Special Phonetics

General phoneticsdeals with different concepts of formation of different languages. It studies speech habits of a person and three aspects of speech sounds: biological, physical and linguistic.

Hence there may by three subdivisions of General Phonetics:

1. Physiological Phonetics, which studies the structure and work of speech organs.

2. Acoustic Phonetics, which studies the way the speech sound is communicated to the ear in the form of a sound wave.

3.Linguistic-Social Phonetics, which studies a language as a means of communication.

The first two aspects constitute Phonetics itself, whereas the third one, which studies functional and linguistics methods of Phonetics is called Phonology (Phonemics).

Special Phoneticsis related to phonetic system of one language only and is subdivided into descriptive and historical..

The Use of Phonetics

Phonetics as a science is widely applied in different areas. It is widely used while teaching children reading, writing and speaking their native language in the first place. It is widely used for teaching purposes while taking students for English as a second language, etc.

THE SYSTEM OF SPEECH SOUNDS

A sound system of any language is referred to as a system of phonemes, word accent (stress), intonation and all the changes they undergo in connected speech.

PHONEME is the smallest indivisible unit of speech capable of distinguishing one word from another or one grammatical form of a word from another within the same word (so, no, go; to begin-began-begun). The number of phonemes in English is 44.

6 vowel letters produce 20 vowel phonemes, while 20 consonant letters produce 24 consonant phonemes.

ALLOPHONE is a material representation of a phoneme in connected speech.

A number of allophones is unlimited, which depends upon the structure of speech organs, tempo of speech, accent, style of pronunciation and the dialect.

Styles of Pronunciation

Different ways of pronouncing words are called pronunciation style.

I. Full style (complete)which is used in TV and radio broadcast, while delivering a lecture, in business communication, is characterized by a slow tempo of speech, producing words in their full form and absence of grammatical and lexical contractions.

Specific features:

1. corresponding articulation;

2. lips spread aside;

3. rounded lips while pronouncing /ɔ׃, u׃, ʊ, ɒ, ɔɪ, əʊ/;

4. a little bit rounded lips for /w/;

5. using of positional and combinational changes of variants of consonant and vowel phonemes;

II. Colloquial (neutral) style,which is used in every day communication, is characterized by a certain number of lexical and grammatical contractions and a higher tempo of speech.

Specific features:

1. articulation characteristic for higher tempo of speech;

2. lips spread aside;

3. absence of rounding of lips;

4. higher degree of reduction: e.g. ˈI have done it. / ˈaɪv ֻdʌn ɪt‖/

ˈ They will have. / ˈðeɪl ֻəv‖/

ˈ What is that? / ˈwɒts ֻðæt‖/

5. reduction of diphthongs /aɪ, eɪ, aʊ/ in he words: fine / faɪn/→/ fa׃n/, same

/ seɪm/→/ se׃m/, brown / braʊn/→ / bra׃n/.

III. Careless (incomplete) style, which is widely used by illiterate people and may be heard in the streets, is characterized by a high tempo of speech.

Specific features:

1. assimilation;

a) / t / → / p / before / p, b, m /: e.g. right◡ place → / ˈraɪp◡ֻpleɪs/

/ d /→ / b /: e.g. good◡ morning / ˈgʊb◡ֻmɔ׃nɪŋ/

/ n /→ / m /: e.g. ten◡ men / ˈtem◡ֻmen/

b) before / k, g /;

/ t /→ / k /: e.g. white◡ coat / ˈwaɪk◡ֻkəʊt/

/d/→ /g/: e.g. bad◡ cold / ˈbæg◡ֻkəʊld/

/n /→ / ŋ /: e.g. ten◡ girls / ˈteŋ◡ֻgɜ׃lz/

c) before / ʃ, j /;

/s /→ / ʃ /: e.g. this◡ year / ˈðɪʃ◡ֻ jɔ׃/

/z/→ /ʒ /: e.g. where's◡ yours / ˈweəʒ◡ֻ jɔ׃z/