Modifications of English sounds in

in connected speech. It facilitates the pronunciation of words,it is mostly unintentional,but may be deliberate.In English there are 7 kinds of elision:

1. contractions: a reduction in form often marked by an apostrophe (fusion of functional words):

I’d, we’ve, he’ll, it’d, what’ve, it’ll, who’d;

2. aphesis: the loss of the initial short unstressed vowel in informal speech: ‘bout, ‘round, ‘lone, ‘long, ‘cause;

3. syncope: the loss of an unstressed vowel between consonants after the stressed syllable in

the middle of polysyllabic words: every, interesting, history, camera, family;

4. apocope: the loss of sounds in word- final position: cup of tea, hand, closed doors, February;

5. deletion of consonants within a word (NAE, AusE) winter, enter, restless, Monday;

6. the loss of a weak vowel after [p, t, k, s] in the initial syllable police, tonight, suppose, correct;

7. the avoidance of complex consonant clusters George the Sixth’s throne [kssr].

Modifications of English sounds in connected speech: epenthesis is a type of intrusion,where an extra sound has been insertedinto a word,usually to facilitate pronunciation It can be of 4 kinds:

1. pro(s)thesis: the addition of an extrasound to the beginning of a word (initial):

himportant, hwhat, left turn;

2. insertion: the addition of a consonant or a vowel sound within a word (medial):

fence [fen t s], length [leη k ], warmth [wm p ], tenth [ten t ], athlete [„  ];

3. linking-r (RP): in connected speech the final [r] may be pronounced if the next word begins with a vowel sound: fou r  or five, mothe r -in-law;

4. intrusive-r (NAE): the sound [r] is often added even if there is no letter “r” in the

spelling: the idea r of, Asia r and Europe, draw r ing;

8. The phonological structure of syllable in English.

A syllable is a speech unit consisting of a sound or a sound sequence one of which is heard to be more prominent than the others.

Syllable is a complex unit consisting of the opening segment- the onset, the central segment -the pick (nuclear), the closing segment- coda. The pick + coda form rhyme.

A syllable may consist of one or a number of phonemes, i.e. it may be formed by any vowel (alone or in combination with consonants) or by a word-final sonorant preceded by a consonant. When a syllable ends in a vowel, with no final consonant, it is said to be an open syllable: be is an open syllable of CV (consonant+vowel) structure. When the syllable is closed with a consonant,it is said to be closed: it is a closed syllable of VC (vowel+consonant) structure. We can also distinguish covered (CV) (we) from uncovered (V or VC) (ant) syllables, depending on whether they have a consonant in the onset.If there is a long vowel or a diphthong, or more than one consonant in the rhyme (nucleus+coda), the syllable is called long or heavy. Heavy syllables attract stress in E. The syllables with just a short vowel without a consonant [i, ɘ, ʊ] are called light or short, and they are normally unstressed.

There are four main types of syllables:

open - the stressed vowel is final or is followed by silent “e”; The stressed vowel is followed by one consonant+ silent “e”(alphabetic)

closed- the stressed vowel is followed by 1/2/3 consonants (short)

r-type closed- vowel+final r; vowel +r+ consonant(s)(long)

r-type open- vowel +r+ silen “e”; vowel +r+unstressed vowel(dipht, tripht, long)

A syllable has as many as three parts: onset, nucleus, and coda. The onset and the coda are consonants, or consonant clusters, that appear at the beginning and the end of the syllable respectively. The nucleus forms the core of the syllable; it is most often a vowel, or a combination of vowels

In English, the ONSET can consist of:

1. no consonant (zero onset): _ice []

2. 1 consonant (C =initial): r ice []

3. 2 consonants (CC):.1. pre-initial [s]+initial C: sky, stay, spa, initial C + post-initial [r, l, j, w]: fly, cry, sway, Sue

4. 3 consonants (CCC): pre-initial [s] +initial[p, t, k,] + post-initial [r, l, j, w]:

spray, student, squeeze

In English, the CODA can consist of:

1. no consonant (zero coda): sky_ []

2. 1 consonant (C =final):all Cs, except [r, h, j, w]: Skype 3. 2 consonants (CC):

3.1. pre-final + final C (noise):

bent, length

3.2. final C + post-final C:

looked, axe

4. 3 consonants

(CCC): 4.1. pre-final + final C (noise)+ post-final:

helped, bond,, twelfth

4.2. final C + post-final 1 + post-final 2:

next, fifths 5.

4 consonants

(CCCC):

5.1. pre-final +final C (noise)+post-final 1 +post-final 2: twelfths

5.2. final C +postfinal 1 + post-final 2 +postfinal 3:

sixths

Rime (ρ) right branch, contrasts with onset, splits into nucleus and coda

9. The major tendencies of word stress in English.

1) The recessive tendency (the oldest one)

The word stress is on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives, and verbs; and on the stem syllable of other parts of speech; it can be of 2 sub-types: