.

:

-

:

-

2011
811.111:81342(07)
81.2-1-9
75
.
,
-

:
. . ,
. - ;
. . - ,

: . .
-75 : :
- / . :
. . : , 2011. 53 .
ISBN
-

.


.
- :
.

11.111:81342(07)
81. 2 - 1 - 9

ISBN 45689912
. ., 2011
. , 2011
,

,
, , ,
,
.
,
.
,

.

-
.
.
:
- ,
;
- ,
,

;

;
-
;
-

;

 .
, ,
. ,
-
.
, ,
,

.

,

.
1 - The subject of
theoretical phonetics
The term phonetics is derived from the Greek language. Phonetics
is often defined as a branch of linguistics dealing with the phonetic
structure of a language. It means that phonetics studies:
1) the sounds, their classification and distribution;
2) the syllabic structure of words, i.e. syllable formation and syllable
division;
3) the accentual structure of words, its nature , place and degree;
4) the intonational structure of sentences.
Phonetics is concerned with the study of all the above mentioned
components from different points of view, the most important of them
being the functional one.
As a branch of linguistics phonetics occupies a peculiar position.
Though it is an independent science and develops according to its own
laws, it is connected with a number of other linguistic and non-linguistic
sciences.
The linguistic sciences study the language from different viewpoints.
Lexicology treats of the vocabulary of a language, of its origin, meaning
and word-building. Grammar studies the structure of a language and the
rules governing the combination of words into sentences. Stylistics means
the study of style. The history of the language traces its historical
development. Phonetics is connected with them because lexical,
grammatical and other phenomena are expressed phonetically. They cannot
exist outside phonetics.
Phonetics is connected with grammar as it helps to pronounce
correctly singular and plural forms of nouns, the past indefinite and the past

participle forms of verbs and other endings, as in: pens, books, classes, asks
asked, lives lived, Nicks, teachers, etc.
It is connected with grammar also through sound interchange, as in:
wife wives, path paths, house houses, man men, mouse mice,
tooth teeth, etc.
One and the same sentence may have different meanings when
pronounced with different terminal tones.
e.g. Isnt it wonderful? (general question)
Isnt it wonderful! (exclamation)
Mary is right. (statement)
Mary is right? (general question)
Phonetics is connected with lexicology through the accentual
structure of English words in which verbs are formed from nouns by
conversion.
e. g. subject to subject
import to import
record to record
Phonetics is connected with stylistics through intonation which
serves to express different emotions and to distinguish between different
attitudes on the part of the speaker or reader.
Phonetics is connected with physics because speech like any other
sounds in nature are acoustic phenomena and may be studied from the
point of view of their physical properties.
The articulation of sounds and their perception are connected with
anatomy and psychology.
Historical phonetics is connected with general history and the history
of the people whose language is studied.
The study of intonation is impossible without a good knowledge of
logic.
Phonology is connected with communication theory and statistics.
Language is often defined as the most important means of human
intercourse. Language can perform this function only as a language of
science because spoken words in all languages consist of speech sounds,
and speech without words is impossible. Letters only represent spoken
words in writing.
The materialistic conception of language is based on the thesis that
language can exist only in the material form of speech sounds.
Human speech sounds are of a complex nature and they may be
viewed from 4 points: articulatory, auditory, acoustic and functional. These
are the aspects of speech sounds. They all function simultaneously and
cannot be separated from one another. But each of them can be singled out

only for purposes of linguistic analysis. Thus, phonetics as a science has

developed a number of its own branches: physiological phonetics, which
treats of the articulation and perception of sounds, acoustic phonetics,
which studies the physical nature of speech sounds, and phonology, which
is concerned with the study of functions of different phonetic phenomena.
Each of these branches of phonetics has its own methods of investigation
and its own terminology.
From the point of view of its articulation every speech sound is a
complex unity of definite movements and positions of speech organs. It is
physiological phonetics which deals with the study, description and
classification of speech sounds. It is the oldest and the most developed
branch of phonetics. Its oldest and simplest method of investigation is the
method of direct observation, which may be visual and auditory. It consists
in observing the movements and positions of peoples speech organs while
pronouncing various sounds, and in comparing them with the auditory
impressions. It is considered to be a subjective method of investigation.
Besides, objective methods are also used in physiological phonetics.
Objective methods make wide use of gramophones, cassette-recorders,
photography, cinematography, laryngoscopy, X-ray photography, X-ray
cinematography and others.
Physiological phonetics also studies the auditory aspect of speech
sounds. There is an especially close connection between the articulatory
and auditory aspects, because when man pronounces speech sounds they
are perceived not only by the listener but the speaker himself too.
Different articulations produce different auditory impressions; hence,
they produce different acoustic effects. Thus, speech sounds have a
physical, or acoustic aspect. Like any other sound in nature, a speech sound
is a physical phenomenon, a form of moving matter and energy.
Speech sounds are the basic units of any language because they make
up the material forms of all the morphemes and words. That is why speech
sounds may be considered the basic component of the sound matter of
language.
The branch of phonetics, which is concerned with the study of the
acoustic aspect of speech sounds, is called acoustic phonetics. It is one of
the youngest sciences and deals with the physical properties of a sound.
The principal methods used in acoustic phonetics are experimental ones.
The physical properties of a sound are: 1) fundamental frequency, 2)
intensity, and 3) time.
There is a close connection between acoustic and auditory aspects of
speech sounds. Care should be taken not to confuse the terminology which
is used in them.

1- Terminology used in auditory and acoustic aspects

Auditory aspect
Acoustic aspect
Pitch or musical tone
Fundamental frequency
Loudness of a sound
Intensity
Duration or length
Time
The fundamental frequency of a sound, as an acoustic property, is
perceived by us as its pitch or tone. The intensity of a sound corresponds to
its loudness. The time or temporal component is perceived as the duration
or length of a speech sound.
The acoustic properties are investigated by means of the following
instrumental techniques; the intonograph, the sound spectograph, the
cassette-recorder and others.
The functional aspect of speech sounds (and of all the other phonetic
phenomena) is studied by phonology, which is a comparatively new branch
of phonetics. The first linguist who founded this branch of phonetics was
prof. I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay (1845 1929), a prominent PolishRussian linguist.
Speech sounds are functional units of a language. The role of speech
sounds lies in the fact that they can be used to differentiate words, like
/bk/ - /bg/; /rait/ - /mait/, etc.
Speech sounds taken in isolation do not mean anything, though some
of them may constitute morphemes or even words, as in the case of /s/, /z/
and /t/, /d/ which are variants of certain English morphemes (e.g. /buks/,
/a:skt/), and /a:/, // which are the grammatical forms of the verb to be.
But such cases are rare. More commonly morphemes and words consist of
a number of speech sounds.
Speech sounds and all the other phonetic phenomena fulfill 3 main
functions: constitutive, distinctive and recognitive.
The constitutive function of speech sounds is proved by the fact that
speech sounds constitute all morphemes, syllables, words, phrases,
sentences and as well as complete utterances.
Distinctive function lies in the fact that one word (or morpheme) is
differentiated from another word (or morpheme) by a difference in their
number of speech sounds. One or more speech sounds in one word are
opposed to one or more speech sounds in another word.
Recognitive function consists in the use of the right allophones in
words. It means that in the word twice /t/ should be rounded and not
plosionless or unaspirated. Whereas in the word state /t/ must be

unaspirated and not rounded. The use of the right allophones makes it easy
to recognize words and to understand speech properly.
Questions
1.What is phonetics?
2.What does phonetics study?
3.With what sciences s phonetics connected? Give the examples.
4.What branches of phonetics do you know?
5.What methods of investigation n phonetics can you name?
6.What are the functions which speech sounds fulfill?
7.How are the branches of phonetics interconnected?
8.What do general and special phonetics deal with?
9. What do you know about historical and comparative
phonetics?
10. Why is theoretical phonetics important?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Transcribe the following words and sentences and prove that
phonetics s connected with grammar, lexicology, stylistics and others:
an abstract-to abstract; desks, sofas, take-took-taken, advice-to
advice, goose-geese, foxes, Would you believe it? Would you believe it!;
woman-women; an insult-to insult; cars; boats, You say its a funny story?
You say its a funny story!
2

The phonetic structure of the English language
The English phonetic structure is systemic in character. It is made of
the following components:
1)
2)
3)
4)

The system of English phonemes;

The syllabic structure of English words;
The accentual structure of words;
The intonational structure of English sentences.
The phonemic component includes not only the system of English
phonemes but also the combination of their allophones, which occur in
words. The character of this component means that phonemes and their
allophones may occur only in definite positions in words. Definite
allophones of phonemes may occur only in definite positions. This
phenomenon is called distribution of allophones.

e.g. /twais/ - the rounded allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used

before /w/;
/eito/ - the dental allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before
/o/;
/trai/ - the post-alveolar allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used
before /r/
/ritn/ - the nasally released allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used
before /r/ etc.
The same can be said about combinations of consonants and vowels.
Their usage is determined by some regular rules of the language. For
example, the combination of consonants /tl, dl, tn, dn/ never occurs at the
beginning of English words. They may occur at the end or in the middle of
words. (In Russian, on the contrary, they may come at the beginning and in
the middle of words, but never at the end, eg. , , ,
, , .. In Kazakh such combinations of consonants are
impossible.
To the phonemic component also belong different methods of joining
sounds together in words and at the junction of words. We may speak of the
following four types of sound transitions in English:
CV transitions, as in /ti:/, /mai/, /ka:/ etc.
VC transitions, as in /it/.
CC transitions, as in /lukt/, /trai/.
VV transitions, as in /mai a:nt/.
VC transitions are reflected in syllable division of English words.
The short stressed vowels are always checked. They can only occur in
closed type of syllable.
Loss of plosion may serve an instance for CC transitions, as in
October, effect, helped, strict, next day, wanted to come, blackboard, etc.
Compare the similar Russian and Kazakh combinations of two plosives,
which are pronounced with two plosions, as in: , , ,
, ; ,
In VV transitions we may have two different ways of joining
vowels, with and without the glottal stop between them.
The second component of the phonetic system of English is syllabic
structure of its words in isolation and in phrases and sentences. This
component may be viewed from two points its syllable formation and its
syllable division.
The third component of the phonetic system of English is the
accentual structure of its words. It may be studied from three aspects:
1) the physical nature of word accent;
2) the position of word accent in different words;

3) the degree of word accent.

Languages may differ in the accentual structure of words as well.
The most important of the three aspects enumerated above is the position of
accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words in English and in Russian,
because these languages have the so-called free word accent. It means that
the accent may rest on any syllable in different words, eg. Fellow, repeat,
represent, representation , , , ..
In Kazakh language the word accent is fixed on the last syllable, eg. ,
, , .
The fourth component of the phonetic system of
English is the intonation structure of sentences. Intonation
is a complex unity of speech melody, prominence of words,
tempo and voice-tamber which serve to express the
speakers thoughts, emotions, feelings and attitudes
towards reality.
Intonational structure of English, Russian and Kazakh
differ greatly.
All the four components of the phonetic system of English
(phonemic, syllabic, accentual and intonational) constitute the English
pronunciation.
Questions
1) Is the English language systemic in character?
2) What does the English phonetic structure consist of?
3) What do we call distribution? Give examples.
4) Which component of the phonetic structure do different methods of
joining sounds belong to?
5) What are the types of sound transitions in English? Give examples.
6) What does the term syllabification mean?
7) Do English, Russian and Kazakh coincide in syllable formation and
syllable division? Prove it.
8) Which is the most important aspect of the accentual structure of
English and Russian words?
9) Has Kazakh fixed or free word accent?
10) What is intonation?
Practical task
1. Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2.Comment on the allophones of the phonemes /t, k, r, s, l/ in the
examples:
At the, little, eaten, twenty; quick, looked, cool, sky; rose, cry,
threat; simple, swift, soap; plate, load.

10

3. Comment on the different types of sound transitions in English.

CV: key, port, talk, time, calm, turn, cat, pen.
VC: button, letter, happy, worry, money, body, coming, syllable.
CC: act, checked, begged, kicked, liked, meet Tom.
VV: my apple, he is, there is, we always, the actress, she asks.
Think of your own examples and compare them with the
corresponding types of transitions in your mother tongue.
4. Transcribe the following English words and underline the
transcription symbol which corresponds to each syllabic sound in the
words: Candle, sand, sadden, cant, dont, listen, here, fire, our, neednt,
floor.
5. Transcribe the following words, show the point of syllable
division in each of them by putting a bar between the syllables (table [tei/bl].
Ready, nature, natural, picture, finish, many, pity, pupil, study,
discover, story.

3
- Speech mechanisms
Speech sounds are the results of various movements and positions of
human speech organs. They are products of the complicated work of the
speech mechanisms.
According to their main sound-producing function the speech organs
can be divided into the following 4 groups: the power mechanism, the
vibrator mechanism, the resonator mechanism, and the obstructer
mechanism.
These 4 mechanisms are closely interconnected, because in the
process of production of a sound several speech mechanisms function
simultaneously. Besides, one and the same speech organ may belong to
different mechanisms.
The main speech organs of speech belonging to the power
mechanism are as follows: the lungs, the windpipe, the glottis, the pharynx,
the oral cavity and the nasal cavity.
In order to speak we need breath. Hence, the function of the power
mechanism is to supply the organs of speech with energy in the form of air
pressure, and to regulate it during speech.
Breathing consists of 2 phases inhalation and exhalation. Breathing
may be of two kinds: 1) ordinary biological breathing which takes place
when we are silent, and 2) sound-producing breathing.

11

In ordinary breathing both phases are nearly of the same duration. In

sound-producing breathing the phases are of different duration: inhalation
is quick and deep, whereas exhalation is longer and drawn out. During
speech the air goes out in spurts corresponding to syllables, words and
sense-groups. All the speech sounds in English, Russian, Kazakh and many
other languages are made during exhalation.
In ordinary breathing the stream of air flows out freely: the vocal
cords are apart and the glottis is widely open, the soft palate is lowered
letting the air through the nasal cavity.
In sound-producing breathing the out flowing air undergoes some
modifications in the glottis, in the pharynx and in the mouth cavity.
The vocal cords and the glottis constitute the vibrator mechanism.
The vocal cords are situated in the upper part of the windpipe, called
larynx. The vocal cords resemble 2 muscular folds which run in horizontal
direction from back to front. The opening between the folds is called the
glottis.
The vocal cords may take up different positions:
1) When they are kept apart, the glottis is wide open and the breath
can pass them by being checked. Sounds formed with the glottis thus open
are known as voiceless sounds. In ordinary breathing the vocal cords are
also drawn apart.
2) When the vocal cords are pulled close together and the glottis
reduced to a mere slit, they become an obstacle to the out flowing breath.
The air pressure below the vocal cords becomes very strong. As it passes
through the narrow slit into the outer air, it makes the vocal cords vibrate.
Such vibrations are heard as voice. All English vowels and many English
consonants are voiced.
3) The vocal cords may be drawn together tightly, so that the air
cannot pass between them. In this case the voc. Cords fulfill the function of
an obstructer mechanism.
To the resonator mechanism belong: the pharynx, the oral cavity and
the nasal cavity. All the 3 resonance cavities (or resonators) have
boundaries or walls. By changing the position of the movable boundaries
we may modify the shape and size of the resonators.
The nasal cavity is fixed, while the pharynx and the oral cavity are
modifiable.
The direction in which the air flows depends on the position of the
soft palate. When the soft palate is lowered the air passes through the nasal
resonator. When it is held in its raised position the air stream is directed
towards the oral cavity. The majority of speech sounds in English, Russian
and Kazakh are articulated in the oral cavity.

12

It is due to the different movements and positions of the tongue and

the lips that the oral resonator may take up various shapes and sizes. The
oral resonator is responsible for the articulation of vowels. Movements of
the tongue in different directions provide a basis for classification of
vowels according to two important principles:
1) according to the horizontal movement of the tongue;
2) according to the vertical movement of the tongue.
The particular quality of a vowel sound depends not only on the
position of the tongue but also on that of the lips. The lips perform a double
function. The natural resonance is determined not only by the shape and
size of the resonator but also by the shape and size of the opening of the
resonator.
When the lips are spread the front boundary of the oral resonator is
formed by the teeth; when the lips are rounded the front boundary is
formed by the lips themselves. In this case the oral resonator is lengthened.
This is one of the functions of the lips. (i. E. to form the front boundary of
the oral resonator). Another function of the lips consists in forming the
front opening of the oral resonator. Consequently, the position of the lips is
included into the vowel classification.
Some vowels in English are pronounced with a fixed resonator (the
tongue and the lips do not change their position), others are articulated with
a modified resonator (the tongue and the lips move from one position to
another). The former resonator corresponds to monophthongs, the latter
corresponds to diphthongs. This principle is included into the classification
of vowels in accordance with the stability of articulation.
In the articulation of vowel sounds no obstruction is made. The
obstructor mechanism is responsible only for the production of consonants.
To the obstructor mechanism belong the following active and passive
speech organs: the tongue, the lips, the teeth, the alveoli, the palate, the
back boundary of the pharynx and the vocal cords.
When articulating sounds the organs of speech may occupy one or
the other position. There are several types of articulatory obstruction:
complete, incomplete and intermittent.
The obstruction is complete when the articulating organs are in close
contact. The air passage is completely blocked. Consonants articulated with
this type of obstruction are called occlusive.
The obstruction is incomplete when the organs of speech are not
blocked but only constricted, or narrowed leaving a passage for the air to
go through. Consonants produced with this type of obstruction are called
constrictive.

13

The obstruction is intermittent when the 2 articulating organs form a

series of rapid intermittent taps. Consonants articulated in this way are
known as rolled, like the Russian /p/ or the Scottish /r/ of the American
English /t/.
There also may a complicated type of obstruction, beginning and
ending with an incomplete one. Consonants produced with this type of
obstruction are called occlusive-constrictive or affricates.
The type of obstruction is one of the main principles in the
classification of consonants. Different organs of speech participate in
production of different consonants. An articulatory obstruction may be
formed either by two active speech organs, or by an active organ in
conjunction with a passive one. In consonant classification this principle is
called according to the active organ of speech and the place of
obstruction.
The lips, the tongue and the back boundary of the pharynx (and also
the vocal c-s) are the active speech organs. Hence, depending on the active
speech organs consonants may be: labial, lingual and pharyngeal.
According to the place of obstruction (or the passive speech organs)
consonants may be: dental, alveolar, palatal and velar.
As has been said already the vocal c-s may also function as part of
the obstructor mechanism to produce consonantal noises. The vocal c-s
form a complete obstruction to the out flowing stream of air. By quickly
separating the vocal c-s a speech sound is produced which is called the
glottal stop. Consonants may come up against one or two articulatory
obstructions. Those with one obstruction are called unicentral. Consonants
with two centers of obstruction are known as bicentral. Most consonants in
English are unicentral.
The second articulatory obstruction may be formed either by raising
the middle part of the tongue towards the hard palate, or by raising the back
part of the tongue towards the soft palate. They are distinguished as the
front secondary obstruction, and the back secondary obstruction.
Palatalization makes the consonants softer as in the English /l, / while
velarization makes the consonants harder, as in the English /, w/. In
Russian almost all the consonants may be either palatalized or velarized.
People belonging to different races and nationalities possess an
identical speech apparatus. Thats why in all existing languages there are
typologically identical sounds, such as consonants, vowels and sonorant.
For instance, in all European languages and there are such typologically
identical sounds as /a, o, u, i, e, t, m, k, l/ etc. And, yet, not a single sound
of one language is absolutely identical spectrally with a typologically
identical sound of another language.

14

This is due to the fact that people use their speech organs differently,
or as phoneticians say, it is due to the difference in the articulation basis.
The articulation basis may be defined as the general tendencies (or
habits) in the way native speakers use their speech organs both during
speech and at rest.
The articulation basis influences the phonemic system of a language.
The articulation basis of one language may differ from the art-n basis
of another language. Though the articulation basis of English, Kazakh and
Russian have not yet been studied we may only speak about the most
characteristic features of RP art-n basis as compared with the Kazakh and
Russian Standard art-n bases.
Difference in the art-n bases of English, Kazakh and Russian,
reflected in the system of consonants, are as follows:
1) The English have a tendency to hold the tip of the tongue in neutral
position at the level of the alveoli (or teeth-ridge), whereas the Russians
and the Kazakhs keep it much lower, at tooth level. That is why there are
about 50% of all the consonants in RP which are articulated with the tip of
the tongue against the alveoli, as in /t, d, n, l, s/ etc. they are alveolar,
palato-alveolar and post-alveolar in accordance with the place of
obstruction. The tip of the tongue in the articulation of Russian and Kazakh
forelingual consonants occupies dental position.
2) the English and the Kazakhs have a general habit to hold the bulk of
the tongue in neutral position a little further back, lower and flatter than the
Russians. This may be observed in the art-n of the consonants /h, / in
British RP and /h, , , / in Kazakh.
3) The English have a specific way of articulating final consonants.
Voiced consonants in final position are always weak in English (even
partially devoiced). They are called lenis. Voiceless consonants in final
position, on the contrary, are strong. They are called fortis. In Russian
voiced consonants are impossible in final positions (except sonorant), and
voiceless cons-s in final position are always weak. In Kazakh sonorant
and // are possible in final position, e. g. .
4) There is a specific way of articulating voiceless plosive cons-s in
English. When they are followed by a stressed vowel they are aspirated, as
in teacher, paper. In Kazakh and Russian they are non-aspirated.
5) There is a tendency to lengthen the English word-ending sonorant
before a pause, especially when they are precede by a short vowel. As in
Tom, doll, long. The similar Russian and Kazakh sonorants are short in the
same position.
Difference in the art-n bases of English, Kazakh and Russian,
reflected in the system of vowels, are as follows:

15

1) The positions and movements of the lips are very peculiar. On the
one hand, when an English is silent, his lips occupy the so-called flat-type
position, they are more or less tense and the corners are raised as in a smile.
A Russian and a Kazakh keep the lips rather lax with the corners of the lips
lowered. Spreading of the lips for front vowels is rather typical of English.
In Russian and Kazakh the lip position for unrounded vowels is neutral. On
the other hand, in the production of the Russian vowels /o, / and the
Kazakh /o, e, , , / the lips are considerably protruded. In English such
protrusion does not take place, as in /o, o:, u, u:/.
2) In the production of English vowels the bulk of the tongue is more
often at the back of the mouth; in the production of Russian and Kazakh
vowels the tongue is mostly in the front part of the mouth. Besides, the
tongue may occupy more positions when articulating English vowels than
in Russian or Kazakh vowel production.
3) English and Kazakh vowels are more tense than Russian. This is
especially felt in unstressed syllables. In English and Kazakh an unstressed
vowel does not always differ greatly from a stressed one. In Russian it is
always short, lax and reduced.
4) There are in English short and long vowels which are different both
in quality and quantity. There are no such phonemic oppositions in the
Russian and Kazakh languages.
Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

What do speech mechanisms produce?

Into what four groups are speech mechanisms divided?
Why are the speech mechanisms closely connected?
What organs of speech belong to the power mechanisms?
What is the function of the power mechanisms?
How many phases does breathing consist of? What are they?
What are the two kinds of breathing?
What are the phases of inhalation and exhalation like in ordinary
biological breathing?
9. Are the inhalation and exhalation of the same duration in soundproducing breathing?
10. Which is longer?
11. Why is exhalation longer in sound-producing breathing?
12. What belong to the vibrator mechanism?
13. Where are the vocal cords situated?
14. What do we call the glottis?

16

15. What position do the vocal cords occupy when voiceless sounds are
produced?
16. What position do the vocal cords occupy when voiced consonants
are articulated?
17. What speech organs belong to the resonator mechanism?
18. Which resonators are fixed and which are modifiable?
19. When does the air pass through the nasal resonator?
20. When does it go through the oral cavity?
21. For the articulation of what sounds is the oral resonator responsible?
22. How is the movement of the tongue reflected in the classification of
vowels?
23. Is the position of the lips of any importance to the particular quality
of a vowel?
24. What functions do the lips perform?
25. What do you understand by stability of articulation?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Speak about the work of the four speech mechanisms when
articulating the following English phonemes: /b, r,j, n,f,w,e,,,/.
3) Speak about the work of the obstructer mechanism in the following
cases:
Wear, lesson, shy, regime, child, January, window, fall;







4) Give your examples of palatalized and velarized consonants in
Kazakh.
4 - The
acoustic and phonological aspects of speech sounds
Any sound in nature is an acoustic phenomenon. It is a form of
moving matter and energy. A sound is generated by a physical body which
is set into vibration by some external force. When an external force is
applied to a physical body the physical body begins to oscillate to move

17

forward and back. These alternate movements of the physical body produce
condensations and rarefactions of air which are known as sound waves.
A speech sound is also a physical phenomenon. As it has been said
before it is a product of the complex work of the speech mechanisms which
regulate the air stream, thus producing condensations and rarefactions of
air.
A sound has a number of physical properties: frequency, intensity,
duration.
Frequency is a number of vibrations per second. A mans ear may
perceive the vibrations of the air when they occur at a rate of 16 to 20000
cycles per second. Frequency is measured in cycles per second.
Sound waves may rhythmical and non-rhythmical. When the
vibrations are repeated at regular intervals of time we get rhythmical
waves. They are perceived as vowels. When the vibrations are repeated as
irregular intervals of time we get non-rhythmical waves. They are
perceived as consonants.
Frequency of sounds depends upon the mass, length and tension of
the vibrator. For example, the vocal cords which are greater in mass
produce slow vibrations; they are perceived as low-pitched. If the vocal c-s
are longer they produce slow vibrations too, which are also perceived as
low-pitched. If the vocal c-s are less tense they produce slow vibrations
which are perceived as low-pitched too, and vice versa.
That is why a mans voice is usually lower than that of a woman. A
childs voice is usually the highest. Our perception of frequency is the pitch
of the sound.
The second physical property of a sound is its intensity.
Intensity of a sound depends upon the force which is applied to a
physical body. The greater the force, the larger the amplitude and vice
versa. These sound waves have the same frequency, but the amplitude of
vibration is different. The first has twice the amplitude of the second. It
means that the sound of larger amplitude is louder, and the sound of smaller
amplitude is less loud.
Changes in intensity are perceived as variations in the loudness of a
sound. This is measured in decibels.
The third physical property of a sound is its duration. Sounds can
only exist in time. The duration of a sound is measured in milliseconds thousandths of a second. In speech there are no definite boundaries
between different speech sounds: one speech sound gradually fades into
another. Duration of a sound is perceived by man as its length.

18

All the physical properties of a sound exist simultaneously. They

may be singled out and separated from one another only for purposes of
acoustic analysis.
Phonology is a branch of phonetics which studies the functional
aspect of speech sounds. Phonology is based on the phoneme theory, which
came into being in Russia. As has been said before its founder was the
Russian scientist prof. Ivan Alexandrovitch Baudouin de Courtenay (1845 1929).
Baudouin de Courtenay tried to analyze phonemes according to their
functions. He did it through studying phoneme alternations and trying to
explain this phenomenon. But his theory was known only to a few linguists
(as Baudouin de Courtenay wrote only in Russian and Polish).
It was only after 1928 when the first International Linguistic
Congress took place that this phoneme theory became widly known and
spread. It has been thoroughly analysed and developed ever since.
Many followers continued the work of I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay,
such as N. S. trubetskoy, some linguists of the Moscow school: R. I.
Reformatsky, P. S. Kuznetsov and others. The most gifted pupil of
Baudouin de Courtenay was prof. L. V. Shcherba (1880 - 1944).
Prof. Shcherba said that in actual speech we utter a much greater
variety of sounds than we are aware of; in every language these sounds are
united in a comparatively small number of sound types which are capable
of distinguishing the meaning and the form of words; that is they serve the
purpose of social intercourse. It is these sound types that we have in mind
when discussing speech sounds. Such sound types are to be called
phonemes. The various sounds that we actually utter and which are the
individual representing the universal (the phonemes), are to be called
phonemic variants.
There are several conceptions of the phoneme both in our country
and abroad. But linguists have not yet arrived at a definition of the
phoneme acceptable to all.
Prof. V. A. Vassilyev developed L. V. Shcherbas theory in his book
English Phonetics. A theretical course. Here is his working definition of
the phoneme to which we will stick: The segmental phoneme is the
smallest language unti that exists in the speech of all the members of a
given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of
distinguishing one word form from another word of the same language or
one grammatical form of a word from another grammatical form of the
same word.
The number of phonemes in each language is much smaller than the
its number of allophones. It means that each phoneme has several

19

allophones. Classification of allophones is very important for practical

teaching because in actual speech it is allophones that people pronounce
and not phonemes.
Allophones are divided into two groups: typical and subsidiary. The
most representative allophone is called typical. It is the one that is not
influenced by neighboring speech sounds. Typical allophones are described
in English textbooks. They are included in the classification of the
phonemes of the language. For example, the typical allophone of the /t/
phoneme is characterized by the following features: occlusive plosive,
forelingual alveolar, voiceless- fortis, oral.
Subsidiary allophones may be positional and combinatory. Positional
allophones are used in certain positions traditionally. For example, the
English /l/ phoneme is always dark in final position and before
consonants as in tell, ball, cold, etc. the English /l/ phoneme is always
light in initial position as in light, lesson, language, etc.
Combinatory allophones are those which are influenced by the
neighboring speech sounds. They are the result of assimilation, adaptation,
accommodation, and of the specific process of sound transitions (VC, CV,
CC, VV).
Questions
1. What kind of phenomenon is any sound in nature?
2. What is a sound generated by?
3. What does a physical body begin to do when an external force is
applied to it?
4. What are sound waves?
5. What are the physical properties of a sound?
6. What do we call frequency?
7. What kind of vibrations may a mans ear perceive?
8. What is frequency measured in?
9. What kind of waves do we get when vibrations are repeated at
regular intervals of time?
10. How are rhythmical waves perceived by man?
11. What kind of waves do we get when vibrations are repeated at
irregular intervals of time?
12. How are non-rhythmical waves perceived by man?
13. What does frequency depend on?
14. Why is the mans voice usually lower in pitch?
15. Whose voice is the highest in pitch?
16. What is the second physical properties of a sound?
17. What does intensity of a sound depend on?

20

18. How is intensity perceived by man?

19. What is intensity measured in?
20. What is the third physical properties of a sound?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Demonstrate graphically the pronunciation of the same speech sound
with different intensity.
3) Transcribe the following words and say what allophones (typical or
subsidiary) the underlined letters represent. If the allophone is
subsidiary say whether it is positional or combinatory.
Fellow, for, better, beaten, cattle, he, sold, whats, has, noodle,
health, language, well, at times.
5 Syllabic stricture
of the English language
The English phonetic structure is systemic in character. It is made of
the following components:
1) the system of English phonemes:
2) the syllabic structure of English words;
3) the accentual structure of words;
4) the intonational structure of English sentences.
The phonemic component includes not only the system of English
phonemes but also the combination of their allophones, which occur in
words. The character of this component means that phonemes and their
allophones may occur only in definite positions in words.
Phonemes are seldom pronounced in isolation, they usually occur in
sequences. Any speech flow consists of series of peaks and valleys of
prominence with the more sonorous phonemes at the peaks and the less
sonorous phonemes in the valleys. Thus, sound sequences are acoustically
broken up into smaller units known as syllables, which are the minimal
units of sounding speech.
A syllable may consist of one or a number of phonemes, i.e. it may
be formed by any vowel or by a word-final sonorant (l, m, n, ) preceded
by a consonant, as in I, are, we, garden etc.
A speech sound which is capable of forming a syllable is called
syllabic. It is the most sonorous sound in the syllable and makes up the
peak of prominence.

21

Speech sounds which are not capable of forming a syllable are called
non-syllabic. They are the less sonorous sounds of the syllable and make up
the valleys of prominence. Prof. Vassiliev defines the syllable as one or
more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which
may be a whole word, e.g. man or a commonly recognized and separable
subdivision of a word e.g. En-glish, la-ter.
The syllabic structure of words may be graphically represented by
the letter V standing for a vowel sound, and the letter C standing for a
consonant sound. The syllabic sonorant is represented by .
Every syllable has a definite structure. It belongs to one of the
following 4 main types of syllables: V, VC, CV. CVC. They are classified
as covered, uncovered, open and closed. A syllable which begins in a vowel
is called uncovered, a syllable which begins in a consonant is called
covered. A syllable which ends in a vowel is called open, a syllable which
ends in a consonant is called closed.
So, the main types of syllables may be defined in the following way:
V uncovered, open: e.g. /o:/ (or)
VC uncovered, closed: e.g. /it/ (it)
CV covered, open: e.g. /si:/ (see)
CVC covered, closed: e.g. (catch).
There are a great number of variants in the syllabic structure which
are formed by increasing the number of consonants in the initial and final
position, as in:
VCC e.g. and, act, oaks etc.
VCCC e.g. ends, acts
CCV e.g. blue, clay etc.
The similar syllabic structures exist in Russian too.
Though the same structures are used in both languages their
frequency of occurrence is different. Some of them are extremely rare in
Russian, while in English they are in common use.
The most common syllables that sonorants form are of , C and
CC type. For instance,
type: /'p-l/ (apple);
C type: /'tei-bl/ (table);
CC type: /'nei-nz/ (nations).
In Russian and Kazakh sonorants are non-syllabic.
There are several theories which try to explain the mechanism of
syllable formation and syllable division.
The oldest of them is the so-called expiratory theory (also breathpuff, pressure. or. chest-pulse theory). According to this theory each
syllable corresponds to one expiration. A word consists of as many

22

syllables as there are such expirations made when the word is uttered. Each
syllable begins with a fresh expiration. For instance, the word "forty" has
two syllables. According to the expiratory theory there must be two expirations. The point where a new expiration starts indicates the syllabic
boundary of the word.
The expiratory theory is strongly criticized here and abroad (by
B.I.Zh1nkin,.G.P.Torsuyev, A.C.Gimson and others). According to the last
experimental data more than ten syllables can easily be pronounced during
one expiration.
Next appeared the so-called sonority theory of the syllable. It was
propounded ( ) by Otto Jesperson. This theory is
nowadays widespread among foreign linguists. The term "sonority" in
taken by O.Jesperson as "the degree of perceptibility".
All speech sounds have different inherent sonority. The most
sonorous are open back vowels, the least sonorous are the voiceless stops.
O.Jesperson classified all speech sounds according to 7 levels of sonority:
1) vowels;
2) semi-vowels / j, w/;
3) sonorants /1, m, n, . r/;
4) voiced fricatives /v, , z, /;
5) voiced stops /b, d. g/;
6) voiceless fricatives /f, , s/;
7) voiceless stops / p, t, k /.
Each syllable contains one peak of sonority. For instance let us
analyse the words "popular"' and "articulation".
vowels
semi-vowels
sonorants
voiced fricatives
voiced stops
voiceless fricatives
voiceless stops
The word "popular" consists of three peaks that is why it has three
syllables.
The sonority theory is also criticized because it cannot explain the
mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division. Besides this theory
is helpless in determining the number of syllables in such words as "going",
"highest". "speak", "ski", etc.
According to Pro.L.V.Shcherba all consonants may be of three types:

23

1) initially strong (and finally weak), as in: it, on, us;

2) finally strong (and 1nitially weak). as in: may, tea;
3) double consonants which are strong at both ends and have a
weakening in the middle as in: good day.
The most energetic part of a consonant is attached to a vowel. For
instance in the word ten" there are two consonants: /t/ and /n/. The
consonant /t/ is finally strong (and initially weak), because the vowel is
attached to the end of the consonant. The consonant /n/ is initially strong
(and finally weak) because the vowel is attached to the beginning of /n/. It
may be represented graphically in the following way.
At the beginning the /t/ is weak, at the end it gets stronger. The
muscular tension increases still until it reaches its climax produced by the
vowel /e/. Then the muscular tension begins to diminish. The /n/ is still
strong at the beginning but gets quite weak at the end.
The syllabic boundary lies at a point where the consonant is the
weakest. Initially weak consonants constitute the beginning of a syllable.
Finally weak consonants constitute the end of a syllable. Double-peaked
consonants may only occur at the juncture of two syllables, as in /'gud-'dei/
(good day), /mis-spel/ (misspell), etc.
Prof.L.V.Shcherba's theory was further developed by his followers
and now it is known among Soviet linguists as "muscular tension theory".
Prof.N.I.Zhinkin's investigation of the mechanism of syllable
formation and syllable division in the pronunciation of the Russian
language may serve as a basis for a general theory of syllables. By using
different complicated techniques Prof. B.I.Zhinkin found out which speech
organ causes a syllable to be formed. This organ is the pharyngeal cavity.
When the walls of
the pharynx are contracted the passage through the pharyngeal cavity
gets narrower. This process increases the actual loudness of the sound and
the latter produces an "arc of loudness". Prof.N.I.Zhinkin's theory is often
referred to as "loudness theory
Prof.N.I.Zhinkin has proved that the "arc of loudness" is due to the
complex work of the speech mechanism as a whole (including the work of
the power, vibrator, resonator and obstructor mechanisms).
That is why Prof.V.A.Vassilyev suggests that it would be more
precise to call a syllable an arc of articulatory effort" but not an "arc of
loudness".
A syllable begins at a point where a new articulatory effort starts and
ends at a point where the articulatory effort ends.
Each language has its own peculiarities in its syllabic structure. One
of the peculiarities of syllable division in Russian and Kazakh. for instance,

24

is that the sequence of CVCV makes for two open syllables: ca-. -pe,
-, -. They are strong-end consonants in Russian and Kazakh.
There are a number of factors determining the rules for syllable
division in English, as well. Syllable division in English is closely
connected with the checked or free character of the vowel in a stressed
position. The sequence of CVCV may have different types of syllable
depending on the character of the vowel sound. In this case the syllable
division is governed by the following rules:
1) The sequence of /CVCV/ may include two open syllables if the
stressed vowel is a long monophthong or a diphthong, e.g.,
/si:-li/ (ceiling),
/tai-tl/ (title), etc.
The syllable division of Russian and Kazakh fully coincides with this
pattern in English. In the three languages the consonants are strong-end
consonants.
2) The sequence of /CVCV/ has a closed syllable and an open
one /'CVC-V/ if the stressed vowel is a short monophthong,
'pit-i/ (pity), /'mer-i/ (merry) etc.
Syllables of this type present a great difficulty to Russian and
Kazakh students because in similar Russian and Kazakh words there are
two open syllables. In English the intervocalic consonants of this type are
initially strong while in Russian and Kazakh they are finally strong,
3) Short and long monophthongs' and diphthongs make for an open
type syllable it they are unstressed and are separated from the adjacent
vowels by only one consonant, e.g.
/ri: kt/ (react),
/bigin/ (begin)
Phonetic and orthographic syllables should not be confused. They
sometimes coincide and sometimes do not. For instance, phonetically
disy1labic words like "apple". "higher", "eaten". "flower", "battle". "fire",
"drizzle", etc. are treated in writing as monosyllabic words. Whereas
orthographically disyllabic words like "type", "come", "wrote", "theme",
"change". have only one phonetic syllable.
Here are some examples:
/a:-tis-tik/ art-ist-ic the syllabic boundary does not coincide.
/:-li/ ear-ly the syllabic boundary coincides.
The phonetic syllable division is governed by the three rules which
have been stated above. The orthographic syllable division is governed by
the morphemic principle, as in: star-less, writ-er etc.
The syllabic structure of English performs three main functions:
constitutive, distinctive and recognitive.

25

The syllabic structure fulfills constitutive function because syllables

constitute the material forms of all the words, phrases and sentences. Te
latter can not exist without syllables.
The distinctive function of the syllabic structure includes differences
in both syllable formation and syllable division. Presence or absence of a
syllable in one and the same position, as well as different syllabic
boundaries may differentiate one word (or phrase, or sentence) from
another word (or phrase, or sentence).
Here are some phonological oppositions of presence vs. absence of a
syllable in the same position in a minimal pair:
/bet/ - /bet/ bet - better
/beit - / bate/ bate abate
There are a number of combinations of words distinguished from
each other by different syllabic boundaries:
a name an aim
I scream ice-cream etc.
The recognitive function of the syllabic structure manifests itself in
the fact that the right syllabic boundary makes it easier to recognize words,
phrase, and sentence.
The violation of the recognitive function of the syllabic structure
results in the following:
1) wrong syllable division produces a strong foreign accent;
2) it produces a comic impression upon an Englishman;
3) it hampers the process of communication.
Questions
1. What is our speech acoustically broken into?
2. How many phonemes may a syllable consist of?
3. What sounds may form syllables in English?
4. What speech sound is called syllabic?
5. What speech sounds are called non-syllabic?
6. What main types of syllables do you know?
7. What is an open syllable?
8. What is a closed syllable?
9. What are variants of the main types of syllables formed?
10. What can you say about the syllabic structure of English, Russian
and Kazakh?
11. What types of syllables may be formed with the help of a sonorant?
12. What is the oldest theory of syllable formation and syllable
division?
13. How many syllables does a word consist of according to this theory?

26

14. Why is the expiratory theory criticized?

15. Who propounded the so-called sonority theory?
16. How did O.Jesperson classify all the speech sounds of English?
17. Why is this theory criticized too?
18. What are the three types of consonants according to LV.Shcherba?
19. Give examples of initially strong consonants, finally strong and
double consonants.
20. Where is the syllabic boundary lie according to this theory?
21. What is Prof. Shcherbas theory called nowadays?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2)Transcribe the following words and show their syllabic structure
using O.Jespersons seven levels of sonority: Public, foundation,
popularity.
3) Transcribe the following words and break them up into phonetic
syllables: shooter, houses, apple, title, morning, butter, begin, react,
artistic.
4) Transcribe the following English, Kazakh and Russian words and
underline syllabic phonemes: raising, idle, handle, , , ,
, .
5) Divide these words into phonetic syllables. Give their syllabic
structural patterns.
A word in transcription
Its syllabic structural pattern
N
0
Bridle [braid . l]
CSVC.S
1
people
2
copious
3
luggage
4
militant
5
participant
6
scatter
7
scissors
6 Accentual
structure of the English language
Different syllable in one and the same word are usually
pronounced with a different degree of prominence. Such special
prominence given to one or more syllables in the same word is called

27

word accent (or word stress). Different linguists define word accent
differently.
There exist different ways of making a syllable more prominent.
That is why we may speak of different types of word accent:
1) The pronunciation of a syllable may be made more prominent
if the syllable is said with greater force. Prof.D.Jones said in this
respect stress may be described as the degree of force with which a
sound or a syllable is uttered. A strong force of utterance means
energetic action of all the articulating organs. This generally gives the
objective impression of loudness . Word accent of this type is known
as force accent (or dynamic accent).
2) A syllable may become more prominent if it is pronounced at
different pitch levels or in different pitch directions. Word accent of
this type is called musical accent (or pitch accent).
3) A syllable may become more prominent if its vowel is
pronounced longer than the same vowel in an unstressed position. For
instance, the /i:/ vowels of the word /i:s:z/ (theses) are of different
lengths. It is longer in a stressed position and shorter in an unstressed
one. This type of word accent is known as quantitative accent.
4) A syllable may become more prominent if the vowel is
pronounced distinctly and its quality is not obscured. For instance,
the /i/ vowels in /siris/ (serious) are a bit different in quality: the
stressed /i/ is distinct and clear, while the unstressed /i/ is somewhat
obscured. According to Prof.G.P.Torsuyev this type of word accent is
qualitative accent.
All existing languages have either the force or the musical type
of word accent as leading principle, while the quantitative and the
qualitative types play a subsidiary role.
English, Russian, Kazakh, German, French and other European
languages belong to the force type of word accent, the only difference
being in the degree of the force with which the stressed syllables are
pronounced.
To the musical type of word accent belong Swedish, Norwegian,
and oriental languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean
and others. For example, if the syllable /ma/ of Chinese is said with the
falling tone, it means scold, but if it is said with the rising tone, then
it means hemp (). Another example, from Swedishs if the
word Anden is pronounced with
It is a standard and genu1ne joke in linguistic circles that in one
Burmese dialect the word /ma/ pronounced in five different tones
corresponds to the sentence: Help the horse; a mad dog comes!

28

British and Soviet phoneticians distinguish three degrees of

word accent in English: primary, secondary and weak. The strongest
accent is primary, the second strongest is secondary. The syllables with
primary and secondary accents are called stressed, while syllables with
weak accents are called unstressed.
The primary accent is indicated by Prof.D.Jones by placing a
raised stress mark // before the accented syllable, the secondary accent
is indicated by a lowered stress mark /, /; the weak accent is not marked
in any way.
The American scientists are not unanimous in treating of the
degrees of word accent in English. B.Bloch and C.Trager, for instance,
distinguish four degrees of word accent and call them: loud, reduced
loud; medial and weak.
H.A.Cleason and most American descriptivists also distinguish
four degrees of word accent and call them: primary stress //, secondary
stress //, tertiary stress / / , and weak stress / v/.
The difference between secondary and tertiary stresses is not
clear enough, and there are no indicators for differentiating between them.
This results in different treatments of the same example by American
linguists. For instance, according to B.Bloch and G.Trager a free word
combination like black bird has secondary-primary stresses /^ /;
according to H.A.Gleason it has primary-secondary stresses/ ^/. One
more example: such words as examination have tertiary-primary
stresses according to American descriptivists; but they have secondaryprimary stresses according to British phoneticians.
These examples really prove that it is difficult to say which a
secondary stress is and which a tertiary one is.
Prof.V.A.Vassilyev offers two ways of solving this problem. The
easiest one is to do away with the tertiary stress altogether and treat it either
as a secondary stress or a weak stress and thus follow the accentuation
system of the British phoneticians.The second way of solving this problem
consists in finding some objective criteria for determining the position of
both secondary and tertiary stresses.
According to Prof.V.A.Vassilyev a tertiary stress is post-tonic. It
occurs in words after the primary stress. There are several groups of
words of primary-tertiary type having the following pitch pattern. They
are:
- a large group of compound nouns of the blackbirdtype: black-ball,
blackbook, blackcap, black-cock, blackguard, black-head, black Jack,
blackleg, black-list, blackmail, black sheep, blacksmith, class-room, classbook, class-fellow, book-case, hair-pin, door-mat, playhouse, greenhouse,

29

green-room, dancing-girl, missing-list, street-cleaner, etc;

- polysyllabic verbs ending in ate, -ise(-ize), -fy(-py), etc., as in:
occupy, demonstrate, situate, emphasize, satisfy, memorize, articulate,
colonize, negotiate, etc;
-polysyllabic words in General American English ending in ary(-ory,
-ery), -ony(-oly), etc., as in: secretary, testimony, etc;
According to Prof.V.A.Vassilyev a secondary stress is pre-tonic. It
occurs in words before the primary stress. There are several groups of
secondary-primary type which have the following pitch pattern. They are:
-a large group of polysyllabic nouns ending In the suffix tion(-sion,
-cian), as in: assimilation, realization, modification, participation,
consideration, investigation, simplification, testification, colonization,
representation, qualification, phonetician, academician, etc.;
-a group of polysyllabic abstract nouns ending in the suffix ity, as in:
possibility, impossibility, peculiarity, credibility, theatricality, muscularity,
permissibility, perfectibility, regularity, etc.;
-a fairly large group of polysyllabic adjectives ending in the suffixes
al, -ic(-ical), as in: experimental, aristocratic, continental, democratic,
arithmetic(al), mathematic(el),
economic(al), horizontal, incidental,
categoric(al),etc. There may be distinguished some other groups of words
belonging to a secondary-primary type too.
Languages may also be classified according to the position of word
accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words. From this point of view
languages have either free word accent or fixed word accent.
To the fixed type of word accent belong French and Kazakh (the final
syllable is accented), Polish (the penultimate syllable is
accented).
English and Russian belong to the so-called free word accent. It means
that the main accent may fall in different words on a syllable occupying any
position. The position of the stress in each particular word remains
unchanged, or fixed. In Russian and English there are words in which the
main stress falls either on the first, or the second, or the third, etc. syllable in
a word,
Accent is called shifting if it changes its position from one morpheme
to another in different derivatives and grammatical forms of the word. For
example:
in Russiant: , , ;
in English: accent, to acent, accentuation, accentuate; subject,
subjective, subjectivity, etc.

30

In languages with free word accent it is extremely difficult to

determine the position of the stress in every word. Such is the case with the
Russian language. Its accentuation system must be learnt individually.
The accentual system of English is also free. But it is easier to learn the
English accent than the Russian one due to a number of reasons. There exist
in English certain tendencies which make the occurrence of word accent
more predictable than in Russian. Prof.V.A.Vasailyev describes them as
follows: the recessive tendency, the rhythmic tendency, the retentive tendency,
and the semantic factor.
These four help learners to determine the position of word accent in
most English words.
The recessive tendency which is the oldest one is characteristic of
all the Germanic languages. According to this t tendency most native
words in English received a stress either on the initial syllable (e.g. father,
mother, husband, wonder, etc.) or on the root morpheme in words with
prefixes that have lost their meaning (e.g. among, before, forget, become,
begin).
The recessive tendency has always been very strong throughout the
historical development of the English language. Its strong character is
reflected in the fact that most French words which were borrowed into
English before the 15th century underwent accentual assimilation. For
example: reason, marriage, colour etc. (the initial syllable is stressed);
conduct, compose, surprise, produce, remain, depend, etc. (the root
morpheme is stressed).
English speech is characterized by rhythmic alternations of stressed
and unstressed syllables, in which stressed notional words alternate with
short unstressed form words. This feature has caused the development of
the so-called rhythmic tendency in the English word accentuation system.
Two types of rhythmical stress are distinguished in English:
1) historically rhythmical;
2) synchronically rhythmical stress.
We speak of historically rhythmical stress in case of French words
which were borrowed before the 15th century. In present-day English
such borrowed words as family, opinion, colony, radical, etc. have a
recessive stress on the first syllable. But during the development of the
language these words underwent rhythmic changes. Formerly they had a
fixed stress on the final syllable, as all French words. Under the
influence of a strong recessive tendency they also received a stress on the
initial syllable as well. For some time such words had two stresses: on the
initial and on the final syllables with an unstressed syllable in-between.

31

That is why this type of stress is called historically rhythmical because

it is rhythmical only in its origin.
In English there is a fairly large group of words with genuinely
rhythmical stress. Such type of stress existing in present-day English is
called synchronically rhythmical. This group of words are achieved by
the alternation of a secondary and a primary stress.
To this group belong polysyllabic nouns with the suffixes -tion(sion, -cian), -ity; also polysyllabic adjectives with the suffixes -al, -ic(ical); polysyllabic verbs, etc. For instance:
population, punctuation, mathematician, derivation, delegation,
arithmetician, decoration, etc.
contiguity, continuity, desirability, temporality, removability, etc.
deferential, demagogic, energetic, enthusiastic, etymologic-(al),
etc.
represent, underline, recommend, reproduce, understand, recollect,
etc.
The so-called retentive tendency consists in retaining the accent
(either primary or secondary) in derivatives on the same syllable as in the
original word. The difference between retentive accent and constant accent
lies in the following: constant accent remains on the same syllable in all the
derivatives and grammatical forms of the word; retentive accent in one group
of derivatives falls on the same syllable, while in another it may be shifted.
For example:
retentive accent: converse, conversable, conversant, but:
conversation, conversational;
expect, expectancy, expectant, expectative,but: expectation,
(Cf. constant accent: begin, begins, began, begun, beginner,
beginners, beginning, etc.).
The accentuation structure of some English words is determined by
the semantic factor. The influence of the semantic factor upon the word
accent may be commonly observed in compound words. Most of them have
two equally strong accents. Both elements of such compound words are
considered to be semantically important.
We can distinguish the following groups of double stressed words in
English the accentual structure of which is determined by the semantic factor:
a) words with strong prefixes (which have definite meaning of
their own), as in: anti-fascist, arch-enemy, disbelieve, ex-president,
half-price, indooro, interconnect, vice-chairman, etc.;
b) compound adjectives, as: well-bred, ill-tempered, light-blue,
timber-headed, good-looking, dark-green, etc.;
c) compound verbs with postverbal adverbs, such as: come in, go

32

out, put on, put off, switch on, turn on, turn off, etc.;
d) simple numerals from 13 to 19. Each word of a compound
numeral is stressed, e.g. nineteen, -thirteen, fifty-seven, etc.;
e) a small group of compound nouns in which both elements are
semantically important. They have two primary stresses, as in: ice-cream,
gas-stove, arm-chair, eye-witness, absent-mindedness, etc.
The great majority of English compound nouns belong to the
blackbird type.
As Prof.V.A.Vassilyev states the accentual system of present-day
English is a product of the combined action of all the three tendencies
(recessive, rhythmic, retentive) end the semantic factor as well.
The accentual structure of English words may also be analysed from
the phonological point of view. The accentual structure fulfils three main
functional constitutive, distinctive, recognitive.
The constitutive function of the accentual structure is proved by the
fact that all the words when pronounced in isolation have word accent
irrespective of the number of syllables in them. We cannot pronounce any
word without making it prominent. Even monosyllabic words pronounced
as vocabulary items have word accent.
The distinctive function may be observed in phonological
oppositions: presence of stress vs. absence of stress. In English word
accent is capable of differentiating one word from another word,
e.g. conduct (n) - conduct (v),
local (adj) - local (n),
billow (n) - . below (adv),
insight (n) - incite (v),
abstract (a) - abstract (v),
increase (n) - increase (v),
perfume (n) - perfume (v), etc.
In Russian accentual structure fulfils word-differentiating function,
as in , -
In Russian this kind of opposition (i.e. stressed syllable vs. unstressed
syllable) is the only possible one. In English oppositions may also be based
on primary stress vs. tertiary stress. Free word combinations are opposed to
compound nouns by this principle. For example:
(a) black bird - (a) blackbird;
(to) play house - (a) playhouses
(keep the) street cleaner - (a) street-cleaner; (a) strong hold (a) strong-hold; birds nest - (the) birds nest; (a) dancing girl - (a)
dancing-girl, etc.

33

The recognitive function of the accentual structure consists in the

correct accentuation of words which makes it easier to understand speech.
Wrong accentuation may produce two kinds of mistakes: phonological and
phonetic.
If the correct accentuation pattern of a word is substituted by another
accentual pattern of the same word (also existent in the language) we have a
phonological mistake. For examples
2- Phonological mistakes
Correct accentuation
contrast (n) /kontrst/
protest (v) /prtest/

Wrong accentuation
/kntrst/
/proutest/

If the correct accentual pattern of a word is substituted by an

accentual pattern non-existent in the language we get a phonetic mistake.
For examples,
3- Phonetic mistakes
Correct accentuation
situate /sitjueit/
phoneme /founi:m/

Wrong accentuation
/sitjueit/
/founi:m/

Phonetic mistakes violate the recognitive function of the accentual

structure.
The violation of the recognitive function of the accentual
structure results in the following: 1) wrong accentuation of words
produces a strong foreign accent; 2) it produces a comic impression
upon the listener; 3) wrong accentuation of words hampers the
communication.
Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

What is word accent?

What different types of word accent do you know?
What can you say about the force type of word accent?
What is musical word accent?
What are the main types of word accent that all existing languages
have as their leading principle?
6. What type of word accent do British and Soviet phoneticians
distinguish in English?
7. What type of word accent do English, Kazakh and Russian use?
8. What is constant accent? Give examples.

34

9. What is shifting accent? Give examples.

10.What factors help to predict the position of stress in most English
words?
11.What functions does the accentual structure fulfill?
12. Speak about the tendencies in English and give examples.
13.What can you say about each function of word accent?
14.Which function do you think is the most important?
15.What does violation of the recognitive function result in?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Divide the following languages into two groups according to their
force and musical type of word accentuation system.
Kazakh, Chinese, English, Norwegian, Vietnamese, Russian, French,
German, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Kirghiz, Italian.
3) Mark the stress in the following words: profile, capitalize,
unintelligibility, temperamental, qualify, situate, dictate, desert (verb),
desert (noun), bare-headed.
4) Define which subtype of free word accent the following words
belong to (constant or shifting):
Diverse, diversiform, diversify, diversity, diversion; habit, habitual;
consult,
consultation;
photograph,
photography,
photographer,
photographic; bad, badly, badness.
5) Analyze the following words form the viewpoint of the word
accentuation tendencies. Say which tendencies (or the semantic factor) they
illustrate.
Obliteration, family, maker, pronunciation, genealogic, hungry,
reprint, vice-governor, unused, colony, darken, underneath, overbalance.
7 Unstressed
vocalism
The English vowels occurring in unstressed syllables form a definite
system that is called the system of unstressed vocalism. The vowels in
unstressed syllables may be pronounced in three different ways:
1) a vowel of full formation may be used in an unstressed syllable;
2) a semi-weak vowel may be used in an unstressed syllable;
3) an unstressed vowel may undergo different types of reduction.

35

The English language is characterized by a specific way of uttering

unstressed syllables which is not typical of Russian. Practically any vowel
of full formation may be used in unstressed, as in the case of:
niece grandniece
fit benefit; etc.
Such vowels of full formation are used in all types of pronunciation.
Their substitution by a reduced vowel is incorrect.
A semi-weak vowel may be used in an unstressed syllable as well.
I. Ward defines a semi-weak vowel as a vowel that lies in an
intermediate position between the strong vowel and the neutral //. She
gives /o/ as an example for it, as in:
/oubei obei - bei/
the unstressed vowel in the first column are of full formation; in the
second the vowel is semi-weak; and in the third it is reduced to the neutral
vowel //.
I.Wards definition of a semi-weak vowel seems to be incomplete.
Prof.V.A.Vassilyevs definition of a semi-weak vowel runs as follows ... a
semi-weak vowel may, therefore, be defined as a partially reduced vowel,
which is used in a more careful style of pronunciation instead of the neutral
vowel used in the rapid colloquial style and instead of the corresponding
vowel of full format1on used in the full style. G.P.Torsuyev regards semiweak vowels as products of partial reduction.
A vowel in an unstressed syllable is most commonly reduced. Vowel
reduction is a characteristic feature of English Russian and some other
languages. A vowel in an unstressed syllable becomes shorter weaker and
less distinct.
There are three degrees of reduction in English.
1) quantitative;
2) qualitative;
3) zero.
In quantitative reduction it is the length of a vowel which is reduced,
as in:
4- Quantitative reduction
Strong forms
your
me

jo:
mi:

Quantitatively
reduced forms
Jo
Mi

In qualitative reduction the quality of a sound is changed as in the

following:

36

5- Qualitative reduction
Strong forms
were
for

w:
fo:

Qualitatively
reduced forms
w
f

Zero reduction consists in dropping out a vowel or a consonant, as in

the case of:
6- Zero reduction
Strong forms
shall
am

l
m

reduced
forms with zero
reduction
l, l
M

Reduction is one of the phonetic changes taking place in the

historical development of a language.
The most important role in the system of unstressed vocalism in
English is played by the neutral vowel phoneme //, which has a number of
allophones.
Vowels in stressed position usually alternate with vowels in
unstressed position. Such alternation between stressed and unstressed
vowels is called vowel gradation ( ). There are
several types of vowel gradation in English. They are:
Any English vowel of full formation in a stressed position may alternate
with the neutral vowel //:
/i: - / (the)
/ em m/ (them)
The stressed /i:/ alternates with the unstressed /i/:
/ripi:t repitin/ (repeat 37epetition)
The stressed /e/ alternates with the unstressed /i/:
/iksel ekslnt/ (exel exellent)
The stressed /ei/ alternates with the unstressed /i/:
/dei fraidi/ (day Friday).
Though the neutral vowel sound is short and indistinct it is capable

37

of forming minimal pairs thus differentiating one word from another. The
most common opposition is / - i/ though / - ou / is also possible. For
instance:
/ houl - houli / (holer holey);
/ ksept iksept / (accept exept);
/temp - tempou/ (temper tempo);
/soul - soulou/.
Questions
1. In what different ways may vowels in unstressed position be
pronounced in English?
2. What vowels of full formation may be used in unstressed positions?
3. What is a semi-weak vowel?
4. What usually happens to a vowel in an unstressed syllable?
5. What is a reduced vowel like?
6. How many degrees of reduction do you know of in English?
7. Which vowel phoneme plays the most important role in the system
of English unstressed vocalism?
8. What do we call vowel gradation?
9. How many types of vowel gradation do you know?
10. What do the oppositions of the neutral vowel to other vowel prove?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Transcribe the following words and point out three degree of
reduction in English.
We, the, he, your, a, and, an, she, at, for, but, can, have, him, some,
me, shall, must, were, is, will, am, as, us, had, could, would.
8
Intonational structure of the English language
It is fairly obvious that words are seldom pronounced by themselves,
as vocabulary items. They are usually arranged into sentences in
accordance with the grammatical and phonetic structures of the language.
And, as we know, one of the components of the phonetic structure of a
language is its intonation. Intonation is the main factor that turns a word a
group of words into a sentence.
Intonation is defined differently by different phoneticians here and
abroad. Most foreign linguists consider intonation as variation in voice

38

pitch. For instance, L. Armstrong and I. Ward make it clear that: By

intonation we mean the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice when we
speak. The components of intonation all function together, they all
inseparable form one another. Speech melody is one of the leading
components of intonation. It is closely connected with sentence stress. Each
intonation group may consist of the following sections: prehead, head,
body, nucleus, tail. There are six main types of body:
1) regular descending;
2) broken descending;
3) low;
4) ascending;
5) sliding;
6) scandent.
There are eight main types of nuclear tones: high fall, low fall, low
rise, high rise, fall-rise, rise-fall, rise-fall-rise, level.
The tail may be: descending, level or ascending. Sentence stress is
one of the important component of the intonational structure. Sentencestress is a special prominence which is given to one or more words so as to
single them out from other words in the same intonation-group. Stress may
be syntagmatic, syntactic and logical.
Syntagmatic stress is placed on the semantic centre of the sense-group
which is the nucleus.
Syntactic stress singles out the other semantically important words of
the sentence.
When the semantic centre is shifted from the last notional word of
the sentence to sm other words we get logical stress.
Tempo, rhythm and pauses are considered to be temporal
() components of intonation.
Tempo is the rate, or duration of speech. It may be slow, formal or
quick. Through tempo we appreciate the relative importance of sentences
and their sense-groups. The more important parts of a sentence are
pronounced at a slow tempo, the less important ones are said quickly.
Tempo is closely connected with rhythm. Our speech is subdivided
rhythmically into unites. Speech rhythm may be defined as a regular
recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables. Rhythmic characteristics of
speech have been looked into by people for a long time.
Rhythm is closely connected with stress. Sense-groups in English are
divided into rhythmical groups. Each rhythmical group consists of a stressed
syllable alone, or combined with one or more unstressed syllables attached
to it.

39

Pauses are closely connected with other components of intonation.

Between intonation-group there my be pauses of different lengths. At the
end of a sentence the pause is long. It is indicated by a double vertical bar. A
pause between clauses is short, it is indicated with a large vertical bar.
There is a non-obligatory pause between parts of the sentence. It is a
very short one and is indicated with a wavy vertical line.
The last component of intonation is voice-tamber, or voice quality. It
is a common knowledge that sentences may be pronounced with different
voice colouring expressing all shades of emotions, such as joy, happiness,
sadness, irony, indifference, indignation, hostility, and many others. Voicetamber is connected with the pitch of the voice and the tempo of speech.
We do not know anything about the physical nature of this
phenomenon, because the voice-tamber component has not been
investigated at all.
All the components of intonation exist and develop together. English
intonation as a whole carries important information and like all other
phonetic phenomena (phoneme, syllable, accent) intonation also fulfils three
main functions: constitutive, distinctive, recognitive.
The constitutive function of intonation consists in the fact that:
1) each syllable of each section of an intonation-group has
a certain pitch and cannot exist without it;
2) the end of an intonation-group is marked by a change of
pitch direction or pitch level. (This constitutive function is often
called sentence-delimiting function.);
3) each intonation-group must have at least one prominent word
which is pronounced with sentence-stress;
4) an intonation-group cannot exist without the temporal
component either, because each intonation-group is pronounced at a
certain tempo, it has its own rhythm, the end of an intonation- group
is indicated by a pause, etc.
All this proves that intonation (or rather all its components)
fulfill the constitutive function. No sentence can exist without
intonation. (intonation is present in any written sentence as w e l l . )
The most important is the distinctive function of intonation which
manifests itself in the fact that intonation as a whole is capable of
differentiating one sense-group or sentence from another sense-group or
sentence. The role of different components of intonation in differentiating
sentences is not of equal importance, though. Some components play the
leading role, while others play a subsidiary role.
The distinctive function of intonation is most vividly observed in
phonological oppositions. The number of phonological oppositions is quite

40

considerable. According different intontional components sentence may

sound categorical and non-categorical, emphatic and unemphatic, as a
statement or general question, a statement or exclamation etc.
The third function of intonation is its recognitive function. It consists
in the use of the right intonation pattern in the sentence.
Nowadays there are exist two principal methods of indicating
intonation: in the line of text and outside the line of text. In both methods
only its pitch and force components can be indicated.
The method of indicating intonation outside of text is represented by
the well-known system of tonograms. Two horizontal lines show
graphically the upper and the lower limits of the human voice pitch.
Different signs are used between the lines to indicate the stressed and
unstressed syllables.
L. E. Armstrong and I. C. Ward introduced the system of lines (now
called dashes) corresponding to stressed syllables, and dots corresponding
to unstressed ones. Downward curves represent falling tones, upward
curves represent rising tones. This system was introduced in 1925 and its
ling existence has proved it to be both easy and useful.
Another group of linguists used large and small dots for stressed and
unstressed syllables. Large dots with tail-like curves indicated falling and
rising tones depending on the direction of the curve.
Rodger Kingdon used wedge-like signs for stressed syllables and
small dots for unstressed ones.
Worth mentioning is the music notation system which is used when it
is necessary to show the exact stress-pattern or uneven rhythms.
The system of indicating intonation outside the line of text is rather
valuable because the intonation may be shown on the staves with great
accuracy. But we must admit that it is very difficult to see both the
tonogram and the text at first glance.
Intonation may also be shown in the line of text itself which may be
written either in phonetic transcription or in orthographic spelling. Several
systems are distinguished here too:
H. E. Palmers system was widely spread and used most commonly
in our country until recently. He distinguished the following kinds of
nuclear tones:
1) falling nucleus;
2) rising nucleus;
3) falling nucleus with intensification;
4) falling-rising nucleus.
The syllables preceding the nucleus are marked thus:
1) superior head;

41

2) scandent head;
3) inferior head.
R. Kingdon has introduced the so-called tonetic stress-mark
system, which indicates speech melody as well as sentence-stress.
R. Kingdons tonetic stress-mark system has the great advantage of
indicating intonation in printed texts. Such texts can be written quickly and
with no difficulty whatever.
American descriptivist indicate intonation in the line of text with the
so-called stair-steps which are based on Kenneth L. Pikes system.
Pike distinguishes 4 levels of speech melody: low, mid (normal),
high and extra high.
In the USA it is the only system in indicating intonation in printed
text and it is considered there to be the most teachable because of its clarity
and simplicity. It is really quite easy to read but the
Process of drawing the stair-steps is rather slow and laborious. That
why American system hasnt been adopted in our country. So for indicating
intonation in the line of text the most widely used are the British intonation
system and Kingdons tonetic stress-mark system. For indicating
intonation outside the line of text the most widely used is L. E. Armstrong
and I. C. Ward system of staves.
Questions
1. How do British phoneticians define intonation?
2. Do American descriptivists define intonation alike?
3. What do you know about speech melody?
4. What section may an intonation-group consist of?
5. What can you say about sentence stress?
6. What types of sentence stress do you know?
7. What does tempo mean?
8. What is speech rhythm?
9. What types of pauses do you know?
10. What functions does intonation fulfill?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Match the given utterances with the adequate nuclear tone and
attitude.
a.FALL
b.RISE
c.FALLd.RISERISE
FALL
Finality
General
Uncertainty,
Surprise, being
questions
doubt

42

definiteness
encouraging
requesting
impressed
________1. Its possible.
________2. It wont hurt.
________3. I phoned them right away (and they agreed to come)
________4. Red, brown, yellow or
________5. She was first!
________6. Im absolutely certain.
9
English pronunciation in the British Isles
The English language is widely distributed over the globe. After
Chinese it has the worlds largest speaking population some 300 million,
or, to put it in another way, one person out of every ten in the world. It is
the official language of countries covering one fifth of the earths surface.
It is the language of trade and business. Three fourths of the worlds
mail is written in English. English is at present the most widely studied
language in countries where it is not native. It is the favored foreign
language in the higher educational curriculum in such countries as Japan,
Turkey and other countries. Five million people of the European countries
speak English in addition to their native tongues.
English is not concentrated in one land mass. It is spread from the
British Isles to the far corners of the earth. Besides Great, English is the
mother tongue of the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. It is also used by
the greater part of the population of Canada and the republic of South
Africa.
Spoken English is not uniform geographically. It may vary from
country to country, from district to district, or even from city to city.
Though the variants of English spoken in different countries have many
features in common, they differ from Standard English in pronunciation,
grammar and vocabulary. This is due to the different conditions in which
they developed after separation from British English.
The official literary languages of most countries are based upon a
local dialect of the capital. Such is the case of Great Britain, France, and
other countries. It is the London dialect that served the basis for the literary
language of Great Britain, because as early as the 14th century London
became the center of economy, policy, commerce and learning. At present
there exist literary English of Scotland, Oreland, England and Wales. Each
of these has their local dialects. There are nine principal dialects in
Scotland, three in Ireland, thirty in England and Wales.

43

Phoneticians distinguish 3 main types of pronunciation in GB:

1) Southern English Pronunciation, or RP;
2) Northern English Pronunciation;
3) Standard Scottish Pronunciation.
Southern English Pronunciation is also known as Received
Pronunciation (RP for short), or Standard English Pronunciation, or Public
School Pronunciation, or BBC English, or Kings English.
Received Standard English is based upon the speech of the leading
boarding schools and the older universities. But in Britain very many of the
population begin their linguistic careers with one of the regional dialects as
their sole speech. Because of the barriers to communication created by the
diversity of the dialects, Englishmen, even Britons in general, readily
accept the notion of a Standard English Pronunciation and they are willing
to learn it through intensive effort, at school and elsewhere. Thus, although
probably less than 10 % of the British population is original speakers of
Received Standard English, it is universally accepted as desirable by
educational authorities and by the mass of the population.
It is widely spread and is generally used by the more educated
classes of Britain, it is spoken by BBC announcers and broadcasters. This
type of pronunciation has been thoroughly described in books on the
phonetics of British English. It is taught to foreigners as a second language.
In our country this type of pronunciation is accepted as the teaching norm.
There is no necessity to describe it as it is being taught to our
students.
Northern English Pronunciation is used by the people born and
raised in Northern England, approximately between Birmingham and the
border with Scotland. This type has peculiarities in the phonemic and
intonational components. The most marked of them are as follows:
6- Northern English Pronunciation
RP
NE
dance
/d:ns/
/dans/
or /dns/
once
/wns/
/wuns/
sat
/st/
/sat/
make
/meik/
/mek/
/m:k/
speak
/spi:k/
/spe:k/
live
/liv/
/iv/
looking
/luki/
/ukin/
born
/bo:n/
/bo:rn/

44

or

which
fondl

/wi/
/fondl/

/hwi/
/fon/

NE is characterized by the so-called Northern drawl which is due ti

its slow tempo. Form-words are pronounced distinctly. The level scale is
most characterized of NE that is why it sounds rather monotonous.
NE was the standard speech in the 16th, 17th and at the beginning of
the 18th centuries. This type of pronunciation was carried to America. That
is why there are many features in common between American English and
Northern English.
Standard Scottish pronunciation is widespread in Scotland. Its
peculiar features in pronunciation are as follows:

7- Standard Scottish pronunciation

RP
Sc. E
sat
/st/
/sat/
love
/lv/
/luv/
time
/taim/
/ti:m/
take
/teik/
/t:m/
house
/haus/
/hu:s/
dont
/dount/
/do:nt/
clear
/kli/
/kli:r/
loch
/lok/
/lo/
light
/lait/
/lit/
ready
/redi/
/redi/ /r/ is rolled like Russian
/p/
hard
/h:d/
/ h:rd/
why
/wai/
/hwai/
evening
/i:vni/
/i:vnin/
Fall-rise and Rise-fall are often used in general questions. The
sliding scale is common.
Questions
1. What can you say about the distribution of English in the world?
2. Is English the same in all English speaking countries?
3. Why did the London dialect serve the basis for the literary
language of Great Britain?

45

4. How many types of English pronunciation do phoneticians

distinguish? What are they?
5. What group of people speak R.P.?
6. What are the peculiar features of N.E. in the vocalic and
consonantal systems?
7. Why s there much similarity between N.E. and American English?
8. What distinctive features of the vocalic and consonantal systems
of Sc.E. do you know?
9. Which consonants of Sc.E. do not exist in R.P.?
10. What kind of scale is the most characteristic of each type of
English pronunciation?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary of the main notions and give their definitions.
2) Transcribe the following words according to R.P., N.E., Sc.E.
Group them three columns.
Park, family, class, thought, loch, when, why, light, night, bottle,
lake, May, have, back, father, cup, much, cake, letter, four, bath, mere,
mother, coming, learning, speaking, wear, where, sure.
10
English
pronunciation in the USA
The English language is native on at least 4 continents of the world.
Out of its 300 million speaking population 190 million live in the United
States of America.
The English language was brought to America in the 17th century by
the first emigrants from Great Britain. In 1620 they settled on the Atlantic
coast which was lately called New England. These emigrants brought with
them 17th century educated English.
This type of English developed in the new world under different
conditions. Thus, gradually, three main varieties of American English came
to be recognized:
1) Eastern American English;
2) Southern American English;
3) General American English (or Midwestern).
They command approximately 30, 40 and 120 million speakers,
respectively.

46

However, more careful investigation reveals the presence of at least

24 well defined regional dialects, most of which are located of the
Mississippi.
In addition to regional dialects, the speech of the US is characterized
by special localism typical of a single city or even borough, and by
immigrant dialects.
Though English in the USA is not homogeneous the regional speech
differences offer no great barrier to the free exchange of opinions and
ideas. Besides the mobility of modern life and communication devices such
as radio and television are affecting regional dialects, and they seem on the
way of merging with each other.
Geographically the Eastern American English type includes New
York City and its environs, the New England east of the Connecticut River.
The pronunciation of Eastern American is closer to British RP
because of constant intercourse between Great Britain and America.
Eastern American English developed under the strong influence of
educated British English, as many rich families sent their sons to their
mother country to be educated there. This helped to preserve the British
standards of pronunciation in New England.
There are, however, some slight differences between RP and Eastern
American English. They are as follows:
Vowels are often nasalized in Eastern American English.
Geographically Southern American English is spoken in the south
and south east of the USA. Cultured Southern American pronunciation has
a number of peculiarities in the pronunciation of vowels. The most striking
of them is the so-called Southern drawl which consists in diphthongization
and triphthongization of some monophthongs. On the contrary, some
diphthongs are replaced by lengthened monophthongs. The chief
characteristics are the following:
1) The vowels /i, e, , o/ are broken into diphthongs when stressed:
RP
SA
bid
/bd/
/bid/
bed
/bed/
/bed/
bad
bd
bad
2) The front vowel /i/ is usually lowered and diphthongized to /ei/
before //:
thing
/i/
/ei/
ink
/ik/
/eik/
think
/ik/
/eik/
3)The vowels of dish, fish and the final vowel of city,
charity, etc. occurs as /i:/ in many parts of the aria:

47

city
st
sti:
4) The diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ are adapted to consonants: they are
open and tense before voiced consonants and are obscured (,
) before voiceless consonants:
ride
raid
/raid/
time
taim
/ taim/
but:
night
nait
nit
life
laif
lif
laud
/laud/
/laud/
but:
house
/haus/
/hus/
Geographically General American is the least regional. Actually it is
being spoken in all parts of the country, from Ohio through the Middle
West and to the Pacific Coast.
General American English constitutes the literary language of the
USA. Consequently, GA pronunciation makes its pronunciation standard.
This type is used by radio and television announcers and broadcasters. It is
also accepted in motion pictures and in theatre, it is used in scientific and
business intercourse.
As GA presents the standard pronunciation of the USA it will be
viewed in detail from different points:
a) the system of vowel phonemes;
b) the system of consonant phonemes;
c) accentual structure of words;
d) reading rules system;
e) intonational structure of sentences.
We will consider the most marked differences between RP and GA
pronunciation.
The following details in the system of vowel phonemes in GA are
significant:
1) The vowel phonemes are not differentiated by their length.
According to D. Jones, all American vowels are ling.
2) The distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs is not very
consistent. Some diphthongs have monophthongs as their variants, and vice
versa.
3) /e/ of RP corresponds to GA // which is a lower front vowel
almost coinciding with //:
red
red
rd
4) RP /o/ corresponds to an unrounded short variety of it in GA:
Exceptions: long, log, strong.

48

5) In GA vowels are generally nasalized when preceded or followed

by a nasal consonant:
small
smo:l
smol
stand
stnd
stnd
6) The vowels in classes of words represented by Mary, mary and
merry have generally the same sound usually /e/.
According to C.H. Prator there 25 consonant phonemes in GA: 24 of
RP consonants plus /hw/. The peculiar features in pronunciation of
consonants are the following:
1) The RP cacuminal /r/ is replaced in GA by a retroflex rounded
sonorant /r/ (but not after /t, d, /. It occurs in any position:
red
red
rd
bird
b:d
brd
sister
sist
sistr
2) Only the dark variant of /l/ is used GA:
let
let
t
look
luk
uk
3) There is a short voiced /t/ allophone of the /t/ phoneme in GA
which is intermediate in character between /d/ and one-tap /r/. It is used in
intervocalic position (or between a vowel and a sonorant), as in:
butter
B^t
B^tr
4) In the words spelt with the initial wh- /hw/ is articulated.
Compare the following pairs of words:
which
/witc/
/hwitc/
5) In GA /j/ is omitted between a consonanr and /u:/:
tube
tju:b
tub
The accentual structure of words in GA differs greatly from that in
RP.
Polysyllabic words ending in ary (-ory, -ery), -ony (-oly), etc have
two stresses in GA: the primary stress falls on the fourth syllable from the
end and the tertiary stress falls on the penultimate:
fragmentary
/
/frgmntri/
frgmntri/
monastery
/monstri/
/monstri/
The reading rules system
The pronunciation of words in GA is in closer accordance with the
general rules of reading

49

tomato
ate
vase
either

/tma:tou/
/et/
/va:z/
/ai/

/tmeitou/
/eit/
/veiz/
/ir/

The intonational structure of sentences in GA

Most of works devoted to the intonation of GA have been based on
the data of auditory analyses. However, the experimental investigations of
recent years have thrown some light on the problem.
The general impression of American intonation is rather monotonous
it seems to be unemotional and even dry. This is due to the fact that an
American begins his sentence on a mid pitch level and remains fairly even
until the terminal tone is reached. In contrast an English begins his sentence
on a high pitch level and gradually descends.
Questions
1. How many English speaking people live in America?
2. When was the English language brought to America?
3. How many dialectal variants exist in the USA? What are they?
4. Where is Eastern American pronunciation spoken?
5. How many differences in pronunciation between R.P. and E.A. do
you know?
6. What is the most striking features in articulating vowels in S.A.?
7. In what phonetic phenomena can we observe differences between
R.P. and G.A.?
8. How many consonant phonemes are there in G.A. according to C.H.
Prator?
9. Whose pronunciation is closer to the general reading rules, that of
R.P. or G.A.? Give examples.
10. What is the general impression of American intonation?
Practical task:
1) Make a glossary.
2) Give the pronunciation forms for RP and Gen. Am.
#
1
2
3

Word

RP/BBC
English

address
ate
attitude

50

GenAm

4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

borough
direct
encourage
figure
leisure
luxury
Neither/either
schedule
vase
tomatoes
forehead
fragile
zebra
vacation
vehicle
syrup
where

1. .
2. .
3. .
4. - .
5. .
6. , .
7. .
8. .
9.

.
10.,
.
11. .
12.
.
13.
.
14. .
15. .

51

16. .
17. .

1 . . :
.. . : . ., 1979. 131 .
2 . ., . .
.
.
. ., 1976. 310 .
3 . . English Phonetics. A Theoretical course. .,
1970. 110 .
4 . .

( ). . 1 2. -, 1986. 86
.
5 . . . -, 1986. 122 .
6 . . .
. : , 1969. 100 .
7 . . . ., 1960. . 309342.
8 Roach, Peter, A Little Encyclopedia of Phonetics, 2002.
9 Roach, Phonetics, Oxford: OUP, 2001. 300 .
10 Vrabel T.T. Lectures in theoretical phonetics of the English
language and method-guides for seminars. Ungvar, 2009. 162 p.

52


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

..
.......................

.......................................................................

..............................................................................
.......
................................
.........................
.................................
..........

..........................................................

...................

............................................................................
.............................................................................

53

3
4
8
11
17
21
27
35
38
42
46
51
52