I. The subject-matter of phonetics

The significance of language and speech becomes quite clear from the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism who defined language as the most important means of human intercourse, and stated that language and consciousness arouse in order to satisfy the human need for communication.

"... men... arrived at the point where they had something to say to each other. Necessity created the organ; the undeveloped larynx of the ape was slowly but surely transformed by modulation to pro­duce constantly more developed modulation, and the organs of the mouth gradually learned to pronounce one articulate sound after another."

"First labour, after it and then with it, speech—these were the two most essential stimuli under the influence of which the brain of the ape gradually changed into that of man,.."

"By the combined functioning of hands, speech organs and brain, not only in each individual but also in society, men became capable of executing more and more complicated operations, and were able to set themselves, and achieve, higher and higher aims." ^г

Ancient objects, drawings, and written documents show that voice and speech always fascinated men. Written documents and evi­dences from ancient civilizations point to an awareness of speech, its origin and abnormalities a long time ago.

In India more than 2000 years ago there flourished a science of phonetics more advanced than any that has since been known until very recent times. The results, embodied in a series of Sanskrit texts, were first introduced to the West only some 80 years ago.

Here are some data connected with the history of phonetic develop­ment:

1829 laryngoscope was invented,

1852 first observations of the vocal cords were made,

1877 gramophone was invented,

1886 International Phonetic Association (IPA) was founded.

IPA started publications of a special phonetic magazine "Le Mattre Phonetique". It stated phonetic symbols for sounds of many existing languages. Given below is a table of vowel symbols used in various systems of transcription:

¹ Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, Selected Works.—M., 1970.—P. 356-357, 359-360.

№	Example	EPD	GIM	КК	DJ	LAD
	Beed	i:	1;	i	i:	i	I
	bid	I	I	I	I	i	I
	bed	e	е	е	е		е
	bad		ж	ш	а	se	эе
	bard		ее	а	а	а	а
	rod	ю	D	ъ		D
	caii	d:	а	э	ж	Э	D
	wood	u	«		U	CD
	root	U!	и»	U	№	и	и
	dug	л	л	л	Л	Л	Л
И	hurt	з:	а:		э:	э	э:
	about	э	э
	late	ei	ei	ei	ei	et	et
	rode	эи	эи	ои	ou	ow	91)
	tide	at	ai	ai	ai	ai	ai
	loud	au	аи	ао	au	aco	аи
	boy					Di
	pierce	1Э	га	1Э	is	1Э	И
	fares	еэ	еэ	еэ	еэ	еэ	еэ
	tours	«а	иэ	иэ	иэ	иэ	иэ

Writing transcription symbols one should use the form of print rather than handwriting, e.g. /bed/ not bed, /tip/ not tip, /bit/ not bit.

Some shapes of the transcription symbols demand special atten­tion.

/B/ is like /b/ without an ascending stroke,

/0/ is written as capital 0 with a cross-stroke.

/5/ is like a reversed 6 with a cross-stroke.

Ill does not descend below the line.

Don't use any capital letters.

Don't confuse orthography and phonemic representation.

Slant brackets are used to mark off phonemic transcription, square brackets are used for allophones (see below).

It is not necessary to show any punctuation.

If necessary question marks and exclamation marks (?!) may be used to give an indication of intonation- Commas, full stops, inverted commas, hyphens, etc. should be excluded since they can be con­fused with intonation or stress markings.

Abbreviations and numbers should be transcribed in their full spoken form, e.g. USSR /lju: <es *es V. Note that the stress always falls on the last item.

EPD — English Pronouncing Dictionary (Jones,

GIM —Gimson (1980)

KR — Kruisinga (1975)

DJ — Jones (1962)

LAD - Ladefoged (1975)

JWL - Windsor Lewis (1972)

1977)

Syllabic consonants are indicated by l\] placed beneath the sym­bol, e.g. written /ritn/.

Primary stress is indicated by ['] before the stressed syllable, e.g. father Мадэ/. Secondary stress is shown by [j] before the syllable, e.g. examination /igizsemi'nei/эп/.

Phonetics is an independent branch of linguistics like lexicology, grammar and stylistics. It studies the sound matter, its aspects and functions.

Phonetics is connected with linguistic and non-linguistic sciences: acoustics, physiology, psychology, logic, etc.

The connection of phonetics with grammar, lexicology and styl­istics is exercised first of all via orthography, which in its turn is very closely connected with phonetics.

Phonetics formulates the rules of pronunciation for separate sounds and sound combinations. The rules of reading are based on the relation of sounds to orthography and present certain difficulties in learning the English language, especially on the initial stage of stud­ying. Thus, vowel sounds, for instance, are pronounced not only as we name the letters corresponding to them: the letter a as /ei/, the letter e as i'v.l, the letter i as /ai/, the letter у as /wai/, the letter u as i{j)n:l, the letter о as /эй/, jnq a can be pronounced as: /ae/— can, /a/ — car, 7sa/— care-, e can be pronounced as: Id — them, [з:1— fern, libl — here, etc.

Through the system of rules of reading phonetics is connected with grammar and helps to pronounce correctly singular and plural forms of nouns, the past tense forms and past participles of English regular verbs, e.g. /d/ is pronounced after voiced consonants (beg— begged), It! —after voiceless consonants (wish — wished), /id/—after It! (want—wanted). It~is only if we know that /s/ is pronounced after voiceless consonants, /z/ after voiced and /iz/ after sibilants, that we can pronounce the words books, bags, boxes correctly. The ending -ed is pronounced /id/ following /t/ or /d/, e.g. waited /iweitid/, folded /ifauldid/. Some adjectives have a form with /id/, e.g. crooked /'kru-kid/, naked /ineikid/, ragged /'rsegid/.

One of the most important phonetic phenomena—sound interchange—is another manifestation of the connection of pho­netics with grammar. For instance, this connection can be observed in the category of number. Thus, the interchange of It— v/, /a—z/, /Ö—Э/ helps to differentiate singular and plural forms of such nouns as: calf—calves II— v/, leaf—leaves II— v/, house-houses /s—z/.

Vowel interchange helps to distinguish the singular and the plural of such words as: basis—bases /'beisis—<beisi:z/, crisis — crises /ikraisis—'kraisi:z/, analysis—analyses /ainaelaaia —ainaateshz/.and also: man—men /man—men/, foot—feet /fut—fi:t/, goose — •geese /gu:s—gi:z/, mouse—mice /maus—mais/.

Vowel interchange is connected with the tense forms of irregular vverbs, for instance: sing—sang—sung] write—wrote—written, etc. Vowel interchange can also help to distinguish between

a) nouns and verbs, e.g\ baih — bathe /a:—ei/,

b) adjectives and nouns, e.g. hot—keet /v —i:/,

c) verbs and adjectives, e.g. moderate — moderate /ei—1/,

d) nouns and nouns, e.g. shade—shadow /ei—se/,

e) nouns and adjectives, e.g. type — typical /ai—j/.

Vowel interchange can also be observed in onomatopoeitic com­pounds:

jiggle—joggle толчок, покачивание flip—flop легкий удар, шлепок chip—chop рубить топором, штыковать flap—flop шлепать, шлепнуть hip—hop подпрыгивать при ходьбе

Consonants can interchange in different parts of speech for example in nouns and verbs:

extent—extend /t—d/ mouth—mouth /9—Ö/ relief—relieve /f—v/

Phonetics is also connected with grammar through its intonation component. Sometimes intonation alone can serve to single out the logical predicate of the sentence. Compare:^x

*He came home. Not Mary or John. He 'came home. So you can see him now. He came 'home. He is at home, and you said he was going to the club.

In affirmative sentences the rising nuclear tone may serve to show that it is a question. Cf.:

He 'came _thome. He I came,home.

Pausation may also perform a differentiator у function. If we compare two similar sentences pronounced with different places of the pause, we shall see that their meaning will be different.

•What Iwriting 'poet is (doing is»interesting.

If we make a pause after the word what, we are interested in what the poet is doing in. general. If the pause is made after the word writ*, ing we want to know, what book or article the poet is writing.

Phonetics is also connected with lexicology. It is only due to the-presence of stress, or accent, in the right place, that we can diti guish certain nouns from verbs (formed by conversion), e.g.

I abstract реферат—to abstract извлекать 'object предмет—to ob'ject не одобрять 'transfer перенос—to transfer переносить.

Intonation compensates for the fixed word-order of English sentence.

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