Reading vowels plus consonant combinations

Reading consonant combinations

Two types of reading English consonants

Reading stressed vowel combination

Four types of reading English vowels

letters types of reading	a /ei/	o /əυ/	e /i:/	i y /ai/ /wai/	u /ju:/
I	/ei/ name	/əu/ note	/i:/ be	/ai/ fine my	/ju:/ tune
II	/æ/ flat	/υ/ not	/e/ pen	/ı/ sit myth	/Λ/ cup
III	/a:/ large	/o:/ fork	/з:/ term firm Byrd fur
IV	/εə/ Mary	/o:/ more	/ıə/ here	/ai/ fire tyre	/ju/ during

letter combination	reading	examples	letter combinations	reading	examples
ai ey	/ei/	Spain day	oo	/u:/	too
ea ee	/i:/	sea meet	ou ow	/au/	out brown
ew	/ju:/	new	ai+r	/εə/	chair
oi oy	/oi/	point body	ee+r ou+r	/ıə/ /auə/	engineer our
oo+k	/u/	book	oo+r	/o:/	door

letters	position	reading and examples
c /si:/	1. before e, I, y 2. before a, o, u all consonants and terminally	/s/ /k/ cent, pencil, icy cap, come, cup, black
g /dЗi:/	1. before e, I, y 2. before a, o, u all consonants and terminally	/dЗ/ /g/ page, gin, gypsy gas, go, gun, big
s /es/	1. initially; before voiceless and terminally after voiceless consonants 2. between vowels; terminally after voiced and sonants	/s/ sit, student, lists /z/ please, ties, pens
x /eks/	1. before consonants and terminally 2. before accented vowels	/ks/ text, six /gz/ exam

letters	position	reading	examples
sh	any position	/ς/	she
ch	any position	/tς/	chess
tch	after short vowels	/tς/	match
ck	after short vowels	/k/	black
th	in notional words initially and terminally beginning the pronouns conjunction ‘that’ and between vowels	/θ/   /ð/	thick, myth   this, bathe that
wh	initially before all vowels, all vowels, “o” excluding before letter “o”	/w/   /h/	what   who
qu	before vowels	/kw/	question
ng	terminally	/ŋ/	long
nk	any position	/ŋk/	thank
wr	initially before vowels	/r/	write

letters	position	reading	examples
al	before “k” in a stressed position before other consonants in a stressed syllable	/o:/ /o:l/	chalk wall, also
wor	before consonants in a stressed syllable	/wз:/	work, word
wa	before terminal consonants (except “r”) or consonant combinations before “r”	/wυ/   /wo:/	want   warm
igh	any position	/aı/	light

Through the system of rules of reading phonetics 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), /t/ – after voiceless consonants (wish – wished). It is only if we know that /s/ is pronounced after voiceless consonants, /z/ – after voiced and /ız/ – after sibilants, that we can pronounce books, bags, boxes correctly. The ending -ed is pronounced /ıd/ following /t/ or /d/, e.g. waited /ٰweıtıd/, folded /ٰfəuldıd/. Some adjectives have a form with /ıd/, e.g. crooked /ٰkrukıd/, naked /ٰneıkıd/.

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 /f – v/, /θ – ð/ helps to differentiate singular and plural forms of such nouns as: calf – calves /f – v/, house – houses /s – z/.

Vowel interchange helps to distinguish the singular and the plural of such words as: basis – bases /ٰbeısıs – ٰbeısız/, crisis – crises /ٰkraısıs – ٰkraısız/ and also: man – men /mæn – men/, mouse – mice /maus – maıs/.

Vowel interchange is connected with the tense forms of irregular verbs, for instance: sing – sang – sung; write – wrote – written.

Vowel interchange can help to distinguish between:

a) nouns and verbs, e.g. bath — bathe /a: — eı/,

b) adjectives and nouns, e.g. hot — heet /υ — i:/,

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

d) nouns and nouns, e.g. shade — shadow /eı — æ/,

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

Vowel interchange can be observed in onomatopoeic 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 /θ — ð/

relief— relieve /f— v/

Phonetics is also connected with grammar through its intonation com­ponent. Sometimes intonation alone can serve to single out predication in the sentence. Compare:[1]

'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 ˛home.

He 'came ِِِِِ ¸home?

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

'What 'writing '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 writing 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 distinguish cer­tain nouns from verbs (formed by conversion), e.g.

'abstract реферат — to ab'stract извлекать

'object предмет — to ob'ject не одобрять

'transfer перенос — to trans'fer переносить

Homographs can be differentiated only due to pronunciation, because they are identical in spelling, e.g.

bow /bəu/ лук — bow /bau/ поклон

lead /li:d/ руководство — lead /led/ свинец

row /rəu/ ряд — row /rau/ шум

sewer /səuə/ швея — sewer /sju:ə/ сточная труба

tear /tεə/ разрыв — tear /tiə/ слеза

wind /wınd/ ветер — wind /waınd/ виток

Due to the position of word accent we can distinguish between homonymous words and word groups, e.g.

'blackbird дрозд 'black 'bird черная птица

Phonetics is also connected with stylistics; first of all through intonation and its components: speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm, pausation andvoice tamber which serve to express emotions, to distinguish betweendifferent attitudes on the part of the author and speaker. Very often the writer helps the reader to interpret his ideas through special words and remarks such as: a pause, a short pause, angrily, hopefully, gently, incredulously, etc. For example:

"Now let me ask you girls and boys, would you paper a room with representationsof horses?"

Alter a pause, one half of the children cried in chorus, "Yes, sir!" Upon which the other half, seeing in the gentleman's face that "Yes" was wrong,cried out in chorus, "No, sir!" — as the custom is in these examinations

"Of course, no. Why wouldn't you?"

A pause. (Ch. Dickens. ‘Hard Times’ )

If theauthor wants to make a word or a sentence specially prominent or logically accented, he uses graphical expressive means, e.g.:

"You must paper it," said the gentleman, rather warmly.

"You must paper it," said Thomas Gradgrind, "whether you like it or not Don'ttell us you wouldn't paper it." (ibid.)

Phonetics is also connected with stylistics through repetition of words, phrases and sounds. Repetition of this kind serves the basis of rhythm, rhyme and alliteration.

Regular recurrence of accented elements, or rhythm, may be used as a special device not only in poetry, but in prose as well.

For example, in the extract given below the repetition of the word fact helps Ch. Dickens to characterize his hero, Mr. Gradgrind as a narrow-minded person unable to see anything behind bare facts.

"Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them." (ibid.)

In the description of Gradgrind's "mental introduction" rhythm is achieved through the repetition of parallel constructions, beginning with the word man, which gradually develops and helps to achieve the climax of significance.

"Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calcu­lations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir — peremptorily Thomas — Tho­mas Gradgrind." (ibid.)

The repetition of identical or similar sounds, which is called allitera­tion, helps, together with the words to which they belong, to impart a melodic effect to the utterance and to express certain emotions. Thus, the repetition of the sonant /m/ in the lines of the ballad, given below (to­gether with the other stylistic devices), helps to produce the effect of merriment.

There are twelve months in all the year,

As I hear many men say,

But the merriest month in all the year

Is the merry month of May.

The repetition of the words year, say and May produces the effect of rhyme.

Onomatopoeia, a combination of sounds which imitate sounds pro­duced in nature, is one more stylistic device which can serve as an example of the connection between phonetics and stylistics. E.g.: tinkle, jin­gle, clink, ting, chink; chatter, jabber, clatter, babble; chirp, cheep, twitter; chirrup; clap, dab, smack; crash, bang.

The study of phonetic phenomena from the stylistic point of view is phonostylistics. It is connected with a number of linguistic and non-linguistic disciplines, such as: paralinguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology, sociolinguistics, dialectology, literary criticism, aesthet­ics, information theory, etc.

Phonetics has the following branches: 1) articulatory (physiological) and perceptive (auditory), 2) acoustic, 3) functional (linguistic).

Articulatory and perceptive investigation of speech sounds is done on thebasis of a good knowledge of the voice and sound producing mecha­nisms, their structure, work and perceptive (auditory) effects, that is — physiology and psychology. Articulatory phonetics makes use of such instruments and devices as: a hand mirror, laryngoscope, artificial palate, graphical representations of sounds, photographs and X-ray photographs, CD records and magnetic tapes. TV and computer classes are also very helpful for the investigation and study of the articulatory aspect of speech.

Acoustic properties of sounds, that is, quantity, or length, tamber, intensity, pitch, temporal factor are investigated by the acoustic and auditory branch of phonetics.

Special laboratory equipment, such as kymograph, spectrograph, oscillographand intonograph help to obtain the necessary data about prosodic properties of speech sounds.

A kymograph records qualitative variations of sounds in the form of kymographic tracings.

A spectrograph produces sound spectrograms which help to list the frequenciesof a given sound and its relative amplitudes.

An oscillograph records oscillograms of sound vibrations of any frequency. Automatically recorded oscillograms can be observed upon the screen.

An intonograph measures automatically: 1) the fundamental tone of the vocal cords, 2) the average sound pressure, 3) the duration or length of speech (pausation). The results are recorded: 1) visually upon the screen of the electron-tube, 2) on paper or film with the continuous reproduction by tape recorder, 3) in digits (while estimating the limits of the recorded area along the screen of the electron-ray tube).

The phonological or functional properties of phonemes, syllables, accent and intonation are investigated by means of special linguistic methods, which help to interpret them as socially significant elements.

Theoretical significance of phonetics is connected with the further development of the problem of the synchronic study and description of the phonetic system of a national language, the comparative analysis and description of different languages, the study of the correspondences be­tween them, the diachronic description of successive changes in the pho­netic system of a language or different languages.

Practical significance of phonetics is connected with teaching foreign languages. Practical phonetics is applied in methods of speech correc­tion, teaching deaf-mutes, film dubbing, transliteration, radio and televi­sion.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-06