The history of the development of phonetics

The origin of phonetics is considered to be Ancient India. The idea of studying sounds
was brought because of the need to understand Veda (1500 BC), i.e. sacred songs sang
during religious ceremonies. |ˈserɪmənɪs|

Sustained interest in phonetics began again in 1800. It is connected with new

developments in medicine and developments of audio and different recording devices.

The father of phonetics is considered to be a British linguist Daniel Jones (1881-1967).

He was head of the Department of Phonetics in London.

The study of phonology as it exists today is defined by the studies of the 19th-century
Polish scholar Jan Baudouin de Courtenay.

One of the best schools of phonology was the Prague school. In 1939, Slavic linguist a
student of that school, Nikolai Trubetzkoy, published one of the most important studies
on phonology. His work was titled Principles of Phonology.

Phonetics as a science

Phonetics is a science that deals with:

1) PHONEMS (speech sounds)

2) WORD-STRESS
3) INTONATION

Branches of phonetics:

1) articulatory |ɑːˌtɪkjʊˈleɪt(ə)rɪ|  phonetics studies the way in which speech sounds are
made ('articulated') by the active organs;
2) acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sound;
3) auditory phonetics studies the perceptual response to speech sounds.
4) functional phonetics = phonology

Perception phonology Functional Experimental (acoustic)

Pitch – тон Melody Fundamental frequency
Loudness Sentence stress Intensity
Speed Tempo Duration – длина
Timbre |ˈtæmbə|

Articulatory phonetics (biology science), phonology (linguistic), acoustic (physic).

Methods of phonetic investigation direct observation and instrumental methods.

 Phonetics and phonology

Phonology is the branch of phonetics that studies the linguistic functions of consonant
and vowel sounds, word stress and prosodic features, such as pitch, loudness, tempo
intonation.

Phonology
segmental – phonemes supra-segmental or non-segmental phonology
(speech sound) (prosodic features)
Prosodic features: pitch, loudness, tempo and rhythm (supra-segmental level)

Prague School of linguistics considered phonology as a separate science which deals

with functionating of language in the process of communication.

Baudouin de Courtenay (polish linguist) – was the first linguist who created the sound.

1) Sounds in nature produced by individual are called speech sounds.

2) A sound can be treated from POV of its functioning. Such sounds he called
phonemes.
3) (Leor) Phonemes is a much greater number of sounds, capable of differentiating
between words and their grammar forms.
4) Phonemes – a group of sounds, which change the meaning of the word, if the word
doesn’t change.

The theory of phoneme

Prof. Vasilyev presents phoneme

as a unity of three aspects:
1) material (real); 2) abstract;
3) functional

Prof. Vasilyev
Phoneme is the smallest language unit that exists in the speech of all the members of a
given language community as such as speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing
one word from another word of the same language or one grammatical form of a word
from another grammatical form.

Lev Shcherba
The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of
speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the
meaning of words.
 Danielle Jones
Phoneme is a family of sounds, a sum of its realizations in a form of allophone.

3 EXTRA LINGUAL FACTORS:

1) Social – phono stylistic allophones;
2) Regional – dialectal;
3) Individual – individual.

Number of phonemes in English and Ukrainian

The number of phonemes is difficult problem because in different languages there is a

different number of phonemes.

Danielle Jones combined a short and a long phonemes into one phoneme ruled by their
resemblance thus underestimating the semantic factor.

3 features of phonemes:

1) Length is semantically important here;

2) Length of vowels here doesn’t depend on their position in the word;
3) Vowel phonemes also differ in quality.

Reasons for scientists to doubt about the number of consonants:

1. Length
2. Palatalization (лук-люк, знати-зняти, повід-повідь)

Classification of speech sounds

English has 20 vowels (12 pure vowels (monophthongs), 8 diphthongs) and 24

consonants (from which 7 sonorants - y, w, l, r, m, n, and ng)
Classification of speech sounds is named articulatory classification. Articulator is a
vocative organ needed for making sounds.

Active organs Passive organs

mouth, tongue, lips, the lower jaw, soft teeth, upper jaw, alveoli, hard
palate (заднее небо)+uvula, vocal cords palate (небо)
 Differences between vowels and consonants

1. Vowels have no fixed place in pronunciation. The articulation of consonants are

localized.
2. In producing vowels all organs are more tense, in producing consonants only active
organs are used.
3. Vowels are syllable forming and consonants are not. Only sonorant consonants
usually make syllables;
4. Consonants have articulatory obstructions;
5. The force of exhalation of consonants is rather strong; the force of exhalation of
vowels is rather weak.

Principles of classification of vowels

1.Stability of articulation;
2.Length of articulation (long and short vowels);
3.Position of lip (rounded and unrounded (labialized and non-labialized)
4.Position of tongue (vertical (high, medium, low position), horizontal vowels (front,
front retracted, mixed, back vowels (main), back advanced)

According to the position of lips vowels may be

Labialized (rounded) Non-labialized (unrounded)
[ɒ], [ɔ:], [ʋ], [u:] [i:], [ɑ:], [ʌ], [ɜ:], [ə], [e], [æ]
According to the length vowels may be
Long Short
According to the stability of the articulation, vowels may be
Monophthongs (12) Diphthongs (8) Triphthongs [aiə], [auə]
According to the position of tongue vowels may be
Vertical Horizontal
High Low
Medium Front Back Central
elevation elevation
elevation [i:], [e], [æ] [a:], [Ɔ:], [u:] [з:], [ә], [ʌ]
(closed) (open)
narrow
[з:], [Ɔ:], [Ɔ] [e], [з:]
[i:], [u:] Front Back
broad retracted [i] advanced [ʋ]
[a:], [æ], [ɒ] [ә], [ʌ]
[i], [ʋ]
 Diphthongs. Their types

 According to the stability of the articulation and quality, English vowel phonemes are
divided into monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs. All the Ukrainian vowel
phonemes are monophthongs, there are no diphthongs in Ukrainian.

The first element of a diphthong is nucleus, the second is glide.

A diphthong can be falling - when the nucleus is stronger then glide and rising when the
glide is stronger then the nucleus.
When both elements are equal, such diphthongs are called level.
All English diphthongs are falling.

There are 3 types of diphthongs

1. Centering [iə] [зə] ear, beer, air, chair
2. I Glide [ai], [oi], [εi] fight, coin, game
3. U-glide [au], [oυ] cow, go

Triphtongs – sound combination (d+ə) [aiə] [auə]

Principles of classification of consonants

1) degree of noise
2) the manner of articulation;
3) work of the vocal cords (force of articulation)
4) position of the soft palate
5) place of obstruction;
 The phases of articulation of speech sounds

Articulator is a vocative organ needed for making sounds.

Stages of articulation (each sound overgoes 3 stages):

1) The on-glide (the initial stage), is the stage during which active organs move away
from a neutral position to the position necessary for the pronunciation of sound.
2) The hold stage (the retention stage) is the stage during which active organs of
speech are kept for some time in the same position.

3) The off-glide (the final stage), active organs of speech returns to their initial position.

Phonetic phenomena

1. Nasal Occurs at the junction of the plosive consonants [p, b, t, d, k, g] with

plosion the nasal [m, n]
2. Lateral When the plosive consonants [p, b, t, d, k, g] are followed by the
plosion lateral sonant [l] simple ['sɪmpl]
3. Loss of Explosive consonants [p, b, t, d, k, g] lose their explosion before
Plosion explosive consonants.
what time ['wɒt 'taɪm]
4. Fluency The end of one word flows smoothly into the beginning of another.
I am an actor [aɪ əm ən æktə]
5. Assimilation is the modification of a consonant under the influence of the
neighboring consonant.
Washed |wɒʃt|
6. Linking «r» If a word ends with the letter "r" and the next word begins with a
vowel, then the linking "r" is pronounced to link the words.
for an hour [fɔː (r) ən aʊːə]
7. Reduction is a changing of the quality or quantity of sounds due to the presence
or absence of the stress
beautiful ['bjuːtəf(ə)l]
8. Aspiration In the stressed position, the consonants [p, t, k] are pronounced with
aspiration.

Example: pie ['phaɪ], kill [khil]

 Assimilation

Assimilation is the modification of a consonant under the influence of the neighboring

consonant.
assimilation may be 1) partial; 2) complete;

1) partial assimilation: ten bikes - [tem baiks]

2) complete assimilation: ten mice [tem mais]

A classification of assimilation is in terms of the direction:

1) Regressive Assimilation - the sound is changed by the following sound.

Light blue [laip blue]

2) Progressive Assimilation - the sound influences the next.

Washed |wɒʃt|

3) coalescent (reciprocal) assimilation:

 /t/, /d/ + ‘j’ = affricates /tʃ/ /dʒ/ lecture, education
 /s/, /z/ + j = /ʃ/ /ʒ/ issue

Reduction

Reduction is a changing of the quality or quantity of vowels due to the presence or

absence of the stress.

Reduction may be quantitative (количественная) and qualitative (качественная).

Quantitative reduction means the length of vowel. Vowels are the longest in the final
position, they are shorter before a voiced consonant and the shortest in a syllable
closed by a voiceless consonant, knee - need – neat

Modifications in quality occur in unstressed positions. The most common form of vowel
reduction is reduction to schwa [ə]. Man [mæn], sportsman ['spɔ:tsmən]

Local types of pronunciations in Great Britain

A language which is a mother tongue of several nations is called a polyethnic

language. In a polyethnic language there can exist a great variety in terms of
pronunciation.
Accent having the status of being "correct" is called literary pronunciation (літературна
вимова), or a standard of pronunciation (національний вимовний стандарт).

Characteristics of Standard English:

1) SE no local base.
2) The linguistic features of SE are chiefly matters of grammar, vocabulary and
orthography. SE is not a matter of pronunciation.
3) SE is the variety of English that carries most social prestige within the country. It is used
as a desirable educational target, it is used as the norm of communication by government,
law courts and media.
4) SE has wide intelligibility, but at the same time only a minority of people within uses it
for communication (radio and TV announcers, public figures. etc.). Most people use a
variety of regional English for interpersonal communication.

Southern English or Received Pronunciation (RP)/BBC English has the status of the
national standard pronunciation in the UK.

There are 3 main types of RP:

1) refined (upper-class)
2) general (middle-class educated people)
3) regional.

Features of RP:
1) r-less accent;
2) decline of weak /i/
3) t-glottalling
4) l-vocalization
 5) yod coalescence (yod - the semivowel “j”- t+j= [ tʃ ] d+j = [ dʒ ] affrication
s+j= [ ʃ ] assibilation
6) smoothing (reduction)

Estuary English – educated accent in London (“posh” English). It agrees with Cockney.
Cockney’s features (Cockney is southern accent):
1. /h/ dropping (have – [əv] but where RP word begin with vowel, /h/ is used – air [heə])
2. Th stopping (th – f think [fink])
3. /t/ glottalling (eat it [i:it] )
4. Yod coalescence (t,d+j =ʧ tube [ʧu:b]

American English pronunciation

In American English, three main types of literary pronunciation are distinguished:

 General American (GenAm, GA)/Network English which is also known as Western
American (the most used)
 Eastern American including Boston and eastern New England, and New York City.
 Southern American includes accents of lowland south: Virginia, North and South
Carolinas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas.

Word-stress

Syllable is one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance
which may be a word or a commonly recognized subdivision of a word.

Phonologically the syllable is defined in terms of its structural and functional properties

Acoustically the syllable is characterized by:

- The force of the utterance

- The pitch of the voice
- Sonority
- Length

Types of syllables:

1) V-type is called uncovered open/fully open;

2) VC-type – uncovered closed/ finally covered;
3) CVC – covered (covered closed/fully closed);
4) CV – covered (open/initially covered);
5) CS – sonant which is followed by some consonant (people, garden)
The word-stress is the greater prominence of one (or more) syllables in a word among
other syllables.

This prominence may be achieved by 4 means:

1. Intensity
2. Lengthening of vowels and sometimes consonants of the stressed syllables
(quantitative stress)
3. changing the quality of the sound (qualitative stress);
4. Changing the pitch of the voice (musical stress)

In English stress is mainly dynamic.

Three degrees of word-stress in English:

1) primary (strong, main, principal)

2) secondary (half-strong, half-stressed)
4) weak (unstressed)

Word stress tendencies

 Recessive – is the
tendency to stress initial
syllable of the word (it’s
typical of Germanic
languages)
 Rhythmical tendency reflects the rhythm of alternating stressed and unstressed
syllables.
 Retentive – a retention of the primary stress on the parent word (‘person – ‘personal)

Functions of word stress/syllable

1. Preserving definite relationship among acoustic characteristics of syllables with

different degree of stress;
2. distinctive function - it can distinguish grammatical forms and meaning of words).
(e. g. 'billow be'low; 'greenhouse - 'green 'house)
3. identificatory (recognitive) helps us to recognize the word between free words
combinations and compound words.

Compound nouns are usually single-stressed. Compound adjectives and compound

verbs are usually doable-stressed.

Intonation. Its components

Intonation (prosody) – is a unity formed by variation of 1) pitch; 2) loudness; 3) tempo

and 4) timbre.

Functions of intonation:

1. Attitudinal function means that intonation enables us to express emotions and

attitudes during the communication;
2. Accentual function helps to produce the effect of prominence of stressed syllables;
3. Grammatical f. helps to grammar and syntactic structure of the utterance;
4. discourse (cohesive) f. helps to convey the new given information or to provide
information.

Intonation components

1. Pitch levels are generally distinguished: high, medium and low.

2. The pitch range is the interval between two pitch levels, interval between the
highest-pitched and the lowest-pitched syllables. Pitch ranges maybe normal, wide
and narrow.
3. Loudness is described as normal, increased (forte) or low (piano).
4. Tempo includes rate of speech and pausation. The rate of speech can be normal,
slow and fast.
5. Pauses

Types of pauses according to their position in the utterance (final - non-final) and their
function.
Types of pauses according to their length:
1. Short pauses
2. Longer pauses.
3. Very long pauses (phonopassages).

Types of pauses according to function.

 Syntactic pauses separate phonopassages, phrases, intonation groups.
 Emphatic pauses serve to make some parts of the utterance especially prominent.
 Hesitation pauses are mainly used in spontaneous speech to gain some time to
think over what to say next.
 Intonation patterns

Head and the pre-head form the pre-nuclear part of the intonation pattern. The
nucleus and the tail form what is called terminal tone. Nuclear is the most prominent
tone.

1. The Pre-Head (rising, high, mid level, low);

2. The Head can be characterized according to the direction, manner of movements
and range (narrow and wide);
3. Nuclear (Low Rise, Low Fall, High Fall, High Rise);
4. Tail.

Complicated tones:
1. Fall Rise (High Fall + Low Rise)
2. Rise-Fall
3. Rise-Fall-Rise
4. Fall-Rise-Fall

Rhythm is a kind of framework

of speech organization. In a
broad sense rhythm is a
periodicity in time and space.

English is stress-timed.
 Stylistic use of intonation

The set of stylistically marked modifications of all the prosodic features represents the
model of a particular phonetic (intonational) style.

There are 5 intonational styles:

1. informational (formal) style;

2. scientific (academic) style;
3. declamatory style;
4. publicistic style;
5. conversational style

It is realized in is considered to
the written be neutral The prosodic features:
informational because the − the loudness is relatively
texts read aloud, main purpose normal throughout the text;
Informational in press of the speaker is − the tempo is normal or slow;
style reporting, to convey some − the rhythm is systematic and
broadcasting information and organized properly;
(reading the not to express − the most common terminal
news on the his attitudes tone is a low falling tone
radio and TV) and ideas.
The prosodic features:
− the degree of loudness usually
depends on the size of the
lectures, the main aim of
audience; − the rate is normal or
different the speaker is
Academic slow (in the most important parts
discussions, at to educate or to
style of the lecture); − pauses are
conferences and instruct the
rather long and the rhythm is
seminars in class. listener.
properly organized;
− the prevailing tones are high
falling and fall-rising.
Publicistic political, judicial, The purpose of On the prosodic level publicistic
style oratorical this style is to style is characterized by great
speeches, in stimulate and variations of pitch, loudness,
sermons, inspire the tempo and timbre:
parliamentary listeners − the loudness is enormously
debates increased;
meetings, press − the rate is moderately slow;
conferences and − pauses are definitely long
so on between the passages and
sometimes voiceless hesitation
pauses can occur to produce the
effect of spontaneity;
 − the rhythm is properly
organized;
− the terminal tones are mostly
emphatic and emotional; in
nonfinal intonation groups
falling-rising tones are frequent.
The prosodic features:
− the loudness varies according to the size of the
audience and to the emotional setting;
It is used on the − the rate is deliberately slow, but it can change
Declamatory
stage, in films or depending on the importance of information and
style is also
in prose and the degree of emphasis;
called artistic
poetry − pauses are long, especially between the passages;
or stage
recitations. − the rhythm is properly organized;
− terminal tones are mostly low and high falls
(sometimes mid-level and rising tones are used to
break the monotony).
It is realized in
natural
spontaneous
− variations within the length of pauses, speed,
Conversational everyday speech.
rhythm, pitch ranges, pitch levels and loudness are
style or Some scientists
great;
familiar style call it informal,
− intonation groups are rather short;
(the most because it often
− the most common tones are falling and rising, and
commonly occurs in
in highly emotional contexts emphatic tones occur;
used phonetic informal
− the tempo of colloquial speech is very varied; it is
style) relationships in
flexible; − pauses may occur randomly.
the speech of
relatives, friends
and so on