Monophthongs. Principles of classification.

Main Theoretical Concepts:

3. According to the lip position monophthongs can be rounded and unrounded. Rounded vowels are produced when the lips are more or less rounded

E.g. [u:, ʊ, ɔː, uː], Russian [у] [о].

Unrounded vowels are produced when the lips are spread or neutral

E.g. [ɪ, e, æ, ʌ, ǝ, iː, ɑː, ɜː, iː ɑː, ɜː], Russian [э] [и] [а] [ы]

4. According to their length vowels are divided into long or short

The long English vowels are [iː ɑː ɔː uː ɜː].

The short ones are [ɪ e æ ʌ ɒ ʊ ǝ].

5. According to the degree of tenseness vowels may be tense or lax.

Tense vowels are produced when the organs of speech are tense. All the long vowels are tense. Lax vowels (the short ones) are produced with lesser tenseness of the speech organs.

6. According to the character of their end vowels may be checked or unchecked. Checked vowels are pronounced without any lessening of the force of the utterance towards the end (in a closed syllable) e.g. short vowels under stress, long vowels, diphthongs + voiceless consonants.

Unchecked vowels are pronounced with lessening of the force of the utterance towards their end e.g. long vowels, diphthongs under stress + voiced consonants, unstressed vowels.

horizontal vertical	front	front-retracted	central	back-advanced	back
high	high-narrow	i:				u:
high-broad		i / iə		ʊ / ʊə
mid	mid-narrow	e / ei		ɜ:
mid-broad	eə		əʊ / ə		ɔ: / ɔi
low	low-narrow			ʌ
low-broad	æ	aʊ		ai / ɑ:	ɒ

Practical Tasks:

Sound [I]

Is little lipstick permissible for women in Egyptian villages?

Miss, miss, little Miss. Miss., If she misses, she misses like this.

Graphic equivalents of the sound [I]

i lid [lId]

y very ['verI]

Questions for self -check:

1. What vowel sounds can be characterized as rounded; voiceless; checked; long?

Sources:

1. М.А. Соколова и др. Практическая фонетика английского языка. сс.85 – 90.

2. O'Connor Better English Pronunciation, pp. 79-84

Unit 5

Дата добавления: 2015-09-05