1. Speak on the phonemic status of the neutral sound [ә].

Describe two possible variants and give examples

of both.
2. Compare the systems of vowels in English and Russian and point out the main difficulties in the
pronunciation of vowels for Russian learners of English.

There are 5 (or 6) vowel phonemes in Russian and 20 vowel phonemes in RP English. That means that there are
finer distinctions of vowel quality in English due to:

• a greater number of front/back oppositions among the English low (open) vowels compared to Russian: 3 vs. 1.
In Russian there are no back open vowels like the English /a:/ and /ю/, neither do we have fully front vowels like
/ae/, /at/;

• a greater number of high/low oppositions in English than in Russian: 4 vs. 3. In English such pairs of vowels
as /u: - u/, /i: -1/ show a difference both in height and in front-back position;

• in English there are oppositions according to the stability of articulation which account for the presence of 11
monophthongs and 9 diphthongs; in Russian there are 5 (or 6) monophthongs only

Not all vowel contrasts are equally important: the functional load of front vowel contrasts is greater.

Structurally, the English vowels are more restrictedwith reference to the syllable typein which they occur. Most
English short vowels, with the exception of the schwa vowel /э/, and /i/ /u/ in certain contexts, may never occur in
an open syllable. Thus only long tense vowels, both monophthongs and diphthongs, may occur in an open syllable
in English.

In Russian there are no restrictions of the kind to the vowel occurrence with reference to the syllable structure.
There is one constraint determined by the phonetic context which makes the status of the phoneme /ы/
questionable in Russian: the /ы/ phoneme can be found only after a non-palatalized consonant as in мыл,
пыл. (Russian scholars who belong to Moscow School claim that there are only 5 vowel phonemes in Russian, and
[ы] is an allophone of/и/.)Another very important feature of English vowel realization depends on he phonetic
context (phonetic environment): positional length.Vowels are ongest in an open syllable, they are slightly shorter
before a voiced lenis onsonant, they are the shortest when followed by a voiceless fortis conso-ant. Compare the
length of the vowel [i:] in the words see, seed, seat. Thus English vowel lengthdepends mainly on the following
consonant.

The historical lengthis important for RP only. In Scottish English and in American English there is no distinction
between historically long and historically short vowels (or at least it is not very consistent). The overall contrast
between historically long and historically short vowels in RP gives the duration ratio of 1.5:1.0. In American
English, however, the average data is 1.2:1.0, with certain environments facilitating the prolongation of the so-
called historically short vowels to the extent of their exceeding length.

It is also very important to mention the fact that all English long vowels are tense and free, while all short
stressed vowels are considered lax and checked. Most of the back vowels are also rounded. Since most of these
features, with the exception of length, are indispensable ones, they can hardly be called realizational.

Due to greater vowel space occupied by each Russian vowel they enjoy greater freedom of realization: each vowel
phoneme may be realized in the form of at least three allophones in a stressed position and two unstressed ones.

Russian vowel quality depends mainly on the preceding consonant, which may be either palatalized or non-
palatalized (velarized). Besides, it maybe nasal. Thus in Russian there are at least 15 allophones (corresponding to
5 phonemes in a stressed position) which are contextually bound:

 after a non-palatalized consonant, which is perceptually a strong position for /а, о, у/ when their quality is
least affected as in там, том, тур;

 after a palatalized consonant, which is a strong position for /и/ and / e/ as in диво, иди, дед, тебе; in this
case vowels /а, о, у/ are affected most, they become more front as in тяпка, тетка, тюрки;

 after a nasal consonant vowels are partially nasalized and between two nasals they are completely
nasalized: нос, нонсенс, няня.

The English and the Russian vowel systems have one very important feature in common: vowels are weakened,
or reduced, in an unstressed position which makes the schwa-vowel /з/ the most frequent vowel in both
languages. That means that vowel distinctions are neutralized in an unstressed position.
However there may be differences in the unstressed positions which affect vowel quality most, to the degree of
complete elision. In Russian, for instance, vowels are reduced most in an unstressed syllable which immediately
follows the stressed (accented) one. For example: 'рано, 'рана, \bwels /а, о, э/ are affected most in all
positions: с[ъ]поги, з[ъ]ло-той, мак[ъ]м, сок[ъ]л. 

There are certain rules of vowel quality changes in Russian, especially in the initial unstressed syllable preceding
the stressed one. The quality differences may be socially and regionally marked. Compare the ways people
pronounce the first unstressed vowel in the words Москва, конечно, хорошо in Moscow and in other areas of
Russia (the variants may be a-like, ы-like or o-like).
3. Define the main processes of modifications of vowels in connected speech. Give examples.
4. Speak on the changes in vowel quality in the present-day English. Give examples.