24. The notion of the orthoepic norm. Local and social dialects. Factors of the variation of the orthoepic norm.

There exist numerous varieties of pronunciation in any language, the English language as well. The pronunciation of almost every locality in the British Isles has peculiar features that distinguish it from the pronunciation of other localities. Dialects have some peculiarities in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical structure. Every dialectal pronunciation is characterized by features that are common to all the other dialects of the language, and by a number of specific peculiarities of its own. . In British English phoneticians generally distinguish 3 main regional types of pronunciation: Southern, Northern and Scottish regional types of English pronunciation. The orthoepic norm of a language is the standard pronunciation adopted by native speakers as the right and proper way of speaking. The orthoepic norm is based on the variants of pronunciation that are widely used in actual speech, that refect the main phonetic tendencies, and that are considered to be acceptable by the educated. Thus, the orthoepic norm comprises well—established (or codified) variants of pronunciation acceptable in all the varieties of speech, and it also includes stylistic variants that are acceptable only in some varieties of speech in case they do not violate the main phonetic tendencies. Since the orthoepic norm is ever changing and developing, from time to time the pronouncing dictionaries have to be revised and reset. But the orthoepic norm involves prosodic phenomena as well. The intonation of a speaker may also be acceptable or unacceptable. Therefore, there is a prosodic norm in every language which comprises well—established prosodic patterns, used in educated speech.The English prosodic norm is rather described. As for its stylistics variants they are not as yet well established. The prosodic norm is an important component of the orthoepic norm. It should be emphasized, that the orthoepic norm is not constant and fixed for all centuries and generations. Variation of the orthoepic norm is a natural objective phenomenon, which reflects the development of language.

25. Stability as a factor of self-identity of the phonetic system. The notion of the orthoepic norm. RP as a norm of pronunciation in Gr.Br., the basic of English codified norm and the teaching standard.

It is generally considered that the orthoepic norm of British English is RP, was accepted as the phonetic norm of English about a century ago. It is mainly based on the Southern English regional type of pronunciation. Though RP is carefully preserved by the public schools and the privileged class in England, the RP of today differs in some respects from the former refined RP used half a century ago. The main changes that have recently taken place in RP are as follows: 1)The diphthongization of the RP /i:/ and /u:/ which in final position are often pronounced with a glide ("see" /sij:/ 2) Monophthohgization of /аi/ and /au/. 3)A greater weakening of vowels in weakly stressed syllables, which results in the use of the neutral /э /, where the more conservative form had and has the stronger/i/. 4)The use of the intrusive /г/, which some 20—30 years ago was carefully avoided by RP speakers. The modifications of RP which have been mentioned above are rather numerous and provide sufficient evidence of the evolution of RP during the past quarter of a century. RP has been investigated and described more thoroughly than any other type of English pronunciation.

26. Phonetic variation beyond the norm. Bilingualism. Interference as a deviation from the norm in the speech of bilinguals. Types of interference. Features of Bel-Eng and Rus-Eng prosodic interference, ways of overcoming it.

More than one language can be used in communication by the same persons. The practice of alternate use of two languages is called bilingualism. Languages used by bilingual persons are said to be in contact. Language contacts may be of a "mass" character, involving whole language communities or they can take place in "individual" or "group" bilingualism since in one individual speaker there exist two distinct language systems, and the speech of bilingual persons is thus the focus of the contacts. The major manifestation of bilingualism is interference. Language interference is a process and a result of the interaction and mutual influence of the language systems being in contact. Interference takes place on all the levels of language (phonetic, grammatical and lexical). On the phonetic level there are two types of interference: phonemic and prosodic. Learners of English, who are trained to be artificial bilinguals, should bear in mind that the prosodic patterns of their native language may, and very often do, sound wrong when applied to English Interference from the native language in English utterances spoken by Russian and Belarusian learners of English is observed in all the subsystems of prosody on the auditory and acoustic levels. The influence of the pitch patterns of the mother tongue in English utterances produced by Russians and Byelorussians manifests itself in the following deviations from the English prosodic norm:1)higher initial and final pitch levels of the rising tones and the falling-rising tone;2)wider pitch interval 3)lower final pitch level of the falling tone;4)lower initial pitch level of the utterance. According to the experimental studies of prosodic interference, stress and rhythm are the areas of the greatest number of deviations from the prosodic norm of the non—native language of the bilingual speaker, and what is more important, distortions in the accentual patterns display a very high degree of stability and communicative relevance. The tempo of English utterances pronounced by Russian and Byelorussian learners of English is slower than in the speech of Englishmen