Exercise 2

Exercise 1.

Loss of Aspiration

Some Specific Ways of Pronunciation

Lateral Plosion

The lateral plosion takes place at the junction of plosives with the lateral sonorant [l].The plosion is heard during the pronunciation of the sonorant as the airflow passes along the sides of the tongue.

Laterally exploded variants of plosives are found both within a word and at the word-junction, e.g. lit tl e, tha t l esson, mid dl e, cl ock.

The plosives [p, t, k] are aspirated only when they occur at the beginning of a stressed syllable as in p in, t ail, c ome, p lay. An aspirated consonant is one that is accompanied by a brief [h]-sound.

Aspiration is lost at the beginning of a stressed syllable when the voiceless plosives [p, t, k] are preceded by the sibilant [s]. Thus unaspirated variants of [p, t, k] are used after [s] before a stressed vowel, e.g. sk y, st ep, sp y.

Unaspirated variants are naturally used before unstressed vowels and in the word-final position, e.g. c ar ' toon, ri p e, t o ' wri t e.

The [h]-phoneme in Intervocalic Position

A partially voiced variant of the voiceless [h] is used between vowels, i.e. in intervocalic position within a word or at the word-junction, e.g. be h ind, I h ave, a h ouse.

The Clear and Dark [l]

The clear variant of the lateral sonorant [l] is used before vowels and the median sonorant [j] within a word and at the word-junction. In this position the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate which palatalizez the sound, e.g. va l ue, l esson, wil l y ou, l oose, al l a re here.

The dark variant of [l] is used before consonants and in the word-final position. In this position the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate, which gives a dark shade to the sound, e.g. te ll, se ll, chi ld ren, fai led, We lsh.

Revise the rules and answer the following questions. Check up your answers with the key.

1) What variants of English consonants due to the specific way of their junction do you know?

2) What variants of the plosives are used before another plosive or the affricates [C, G]? e.g. loo ked, a bi g table, a grea t deal, tha t chair, sto p J ane.

3) What variants of the plosives are used before [n, m]? e.g. di dn ’t, mi dn ight, dar kn ess, to p m arks, col d m ilk.

4) What variants of the plosives are used before [l]? e.g. mid d le, la tel y, ap pl e, shoul d like, jun gl e, ta bl e.

5) What is the difference in pronouncing the plosive consonants in: team - st eam, port - sp ort, car - sc ar?

6) What variant of [l] is pronounced in: te ll y ou, al l young, l eft, sp l ash, c l ean?

7) What variant of [h] is used in intervocalic position? e.g. any h ow, per h aps, the h oney.

Practise the following words and combinations. Make sure you can pronounce everything correctly.

speak	apt	sobbed	'please	'happen	'hobnob
sport	ex'cept	fibbed	'place	'halfpenny	'hobnail
spell	'stopped	stabbed	'plan	'shop-man	'ribbon
spade	‘hope to	ob'tain	'plenty	‘help me	'table
spoon	'ripe ‘corn	'rub ‘down	'plead	‘stop me	'pebble
spy	'stoop‘down	'globe‘trotter	'dimple	'top‘meeting	'terribly

1) Mind unaspirated [p] after [s].

2) Pay attention to plosionless variants of [p] and [b] before another plosive.

3) Observe nasal and lateral plosions.

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