one or more intermediate levels. It should be remembered
that in this unit we are dealing only with stress within the word. This means that
we are looking at words as they are said in isolation, which is a rather artificial
situation: we do not often say words in isolation, except for a few such as 'yes', 'no',
'possibly', 'please' and interrogative words such as 'what', 'who', etc. However,
looking at words in isolation does help us to see stress placement and stress levels
more clearly than studying them in the context of continuous speech.
Let us begin by looking at the word 'around' [ə'raʊnd], where the stress
always falls clearly on the last syllable and the first syllable is weak. From the
point of view of stress, the most important fact about the way we pronounce this
word is that on the second syllable the pitch of the voice does not remain level, but
usually falls from a higher to a lower pitch. We can diagram the pitch movement
as shown below, where the two parallel lines represent the speaker's highest and
lowest pitch level. The prominence that results from this pitch movement, or
tone, gives the strongest type of stress; this is called primary stress.
In some words, we can observe a type of stress that is weaker than primary
stress but stronger than that of the first syllable of 'around'; for example, consider
the first syllables of the words 'photographic' [fəʊtogræfik], 'anthropology'
[ænθrəpɒlədʒi]. The stress in these words is called secondary stress. It is usually
represented in transcription with a low
mark (ֽ) so that the examples could be transcribed as
[ֽfəʊto'græfik], [ֽænθrə'pɒlədʒi].
We have now identified two levels of stress: primary and secondary; this also
implies a third level which can be called unstressed and is regarded as being the
absence of any recognisable amount of prominence. These are the three levels that
we will use in describing English stress. However, it is worth noting that
unstressed syllables containing [o], [i], [u], or a syllabic consonant, will sound less
prominent than an unstressed syllable containing some other vowel. For example,
the first syllable of 'poetic' [pəʊ 'etik] is more prominent than the first syllable of
'pathetic' [pə 'θetik]. This could be used as a basis for a further division of stress
levels, giving us a third ("tertiary") level. It is also possible to suggest a tertiary
level of stress in some polysyllabic words. To take an example, it has been
suggested that the word 'indivisibility' shows four different levels: the syllable [bil]
is the strongest (carrying primary stress), the initial syllable [in] has secondary
stress, while the third syllable [viz] has a level of stress which is weaker than those

76
two but stronger than the second, fourth, sixth and seventh syllable (which are all
unstressed).

Word stress or accent is usually defined as the degree of force or pronounce

with, which a sound or syllable is uttered. Incidentally, the syllabic structure of a
word is closely connected with its accentual structure as in disyllabic (a word
consisting of two syllables) and polysyllabic (a word consisting of more than three
syllables) words, there may be different degrees of pronounce in syllables of
initial, medial or final positions.
The classification of words according to the place and degree of stress is
known as the accentual structure (type, pattern) of words. Traditionally word
accent has the following phonetic components
a. In articulatory aspect stress is realized by the great force of resryngeal activity,
duration of articulation (a stressed syllable may be long and tense) high frequency
of the vibration of vocal chords.
b. Acoustically, a stressed syllable has greater intensity, duration and pitch or tone
of voice than an unstressed syllable.
c. Perceptually, a stressed syllable is characterized by more loudness, duration and
high tone of a sound in comparison with an unstressed syllable. It should be
emphasized that word stress and sentence stress are different, as the terms indicate,
word stress forms a word and singles out one or more of its syllables.
Sentence stress deals with the formation of a sentence or phrase and singles out
one or more words in the structure of a phrase.
Thus, sentence stress is regarded as one of the components of intonation. These
two types of stress, which are used in different levels of investigation, are
sometimes mixed, though they differ with their components and degrees and also
with their factors and functions. For ex, the word can often unstressed, but it may
receive stress in such a sentence as, now you can see it. Can you see it? I can.
3. Placements and degrees of word stress if we take a separate word, it is
noticeable that stress replacement in it is fixed and cannot be shifted to any other
syllable of a monosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic word. E. g. about, a'bility,
up - to - date, uni - versal, con - tain etc.
Word - stress in Russian is both free and shifting as it falls on any syllable of
words and word forms and may shift from one syllable to another in different
grammatical forms of words. E. g. голова, голову, письмо, письма, высокий,
высок, выше, ноги.
In Uzbek word stress is free as it may fall on any syllable. Word stress in Uzbek
has become free as a result of language contacts, which is observed in the cited
examples. In the Turkish languages are regarded as agglutinative, i.e. word forms

77
may take from one to six suffixes. For example, the word бола "a child" may have
four suffixes as бола-лар-и-миз-га "for our children", in the form иш-ки-боз-ли-
ги-миз-дан "as we like" there are six different suffixes. In these examples word
stress tends to be at the end of the word - form and very often the last syllable
receive stress.
4. The functions of word stress
We have emphasized that stress is one of the constitutive features of a word. Only,
word, no matter whether it is monosyllabic, disyllabic or polysyllabic, has its own
stress.
The constitutive function of word stress shapes the word phonetically, join the
sound sequences by articulatory means, combines its stressed and unstressed
syllables with the help of intensity (loudness), pitch, quantity and quality.
Word stress as a prosodic or suprasegmental unit has a phonological or distinctive
function, which means that the stress placement and degrees of accept, can
distinguish words and their grammatical forms. The distinctive functions of word
accent are closely connected with lexical and morphological aspects.
5. There are two types of grammatical stress:
1. Morphological.
2. Democrative.
The morphological stress exists in English, Russian and Uzbek languages in which
the morphological categories (morphemes and parts of speech) may be
distinguished by the position of accent. E. g. 'present (a verb) - present (a noun).
The democrative stress serves as a boundary or a signal, for the example, in Polish
it is common for the second syllable from the end of is stressed. Thus, the
distinctive function of word accent performs both lexical and grammatical
functions simultaneously.

The are 2 types of grammatical stress

Morphological
stress Democrative
stress

78
 Tests for practice
1. Flow many stress are in English?
A) primary B) Secondary C) Unstressed #D) A, B & C
2. Who did distinguish two sub types of recessive stress in words with prefix
which have lost their referential meaning unrestricted and restricted .
A) V.A.Vassilyev B) Otto Jesperson C) D. Jones D) G .P.Torsuyev
3.What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word behind?
A) [i] B) [ə:]
C) [aiə] D) [ai]
4.Define the type of stressed syllable in the following word: FACIAL
A) I B) II
C) III D) IV
5.What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the ICE?
A) [i] B) [ə:]
C) [aiə] D) [ai]
6. Define the type of stressed syllable in the following word: KETCHUP
A) I B) II
C) III D) IV
7. Define the type of stressed syllable in the following word: KIDDY
A)I B) II
C)III D) IV
8. Choose the line of words in which all stressed vowels are pronounced like [/\]
A) Must, does, won,
B) Oven, what, come
C) Funny, upon, soda
D) Monday, alike, suppose

79
 THEME 11: SENTENCE STRESS
Plan
1. The definition of Sentence-stress.
2. The main principles of Sentence-stress.
3. The function of Sentence-stress.
4. Sentence-stress in English and Uzbek.

In a sentence or an intonation group some words are of greater importance

than the others. Words which provide most of the information are called
content/notional words, and those words which do not carry so much information
are called function/structure/form words. Content words are brought out in
speech by means of sentence-stress (or utteranсе-level stress).
Sentence stress/utterance-level stress is a special prominence given to one
or more words according to their
relative importance in a sentence/utterance. The general rule in all languages
is that the most important information in a phrase or longer utterance will be
highlighted, that is will receive prominence through some kind of accentuation of a
particular word or a group of words.
Under normal, or unmarked, conditions, it is the content words (nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs) that are accentuated by pitch, length, loudness or a
combination of the prosodic features. Function words (prepositions, articles,
pronouns) and affixes (suffixes and prefixes) are deemphasized or backgrounded
informationally by destressing them. When any word receiving stress has more than
one syllable, it is only the word’s most strongly stressed syllable that carries the
sentence stress.
Function words usually have strong forms when they are:
a) at the end of the sentence, e. g. What are you looking at?
Where are you from?
b) used for emphasis, e. g. Do you want this one? No. Well, which one do you
want? That one.
c) used for contrast, He is working so hard. She is but not
he.
In ordinary, rapid speech such words can occur much more frequently in their
weak form than in their strong form.
The main function of sentence stress is to single out the focus/the
communicative centre of the sentence which introduces new information.
Sentence Focus. Within a sentence/an intonation unit, there may be several
words receiving sentence stress but only one main idea or prominent element.
80
Speakers choose what information they want to highlight in an utterance/sentence.
The stressed word in a given sentence which the speaker wishes to highlight
receives prominence and is referred to as the (information) focus/the semantic
center.
When a conversation begins, the focus/the semantic center is usually on the
last content word, e. g. Give me a HELP. What’s the MATTER? What are you
DOING?
Words in a sentence can express new information (i. e. something mentioned
for the first time (rheme)) or old information (i. e. something mentioned or
referred to before (theme)). Within an intonation unit, words expressing old or
given information (i. e. semantically predictable information) are unstressed and
are spoken with lower pitch, whereas words expressing new information are
spoken with strong stress and higher pitch. Here is an example of how prominence
marks new versus old information. Capital letters signal new information (strong
stress and high pitch):
A. I've lost my HAT.
В. What KIND of hat?
A. It was a SUN hat.
В. What COLOR sun hat?
A. It was YELLOW. Yellow with STRIPES.
В. There was a yellow hat with stripes in the CAR.
A. WHICH car?
In sum, sentence stress stress helps the speaker emphasize the most
significant information in his or her message.

Prof. D. Jones writes: "The relative stress of the words in a sentence

depends on their relative impotence'1. Rojer Kingdom gives the following
definition: "Sentences stress is a relative degree of force given to the various words
in a sentence". G.P. Torseeyuw makes an attempt to draw a demarcation between
word-stress and sentence stress. He stases that sentence stress are based on the
following four principles: musical, dynamic, quantitative and qualitative.
K.P.Quintovt considers sentence- stress as one of the most important
factors of intonation in languages. She analyses sentence stress into three main
functional types:
1. Syntactic (or sentence-stress)
2. Logical stress
3. Emphatic stress.

81
 I. Syntactic stress is more important functional type. Its function is
to organize the sentence phonetically, to render the meaning clear, to make speech
articulate. Syntactic stress emphasizes all the notional elements of speech, because
they are more important semantically.
II. Logical stress brings into prominence the most important element
in a syntagm.
III. Emphatic stress makes the meaning of the whole
sentence more prominent; to arose the listener's interest.
In comparing word-stress with sentence stress we see that their function is
different. The function of word- stress is to mould the word by indicating the
strongest syllable in a word.
The function of sentence stress is different and more complicated.
• Sentence stress indicates the end of the syntagm by means of strengthening the
last stress, by a definite pitch-pattern and frequently also by a pause
• Sentence-stress is used to indicate the important words in a syntagm (from the
point of view of grammar, meaning or the speakers attitude)
• In accordance with these functions of sentence-stress, we may distinguish three
types of it:
1. Syntagm stress (unemphatic or normal sentence-stress)
2. Logical sentence stress
3. Emphatic sentence stress

- The lengthening of vowels in Russia is used for the purpose of creating

emphasis.
Какой большой [ како:й бал’шой]
Да ну! Не может быть [да ну: не может быт]
- Russians are alt to introduce this method of creating emphasis into their English
speech, as for example:
- How big he is
- How late you are
This produces the effect of a strong Russian accent, and should be avoided
In English the number of form words and other auxiliary elements is greater, they
group themselves as proctitics and around the stressed notional words in syntagm.
Thus in English syntagm, stress mostly marks group of words and less frequently-
words. These groups have been aptly termed by linguist's "stress-groups". They
give to an English syntagm, and consequently, to English speech in general, a
peculiar rhythmical pattern.
Following examples are of typical English stress-groups: It was the most
extraordinary looking little gentleman he had ever seen in his life.

82
 Thus an English syntagm consists of a number of "stress-group" a stress
group in its turn, consists of a number stressed one It was the most extraordinary
looking Little gentleman he had ever seen in his life. An English are stressed:
a) The nouns
b) Adjectives
c) Notional verbs
d) Adverbs
e) Numerals
f) Pronouns : demonstrative, indefinite, negative, reciprocal,
interrogative and emphasizing
1. Auxiliary and modal verbs are stressed in the following cases: I, When
introducing a question
Can you lend me this book?
II. When preceding a negative form word especially in the contracted form /
can 7 do it tomorrow
III. When used to substitute a notional verb. Shall I tell her? No, you need not
IV. In emphatic constructions: Do sit down
2. Prepositions and conjunction are stressed in initial position:
I. If he comes tell him to do it
II. On the table there were no letters
3. Absolute forms of possessive pronouns are stressed
These books are mine.

Tests for practice

1. Who did make attempt to draw and sentence-stress and said that the
sentence-stress was based on 4 principles?
A) LA. Badouin de Courtenay B) L.V. Shcherba
C) L.R. Zinder D) G.P. Torsuyev
2. In what principles sentence-stress based on?
A) Descriptive, general, phonological, syntactic
B) General, descriptive, historical or diachronically, comparative
C) Musical, dynamic, quantities, qualitative
D) Dynamic, quantities, Descriptive, general
3. What kind of stress is it?
“"Brings into prominence the most important element in a syntagma?”
A) Syntactic stress B) Logical stress C) Emphatic stress D) Word stress

83
 THEME 12: INTONATION STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH. THE
SPECIFYING OF INTONATION. IT'S COMPONENTS AND FUNCTION
Plan
1. Intonation.
2. Intonation and its components and functions.
3. Methods of indicating and describing Intonation.
4. The Linguistic functions of Intonation components.
5. The functions of sentence - stress.
6. The functions of other Intonation Components.
7. Emphatic Intonation.
Key Words
Intonation - an essential prosodic element of human speech. Sentence - stress - the
second primary components of Intonation. Timbre determines the quality of voice.
Rhythm - the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a sentence
or a word.
Intonation may be defined as such a unity of speech melody, sentence–stress
(accent), voice quality (timbre) and speech tempo which enables the speaker to
adequately communicate in speech his thoughts, will, emotions and attitude
towards reality and the contents of the utterance.
Speech melody, or the pitch component of intonation, is the variation in the
pitch of the voice which takes place when voiced sounds, especially vowels and
sonorants, are pronounced in connected speech. The pitch of speech sounds is
produced by the vibrations of the vocal cords.
Stress in speech is the greater prominence which is given to one or more words
in a sentence as compared with the other words of the same sentence.
The voice quality (timbre) is a special colouring of the voice in pronouncing
sentences which is superimposed on speech melody and shows the speaker’s
emotions such as joy, sadness, irony, anger, indignation, etc.
The tempo of speech is the speed with which sentences or their parts are
pronounced. Closely connected with the tempo of speech is its rhythm: the
recurrence of stressed syllables at more or less equal intervals of time.
Intonation serves to form sentences and intonation groups, to define their
communicative type, to express the speaker’s thoughts, to convey the attitudinal
meaning. One and the same grammatical structure and lexical composition of the

84
sentence may express different meaning when pronounced with different
intonation.
→ Isn’t it riˏdiculous? (general question)
→ Isn’t it riˎdiculous! (exclamation)

The sentence is the basic unit of language. It may either be a single intonational
unit or consist of two or more intonational units. This intonational unit is called the
intonation group. If considered not only from the purely intonational point of
view, but also from the semantic and grammatical points of view this unit is known
as the sense-group.
An intonation group may consist of a whole sentence or a part of it. In either
case it may consist of a single word or a number of words.
An intonation group has the following characteristics:
a) It has at least one accented word carrying a marked change in pitch (a rise, a
fall, etc)
b) It is pronounced at a certain rate and without any pause within it.
c) It has some kind of voice quality.
The number of intonation groups in the same sentence may be different.
In ˏJune | Ju ly | and ˏAugust | our 'children 'don’t 'go to ˎschool.
In 'June, 'July and ˏAugust | our 'children 'don’t 'go to ˎschool.
The end of each sentence is characterized by relatively long pause. The pauses
between intonation groups are shorter. They vary in length. There may be no
pauses between intonation groups at all.
Each intonation group is characterized by a certain intonation pattern, i.e. each
syllable of an intonation group has a certain pitch and bears a larger or smaller
degree of prominence.
Intonation patterns containing a number of syllables consist of the following
parts: the pre-head, the head, the nucleus and the tail.
The pre-head includes unstressed and half-stressed syllables preceding the first
stressed syllable.
The head includes the stressed and unstressed syllables beginning with the first
stressed syllable up to the last stressed syllable.
The last stressed syllable is called the nucleus.
The unstressed and half-stressed syllables that follow the nucleus are called the tail.
It was a very sunny day yesterday.
It was a …. – the pre-head
…'very 'sunny – the head
… ˎday … – the nucleus
…yesterday – the tail

85
 The first stressed syllable up to the last stressed syllable is called either the head
or a scale.
As for the last stressed syllable it may either be called the nucleus or a tone.
Graphically these intonation parts can be shown as following:

It was a 'very 'sunny ˎday yesterday.

the head (scale) the tail

… ¯ ˙ ─
·  …

the pre-head the nucleus (tone)

The rises and falls that take place in the nucleus or start with it are called
nuclear tones.
The nucleus is the most important part of the intonation pattern as it defines the
communicative type of the sentence, determines the semantic value of the intonation
group, indicates the communicative center of the intonation group or of the whole
sentence.
The communicative center is associated with the most important word or
words of the intonation group or of the sentence.
The nuclear tone of the final intonation group is determined by the
communicative type of the whole sentence.
The communicative types of sentences are differentiated in speech according to
the aim of the utterance from the point of view of communication, i.e. in order to
show if the sentence expresses a statement of fact, a question, a command or an
exclamation.
1. Intonation is an essential prosodic element of human speech. It shapes
human speech phonetically and helps to express grammatical, semantic and
emotional meanings of phrases or sentences. Intonation is a very complicated
phenomenon and three - force its definition varies widely among linguists. The
following definitions of intonation have been given by British linguists:
"Intonation maybe defined as the variations which take place in the pitch of the
musical note produced by the vibration of the vocal cords". (D. Jones).
"By Intonation we mean the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice when we
speak (L. Armstrong and I. Ward).

86
 The American linguists D. L. Bollinger defines intonation as "... the
melodic line of speech, the rising and following of the "fundamental" or singing
pitch of the voice..." P. Ladefoged defines intonation as "the pattern of pitch
changes". P. Lieberman regards intonation as "... the entire ensemble of pitch
contours, pitch levels and stress levels, that occurs when a sentence is spoken".
From given definitions we can notice that intonation is regarded as pitch changes
or speech melody and also stress levels, which accompany an utterance. Speech
melody perceived as pitch changes is one of the main components of intonation,
but it is not equal to intonation may be studied in four aspects:
1. Articulatory (physiologically). 2. Acoustic (physically).
3. Perceptually (audiotorially). 4. Functionally (linguistically).
Intonation and its components perform four functions like other
phonological units.
1. A constitutive function of intonation is expressed by its existence in an
utterance through which intonation shapes a sentence phonetically. For example,
Come! As a word and sense group has its own grammatical form and intonation.
The phrases Come here! Or He will come tomorrow-constitutive different
grammatical (syntactic) structures and intonation.
2. A delmitative function of intonation is very closely connected with its
constitutive function. By sense group we mean a word or a group of words
forming the shortest possible unit in a sentence from the point of view of
meaning, grammatical structure and intonation.
3. A distinctive (phonological) function of intonation serves to distinguish the
communicative types of sentences e.g. he is a student, may be pronounced by four
different pitch contrasts.
4. A recognitive function (identificatory) of intonation may be proved by the fact
that every language or dialect has a characteristic pattern of intonation which is
manifested in all utterance of speakers, though there may be some individual
prosodic features in their pronunciation.
Intonation, its components and junctions exist not only in oral speech. But
in the written form of a language as well. In a written text the punctuation marks
make the meaning of sentences clear to the reader.
Methods of indicating and describing intonation. There are different
methods of indicating intonation which depend on theoretical and practical
approaches of linguists. Generally, there are three principles of describing
intonation.
1. The narrow phonetic description if intonation, which belongs to British
phoneticians: /D. Jones, H. E. Palmer, L. E. Armstrong and I. C. Ward, A. C.
Gimson/.

87
2. The phonological description used by American linguists of both the
descriptive and tagmemic schools: (K. L. Pike, H. A. Gleason, R. Nash and etc).
3. The broad phonetic and phonological description of English intonation is given
by the soviet phoneticians of English G. P. Torsuyev, V. A. Vassilyev, О. I.
Dickushine, M. A. Antipova, by their followers.
The linguistic functions of intonation components. Speech melody or pitch
level is regarded one of the primary or main components of intonation. Its chief
function is to distinguish communicative types of sentence and to divide a
sentence into sense group or intonation groups.
R. Nash distinguishes the following five basic functions of speech melody:
1. The identify function, i.e. the ability of listeners to recognize a language
without understanding what he said and to pronounce utterances with a foreign
accent;
2. The presentation function, i.e. in every language any utterance is pronounced
with some degree of pitch inflection;
3. The structural function, i.e. the speech melody is used to signal structure
boundaries and relationship across boundaries;
4. The deictic function, i.e. a certain degree of speech melody; intentionally
altered by the speaker is used to emphasize a particular lexical item of an
utterance;
5. The expressive function of speech melody signal the presence of a speaker's
emotion. If the emotion is strong, other prosodic elements such as tempo,
loudness and voice quality are added. This shows a close relationship of all
prosodic elements and intonation.
The functions of sentence - stress. Sentence - stress is the second primary
components of intonation: its main functions are to single out words in a sentence
according to their relative semantic importance, and to provide an adequate
rhythmical structure of a sentence, e.g. 1 go home.
The given sentence is formed by one sense group and one sentence - stress
which operate together with speech melody determining the degree of position of
stress in a sentence.
Phonologically, phrase - accenteme performs word - distinctive, syntactive
- distinctive, (it is called «syntagmo - accenteme» and emotional distinctive
functions in a sentence e.g.).
Is there any Miss Take here? (word distinctive function).
Is there any Miss Take here? This is my brother John (oppositio).
This is my father, John (direct address). What's that? (different emotional
meanings). What's that?

88
 The functions of other intonation components. The other components of
intonation are rhythm, pause, timbre of voice and tempo of speech which have
their specific functions.
Timbre determines the quality of voice: it may be emotional and normal and
helps to shape the meaning of a sentence. The sentence I saw my friend
yesterday. May be pronounced in different timbre of voice to express different
meanings.
Rhythm does not exist independently, but is connected with all other
components of intonation. Rhythm is defined as the regular alternation of stressed
and unstressed syllables in a sentence or a word.
Tempo (or rate) of speech which may be normal, slow and quick functions
together with rhythm and other components of intonation. Tempo and rhythm are
inseparable and function together to express a speaker's emotions, and underline
the semantic importance of different parts of a sentence and sense groups.
Sometimes the meaning of a sentence may defend on different pausation, e.g.
You know it all right. You know it all right.
Emphatic intonation. Emotional means of intonation express a speaker's
attitude towards the facts in question his feelings, emotions and moods. Sentence
pronounced with emphatic intonation besides the general meaning, have an
implication. The emotional meaning is super - imposed on the general meaning of
the sentence, through intonation.
Emotional means of intonation are variable. They include different
variations of melody, sentence stress, tempo, especially timbre.
In emotional coloring of a phrase some of these components of intonation become
phonologically relevant and others - non - relevant. Thus, the distinctive function
of intonation contributes to its phono stylistic function.
The tones used in emphatic speech are: emphatic falling tone, fall rise, rise
- fall, rise - fall - rise. Their usage depends on the communicative types of
sentence in which they occur. The ascending and scendent scales are also used in
emphatic intonation. Higher or lower pitch levels of sense groups and wider or
narrower pitch ranges are often used in emphatic intonation, i.e.
What a wonderful day!
Emphatic intonation may be used when special and general questions are
repeated. The unstressed syllables start rising immediately after the fall When
does she live?
Lowering the pitch - level often serves to express hopelessness,
disappointment, sadness, aversion etc., but it may express admiration as well It
froze and froze.

89
There may be some other extra linguistic factors relevant in emotional speech.
Thus, emphatic intonation is regarded one of the features existing in emotional
speech.

A
constitutive
function

A FUNCTIONS A
delimitative OF recognitive
function INTONATION function

A
distinctive
function

Acoustic
(physically)

Articilatory ASPECTS
(Physiologi- Functionally
OF
cally) INTONATION (linguistically)

Perceptually
(Audirorially)

90
 Some extra help =)

Articulatory Apparatus
Active Organs of Speech
(movable articulators)

Passive Organs of Speech

(fixed articulators)

Cavities (= Spaces)
• Nasal
• Oral (mouth)
• Pharynx
• larynx

91
 How Speech Sounds are Made
Air comes up from the lungs…

… goes through oral and/or

nasal cavity…

… vocal cords either vibrate or

do not vibrate as air comes our

…as air goes out, various

articulators assume different
positions to make different
vowel and consonant sounds

Questions for Discussion

1. Intonation.
2. What is speech melody?
3. What is stress in speech?
4. What is timbre?
5. What is called the tempo of speech?
6. The main function of intonation.
7. What are the pre-head, head, nucleus and tail? Illustrate with your own example.
8. How many degrees of sentence-stress do you know?
9. What is rhythm?
10. Rhythmic group. Give an example.

92
 TESTS

1. In any language people … using their organs of speech.

A. speak
B. breathe
C. smile
D. walk

2. The palate has

A. 1 part B. 2 parts
C. 3 parts D. 4 parts

3. Find the line with bilabial consonants

A. [t, d] B. [p, b]
C. [q, s] D.[ a, b]

4. The most important organ of speech is

A. The soft palate
B. The nasal cavity
C. The hard palate
D. The tongue

5. What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word behind?
A. [i] B. [ə:]
C. [aiə] D. [ai]

6. The movable speech organs are called

A. Passive organs of speech
B. Active organs of speech
C. Fixed organs of speech
D. a,c

7. Active organs of speech

A. Take an active part in the articulation of speech-sounds
B. Are movable
C. Serve as points
D. a, b

8. Find the wrong answer. Passive organs of speech are

A. The teeth, the teeth ridge
B. The hard palate, the walls of the resonators
C. The teeth, the lips
D. The hard palate, the teeth ridge

93
9. Find the word with French origin
A. Champagne B. Hair
C. House D. b, c

10. What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word speech?
A. [i] B. [ə:]
C. [i:] D. [ai]

11. How many consonant phonemes are there in English?

A. 20 B. 24
C. 21 D. a, b

12. Choose the right spelling to the given transcription (pay attention to the
consonant phoneme) [kof]
A. Couf B. Cough
C. Café D. a, b

13. Define the type of stressed syllable in the following word: FACIAL
A. I B. II
C. III D. IV

14. What is the phoneme?

A. A unit of a language
B. The biggest unit of a language
C. The smallest undivided unit of a language
D. b, c

15. How many types of articulatory obstruction are there in English?

A. 3 B. 2
C. 4 D. 5

16. Find the word with Greek origin

A. Scholastic
B. Shore
C. Story
D. a, b

17. How many vowel phonemes are there in English?

A. 24 B. 30
C. 20 D. 22

18. Bilabial consonants are articulated by

A. The two lips
B. The blade of the tongue
C. The lower lip and upper teeth
94
D. a, b

19. Consonants may be voiced and voiceless according to

A. The place of articulation
B. The work of vocal cords
C. The degree of force of articulation
D. b, c

20. English voiceless consonants are

A. Lenis B. fortis
C. Labial D. a, b

21. How many plosive consonants are there in English?

A. 7 B. 8
C. 6 D. 9

22. How many affricates are there in English?

A. 3 B. 2
C. 5 D. 4

23. Choose the line in which letter “g” is pronounced like [dз]
A. Longing, giraffe
B. Dialogue, badge
C. Liege, encourage
D. Singer, bridge

24. Find the line with nasal sonorants

A. [∫, f] B. [m, n]
C. [g, k] D. b, c

25. The parts of the palate are called

A. The front palate and the back palate
B. The front palate and the central palate
C. The hard palate and the soft palate with the uvula
D. The soft palate and the central palate

26. Find the line with plosive consonants

A. [p, b] B. [t∫, dз]
C. [m, n] D. a,b

27.Choose the line in which letter combination “n+consonant” is pronounced like

[ŋk]
A. Ink, uncle
B. Thank, lodgings
C. Tank, younger
95
D. Blink, livings

28. What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the ice?
A. [i] B. [ə:]
C. [aiə] D. [ai]

29. Define the type of stressed syllable in the following word: COPIOUS
A. I B. II
C. III D. IV

30. Choose the word in which consonant “c” is pronounced [k]

A. Scent
B. Science
C. Scene
D. Scat

31. Choose the word that doesn’t have 2 variants of pronunciation

A. Neither
B. Schedule
C. Either
D. Scheme

32. Which ending is appropriate for the following verb cooked

A. [t] B. [d]
C. [id] D. a, b

33. Choose the right spelling to the given transcription (pay attention to the
consonant phoneme) [fəun]
A. phone B. fone
C. found D. fauna

34. How many vowel letters are there in the English alphabet?
A. 20 B. 6
C. 15 D. 22

35. According to the character of their end vowels may be

A. short and long
B. checked and unchecked
C. tense and lax
D. short and lax

36. Choose the right spelling to the given transcription (pay attention to the
consonant phoneme) [hu:m]
A. Home B. Whom
C. Who D. b, c
96
 TESTS

1. According to their length vowels are divided into

A. Long and short B. Close and open
C. Front and back D. Front and short

2. What kind of vowels are called tense?

A. All the long vowels
B. All the short vowels
C. Those which are produced with lesser tenseness of the speech organs
D. b, c

3.Checked vowels may occur in

A. A closed syllable
B. An open syllable
C. Both in open and in closed syllables
D. a, c

4. Unchecked vowels may occur in

A. An open syllable
B. A closed syllable
C. Both in open and in closed syllables
D. No right answer

5. Choose the line in which letter “a” is pronounced like [a:]

A. Lass, calf, path B. Hath, mass, ant
C. Rather, grass, mast D. Class, sand, dance

6. Choose the line in which all the words are not subjected to common rules and
they are exceptions
A. Face, age, myth B. Cyder, pity, zed
C. Said, neither, key D. Vein, cite, cake

7. What phonemes does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word firm?
A. [i] B. [ə:]
C. [aiə] D. [a]

8. Soft reduction is when the letters … are read as [i]

A. e, i, y B. a, o, u
C. l, m, n D. a, o, y

9. Find the word with French origin

A. Genre B. Clock
97
C. Wise D. a, b

10. Choose the right spelling to the given transcription (pay attention to the
consonant phoneme) [wail]
A. While B. Vile
C. Wine D. b, c

11. Define the type of stressed syllable in the following word: KETCHUP
A. I B. II
C. III D. IV

12. How many consonant letters are there in the English alphabet?
A. 21 B. 20
C. 24 D. 22

13. Two adjacent consonants within a word or at 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
A. Assimilation
B. Accommodation
C. Elision
D. Reduction

14. Which ending is appropriate for the following verb played

A [d] B. [t]
C. [id] D. [b, c]

15. According to the type of obstruction English consonants are divided into
A. 2 types B. 3 types
C. 4 types D. 6 types

16. Find the word with Greek origin

A. Allophone B. Box
C. Rose D. Hone

17. Choose the word in which consonant “c” is not pronounced

A. Scythe B. Scan
C. Accent D. Screen

18. What words are never reduced?

A. Modal verbs B. Demonstrative pronouns
C. Negatives D. a, c

19. Choose the right spelling to the given transcription (pay attention to the
consonant phoneme) [fæt]
98
A. Fat B. Phat
C. Fate D. a, b

20. According to the degree of noise English consonants are divided into
A. Noise consonants and sonorants
B. Voiced and voiceless
C. Occlusive and constrictive
D. a, b

21. Define the type of stressed syllable in the following word: KIDDY
A. I B. II
C. III D. IV

22. What teeth are not very important for making speech sounds?
A. The lower teeth
B. The upper teeth
C. Both the lower and upper teeth
D. The tongue and upper teeth

23. Find the sentence where the preposition is stressed

A. What are you thinking of?
B. He is waiting for you.
C. He is standing on his head.
D. b, c

24. Choose the line of words in which all stressed vowels are pronounced like [/\]
A. Must, does, won,
B. Oven, what, come
C. Funny, upon, soda
D. Monday, alike, suppose

25. What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word wife?
A. [i] B. [ə:]
C. [aiə] D. [ai]

26. Choose the right spelling to the given transcription (pay attention to the
consonant phoneme) [wain]
A. Wine B. Vine
C. Vein D. a, b

27. What is a diphthong?

A. A complex sound consisting of two vowel elements
B. A complex sound consisting of two consonant elements
C. A complex sound consisting of one vowel element and one consonant element
D. A complex sound consisting of three vowel elements
99
28. Choose the line in which the letter combination “th” is pronounced like [ð]
A. Mother, bath, father
B. These, that, mother
C. Thick, thin, with
D. Truth, depth, death

29. Find the word with French origin

A. Buffer B. Manhood
C. Phone D. a, b

30.What phoneme does the stressed vowel letter refer to in the word pilot?
A. [i] B. [ai]
C. [ə:] D. [i:]

31. Choose the line in which letter “o” is pronounced like [əu]
A. Board, could
B. Won, color
C. Both don’t
D. Roar, won’t

32. Most of the palate is

A. Hard B. Soft
C. Fixed D. a, c

33. Which ending is appropriate for the following verb stayed

A. [id] B. [t]
C. [d] D. no right answer

34. Vowels may be rounded and unrounded according to

A. The lip position
B. The degree of tenseness
C. Their length
D. no right answer

35. Assimilation may be

A. Of five degrees B. Of four degrees
C. Of three degrees D. Of two degrees

36. Progressive, regressive and double are

A. Types of accommodation
B. Degrees of assimilation
C. Types of assimilation
D. a, b

100
 ADABIYOTLAR RO`YXATI
1. Абдуазизов A.A. Theoretical phonetics of modern English.-T., 2007
4. Васильев В.А. English phonetics. А Theoretical course.-М., 1970.
5. Веренинова Ж.Б. Фонетическая база английского языка.- М., 1996.
6. Зиндер Л.Р. Общая фонетика. -М., 1980.
7. Кантер Л.А. Системный анализ речевой интонации. м., 1988.
8. Меркулова Е.М. Introduction to phonetics.- Санкт-Петербург, 2002.
9. Соколова М.А. English phonetics. А Theoretical course.-М., 1997.
10. Торсуев Г.П. Проблемы теоретической фонетики и фонологии.—М.,
1969.
11. Торсуев Г.П. Строение слога и аллофоны в английском языке. М., 1976
12. Трубецкой А.С. Основы фонологии.- М., 2002.
13. ШвейцерА.Д. Literary English in America and England.- M.,1971
14. Ходжиев Л. Лингвистик терминларниигизохлилуғатн. Т., 2-нашр,
2002,
15. Jimson А.С. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English.-Lnd., 2001.
16. Leonteva S.F. A Theoretical Course of English,- M., 2004.
17. Jones D. An Outline of English Phonetics Cambridge. 1976.
18. Jones D Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary- Lnd., New. edition.
2001.
19. Shakhbagova D.A. Variety of English Pronunciation.- M., 1982.

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