1. | ninety | 6. | sentence |
2. | middle | 7. | vowel |
3. | imitate | 8. | cinema |
4. | teacher | 9. | expensive |
5. | advertise | 10. | commission |
Ex. 1.5 Divide the words into syllables and explain the rule in each line:
1) Ready, pocket, mother, coffee, city;
2) Bottle, couple, cattle, mitten, middle;
3) Breakfast, hedgehog, doctor, country, fifty;
4) Farmer, herself, sleepy, ninety, gloomy;
5) Extreme, abrupt, include, nasty, attract;
6) Fire, towel, vowel, lower, goer.
The Primary and the Secondary Meaning of Letters
In English one letter can denote a few different sounds (polysemantic letters). That’s why there are the primary and the secondary sound meanings of them. The primary meaning of a letter is the sound which this letter:
1) denotes in the alphabet: a – [e I ], e – [i:]. E.g. bake, be;
2) doesn’t correspond to the alphabetical letter: a – [æ]. e.g. cat;
3) approximates the alphabetical letter: f – [f], y – [a I ].
The secondary meaning of a letter is the one which differs from its primary alphabetical meaning and depends on the consonants preceding or following this letter. E.g. a – [ a:] - staff, [o ] – wander, [ɔ:] – war.
The sound formation of the English language distinguishes long and short vowels. According to this peculiarity in English each stressed vowel can have two meanings: alphabetical (long) and short.
READING OF VOWELS IN STRESSED SYLLABLES
Letter | Primary meaning | Secondary meaning | ||
long | short | Vowel + r | Vowel +re | |
a | Kate | cat | car | hare |
e | he, Pete | hen, help | her | here |
i\y | I, Mike, mine | sit, gym | bird, Byrd | hire, tyre |
o | no, stone | not | for | more |
u | use | but | turn | cure |
|
|
The Primary Sound Meanings of Vowels in Different Types of Syllables
In disyllabic and polysyllabic words the vowel letter has its alphabetical (long) primarymeaning if:
1) it is used in word final position e. g. he, no, my;
2) it is separated from the following vowel letter or from the combinations –le, -re by only one consonant letter e.g. pilot, idle, fibre;
3) it is followed by a consonant + r + vowel e.g. library, April;
4) in some vowel combinations* e.g. diet, going.
The vowel letter has its short primary meaning:
1) if it is separated from the following vowel or the combination – le by two or more consonants e.g. render, silly, fiddle.
2) if the vowel letter (apart from “ u”) is in the third stressed syllable from the end e.g. family, cylinder; but: funeral;
3) if the vowel letter is followed by a single letter “v” e.g. river, never; but: uvula [\ju:vju:lə], fever [\fi:və], over [\əυvə];
4) if the vowel letter is followed by a consonant and one of the combinations, such as –-ic, -ish, -ity e.g. tragic, polish, cavity;
5) in disyllabic words with the sound [ I ] and [ju:] in the last unstressed syllable the vowel letter of a stressed syllable has a short meaning: e.g. tribune, facet; but: stupid.
But if the word ends in – y, -ie as in the words ladies, Edie the letters “a”, “e” have their alphabetical (long) meaning.
*For more information about the rules of reading of vowel combinations (digraphs), see further rules.