Phonetics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with the investigation of the sound

means of a certain language from the point of view of their articulation, acoustic
qualities, and semantics.

The phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit, which is capable of differentiating the
meaning and grammar forms of words.

The vowel is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of the
lungs meets no obstruction on its way.

The monophthong is a vowel in the production of which the organs of speech do not
change their position throughout the whole duration of a vowel.

The diphthong is a monophonemic combination of two vowel elements with gliding

articulation.

The consonant is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of
the lungs has to overcome a certain obstruction on its way.

The syllable is a speech unit consisting of a sound or a sound sequence one of which is to
be heard more prominent than the others.

Intonation implies variations of pitch ( voice up and down ), force of utterance (loudness
of syllables ), and tempo ( rate of speech and length of pauses )

Functions of Intonation are distinctive ( source to distinguish ) and constitutive ( to

form a sentence )

Components of Intonation are speech melody, sentence stress, tempo, rhythm, pauses,
and timbre.

Speech melody is fluctuations of the voice pitch.

Timbre is a characteristic quality of a sound, it depends on the relative strengths of the

components of different frequencies.
Sentence stress is a special prominence given to one or more words according to their
relative importance.

Pauses are usually used to separate sentences from each other.

Tempo is the relative speed of utterance which is measured by the rate of syllable
succession and the number and duration of pauses in a sentence.

Rhythm is a regular flow of speech in which stressed and unstressed syllables occur at
definite intervals.

Intonation group is a word or a group of words characterized by a certain intonation

pattern and is generally complete from the point of view of meaning.

Tonogram is the graphical representation of the intonation.

Word stress (word accent) is greater prominence given to one or more syllables in a
word.

Stressed Syllable is one or more syllables of a polysyllabic word that have greater
prominence than the others.

Components of an Intonation group 1. pre-Head + Head + Nucleus + tail

2. pre-Nucleus + Nucleus + tail
pre-Head includes unstressed and half-stressed syllables preceding the head.
The Head consists of the syllables beginning with the first stressed syllable up to the last
stressed syllable.
The Nucleus is the last stressed syllable.
The Tail is the unstressed and half-stressed syllables that follow the nucleus.

The English vowel system consists of 20 vowel phonemes, which can be classified
according to the following principles:
1. According to the stability of articulation, we distinguish 12 monophthongs (2
diphthongoids among them) and 8 diphthongs
2. According to the position of the bulk of the tongue we distinguish: front vowels,
central vowels, and back vowels.
3. According to the tongue-height we distinguish: high, mid, and broad.
 4. According to the duration (length) we distinguish long and short vowel phonemes.
5. According to the lip position they are distinguished as labialized (rounded) and
non-labialized (unrounded).

The English consonant system consists of 24 consonant phonemes which can be

classified as follows:
1. According to the type of obstruction (occlusives, constrictives, occlusive- constrictives,
or affricates).
2. According to the articulatory organ (labial, lingual, pharyngal, dental, palatol, alvedar).
3. According to the work of the vocal cords (voiced and voiceless).
4. According to the position of the soft palate (oral and nasal).

Classification of syllables
1. Fully open: V
2. Fully closed: CVC, CVCC, CCVC
3. Covered at the beginning: CV, CCV, CCCV
4. Covered at the end: VC, VCC, VCCC

Classification of syllables

a e o u i/y
/ eɪ / / iː / / əʊ / / juː / / aɪ /
1 type (open)
/æ/ /e/ /ɒ/ /ʌ/ /ɪ/
2 type (closed)
/ ɑː / / ɜː / / ɔː / / ɜː / / ɜː /
3 type (V+r)
/ eə / / ɪə / / ɔː / / jʊə / / aɪə /
4 type (V+r+e)

Syllable Rules
Pattern #1 - always divide after the prefix: pre-view
Pattern #2 - always divide before the suffix: trac-tion
Pattern #3 - when one or more consonants are followed by “le”, count back three and
divide: ma-ple
Pattern #4 - when there are two consonants in the middle you should divide between
consonants, unless they blend into one sound “sh” or “ph”: hap-pen
Pattern #5 - when one consonant appears between two vowels, it will most likely be in
the same syllable at the second vowels: si-lent
Pattern #6 - divide between compound words: dog-house
Pattern #7 - divide between the single middle consonant when the vowel sound before it
is long: o-pen
Pattern #8 - divide after the middle consonant ( or consonant blend like ‘ph’ or ‘sh’ )
when the vowel sound before it is short: cab-in
Pattern #9 - divide between two vowels that conjunction to make one sound: be-ing

Word stress should be considered from the point of view of:

1. its place in a sentence
2. its degree
Stressed and unstressed syllables differ in quantity (length) and quality.
There are two degrees of stress in English:
1 primary or strong (marked above the syllable)
2 secondary or weak (marked under the syllable)

Accented types of words

1. Monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic words are stressed onthe first syllable.
`phoneme, `palate, `prefix, `pronoun, `family, `enemy
1.1 in three-syllable words the stressed vowel is mostly read according to the second
type of the syllable.
family
1.2 in words with inseparable prefixes the stress falls on the syllable next to the prefix.
be`gin, pre`pare
2. Most four-syllable words have stress laid on the third syllable from the end.
po`litical, ex`periment, hi`storical, ge`ology
3. Compound nouns are stressed on the first component, the second though unstressed
has a vowel of full formation.
`blackboard
Exceptions: `arm - ,chair, `ice - ,cream, `tape - re,corder
4. Polysyllabic words have primary stress on the third syllable from the end and the
secondary stress on the second pretonic syllable.
,uni`versity, as,simi`lation, ,possi`bility
5. The following groups of words have two primary stresses:
- Numerals ( 13 - 19 )
- Compound adjectives: `well-`known, `good-`looking
- Composite verbs: `get `up, `sit `down, `put `on
- Words with separable prefixes:
a) Implying negation : un-, in-, il-, ir-, non-, dis-
unknown, inaccurate, illiterate, irregular, non-aggressive, disbelief
b) Implying assistance: sub-, vice-
subtitle, vice-minister
c) With different meanings: mis-, over-, pre-, inter-, anti-
misunderstand, overtired, pre-revolutionary, international, antiwar

Rules of syntagmatic division

The subject group and the predicate group consisting of more than one word form separate
syntagms.
Sam and Peter | are my best friends.
John’s sister | entered the room. | |
Winning the war | is what counts.

Homogeneous members of the sentence form separate syntagms.

They spoke, | then shouted | and cried.
I want some coffee | and chocolate biscuits.
John came | but didn’t stay long. | |

Adverbial and parenthetical phrases at the beginning of the sentence. In the final sentence,
they take the secondary stress (tail).
Finally, | they arrive to Lenton.
To `tell you the truth, | he’s `never late.
A `few minutes later | we `hear a `ring at the door.

An apposition makes up a separate syntagm.

Kyiv, | the `capital of Ukraine, | is a `very `beautiful city.
After a while, | after 43 days to be precise, | he went out again.
`Berry Smith, | his `wife’s niece, | `lives with us.

Alternative and disjunctive questions make up separate syntagms.

You `live here, | don’t you? | |
Would you like to order pizza | or pasta?
`Do you `live here | or `out of town? | |

In slow colloquial participial, gerundial, infinitive, and prepositional phrases can form
syntagms.
She is `sitting by the window | `reading a book.
After leaving the umbrella in the hall, | she entered the living room. | |
We too have a house | in a `London suburb.

Complex and compound sentences make up two syntagms.

If you are late | ask the permission to come in. | |
The rain felt softly, | the house was quiet. | |
The darkness was thinning, | but the street was still dimly lighted. | |

Tonogram rules
- Each stress must correspond to the tone mark in tonogram.
- Each intonation group must have a terminal tone.
- Phonetic signs must be printed.
- The first stressed syllable is in the high range.
- The unstressed syllables follow the previous stressed one.
- Low Fall starts in the middle range and finishes in the low range.
- Low Rise starts in the low range and finishes in the middle range.
- Each syllable above the tone mark.
- Terminal tone - always.
- The tonogram must contain three lines.

Reduction of Vowels

Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening, or disappearance of vowel

sounds in unstressed positions.

The reduction reflects the process of lexical and grammatical change.

Types of reduction

Quantitative results in the change of the length (quantity) of a vowel in an unstressed

syllable.
Qualitative is connected with the change of the quality of a vowel. (soft “e,i,y” changes
to / I / and hard “a,o,u”; -er, -ar, -or, -ous changes to / ə / )

Complete results in a full disappearance of a vowel in an unstressed position.

Assimilation is a phonetic process by which one sound under the influence of a sound
near it acquires some articulation and acoustic likeness to that of other sound.

Assimilation can be divided into two groups according to the direction (regressive,
double, progressive) and according to the degree (complete, intermediate, partial)

Partial assimilation

● Place of articulation
● Work of vocal cords
● Lip position
● Manner of producing noise

Assimilation affecting the work of vocal cords

● Voicing
● Devoicing

Assimilation affecting the manner of producing noise

● Loss of plosion
● Fricative loss of plosion
● Nasal plosion
● Lateral plosion

Low Fall is a terminal tone which starts at or a bit below the mid-pitch level of the
normal range and falls to the normal range and falls to the bottom, the tail syllables take
the low pitch.

Low Fall expresses finality.

Low Fall sounds formal, serious, firm, calm, cool, and reserved.
Low Fall with DSS is used in categoric statements, basic special questions, basic
commands, and exclamations.

Low Rise is a terminal tone which starts at or near the bottom of the normal voice range
and rises to the mid pitch level.

Low Rise expresses: non-finality and incompleteness.

Low Rise sounds: non-final, non-categoric.

Low Rise encourages further conversation.

Low Rise with DSS is used in non-categoric statements, general questions, special
questions (+ friendly interest), imperatives, and interrogative exclamations.