Intonational styles:

Informational style - is the most neutral among styles, which we employ in educational descriptive narratives, press reporting and broadcasting. In these texts loudness normal. The rate of speech does not vary greatly, the tempo is marked as moderato, rhythm is organized properly, pauses are not prolongued. Timbre-characteristics of such speech are not emotional because the speaker tries to be objective. Sense-groups are not complicated in their structure. Terminal tones are rather categoric

Academic style characterizes lectures, scientific discussions, conferences. It's used to deliver the message to the audience, to establish a contact with the listeners. The speaker must sound authoritative. Terminal tones are compound, there's a great number of high categoric falls. Loudness may be increased, sometimes strongly, pauses may be prolongued, rhythm is organized properly.

Publicistic style. The aim of the speaker is to persuade & influence the audience. Speech of this kind is always prepared. There are great contrasts of pitch, loudness, tempo & timbre. As one of the aims of the speaker is to entertain his listeners he must combine publicistic style with declamatory, informational, and conversational. Speakers have the right to increase their loudness greatly, to break the limits of their voice range, they may whisper, they can make prolongued pauses.

Declamatory style. It mostly concerns theatrical activities, screen productions, TV and all sorts of recitations. Loudness varies according to the type of emotion rendered and the listeners, the rate of speech is deliberately slow, pauses are rather long, emphatic, the rhythm is properly organized the contrast between accented and unaccented segments is not great, the terminal tones contain a lot of categoric low and high falls in final and initial intonation groups.

Conversational style. This style is very frequent because a lot of English speaking people use it in their everyday speech. Pauses are frequent – mmm, hm, brr, kh as well as laughs, giggles, noises. The intonation groups are rather short, tone groups are often broken, the tempo varies greatly. Though the natural speed is very high, pauses make our speech slower.

Билет 18 National varieties of English pronunciation.

The English language is the mother tongue of several countries, such as Great Britain, the USA, Australia, New Zealand. The English language is also used by the greater part of the population of Canada and the Republic of South Africa.

Language has its own vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

Dialects have no literally normalized form.

Variants possess it.

The principal varieties of English are divided into British and American types. British English is the basis for the varieties spoken in England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa. American English includes chiefly the English of Canada and the United States.

Certain characteristics of Canadian English are closer to British English, while certain characteristics if Irish English are closer to North American English. And there are many differences between standard British English and standard Indian English. But we can still make a number of generalizations about British-based varieties and American-based varieties, provided we recognize that neither group is completely homogeneous.

Билет 19 British English. RP. British dialects.

Traditionally, schools and universities in Europe and in many other parts of the world - have taught that variety of English which is often referred to as "British English".

The Received Pronunciation accent has its origins in the south-east of England but is currently a social accent associated with the BBC, the Public Schools in England and with the members of the upper classes.

Dialects of English differ from each other first of all in sound system. Every dialect is a local dialect: it is rooted in a particular region of the English-speaking world. I can name such dialects as London dialect (Cockney), Bradford (Yorkshire), Edinburgh (Scotland), Newcastle (the North East), Liverpool (Merseyside), Belfast (Northern Ireland), etc.

Билет 20 American English. General American.

American dialects.

American English pronunciation is characterized by a greater variety of standard forms than British English. In the USA 3 main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Eastern type, the Southern type and Western type or GA.

The Eastern type is spoken in New England, and in NY city.

The Southern type is used in the South and South East of the USA. It possesses a striking distinctive feature - vowel drawl, which is a specific way of pronouncing vowels.

The most widespread type of American standard pronunciation is General American. GA is the form of speech used by radio and TV and also in all forms of official intercourse, it's the language of educated people.