Styles of Pronunciation

A person does not always pronounce the same words in the same way. The pronunciation of one and the same person may be different on different occasions; for instance, when delivering a lecture, speaking over the radio or giving a dictation exercise, when talking to official persons or chatting with friends. These different ways of pronouncing words are called " styles of pronunciation ".

Prof. D. Jones has classified pronunciation styles in the following manner:

- the rapid familiar style,

- the slower colloquial style,

- the natural style used in addressing a fair-sized audience,

- the acquired style of the stage,

- the acquired styles used in singing.

But there is no indication as to the characteristic features of each style, nor is any principle given that might help to distinguish one style from another.

Some authors confuse styles of pronunciation with literary styles. Prof. R. I. Avanessov mentions the following styles: common colloquial, poetic, academic, the style of public address, low colloquial. These several styles are represented in the following scheme:

- literary style,

- colloquial style (stylistically neutral),

- low colloquial.

The first subdivision includes the three more elevated styles (poetic, academic, the style of public address. The author remarks, however, that no distinct phonetic features of any of these styles can be quoted.

Prof. L. V. Shcherba differentiates the full style from the colloquial style. The distinctive principle is the degree of carefulness with which words are pronounced.

The full style is characterized by a moderately slow tempo and a careful pronunciation. The words are pronounced in their full form, without vowel reduction or loss of consonants, without unnecessary (non-obligatory) assimilations (e. g. singing).

The colloquial style differs from the full style both in tempo and in clearness. The peculiarities of this style differ in each different language.

In Prof. L. V. Scerba's classification, the most essential features which differentiate the two styles are emphasized. Besides this basic subdivision of styles, it is useful to distinguish two main types of the colloquial style:

1) the careful colloquial style (which may have subdivisions in tempo) and

2) the careless colloquial style, which differs from the careful colloquial style in the free use of non-obligatory assimilations, such as: ['gImmI], wanna = want to, gona = going to etc.

In studying a foreign language, one should begin by learning the words in their full form (the full style), then master the careful colloquial style; it is of no use to learn the rapid careless colloquial style, it should be avoided.

The two styles of pronunciation in English are chiefly distinguished by the use of strong forms of all the words in the full style, and by the use of weak forms of the form words and of a number of other common words in the colloquial style. The careful colloquial style and the careless colloquial style differ in the degree of carefulness and in tempo. The former is characterized by obligatory assimilations, the latter by a number of non-obligatory assimilations.

The sentence I should like to see her in the various styles will sound as follows:

1) in the full style — [aI Sud 'laIk tu 'si: h@:];

2) in the careful colloquial style — [aI S@d 'laIk t@ 'si: h@∙];

3) in the careless colloquial style — [aI St 'laIk t@ 'si: @].

In Russian the colloquial styles differ from the full style by the use of shortened words. Not all words can be thus shortened in colloquial styles.

E. g. The full formThe colloquial form

1000 [тыс'ача] [тыш'ча]

Иван Иванович [иван иванъвич] [иван иваныч]

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