4 Вопрос

CONSONANT PHONEMES. DESCRIPTION OF PRINCIPAL VARIANTS

Strictly speaking, it is impossible to give an exact and detailed description of a sound within the limits of a short definition, because not a single sound is pronounced identically even twice. Sounds un¬dergo changes due to the individual manner and even mood of the speaker and due to the complementary distribution in which every sound exists in the language.

The first step to learn a sound is to isolate it. It means that for teaching purposes we single out the principal, or typical variant of the phoneme as a segment of the system, which is conventionally free from any influences. Then a detailed description of this variant should be carried out by means of simultaneous comparison with the sim¬ilar sound of the mother tongue. The next stage is the mastering of the sound, which is done by teaching the students to pronounce the sound in a definite set of contexts in which this sound occurs. The final stage is to automatize the newly acquired abilities of the stu¬dents.

Consonants are best of all learnt if the teacher directs the atten¬tion of the students to tactile and muscular sensations of the organs of speech. In teaching to articulate sounds, diagrams and tables are very helpful.

Occluslve Noise Consonant Phonemes (Plosives)/p, b, t, d, k, g/

I.1 In the articulation of /p/ the vocal cords do not vibrate, therefore /p/ is voiceless, but the force of exhalation and the muscular ten¬sion is great, /p/ is fort is.

II. The lips are brought together and form a complete obstruction-,,

/p/ is labial, bilabial. In the pronunciation of the Russian /n, 61'

the lips are not spread and they are less tense.

III. The obstruction is broken with a kind of explosion, /p/ is occfif--

sive (plosive, or stop).

(1) In the production of /p/ noise prevails'over voice, /p/ is a noise

consonant.

(2) There is only one place of articulation in the /p/ production, so

it is unicentral.

5 Вопрос

Allophone-is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a single phoneme.[1] For example, [p?] (as in pin) and [p] (as in spin) are allophones for the phoneme /p/ in the English language. Although a phoneme's allophones are all alternative pronunciations for a phoneme, the specific allophone selected in a given situation is often predictable. Changing the allophone used by native speakers for a given phoneme in a specific context usually will not change the meaning of a word but the result may sound non-native or unintelligible. Native speakers of a given language usually perceive one phoneme in their language as a single distinctive sound in that language and are "both unaware of and even shocked by" the allophone variations used to pronounce single phonemes.

Complementary and free-variant allophones-Every time a speech sound is produced for a given phoneme, it will be slightly different from other utterances, even for the same speaker. This has led to some debate over how real, and how universal, phonemes really are (see phoneme for details). Only some of the variation is significant (i.e., detectable or perceivable) to speakers. There are two types of allophones, based on whether a phoneme must be pronounced using a specific allophone in a specific situation, or whether the speaker has freedom to (unconsciously) choose which allophone he or she will use.When a specific allophone (from a set of allophones that correspond to a phoneme) must be selected in a given context (i.e. using a different allophone for a phoneme will cause confusion or make the speaker sound non-native), the allophones are said to be complementary (i.e. the allophones complement each other, and one is not used in a situation where the usage of another is standard). In the case of complementary allophones, each allophone is used in a specific phonetic context and may be involved in a phonological process.

In other cases, the speaker is able to select freely from free variant allophones, based on personal habit or preference