Branches of phonetics

We know that the phonic medium can be studied from four points of view: the articulatory, the acoustic, the auditory, and the functional.

We may consider the branches of phonetics according to these aspects. Articulatory phonetics is the study of the way the vocal organs are used to produce speech sounds. Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds. Auditory phonetics is the study of the way people perceive speech sounds. Of these three branches of phonetics, the longest established, and until recently the most highly developed, is articulatory phonetics. For this reason, most of terms used by linguists to refer to speech-sounds are articulatory in origin.

Phoneticians are also interested in the way in which sound phenomena function in a particular language. In other words, they study the abstract side of the sounds of language. The branch of phonetics concerned with the study of the functional (linguistic) aspect of speech sounds is called phonology. By contrast with phonetics, which studies all possible sounds that the human vocal apparatus can make, phonology studies only those contrasts in sound which make differences of meaning within language.

Besides the four branches of phonetics described above, there are other divisions of the science. We may speak of general phonetics and the phonetics of a particular language (special or descriptive phonetics). General phonetics studies all the sound-producing possibilities of the human speech apparatus and the ways they are used for purpose of communication. The phonetics of a particular language studies the contemporary phonetic system of the particular language, i.e. the system of its pronunciation, and gives a description of all the phonetic units of the language. Descriptive phonetics is based on general phonetics.

Linguists distinguish also historical phonetics whose aim is to trace and establish the successive changes in the phonetic system of a given language (or a language family) at different stages of its development. Historical phonetics is a part of the history of language.

Closely connected with historical phonetics is comparative phonetics whose aims are to study the correlation between the phonetic systems of two or more languages and find out the correspondences between the speech sounds of kindred languages.

Phonetics can also be theoretical and practical. At the faculties of Foreign Languages in this country, two courses are introduced:

Practical, or normative, phonetics that studies the substance, the material form of phonetic phenomena in relation to meaning.

Theoretical phonetics, which is mainly concerned with the functioning of phonetic units in language.

This dichotomy is that which holds between theoretical and applied linguists. Briefly, theoretical linguistics studies language with a view to constructing theory of its structure and functions and without regard to any practical applications that the investigation of language might have. Applied linguistics has as its concerns the application of the concepts and findings of linguistics to a variety of practical tasks, including language teaching.

All the branches of phonetics are closely connected not only with one another but also with other branches of linguistics. This connection is determined by the fact that language is a system whose components are inseparably connected with one another.

Phonetics is also connected with many other sciences. Acoustic phonetics is connected with physics and mathematics. Articulatory phonetics is connected with physiology, anatomy, and anthropology. Historical phonetics is connected with general history of the people whose language is studied; it is also connected with archaeology. Phonology is connected with communication (information) theory, mathematics, and statistics.

17. Vowels

Vowels are voiced sounds in forming which the airstream passes freely without any obstruction through the larynx the mouth cavity make the vocal cords vibrate. Vowels are classified:

in the stability of articulation: (1.l) monothongs - are vowels the articulation of which doesn’t change. The quality of such v-ls is relatively pare [i,e,a:, o:,);, u,3:,?];(1.2) diphthongs in the pronunciation of diphthongs the organs of speech slide from one v-l position to another within one syllable. The nuclear of diphthongs is strong distinct the glide is very weak [ei, эi, au,?u, є?, u?]. (1.3) In the pronunciation of diphthongs the articulation changes just a little bit.

But the difference between the nuclear the end is not so distinct as it is in the case of diphthongs; [i:, u:].

The tongue position: horizontal movement of the tongue. When the tongue is in the front part of the mouth and the front part of it is raised up to the hard palate a front v-1 is pronounced [i:, e].

When the front of the tongue is raised towards to the back part of the lard palate the vowel is called

central (or mixed) [ ]. When the tongue is in the back part of the mouth and raised up to the soft palate a back vowel is pronounced [a:, э, э:, u:]. Vertical movement high (or closed) vowels: [i:, u, u:], open (low) vowels [a:, o;].

The lip position. When the lips are neutral or spread the vowels are called unrounded.When the lips more or less round they called rounded [u;u].

Vowel length. All Eng. Monophthongs are divided into long[I:, a: u:,?:] and short[I e u a].

Diphthongs and diphthongoids

According to Russian scholars vowels are subdivided into: a) monophthongs (the tongue position is stable); b) diphthongs (it changes, that is the tongue moves from one position to another); c) diphthongoids (an intermediate case, when the change in the position is fairly weak).

diphthong, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. In most dialects of English, the words eye, boy, and cow contain examples of diphthongs.Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where only one vowel sound is heard in a syllable. Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables, as in, for example, the English word re-elect, the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds (phonemes) ı – [eı, aı, ɔı]; u – [au, ǝu]; ǝ – [ıǝ, ɛǝ, ɔǝ, uǝ].

Дифтонгоид - это ударный неоднородный гласный, имеющий в начале или конце призвук другого гласного, артикуляционно-близкого к основному, ударному. [i:, u:]

Modification of vowels. Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening or disappearance of vowel sound in unstressed positions. This phenomenon is closely connected with the historical development of the language. R. reflects the process of lexical&gramm. Clanges. The neutral sound represents the reduced form of almost any vowel in the unstressed position. But the quality of an unstressed vowel sound m.b. retained ▪in compound words ▪in borrowings from Latin/French, e.g. [‘gæra:з] R. is connected also with rhythm & sentence stress. R. is realized: ▪in unstr. syll. within words ▪in unstr. form-words, auxiliary and modal verbs, pers, and possessive pronouns. Types of reduction 1. Quantitative (shortening of a long vowel sound) Qualitative (both long and short vowels are shortened till [ə, i, u] Elision (the omission of vowel).

18. All English phonemes can be divided into consonants phonemes and vowels phonemes. The phonological analysis of English consonant sounds helps to distinguish 24 phonemes.. Principles of classification suggested by Russian phoneticians provide the basis for establishing of the following distinctive oppositions in the system of English consonants:

1.Degree of noise: bake - make, veal - wheel

2. Place of articulation labial vs. lingual: pain — cane lingual vs. glottal: foam — home, care — hair, Tim - him

3.Manner of articulation 3.1 occlusive vs. constrictive pine -fine, bat - that, bee – thee 1.constrictive vs. affricates fare — chair, fail –jail 2. constrictive unicentral vs. constrictive bicentral same – shame

4. Work of the vocal cords and the force of articulation 4.1 voiceless fortis vs. voiced lenis pen — Ben, ten - den, coat - goal

5. Position of the soft palate 5.1 oral vs. nasal pit — pin, seek — seen

By the degree of noise English consonants are devided into two general kinds: a) noise consonants; b) sonorants. If it is sound in which noise prevails over tone it is noise consonant (ex. p, b, fv, s, z, ð, θ)

Sonorants are sounds that differ greatly from other consonants. This is due to the fact that in their production the air passage between the two organs of speech is fairly wide, that is much wider than in the production of noise consonants. As a result, the auditory effect is tone, not noise (m, n, w, r, ŋ, l).

Consonants and sonorants may be occlusive and constrictive.

Occlusive and Constrictive consonants

According to the manner of articulation consonants may be of 3 groups:

Occlusive consonants are sounds in the production of which the air stream meets a complete obstruction in mouth.

Occlusive noise consonants (stops) – the breath is completely stopped at some point of articulation and then it is released with an explosion (plosive).

Occlusive sonorants (nasal) – made with a complete obstruction but the soft palate is lowered and the air stream escapes through the nose.

2. ^ Constrictive consonants apw the air stream meets an incomplete obstruction in the resonator, so the air passage is constricted.

Constrictive noise consonants (fricatives) – apw the air passage is constricted and the air escapes through the narrowing with friction.

Constrictive sonorants (oral) – made with an incomplete obstruction but with a rather wide air passage; so tone prevails over noise.

3. Occlusive – constrictive consonants (affricates) – noise consonant sounds produced with a complete obstruction which is slowly released and the air escapes from the mouth with some friction.

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