12. Main differences between southern and northern dialects of England

Northern:

- 'u' - [ʊ] (put, cut);

- [ʊ] - [u:] (book [bu:k]);

- [ɑː] - [a] (cart);

- [e] - [ɛ] (dress - more open);

- [æ] - [a] (cat);

- [ei] & [əʊ] - [e:] & [o] (face, goat);

- rhotic.

Southern:

- reduced amount of H-dropping;

- increased amount of th-fronting;

- fronting of [u:] (foot);

- nonrhotic.

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13. Aspects of the phoneme

1. Material, real and objective (exists in the form of allophones) - constitutive function.

2. Abstractional and generalized - recognitive function.

3. Functional (the smallest language unit capable of differentiating words and their grammatical forms) - distinctive function.

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14. Allophones

1. Principal (do not undergo any distinguishable changes in the chain of speech, the greatest number of articulatory features among all the variants of the phoneme).

2. Subsidiary:

- combinatory (influenced by neighboring sounds);

- positional (traditionally used in certain positions).

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15. Main trends in phoneme theory

Mentalistic (psychological) view regards P. as an ideal “mental image” or a target at which the speaker aims. Actually pronounced speech sounds are imperfect realizations of the phoneme existing

in the mind but not in the reality. Baudauin de Courtenay.

Ferdinand de Saussure – the phoneme is not something sounding but something disembodied. It is formed not by its material substance but only by the differences that separate its acoustic image from others.

Abstract view regards P. as essentially independent of the acoustic and physiological properties associated with them, that is of speech sounds.

Physical view (material aspect of the phoneme) by D. Jones, B. Bloch, G. Trager.

P. is a family of sounds, which have phonetic similarity and occur in different phonetic context.

It's criticized, because the definition 'A phoneme is a mechanical sum of its allophones' is vulgarly materialistic and metaphysical. P. cannot be defined as the sum of its allophones, though it includes all of them.

Functional view by R. Jakobson and M. Halle, L. Bloomfield.

P. is a bundle of distinctive features.

16. Assimilation

Assimilation is the modification of a consonant under the influence of the neighboring consonant.

Direction:

- progressive (dogs),

- regressive (width),

- reciprocal (tree).

Degree of completeness:

- complete (two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one - deffer only in one articulatory feature): less shy;

- incomplete: sweet.

Degree of stability:

- obligatory (historical): orchard (ort + yard);

- non-obligatory: ten minutes.

Changes in the place of articulation:

[t], [d] + [θ], [ð] = dental (partial regressive): read this;

[t], [d] + [r] = post-alveolar (partial regressive): dream;

[s], [z] + [∫] = palato-alveolar (complete regressive): does she;

[n], [m] + [f], [v] = labio-dental (partial regressive): confort;

[n] + [t∫] = palato-alveolar;

[n] + [k] = velar: congress.

Changes in the manner of articulation:

loss of plosion (plosive + plosive);

nasal plosion (plosive + nasal sonorant): sudden;

lateral plosion (plosive + [l]): little.

Changes in the work of vocal cords:

fortis voiceless C + sonorant = S. partially devoiced;

newspaper ["njuːsˌpeɪpə] under the influence of the voiceless [p];

contracted forms 's may be devoiced depending on the preceding C.

Changes in the lip position:

C + [w] = lip-rounded: quite.

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