Vowels Consonants

1. Vowels

Monophthongs Diphthongs Diphthongoids

single vowels 2 vowels a vowel+schwa (ə)

(a, u) (au, ou)

2. Vowels (position of the tongue)

Front Front-retracted Central Back Back-advanced

[i:] [i] [Ʌ] [ɔ:] [υ]

1. Consonant (active speech organ)

Labial Lingual Glottal

h

Bilabial Labial-dental Fore-lingual Medi-lingual Back-lingual

p, b, m f, v n, l y k, g

2. Consonant (type of obstruction)

Noise Sonorants

Occlusive Constrictive Occ-constr. Occlusive Constrictive

b v d p Medial Lateral

n w

8. Syllabic structure of English words. Syllable formation and syllable division

Syllable is a part of a word consisting of a vowel (and one or several consonants) and possessing no meaning

Theories of syllables:

1) Expiratory (R. Stetson) – the number of syllables in the word is equal to the number of expirations we need to pronounce this word. This theory was criticized by Torsunov who said that the whole phrase can be uttered in one expiration.

2) Sonirity (O. Jesperson) –every syllable is characterized by a certain degree of sonority.

3) Theory of muscular tension (Scherba, modified by Vassilyev) – syllable is described from physical POV.

4) Loudness (Zhinkin) – combination of production and perception level of syllables.

Syllable formation is based on the phonetic opposition “vowel-consonant”, where vowel is a nucleus of the syllable and consonant is optional.

Syllable division. A subbranch of phonetics dealing with syllable division is phonotactics. The rules of syllable division in English are almost the same as in Russian, but with one difference: the number of syllables in the word is equal to the number of pronounced vowels. The main function of syllable is distinctive.

9. Accentual structure of English words

The sequence of syllables in the word is not pronounced identically. The syllable or syllables that are uttered with more prominence than other syllables are called accented or stressed. The correlation of varying prominences of syllables in a word is understood as accentual structure. According to A.C. Gimson, the effect of prominence is achieved by any or all four factors: force, tone, length and vowel colour. The word stress 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.

Accent (word stress, prominence) is a complex phenomenon marked by variations in force, pitch, quantity and quality.

Accent in the English language was investigated by Gimson A.C., Crystal D., Torsuyev G.P.

Linguists distinguish 3 degrees of stress:

1) Primary – the strongest;

2) Secondary – the second strongest;

3) Weak – all other.

Functions of word stress:

1) Constructive – it constitutes a word, organizes syllables into language unit with the definite accentual structure;

2) Identificatory – it enables a person to identify a succession of syllables as a definite accentual pattern of a word;

3) Distinctive – it differentiates the meaning of words with their forms.

Tendencies of word stress:

1) Received tendency – stress is placed on the root syllable (typical for German words);

2) Rhythmical tendency – appearance of the secondary syllable in multisyllabic words (typical for French borrowings);

3) Retentive tendency – instability of the accentual structure – a derivative often retains the stress of the original word.