The nature of the syllable

ЛИНГВОГУМАНИТАРНЫЙ  КОЛЛЕДЖ  УЧРЕЖДЕНИЯ  ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«МИНСКИЙ  ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ  ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ  УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»

ЗВУКОБУКВЕННЫЕ СООТВЕТСТВИЯ

В АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

                                    Практикум

Минск, 2008

 

 

Pronunciation and Spelling in English

Self-study and classroom use

СОСТАВИТЕЛИ:     Гуринович Е. А., преподаватель практической фонетики;

 

                             Кучерчук Ю. В., преподаватель практической фонетики.

 

Практикум предназначен для учащихся лингвогуманитарного колледжа.

 

Данные материалы включают теоретические сведения о звукобуквенных соответствиях в английском языке, упражнения для совершенствования навыков чтения, а также материалы для чтения и заучивания наизусть. Материалы могут быть использованы как для аудиторной, так и самостоятельной работы учащихся. 

 

Рассмотрено и одобрено на заседании ПЦК практической фонетики.

Протокол № 3 от 14 октября 2008 года.

 

1. The Syllable. The Principles of Syllable Division

The nature of the syllable

Syllable formation in English is based on the phonological opposition vowel-consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic while consonants are not with the exceptions of [l], [m], [n], which become syllabic in final position preceded by a consonant or between two final consonants: bottle [^|bɒtl], bottom [^|bɒtm], button [^|bʌtn].

A syllable is a speech unit which consists of a sound or a group of sounds one of which is heard more prominent than the others. This sound is the peak or the nucleus of the syllable and is called syllabic (vowels and sonorants are usually syllabic).

The English language has developed the closed type of a syllable as the fundamental one while in Russian it is the open type that forms the basis of syllable formation.

The other aspect of this component is syllable division. There is a problem of syllable division in case of intervocalic consonants and their clusters, like in such words as city, extra, standing and others.

Let us consider the word extra. There are two syllables but where should the boundary between them fall?

1) [e-kstrə]. It is unlike that people would opt for a division between [e] and [kstrə] because there are no words in English which begin with consonant sequence [kstr].

2) Similarly, a division between [ekstr] and [ə] would be unnatural.

3) [ek-strə], [eks-trə], [ekst-rə] are possible. People usually prefer either of the first two options here, but there is no obvious way of deciding between them.

In some cases we may take into account the morphemic structure of words. For example, standing consists of two syllables; on phonemic grounds [^|stæn-d I ŋ], on grammatical grounds [^|stænd- I ŋ].