Elision

Elision can be historical and contemporary.

English spelling is full of "silent" letters which bear witness to histor­ical elision, e.g. walk /wo:k/, knee /ni:/, knight /naıt/, castle /'ka:sl/, write /raıt/, iron /'aıən/, etc.

The most common cases of contemporary elision are the following: elision of /t, d/ in

a) /ft, st, ςt, θt, vd, zd, ðd/ sequences:

cleft palate /,klef 'pælət/

waste paper /,weıs 'peıpə/

bathed the baby /'bа:θ ðə ˛beıbı/

dived below /'daıv bı˛ləu/

closed doors /'kləuz ˛do:z/

breathed deeply /'bri:ð ˛di:plı/.

b) /pt, kt, bd, gd, tςt, d3d/ sequences;

trapped by /'træp ˛baı/

cracked pots /'kræk ˛pυts/

dubbed film /d Λ b ˛fılm/

bugged telephone /'b Λ g ˛telıfəun/

enriched foodstuffs /ın'rıtς ˛fu:dst Λ fs/

c) /md, nd, ŋd/ sequences:

slammed the door /'slæm ðə˛do:/

hair-brained scheme /'hεəbreın˛ski:m/

stringed musical instrument /'stnŋ 'mjuzikl˛ınstrəmənt/

In a), b), c) cases elisions most frequently remove the marker of past tense in verbs. The meaning is usually clear from the context.

Thereare some words and verbal forms in which elision frequently exists in everyday speech. They are:

1. months and clothes with elided dental fricatives: /m Λ nθs/ → /m Λ ns/, /klouðz/ → /klouz/;

2. fifth and sixth elide the consonants which precede /θ/, e.g. /ftfθ/ → /fıf/, /sıksθ/ → /sikθ/.

3. of elides /v/ before /ð/, e.g.

six of the best /'siks ə ðə ˛best/

before other consonants, at more rapid tempo, e.g.

a pint of milk /ə 'paınt ə ˛mılk/

Elided /v/ before /m/, at more rapid tempo, e.g.

give me your word /'gı mı jo: ˛wз:d/

4. /tt/ is reduced to /t/ in the following verbal forms:

I want to drive /aı wυntə ˛draıv/

We've got to be careful /wi:v 'gotə bı ˛kεəful/

5. going to has the form /gənə/ in all cases except very careful speech, e.g.

We're going to move house /wıə 'gənə 'mu:v˛haus/

There is a tendency nowadays to pronounce sounds which are not pronounced as a result of historical elision, e.g. often /ofn/ → /oftən/.

Assimilation in English differs from the Russian mainly along the lines of direction: progressive voicing or devoicing is very rare in Rus­sian, but quite common in English. It occurs in the following cases:

1.Contracted forms of the verbs, when the ending -s is preceded by a
voiced or a voiceless consonant, e.g. Bob s gone, that's right.

2. Suffixes -(e)s of the nouns in the plural, or the third person singu­
lar, e.g. girls, rooms, books, writes.

3. The possessive suffix -'s or -'z, e.g. Jack's hat. Bob's dog.

4. The past indefinite suffix -ed, e.g. played, worked, lived.

Cases of English regressive voicing or devoicing are very rare, e.g. five pence /'faıfpəns/, gooseberry /'gu:zbərı/; these are cases of historical assimilation.

Regressive voicing or devoicing in Russian is obligatory both within a word and at the word boundary, e.g. пробка, сказка, воз сена, под столом.

Regressive assimilation of this type is very rare inside words in En­glish, e.g. newspaper /'nju:speıpə/.

However it is observed at word boundaries in rapid, careless speech.

Care should be taken to avoid regressive assimilation in such English words as tennis ball /'tenıs bo:l/, blackboard /'blækbo:d/ and in the word boundaries: English book /'ıŋglıς'buk/, like that /laık 'ðæt/, these people /'ði:z 'pi:pl/.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-06