Occlusive occlusive-constrictive constrictive

oral nasal oral sonarant

Voiced voiceless voiced voiceless voiced voiceless

b p m dz tς v f w

d t n ð θ r

g k ŋ z s j

l z ∫

The suggested classification shows the strict structure of consonantal continuum in English, which can fully be perceived only through differentiating functional features of every linguistic sign.

The vowels

The vowels of English will be dealt briefly in this chapter. A vowel phoneme is a speech sound in the pronunciation of which an air stream passes freely through the mouth cavity. The difference in the position of the tongue and lips, the stability and the length of articulation give such a great variety of English vowels, illustrated in the following traditional table.

Table 3

This classification doesn't reflect the stability principle and omits diphthongs. A.Gimson differentiates between the following groups of vowels:

(a) long vowels /i: u: a: ə: o:/;

(b) short vowels / ı e æ υ o ə /;

(c) diphthongs: 1) gliding to / ı / - eı aı oı ;

2) gliding to |υ|- aυ əυ;

3) gliding to / ə / - υə ıə eə

Such sequences as /a ı + ə/ and /a υ + ə / may be pronounced like /a: ə/. This classification is highly practical but says nothing about their functional features.

The following table shows the vowel phonemes of English given by G.Brown. This table is not arranged according to the fine detail of phonetic pronunciation. Vowels are grouped together on the basis of their similar distribution and they are arranged in classes which behave in similar ways in the stream of speech.

Table 4

Column A contains so-called ‘short’ vowels. Since they are of varying length and ‘æ‘, especially; they are frequent­ly longer than some of the so-called ‘long’ vowels; it's bet­ter to avoid using such general categories which look rather traditional than present real facts. All vowels in columnAshare one common distributional character, namely, none of them can appear in a stressed monosyllable not closed by a consonant. The final ‘ə’ can only occur in unstressed sylla­bles.

Column В shows the front closing vowels. When followed by another vowel in column D they are often realized with a slight glide as in ‘bi:¹ ı ŋ’.

ColumnC contains the back closing vowels. When followed by another vowel in column D, they are realized with a slight /w/ glide as in ‘kju: ^w ı ŋ’.

Most of the words containing the vowels in column Dhave the sign 'r' in the spelling which is of course pronounced in r-pronouncing accents of English. When followed immediate­ly by another vowel the vowels in column Dare normally separated by an ‘r’ glide when there is an r in spelling.

When there is no ’r’ in spelling the speaker has a choice:

(a) pronouncing a liason ‘idea of /aı dıərəv/’;

(b) interrupting a vowel sequence with a glottal stop /?/ as in / aı dıə?əv /;

(с) introducing a /w/ glide if the vowel concerned has strong lip rounding. (Consider the following example ‘law and order/’ - /lo^w ən o:də/); or

(d) allowing the two vowels to coalesce into one vowel as in /lo:n o:d ə /. Some speakers make use of this last option even when there is an ‘r’ in the spelling as in 'far away' - /fa:weı /.

The main difference of described vowel classifications lies in the fact that the first is based on the principle of difference in the length of vowel articulation whereas the second classi­fication wholly denies the length being a qualitative-quantative feature of distinction between vowels, assuming only the positional length.

The essential contrast of vowel length occurs in different distributional context. Thus, in the open syllable position any vowel has the longest articulation, it is pronounced less long before a voiced consonant (and sonorants) and the shortest duration of vowel is in vowels followed by a voiceless consonant. Consequently, we may not use sign /:/ to differentiate bet­ween long and short vowels. Vowels in column A never occur in the longest vowel position, i.e. in an open syllable, and as a result they do not possess the longest variants. A Dictionary of Contemporary English avoids the use of the length mark at all.

In addition it is necessary to make a particular comment on a vowel /æ/. This vowel is quite long, strikingly longer than /i/ or /e/ for instance. Before voiced consonants it is often diphthongized as in 'bad' - /b æ ^ə d/. The other long vowel is /o/, which is also diphthongized as in 'board' /b o ^ə d /.

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