Subsidiary Variants of English Vowel Phonemes

Allophonic differences in the vowel system of the English language are conditioned by their distributional characteristics. All of them may occur in initial position.

/i:/ economy /a:/ arc /u:/ Uganda /eı/ eight /ıə/ earshot

/ı/ image /υ/ on / Λ / utter /aı/ idea /εə/ airway

/e/ editor /o:/ all /з:/ earn /аu/ hour /uə/ Urdul

/æ/ acid /u/ Uruguay /ə/ about / oı/ oily /əu/ over

In initial position the vowel is more or less free from the influence of the next consonant phoneme.

Vowels may be nasalized, (a) more – if they precede the nasal sound and (b) less – when they follow it.

(a) tςın pen hæm (b) mi: næt mæp

kin ten bυm mæd nest mυb

Low vowels are more affected by nasal consonants than mid and high vowels.

noon nine

noodle neat

moon clean

mar mean

farm fine

Allophonic differences in the vowel system are mostly in quantity, or length. The quantity of vowels depends on the following factors:

1. position of a vowel in a word: (1) free; (2) terminated by a voiced, in avoiceless consonant;

2. position of a vowel in relation to word stress;

3. position of a vowel in relation to sentence stress and rhythm;

4. there are extralinguistic factors that may affect the length of vowels. They are connected with emotional characteristics. For example, if we compare similar vowels in the following sentences we may observe quantitativedependence of vowels on the emotional colouring.

The 'Man of - Property, by 'John Galsworthy (title)

"A Forsyte," replied young Jolyon, "is not an uncommon animal..."

/o:/ in the word Forsyte is longer than /o:/ in the word Galsworthy.

Connection of a vowel with word stress is a characteristic feature, peculiarto the English language. A vowel in unstressed position may change not only its quantity but it undergoes qualitative changes, which may result not only in its reduction but in the occurrence of the neutral vowel /ə/.

It should be borne in mind that unstressed vowels in English may preserve their quantity. They may be fully long: emissivity /,i:mı'sıvəti/, orchestral /o:'kestrəl/.

This is never the case with the Russian language, where all unstressed vowels are reduced, according to their position in the word.

For example, the Russian /a, o/ are reduced to / Λ / in the first pretonic syllable and to /ъ/ in other unaccented syllables: с/ Λ /сна, д/ Λ /ры, гол/ъ/ву, стор/ъ/ну, з/ъ/ горой.

The Russian /e/ is pronounced as /ы^е/ after /ж, ш/ in the first pretonic syllable: ж/ы^е/на, ж/ы^е/вать. In other pretonic syllables /e/ is pronounced as /ъ/: ж/ъ/лтизна.

The Russian /a/ is pronounced as /и^е/ after the soft /ч, ш/ in the first pretonic syllable: ч/и^е/сы.

The Russian /e/ is pronounced as /ə/ after soft consonants in posttonic position: вын/ə/су, оч/ə/редь.

The quality of English vowels of full formation is very stable and definite (/i:/ and /u:/ are exceptions).

Articulatory differences of vowel phonemes depend on (1) the place of articulation of the adjacent consonant and on (2) the active organ of speech of the adjacent consonant.

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