1. Articulatory classification of the English vowels.

1. Articulatory classification of the English vowels.

Monophthongs

By the 1st criterion, English vowels divide into monophthongs, diphthongs and diphthongoids. Monophthongs are vowels pronounced by the fixed speech organs with stable vowel quality.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs feature sliding articulation with radical sound quality change. The speech organs take a certain position to articulate the 1st stable vowel sounding distinct and drawling. Then they reshape for another position without reaching it. This slide is created toward one of 3 timbres: [i], [u] and [ә] – they sound short and indistinct. The 1st element is a diphthong nucleus, the second slide.

Diphthongoids

They’re midway between monophthongs and diphthongs. Like diphthongs, diphthongoids feature sliding articulation though with much weaker slide. They don’t radically change vowel sound quality, so traditionally belonging to the monophthong group.

English has 12 monophthongs: [i:], [i], [e], [æ], [u], [u:], [o:], [o], [a:], [a], [e:], [ә], of them 2: [i:] and [u:] are diphthongoids and 8 diphthongs: [ei], [ai], [oi], [au], [әu], [iә], [eә], [uә].

Front Vowels

If the tongue bulk is advanced to the front teeth (with the tongue’s front part touching the lower teeth) and the middle part is bent up, vowels formed thereby are front (monophthongs [i:], [e], [æ] and the [eә], [ei] diphthongs’ 1st elements).

Back Vowels

The [u:], [o:], [o] monophthongs and the [oi] diphthong’s 1st element form with the tongue bulk pulled back and its back part bent up.

Back Advanced Vowels

In articulating [u], [a:] and starting [uә] the tongue bulk is slightly advanced compared to its position in the back mouth cavity.

Central (Mixed) Vowels

Central vowels ([e:], [ә], [a] and [әu]’s 1st element) are pronounced with the tongue bulk in the mouth cavity center. Here both the mid and back parts are equally risen.

High Vowels

[i:], [i], [u], [u:] and [iә], [uә]’s 1st elements are pronounced with the tongue bulk high in the mouth cavity.

Mid Vowels

[e], [e:], [ә], [o:] and [ei], [әu], [eә]’s 1st elements are pronounced with the tongue bulk amid the mouth cavity, its mid and back parts equally risen.

Low Vowels

[a], [æ], [a:], [o] and [oi], [ai], [au]’s 1st elements are pronounced with the tongue bulk low in the mouth cavity.

Tense Vowels

Monophthongs can be pronounced with some muscular tension like in [a:], [o:] or without it like in [i], [a]. The [i:], [u:], [o:], [a:], [e:] vowels are tense with the rest as lax. Diphthongs are considered semi-tense as tension typically weakens toward their articulation. Diphthongoids feature some tensioning up to vowel ending as a diphthongoid’s sliding sector is in the vowel sound beginning, not at its end like in diphthongs.

Long/Short Vowels

Vowels are historically divided into long and short. However their distinction is based on quality characteristics as the factual sound length of historically long vowels may change. Positionally conditioned length variants depend on syllable type, syllable-ending consonant type, word accent structure, and word intonation.

2.Articulatory classification of the English consonants.

According to the manner of articulation (how the breath is used) the consonants are: stops, also known as plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, laterals, and approximants. Nasals, laterals and approximants are always voiced; stops, fricatives and affricates can be voiced or unvoiced.

Stops /Plosives/	During production of these sounds, the airflow from the lungs is completely blocked at some point, then released. In English, they are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/.
Fricatives	The flow of air is constricted, but not totally stopped or blocked. In English, these include /f/, /v/, /θ/, / /,/s/, /z/, / /, / /, and /h/.
Affricates	These sounds begin like stops, with a complete blockage of air/closure of the vocal tract, and end with a restricted flow of air like fricatives. English has two affricates - the / / sounds of "church" and the / / of "judge".
Nasals	Nasals are sounds made with air passing through the nose. In English, these are /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/.
Laterals	Lateral consonants allow the air to escape at the sides of the tongue. In English there is only one such sound - /l/
Approximants	In the production of an approximant, one articulator is close to another, but the vocal tract is not narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. In English, these are /j/, /w/ and /r/. Approximants /j/ and /w/ are also referred to as semi-vowels. m, n, l, w, r.

According to the place of articulation (where in the mouth or throat the sound is produced) the consonants are:

Bilabial: with both lips	/p/, /b/, /m/
Labiodental: between lower lip and upper teeth	/f/, /v/
Dental/Interdental: between the teeth	/ /,/ /
Alveolar: the ridge behind the upper front teeth	/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/
Alveo-palatal (or post-alveolar): it is the area between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate	/ /, / /, / /, //
Palatal: hard palate, or 'roof' of the mouth'	/j/
Velar: the soft palate or velum	/k/, /g/, / /
Glottal (laryngeal): space between the vocal cords	/h/

3. The nature of English word stress.

Word stress (WS) can be defined as the singling out of one or more syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the change of the force of utterance, pitch of the voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the sound which is usually a vowel.

Stress is defined differently by different authors. B.A. Bogoroditsky, defined stress as an increase of energy, accompanied by an increase of expiratory and articulatory activity.

D. Jones defined stress as the degree of force.

On the auditory level a stressed syllable is the part of the word which has a special prominence. It is produced by a greater loudness and length, modifications in the pitch and quality.

Types of English word stress.

Types of English word stress to its degree 1)primary-the strongest 2)secondary-the second strongest, partial 3)weak-all the other degrees. In Ukrainian and Russian there are two degrees of word stress: primary, weak.

Types of English word stress according to its position 1)fixed lexical stress 2)variable lexical(free) stress

Functions of word stress.

1. The CONSTITUTIVE function: it organizes the syllables of a word into language unit having a definite accentual structure, i.e. a pattern of relationship among the syllables. The word does not exist as a lexica' unit without word stress.

J. Layer holds the view that lexical stress shows a culminative function: being characteristic property of the word, it is thought to help the listener to judge how many individual words the speaker has produced in a given utterance.

2. The IDENTIFICATORY function: correct lexical stress enables the listener to decode the information in verbal communication adequately, while misplaced word stresses prevent understanding.

3. The DISTINCTIVE/CONTRAST function: word stress alone is capable of differentiating the meanings of words or their forms. It should be mentioned though that most words in most languages that use word stress linguistically do not possess minimal pairs based on stress. But still there are about 135 pairs of words of identical orthography in English which could occur either as nouns (with stress on the penultimate syllable) or as verbs (with stress on the final syllable), with a very small number of cases the location of lexical stress alone being the differentiating factor: import (noun) -- import (verb), `insult (noun) -- in'sult (verb).

Word stress patterns in English.

The accentual patterns of the words territory, dictionary, necessary in AmE with the primary stress on the first syllable and the tertiary stress on the third are other examples illustrating the correlation of the recessive and rhythmical tendencies. Nowadays we witness a great number of variations in the accentual structure of English multisyllabic words as a result of the interrelation of the tendencies.

4. The syllable as an integral part of the word. Types of syllables. The central element in the language mechanism is a word.From the point of view of the theory of phonetics,it’s important to investigate how words are produced. It has benn astablished that words are articulated in syllables. The syllable is a group of sounds that are pronounced together. The syllable is one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance wich may be a commonly recognized subdivision of a word or the whole of the word. A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. A word that consists of a single syllable (dog) is called a monosyllable (such a word is monosyllabic), while a word consisting of two syllables (puppy) is called a disyllable (such a word is disyllabic). A word consisting of three syllables (wolverine) is called a trisyllable (the adjective form is trisyllabic). A word consisting of more than three syllables (rhinoceros) is called a polysyllable (and could be described as polysyllabic), although this term is often used to describe words of two syllables or more. In most theories of European phonology, the general structure of a syllable (σ) consists of three segments at the same level: Onset (ω) consonant, obligatory in some languages, optional or even restricted in others Nucleus (ν) sonant, obligatory in most languages Coda (κ) consonant, optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others(they end with one or more consonants) Types of syllables in English According to the placement of vowels and consonants the following types of syllables are distinguished:. 1.open syllable The vowel ends the syllable.Ex: tie,sea,far, they, wri-ter 2.closed syllable (VC) One or more consonants come after the vowel. (The consonant ‘closes’ the syllable.) Closed syllables are usually taught first because they are the most frequent syllable type in English and also the most regular. Ex:art,sit,sell, hun-dred. 3.covered syllables when the vowel is preceded by a consonant: say 4. uncovered syll. When the vowel is no consonant before the vowel: apt Functions of the syllable. The first is constitutive function. Syllables constitute words through the combination of their stress-loudness, duration-length, pitch-tone The other function is distinctive one. In this respect the syllable is characterized by its ability to differentiate words and word-forms. nitrate — night-rate, an aim - a name, an ice house - a nice house, The identificatory function the listener can understand the exact meaning of the utterance only when the correct syllabic boundary is perceived

5. Prosodyc system of English language/intonation General notion of prosody. Prosody or prosodic features of language is a term that refers collectively to variations in pitch, loudness, tempo, rhythm. In linguistics, prosody (pronounced /ˈprɒsədi/ pross-ə-dee) is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance (statement, question, or command); the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of language that may not be encoded by grammar or choice of vocabulary. A complex unity of speech melody, sentence-stress, rhythm, tempo, and timbre is called intonation. Speech melody is the changes in the pitch of the voice in connected speech. It makes THE PITCH COMPONENT OF INTONATION. Sentence stress/utterance –level stress/accent is the great prominence of one or more words among other words in sentence. It makes THE FORCE COMPONENT OF INTONATION. According to Prof. Vassilvey THE TEMPORAL COMPONENT of intonation manifests itself in: 1. pauses 2. duration (rate or tempo in speech) 3. rhythm Main functions of intonation. D. Crystal distinguishes the following functions of intonation. • Emotional function's most obvious role is to express attitudinal meaning -sarcasm, surprise, reserve, impatience, delight, shock, anger, interest, and thousands of other semantic nuances. • Grammatical function helps to identify grammatical structure in speech, performing a role similar to punctuation. Units such as clause and sentence often depend on intonation for their spoken identity, and several specific contrasts, such as question/statement, make systematic use of it. • Informational function helps draw attention to what meaning is given and what is new in an utterance. The word carrying the most prominent tone in a contour signals the part of an utterance that the speaker is treating as new information. • Textual function helps larger units of meaning than the sentence to contrast and cohere. In radio news-reading, paragraphs of information can be shaped through the use of pitch. In sports commentary, changes in prosody reflect the progress of the action. • Psychological function helps us to organize speech into units that are easier to perceive and memorize. Most people would find a sequence of numbers, for example, difficult to recall. The task is made easier by using intonation to chunk the sequence into two units. • Indexical function, along with other prosodic features, is an important marker of personal or social identity. Lawyers, preachers, newscasters, sports commentators, army sergeants, and several other occupations are readily identified through their distinctive prosody.

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