The organs of speech and their work. Active organs and passive organs.

The organs of speech and their work. Active organs and passive organs.

 

In any language people speak using their organs of speech. All the organs of speech can be divided into two groups: active and passive. Active (moving) organs of speech are following: tongue, lips, vocal cards, uvula, soft palate. Passive organs are teeth, alveolar, hard palate. The air stream released by the lungs goes through the windpipe and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cards. The vocal cards are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. This is the usual state of the vocal cards, when we breathe out. If the tense vocal cards are brought together, the air strea forcing and opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. On coming out of the larynx the air stream passes through the pharynx. The pharyngal cavity extends from the top of the larynx to the soft palate, which directs the air stream either to the mouth or nasal cavities, which function as the principal resonators. Uvula is known as the very end of the soft palate. When the soft palate is raised the uvula forms a full contact with the back wall of the pharynx and the air stream goes through the mouth cavity. The soft palate is the furthest part of the palate from the teeth. Most of the palate is hard. The most important organs of speech is tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four section, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue, the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the tip. The tongue may lie flat or move in the horizontal or vertical directions.The lips can take up various position as well. They can brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, protruded forward.

 

English consonants. The principles of classification.

 

The organs of speech are capable of uttering many different kinds of sounds. From the practical point of view it is convenient to distinguish two types of speech sounds: vowels and consonants. As for consonants, in its articulation a kind of noise producing obstruction is formed in the supra – glottal cavities. Such sounds may be pronounced with or without vocal cords obstruction. Consonants are made with air stream that meets an obstruction in the mouth or nasal cavities. That is why the production of consonant sounds there is a certain degrees of noise. Consonants are the bones of a word and give it its basic shape. Classification of consonants are based on:

in the degree of noise; in the manner of articulation; in the place of articulation.

 

Aspiration

 

[p, t, k] in initial position in a stressed syllable are accompanied by aspiration, i.e. a strong puff of breath in a voiceless interval after the explosion of [p t k ] before a vowel. Aspiration is very strong before a long vowel or a diphthongs as in port, talk cart, poke take; it is weaker before a short vowel as in pit, top, cut. It is less noticeable before unstressed vowel, as in proper, porter, poker or in final positions (preceding silence) as in lip, put, cook. If stops are preceded by [s] there is hardly any aspiration at all as in speech, stop, school.

 

Assimilation

Assimilation is a process of alteration of speech sounds as a result of which one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining sound. The nature of assimilation is determined by objective physical and physiological conditions. Assimilation exists in every language, but its laws and forms in each language depend on the historically formed articulatory tendencies, typical of every language, and specific phonetic structures. Types of assimilation can be distinguished according to: direction, degree of completeness and degree of stability. Assimilation can affect the place of obstruction and the active organs of speech; the work of the vocal cards; the position of the lips; the position of the soft palate; the manner of the release of plosive consonants.

1) Direction of assimilation. The influence of the neighboring sounds in English can act in a progressive, regressive, reciprocal direction. When some articulatory features of the following sounds are changed under the influence of the preceding sound,which remains unchanged, assimilation is called progressive: pens [penz], calls [kɔ:lz]. When the following sound influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive: within the word width and in the word combination in them, the alveolar [d] and [n] become dental, before the interdental [θ] and [ð]. Reciprocal assimilation means complex mutual influence of the adjacent sounds: tree [tri:].

2) Degree of completeness. According to its degree assimilation can be complete and incomplete. Assimilation is called complete in the case the two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one. It always takes place when the two sounds differ only in the articulatory feature: cupboard [ˈcʌpbəd>ˈcʌbəd], less shy [ˈlesˈʃaɪ>ˈleʃʃaɪ]. Assimilation is called incomplete when the likeness of the adjoining sounds is partial as the assimilated sound retains its major articulatory features. It concerns the sonorants [l, w, r] which influence the preceding voiceless consonants [p, t, k, s, f, θ]: sweet [swi:t], place [pleɪs], try [trai]. 3) Degree of stability. According to its degree assimilation can be obligatory and non –obligatory. Such changes takes place over a period of time: orchard (ort+yard) [ˈɔ:tjəd>ˈɔ:tʃəd]. In modern language obligatory assimilation are special allophonic variants characteristic of the natives’ speech. Non – obligatory assimilation are characteristic of fluent or careless speech and should be avoided by public speakers. Ten minutes [ˈten ˈmɪnɪts>[ˈtem ˈmɪnɪts]. Assimilation may take place within in word or at word boundaries.

 

Types of plosion

[p, t, k, g, d] English plosives don’t always have the third stage of articulation (on-glade, hold, off-glide) when the air releases. Incomplete plosion happens in the following clusters [pp, pb, td, kd, ddz, gg]. The position of the organs of speech is the same for both consonants. The hold stage is prolongs until the release of the second consonant. In such clusters the first consonant has no plosion at all: attraction, book case, big cat. In a cluster of plosives or two affricates there is only one plosion and the first plosive is incomplete. If one makes two explosions it will sound un-English. Nasal plosion happens when occlusive is followed by the syllabic [m] or [n]. The soft palate lows and the compressed air escapes through the nasal cavity: happen, shipman, button. Lateral plosion happens when occlusive is followed by [l]. Before [l] the release is made by a sudden lowering of the sides of the tongue and the air escapes along the sides of tongue with lateral plosion: please, black, plosion.

 

Palatalization

Palatalization is the production of consonants with the blade, or front, of the tongue drawn up farther toward the roof of the mouth (hard palate) than in their normal pronunciation. Palatalized consonants may be distinguished from palatal consonants, in which the front of the tongue and the hard palate form the primary articulation. Palatalization also refers to the process of sound change in which a nonpalatal consonant, like k, changes to a palatal consonant, like ch or sh; English occlusive consonants are not palatalized, but before front, close or mid – open vowels they are bit clearer than before back vowels: part – Pete, top-tip, door-day.English constrictive consonants are not palatalized. The affricates are palato –alveolar, they are slightly palatalized, because the front part of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate, but before front and mixed, close or mid – open vowels they are clearer than before back ones e. g chance – cheese, just – gist. English fricatives exept [] are non-palatalized, only before front close and mid – open vowels they are a bit clearer than before back ones e. g. father – feet; heart – heat; thunder – theme. English sonorants except [] are non – palatalized

 

Reduction

In English vowels in unstressed syllables are usually reduced. Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening and disappearance of vowel sounds in unstressed positions. Reduction reflects the process of lexical and grammar changes. The neutral sound represents the reduced form of almost any vowel or diphthong in the unstressed position. There is also a tendency to retain the quality of the unstressed vowel sound: retreat, programme, situate. Non-reduced unstressed sounds are often retained in: compound words (blackboard, oilfield) and borrowings from the French (bourgeoisie). Reduction is closely connected also with rhythm and sentence stress. Reduction is realized: a) in unstressed syllables within the words (demonstrative [dɪ'mɒnstrətɪv]); b) in unstressed form-words, auxiliary and modal verbs, personal and possessive pronouns within the intonation groups and phrases. Three different types of reduction are noticed in English. 1. Quantitative reduction (shortening of a vowel sound in the unstressed position) affects mainly long vowels: he [hi: - hiJ – hɪ]. Qualitative reduction (obscuration of vowels towards [ɪ, ʊ, ə]) affects both long and short vowels: can [kæn - kən]. 3. Elision of vowels in the unstressed position: I’m up already [aɪm ʌp ˏɔ:lredɪ].

Strong and weak forms

 

Elision of vowels

Syllable Structure

Vowels and consonants can be grouped into four types of syllables. 1. A fully-open (it consists of one vowel sound [v]): are [ɑː], or [ɔː]. 2. A fully-closed syllable (it has a vowel between consonant [cvc], [ccvc], [cvcc]): bed [bed], close [kləuz], left [left]. 3. Covered at the beginning syllable [cv], [ccv], [cccv]: straw [strɔː]. 4. Covered at the end syllable [vc], [vcc], [vccc]: elm [elm], act [ækt]. English vowels [ʌ, e, ɒ, æ] never occure in open syllable. Vowels [ɪ, ə] occure in open syllable: ago [ə'gəu].

 

Stress in compound words

 

Compound nouns are usually single-stressed: reading-room, suit-case, black-board. This type of stress differentiates them from word combination: blackbird-black bird. Double-stressed nouns are rare. Both elements of them are equally important: gas-stove, absent-mindedness. Compound adjectives generally have two stresses except those ones which have the second element semantically weak: childlike, oval-shaped. Compound verbs have stresses on both elements.

 

 

Basic intonation patterns

 

The Tail. The Pre-Head

 

The syllables following the nucleus are called the tail. The tail can be unstressed or partially stressed. After a following nucleus the tail remains low: ˎNo, sir. After the rising nucleus the tail is one step higher then the nucleus: ˏNo, sir. If there are many syllables in the tail each one stressed syllable is one step higher then the previous one: ˏYes, my dear lady. Fall-rise may occur on unstressed syllables then there is no tail: ˎYes, Tom. After the Mid-level the tail stays on the same step as the nucleus: >Certainly

 

The Head. Descending Heads

Head patterns are classified into three major groups: descending, ascending, level. The descending heads move the voice from a medium or high pitch level down voice. The first stressed syllable is the highest. There exist the following types of descending heads: a) The stepping head – the syllables in it move down by steps. Unstressed syllables are pronounced on the same level as the preceding stressed syllable: He ˈdoesn’t ˈseem to ˈlike me at ˎall. b) The falling head has the unstressed syllable level then the stressed one. c) The Scandent head has the unstressed syllable pronounced higher then the stressed ones. d) Sliding head has the voice moving down by slides. The unstressed syllables continue the fall. Accidental Rises can break the intonation group pitch level then the preceding one: You’d ˈget to ˈknow ˈquite a ↑ˈlot of ˈinteresting ˎpeople.  

 

The organs of speech and their work. Active organs and passive organs.

 

In any language people speak using their organs of speech. All the organs of speech can be divided into two groups: active and passive. Active (moving) organs of speech are following: tongue, lips, vocal cards, uvula, soft palate. Passive organs are teeth, alveolar, hard palate. The air stream released by the lungs goes through the windpipe and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cards. The vocal cards are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. This is the usual state of the vocal cards, when we breathe out. If the tense vocal cards are brought together, the air strea forcing and opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. On coming out of the larynx the air stream passes through the pharynx. The pharyngal cavity extends from the top of the larynx to the soft palate, which directs the air stream either to the mouth or nasal cavities, which function as the principal resonators. Uvula is known as the very end of the soft palate. When the soft palate is raised the uvula forms a full contact with the back wall of the pharynx and the air stream goes through the mouth cavity. The soft palate is the furthest part of the palate from the teeth. Most of the palate is hard. The most important organs of speech is tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four section, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue, the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the tip. The tongue may lie flat or move in the horizontal or vertical directions.The lips can take up various position as well. They can brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, protruded forward.