Lecture I.

PHONETICS AS A SCIENCE
1. Phonetics as a Science and its Branches.
2. Connection of Phonetics with other Branches of Linguistics.
3. Practical Importance of Phonetics.
4. The Components of the Phonetic System of English.
5. The Work of the Organs of Speech.
6. Phonemes and Allophones.
7. Transcription.

1. Phonetics as a science and its branches. Phonetics is the science which

studies characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in
speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription.
Phonetics began to be developed as a science in the 19th century. The
factors that stimulated its development were as follows:
• a more thorough acquaintance with the functioning of the human speaking
apparatus;
• investigations of many linguists who studied languages that had not
alphabets;
• compiling alphabets for such languages.
The objects, aims and value of Phonetics are defined on the basis of
scientific conception of language based on the thesis that being the most important
medium of human intercourse, language is at the same time directly and
inseparably connected with thought. This connection manifests itself not only in
the generally recognized 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 sentences. It is clear that
language can only exist in the material form of speech sound, though the sounds of
speech do not constitute a separate independent element of language.
Speech sounds are vibrating particles of air or sound waves or still in other
words – a variety of matter moving in space and time. Speech sounds are produced
by human organs of speech. Every speech sound is a complex of definite finely
coordinated and differentiated movements and positions of various speech organs.
They can be considered from the physiological phenomenon having its articulating
and auditory aspects. Accordingly to it Phonetics is subdivided into four principal
parts: the branch of Phonetics concerned with the study, description and
classification of speech sounds as regards the way they are produced by the human
speaking apparatus is called Articulatory Phonetics. Its oldest and simplest
method of investigation is the method of direct observation (visual and auditory).
This method is subjective. The objective methods require the use of various
apparatus and devices such as the artificial palate, photography, X-ray
photography, laryngoscopy etc. The branch of Phonetics which is concerned with
the study of the acoustic aspect is called Acoustic Phonetics. It uses kymograph
(records qualitative variations of sounds), a spectrograph (shows frequencies of a
given sound and its amplitudes), auscilograph (records sound vibrations) and
intonograph (investigates the fundamental frequency of speech as the component
of intonation). Auditory phonetics studies the perceptual response to speech
sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain. The fourth branch –
Functional phonetics – is concerned with the range and function of sounds in
specific languages. It is typically referred to as phonology.
2. Connection of Phonetics with other branches of Linguistics. The
branch of Phonetics which studies the units serving people for communicative
purposes is called Phonology. Phonology is the study of those segmental (speech
sound types) and supra-segmental (intonation) features which have a differential
value in the language. It studies the way in which speakers systematically use a
selection of units – phonemes or intonemes – in order to express meaning. It
investigates the phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use.
There are also such branches of phonetics as Special Phonetics or
Descriptive Phonetics, General Phonetics, Historical Phonetics, Comparative
Phonetics. All the branches of Phonetics are closely connected with each other as
well as with some other branches of Linguistics such as Lexicology, Grammar, and
Stylistics. The connection of Phonetics with Lexicology lies in the fact that
distinction of words is realized by the variety of their appearances. The phonetic
course of a given language determines the sound composition of words. For
example Turkish languages do not admit two or more consonants at the beginning
of words while in some Slavonic languages such a phenomenon is widely spread
(вкрасти, спритний).
Sound interchange is a very vivid manifestation of a close connection of
Phonetics with Morphology. It can be observed in the category of number (man –
men; goose – geese; foot – feet). Sound interchange also helps to distinguish basic
forms of irregular verbs (sing-sang-sung), adjectives and nouns (strong-strength),
verbs and nouns (to extend-extent).
Phonetics is closely connected with Syntax. Any partition of a sentence is
realized with the help of pauses, sentence stresses, melody. Changes in pausation
can alter the meaning of an utterance. For example: One of the travelers / said Mr.
Parker / was likeable (direct speech). If the pause is after “said”, then we have
another meaning of this sentence: One of the travelers said / Mr. Parker was
likeable. The rising/falling nuclear tone determines the communicative type of the
sentence: You know him – statement / You know him – general question.
Phonetics is also connected with Stylistics through repetition of sounds,
words and phrases. Repetition of this kind creates the basis of rhythm, rhyme and
alliteration (repetition of sounds). Rhythm may be used as a special device not only
in poetry but in prose as well. Investigations in historical aspects of languages and
the field of dialectology would be impossible without an understanding of
phonetics.
Nowadays sociolinguistics has come to the fore of philology. It studies the
ways in which pronunciation interacts with society (society is used in the broader
sense: nationality, regional and social groups).
We take care of the language and pronunciation when we talk to equals,
superiors or subordinates, to male and female, to foreigners and countrymen, etc.
Sociophonetics can answer the questions: Who speaks? How old is this person?
What is his/her profession? Education? Location? The most frequently quoted
comment which belongs to Ben Johnson says: “Language most shows a man.
Speak that I may see thee”.
3. Practical importance of Phonetics. The practical aspect of Phonetics is
no less important. Teaching of reading and writing is possible only when one
clearly understands the difference between the sounds and written forms of the
language and the connection between them. Phonetics is also widely used in
teaching correct pronunciation and allocution of actors, singers, TV announcers on
the basis of established orthoepical norms. Orthoepy is the correct pronunciation of
the words of a language. Phonetics is important for eliminating dialectical features
from the pronunciation of dialect speakers; in logopedics (in curing various speech
defects); in surdopedagogics (in teaching normal aural speech to deaf and dumb
people). Acoustic Phonetics and Phonology are of great use in technical acoustics
or sound technology that is the branch of science and technology which is
concerned with the study and design of techniques for the recording, transmission,
reproduction, analysis and synthesis of sound by means of various devices such as
microphone, loud-speaker, radio and television sets, speech synthesizers etc.
Forensic voice analysis has been used in a range of criminal cases, such as bomb
threats, blackmail and terrorism. Suspects leave recordings of the voices on the
telephone, voice mail, answering machines and these samples which have
individual accents, speech habits, breath patterns can be used as evidence.
4. The components of the phonetic system of English. The phonetic
system of English is a systemic combination of all the five components of the
sound matter of language which constitute the material (phonic) form of all the
morphemes, words, phrases and sentences in the language and serve a speaker to
express adequately in his utterances his emotions and feelings.
The first and basic component of the phonetic structure of English is the
system of its segmental phonemes existing in the material form of their allophones.
They are divided into two fundamental sound types – vowels and consonants.
The second component of the phonetic system of English is the syllabic
structure of its words. The syllabic structure has two aspects which are inseparable
from each other: 1) syllable formation and 2) syllable division. Both aspects are
sometimes designated by the term: syllabi(fi)cation.
The third component of the phonetic system of English is the accentual
system of its words as items of vocabulary. The accentual structure of words has
three aspects: 1) the physical (acoustic) nature of word accent; 2) the position of
the accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words; 3) the degrees of word accent.
The fourth component of the phonetic system of English is the intonational
structure of sentences in it, intonation being understood in the broad sense.
The four components of the phonetic system of English (phonemic, syllabic,
accentual and intonational) all constitute its pronunciation.

5. The Work of the Organs of Speech. In accordance with their linguistic

function the organs of speech may be grouped as follows:
 The respiratory or power mechanism furnishes the flow of air which is
the first requisite for the production of speech sounds. This mechanism is formed
by the lungs, the wind-pipe and the bronchi. The air-stream expelled from the
lungs provides the most usual source of energy which is regulated by the power
mechanism. Regulating the force of the air-wave the lungs produce variations in
the intensity of speech sounds. Syllabic pulses and dynamic stress, both typical of
English, are directly related to the behaviour of the muscles which activate this
mechanism.
From the lungs through the wind-pipe the air-stream passes to the upper
stages of the vocal tract. First of all it passes to the larynx containing the vocal
cords. The function of the vocal cords consists in their role as a vibrator set in
motion by the air-stream sent by the lungs. At least two actions of the vocal cords
as a vibrator should be mentioned. The opening between the vocal cords is known
as the glottis. When the glottis is tightly closed and the air is sent up below it the
so-called glottal stop is produced. It often occurs in English when it reinforces or
even replaces [p], [t], or [k] or even when it precedes the energetic articulation of
vowel sounds. The most important speech function of the vocal cords is their role
in the production of voice. The effect of voice is achieved when the vocal cords are
brought together and vibrate when subjected to the pressure of air passing from the
lungs. This vibration is caused by compressed air forcing an opening of the glottis
and the following reduced air-pressure permitting the vocal cords to come together
again. The height of the speaking voice depends on the frequency of the vibrations.
The more frequently the vocal cords vibrate the higher the pitch is. The typical
speaking voice of a woman is higher than that of a man because the vocal cords of
a woman vibrate more frequently. We are able to vary the rate of the vibration thus
producing modifications of the pitch component of intonation. More than that, we
are able to modify the size of the puff of air which escapes at each vibration of the
vocal cords, that is, we can alter the amplitude of the vibration which causes
changes of the loudness of the sound heard by the listener.
From the larynx the air-stream passes to supraglottal cavities, that is, to the
pharynx, the mouth and the nasal cavities. The shapes of these cavities modify
the note produced in the larynx thus giving rise to particular speech sounds.
 6. Phoneme. Allophones.
The definitions of the phoneme vary greatly.
L.V.Shcherba: the phoneme may be viewed as a functional, material and abstract
unit.
V.A.Vassilyev: The phoneme is a smallest unit capable of distinguishing one word
from another word, one grammatical form of word from another.
Bernard Bloch: phoneme is a class of phonemically similar sounds contrasting
and mutually exclusive with all similar classes in the language.
Roman Jacobson: phoneme is a minimal sound by which meaning may be
discriminated.
Let us consider the phoneme from the point of view of its three aspect.
1. The phoneme is a functional unit. Function is usually understood to
mean discriminatory function, that is, the role of the various components of the
phonetic system of the language in distinguishing one morpheme from another,
one word from another or also one utterance from another. The opposition of
phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of
morphemes and words, e.g. said— says, sleeper — sleepy, bath — path, light —
like. Also phoneme can fulfill a distinctive function - Sometimes the opposition of
phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the whole phrases, e.g. He was
heard badly — He was hurt badly.
2. The phoneme is material, real and objective. That means that it is
realized in speech in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The sets of speech
sounds, that is the allophones belonging to the same phoneme are not identical in
their articulatory content though there remains some phonetic similarity between
them.
e.g. English phoneme [d] when not affected by the articulation of the preceding or
following sounds is a plosive, fore-lingual apical, alveolar, lenis stop. This is
how it sounds in isolation or in such words as door, darn, down, etc., when it
retains its typical articulatory characteristics. In this case the consonant [d] is called
the principal allophone. The allophones which do not undergo any
distinguishable changes in the chain of speech are called principal.
At the same time there are quite predictable changes in the articulation of
allophones that occur under the influence of the neighbouring sounds in different
phonetic situations. Such allophones are called subsidiary. For example, [d] is
slightly palatalized before front vowels and the sonorant [j], e.g. deal, day, did,
did you. [d] is pronounced without any plosion before another stop, e.g. bedtime,
bad pain, good dog; it is pronounced with the nasal plosion before the nasal
sonorants [n] and [m], e.g. sudden, admit, could not, could meet. The alveolar
position is particularly sensitive to the influence of the place of articulation of a
following consonant. Thus followed by [r] the consonant [d] becomes post-
alveolar, e.g. dry, dream; followed by the interdental [ð] [θ] it becomes dental,
e.g. breadth, lead the way, good thing. When [d] is followed by the labial [w] it
becomes labialized, e.g. dweller. These modifications of the phoneme [d] are quite
sufficient to demonstrate the articulatory difference between its allophones, though
the list of them could be easily extended.
3. Allophones of the same phoneme, no matter how different their
articulation may be, function as the same linguistic unit. Phonemes
differentiate words like tie and die from each other, and to be able to hear and
produce phonemic differences is part of what it means to be a competent speaker
of the language. Allophones, on the other hand, have no such function: they
usually occur in different positions in the word (i.e. in different environments) and
hence cannot be opposed to each other to make meaningful distinctions. For
example, the dark [l] occurs following a vowel as in pill, cold, but it is not found
before a vowel, whereas the clear (or light) [l] only occurs before a vowel, as in
lip, like. These two vowels cannot therefore contrast with each other in the way
that [1] contrasts with [r] in lip — rip or lake — rake. The phoneme [t] in the
words top and stop is pronounced differently: in the first word it is aspirated, in
the second word it is unaspirated. The aspirated and unaspirated [t] are both
recognized as [t] by English speakers despite their differences. But the aspirated
realisation of [t] will never be found where the unaspirated realization is
appropriate, and vise versa. The mispronunciation of allophones does not change
the meaning of a word, but makes the speech sound “foreign”.
The function of phonemes is to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and
words. So the phoneme is an abstract linguistic unit, it is an abstraction from actual
speech sounds, that is allophonic modifications.
Basic functions of the phoneme are:
1. Constitutive – phoneme constitutes words, word combinations etc.
2. Distinctive – phoneme helps to distinguish the meanings of words,
morphemes.
3. Recognitive – phoneme makes up grammatical forms of words, sentences.
 7. Transcription.
A transcription is a set of symbols to represent sounds. In our studies we use
the transcription first suggested by Daniel Jones, whose name is closely associated
with the dictionary of everyday use “An English Pronouncing Dictionary”, later
this pioneering transcription was modified by his student A.Gimson. Many
symbols of the transcription in fact look like ordinary letters, others have a
particular shape. The symbolization of sounds naturally differs according to
whether the aim is to indicate the phoneme, i.e. functional unit as a whole, or to
reflect the modifications of its allophones (variants of the phoneme) as well.
The first type of notation, the broad or phonemic transcription, provides
special symbols for all the phonemes of a language. The second type, narrow or
allophonic transcription suggests special symbols including some information
about articulatory activity of particular allophonic features.
The broad transcription is mainly used for practical expedience, the narrow
type serves the purposes of research work and that is why provides allophonic
symbols.
The striking difference among present-day broad transcriptions of british
English is mainly due to the varying significance which is attached to vowel
quality and vowel quantity in such words as sit and seat, pot and sport, pull and
pool, or the neutral vowel and the vowel in the word earth. However, D.Jones
aimed at reducing the number of symbols to a minimum and strongly insisted that
the above-mentioned long and short vowels differ in quality as well as in quantity.
D.Jones supposed that this convention would relieve us from the necessity of
introducing special symbols to differentiate the quality of these sounds. That is
why he used the same symbols for them. According to D.Jones’s notation English
vowels are denoted like this: ı – i:, e – æ, Ʌ – ɑ:, ɒ – ɔ:, u – u:, ǝ – ǝ:. This way of
notation disguises the qualitative difference between the vowels ı and i:, ɒ and ɔ:, u
and u: and ǝ and ǝ: though nowadays most phoneticians agree that vowel length is
not a distinctive feature of the vowel, but is rather dependent upon the phonetic
context. For example, in such word pairs as hit – heat, cock – cork, pull – pool
the opposed vowels are approximately of the same length, the only difference
between them lies in their quality.
The other type of broad transcription, first used by V.A.Vassilyev, causes no
phonological misunderstanding providing special symbols for all vowel phonemes:
ı, i:, e, æ, Ʌ, ɑ:, ɒ, ɔ:, u, u:, ǝ, ǝ:.
It should be noted that phonemic representation is rather imprecise as it
gives too little information about the actual speech sounds. It incorporates only as
much phonetic information as it is necessary to distinguish the functioning of
sounds in a language. The narrow, or phonetic, transcription provides special
symbols to denote not only the phoneme as a language unit but also its allophonic
modifications (e.g. the soft and hard varieties of l). This type of transcription is
mainly used by specialists in research work.
 LECTURE II
General Characteristics of Vowels

1. Articulation Basis of English vs Ukrainian.

2. Principles of Classification of English Vowels.
3. English Monophthongs.
4. English Diphthongs and Triphthongs.
5. The most Common Mistakes of Ukrainian Students.

1. Articulation Basis of English vs Ukrainian.

In learning a foreign language there inevitably interfere undesirable habits of
one’s mother tongue, be it at the level of grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation.
As A.Gimson in the “Introduction to the Pronunciation of English” notes:
Every effort must be made to overcome the interference from the sound
system of the first language, through which the new, foreign (English) sounds are
being filtered.
To avoid mistakes in pronunciation it is not enough to attain certain
perfectness in the articulation of separate sounds, but it is necessary to understand
the general principles of the articulation basis.
The problem of the articulation basis was initiated by E.Sapir at the
beginning of the XX-th century and was described as a certain position of the
organs of speech which characterizes basic articulatory tendencies of the given
language:
The muscles of our speech organs have early in life become exclusively
accustomed to the particular adjustments and systems of adjustment that are
required to produce the traditional sounds of the language. All or nearly all other
adjustments have become permanently inhibited, whether through inexperience or
through gradual elimination. One cannot be free in the random choice of
movements…
Later, researchers added that it is the ability of the organs of speech to
switch from one type of articulation to another.
Phoneticians usually raise the question of the articulation basis in connection
with a foreign language learning, as another (English) pronunciation can be fully
mastered against the background of one’s mother tongue. In fact, the articulation
basis may be defined as a complex of habitual for the given language articulatory
characteristics which involve the movement of the lips and the tongue in speech as
well as in silence.
The differences between the articulation bases of two languages are as
follows:
In English the tip of the tongue is raised, hooved and does not touch
anything in the mouth cavity. The root of the tongue is retracted far back. The
corners of the lips are slightly spread in what we call “phonetic smile”. This
articulation basis makes English national voice dull and nasal (глухий і
назальний).
 In Ukrainian in the position of silence the tip of the tongue is firmly pressed
against the lower teeth. Almost the whole bulk of the tongue is in the front part of
the mouth cavity. The lips may be protruded. The quality of Ukrainian national
voice is resonant (дзвінкий).
The most common mistake that may result from the differences in the
articulation bases of two languages is over-resonance of the English language
which “cracks” the ears of native speakers. To overcome this mistake it is highly
advisable to start the course of pronunciation with the articulation basis training.
The question: “How to check the articulation basis of English?” can give the
following solution.
First, by visual control: lips must be spread, the upper lip never moves away
from the upper teeth (as proved by the saying Keep the upper lip stiff), lips are
never protruded.
Secondly, by tactile control: a special care should be taken of the root of the
tongue, the tip of the tongue and general flat position of the surface of the tongue.
Thirdly, acoustic control is focused on the quality (tembre) of voice which is
dull, or in terms of D.Crystal, husky.

2. Principles of Classification of English Vowels.

Very few languages in the world have so many vowels as English; with only
five (or six) vowel letters there are 20 or so vowel sounds. Vowels are said to be 20
“or so”, because they vary from accent to accent. The vowel sounds of American
English, for example, are clearly different from those of British or Australian. The
vowels typical of one locality in any of the English speaking country can differ
from those of another.
Vowels in English have been sorted out into groups according to:
1) the relative stability of articulation;
2) the tongue which can move horizontally and vertically;
3) the lips which can be rounded and unrounded or spread;
4) the length;
5) the degree of tenseness
6) the character of their end.
Stability of articulation specifies the actual position of the articulating
organ in the process of the articulation of a vowel. There are two possible varieties:
a) the tongue position is stable; b) it changes, that is the tongue moves from one
position to another. In the first case the articulated vowel is relatively pure, in the
second case a vowel consists of two clearly perceptible elements.
There exists in addition a third variety, an intermediate case, when the
change in the tongue position is fairly weak. So according to this principle the
English vowels are subdivided into:
1. monophthongs,
2. diphthongs,
3. diphthongoids [i:] and [u:].
This interpretation is not shared by British phoneticians. A.C. Gimson, for
example, distinguishes twenty vocalic phonemes which are made of vowels and
vowel glides. Seven of them are treated as short phonemes: [i], [e], [æ], [ɒ], [u],
[٨], [ə] and thirteen as long ones: [a:], [ɔ:], [з:], [i:], [u:], [ei], [зu], [ai], [au], [ɒu],
[iə], [εə], [uə] five of which are considered relatively pure: [a:], [ɔ:] [з:], [i:], [u:];
the rest are referred to long phonemes with different glides: [ei], [ai], [ɒi] with a
glide to [i]; [зu], [au] with a glide to [u]; and [iə], [εə], [uə] with a glide to [ə].
Another principle we should consider from phonological point of view is the
position of the tongue. For the sake of convenience the position of the tongue in
the mouth cavity is characterized from two aspects, that is the horizontal and
vertical movement. According to the horizontal movement Ukrainian phoneticians
distinguish five classes of English vowels. They are:
1. front: [i:], [e], [ei], [æ], [ε(ə)];
2. front-retracted: [I], [I(ə)];
3. central: [٨] [з:] [ə], [з(u)], [ε(ə)];
4. back [ɒ], [ɔ:], [u:], [a:];
5. back-advanced: [u], [u(ə)].
British phoneticians do not single out the classes of front-retracted and back-
advanced vowels. So both [i:] and [i] vowels are classed as front, and both [u:] and
[u] vowels are classed as back.
As to the tongue position in its vertical movement British scholars
distinguish three classes of vowels: high (or close), mid (or half-open), and low (or
open) vowels.
Ukrainian phoneticians made the classification more detailed distinguishing
two subclasses in each class, i.e. broad and narrow variations of the three vertical
positions of the tongue. Thus the following six groups of vowels are distinguished:
1. close a) narrow: [i:] [u:]; b) broad: [i], [u], [i(ə)], [u(ə)];
2. mid a) narrow: [e], [з:], [ə], [e(i)], [з(u)]; b) broad: [ə], [٨];
3. open a) narrow: [ε(ə)], [ɔ:], [ɒ (i)]; b) broad: [æ], [a(i, u)], [ɒ], [a:]
Another feature of English vowels which is sometimes included into the
principles of classification is lip rounding. Traditionally three lip positions are
distinguished, that is spread, neutral and rounded. For the purpose of classification
it is sufficient to distinguish between two lip positions: rounded and unrounded, or
neutral.
The fact is that any back vowel in English is produced with rounded lips, the
degree of rounding is different and depends on the height of the raised part of the
tongue; the higher it is raised the more rounded the lips are. So lip rounding is a
phoneme constitutive indispensable feature, because no back vowel can exist
without it. Rounded vowels are produced when the lips are more or less rounded
and slightly protruded. The English rounded vowels are [ɒ], [ɔ:], [ʊ],
[u:]. Unrounded vowels are produced when the lips are spread or neutral. The
English unrounded vowels are [і:], [ɪ], [e], [ᴔ], [ɑ], [ʌ], [з:], [ə].
The English monophthongs are traditionally divided into two varieties
according to their length:
a) short vowels: [i], [e], [æ], [ɒ], [u], [٨], [ə];
b) long vowels: [i:], [a:], [ɔ:], [з:], [u:].
 A vowel like any sound has physical duration – time which is required for its
production (articulation). When sounds are used in connected speech they cannot
help being influenced by one another. Duration is one of the characteristics of a
vowel which is modified by and depends on the following factors:
1. its own length,
2. the accent of the syllable in which it occurs,
3. phonetic context,
4. the position of the sound in a syllable,
5. the position in a rhythmic structure,
6. the position in a tone group,
7. the tempo of the whole utterance,
8. the style of pronunciation.
One more articulatory characteristic needs our attention. That is tenseness. It
characterizes the state of the organs of speech at the moment of production of a
vowel. Special instrumental analysis shows that historically long vowels are tense
([i:], [ɑ:], [ɔ:], [u:], [ɜ:]) while historically short vowels are lax ([ɪ], [e], [ᴔ], [ɒ],
[ʊ], [ʌ], [ə]). The greater tenseness of long vowels is closely connected with their
length. In pronouncing a long vowel the organs of speech are held in a certain
position for a rather long time. Retaining the quality of a long vowel unchanged
requires greater muscular tension of the organs of speech than in the articulation of
a short vowel.
In addition to the above principles, the English vowels are also classified
according to the character of their end. From this point, of view they may be:
checked and unchecked.
Checked vowels are those which are pronounced without any lessening the
force of utterance towards their end. They have, therefore, a strong end. They end
abruptly and are interrupted by the consonant immediately following. Therefore
they can only occur in a closed syllable, i.e. a syllable which ends in a consonant
sound. The English short vowels under stress are checked. So are the English long
vowels and diphthongs when followed by voiceless consonants, e.g. bed [bed], not
[nɒt], pull [pʊl], hat [hᴔt], speak [spi:k], type [taɪp].
Unchecked vowels are those which are pronounced with lessening the force
of utterance towards their end. Therefore, they have a weak end. The English long
vowels and diphthongs when stressed both in open and in closed syllables followed
by voiced consonants are unchecked. The same is true of unstressed vowels no
matter whether long or short, e.g. free [fri:], card [kɑ:d], time [taɪm], window
['wɪndoʊ], city ['sɪtɪ], father ['fɑ:ɚə].
Table of English Vowels

1. Stability of articulation Monophthongs – 12 Diphthongs – 8

2. Length of articulation Long – i:, u:, ɑ:, ɔ:, ɜ: Short – ɪ, e, ᴔ, ɒ, ʌ, ʊ, ə

3. Degree of muscular tension Tense – i:, u:, ɑ:, ɔ:, ɜ: Lax – ɪ, e, ᴔ, ɒ, ʌ, ʊ, ə

4. Lip Rounded (labialized) u:, Unrounded (non-

Participation ʊ, ɔ:, ɒ labialized) ɪ, e, ᴔ, ʌ, ə,
i:, ɑ:, ɜ:

6. Horizontal movement of the tongue

5. Vertical movement of the tongue fully front central back fully

front retracted (mixed) advanced back

High narrow variety i: u:

(close) broad variety ɪ ʊ

Mid narrow variety e ɜ:

(mid-open) broad variety ə ʌ

Low narrow variety ɔ:

(open) broad variety ᴔ ɒ ɑ:

3. English monophthongs.
The given chart provides a set of reference points for the articulation and
recognition of monophthongs in English. Their description is as follows:
No 1 [i:]: front, close, tense, lips slightly spread. E.g. mean, green, cheek.
No 2 [ı]: front, mid-close, lax, lips loosely spread. E.g. chick, risen, grin.
No 3 [e]: front, mid-open, lax, but tongue is tenser than for No 2, lips spread,
the opening between teeth extremely narrow. E.g. medal, head, left, editor.
No 4 [æ]: front, open, lax, lips neutral. E.g. cattle, bat, sand, ample.
No 5 [ɑ:]: back, open, tense, root of the tongue far retracted, lips neutral.
E.g. half, artist, fast, carpet.
No 6 [ɒ]: back, half-open, lax, lips rounded with the corners drawn in,
opening between jaws is broad. E.g. hot, not, stock.
No 7 [ɔ:]: back, half-close, tense, lips medium rounded. E.g. court, stalk,
port.
No 8 [u]: back, half-close, lax, lips closely but loosely rounded. E.g. good,
book, woman, foot.
No 9 [u:]: back, close, tense, lips closely rounded. E.g. blue, soup, shoe,
music.
No 10 [ʌ]: central, mid, lax, lips neutral. E.g. uncle, much, butter, one.
No 11 [ǝ:]: central, mid, tense, lips neutrally spread. E.g. firm, burn, heard,
church.
No 12 [ǝ]: central, mid, lax, lips neutrally spread. It is mostly heard in weak
syllables and is also called “schwa”. E.g. again, Autumn, support, worker, perhaps.
Pure vowels are given numbers from 1 to 12 for merely pragmatic reasons:
if a student mispronounces, for example, æ a teacher may correct him/her by
saying that No 4 is mistaken for No 11 what will help the student to restore these
vowels on the vowel chart and understand the difference in pronunciation: No 4 is
a front, open vowel while No 11 is central, long and mid. Thus, by adjusting the
shape and position of the tongue and lips it is possible to correct the mistake.

4. English Diphthongs and Triphthongs.

Diphthongs are complex entities just like affricates, so essentially similar
complications are known to exist with them. The question is whether they are
monophonemic or biphonemic units. Scholars like V.A. Vasilyev and L.R. Zinger
grant the English diphthongs monophonemic status on the basis of articulatory,
morphonological and syllabic indivisibility as well as the criteria of duration and
commutability.
As to articulatory indivisibility of the diphthongs it could be proved by the
fact that neither morpheme nor syllable boundary that separate the nucleus and the
glide can pass within it, for example: [′sei-iŋ] saying, [′krai-iŋ] crying, [′kliə-rə]
clearer, [′εə-riŋ] airing, [′рuə-rə] poorer. The present study of the duration of
diphthongs shows that the length of diphthongs is the same as that that
characterizes the English long monophthongs in the same phonetic context, cf.
[kзut – kɔ:t]. Finally the application of commutation test proves the
monophonemic status of diphthongs because any diphthong could be commutated
with practically any vowel. It could be exemplified in the following oppositions:
[bait — bit] bite – bit [bait—b٨t] bite – but [bait — bɔ:t] bite – bought and so on.
Monophonemic character of English diphthongs is proved by native speakers’
intuition, who perceive these sound complexes as a single segment.
A diphthong is a sound which consists of a movement or glide from one
vowel to another. A vowel which remains constant and does not glide is called
nucleus, a second element is called glide. So, a diphthong is not a combination of
two sounds, it is a combination of two elements of which the first element is much
longer and stronger than the second. For example, the word eye [aı] for the sake of
better understanding can be represented as [aı], where the nucleus is stronger while
the glide is only noticeable.
Eight in number diphthongs are divided into two groups: centring and
closing depending on the second element. Centring diphthongs end in shwa vowel,
closing – in either ı or u.
ıǝ example words: beard, beer, fierce
ɛǝ example words: air, scarce, chair
uǝ example words: moor, cruel, poor
eı example words: face, paint, cable
aı example words: time, nice, might
ɔı example words: voice, avoid, oil
ǝu example words: window, slogan, tempo
au example words: doubt, now, loud
The diphthong uǝ is included, but it is not used as much as the others; many
English speakers substitute uǝ for ɔ:.
Triphthongs are the most complex vowel sounds. A triphthong is a glide
from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without
interruption. For example, a careful pronunciation of the word flower begins with a
vowel quality similar to ɑ:, goes on to a glide towards the back close area of u,
then ends with a mid-central ǝ. The symbols which are used to represent this vowel
auǝ do not accurately represent its pronunciation: it is not a combination of three
vowels, it is a single vowel, the same as diphthong but with a schwa in the end.
Triphthongs can be looked at as composed of a closing diphthong + schwa:
eı + ǝ = eıǝ example words: player, layer, payer
aı + ǝ = aıǝ example words: fire, liar, satire
ɔı + ǝ = ɔıǝ example words: royal, loyal, employer
ǝu + ǝ = ǝuǝ example words: lower, mower, sower
au + ǝ = auǝ example words: power, tower, hour
It is important to notice that in connected speech vowels tend to change due
to the influence of the neighbouring sounds, tempo of speech, emotions, etc.
 Vowels are slightly longer in an open syllable and shorter in a closed
one.
 Diphthongs are prolonged before a voiced consonant.
 Vowels are shorter in unstressed syllables. E.g. billow ['bılǝu] хвиля
and below [bı'lǝu] внизу.
 Sometimes short vowels undergo the process of reduction and become
schwa. E.g. potato [pǝ'teıtǝu].

5. The most common mistakes of Ukrainian students.

The most common mistake the Ukrainian students can make in leaning the
pronunciation of English vowels first and foremost concerns long (tense) vowels.
As there are no long vowels in Ukrainian, some students believe that a
considerable prolongation of, say, ı will make long i:. In fact, the difference is in
quality, resulting from differences in tongue shape and position as well as lip
position.
Six vowel letters in Ukrainian give the same number of vowel sounds which
are also divided into front є, и, і and back а, о, у. According to the vertical position
of the tongue vowels are characterized as open а, mid є half-close и and close і, у
or in other terms – low, mid, half-high, high. Vowels о and у are labiolized, the
rest of them are not labiolized (огублені – не огублені).
 LECTURE III
THE SYSTEM OF ENGLISH CONSONANT PHONEMES

1. General Properties of Consonants.

2. Classification of English consonants.
3. Plosives.
4. Fricatives.
5. Affricates.
6. Nasals.
7. Lateral and approximates

The difference between the number of letters and sounds is dramatic in the
case of vowels: 5 vowel letters give 20 or so sounds. With consonants it goes easy:
21 consonant letters in the English alphabet give 24 sounds (the Ukrainian
language counts 22 consonant letters and the same number of consonant sounds).
There are cases when two consonant letters in English produce one sound: in the
word thick θ – th; k – ck, or one consonant letter symbolizes more than one
sound: fox [fɔks].
All consonants have certain properties in common, which identify them in
contrast to vowels:
1. From a phonetic point of view, they are articulated in one of two ways:
either there is a closing movement of one of the vocal organs, forming such a
narrow constriction that it is possible to hear the sound of the air passing through:
s, z; or the closing movement is complete, giving a total blockage: p, b. the closing
movement may involve the lips, the tongue, or the throat.
2. From a phonological point of view, consonants are units of the sound
system which typically occupy the edges of a syllable as in num-ber, con-stric-
tion. They may also appear in clusters: gl-, fr-, str-, skr-. Traditionally there is no
ʃn- initial cluster in English, but recent arrival of loan words from German and
American Yiddish introduced such words as schnapps, schnitzel, schnauzer, etc.
Up to three consonants may be used together at the beginning of a word (street,
splash) and up to four consonants may be used at the end: twelfths [twelfθs],
glimpsed [glımpst].
3. Some consonants involve the vibration of the vocal cords; these are
voiced, such as b, m. Others do not; they are voiceless: p, s. The distinction is not
absolute, depending on where in the word a consonant appears. At the end of a
word, for example, a voiced consonant loses its vibration, it is devoiced. E.g. z is
much more vibrant in zoo than in ooze [u:z]. If we vibrate z in ooze it would
produce an unnatural buzzing effect. The same happens with b in the word Bob.
4. An alternative way of showing the difference between voiced – voiceless
consonants is to compare the force with which they are articulated. Voiceless are
produced with greater force than their voiced counterparts. The terms “fortis”
(strong) and “lenis” (weak) have come to be used. For example, p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, tʃ
are fortis, b, d, g, v, ð, z, Ʒ, dƷ are lenis consonants.
 5. Unlike vowels, some consonants are identified through their use of the
nasal cavity. Normally, when we speak in English, the soft palate is raised, so that
the air cannot pass through the nose. With three nasal consonants m, n, ŋ,
however, the soft palate remains lowered, which effects a distinctive nasal
resonance. In singing nasal ŋ is replaced by a more comfortable n.

2. Classification of English consonants

Consonants in English are usually classified according to the following
principles:
⇒ According to the type of obstruction and the manner of the production of
noise.
⇒ According to the active speech organ and the place of obstruction.
⇒ According to the work of the vocal cords and the force of articulation.
⇒ According to the position of the soft palate.
According to the type of obstruction English consonants are divided into
occlusive and constrictive.
Occlusive consonants are produced with a complete obstruction formed by
the articulating organs, the air-passage in the mouth cavity is blocked. Occlusive
consonants may be: (A) noise consonants and (B) sonorants. According to the
manner of the production of noise occlusive noise consonants are divided into
plosive consonants (or stops) and affricates. In the production of plosive
consonants the speech organs form a complete obstruction which is then quickly
released with plosion. The English [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g] are occlusive plosive
consonants.
In the production of affricates the speech organs form a complete
obstruction which is then released so slowly that considerable friction occurs at the
point of articulation. Affricates are two in number [tʃ], [dʃ].
In the production of occlusive sonorants the speech organs form a complete
obstruction in the mouth cavity which is not released, the soft palate is lowered and
the air escapes through the nasal cavity – the English [m], [n], [ŋ].
Constrictive consonants are produced with an incomplete obstruction that
is by a narrowing of the air-passage. Constrictive consonants may be: (A) noise
consonants (or fricatives) and (B) sonorants. In production of noise constrictives
the speech organs form an incomplete obstruction, as in [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z],
[ʃ], [Ʒ], [h]. The consonants s, z, ʃ and Ʒ have a sharper sound than the others,
because they are made with a narrower groove (жолобок) in the tongue, and are
also called sibilants. The closure is partial.
In production of constrictive sonorants the air-passage is fairly wide so that
the air passing through the mouth does not produce audible friction and tone
prevails over noise. Constrictive sonorants may be mixed (approximant) and
lateral. In the production of mixed sonorants the air escapes without audible
friction over the central part of the tongue, the sides of the tongue being raised –
the English [w], [r], [j].
 In production of lateral sonorants the tongue is pressed against the alveolar
ridge or the teeth, and the sides of the tongue are lowered, leaving, the air-passage
open along them – the English [1].
According to the active organ of speech English consonants are divided
into labial, lingual and glottal.
1. Labial consonants may be (A) bilabial and (B) labio-dental.
(A) Bilabial consonants are articulated by the two lips – the English [p], [b],
[m], [w].
(B) Labio-dental consonants are articulated with the lower lip against the
upper teeth. The English labio-dental consonants are [f], [v].
2. Lingual consonants may be (A) forelingual, (B) mediolingual, and (C)
backlingual.
(A) Forelingual consonants are articulated by the blade of the tongue, the
blade with the tip or by the tip against the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge.
According to the position of the tip English forelingual consonants may be (a)
apical, and (b) cacuminal.
(a) Apical consonants are articulated by the tip of the tongue against either
the upper teeth or the alveolar ridge – the English [θ], [ð], [t], [d], [1], [n], [s], [z].
(b) Cacuminal consonants are articulated by the tongue tip raised against
the back part of the alveolar ridge. The front of the tongue is lowered forming a
spoon-shaped depression – [r].
(B) Mediolingual consonants (palatal) are articulated with the front of the
tongue against the hard palate – [j].
(C) Backlingual consonants (velar) are articulated by the back of the
tongue against the soft palate – [k], [g], [ŋ].
3. Glottal consonants are produced in the glottis – [h], or a closure, as in the
glottal stop (in some accents).
According to the point of articulation forelingual consonants are divided
into (1) dental (interdental or post-dental), (2) alveolar, (3) palato-alveolar, and
(4) post-alveolar.
(1) Dental consonants are articulated against the upper teeth either with the
tip – [θ], [ð].
(2) Alveolar consonants are articulated by the tip of the tongue against the
alveolar ridge: [t], [d], [n], [1], [s], [z].
(3) Palato-alveolar consonants are articulated by the tip and blade of the
tongue against the alveolar ridge or the back part of the alveolar ridge, while the
front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate: [ʃ], [Ʒ], [tʃ], [dƷ].
(4) Post-alveolar consonants are articulated by the tip of the tongue against
the back part of the alveolar ridge: [r].
According to the point of articulation mediolingual and backlingual
consonants are called palatal and velar, respectively.
According to the work of the vocal cords consonants are divided into
voiced and voiceless. According to the force of articulation consonants are divided
into relatively strong, or fortis and relatively weak, or lenis. English voiced
consonants are lenis. English voiceless consonants are fortis. They are pronounced
with greater muscular tension and a stronger breath force.
According to the position of the soft palate consonants are divided into
oral and nasal. Nasal consonants are produced with the soft palate lowered while
the air passage through the mouth is blocked. As a result, the air escapes through
the nasal cavity. The English nasal consonants are [m], [n], [ŋ]. Oral consonants
are produced when the soft palate is raised and the air escapes through the mouth.

3. Plosives.
To give a complete description of plosives it is necessary to start with the
analysis of the following three stages (phases) of a consonant production:
1. The first phase is when the articulators move to form the stricture for the
plosive. It is called the closure phase.
2. The second phase is when the compressed air is stopped from escaping. It
is a hold phase.
3. The third phase is when the articulators used to form the stricture are
moved so as to allow air to escape. It is called a release phase.
Plosive consonants are six in number plus glottal stop (indicated in the
transcription by the sign ?) but it is of less importance, since it is usually just an
alternative pronunciation of p, t, k in certain contexts. For example, in London
dialect one may hear: Have a look pronounced as [‘æv ǝ ‘lu?].
The most noticeable and important difference between fortis and lenis
plosives is that p, t, k are aspirated and b, d, g are not. However the degree of their
aspiration may vary.
1) It is strongest when p, t, k are followed by a long vowel or by a
diphthong, e.g. [pa:s] pass, [tɔ:l] tall, [kɛǝ] care;
2) Aspiration becomes weaker when p, t, k are followed by short vowels,
e.g. [pul] pull, [tuk] took, [cɅt] cut;
3) When p, t, k are preceded by the consonant [s] they are pronounced with
no aspiration, e.g. [pa:k] park – [spa:k], [ku:l] cool – [sku:l] school.
The same is true of p, t, k when they occur before an unstressed vowel.
Compare p, t, k in the stressed and unstressed syllables of the following
words: [‘peıpǝ] paper, [‘kǝukǝu] cocoa.
Ukrainian learners are apt to pronounce the English plosive consonants
without aspiration before a stressed vowel, which is due to the absence of
aspiration in Ukrainian. In order to pronounce a voiceless plosive consonant with
aspiration it is necessary to let a puff of air out of the mouth after the plosion of the
consonant before the beginning of the vowel that follows. Care should be taken not
to make another mistake, i.e. to pronounce the Ukrainian sound [х] instead of
aspiration.
One more feature should be mentioned: there is a spreading tendency in
modern English, particularly in popular London speech, to pronounce alveolar t, d
in affricated form. For example, time, day, hat, bed, education, teacher
(transcription fails to reflect it). Affrication of t, d happens in strongly stressed
syllables.
 4. Fricatives.
In the production of fricatives the air escapes through a small passage and
makes a hissing sound. They are also called continuants because they can sound
without interruption as long as there is enough air in the lungs. Like plosives,
fricatives comprise pairs: fortis – lenis, except a glottal stop. All in all, they are
eight plus one in number and can be represented as follows:

Fortis: f θ s ʃ
Lenis: v ð z Ʒ +h

The fortis fricatives are said to be articulated with greater force than the
lenis, and their friction noise is louder.
The fricatives f and v are labiodental, that is, the lower lip is in contact with
the upper teeth. They constitute a pair of fortis – lenis consonants, but v is
devoiced in a word final position: fan, van, safer, saver, half, halve.
The sounds θ and ð are dental fricatives. Dental fricatives are sometimes
described as if the tongue is placed between the teeth, and it is common practice
for the teachers to make their students do it. In fact, however, the tongue is
normally placed inside of the lower front teeth and the blade touching the inside of
the upper teeth. The air escapes between the upper and the lower third teeth. To put
the tip of the tongue between the teeth is the case of a slow emphatic speech.
Example words are: thumb, thus, either, father.
The difficulty of θ, ð lies not so much in their articulation, which most
learners can perform correctly in isolation, as in their combination with other
fricatives, especially with s and z. For example: s + θ his thumb; s + ð pass the
salt; z + ð is this it? Sometimes in these sequences ð, θ elide: clothes [klǝuz],
months [mɅns].
S, z as in words sip, zip, facing, rice, rise have the same place of
articulation as t, d. The tip and the blade of the tongue make a light contact with
the upper alveolar ridge, and the side rims of the tongue a close contact with the
upper side teeth. The air escapes through the narrow passage along the centre of
the tongue. A common speech defect or habit with the mentioned sounds is a
substitution of θ, ð for s, z.
ʃ, Ʒ are called palato-avleolar which means they are partly palatal, partly
alveolar; the tongue is in contact with an area slightly further back than that for s,
z. If we say s ʃ s ʃ s in succession we can feel the tongue moving backwards. The
air escapes through a passage along the centre of the tongue, as in s, z, but the
passage is a little wider.
The place of articulation of h is glottal. This means that the narrowing that
produces the friction noise is between the vocal cords. This fricative always occurs
before a vowel and, thus, has the quality of this vowel. For example, in the word
hat the h must be followed by the vowel æ. The tongue, jaw and lip positions for
the vowel are all pronounced simultaneously with the h consonant, so that the
glottal fricative has an æ quality. The same is found for all vowels following h,
thus giving the sound notable characteristics of a vowel (vocoid) articulation.
Since, however, the common feature of all pre-vocalic h is the passage of a strong
air-stream through the open glottis, the sound is referred to as fortis glottal
fricative.
It must be noted that in many types of popular regional speech, h is lost, so
that no distinction is made between such pairs as hill – ill, high – eye, hair – air.
Such loss of h is usually considered characteristic of uneducated speech, but
certain words (especially have, has, had, pronouns, etc.) regularly lose h in
unstressed positions. For example, the sentence I could have hit her is
pronounced as [aı kǝd ǝv 'hıt ǝ].

5. Affricates.
The two English affricates [tʃ] and [dƷ] are articulated with the tip and blade
of the tongue raised to touch the back part of the alveolar ridge. Then contact is
made so as to block the air passage through the mouth cavity for a short time. Then
the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate, and the tip of the
tongue is slowly removed from the alveolar ridge, forming a flat narrowing
through which the air passes with friction. In the production of [tʃ] the vocal cords
are kept apart and do not vibrate, whereas in the production of [dƷ] they are drawn
near together and vibrate. The English [tʃ] as compared with the Ukrainian [ч’] is
not so much palatalized. In production of the Ukrainian [ч’] the front of the tongue
is raised higher.
In Ukrainian there exist a cluster of sounds [д+ж], which is similar to the
English [dƷ]. But in English it is considered to be one sound and cannot be
replaced by a cluster of two separately pronounced consonants. In order to prevent
this mistake it is necessary to pronounce first the [tʃ] sound and then without
changing the position of the organs of speech, try to make it voiced e.g. [tʃeın]
(chain) – [dƷeın] (Jane). The substitution of a consonant cluster [д+ж] for the
English affricate is a gross, though non-phonemic mistake.
It should be mentioned that this group of sounds is a highly debated problem
among phoneticians as to their status and number. There usually arise two
problems: 1) Are tʃ and dƷ monophonemic or biphonemic combinations? 2) If they
are monophonemic then how many phonemes of this kind exist in the system of
English consonants and can such combinations tr, dr, ts, dz, tθ, dð be considered
as affricates?
Some phoneticians say there are six (D.Jones: tʃ, dƷ, tr, dr, ts, dz) or even
eight (A.Gimson: tʃ, dƷ, tr, dr, ts, dz, tθ, dð) affricates. To understand if they are
affricates or not we must define their articulatory indivisibility. This procedure is
usually fulfilled according to the principles of Trubetskoy who said that a sound
complex can be considered monophonemic if:
1) Its elements belong to one syllable. For example, in butcher [‘butʃǝ] the
sound belongs to one syllable and cannot be divided whicle in the word
light-ship [laıt-ʃıp] the sounds belong to different syllables.
2) They are produced by one articulatory effort. All sound complexes have
many features in common: unlike separate sounds, in the beginning of their
 articulation organs of speech are not in the position of the second fricative
element.
3) Its duration does not exceed normal duration of its both elements.

6. Nasals.
In the articulation of nasals m, n, ŋ the soft palate is in its lowest position,
allowing an escape of air into the nasal cavity and giving the sound the special
resonance provided by the naso-pharyngeal cavity. Since the air-stream may
escape freely through the nose, nasal consonants are continuants. They are usually
voiced, without significant fortis – lenis opposition. In many respects, therefore,
they resemble vowel-type sounds, what enables them to have a syllabic function:
bottom [bɔ-tm], button [bɅ-tn], rhythm [rı-ðm].
As to the place of articulation, m is bilabial, that is a total closure is made by
the upper and lower lips. If followed by f or v, as in comfort, nymph, triumph m
turns to be labio-dental. Nasal n is alveolar. It may be labio-dental if followed by f
or v, as in infant, invariant.
Ŋ is a velar nasal. It is the normal nasal sound before k, g in such words as
sink, angry, despite having only a letter n in the spelling. But the words income,
conclude, encourage, concrete are pronounced with n.
The consonants m, n appear in all three positions: initial, medial, final,
whereas ŋ – only in medial and final: might, night, simmer, sinner, sum, sun,
singer, sung. One more interesting fact about ŋ: it never occurs after diphthongs or
long vowels.

7. Lateral and approximates

A lateral consonant l is articulated by means of a particular closure of the
tongue tip against the centre of alveolar ridge, and the air escapes along both sides
of the tongue. You can feel it if pronounce dldldldldl. This sound falls into the
same category of continuants as the nasals, i.e. can be pronounced as long as there
is air in the lungs.
Lateral l is in many respects vowel-like, and often performs as a vowel, i.e.
has a syllabic function. For example, bottle [bɔ-tl], middle, camel, simple, uncle.
This sound can be found initially, medially and finally, and its distribution is not
particularly limited: leave, look; silly, yellow; feel, fall.
The consonant has one unusual characteristic: the realization of l found
before vowels sounds quite different from that found in other contexts. For
example, the realization of l in the word lake is quite different from that in hill.
The sound in hill is what is called “dart l”, its quality is rather similar to an u
vowel with the back of the tongue raised. The sound in “lake” is called “clear l”,
it resembles an ı vowel, with the front of the tongue raised. The dark variant is also
found when l precedes consonant, as in falls.
Post-alveolar approximant r is articulated with a soft palate raised and the
tongue-tip held close to the back of the alveolar ridge; back rims of the tongue
touch the upper molars; the central part of the tongue is lowered; the lip position is
influenced by the following vowel (spread in reach, rounded in room). This sound
is called an approximant because in its production the organs of speech approach
each other but do not get as sufficient close as, for example, plosives, nasals or
fricatives do.
The r is pronounced when it occurs only before vowels: arrive, hearing,
room. In other cases there is no r in the pronunciation: verse, hard, ever, here,
although many accents of English do pronounce r in final position (before a pause)
and before a consonant. The latter are called rhotic accents, while the former are
non-rhotic.
When r occupies a word final post-vocalic position and the next word begins
with a vowel, as in phrases poor Ann, wear it, fur inside, the r is pronounced. It
is called linking r. The linking usage of r is sometimes extended to the cases when
there is absolutely no justification. The intrusive r is heard in: drama and music
['dra:mǝr ǝn 'mju:zık], law and order ['lɔr ǝnd 'ɔdǝ], India and China ['Indıǝr
ǝn 'tʃaınǝ]. TV and radio speakers are strongly advised not to use intrusive r, as it
is not considered to be a correct form of English.
The most important thing about the consonants j and w is that they are
phonetically like vowels but phonologically like consonants. From the first point of
view they are known as semi-vowels, they glide from positions of approximately i:
(with spread or neutral lips) and u: (with rounded lips). But despite this fact, these
sounds are used as consonants. For example, they only occur before vowels, this is
a typically consonantal distribution: the yard, a yacht, the west, a wasp.
As for the place of articulation, j is palatal and w is bilabial, that is the soft
palate is raised in both cases with the tongue in the position of a front close vowel
in case of j and with the tongue in the position of a close back vowel in case of w.
In modern English there is a tendency to pronounce suit and salute as [su:t]
and [salu:t], not as [sju:t] and [salju:t]. This happens after sounds s and l. In word
initial position p, t, k may sound as fricatives: tune [tju:n]. There is also a
peculiarity to pronounce words what, when, why as [whi:t], [when], [whai].
 LECTURE III
SYLLABIC STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS

Speech is a continuum. However, it can be broken into minimal

pronounceable units into which sounds show a tendency to cluster or group
themselves. These smallest phonetic groups are generally given the name of
syllables.
The syllable is one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted
unit of utterance which may be a commonly recognized subdivision of a word or
the whole of a word [Wells 2000: 758]. Being the smallest pronounceable units,
the syllables form language units of greater magnitude, that is morphemes, words
and phrases. Each of these units is characterized by a certain syllabic structure.
Consequently we might say that a meaningful language unit has two aspects:
syllable formation and syllable division.
The syllable is a fairly complicated phenomenon and like the phoneme it can
be studied on four levels: acoustic, articulatory, auditory and functional, which
means that the syllable can be approached from different points of view.
Talking about the analysis of articulatory or motor aspect of the syllable we
could start with the so-called expiratory, or chest pulse or pressure theory (теорія
видиху) which was experimentally based by R.H. Stetson [Stetson 1951]. This
theory is based on the assumption that expiration in speech is a pulsating process
and each syllable should correspond to a single expiration so that the number of the
syllables in an utterance is determined by the number of expirations made in the
production of the utterance. This theory was strongly criticized by linguists. G.P.
Torsuev, for example, writes that in a phrase a number of words and consequently
syllables can be pronounced with a single expiration [Торсуев 1960]. This fact
makes the validity of the pulse theory doubtful.
Another theory most often referred to is the theory of syllable put forward
by O. Jespersen. It is generally called the sonority theory / the prominence
theory (теорія відносної сонорності) and is based on the concept of sonority.
The creator of this theory, the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, has proved that the
least sonorous sounds which have the least carrying power, are those for which the
mouth is closed (voiceless oral stops), while the most sonorous sounds are those
for which the mouth is wide open (low vowels). All other sounds are ranked in
between these two extreme points of the sonority scale: (from the highest degree to
the lowest):
1. Low vowels (a:, ɔ..).
2. High vowels (i:, i....)
3. Semivowels (j, w)
4. Liquids (1, r)
5. Nasals (m, n, ŋ)
6. Fricatives (voiced) (v, z, ð)
7. Fricatives (voiceless) (f, θ, s)
 8. Oral stops (voiced) (b, d, g)
9. Oral stops (voiceless) (p, t, k).
By this theory the syllable is treated as the combination of a more sonorous
sound with a less sonorous one. All the sounds with the greatest degree of sonority
(vowels and sonorants) are at the peak of the syllable, by which the syllable may
be marked as a unit, because the rest of the sounds surrounding the peak cling to it.
According to V.A. Vassilyev, the most serious drawback of this theory is that it
fails to explain the actual mechanism of syllable formation and syllable division
[1970]. Besides, the concept of sonority with which the theory operates is not very
clearly defined, which makes it still less consistent
Further experimental work aimed at the description of the syllable as a
phonetic phenomenon resulted in a lot of other theories, such as F. de Saussure's
theory, the theory of the Rumanian linguist A. Rosetti, and the theory of the Czech
linguist B. Hala. The existence of such a variety of approaches to the problem of
the syllable means that it is not an easy matter to describe it. That is why the
theories referred to above are unable to explain more than a restricted aspect of the
phenomenon.
Academician L.V. Shcherba [1963] put forward the theory of muscular
tension (теорія м’язового напруження). It was put forward by the French linguist
Michaelle Grammont and supported and further developed by the Russian linguist
Lev V. Scherba. Academician Lev Volodymyrovych Scherba explained syllable
formation by muscular tension impulses and three types of consonants. In
speaking, muscular tension imputes follow one another. Each impulse has its
strongest point – the peak of prominence – and its weakest prominence – the valley
of prominence. Valleys of prominence correspond to points of syllabic division.
The end of one syllable and the beginning of the next one can be ascertained by
determining the type of consonants which take part in forming the syllables.
Consonants may be pronounced:
1. initially strong – the beginning of a consonant may be more energetic,
while the end may be weaker;
2. finally strong – the beginning of the consonant may be weak, and its end
more energetic;
3. and geminate or double – both the beginning and the end are energetic
with a weakening of muscular tension in the middle, acoustically, they give the
impression of two consonants.
The more energetic part of a consonant is attached to a vowel, so that
initially strong C occurs at the end of a close syllable, while finally strong C occurs
at the beginning of a syllable, his theory again does not give a complete
explanation of the syllable division mechanism.
It is worth noticing that the theory has been modified by V.A. Vassilyev
[1970]. The point is that the syllable like any other pronounceable unit can be
characterized by three physical parameters: pitch, intensity and length. Within the
range of the syllable these parameters vary from minimum on the prevocalic
consonants to maximum on the centre of the syllable, then there is another
decrease within the postvocalic consonants. So the conclusion follows: if we take
into consideration the tension of articulation and the above-mentioned acoustic
data on the speech production level the syllable can be treated as an arc of
articulatory effort.
The linguist and psychologist N.I. Zhinkin has suggested the so-called
loudness theory which seems to combine both levels.
There exist two points of view on the syllable:
1. Some linguists consider the syllable to be a purely articulatory unit which
lacks any functional value. This point of view is defended on the grounds that the
boundaries of the syllable do not always coincide with those of the morphemes.
2. However the majority of linguists treat the syllable as the smallest
pronounceable unit which can reveal some linguistic function.
The definition of the syllable from the functional point of view existing in
modern linguistics tends to single out the following features of the syllable:
a) a syllable is a chain of phonemes of varying length;
b) a syllable is constructed on the basis of contrast of its constituents (which
is usually of vowel-consonant type);
c) the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel, the presence of consonants is
optional; there are no languages in which vowels are not used as syllable nuclei,
however, there are languages in which this function is performed by consonants;
d) the distribution of phonemes in the syllabic structure follows the rules
which are specific enough for a particular language.
1) syllable formation (складоутворення)
2) syllable division/separation (складоподіл).
Articulatorily, the syllable is the minimal articulatory unit of the utterance.
Auditorily, the syllable is the smallest unit of perception: the listener identifies the
whole of the syllable and after that the sounds which it contains. Phonologically it
is a structural unit which consists of a sequence of one or some phonemes of a
language in numbers and arrangements permitted by the given language.
Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel
– consonant. In English the syllable is formed:
1. by any vowel alone or in combination with one or more consonants – not
more than 3 preceding and not more than 4 following it, e.g. are [a:], we [wi:], it
[it], sixths [siksθs].
2. by a word final sonorants [n], [1], [m] immediately preceded by a
consonant: e.g. rhythm ['Ri-ðm], garden ['ga:-dn]. The English sonorants [w],
[j] are never syllabic as they are always syllable-initial.
Every English syllable has a center or peak – a vowel or a sonorant. The
peak may be preceded by one or more non-syllabic elements which constitute the
onset of the syllable, and it maybe followed by one or more non-syllabic elements,
e.g. cat [kæt], tree [tri:], ice [ais]. Every language has its own common patterns in
which the phonemes are arranged to form syllables. According to the placement of
vowels and consonants the following types of syllables are distinguished:
1) Placement of VOWELS – open: the vowel is at the end, such a syllable is
articulated with the opening of the mouth by the end: e.g. they, wri-ter; closed:
which end in consonant, at the end of such a syllable the mouth is closed: e.g.
hun-dred, hat.
2) Placement of CONSONANTS – covered at the beginning: the consonant
is at the beginning of the syllable: e.g. tie; covered at the end: the consonant is at
the end of a syllable: e.g. on.
The presentation of a syllable structure in terms of C and V (canonical
forms) gives rather numerous combinations which can be grouped into 4
structural types of syllables:
1. Fully open V e.g. are, or.
2. Fully closed (V between C) CVC fat CCVC place CVCC fact CCCVC
street CVCCC facts CVCCCC sixths [siksθs].
3. Covered at the beginning (one C or a sequence of C precede a vowel)
CV too CCV spy CCCV straw.
4. Covered at the end (one C or more complete the syllable) VC on VCC
act VCCC acts.
Structurally, the commonest types of the syllable in English are VC; CVC.
CV is considered to be the universal structure. CV syllabic types constitute more
than half of all structural types in Ukrainian. The characteristic feature of English
is monosyllabism: it contains between four and five thousand monosyllabic words.
Most of the words of old English origin is of one syllable, he limit for the number
of syllables in a word in English is 8, e.g. incomprehensibility.
Syllables can be also designated:
1. by the position in the word: from the beginning – INITIAL
(початковий), MEDIAL (серединний), FINAL (фінальний / кінцевий) or from
the end – ULTIMATE (останній), PENULTIMATE (передостанній / другий від
кінця), ANTEPENULTIMATE (третій від кінця);
2. by the position in relation to stress: PRETONIC (переднаголошений),
TONIC (наголошений), POSTTONIC (післянаголошений). Any syllable which
is not tonic is ATONIC/ненаголошений. e.g. tre - men - dous initial medial final
antepenultimate penultimate ultimate pretonic tonic posttonic.
Syllabic structure of a language like its phonemic structure is patterned,
which means that the sounds of language can be grouped into syllables according
to certain rules. The part of phonetics that deals with this aspect of a language is
called phonotactics. Phonotactic possibilities of a language determine the rules of
syllable division. Each syllable contains exactly one vowel. This vowel may be
preceded or followed bу one or more consonants. The vowel itself may be a short
vowel, a long vowel or a diphthong; or if it is the weak vowel [ə], it may be
combined with a nasal [n], [m] or [l] to give a syllabic consonant.
The division of a word into syllables is called syllabification. The question
of syllabification in English is controversial: different phoneticians hold different
views about it. It is generally agreed that phonetic syllable divisions must be such
as to avoid (as far as possible) creating consonant clusters which are not found in
words in isolation [Wells 2000]. Thus it may be argued that candy should be
['kæn- dI] or ['kænd-I] but not ['kæ-ndI] since [nd] is not a possible initial
consonant cluster in English. This principle is called the phonotactic constraint
(фонотактичне обмеження) on syllabification. Syllable divisions in Longman
Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD) by J. C. Wells are shown by spacing, e.g.
playtime /'plei taim/. In English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD) by Daniel Jones-
Alfred Ch. Gimson, Peter Roach, syllable division is marked with a dot – [.] as
recommended bу the International Phonetic Association (the IPA), e.g. admirable
['æd.mər. ə.bl].
The following rules of phonetic (spoken) syllable division are adopted in
LPD:
1. A syllable boundary is found wherever there is a word boundary, and also
coincides with the morphological boundary between elements in a compound:
displace [,dis 'pleis] become [bi 'к٨m] countless ['kaunt ləs] hardware ['ha:d
weə] CVC-CSVC CV-CVS CVSC-SVC CVC-SV
2. Consonants are syllabified with whichever of the two adjacent vowels is
more strongly stressed, e.g. farmer ['fa:m ə], agenda [ə 'ʤəndə]. It they are both
unstressed, it goes with the leftward one: e.g. cinema ['sin əm ə], deliberate
[di'lib ər ət].
3. The English diphthongs are unisyllabic, they make one vowel phoneme,
while the so-called triphthongs are disyllabic, because they consist of a diphthong
+ the neutral vowel/schwa: table [teı-bl], science [saı-ǝns], flower [flau-ǝ] CV-CS
CV-VSC CSV-V.
4. The English affricates [ʧ], [ʤ] cannot be split: catching ['kæʧ-iŋ].
Sometimes a syllable consists phonetically only of a consonant or
consonants. If so, a consonant (or one of them) is nasal (usually [n]) or a sonant
(usually [1] or [r] in AmE). For instance, in the usual pronunciation of suddenly
['s٨d n li]. Such a consonant is a syllabic consonant. The IPA provides a special
diacritic [.] to show syllabicity, thus syllabic consonants may be shown [ṇ] [ḷ].
Instead of a syllabic consonant, it is possible to pronounce a vowel [ə] plus a
consonant. Thus it is possible though not usual to say ['s٨d ən lI]. Likely syllabic
consonants are shown in LPD with the raised symbol [ə], thus ['s٨d ə n lI]: a
raised symbol indicates a sound whose inclusion LPD does not recommend, hence
this notation implies that LPD prefers bare [n] in the second syllable. Syllabic
consonants are also sometimes used where LPD shows italic [ə] plus a nasal or a
liquid, e.g. distant ['dIst fnt/. Although there is a possible pronunciation ['dist nt],
LPD recommends ['dist ənt]. When followed by a weak vowel, a syllabic
consonant may lose its syllabic quality, becoming a plain non-syllabic consonant,
e.g. threatening ['θret əníŋ] may be pronounced with three syllables including
syllabic [ṇ]: ['θret ṇ Iŋ] or compressed into two syllables with plain [n]: ['θret
niŋ].
EPD adds the following recommendations as for the syllabification of
syllabic consonants:
1. In case of [1] corresponding to the "-le" spelling form, preceded by any
plosive or homorganic fricative as in bottle, wrestle, it is not felt to be acceptable
in BBC/RP pronunciation to pronounce this with a vowel in the second syllable,
and therefore [1] is marked as syllabic: bottle ['bɔt.ḷ], cycle ['saik.ḷ]. Where a
word carries a suffix with the initial vowel, as in bottling, cycling, two variants are
possible ['bɔt.l .iŋ] and ['bɔt.liŋ].
2. Syllabic nasals are not usual where they would result in a nasal -plosive-
syllabic consonant sequence, e.g. London, abandon must contain a schwa vowel
in the final syllable: /'l٨n.dən/. Phonetic (spoken) syllables must not be confused
with orthographic (written) syllables. An orthographic syllable is a group of letters
in spelling [Wells 2000: 758]. Syllables in writing are also called syllabographs.
When a word is split across two lines of writing, it should be broken at an
orthographic syllable boundary. A most GENERAL RULE claims that division of
words into syllables in writing is passed on the morphological principle which
demands that the part of a word which is separated should be either a prefix, or a
suffix or a root (morphograph), e.g. pic- ture ['pik ʧə].
Compound words can be divided according to their meaning: hot-dog; spot-
light. It is not possible to divide a word within a phonetic syllable: A suffix of
TWO syllables such as -ABLE, -ABLY, -FULLY cannot be divided in writing,
e.g. reli-able, lov-ably, beauti-fully. If there are two or three consonants before -
NG, these consonants may be separated in writing: gras-ping, puz-zling. With the
exception of -LY, a word cannot be divided so that an ending of two letters such as
-ED, -ER, -IС begins the next line, e.g. worked, teacher, hectic, BUT: cold-ly,
bold-ly.
A word of ONE phonetic syllable, a word of less than FIVE letters cannot be
divided into syllabographs, e.g. piece [pi:s], time [taim].
Now we shall consider three very important functions of the syllable.
1) The first function is known to be the constitutive function
(конститутивна функція) of the syllable. It lies in its ability to be a part of a word
or a word itself. The syllable forms language units of greater magnitude, that is
words, morphemes and utterances.
2) The other function of the syllable is its distinctive function
(смислорозрізнювальна / дистинктивна функція). In this respect the syllable is
characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms. So far only one
minimal pair has been found in English to illustrate the word distinctive function in
the syllable, that is ['nai-treit] nitrate – ['nait-reit] night-rate.
3) The third function of the syllable is the identificatory function
(ідентифікативна функція): the listener can understand the exact meaning of the
utterance only when the correct syllabic boundary is perceived.
an aim — a name; mice kill — my skill; an ice house — a nice house;
peace talks — pea stalks; plate rack — play track.
Sometimes the difference in syllabic division might be the basic ground for
differentiation sentences in such minimal pairs as: I saw her eyes. — I saw her
rise. I saw the meat. — I saw them eat.
 LECTURE 5
ACCENTUAL STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
1. The nature of stress
2. Degrees of word stress
3. Stress location in words
4. Functions of word stress
5. The problem of compound nouns
6. Common stress patterns of polysyllabic simple words

1. The nature of stress

In this lecture we shall focus our attention on the accentual patterns of
English words. The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced
identically. The syllable or syllables which are uttered with more prominence than
the other syllables of the word are said to be stressed or accented. The correlation
of varying prominences of syllables in a word is understood as the accentual
structure of the word or its stress pattern.
It would be perfectly natural to begin with the nature of word stress. Stress
in the isolated word is termed word stress; stress in connected speech is termed
sentence stress. Stress is defined differently by different authors. B.A.
Bogoroditsky, for instance, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied
by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity. D. Jones defined stress as the
degree of force, which is accompanied by a strong force of exhalation and gives an
impression of loudness. H. Sweet also stated that stress, is connected with the force
of breath. According to A.C.Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any
or all of four factors: force, tone, length and vowel type.
If we compare stressed and unstressed syllables in the words contract
['kσntrækt], to contract [kən'trækt], we may note that in the stressed syllable:
(a) the force is greater, which is connected with more energetic articulation;
(b) the pitch of voice is higher, which is connected with stronger tenseness of the
vocal cords and the walls of the resonance chamber;
(c) the quantity of the vowel [æ] in [kən'trækt] is greater, the vowel becomes
longer;
(d) the quality of the vowel [æ] in the stressed syllable is different from the quality
of this vowel in the unstressed position, in which it is more narrow than ['æ].
On the auditory level a stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a
special prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length, modifications
in the pitch and quality. The physical correlates are: intensity, duration, frequency
and the formant structure. All these features can be analyzed on the acoustic level.
Word stress can be defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in a word,
which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice,
qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound, which is usually a vowel.
In different languages one of the factors constituting word stress is usually more
significant than the others. According to the most important feature different types,
of word stress are distinguished in different languages.
1) If special prominence in a stressed syllable or syllables is achieved mainly
through the intensity of articulation, such type of stress is called dynamic, or force
stress.
2) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the
change of pitch, or musical tone, such accent is called musical, or tonic. It is
characteristic of the Japanese, Korean and other oriental languages.
3) If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved through the changes in
the quantity of the vowels, which are longer in the stressed syllables than in the
unstressed ones, such type of stress is called quantitative.
4) Qualitative type of stress is achieved through the changes in the quality of the
vowel under stress.
English word stress is traditionally defined as dynamic. The dynamic stress
implies greater force with which the syllable is pronounced. In other words in the
articulation of the stressed syllable greater muscular energy is produced by the
speaker. European languages such as English, German, French, Ukrainian are
believed to possess predominantly dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian
languages the word stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical. The
musical (or tonic) word stress is observed in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese. It is
effected by the variations of voice pitch in relation to neighbouring syllables. In
Chinese the sound sequence chu pronounced with the level tone means "pig", with
the rising tone — "bamboo", with the falling tone — "to live".
Languages are also differentiated according to the placement of word
stress.The traditional classification of languages concerning place of stress in a
word is into those with a fixed stress and those with a free stress. In languages
with a fixed stress the occurrence of the word stress is limited to a particular
syllable in a multisyllabic word. For instance, in French the stress falls on the last
syllable of the word (if pronounced in isolation), in Finnish and Czech it is fixed
on the first syllable, in Polish on the one but last syllable.
In languages with a free stress its place is not confined to a specific position
in the word. In one word it may fall on the first syllable, in another on the second
syllable, in the third word — on the last syllable, etc.
e.g. 'appetite — be'ginning
The word siress in English is not only free but it may also be shifting,
performing the semantic function of differentiating lexical units, parts of speech,
grammatical forms, e.g.
'contrast — con'trast
'habit — ha'bitual 'music — mu'sician

2. Degrees of word stress

There are actually as many degrees of stress in a word as there are syllables.
A.C.Gimson, for example, shows the distribution of the
32 415
 degrees of stress in the word examination. The opinions of phoneticians
differ as to how many degrees of stress are linguistically relevant in a word. The
British linguists usually distinguish three degrees of stress in the word. The
primary stress is the strongest, it is marked by number 1 in the,
word examination, the secondary stress is the second strongest marked by 2. All
the other degrees are termed weak stress. Unstressed syllables are supposed to
have weak stress.
The American scholars B.Bloch and G.Trager find four contrastive degrees
of word stress, namely: loud, reduced loud, medial and weak stresses. Other
American linguists also distinguish four degrees of word stress but term them:
primary stress, secondary stress, tertiary stress and weak stress. The difference
between the secondary and tertiary stresses is very subtle and seems subjective.
British linguists do not always deny the existence of tertiary stress as a tendency
to use a tertiary stress on a post-tonic syllable in RP is also traced. However, the
British conception of three degrees of word stress is accepted as the teaching
norm.

3. Stress location in words

Unlike languages with a fixed stress, English word stress is so difficult to
predict that foreign learners are advised to learn it when the word itself is learned.
However, there can be some general rules, or rather tendencies, of stress location
in the words if we take into account the following factors:
a) morphology of the word, that is whether it is simple (not composed of
more than one grammatical unit), complex (containing one or more affixes), or a
compound word;
b) the grammatical category of a word: noun, verb, adjective, etc.;
c) the number of syllables in a word;
d) the phonological structure of these syllables.
In terms of prof. Vassilyev the factors which determine the location of stress
in English words are: recessive, rhythmic, retentive and semantic.
The first and the oldest of the English lexical stress tendencies
(characteristic of all Germanic languages) known as recessive originally consists
in placing lexical stress on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives and verbs
derived from them, and on the root syllable of words which belong to other parts of
speech and have a prefix. In most cases prefixes lose their referential meaning
since then, with the result that recessive stress in present-day English is two-fold:
1) unrestricted: when stress falls on the initial syllable, provided it is not a
prefix which has no referential meaning. A great majority of native English words
of Germanic origin are stressed this way: 'father, 'mother, 'husband, 'yellow,
'hammer. Even words of French and other languages, which have been
assimilated phonologically, follow the Germanic word stress pattern: 'foreign,
'picture, 'purple, 'reason, 'doctor.
 2) restricted: when stress falls on the root of the native English words with a
prefix which has no referential meaning now: a'mong, be'come, for'get, etc.
By far and most English is characterized as a language of short words of
two-three syllables, hence the development of the so-called rhythmic tendency
which results in the alternate use of stressed and unstressed syllables. Borrowed
polysyllabic words developed a secondary stress on the syllable separated from the
word-final primary stress by one unstressed syllable. These words, pronounced in
isolation, follow the model of short phrases in which a stressed syllable alternates
with an unstressed one. For example, pronunciation ∙ • ∙ • ∙
The retentive tendency consists in the retention of the primary stress on the
parent word: 'person – 'personal, while in other derivatives from the same root it
may be shifted: perso'nality.
There are certain words in English the stressing of which is determined by
the semantic factor, e.g. compound words and words with the so-called separable
prefixes. The majority of such words have two equally strong stresses, both
stressed parts considered to be of equal semantic importance: 'hard-'hearted,
'blue-'eyed, 'put 'on, 'take 'off, 'fif'teen, 'six'teen.
The rhythmic tendency works only in connected speech: it is impossible to
have three or even more stressed syllables in succession, the alteration of stressed
syllables in succession, the alteration of stressed-unstressed syllable rule demands
one stress to drop. For example, 'bad-'tempered, but a 'bad-tempered 'teacher.
So, stress is not always fixed and unchangeable in English words. One
reason has been mentioned in the previous paragraphs and another is that not all
English speakers agree on the stress location in some words. A well-known
example is the word controversy, which is pronounced by some speakers as • ∙ ∙ ∙
and by others ∙ • ∙ ∙. It would not be quite wrong to say that one version is correct
and one incorrect. Other examples of different possibilities are kilometer,
formidable: • ∙ ∙ ∙ and ∙ • ∙ ∙.
Conclusion: word stress in English can be discussed from two positions; one
is that stress is not predictable by rule and must be learned word by word, and the
second suggests following the general and numerous tendencies of stress location.

4. Functions of word stress

So in a speech chain the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional
characteristics connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence
stress falls on the syllable marked by the word stress it is not realized in the
stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within speech continuum.
Since the spheres of word stress and sentence stress fall apart their functions are
actually different. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps
to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern, performs its distinctive function on
the level of a phrase. In discussing accentual structure of English words we should
turn now to the functional aspect of word stress. Word stress in a language
performs several functions.
 1) Word stress constitutes a word, it organizes the syllables of a word into a
language unit having a definite accentual structure, that is a pattern of relationship
among the syllables; a word does not exist without the word stress. Thus the word
stress performs the constitutive function. Sound continuum becomes a phrase
when it is divided into units organized by word stress into words.
2) Word stress enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a
definite accentual pattern of a word. This function of word stress is known as
identifying (or recognitive). Correct accentuation helps the listener to make the
process of communication easier, whereas the distorted accentual pattern of
words, misplaced word stresses prevent normal understanding.
3) Word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meaning of words or
their forms, thus performing its distinctive function. The accentual patterns of
words or the degrees of word stress and their positions form oppositions,
e.g. 'import— im'port, 'billow — below.
4) The data on fixed stress locations suggest that stress most commonly
marks the end or the beginning of a word, and therefore signals the end of the
word. This function is called demarcative.
5) Stress also has a syntactic function in distinguishing between a
compound noun, such as a 'hotdog (fast food), and an adjective followed by a
noun, as in the phrase a 'hot 'dog (an overheated animal). Compound nouns have a
single stress on the first element, and the adjective plus noun phrases have stress
on both elements.

5. The problem of compound nouns

The main characteristic of a compound noun is that it can be analyzed into
two words, both of which can exist independently as English words. (There are
also compounds which are made of more than two words.) Compound nouns
bring about some uncertainty. For example, it could be argued that photograph
may be divided into two independent words, photo and graph, yet we usually do
not regard it as a compound, but as an affix word.
Compounds are written in different ways, sometimes they are written as
one word, e.g. armchair, sunflower, sometimes with the words separated by a
hyphen, e.g. gear-change, fruit-cake, and sometimes with two words separated
by a space, e.g. desk lamp, battery charger. In the last case there is no indication
to the foreign learner that the pair of words is to be treated as a compound. There
is no clear dividing line between two-word compounds and pairs of words that
occur together, hence the problem of the stress location.
Perhaps the most familiar type of compounds is the one which combines
two nouns, and normally has the stress on the first element: 'typewriter, 'car-
ferry, 'sunrise, 'suitcase, 'tea-cup, 'paperback. Some compounds receive a
stress on the second element and the –ed morpheme as a second: heavy-'handed,
bad-'tempered. Compounds with the initial element a number have the second
element stressed: second-'class, second-'hand, three-'wheeler.
Most place names have double stress: ̗Notting 'Hill, ̗New 'York, ̗Silicon
'Valley, ̗Trafalgar 'Square, ̗Fifth 'Avenue. Exception makes a road name ending
in Street: e.g. 'Park Street.
Stress patterns of compounds in British and American English may vary. For
example, Adam’s 'apple (Br) and 'Adam’s apple (Am), peanut 'butter (Br) and
'peanut butter (Am); 'season ticket (Br) and season 'ticket (Am).
The stress in affix words (those with prefixes and suffixes) present some
difficulties, insofar many of them are of a foreign origin. For example, Latin
prefixes per-, sub-, com- produce such words as permit, submit, commit with the
stress on the stem. Greek has given the English language catalogue, analogue,
dialogue, monologue, in which the prefixes cata-, ana- dia-, mono- are stress-
carrying.
Suffixes, being unstressed in most cases, may carry primary stress
themselves: -ain (enter'tain), -ee (refu'gee), -eer (mountai'neer), -ese
(Portu'guese), -ette (ciga'rette), -esque (Pictu'resque) and others.

6. Common stress patterns of polysyllabic simple words

Since certain syllables of a word are more prominent than the others, it may
be said that a word has a characteristic accentual or rhythmic pattern. This pattern
is as much a part of a word’s identity as its sound sequence, although it may be
somewhat modified in a longer utterance due to the intonation and rhythm of the
sentence. Here is the selection of common stress patterns:
1 – '2 idea, canteen, unknown
'1 – 2 over, valley, table
'1 – 2 – 3 wonderful, yesterday, bachelor
1 – '2 – 3 suspicious, important, relation
1 – 2 – '3 engineer, cigarette, magazine
'1 – 2 – 3 – 4 melancholy, criticism, caterpillar
1 – '2 – 3 – 4 phonology, rhinoceros, unfortunate
1 – 2 – '3 – 4 scientific, circulation, diplomatic
'1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 Protestantism
1 – '2 – 3 – 4 – 5 Catholicism, administrative
̗1 – 2 – '3 – 4 – 5 possibility, satisfactory, aristocracy
̗1 – 2 – 3 – '4 – 5 characteristic, interdependence
1 – ̗2 –3 – '4 – 5 affiliation, consideration
̗1 – 2 – '3 – 4 – 5 – 6 transformationally, uncooperative
 ̗1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – '5 – 6 characterization, palatalization
1 – ̗2 – 3 – '4 – 5 – 6 personification, identification
̗1 – 2 – '3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 unilateralism
̗1 – 2 –̗ 3 – 4 – '5 – 6 – 7 unrealiability
1 – ̗2 – 3 – '4 – 5 – 6 – 7 enthusiastically
1 – ̗2 –3 – 4 – 5 – '6 – 7 industrialization
1 – ̗2 –3 – 4 – '5 – 6 – 7 impenetrability
̗1 – 2 –̗̗ 3 – 4 –5 – 6 – '7 – 8 internationalization
Ukrainian polysyllabic words, as a rule, receive one primary stress:
педагогічний, багатобічний, мелодійність.
 LECTURE 6
PRONUNCIATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS IN CONNECTED
SPEECH. SOUND ALTERNATIONS
1. The stages of articulation of a speech-sound.
2. The types of junction of speech sounds.
3. Assimilation, types of assimilation.
4. Accommodation.
5. Elision.
6. Reduction of vowels, types of reduction.
7. Linking.

1. The stages of articulation of a speech-sound. We have studied vowels

and consonants as individual units. But language in everyday use is not conducted
in terms of isolated, separate units, in words, phrases and longer utterances. There
are actually some remarkable differences between the pronunciation of a word in
isolation and of the same word in connected speech. As you may know from the
practical course of phonetics, speech sounds influence each other in the flow of
speech. Sounds are joined together in specific types of junction to master which it
is necessary to understand the mechanism of joining sounds together. This
mechanism can only be understood after analyzing the stages in the articulation of
a speech-sound pronounced in isolation.
Every speech-sound pronounced in isolation has three stages of articulation.
They are 1) the on-glide, or the initial stage; 2) the retention stage, or the medial
stage, and 3) the off-glide (release), or the final stage.
The on-glide, or the beginning of a sound, is a stage during which the organs
of speech move away from a neutral position to take up the position necessary for
the pronunciation of a consonant or a vowel. The on-glide produces no audible
sound.
The retention stage, or the middle of a sound, is the stage during which the
organs of speech are kept for some time either in the same position necessary to
pronounce the sound (in the case of non-complex sounds) or move from one
position to another (within complex sounds such as diphthongoids, diphthongs and
affricates). For the retention stage of a stop consonant the term stop-stage may also
be used.
The off-glide, or the end of a sound, is the stage during which the organs of
speech move away to a neutral position. The off-glide of most sounds is not
audible, the exception being plosives whose off-glide produces the sound of
plosion before a vowel and in a word-final position before a pause.
If we pronounce a sequence of sounds one after another separately, i.e. if we
pronounce each of them with all the three stages of articulation, the sounds do not
form a word, because the organs of speech move away to a neutral position at the
end of each sound, e.g. [p], [a:], [t].
 2. The types of junction of speech sounds. In English there are two
principal ways of linking two adjacent speech sounds: 1) merging of stages; 2)
interpenetration of stages.
The type of junction depends on the nature of the sounds that are joined
together. As all English sounds come under the classification of consonants and
vowels we may speak of joining:
a) a consonant to a following vowel (C + V), as in the word [mi:] me;
b) a vowel to a following consonant (V + C), as in the word [ɔn] on;
c) two consonants (C + C), as in the word [blǝu] blow;
d) two vowels (V + V), as in the word [ri:'ælıtı] reality.
Merging of stages, as compared with interpenetration of stages, is a simpler
and looser way of joining sounds together. It usually takes place if two adjacent
sounds of different nature are joined together. In this case the end of the preceding
sound penetrates into the beginning of the following sound. In other words, the end
of the first sound and the beginning of the second are articulated almost
simultaneously. Thus, during the merging of stages, some organs of speech move
away from the position taken up for the pronunciation of the first sound and others
move to take up the position necessary for the articulation of the second sound, e.g.
part.

Interpenetration of stages usually takes place when consonants of a similar

or identical nature are joined. In this case the end of the first sound penetrates not
only into the beginning but also into the middle part of the second sound, as in
[ækt] act, [begd] begged. In the pronunciation of [-kt], [-gd] the organs of speech
move away already in the middle of the first sound to take up the position
necessary to pronounce the second sound. Two adjacent dental sounds with
different manner of production of noise are linked by interpenetration of stages as
in [ın ðǝ] in the, [mɅnθ] month, [æt ðǝ] at the. In the pronunciation of [nð], [nθ],
[tð], [lð] the organs of speech, moving away to take up the position necessary to
pronounce the first sound, are already partly preparing for the pronunciation of the
second, as both of them are dental.

As a result of the intercourse between consonants and vowels and within

each class there appear such processes of connected speech as assimilation,
accommodation, vowel reduction and elision which is sometimes termed
deletion.
3. Assimilation. Two adjacent consonants within a word or at a word
boundary often influence each other in such a way that the articulation of one
sound becomes similar to or even identical with the articulation of the other one.
this phenomenon is called assimilation. In assimilation the consonant whose
articulation is modified under the influence of a neighbouring consonant is called
the assimilated sound; the consonant which influences the articulation of a
neighbouring consonant is called the assimilating sound. The term assimilation
may also be extended to include cases when two adjacent consonants so influence
each other as to give place to a single new sound different from either of them.
Assimilation may be of three degrees: complete, partial and intermediate.
It is said to be complete when the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully
coincides with that of the assimilating one. For example, in the word horse-shoe
[hɔ:ʃ ʃu:] which is a compound of the words horse [hɔ:s] and [ʃu:], [s] in the word
[hɔ:s] was changed to [ʃ] under the influence of [ʃ] in the word [ʃu:].
Assimilation is said to be partial when the assimilated consonant retains its
main phonemic features and becomes only partly similar in some feature of its
articulation to the assimilating sound. For example, in twice [twais], please [pli:z],
try [trai], the principal fully voiced variants of phonemes [w], [l], [r] are replaced
by their partly devoiced variants, while their main phonemic features are retained.
The degree of assimilation is said to be intermediate between complete and
partial when the assimilated consonant changes into a different sound, but does not
coincide with the assimilating consonant. Examples of intermediate assimilation
are gooseberry ['gu:zberı], where [s] in goose [gu:s] is replaced by [z] under the
influence of [b] in berry; congress ['kɔŋgres], where [n] is replaced by [ŋ] under
the influence of [g].
Assimilation may be of three types as far as its direction is concerned:
progressive, regressive and double.
In progressive assimilation the assimilated sound is influenced by the
preceding consonant. This can be represented by the formula A→ B, where A is
the assimilating consonant, and B – the assimilated consonant. In What’s this?
[wɔts ðıs] [z] is replaced by [s] under the influence of [t].
In regressive assimilation the preceding consonant is influenced by the one
following it (A←B). For example, the voiced consonant [z] in news [nju:z] is
replaced by the voiceless consonant [s] in the compound newspaper [nju:speipǝ]
under the influence of the voiceless sound [p].
In reciprocal, or double, assimilation two adjacent consonants influence
each other. For example, twenty ['twentı], quick [kwık] the sonorant [w] is
assimilated to the voiceless plosive consonants [t] and [k] respectively by
becoming partly devoiced. In their turn, [t] and [k] are assimilated to [w] and are
represented by their labialized variants.
If the present-day pronunciation of a word is the result of an assimilation
which took place at an earlier stage in the history of the language we have the so-
called historical assimilation. For example, reciprocal assimilation which took
place in the combinations [sj], [zj], [tj] changed them into [ʃ], [Ʒ], [tʃ] respectively,
e.g. occasion [ǝ'keiƷǝn] from [ǝ'kæzjon], picture ['pıktʃǝ] from [pıktjur], nation
['neiʃn] from ['næsjon]. The existence of two pronunciations of the word issue
['ısju:] and ['ıʃju:] shows that assimilations of this type are still going on in the
English language.
In the pronunciation of such compounds as horse-shoe [hɔ:ʃ ʃu:],
gooseberry ['guzber], at word boundaries such as does she [dɅʃ ʃi:], used to
[ju:st tu], we have contextual assimilations. In contextual assimilations a word
comes to have a pronunciation different from that which it has when said by itself.
The manner of articulation is also changed as a result of assimilation, which
may be illustrated as follows:
1. Loss of plosion. In the sequence of two plosive consonants the former
loses its plosion: glad to see you, great trouble, and old clock (partial regressive
assimilaton).
2. Nasal plosion. In the sequence of a plosive followed by a nasal consonant
the manner of articulation of the plosive sound and the work of the soft palate are
involved, which results in the nasal character of plosion release: “sudden”,
“table”, “at last” (partial regressive assimilation).
3. Lateral plosion. In the sequence of a plosive followed by the lateral
sonorant [l] the noise production of the plosive stop is changed into that of the
lateral stop: “settle”, “table”, “at last” (partial regressive assimilation). It is
obvious that in each of the occasion one characteristic feature of the phoneme is
lost.
The voicing value of a consonant may also change through assimilation.
This type of assimilation affects the work of the vocal cords and the force of
articulation. In particular voiced sounds become voiceless when followed by
another voiceless sound, e.g. voiceless / voiced type of assimilation is best
manifested by the regressive assimilation in such words as newspaper (news [z] +
paper); gooseberry (goose [s] + berry).
4. Accommodation. While by assimilation we mean a modification in the
articulation of a consonant under the influence of a neighbouring consonant, the
modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent
consonant under the influence of an adjacent vowel is called adaptation, or
accommodation.
In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its main
phonemic features and is pronounced as a variant of the same phoneme slightly
modified under the influence of a neighbouring sound. In ME there are three main
types of accommodation.
1) An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its rounded
variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme, as at the
beginning of the following words: [ti:] tea – [tu:] too. This type of
accommodation presents labialization of consonants. Some other examples pool,
moon, who, cool. It is also possible to speak about the spread lip position of
consonants followed or preceded by front vowels [i:], [ı]. E.g. tea – beat; meet –
team.
 2) A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its slightly
advanced (fronted) variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual
phoneme [j]: ['mju:zik] music.
3) A vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before
the dark [l] under the influence of the latter’s back secondary focus. Thus the
vowel sound in bell, tell is slightly more open than the vowel in bed, ten ([bel] –
[bed], [tel] – [ten]).
The position of the soft palate is also involved in the accommodation.
Slight nasalization as the result of prolonged lowering of the soft palate is
sometimes traced in vowels under the influence of the neighbouring sonants [m]
and [n], e.g. and, morning, men, come in (accommodation).
Palatalization of consonants is such a phenomenon when the front of the
tongue is raised to the hard palate additionally to the main articulation of the
phoneme. It is not a characteristic feature of English consonants. Only such
consonants as [ʃ], [Ʒ], [tʃ], [dƷ] are palatal ones. English consonants are always
hard before [i:]. In the Ukrainian language palatalization is an important feature of
consonant phonemes, which stand before front vowels: e.g. літо [л’іто], міст
[м’іст].
5. Elision. In rapid colloquial speech certain words may lose some of their
sounds (vowels and consonants). This phenomenon is called elision. It marks the
following sounds:
1. Loss of [h] in personal and possessive pronouns he, his, her, him and the
forms of the auxiliary verb have, has, had is widespread, e.g. What has he done?
[wɔt ǝz ı dɅn].
2. [l] tends to be lost when preceded by [ɔ:], e.g. always ['ɔ:wız], ['ɔ:redı],
all right [ɔ: 'rait].
3. Alveolar plosives are often elided in case the cluster is followed by
another consonant, e.g. next day [nekst dei] – [neks dei], just one [dƷɅst wɅn] –
[dƷɅs wɅn]. If a vowel follows, the consonant remains, e.g. first of all, passed in
time. Whole syllables may be elided in rapid speech: library ['laibri], literary
['litri].
Examples of historical elision are also known. They are initial consonants in
write, know, knight, the medial consonant [t] in fasten, listen, castle.
6. Reduction of vowels, types of reduction. The modifications of vowels in
a speech chain are traced in the following directions: they are either quantitative or
qualitative or both. These changes of vowels in a speech continuum are determined
by a number of factors such as the position of the vowel in the word, accentual
structure, tempo of speech, rhythm, etc. The change of quality and quantity of
vowels in connected speech is called reduction.
The decrease of the vowel quantity or in other words the shortening of the
vowel length is known as a quantitative reduction of vowels, which may be
illustrated as follows: you [ju:] – [ju∙] – [ju], he [hi:] – [hi∙] – [hi].
The length of a vowel depends on its position in a word. It varies in different
phonetic environments. English vowels are said to have positional length, e.g. knee
– need – neat. The vowel [i:] is the longest in the final position, it is shorter before
the voiced consonant [d], and it is the shortest before the voiceless consonant [t].
Qualitative reduction of most vowels occurs in unstressed positions.
Unstressed vowels lose their “colour”, their quality, which is illustrated by the
examples below:
1. In unstressed syllable vowels of full value are usually subjected to
qualitative changes, e.g. man [mæn] – sportsman ['spɔ:tsmǝn], conduct
['kɔndǝkt] – [kǝn'dɅkt]. In such cases the quality of the vowel is reduced to the
neutral sound [ǝ]. The neutral sound [ǝ] is the most frequent sound of English. In
continuous text it represents about 11% of all sounds. This high frequency of [ǝ] is
the result of the rhythmic pattern: if unstressed syllables are given only a short
duration, the vowel in them which might be otherwise full is reduced. It is a
common knowledge that English rhythm prefers a pattern in which stressed
syllables alternate with unstressed ones.
2. Slight degree of nasalization marks vowels preceded or followed by the
nasal consonants [n], [m], e.g. “never”, “no”, “then”, “men” (accommodation).
The realization of reduction as well as assimilation and accommodation is
connected with the style of speech. In rapid colloquial speech reduction may result
in vowel elision, the complete omission of the unstressed vowel, which is also
known as zero reduction. Zero reduction is likely to occur in a sequence of
unstressed syllables, e.g. history, factory, literature, territory. It often occurs in
initial unstressed syllables preceding the stressed one, e.g. correct, believe,
suppose, perhaps.
7. Linking. Unlike mechanical speech, words in connected speech link
together to make speech run more smoothly. Usually it is the case of linking r
when a word with a final r is followed by a word which begins with a vowel. For
example, in the sentence Over a quarter of a year has passed linking r appears in
Over a and quarter of but not in year has.
Other frequent instances of linking r may be: thanks for everything [fǝr],
my father and mother ['fa:ðǝr], the weather ought to improve ['weðǝr], here
and there [hıǝr], I don’t care if they do ['kɛǝr], the door opened ['dɔ:r].
Many native speakers use r in a similar way to link words with a vowel even
when there is no “justification” from the spelling. This is called intrusive r as in
the examples:
India(r) and Pakistan
Media(r) interest
Law(r) and order
Flaw(r) in the argument
Formula(r) A
By the way, BBC announcers and teachers of English regard intrusive r as
incorrect or substandard pronunciation, but despite ferocious criticism it is
undoubtedly spread.
A great care should be taken as to the proper pronunciation of the stressed,
aspirated, long and reduced sounds to be able to make adequate boundaries
between words. The following examples illustrate variants of word boundaries:
 A name – an aim (prolonged n – short n)
That stuff – that’s tough (unaspirated t – aspirated t)
The waiter cut it – the way to cut it (reduced ei – prolonged ei)
I scream – ice-cream (prolonged ai – reduced ai)
White shoes – why choose (reduced ai – prolonged ai)
An essential part in acquiring fluency in English is learning to produce
connected speech without gaps between words, and this is the practical importance
of linking as well as elision, assimilation being of much less importance.
 LECTURE 9
PROBLEMS OF PHONOSTYLISTICS

1. Phonetic peculiarities of style.

2. Style-forming factors.
3. Style-modifying factors.
4. Classifying phonetic styles.
1. Phonetic Peculiarities of Style.
Pronunciation is by no means homogeneous. It varies under the influence of
numerous factors. These factors lie quite outside any possibility of signalling
linguistic meaning so it is appropriate to refer to these factors as extralinguistic.
Information about stylistic variations in learning, understanding and producing
language is directly useful for the design, execution and evaluation of teaching
phonetics. The branch of phonetics most usually applied for such information is
phonostylistics. Much of what people say depends directly or indirectly on the
situation they are in. There are regular patterns of variation in language, or, in other
words, language means which constitute any utterance and are characterized by a
certain pattern of selection and arrangement. The principles of this selection and
arrangement, the ways of combining the elements form what is called the style.
Style integrates language means constructing the utterance, and at the same
time differentiates one utterance from another. The branch of linguistics that is
primarily concerned with the problems of functional styles is called functional
stylistics. Stylistics is usually regarded as a specific division of linguistics, as a
sister science, concerned not with the elements of the language as such but with
their expressive potential. A functional style can be defined as a functional set of
formal patterns into which language means are arranged in order to transmit
information. A considerable number of attempts have been made in recent years to
work out a classification of functional styles. But in spite of this fact, there is no
universal classification that is admitted by all analysts. Language as a means of
communication is known to have several functions. In the well-known conception
suggested by academician V.V. Vinogradov three functions are distinguished: the
function of communication (colloquial style), the function of informing
(business, official and scientific styles) and the emotive function (publicistic style
and the belles-lettres style).
Certain nonlinguistic features can be correlated with variations in language
use. The latter can be studied on three levels: phonetic, lexical and grammatical.
The first level is the area of phonostylistics. Phonostylistics studies the way
phonetic means are used in this or that particular situation which is influenced by a
set of factors which are referred to as extralinguistic. The aim of phonostylistics is
to analyse all possible kinds of spoken utterances with the main purpose of
identifying the phonetic features, both segmental and suprasegmental, which are
restricted to certain kinds of contexts, to explain why such features have been used
and to classify them into categories based upon a view of their function.
 2. Style-Forming Factors.
Before describing phonetic style-forming factors it is obviously necessary to
try to explain what is meant by extralinguistic situation. It can be defined by three
components, that is purpose, participants, setting. These components distinguish
situation as the context within which interaction (communication) occurs. Thus a
speech situation can be defined by the cooccurrence of two or more interlocutors
related to each other in a particular way, having a particular aim of communicating
about a particular topic in a particular setting. Purpose is interlinked with the other
two components in a very intricate way. The purpose directs the activities of the
participants throughout a situation to complete a task. There appear to be a
considerable number of quite general types of activities, for example: working,
teaching, learning, conducting a meeting, chatting, playing a game, etc. Such
activity types are socially recognized as units of interaction that are identifiable. It
should be noted that activity type alone does not give an adequate account of the
purpose in a situation.
Another component of situation is participants. Speech varies with
participants in numerous ways. It is a marker of various characteristics of the
individual speakers as well as of relationships between participants. Characteristics
of individuals may be divided into those which appear to characterize the
individual as an individual and those which characterize the individual as a
member of a significant social grouping. When Dr. Smith, for instance, talks like a
doctor and not like a father or someone's friend it is likely to be when he is in a
surgery or a hospital and is inquiring about the health of a patient or discussing
new drugs with a colleague. Usually age of participants is also an important
category for social interaction. Among other things age is associated with the role
structure in the family and in social groups, with the assignment of authority and
status, and with the attribution of different levels of competence. The speech
behaviour of a person not only conveys information about his or her own age but
also about the listener or the receiver of the verbal message. Thus, old people
speak and are spoken to in a different way from young people. For instance, an
elderly person usually speaks in a high-pitched voice, people generally use higher
pitch-levels speaking to younger children.
There is another factor, which is included into the "participants" component
of a speech situation. That is the sex of the speaker. Sex differences in
pronunciation are much more numerous than differences in grammatical form. For
instance, there is a consistent tendency for women to produce more standard or
rhetorically correct pronunciation which is generally opposed to the omission of
certain speech sounds. Girls and women pronounce the standard realization of the
verb ending in -ing (reading, visiting, interesting) more frequently than boys and
men who realize -in (readin, visitin, interestin) more often; female speakers use a
more "polite" pattern of assertive intonation while male speakers use a more
deliberate pattern; women tend to use certain intonation patterns that men usually
do not (notably "surprise" pattern of high fall-rises and others). The emotional state
of the speaker at the moment of speech production is likely to reveal pronunciation
markers which would be a fascinating problem of research.
 The last component we have to consider is called setting, or scene. It is
defined by several features. The first of them is a physical orientation of
participants. This is to some extent determined by the activity they are engaged in;
thus in a lecture the speaker stands at some distance from and facing the addressees
whereas in a private chat they are situated vis-à-vis each other. It is quite obvious
now that speech over an intercom and speech in face-to-face communication is
obviously phonologically distinguishable in a number of ways.
Scenes may be arranged along dimensions: public – private, impersonal –
personal, polite – casual, high-cultured – low-cultured, and many other value
scales. In large part these diverse scales seem to be subsumed under one bipolar
dimension of formal – informal. The kind of language appropriate to scenes on
the formal or "high" end of the scale is then differentiated from that appropriate to
those on the informal or "low" end. From the acquaintance with English and
Ukrainian we can speculate that such differentiation follows universal principles,
so that “high” forms of language share certain properties, such as elaboration of
syntax and lexicon, phonological precision and rhythmicality, whereas “low”
forms share properties including ellipsis, repetition, speed and slurring. If this is so
we may expect pronunciation features to be markers of the scene or at least of its
position in the formal – informal dimension.
We can single out, a number of factors which result in phonostylistic
varieties. They are:
1. the purpose, or the aim of the utterance;
2. the speaker's attitude;
3. the form of communication;
4. the degree of formality;
5. the degree of spontaneity (or the degree of preparedness or the reference
of the oral text to a written one).
It should be mentioned right here that the purpose or the aim of the utterance
may be called a phonetic style-forming factor. All other factors cause
modifications within this or that style and that is why may be referred to as style-
modifying factors. All these factors are interdependent and interconnected. They
are singled out with the purpose of describing phonetic phenomena so that to give
a good idea of how the system works.
The first factor we should consider is the purpose of the utterance and the
subject matter. As the subject matter in large part determines the lexical items, it
is the aim of the utterance that affects pronunciation. So in this respect the aim
could be spoken of as the strategy of the language user and so it may be called a
style-forming factor. On the phonetic level there are variations related to describe
what language is being used for in the situation: is the speaker trying to persuade?
to discipline? Is he teaching, advertising, amusing, controlling, etc.? Each of the
above-mentioned variants makes the speaker select a number of functional
phonetic means with the purpose of making the realization of the aim more
effective.
Another extralinguistic factor most often referred to is the speaker's attitude
to the situation or to what he is saying or hearing. It is common knowledge that a
communicative situation is part of a human being's everyday life situation. So it is
natural for a language user to consider the situation from his point of view,
revealing his personal interest and participation in what he is saying. This factor
forms a complex bundle with another characteristic feature of oral speech, namely,
the speaker’s being always concrete, no matter whether communication takes place
in public or private atmosphere. Its most common linguistic realization is
intonation varieties which can be numerous like varieties of attitudes and emotions
an individual can express in various life situations. Concluding we might say that
subjective colouring of oral speech is one of its most integral characteristics.
Considering the form of communication we should say that nature of
participation in the language event results in two possible varieties: a monologue
and a dialogue. Monologuing is the speaking by one individual in such a way as
to exclude the possibility of interruption by others. Dialoguing (conversing) is
speaking in such a way as to invite the participation of others. It is quite possible
for one person to communicate with another and to be the only speaker. Similarly
two people can monologue at each other. Monologues are usually more extended.
They are also characterized by more phonetic, lexical and grammatical cohesion.
If we look upon a dialogue and a monologue from psycholinguistic point of
view it turns out that the latter is a more complex unit. It can be proved by the fact
that people who find themselves abroad learn dialoguing quite easily, while
monologuing requires special training even in the native language. There are a lot
of people who use their native language while dialoguing quite adequately but who
fail to produce an extended utterance in case they are supposed to.
Considering a communicative situation from the point of view of
sociolinguistics we would have to admit that the dichotomy formal – informal
(official – unofficial) can be understood here as the absence or presence of socially
realized necessity to follow certain rules while generating an utterance. Informal
communication does not make the speaker use obligatory forms, it allows to use
them. The influence of this factor upon the phonetic form of speech is revealed by
variations of rate of articulation. In a formal situation the language user tends to
make his speech distinct, thorough and precise. His conscious attention to the form
of production makes him choose the full style of pronunciation. The notion of the
appropriateness of speaking slow enough is presumably part of the cultural code
which insists that it is rude to talk fast and less explicit in such situation. In an
informal situation he would prefer less explicit and more rapid form because this
form would be more appropriate and would function efficiently as a mode of
communication.
Linguistic realization of the formality on both segmental and suprasegmental
levels is very important for a student of another language. He brings to his learning
task all the habits and knowledge of his mother tongue and his culture. Learning a
foreign language involves suspending these and acquiring others. The student,
however, will often continue to interpret situations as he would in his own culture.
He may often have a formal way and perhaps a relatively informal one but he may
not know the gradation in between the extremes. The result may be an
unappropriate usage of intonation structure with the wrong meaning. For example,
in Ukrainian the leave-taking Дo побачення can be pronounced both with low
rising and low falling tone, which sounds neutral, while in English Good-bye
pronounced with a low falling tone sounds fairly rude, while rising tone makes it
neutral.
Analysing extralinguistic factors we should add some more to the above-
mentioned ones. They are: the speaker's individuality, temporal provenance,
social provenance, range of intelligibility, sex and age of the speaker. The first
thing to know about them is that they are incidental features. They are
characteristic of a language user and can not vary, with very little exception, like
all the above-mentioned ones. So they are not deliberately chosen by the speaker at
the time of text production, though they may very well serve as his identifying
features, thus from this point of view they may be considered informative.

3. Style-Modifying Factors.
One of the most important style-modifying factors is the degree of
spontaneity. So if we examine the situations in which people speak rather than
write from the point of view of psychology we can distinguish between those in
which they are speaking spontaneously as opposed to those in which they are
speaking non-spontaneously as the actor and the lecturer are most often doing.
The types of speech situations which lead to spontaneous speech include
classroom teaching, television and radio interviews, sporting commentaries on
radio and television of an event actually taking place, conversation between
experts in a particular field of everyday conversations. We should realize, of
course, that between two poles of spontaneity there are a number of more delicate
distinctions. For example, the sporting commentator has studied notes and has
described this sort of thing before; the people whose professions are highly verbal
ones such as the journalist, the politician, the teacher, the lawyer and the stage
entertainer become accustomed to producing spontaneous texts and are very often
called upon to speak spontaneously about the same area of experience. This means
that although they have no written text in front of them there are elements of
preparation and repetition in their speaking performances which give them some of
the characteristics of written modes. These characteristics are most clearly
identified at the phonetic level of analysis.
If an utterance is qualified as fully spontaneous from linguistic point of view
it means that its verbal realization is taking place at the moment of speaking,
though, of course, it could be thought over in advance. There are situations where
this kind of speech activity is not possible. The reason that accounts for that results
from three things:
a) the utterance is too long to be remembered because, as we know, there are
memory constraints; these are utterances produced in the form of lectures, reports,
etc.;
b) the time of the speaker is limited, so the message has to be conveyed
without any hesitation; for example, news over the radio and TV;
c) the speaker is realizing somebody else's utterance, for example, reading a
piece of prose, quoting, etc.
 In the above-mentioned cases the utterance or rather its verbal realization is
prepared in advance, i.e. written on a sheet of paper. This script version is used at
the moment of production – it is read. This type of presentation is qualified as fully
prepared. The speaker may use the written variant just to help himself remember
the logic succession of the uttered contents. In this case the speech is also fully
prepared. In either of the above-mentioned cases a written text was made with the
purpose of being produced orally. This kind of written text should be distinguished
from literary written texts which are not to be read aloud though such possibility is
not completely excluded.
Now if we look upon the degree of spontaneity as a style-modifying
factor we should admit that it has a decisive influence on the phonetic organization
of an oral text. This is where phonetics overlaps with psycholinguistics. The point
is that speaking and reading being processes of communication and varieties of
speech activity are two different psychic processes, i.e. the sounding utterance is
generated in quite different ways. When a written text is being read aloud, a reader
has got a verbal realization before his eyes, the script which has been prepared in
advance either by himself or by another person. So he need not think of what to say
or rather of how to put the ideas into words. Oral realization should be made
according to pronunciation rules of a particular language. Besides, if he is to read
with comprehension the graphic symbols of the language he must learn to supply
those portions of the signals which are not in the graphic representation
themselves. He must supply the significant stresses, pauses and tone sequences. As
a result the usage of phonetic means is characterized by a very high degree of
regularity. Melodic, temporal, rhythmic organization of the text is even; pauses are
made at syntactical junctures within and between the sentences. The text sounds
loud and distinct (both sounds and intonation are meant).
While spontaneous speech is taking place (when no notes are used) the
process of psychic activity consists of two equally important items, i.e.
a) the process of searching (remembering) information and the ways of
expressing it verbally and
b) the process of giving (transmitting) information.
The speaker has got an intention to express some ideas and he should choose
an adequate linguistic form to express these ideas and in this way to generate the
utterance. Analysing most important characteristics of a spoken spontaneous text
we should first of all mention a phenomenon called hesitation. The point is that
while generating a text a speaker has no time or rather not enough time to make
sure of the correct form of the expression he has chosen, because he is
simultaneously planning what he is going to say next and also monitoring what he
is saying. The wording is taking place simultaneously with pronouncing.
Consequently, the speaker hesitates. He hesitates to remember a further piece of
information, to choose a correct word, a correct grammar structure and so on. This
hesitation phenomenon breaks the regularity and evenness of phonetic form. There
appear micropauses, pauses of different length and quality which seldom occur at
the syntactic juncture; lengthening of sounds within the words and in the word
final position. A spontaneous text is characterized by a number of relevant features
both on segmental and suprasegmental levels: various kinds of assimilation,
reduction, elision which manifest simplification of sound sequences; uneven
rhythm, fragments melody contour, abundance of pauses, varying loudness (from
very loud to very low), narrow range of voice, varying tempo (from very fast to
very slow).
Another characteristic is the delimitation. In reading pauses occur at the
syntactic junctures, so an intonation group coincides with what is called a
"syntagm(a)". In a spontaneous text hesitating often prevents the speaker from
realizing a full syntagm(a). There may appear a hesitation pause which breaks it, so
an intonation group does not coincide with a syntagm(a). Pauses at the end of the
phrase are often optional, because the speaker does not realize the rules of
phrasing, i.e. of making pauses at the moment of speaking. The terms most often
referred to denote fragments of speech continuum into which the whole text is
naturally divided are as follows: a phonopassage (in monologues), a semantic
block (in dialogues), a phrase, an intonation group.
The speaker's attitude to the communicative situation, to what he is saying,
the relationships of the partners are revealed by tembre. Tembre combined with
non-verbal system of communication, kinetic system, is a marker of some specific
attitude, or emotion which would be a permanent characteristic of a language user
in a given communicative act.
A third characteristic which is usually referred to the set of style-
differentiating ones is the accentuation of semantic centres. By semantic centres
the parts of the utterance that have a considerable value in realization of functional
utterance perspective are understood. For example, in spontaneous speech the
contrast between accented and non-accented segments of an utterance is greater
than in reading, due to the fact that in speech the unaccented elements are
pronounced at a lower pitch.

4. Classifying Phonetic Styles.

Among the well-known classifications of phonetic styles we would like to
mention the following two. One of them belongs to S.M. Gaiduchic. He
distinguishes five phonetic styles: solemn (урочистий), scientific business
(науково-діловий), official business (офіційно-діловий), everyday
(побутовий), and familiar (невимушений). As we may see the above-
mentioned phonetic styles on the whole correlate with functional styles of the
language. They are differentiated on the basis of spheres of discourse.
The other way of classifying phonetic styles is suggested by J.A. Dubovsky
who discriminates the following five styles: informal ordinary, formal neutral,
formal official, informal familiar, and declamatory. The division is based on
different degrees of formality or rather familiarity between the speaker and the
listener. Within each style subdivisions are observed.
M.A. Sokolova’s approach is slightly different. She distinguishes between
segmental and suprasegmental level of analysis because some of them (the aim
of the utterance, for example) result in variations of mainly suprasegmental level,
while others (the formality of situation, for example) reveal segmental varieties. It
might be generally assumed that there are five intonational styles singled out
mainly according to the purpose of communication and to which we could refer all
the main varieties of the texts generated in everyday communication of a modern
man. They are as follows:
1. Informational style is used in press reporting, educational descriptive
texts. It may be represented in monologues, dialogues, polylogues. Phonostylistic
characteristics are as follows: loudness normal or increased; pauses are rather long;
rhythm is stable, properly organized; falling tones on the semantic centres, falling-
rising or rising in the initial intonation groups.
2. Academic style (Scientific) is the style of lectures (conferences,
seminars). It is determined by the purpose of communication as the speaker’s aim
is to attract the listener’s attention, to establish close contacts with the audience
and to direct the public attention to the message carried in the contents of the text.
Phonostylistic characteristics:lLoudness increased; pauses are rather long; rhythm
is properly organized; high proportion of compound terminal tones (high fall + low
rise, fall – rise, rise-fall-rise), a great number of high categoric falls.
3. Publicistic style (Oratorical). This term serves for many kinds of
oratorial activities (especially this style uses in political speeches). Phonostylistic
characteristics: loudness enormously increased; pauses are definitely long between
the passages; rhythm is properly organized; tones mostly emphatic, especially
emotionally underlined semantic centres, in non-final intonational groups falling-
rising tones are frequent.
4. Declamatory style (Artistic). This is the style of declamation. This is a
highly emotional and expressive intonational style, that is why it needs special
training. Attitudinal, volitional and intellectual functions of intonation are of
primary importance here and serve to appeal to the mind, will and feelings of the
listener. This style can be heard on the stage, on the screen, in a TV studio, thus we
see that it is always a written form of the language read aloud or recited.
Phonostylistic characteristics: loudness varied according to the size of the audience
and to the emotional setting; pauses are long especially between the passages,
prolonged emphatic pauses are used to underline the emphasis; rhythm is properly
organized; common use of categoric low and high falls in final and initial
intonation groups and on semantic centres.
5. Conversational style (Familiar). This kind of English is a means for
everyday communication, heard in natural conversational interaction between
speakers. This style occurs mainly in informal external and internal relationships in
speech of relatives, friends, well-acquainted people and so on. So this is
spontaneous, colloquial, informal, everyday speech.
But differentiation of intonation according to, the purpose of communication
only is definitely not enough. As was mentioned above, there are other factors that
affect intonation in various extralinguistic situations. We could add that any style
with very little exception is seldom realized in its pure form. Each generated text is
likely to include phonetic characteristics of different styles. In such cases we talk
about overlapping (fusion) of styles.