IV. Информационный блок

III. Список основной и дополнительной литературы.

Основная литература

1. Карневская Е.Б. и др. Практическая фонетика английского языка.– Мн., 2003.

2. Карневская Е.Б. и др. Практическая фонетика английского языка на продвинутом этапе обучения. – Мн., 2003.

3. Карневская Е.Б. и др. Практикум по фонетике английского языка.– Мн., 1999.

Дополнительная литература

1. O’Connor J.D. Better English Pronunciation. – Cambridge, 1997.

2. Haycraft B. English Aloud.– P. I. II.– Heinemann, 1994

IV. Информационный блок.

Combinations of English consonants in speech are characterized by close co-articulation and different types of assimilations.

All assimilations are defined according to several main criteria:

1. The direction of the influence:

a. Progressive assimilations (when the preceding sound influences the following one)

b. Regressive assimilations (when the following sound influences the preceding one)

c. Double (reciprocal) assimilations (when we observe mutual influence of both sounds)

2. The aspect of influence:

a. Assimilations affecting the place of articulation. As a result one of the contacting consonants changes its original place of articulation. (eg. Alveolar consonants are replaced by their dental allophones)

b. Assimilations affecting the manner of articulation. As a result one of the contacting consonants is pronounced a bit differently in the given cluster in comparison with its original characteristics. (eg. Sonorant [r] becomes fricative)

c. Assimilations affecting the work of the vocal cords. As a result there is some devoicing of the following sound. (There’s no regressive assimilation according to this aspect)

d. Assimilations affecting the position of lips. As a result one of the adjacent consonants is labialized (or lip-rounded).

1. Loss of plosion

When two plosive consonants having the same place of articula­tion, are in contact within a word or at a word junction, there is a complete loss of plosion of the first consonant, i.e. the obstruction is removed and a plosion is heard only after the second consonant.

e.g.: Midday, big girl, deep purple, back gate, bad times. What time? What day?

When the contacting plosives have different places of articula­tion (pt, tk, db, gd) the obstruction of the first consonant is not re­moved until the articulation of the second consonant has started. The release of the first consonant is, therefore, very weak, and there is a perceptible plosion only after the second consonant. Thus, the phenomenon of the loss of plosion actually takes place in any cluster of two plosive consonants.

2. Nasal plosion

At the junction of the plosive consonants [t, d, p, b, k, g] with the nasal sonorants [m, n] the articulation of the sonorant starts when the articulation of the plosive consonant is not yet finished. As a result, instead of removing the obstruction in the mouth cavity, the air stream passes through the nasal cavity producing the effect of a nasal plosion.

Eg. – shouldn’t, wouldn’t, meet my friend.

3. Lateral plosion

At the junction of a plosive consonant with the lateral sonorant [1] the plosion is produced during the pronunciation of the sonorant as the air stream passes along the sides of the tongue, lowered for the ar­ticulation of [1]. This phenomenon is known as lateral plosion:

e.g.: place, blow, glance, kettle, I'd like to see you tomorrow.