Vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables in English

Elision in consonants clusters.

ABSENCE OF ASSIMILATION IN SOME CONSONANT CLUSTERS

Clusters of alveolar and labio-dental fricatives with interdental sounds [s — θ, z — β, s — β, β — s, β — z, v —β, f — β] and labio­dental fricatives with the bilabial sonorant [v — w, f — w] at syllable and word junctures present special difficulty for learners of English because they are only slightly different in articulation and perception and also because such contrasts as [v — w], [s — 0] ets are not to be found in Russian or Belarusian. In pronouncing these clusters care should be taken to avoid assimilation according to the place * or manner of articulation, i. e. the quality of the adjacent sounds should be kept distinct.

Elision of [t, d, b]

Elision means the dropping of a sound or sounds, either within a word or at £ junction of words. Elision is a feature of rapid colloquial speech, while formal speech tends to retain the full form of words under the influence of spelling.

One of the most typical examples of elision is the omission of [t] or [d] between two other consonants: friends [frenz], mostly [maush]. Another example is the elision of [h] in pronouns and auxiliaries. Pronouns with the initial [h] and the auxiliaries "have, has, had" commonly lose [h] when they are unstressed within an utterance, [h] is pronounced in these words when they are initial in an utterance or when they are stressed:

The people have gone. She gave him his breakfast. It took him half an hour, [it 'tuk im 'ha:f эп ^хаиэ] But: He is going away

It must be remembered that elisions of consonants in consonant clusters are not always permissible. In general, clusters of two identical consonants at a word junction must not be reduced by elision. The two consonants should be run togetner smootnly without a break.

what time

with this

a clean knife

The elision of one of the two consonants (not identical as a rule) sometimes occurs in very rapid speech but it is usually characterized as a vulgarism.**

he went away

give me a cake

Unstressed syllables in English words are in most cases pronounced with the neutral vowel [э] which is historically the result of the reduction, or weakening, of various vowels in an unstressed position. In unstressed syllables containing the letter "e" the sound [i] is often pronounced, which is also regarded as a case of weakening since the letter "e" in a stressed syllable normally corresponds to either [i:] or [e]. In some English words, however, there is no reduction, i.e. the unstressed syllables in them retain a full-quality vowel. This means that the letter-sound correla­tion here is the same as in stressed syllables. Unstressed full-quality vowels, however, differ from stressed ones in length and the force of articulation.

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