adaptation of phonemes l l Consonants and vowels

adaptation of phonemes l l Consonants and vowels are combined to form words and utterances within a rhythmic structure. Every consonant and every vowel will be affected by its neighboring consonants and vowels and by the rhythmic structure in which it occurs.

adaptation of phonemes l l The adaptation of phonemes to each other is a universal fact of a language. English has certain types of adaptation: assimilation, accommodation, elision, which occurs wherever the appropriate circumstances come together in the stream of speech.

adaptation of phonemes l l This is the main reason for the very wide variety of allophones of each phoneme. The context (or environment in which a phoneme occurs) determines the type of allophone which realizes the given phoneme in a given context.

accommodation l l l Thus, a phoneme /k/ followed by /i/ realizes through /k/ pronounced further forward on the palate, than the allophone of /k/ before a phoneme /u/. We speak about accommodation when consonants and vowels are joined. E. g. Key coo cut core

assimilation l l consider the following examples: 'Great Britain' /greit 'britn/ /grei? p britn/ 'commonwealth’ /komənwelθ/ /koməmwelθ/ ‘times share’ /taimz ςeə / /taimς ςeə / ‘this year/ /ðis jiə / / ðiς jiə/

Assimilation process usually effects the final consonant phoneme /t, d/ and /n/. Examples: watched t, beads z progressive assimilation solid t tea regressive assimilation wide world double assimilation l

Assimilation l Rare examples of assimilation involving other consonants are: five pots f ai f p o t s cease criminals si: s kriminəlz wage pitch weitς pitς

elision is the prosess of missing out of a consonant, a vowel, or both l l l As with assimilation the most common place to find consonant elision is at the end of a syllable. Let us consider some examples: first three /f ə : st θri: / / f ə : s ? θri: / last year /last jiə/ /las ? jiə/ In word final position /d/ elides even more readily than /t/. hurled twenty /h ə: ld twenti/ / h ə: l ? twenti /

elision Consonants /v, ð, l, r, n, k/ much less regularly elide , but their elision is nonetheless by no means a rare event. l Consider the following examples: five p. m. news /faiv pi əm nju: z/ /fai: (? ) pi ə mnju: z/ of course / əv kos/ /ə: (? ) kos/. l

Vowel elision, a very frequent process too, very often occurs together with other processes involving assimilation and elision of consonants. Here are some examples: l fanatics /f ə nætiks/ /fnætiks/ l minister /ministə / /minstə / l different /difərənt/ /difrənt/ l after all /aftə rol/ /aftrol/

Vowel elision Consider the word 'extraordinaryly' /ək/+/strə/+/o/+/di/+/nə/+/ri/+li as an example of elision in a polisyllabic word. Commonly, we pronounce this word with four syllables /ik/+/stro/+/din/+/rli/.

Vowel elision l l l The next set of examples show the complexity of assimilation/elision process, which occurs only when the word is unstressed. actually /æktςuəli/ /ækςli/ going to be /goui ŋ t ə bi/ /gən ə bi/

The process of simplification in vowels may effect the quality of their pronunciation. This process has been observed encroaching now for some years. Here are some examples to consider: l l where /weə / really /riəli/ now that /naυ ðət/ gold /goυld/ /w ə: / /r ə: li/ /naðət/ /g ə: ld/

The process of simplification l In the above examples the quality of the initial element of the diphthong is retained and the second element is obscured or lost. It is important, however, to state the fact that, though it occurs very often, the reduction of vowels in unstressed position, especially, in non grammatical words is not obligatory. l Finally, we should mention once again that all above described examples of phonetic processes that effect vowels and consonants in the stream of speech occur only in nonprominent, unstressed positions of the words the vowels and conso nants constitute, and never in prominent parts of utterances.