Types of pronunciation

The phoneme theory

Founder- Бодуэн де Куртене – worked out 2 approaches to the phoneme

1) morphological – the phoneme is inseparable from the morpheme

2) psychological - phoneme is a complex of articulatoty, acoustic and auditory aspect (the physical image of the sound) е.g.” маг – мак”

There existed one more approach developed by Лео Щерба (Leningradphonological school) - “materialistic approach” – phoneme does not only have articulatoty, acoustic and auditory characteristics but also fulfils some function in the language ( it is semantically significant) - one and the same sound may belong to two diff phonemes, but it makes no difference from the point of view of pronunciation.

Реформатский и Аванесов (Moscow phonological school) stated that one and the same sound may belong simultaneously to two diff phonemes representing two diff morphemes – this approach unlike leningrads does not state the independence of the phoneme from the morpheme e.g. “лук – лука – на лугу”

Трубецкой и Якобсон (Prague school) created a revolution in the theory:

they worked out the principle of phonological opposition and the concept of archiphoneme – a unity of relevant features common to to morphemes (лук – к + г, к is archiphoneme).

Daniel Jones (London school) – introduced an atomistic theory.He called the qualities of the same phoneme – phones, a number of which forms the corresponding phoneme. His views were underestimated because he took into account only material and real characteristics of the phoneme and didn’t observe its abstractional and general character.

American school members started to deny the objective realty of the phoneme and call it an abstractional fiction.

Copenhagen school (Yelmsler and Halley) separated the phoneme from the actual speech – they called their approach algebraic and look upon the language as a system of signs and codes. They underestimated material and real characteristics of the phoneme and overestimate its abstractional and general character.

All the problems were overcome by professor Vasilev who gave the phoneme definition which reflects all its aspects.

A phoneme is the smallest language unit which exists in speech of all the members of a given language community as such speech sounds which are capable of distinguishing of one word from another, one grammar form of the same word from another.

Functions if the phoneme

1) constitutive (morpheme constitutive, word and grammar form constitutive, sentence constitutive “ it’s cold – it’s gold)

2)distinctive (см 1)

3) Recognitive - usage of the right allophone in the rightly place (wrong usage leads to phonetic mistake (in pronunciation not in meaning)

Components of phonetic system

1) phoneme structure (based on the principle of phonological opposition (Трубецкой) - each element of the language is opposed to any other element and at the same time to all other phonemes e.g. t opposed to d and to all sonorants and velar consonants, vowels - consonants, etc)

- system of isolated phonemes

- distribution of phonemes (usage of certain ph in the certain word-position e.g. ы never occurs at the beginning of Russian words

- transition - change of sound undr the influence of the neighboring ones

4 types of transition: (Vowel Consonant)

VV( pronunciation of “the”

VC( adaptation - positional length “ si: - si:z - sit),

CV( tri: – flat, tru: - rounded),

CC (assimilation – progressive ”slow”, regressive “in the”, double or reciprocal “thrilling”)

Syllabication

- syllable formation (in English both vowels and sonorants can be syllabic “needle, bottom, boundary” )

- syllable division (minimum syllable “are”,

onset syllable “by”,

coda syllable “it”,

onset+coda”run”

- plays semantic role” хлебсухой”, “iscream”

3)accentuation– accent in a separately taken word

- physical nature of accent

dynamic including loudness, pitch, length, quality (Russian, English, German, French)

musical - accent by pitch (Chinese, Japanese)

- degree of accent (primary, secondary, tertiary)

- - place of accent - fixed ( French - last syl), free

4) intonation- a complex unity of speech melody, rhythm, tempo, timbre, pausation, syntactic(logical) stress.

Also intonation is defined as “breath group, sence group, intonation group, syntagma”.

According to the traditional approach intonation has 3 functions:

constitutive (dividing the sent into tone units), distinctive, recognitive.

According to D.Crystal’s intonation has 6 functions: emotional, grammatical, intonational (to show what is new in the utterance), textual( to contrast and cohere large text units), psychological, indexial( to differentiat btw social stratum, professions etc)

Types of pronunciation

English is the national language of certain countries, but within them English has some peculiar features.

We differentiate among:

1) standard pronunciation (pr), the type which is governed by the orphoepic norm (TV, radio, dictionaries)

2) non - standard pr – dialect – variety of pr spoken by the limited number of people of certain locality (e.g. Kentish dialect)

- Dialects can be divided into local, social or mixed (e.g. Cockney), another subdivision is into narrow and broad(e.g. American dialect).

- Dialect refers to pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, whilst accent refers to pronunciation only. Each person has his own idialect (distinctive pr-n features).

- We distinguish btw Am E, BE, CA, Au E, NZE as national varieties if English. Each national variant falls into several regional types, which may be standard( equally correct and acceptable on the territory used)and non-standard.

- BE has the following national variants:

· Southern E (the most important as it is RP),

· Northern E(exists in the area btw Birmingham and Scotland, in 16-17 cent used to be standard, was brought to the US - and still has a lot in common with Am E)

· Scottish(/r/ is pronounced at the end of “sure, mirror, far”, /a:/ instead of /æ/ in can't dance half banana)

· Irish and Welsh

-Daniel Jones defined SP as “Public School Pronunciation” spoken by Eaton and Harrow attendants, but in the 50-s he introduced the new term - Received Pronunciation (RP) – the social standard, considered to be very prestigious but spoken only by 3-10 %. Moreover , RP is non homogeneous and is divided into:

· conservative (royal family) - slow speed, very distinctive

· BBC (TV) – most socially neutral and correct

· Advanced (young generation) – deliberately ruining all the norms

Now Gimson gives another subdivision into

· Upper class RP

· Mainstream RP (educated people no matter which social class)

· Adoptive RP(taught one).

They are not unanimous so the question of the teaching norm (to foreigners) arises. the 2^nd is too fast so usually the teachers take 1^st one for a standard .

- National varieties in a detail

standard American regional dialects, which derived from a British origin and evolved primarily from the "middle colonies" of the Colonial era

Internal Regional Varieties: NORTHERN DIALECT, NORTH MIDLAND,SOUTH MIDLAND, SOUTHERN, METROPOLITAN NEW YORK CITY,NEW ENGLAND

Grammar differences: waked up/woke up, quarter to 9/quarter til 9/quarter of 9, shoes need fixed/need to be fixed/need fixing, standing on line/standing in line, wait on/wait for (people). - - - The shift of /æ/ to /ɑ/ (the so-called "broad A") before /f/, /s/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /v/ alone or preceded by a homorganic nasal. This is the difference between the British Received Pronunciation and American pronunciation of bath and dance..

- The realization of intervocalic /t/ as a glottal stop [ʔ] ( as in [bɒʔəl] for bottle)..The merger of [ɑ] and [ɒ], making father and bother rhyme. This change is nearly universal in North American English, occurring almost everywhere except for parts of eastern New England, hence the Boston accent.

- Dropping of [j] after alveolar consonants so that new, duke, Tuesday, suit, resume, lute arepronounced /nuː/, /duːk/, /tuːzdeɪ/, /suːt/, /ɹɪzuːm/, /luːt/.

- æ-tensing

The Canadian English dialect is one of the largest and the most homogenous dialect areas in North America. It is very similar to General American English.

Unlike RP, the West/Central dialect is rhotic. This means it maintains the pronunciation of r before consonants. - It has also not shifted [æ] to [ɑ] (the so-called "broad A") before [f], [s], [θ], [ð], [z], [v] alone or preceded by [n]. : - The horse-hoarse merger of the vowels [ɔ] and [oʊ] before 'r', making pairs like horse/hoarse, corps/core, for/four, morning/mourning etc. homophones. - Traditionally diphthongal vowels such as [oʊ] as in boat and [eɪ], as in bait, have acquired qualities much closer to monophthongs in some speakers.

æ-tensing /æ/ is tense before velar stops

The first remarkable tendency of Australian English is the big differences between Standard and Australian English in the field of lexis are the result of borrowings into Australian English from Australian Aboriginal languages such as place names.

e.g.color instead of colour,center ,presence ,dreamed

The front mid-high vowel /e/ is changed to the diphthong /ai/.e.g. day/dai/ - The intervocalic /t/ often sounds like “better”. - The diphthong /a_/ is more nasal and open. - e.g. town---/t_a_n/

New Zealand English is close to Australian English in pronunciation, Several of the differences also show the influence of Māori speech. The most striking difference from Australian and other forms of English (although shared partly with South African English) is the flattened i of New Zealand English. The New Zealand accent also has some Scottish and Irish influences from the large number of settlers from those places during the 19th century.

Many local everyday words have been borrowed from the Māori language, including words for local flora, fauna and the natural environment. Below the latter word is how the former word sounds to the ears of a non-New Zealander:

pan → pen pen → pin pin → pun pair → peer

Rising inflection

New Zealanders will often reply to a question with a statement spoken with a rising inflection on the last couple of words (known in linguistics as a high rising terminal). This often has the effect of making their statement sound like another question. This effect is heightened by the common local practise of adding "eh" to the end of sentences ( ie "It was choice[great] eh", "I got a job eh" ).

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