ENGLISH VOWELS ARTICULATORY CLASSIFICATION English vowels are

ENGLISH VOWELS: ARTICULATORY CLASSIFICATION

English vowels are classified according to the following criteria: • • • stability of articulation; length of articulation; tongue position; tenseness; lip position (see Supplement E)

ENGLISH CONSONANTS: ARTICULATORY CLASSIFICATION

English consonants are defined as speech sounds in the production of which: • there is an articulatory obstruction; • muscular tension is concentrated at the place of articulation; • the air-pressure is rather strong (see Supplement E).

SOUND ADJUSTMENTS IN CONNECTED SPEECH

• In the flow of connected • To sound properly the speech sounds are speaker is to follow the pronounced in a certain patterns of English way. Their articulation is sound adjustments. attuned to the There are combinatory articulation of and positional phonetic surrounding sounds. changes. These phonetic changes are not occasional. They are typical of the language.

Combinatory phonetic changes are caused by the distribution of a phoneme. They are: - ASSIMILATION - DISSIMILATION - ACCOMODATION - NASALIZATION - ELISION - INSERTION

ASSIMILATION is the adaptive modification of a consonant by a neighbouring consonant in the speech chain: according to its direction: acc. to the degree of completeness: • regressive – loss of plosion: glad to see you • progressive – Engl. sonorants /m/, /n/, /r/, /l/, /j/, /w/ preceded by the fortis voiceless consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/ are partially devoiced: play, twins, tray, snake. • partial: plate [ple. It], skate [ske. It]– no [h]. • complete that pen / ðæp pen/ that girl / ðæk gз: l/ has she? /hæ∫ ∫i: /

Assimilation results in: • Loss of plosion. In the sequence of two plosive consonants the former loses its plosion: great tour, old clock (partial regressive assimilation). • Nasal plosion. In the sequence of a plosive followed by a nasal sonorant the soft palate takes part in the articulation of the plosive sound: kitten, sudden, not now, at night (partial regressive assimilation). • Lateral plosion. In the sequence of a plosive followed by the lateral sonorant /l/ the plosive stop is changed into the lateral stop: kettle, table, at last (partial regressive assimilation).

DISSIMILATION is the influence exercised by one sound segment upon another, similar in pronunciation, so that the sounds become less alike. The effects are often seen in the history of a language, E. g. the change from /r/ to /l/ in the derivation of English pilgrim from Latin peregrinus.

• ACCOMODATION is • E. g. /ti: / – a consonant caused by interacting of becomes palatalized the neighbouring vowel before a front vowel; and consonant. As a • /tu: / – a consonant result, either a vowel or becomes rounded a consonant becomes before a rounded similar to the adjacent vowel; sound. There appears • /'stju: dent/ – a fully an allophone of one and back vowel becomes the same phoneme. slightly advanced after the medio-lingual consonant /j/.

NASALIZATION – the result of prolongation of the lowered soft palate position. It is characteristic of very rapid speech. • E. g. good morning /gυm 'mo: n. Iŋ/, good news /gυn 'nju: z/, • to win the race /tə 'w. In nə 're. Is/.

ELISION is the omission of one of the similar adjacent sounds in connected speech. It is minimal in slow careful speech and maximal in rapid relaxed colloquial forms of speech. E. g. next day /neks 'de. I/, let him /'let Im/, as a matter of fact /əz ə 'mætrəv 'fækt/. Historical elision: e. g. the loss of the initial consonants write, know, knight, gnat; the medial consonant /t/ in fasten, listen, whistle, castle.

• INSERTION (liaison) is the addition of sounds in connected speech; contrasts with elision. E. g. the use of so-called linking /r/ between vowels in Received Pronunciation when there is no r in spelling: • • E. g. Africa and Asia /'æfr. Ikə rənd 'e. I ə/, idea of /a. I'd. Iərəv/, • area of agreement /'eər. Iər əv ə'gri: mənt/

sult from the weak positional phonetic changes re P pical case of positional honeme. Reduction is the ty of a p phonetic changes.

QUANTITATIVE REDUCTION is the shortening of the vowel length: QUALITATIVE REDUCTION is the loss of the vowel quality: 1. in unstressed position: • e. g. blackboard /o: / – /o·/; • he is here /hi: / – /hi·/. 2. its position in the word: • e. g. knee – need – neat the vowel /i: / • is the longest in the final position. • 1. in unstressed syllables: e. g. man /mæn/ – batman /'bætmən/; • 2. slight degree of nasalization marks vowels preceded or followed by the nasal consonants /m/, /n/. E. g. never, no, then.