Directions of assimilation

Assimilation may be of 3 types as far as its direction is concerned: progressive, regressive and double.

When some articulatory features of the following sound are changed under the influence of the preceeding sound, which remains unchanged, assimilation is called progressive – s is pronounced as z after voiced consonants – pens [z] because n is voiced.

When the following sound influences the articulation of the preceding one, assimilation is called regressive – in them – n become dental before the interdental th.

Reciprocal [ ] or double assimilation means complex mutual [ ] influence of the adjacent sounds – tree – r is partly devoiced under the influence of voiceless t, and alveolar t becomes post-alveolar before the post-alveolar r.

Accommodation is the modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent consonant, or, vice versa, the modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of the adjacent vowel.

There are 5 cases of modification:

1) One of the features peculiar to the consonant-vowel transition in English is nasalization. All English vowels are oral sounds. They are produced with the soft palate raised. But if the vowel is preceded or followed by a nasal consonant, it becomes nasal – morning, then.

2) A vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before the dark l – ill.

3) A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its slightly advanced variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual phoneme j (music – [j]+[u:]

4) A complete regressive vowel adaptation is observed in the pronunciation of the definite article the and preposition to before vowels – an apple, the apple; to him, to us)

5) A partial regressive accommodation is observed when consonants p t k are followed by labialized vowels u o: U э – to, moon.

English intonation

Intonation may be defined as such a unity of speech melody, sentence-stress (accent), voice quality (timber) and speech tempo which enables the speaker to adequately communicate in speech his thoughts, will, emotions and attitude towards reality and the contents of the utterance.