Modification of phonemes in connected speech

Each sound pronounced in isolation has 3 stages in its articulation:

a) the organs of speech move to the position which is necessary to pronounce the sound. It’s called initial stage or on-glide

b)the organs of speech are kept for some time in this position –the medial stage, stop stage, the hold

c) the org f speech move away to the neutral position – final stage of f-glde, release

2 ways of joining the sounds:

- loose type of articulatory transition - merging of stages, when the final stage of the 1^st sound merges with the initial stage of the second sound (ex. in the word “law” the stages merge and the transition is loose. During the finel stage of “l” the tip of the tongue moves away from the alveolar ridge and the whole of the tongue moves backwards to the position of [o:]. The lips begin to get rounded.

- close type of articulatory transition – the middle of the second sound (ex. when the sounds are of a similar or identical nature we have the close type. In the word “bottle” in cluster [tl] the sounds are joined interpreting their stages ([kl]. [kt]). At the moment of the hold for [t] the lateral explosion takes place. The vocal cords start vibrating at the end of the hold for [t]. The air passes through the pharynx and the mouth cavity along the lateral passes, producing the dark allophone of [l])

Nasal plosion takes place when a plosive is followed by nasal [m,n]. When 2 identical sounds are joined together, a single but prolonged medial stage is observed.

In the case of aspiration palatalization as the vowel articulation is superimposed on the consonant articulation, which precedes it.

Assimilation is a modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of an adjacent consonant. The sound which articulation is modified is called assimilated; the consonants which influences – an assimilating sound.

Types of assimilation:

1)Assimilation affecting the point articulation: the principal variants of the phonemes [t, d, n, l, s, z] are replaced by valar [N].

2) Assimilation affecting the manner of the production of noise: give me [gimmi:] – [v] before [m] in rapid coll. Speech is modified: let me [lemmi:]

The manner of noise production is affected by assimilation in case of:

a) lateral plosion – when a plosive is followed by [l]. The closure for the plosive isn’t released until the off-glide for [l]. The side of the tounge are lower ed and the air escapes along them with lateral plosion: ex. pleasure, cattle, candle.

b) Nasal plosion – a plosive followed by the syllabic [n,m] has no release. The air escapes through the nasal cavity: button, sudden, tumble

c) Loss of plosion – incomplete plosion in clusters of two similar plosives (pp, tt, kk, pb, td, kg) and of 2 plosives with different points of articulation (kt, dg, tb) – only one explosion for 2 plosives. The closure of the organs of speech for the 2 plosive is made before the release of the first one: act, fact, good girl.

4) Assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords: a voiceless consonant may be replaiced by a voiced one under the influence of an adjacent voiced consonant may be replaiced by a voiced one under the influence of an adjacent voiced cons. , or vice versa: goose [gu;s], but goosberry [gu:zberi], used [juzd]- used to[justu]. The Eng. Sonoants [m, n, l, r, j, w] are partly divoiced when they are preceded by the voiceless consonants [s, p, t, k]: small, try, please, quick, twenty.

5) Assimilation affecting the lip position: the labialized subsidary variants of the phonemes [k,g, t, s] are used under influence of the following bilabial sonorat [w]: quick, twenty, language, swollen.

6) Assim. affecting the position of the soft palate: nasal cons. Influence oral ones: let me, kindness.

As far as the direction of assimilation is concerned, it can be:

1) prossive (A - B): the first sound influences the second one and makes it similar to itself: what’s this?

2) regressive (A-B): the second cons. changes the first one: news [nju:z], but newspaper [njuspeipe].

3) reciprocal (double: A- B): 2 adjacent cons. influence each other. In “twenty” [t] becomes labialized and [w], which is assimilated to the voiceless plosive, is partly devoiced.

Assimilation may be of 3 Degrees:

1. complete: the articulation of the assimilated cons. fully coincides with that of the assimilating one: horse shoe [ho: Su:]; does she

2. partial: the assimilated cons. becomes only partly similar in some features of its articulation to the assimilating one; [t, d, n, l, s, z] are ass-ed to the dental cons. The point of articulation is changed but the main phonemic features remain: tenth, width, twice, please. Voiced variants of the phonemes [w. l] are replaced by their partly devoiced variants.

3. Intermediate: the ass-ed cons. changes into a different sound but doesn’t coincide eith the ass-ing cons. : goose, but gooseberry

Assimilation is called contextual if the articulation of the word is changed in combination with other words.

Accomodation (adaptation) is a modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent cons., or vice versa. It can be of three types:

a) an unrounded variants of a cons. phoneme is replaiced by its rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme: tea-two; less-loose:

b)a vowel phoneme is replaced by its slightly advanced variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual phoneme[j]: booty-beauty; moon-music

c) a vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before the dark [l] under the influence of its back secondary focus. A close vowel sound comes into slightly more open: bed – bell; tenn-tell.

Progressive voicing or devoicing is rare in Russian, but common in English. It occurs in csases:

1) contracted forms of the verbs when -s is preceded by a voiced/voiceless cons: Bob’s gone; that’s right:

2) suffixes of the nouns in the plural form or the verbs inthe 3d pers sing.

3) the possessive suffix -s: Bob’s dog:

4)the past indefinite suffix -ed

Elision is a process due to which one e of the neighboring sounds isn’t released in rapid coll. Speech. Ellision; historical and contemporary. Eng. Spelling is full of silent letters. Cases of ellision:

- ellision of [t, d] in sequences [ft, st, zd, tt, dd]: waste paper [weispeipe]

- [pt, kt, bd, gd: trapped by [trxpbai]

-[md,nd]: slammed the door [slxm De do:]

Elision in everyday speech: months, clothes, fifths, sixths; seven of those apples; six of the best; gonna, wanna. There is a tendency now to pronounce sounds that are not historically pronounced: [often]

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 6986