Lecture 5. English Phonemes in Writing

Language performs its function as a means of intercommunication not only in oral but also in written form. Therefore it is important to establishthe relationship between orthography and pronunciation, that is letters and sounds, which represent them.

English dictionaries usually indicate the pronunciation of each indi­vidual word, because the English spelling system is very difficult. This is because 1) it represents two different languages, one of Romance and the ill her of Germanic origin; 2) the English spelling has remained essential­ly the same since the days of Caxton and the other early printers. As a resultof this 60 symbols are used to represent vowels and diphthongs and 44 symbols are used to represent consonants in the written language. These symbols are separate letters or combinations of letters, which correspondto vowel and consonant phonemes. They are called graphemes. Graphemic symbols are included into angle brackets. Graphemes for the system of vowels are the following:

a, e, I, y, o, u

ar, er, ir, yr, or, ur

aa, ae, ai, ay, au, aw, ay

ea, ee, ei, ey, eu, ew

ie, ye

oar, oor, our, ow(e)r, uer

oa, oe, oi, oy, oo, ou, ow, oe

ue, ui, uy

aer, air, ayr

ear, eer, eir, eyr, eur, ew(e)r

iar, ier, yer

igh, aigh, eigh, ough

Graphemes for the system of consonants are the following:

b, c, ch, d, dg, f, g, gh, gn, gu, h, j, k, 1, m, n, ng, p, ph, q, qu, r, s, sc, sch, sh, si, ssi, sci, ti, ci, ce, t, tch, th, u, v, w, wh, x, xc, y, z, zi

There are very few sounds which have one-to-one graphemic reference e.g. <w>, <b>, <1> in way bay, lid, are single-valued graphemes.

Asa rule, one grapheme has many phonemic references, e.g.

— ə banana

—eı baby
<a> —æ back

—a: bask

—o: ball

—υ wash

—o thought

—u: through

<ough>—ou though

—ə borough

Graphemes may be simple <a> and complex <ough>. A grapheme, which consists of one letter, corresponding to one phoneme is called a monograph; two-, three- and four-letter graphemes, which correspond to one phoneme are called "digraph", "trigraph" and "polygraph" — ac­cordingly, e.g. <a>, <b> are monographs, <ng>,<ck> are digraphs, <tch>, <sch> are trigraphs, <eigh>, <ough> are polygraphs.

One and the same phoneme may be derived from both simple and complex graphemes, e. g. the phoneme /e/ is derived from <e>: met, egg; from <ea>: ready, sweat, /u, u:/ are pronounced only in complex graphic contexts, e.g.

book, cook,look, shook, took

good, hood

bull, bullet, bullock, bully, full, pull

bush, cushion, push

could, should, would

However: bosom, woman.

If we analyse a word from the viewpoint of orthographic — phone­mic and graphemic reference, the discrepancy between them will be al­most universal. For example, the word stretch consists of:

5 phonemes /s/ /t/ /r/ /e/ /tς/

5 graphemes s — t — r — e — tch

7 letters s — t — r — e — t — с — h

From the phonological point of view, a grapheme has a considerable number of allophonic references, due to the complementary distribution or free variation, in which a phoneme occurs. For example, the grapheme <o> in box is in reference with a more front allophone [υ] than in cot, where [υ] is more back. The grapheme <t> in twice is in reference with a rounded allophone of [t] and with [t] post-alveolar in tree.

Morphemic reference of graphemes is many-sided. Any graphic dif­ference must be considered as having an independent morphemic refer­ence. E.g.

boys /boız/ — boys' /boız/ — boy's /boız/

s, s’, ’s have different morphemic reference: s indicates the plural form; s’ indicates the plural form, possessive case; ’s indicates the posessive case of the singular form.

The knowledge of orthography is very important because changes in the orthography are much slower than changes in phonology. Therefore there are large number of rules of reading in modern English.

Orthography helps to differentiate homophones, e.g.

sight /saıt/ — зрение; вид

cite /saıt/ — ссылаться, приводить, цитировать

site /saıt/ — местоположение

There are also cases when words coincide in their plural and singular forms so far as the spelling and pronunciation are concerned. They may be distinguished only by the abbreviated forms, e. g. species /'spi:ςi:z/ (вид, порода): the singular and plural of this word are pronounced alike. The abbreviation sp stands for the singular and spp stands for the plural.

Graphemes in the English language may indicate the phonemic refer­ence of a preceding, or the following grapheme. They perform diacritic function. E.g.

1. The doubling of consonants:

(a) indicates the shortness of the preceding vowel and differentiates the meaning of words:

planed — planned

noted — knotted

(b) differentiates the meaning of words:

assent — a cent

arrival — a rival

(c) lengthens the preceding vowel:

barred, stirred, furred

2. The use of a "mute" e or r:

(a) indicates the alphabetic reading of the preceding vowel and per­ forms differentiatory functions:

rat — rate

pet — Pete

fin — fine

(b) differentiates homophones:

born — borne

pleas — please

step — steppe

(c) indicates the lengthening, or the diphthongal nature of a preceding vowel:

are toe awe pore mere

were due cure fury sire

There are two notions in phonological literature which reflect the connection of orthography with syllables and morphemes: (a) syllabograph and (b) morphograph. The parts of a word which represent sylla­bles graphically are called syllabographs. They may consist of a vowel, or a combination of vowels and consonants which corresponds to a sylla­ble or syllables within the graphic norms of the analysed word, e. g.

Words Syllabographs

higher high-er

barring bar-ring

bankrupt bank-rupt

refinement re-fine-ment

A morphograph is that part of a word which represents a morpheme it graphically, e.g. the suffix -ing is a morphograph in the word singing; the suffix -ed is a morphograph in the word long-legged, etc.

Sounds are indicated in writing by means of transcription. It is especially useful in studying English, where the interpretation of the orthography can be complicated and misleading.

Transcription is quite indispensable in transliteration of names of persons, geographical names, magazines, names of ships, etc. Transliterationis writing a word, or words, of one language in the letters of some otherlanguage.

Transliteration differs from transcription: it is simpler and may use additional symbols. E.g. Bath is transcribed as /ba:θ/ but transliterated as Бат (the length of /a/ and the sound /θ/ are ignored).

Given below is a list of Russian equivalents for English letters and letter combinations and phonetic renderings.

Engish	Russian	English	Russian
a	а, ей, и, о, э, эй	l	л, иногда не передается
ae	а, у, э, и, ии	m	м
ai	ей, эй	n	н
au	ау, о, оу, оо	ng	нг
aw	о, оо	o	о, у, э, а, оу
ay	ей, и, эй	oa	о, оу
b	б, иногда не передается	oe	о, у, оу
c	к, с, ш	oo	а, о, у, уу
ch	к, х, ч, ш	ou	а, ау, оу, у
d	д	ough	аф
e	е, и, э	ow	ау, оу
ea	е, и, ии	p	п, иногда не передается
ee	и, ии	ph	ф
ei	ей, и, эй, ии	q	к
eigh	и, эй, ай	r	р
eo	е, ии	s	ж, ш, с
еu/ ew	ю, ью	sh	ш
ey	ей, и, эй	t	т
f	ф	u	а, е, у, ю
g	г, дж, ж	ui	и, у
gg	гг, гх	ur	ер, эр
h	х, иногда не пердается	v	в
i	ай, е, и, э	w	в, у
ia	айа, иа, ия	wor	уэр
ie	айе, и, ии	x	гз, з, кс
io	айо, ио	y	ай, у, и, й
j	дж	z	з
k	к, иногда не передается

Given below are several “difficult” Russian letters, which are transliterated in English in the following way:

ш – sh Sholokhov

ж – zh Zhukov

ч – tch Chekov, Tchaikovsky

щ – shch Shcherba

ы – y Bykov

х – kx Kharkov

я – ya Yalta

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