Vv. A. VASSILYEV English Phonetics A theoretical course flonywexo Muttucmepemaos ances % cpedneco cneyuassnozo oGpasosanust CCCP é Kovecmae yueGHuKa AR cmydeHmos HNCMUMYMmoE 4 Pakysomemos UHOCMpAHHLX ASbKOE HIGHER SCHOOL PUBLISHING HOUSE MOSCOW 19704H (Aura) BIST 7-1-4 389 — 69FOREWORD This theoretical course in English phonctics is_meant chiefly for students at Pedagogical Institutes and Faculties of Foreign Languages, who are being trained to become teachers of English in Soviet schools and higher educational eslablishtnents. ‘The training of highly skilled Soviet teachers of foreign languages comprises the sty and mastery by the students of two courses in plio- netics: a normative course and a theoretical course. The aims of the normative course are predominantly practical, namely: () The students must master the norms, or standards, of the lan- guage studied in the matter of its sounds, word-stress and intonation in the broadest sense of the word. . (2) The students must acquire, for this purpose, a basic knowledge of the theory of phonetics, both general and of the language studied. (3) The students must learn, in the process, the most commonly used phonetic terms, in the foreign language they study, as well as in their native language. This is necessary to prepare them for the study of the theoretical course, which implies reading specialist phonetic lit- erature both in the students’ mother tongue and in the foreign language. These elements of theory in a normative course of phonetics are indispensable because the correct pronunciation of a foreign language can be mastered only if its study is based on the principle of conscious approach, which is the leading principle of Soviet pedagogy and didac- fes. A basis for achieving these aims is provided in the text-book Eng- lish Phonetics (a normative course) by V. A. Vassilyev, O. V. Buren- kova, A. R. Katanskaya, N. D. Lukina, L. P. Masiova, E. I. Torsuy- eva (Leningrad, 1962). The present work is a continuation of that book and is comple- mentary to it. Therefore, before beginning the study of this theoretical course the students must have a thorough knowledge of the material contained in the first volume. This book, too, deals with the type of English pronunciation generally known as RP (see § 2.06). Like the first book, the present one is designed primarily for stu- dents whose mother tongue is Russian or who know Russian well, since in it phonetic phenomena of English are compared with those of Rus- sian. Such a comparison is part of the above-mentioned principle of con- scious approach in language study. The theoretical course embodied in the present book pursues the following aims: (1) to refresh the students’ knowledge of general phonetics which ey gained while studying the introductory course in general lingnis- 1(2) to enlarge this knowledge and bring it up to date; (3) to acquaint the students with the role played and the successes achieved by pre-revolutionary Russian and post-revolutionary Soviet linguists in developing phonetic science and solving its problems; (4) to systematize the elements of phonetic theory acquired by the students while studying the normative course and_give them, on the basis of their previously acquired knowledge of English phonetics, a better, more comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the phonetics of the English language and of its pronunciation as a system (as com- pared with their mother tongue); (5) to acquaint the students with moot points and unsolved prob- lems of both gencral and English phonetics and with the latest theo- ries and views, often controversial, of Soviet and foreign linguists on these problems: (6) to acquaint the students with modern methods of phonetic and phonemic investigation. The author hopes that the study of the book will arouse the stu- dents’ interest in phonetic science, will help them to read with full comprehension other, more complicated, works on phonctics, both in Russian and English, will teach them how to analyse, appraise and, if need be, criticize various views on phonetic phenomena and, finally, will help them to apply their knowledge of phonetic theory in their future teaching and, probably, phonetic research work. A theoretical course in pkonetics is an integral part of the general course in the theory of the language studied, like the theoretical cours- es in grammar, lexicology and stylistics, and, like all these, it is an indispensable element in the training of highly qualified Soviet teachers of foreign languages. As a matter of fact, this book has been developed out of the theo- retical course in English phonetics which the author has been conduct- ing in the form of lectures and seminars at the Ist Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages for the last 15 years. There- fore the author hopes that the book will provide material and form a basis for a similar course of lectures and seminars at other foreign- languages institutes and faculties training Soviet teachers of English. It should be emphasized, however, that the present book is intended only to form a basis for such a course, since the students are required to read many other works on the subject, which are enumerated in the reading list’ recommended in sillabuses and often referred to in this book. A book such as this could not have been written without a heavy debt to other Soviet and foreign scholars. The author freely availed himself of the facts and other relevant information contained in their works, with due reference to them. It was often found, however, more economical and convenient to transmit this information to the reader in the form of indirect or non-verbatim quotations. The works thus quoted verbatim: or indirectly, are included in the bibliography at the end of the book. References to them arc indicated in the text of the book by two raised small-type figures, the first coinciding with the number of the work in the bibliography and the last standing for the page referred to. If there is another figure between the first and the last, it indicates the number of the volume. The author is also indebted to his collaborators in the arduous task of teaching English phonetics, as well as to the numerous genera- 4tions of students who undertook the study of this theoretical course and largely contributed to its fruition im the present form ~directly by making useful suggestions and expressing interesting new ideas dur- ing seminars, and indirectly by demonstrating their achievements, and occasional failures, in mastering this discipline. V. A, VassilyeoTABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction Phonetics as a Science ©... oe 7 Chapter 1. The Components of the Phonetic System of English 30 Chapter 2. The Principal Types of English Pronunciation, Or- thoepie Norms and the Choice of the Teaching er 36 Chapter 3. we "articulatory Aspect of the English Speech Sounds. 7 Chapier 4. The Acoustic Aspect of the English Speech Sounds 120 Chapter 5. The Phonological Aspect of Speech Sounds... . 134 Chapter 6, The System of the English Consonant Phonemes. . 182 Chapter 7. The System of the English Vowel Phoncmes 195 Chapter 8. The Unstressed Vocalism of English . Qi4 Chapter 9. The English Segmental Phonemes in Writing . . 219 Chapter 10, The Syilabic Structure of English... 2. 2 229 Chapter 11, The Accentual Structure of English Words . 257 Chapter 12. English Intonation .. 2... 4. . eee 286 Bibliogtaphy. 0.2... See ae se 822Introduetion PHONETICS AS A SCHENCE (Its Aims, Branches, Methods, Significance and Practical Applications 0.01. The term phonetics comes from the Greek words gory (fone:) meaning sound, voice, and rapovytixe (ta fone- tika) meaning matters pertaining to the voice, ihe science of the voice. In modern times phonetics is often defined, rather loosely, as “the science of speech sounds considered as ele- ments of language...”, 1% "8 “the science which treats of the sounds of which language is composed.” 5 t Such definitions are inevitably loose because it is impos- sible to define phonetics as a science in a single sentence. Instead of giving a formal definition of phonetics, it would be much more exact and illuminating to describe phonetics as a science and a discipline. 0.02. It should be emphasized, in the first place, that phonetics is not a separate, independent science. It_is_a_ branch of linguistics, like. the other branches, such as lexicology and_grammar. These linguistic sciences study language from three different points of view. Lexico- logy deals with the vocabulary of a language, with, the ori- gin_and development of words, with their meaning and with Grammar defines. the rules governing the modification of words and the combination of words into sentences. 0.03. It is possible to define correctly the objects of phonetic investigation, the aims and the theoretical impor- tance of phonetics only on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist theory of language. There are many statements in the works by classics of Marxism-Leninism which have a direct bearing on phonetics 7and provide guiding principles for this science, as for the whole of linguistics. The aims and significance of phonetics become quite clear in the light of these statements. 0.04, V. I. Lenin defined language as “the most. impor- tant, means of human intercourse.” 14, 695 0.05. Being the most important medium of human in- tercommunication, language is at the same time directly and inseparably connected with thought. K. Marx and F. Engels defined language as “the imme- diate actuality of thought,” * 4 as “practical conscious- ness.” 3 The direct and inseparable connection between language and thought manifests itself not only in the generally rec- ognized fact that thoughts can be expressed in actual speech only by means of words organized into sentences pronounced with the proper intonation, but also in the less obvious fact that thoughts can originate and be formulated in the human mind also only on the basis of words and sen- tences. Thus it is clear from Marx’ and Engels’ thesis about the direct and inseparable connection between language and thought that not only speech, but thought also is impos- sible without words, which consist of sounds. 0.06. However, words alone are not sufficient for thought and speech. To illustrate this, Jet us take some words in isolation, for example, country, in, the, live, he. These words do not express any thought. In order to formulate and express a thought the necessary words must be modi- fied and combined into a sentence in accordance with the tules of grammar, and the sentence must be pronounced with the proper intonation, for example: /ht 'hivz in 6a ~Ykantri./ He lives in the country. 0.07. On the basis of Marx’ and Engels’ thesis about the connection between language and thought Soviet lin- guists consider that a truly scientific study and analysis of language cannot and should not be carried out without ref- erence {fo the thoughts expressed in speech or, therefore, without reference to the meaning of words and sentences. 0.08. Foreign linguists, especially those in the USA, are neither unanimous, nor consistent in their attitude towards this fundamental methodological principle of linguistic anal- ysis. Only few of them, as, for example, the father of 8American structuralism L. Bloomfield and R. Jakobson, consider linguistic analysis to be impossible without recourse to meaning. . Many other structuralists, or descriptivists, flatly deny any necessity or even admissibility of recourse to meaning in linguistic, especially phonetic, analysis. However, contrary to their verbal declarations, they are forced in their actual linguistic, including phonemic analy- sis, to have recourse to meaning, but, in order to conceal this contradiction, they have recourse to meaning in a roundabout way, i.e. in disguised form (for example, see 5.57). 8 en other descriptivists, seeing the practical futility of linguistic analysis without reference {to meaning, insist only on postponing recourse to meaning “until the task of de- scribing the sounds and their patterning is done”.?% > Still others grudgingly admit the necessity of recourse to meaning, but call for extreme caution. 0.09. The truly scientific materialistic conception of lan- guage is also based on the thesis that language as man’s only medium of thought and the most adequate means of human intercommunication can only exist in the material form of speech sounds. Marx’ and Engels’ definition of language as “actual, prac- tical consciousness” is preceded by the following sentence: “From the start the ‘spirit’ is afflicted with the curse of being ‘burdened’ with matter, which here makes its appear- ance in the form of agitated layers of air, sounds —in short, of language.” * 4! These “agitated layers of air’, i.e. vibrating particles of air, or sound waves, are produced by man’s organs of speech and perceived by man’s hearing mechanism as speech sounds functioning as phonemes. 0.10. It follows from this that speech sounds have four aspects: articulatory, acoustic, auditory, and functional (lin- guistic, social). Neither of these four aspects can be separat- ed from any other in the actual process of communication by word of mouth. But each of these can be singled out for purposes of linguistic analysis and thus becomes a separate object of investigation, which necessitates the division of phonetics as a science into several branches. 0,1. Each of these branches of phonetics has its own methods of investigation and its own terminology. The term nasal, for example, is descriptive of the artic- 9ulatory aspect of the sounds {m, n, yl;* acoustically they are resonants; the term sonoranf characterizes them from the viewpoint of the auditory impression they produce, the statement that all these sounds are realizations of different phonemes in English, while [g] is an allophone of the pho- neme /n/ in Italian, characterizes them from a functional or purely linguistic point of view. 0.12, Students of linguistics must clearly understand the correlation between articulatory, acoustic, auditory and purely linguistic terms and take care, whenever it is at all possible, not to use terms pertaining to one aspect of speech sounds in describing any of their other aspects. The above implication that it is not always possible to do that, is due to two main factors: (1) the inseparable interconnection be- tween the four aspects of speech sounds in their actual use; and (2) the lack, in many cases, of aif four parallel terms descriptive of one and the same linguistic phenomenon. The secorid factor makes ft necessary to invent and introduce, whenever possible, new phonetic terms. 0.13, From the articulatory point of view every speech sovnd is a complex of definite, finely coordinated and differ- entiated movements and positions of the various speech organs, All the movements and positions of the speech organs necessary to pronounce a speech sound constitute its articulation. 0.14. The branch of phonetics which is concerned with the study, description and classification of speech sounds as regards their production by the human speech apparatus is called articulatory phonetics. It is the oldest and, so far, the most developed and productive branch of phonetics. 0.15. Its oldest, simplest and most readily available method of investigation is the method of direct observation (visual and auditory). *In this book, transcription symbols designating phonemes are placed between slanting lines (/ /), while those symbols which denote particular variants (allophones) of phonemes or just speech sounds with- out reference to their phonemic status are placed between square brackets ({ ]}. If the transcription of a whole word contains even one symbo! denoting a particular allophone of a phoneme or a speech sound whose phonemic status is uncertain or contraversial, the transcription of the word is also placed between square brackets, e.g. [be!} (bell), [seancx] (3s0n0x), [6uit) (6x). In all other cases the transcription of a whole word or sentence is placed between slanting lines, e.g. /bel/ (bell), /6'na/ (Gun). 10This method consists in observing the movements and positions of one’s own or other people's organs of speech in pronouncing various speech sounds, as well as in analys- jing one’s own kinesthetic sensations (muscle sense) during the articulation of speech sounds and in comparing them with the resultant auditory impressions. (a) (a) Fig. 1. The artificial palate. () Side view. (I) Seen irom above. (III) Seem from below. 0.16. Besides these subjective, intro- spective methads of phonetic investigation, objective methods are also used in artic- ulatory phonetics. These involve the use of various instrumental techniques, of which the most important and widely used are those for palafography (Figs 1, 2}, laryngoscopy (Fig. 3), photography, cinematography, X-ray photography, X-ray cinematography, and electromyography. 0.17. Certain instrumental techniques Fig. 2 er Palate greatly facilitate {and make more exact) of ‘inglish long Ii}. iauditory observation as well. To these belong all the de- vices for recording and reproducing sound, the most impor- tant and widely used of which are the gramophone and the magnetic tape recorder. Fig. 3. The Laryngoscope. 0.18. Different articulations produce different acoustic effects, i.e. different speech sounds. Consequently, speech sounds have a second aspect, a physical, or, more exactly, an acoustic one. From this point of view, a speech sound, like any other, sound in nature, is a physical phenomenon, a kind of mov- ing matter and energy. 0.19. The auditory aspect of any sound, including a speech sound, is inseparable from its acoustic aspect and both may, therefore, be considered together, although the terms pertaining to each of these two aspects of sounds should not be confused or used indiscriminately. Thus sound always has its source in a vibrating medium (commonly air) set in motion by some kind of energy. 0.20. In the case of such speech sounds as vowels, sonorants, and, partly, voiced noise consonants the function of vibrator is performed by the vocal cords which are set in vibration by the energy of the air-stream coming under pressure from the lungs. 0.21, The vocal cords vibrate not only over their whole length, but also in all their parts simultaneously. Therefore, the vibrations of the vocal cords are complex ones, and so are the sound waves produced by them. Each of these waves, however, can be resolved into partial waves (the so-called partials) corresponding to different parts of the vibrator. 0.22. The frequency of the vibrations of the vocal cords over their whole length is called the fundamental frequency. These vibrations are always regular, or periodic ones and are, therelore, perceived as musical tone, or pitch. Changes in the fundamental frequency, or pitch, are used in speech to produce intonation, and not individual sounds. 0.23. The oscillations of the parts of the vibrator pro- 12