Characteristics

• Unlike most forms of English English and American English, RP is a broad A accent, so words like bath and chance appear with /ɑː/ and not /æ/.

• RP is a non-rhotic accent, meaning /r/ does not occur unless followed immediately by a vowel.

• Like other accents of southern England, RP has undergone the wine-whine merger so the phoneme /ʍ/ is not present except among those who have acquired this distinction as the result of speech training. R.A.D.A. (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), based in London, still teaches these two sounds as distinct phonemes.

• RP uses [ɫ], called dark l, when /l/ occurs at the end of a syllable, as in well, and also for syllabic l, like in little or apple. (whereas it has been reported^[6] that "General American" speakers use the /ɫ/ both finally and initially.)

• Unlike many other varieties of English English, there is no h-dropping in words like head or herb.

• RP does not have yod dropping after /n/, /t/ and /d/. Hence, for example, new, tune and dune are pronounced /njuː/, /tjuːn/ and /djuːn/ rather than /nuː/, /tuːn/ and /duːn/. This contrasts with many East Anglian and East Midland varieties of English English and with many forms of American English.

• The /t/ has a strong aspiration ([tʰ]) in word-initial and word-final positions. In word-medial positions, the aspiration is weakened, and may be lost altogether ([t]). The unaspirated variant may be misunderstood as /d/ in an American speaker.^[6]

• The flapped variant of /t/, /d/ (as in much of the West Country and the Cape Coloured dialect of South Africa) is not used. In traditional RP [ɾ] is an allophone of /r/ (used only intervocalically). ^[6]

• The /t/ phoneme in words like bluntness is often realised as a glottal stop ( [blʌnʔnəs] ). ^[5]

• The [ʔ] allophone of /t/ (common in Cockney) is not used in words like butter.

3. Social variations in English pronunciation. Social factors and phonetic markers in English pronunciation.

In all English-speaking countries there exists a close and obvious connection between language and social class: speech stratification correlates with social stratification. But only in England the phonetic factors assume a predominating role which they do not generally have in other parts of the English-speaking world. Peter Trudgill, a well-known British sociologist, claims that it is often possible to tell whether the speaker has been to a major public school or only to a major one on the strength of the phonetic evidence, the quality of /u:/.

RP (mainstream and conservative) food [fu:d] RP (advanced) food [fud]

The accents are associated with the people who use them, with their way of life. The accents of big urban centres like Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow in UK may have negative associations with the polluted environment of industrial area.In the USA, New York is viewed as the centre of crime and drug taking. Although there is no necessary connection at all between personality types and accents, most people react as if there were. There is a stereotype of an RP speaker, for instance, to possess authority, competence, intelligence and ambition while a local accent is associated with friendliness, personal integrity, kindness. RP speaker may be disliked because he sounds posh, affected, while a person with a working class accent may be positively assessed for solidarity, friendship. In the USA, a Southern accent evokes associations with the agricultural area, with conservative views and habits, but also with southern aristocracy and southern beauties. Sociologists have compared accent variation in England to a pyramid in which the horizontal dimension represents geographical variation and the vertical dimension indicates social variation.

As for the accents, they refer to the varieties in pronunciation, which convey information about a person’s geographical origin. These varieties are partly explained by social mobility and new patterns of settlement. Distinct groups or social formation within the whole may be set off from each other in a variety of ways: by gender, by age, by class, by ethnic identity. Particular groups will tend to have characteristic ways of using the language-characteristic ways of pronouncing it, - for example - and these will help to mark off the boundaries of one group from another. They belong to different social groups and perform different social roles. A person might be identified as ‘a woman’, ‘a parent’, ‘a child’, ‘a doctor’, or in many other ways. Many people speak with an accent, which shows the influence of their place of work. Any of these identities can have consequences for the kind of language they use. Age, sex, and socio-economic class have been repeatedly shown to be of importance when it comes to explaining the way sounds, constructions, and vocabulary vary.

RP – 3-5% upper class

Regional standard – 55% middle-middle class, low-middle class

Local accent – 40% upper-working class, middle-working class, low-middle class

Local accents may be subdivided in rural and urban – they are working class’ accents

Women and men

• women talk slightly faster and make shorter pauses

• woman are more emotional, change their pitch more quickly; men’s pitch is rather narrower, but can be change more

• the differences also concern vocabulary

• women are more cooperative, men are more assertive.

Difference also can depend on up-bringing.

According to William Labov (American sociolinguist)

1-3 years – family influence a child’s pronunciation

4-5 years – peers

11 – 14 – this period is supposed to be a critical period when people learn the language and accept a certain pattern of pronunciation

17-18 – people realize national standard pressure

19 – a period when some significant changes in pronunciation may happen

Social markers

• vowels

• consonants

• word-stress

• intonation and rhythm

• voice quality

Vowels are changed more often. Consonants are also social markers.

1) ing – in

Lookin’

2) h – drop

Ham – ‘am

3) glottal stop (a very common feature among young people and working class)

- positively marked (before consonants and before pauses)

- the (?) apple – negatively marked

- wai?er – vulgar

Word stress is most noticeable

4. American English pronunciation: consonants, vowels, word stress. The prosody of American English (the main features). The difference between RP and GA (sounds, word-stress, prosody).

American English shows a lesser degree of dialect than British English due to some historical factors: the existence of Standard English when first English settlers came to America, the high mobility of population, internal migrations of different communities and so on. As regards pronunciation, however, it is not at all homogeneous. There are certain varieties of educated American speech. In the USA three main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Eastern type, the Southern type and Western or General American.

1. The Eastern type is spoken in New England, and in New York city. It bears a remarkable resemblance to Southern English, though there are, of course, some slight differences.

2. The Southern type is used in the South and South-East of the USA. It possesses a striking distinctive feature — vowel drawl, which is a specific way of pronouncing vowels, consisting in the diphthongization and even triphthongization of some pure vowels and monophthongization of some diphthongs at the expense of prolonging ("drawling") their nuclei and dropping the glides.

3. The third type of educated American speech is General American (GA), also known as Northern American or Western American spoken in the central Atlantic States: New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and others. GA pronunciation is known to be the pronunciation standard of the USA. There are some reasons for it. GA is the form of speech used by the radio and television. It is mostly used in scientific, cultural and business intercourse. Also in two important business centres — New York and St. Louis — GA is the prevailing form of speech and pronunciation, though New York is situated within the territory where Eastern American is spoken, and St. Louis is within the region of Southern American. In this chapter we shall give an outline of GA accent.

Differences between this accent and RP.

Vowels

1. There is no strict division of vowels into long and short in GA, though some American phoneticians suggest that certain GA vowels are tense and likely to be accompanied by relative length: [i] in seat, [u:] in pool.

They also admit that a slight rise in tongue position during the pronunciation of tense vowels leads to a diphthongal quality of tense vowels which contrasts to a monophthongal quality of lax vowels.

2. Classification of vowels according to the stability of articulation is the most controversial subject in GA. Some diphthongs are treated in GA as biphonemic combinations. The inventory of GA diphthongs varies from three to twelve phonemes. Following D.A.Shakhbagova we distinguish here five diphthongs in GA: [eı], [aı], [oı], [au], [ou].

3. Another very important feature that causes different interpretations of diphthongs and vowel length in GA is the pronunciation of [r] sound between a vowel and a consonant or between a vowel and a silence: turn [tз:^rn], bird [bз:^rd], star [sta:r].

It has been estimated that 2/3 of American population pronounce [r] and 1/3 omit it. Thus GA is rhotic in words like far, core, etc. (when [r] follows the vowels and ends the word), this sound is consonantal and non-syllabic according to Ch. Thomas. It involves the characteristic hindering of the free flow of breath which we associate with consonants. The sound [r] in far closes the syllable more definitely than in British Received Pronunciation of the word [fa:]. On the other hand, there is a vocalic, or vowel-like and syllabic [r], that occurs in words like bird, murmur (after a vowel and before a consonant). Ch.Thomas writes that in such cases we should better transcribe the words bird and murmur like [brd] and [mrmr]. In such cases [r] is responsible for the characteristic vowel-like quality within the syllable; it is responsible for syllabic quality as well. That's why Ch.Thomas says that [r] syllabic in bird and [r] non-syllabic in far should be transcribed differently. According to V.A.Vassilyev it is still the vowel of the word that forms a syllable ([з:] in bird; [o:] in corn, etc.), not the syllabic [r] sound. He mentioned although that all the vowel sounds in pre-[r] position sound more like [ә]. [r] gives the preceding vowel a retroflex colouring. It means that the tip of the tongue glides to the retroflex position without, however, staying there long enough to produce a full-fledged retroflex [r] sound, [r] also prolongs the vowel a little. V.A.Vassilyev uses the term "[r]-compensating" vowels (suggested by A.L.Trakhterov) for the vowels in such words in British Received Pronunciation.

4. One more peculiar feature of pronunciation of vowels in American English is their nasalization, when they are preceded or followed by a nasal consonant (e.g. m such words as take, small, name, etc.). Nasalization is often called an American twang. It is incidental and need not be marked in phonemic transcription.

5. GA front vowels are somewhat different from RP. Vowels [i:], [ı] are distributed differently in GA and RP.

In words like very, pity GA has [i:] rather than [ı]. In word final position it is often even diphthongized.

Vowel [e] is more open in GA. It also may be diphthongized before [p], [t], [k]: let [lε^әt].

6. There are four mixed or central vowels in GA: [з], [ә], [л], [a]. They differ markedly from RP vowels in articulation and distribution.

7. The three RP vowels [o], [æ], [a:] correspond to only two vowels in GA — [a] and [æ]. This combined with the articulatory differences between RP [o] and GA [a] and a difference in vowel distribution in many sets of words makes it very complicated. The following chart vividly shows it:

RP GA

Dad [æ] [æ]

dog [o] [a]

path [a:] [æ]

dance [a:] [æ]

half [a:] [æ]

Besides, word distribution of [o:], [o] in RP and GA is completely different. GA [o] is intermediate in quality between the RP [o:] and [o]. In its production the lips are considerably less rounded.

8. Now to the qualities of GA diphthongs.

a) the diphthong [eı] is closer in GA as opposed to RP;

b) very front realization of [зu] such as in RP is not found in GA;

c) the nucleus of [au] tends to be more advanced in GA;

d) since GA is a rhotic accent with non-prevocalic [r], it has the consequence that the following RP vowels (derived historically from vowel + [r]) do not occur in GA: [ıә] in dear — GA [dır], [εә] in dare — GA [deır], [uә] in tour — GA [tur].

Consonants

1. The RP allophonic differentiation of [1] does not exist in GA. In all positions [1] is fairly dark.

2. Intervocalic [t] as in pity is most normally voiced. The result is neutralization of the distribution between [t] and [d] in this position, i.e. latter, ladder. The original distinction is preserved through vowel length with the vowel before [t] being shorter.

In words like twenty, little [t] may even drop out. Thus winner and winter, for example, may sound identical.

3. GA [r] is articulated differently from RP one. The impression is one of greater retroflexion (the tip of the tongue is curled back further than in RP).

4. The "wh" spelling is represented in GA by [m] sound (or sometimes transcribed as [hw]. So most American speakers make a clear distinction between "wh" and "w" words: where — ware, which — witch.

5. The sonorant [j] is usually weakened or omitted altogether in GA between a consonant (especially a forelingual one) and [u:] as in the words: news [nu:z], Tuesday ['tu:zdı], student ['stu:dәnt], suit [su:t], tube [tu:b], stupid ['stu:pid], during ['du:riŋ].

Non-systematic Differences between General American and Received Pronunciation

A. 1. Many differences involve the pronunciation of individu­al words or groups of words. Here are some of these:

RP GA

cordial ['ko:dıәl] [‘korjәl]

either ['aıðә] [‘i:ðәr]

lever ['li:vә] ['levәr]

schedule [∫edju:l] ['skedjәl]

shone [∫on] [∫oun]

tomato [tә'ma:tәu] [tә'meıtou]

vase [va:z] [veız]

2. Words apparatus, data, status can be pronounced with either [æ] or [eı] in GA, but only with [eı] in RP.

3. Words like hostile, missile, reptile have final [aıl] in RP. In GA they may have [әl].

B. Stress Differences

1. In words of French origin GA tends to have stress on the final syllable, while RP has it on the initial one:

RP GA

ballet [‘bæleı] [bae'lei]

beret [‘berı] [bә'reı]

2. Some words have first-syllable stress in GA whereas in RP the stress may be elsewhere.

RP GA

address [ә'dres] ['ædres]

cigarette [sigә'ret] ['sıgәrәt]

magazine [mægә'zi:n] ['mægazın]

research [ri'sз:t∫] ['rısәt∫]

adult [ә’dлlt] [‘ædлlt]

inquiry [ıŋ'kwaıәrı] ['ıŋkwaıәrı]

3. Some compound words have stress on the first element in GA and in RP they retain it on the second element: weekend, ice­cream, hotdog, New Year.

4. Polysyllabic words ending in -ory, -ary, -mony have secondary stress in GA, often called "tertiary": laboratory ['læbrә,torı], dictionary ['dık∫,nәrı].

5. Different approaches to the problem of phoneme. The definition of phoneme. The notion of allophone. Principal and subsidiary variants of English phonemes. (Analyze the allophones of/t/ in: team, eighth, star). Functions of phoneme. Phonological and non-phonological features in the system of English consonants and vowels.

1. Theories of phonemes

a) Mentalistic view (psychological view ) – was propagated by Kazan school of phonology. Бодуен де Куртене defined the phoneme as an ideal image, he also called it a psychological equivalent of a sound. He regarded a sound as an imperfect realization of a phoneme, the target at which a speaker aims. This approach was supported be Сепир, and reviewed be Generative phonology (Michael Tezan)

b) Physical view – London school of phonology. Deniel Johns defined the phoneme as a family of related sounds.

This view was also supported by American descriptivists.

c) Abstract view – the Geneva school, Соссюр. Phoneme – an abstract concept, existing in our mind, devoid of any acoustic or physical properties. The Copenhagen (structural) school. Улдал, Елемслев

d) Functional view – Трубецкой, Prague linguistic school + American discriptivists (Leonard Bloomfield, Roman Jackobson, Michael Helly). The Phoneme – minimal linguistic unit differentiating meaning, a bunch of distinctive features

Jackobson introduced a list of 12 universal features distinguishing words. These features have binary nature (each has two meanings, marked a + or a -). Example /t/ -voiced /d/ +voiced.

English doesn’t observe all the 12 features, only 9 are used. This model is a mixture of acoustic and articulation.

The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words.

According to Васильев

Phoneme – is the smallest (that is further indivisible into consecutive units) linguistically relevant unit of the sound structure of a given language that serves to distinguish one form from another or grammatical form from another.

(men – man)

The actual speech sounds are allophones or variants of the phonemes. Allophones of one phoneme are phonetically similar and their differences can be explained by different contexts.

There are 2 types of allophones

1) Principal – it doesn’t undergo any distinguishable changes, it’s not positionaly determined, it is most representative of the phoneme as a whole (/t/ before stressed vowel, stressed vowels and consonants before stressed vowels)

2) subsidiary – they are positionally determined

a) combinatory – result of assimilation

b) positional – traditionally used in some fixed positions (dark l – clear l)

team – principal eight – combinatory star – principal

3 types of distribution of allomorphs

1) Contrastive/parallel/ overlapping – allomorphs are used in the same position, but they contrast each other (pet-bed)

2) Complementary – allophones never occur in the same position because they belong to the same phoneme (light l before vowels and j, dark l in all the rest positions)

3) Free variation – allophones of one and the same phoneme that do occur in the same position, but don’t differentiate the meaning of a word (and / xnd/ /xn/)

Free variants are stylistically marked.

Allophones do not differentiate words and grammatical forms.

3 functions of a phoneme

1) Constitutive – phoneme has no meaning of its own, but it serves as building material for lager meaningful units (morphemes, words)

2) Distinctive – a phoneme distinguish the meanings of different words

3) Identificatory/ recognitive - the use of the right allophones and other phonetic units facilitates normal recognition

? 4) Delimitating – a nice house – an ice house (the meaning sepends on the pronunciation of /n/)

Phonological analyses.

The aim of the phonological analysis is, firstly, to determine which differences of sounds are phonemic and which are non-phonemic and, secondly, to find the inventory of phonemes of the language.

As it was mentioned above, phonology has its own methods of investigation. Semantic method is applied for phonological analysis of both unknown languages and languages already described. The method is based on a phonemic rule that phonemes can distinguish words and morphemes when opposed to one another. It consists in systematic substitution of one sound for another in order to find out in which cases where the phonetic context remains the same such replacing leads to a change of meaning. This procedure is called the commutation test. It consists in finding minimal pairs of words and their grammatical forms.(ex:pen[pen]-Ben[ben];gain[gain]-cane [kain])

Minimal pairs are useful for establishing the phonemes of the language. Thus, a phoneme can only perform its distinctive function if it is opposed to another phoneme in the same position. Such an opposition is called phonological. Let us consider the classification of phonological oppositions worked out by N.S. Trubetzkoy. It is based on the number of distinctive articulatory features underlying the opposition.

1. If the opposition is based on a single difference in the articulation of two speech sounds, it is a single phonological opposition, e.g. [p]-[t], as in [pen]-[ten]; bilabial vs. forelingual, all the other features are the same.

2. If the sounds in distinctive opposition have two differences in their articulation, the opposition is double one, or a sum of two single oppositions, e.g. [p]-[d], as in [pen]-[den], 1) bilabial vs. forelingual 2) voiceless-fortis vs. voiced-lenis

3. If there are three articulatory differences, the opposition is triple one, or a sum of three single oppositions, e.g. [p]- [ð], as in [pei]-[ ðei]: 1) bilabial vs. forelingual, 2) occlusive vs. constrictive, 3) voiceless-fortis vs. voiced-lenis.

The same problem of the phonological analyses is the inventory of the distinctive features on which all the oppositions are based. Distinctive feature can be called the smallest and basic unit of phonological analyses.

Each morpheme has a number of simultaneous features.

Distinctive features are not affected by the phonological context, they are constant. They enable a morpheme to perform its distinctive function.

Some features are phonological relevant/distinctive/phonemic, the others are irrelevant or incidental.

Irrelevant features may be of 2 types

1) indispensable concomitant – they are always present in a phoneme and are not affected by the phonetic context. They don’t form a basis for a big number of oppositions.

Sin – thin

1. constructive

2. lingual

3. fortis

Irrelevant: s – round narrowing, T – flat narrowing

2) Incidental – they are present in some allophones of the phoneme but absent in the others (e.g. aspiration)

The relevant features of the English consonants

1) the type of obstruction: - occlusive, constrictive

2) the active organ- labial, lingual , glottal /h/

3) the forth of articulation - fortis (all voiceless), lenis (voiced)

4) the presence or absence of voice (Васильев says it’s incidental)

News /z/ Newspaper /s/ – assimilation

The irrelevant features of the English consonants

a) Indispensable – may for a basis for phonological opposition

((1) two focuses

Unicentral – bicentral /r/ - /l/ / T/ - / S/ / D/ - / Z / /s/ - / S/ /z/ - /Z/))

1)stability of articulation(stable-unstable(diphthongs))

2)horizontal movement of the tongue-(front-central-back)

3)vertical position of the tongue(narrow, open-brought-middle)

(The shape of the narrowing)

Round narrowing – flat narrowing /s/ - / T/ /z/ - / D/

3) Oral/nasal/letteral /b/ - /m/ /g/ - /N/

b) Incidental – they are contextually dependent

1) place of obstruction

[t] team (alveolar) tree (post-alveolar) in the (dental, interdental)

2) aspiration

3) palatalization Dark l – light l

Relevant features of the English vowels

1) The position of the tongue (its horizontal and vertical movement)

Irrelevant features of the English vowels

a) Indispensable 1) lip-rounding 2) tense – lex character

b) Incidental 1) length – there are no words in English that are differentiated by vowels of different length, they always different in quality as well (Be – beat – bit – positional duration )

6. The notion of interference. Prerequisites for phonetic interference (segmental level, or the level of sounds). Phonetic basis. Articulatory basis: static and dynamic aspects.

Interference. I.- superimposing one lang. system on another lang. syst. Which leads to certain changes in the structure of one lang. syst. under the influence of the other lang. E.g. interaction of E and R. Interference may take place in any aspect of a L. and may be considered at diff. Levels (phonetical, grammat., lexical). The most vivid in-ce is at the phonetic level. That’s explained by the fact that audio pronouncing skills are the least controlled at speech production/perception. Prerequisites for in-ce (phonetic level):1) the diff-ces in the phonological system of the L-s which are in contact(E- highly developed system of diphthongs R- no diphthongs at all)2)diff. in the phonetic laws(E voiced consonants aren’t devoiced in final position, in R they are log – луг) 3/ Diff in the phonetic basis(articulatory& prosodic bases): different articulatory settings lead to an accent. Diff in dynamic aspect cause mistakes (in E transition from consonant to vowel is loose in R it’s close; high degree of reduction in E, low in R). Prosodic basis – diff intonational patterns of the land-s under consideration lead to phonetic mistakes.

The notion was introduced by Roman Jakobson in 1948. Our L1 (mother tongue) interferes with our attempts to function in the L2 (target language).

Interference is superimposing of one language system on another one. It is interaction of two languages.

The interference is the most vivid at the phonetic level (audiopronunciation skills) because it’s difficult to control in speech production and speech perception.

The possible prerequisites for the interference:

1. the difference in the phonological systems.

We have a system of diphthongs in English, not at all in Russian.

[ai], [oi] substitute Russian ой, ай, эй (май, рай). The nuclear should be stronger in English.

2. the difference in phonetic laws.

English voiced consonants are not devoiced, but Russian ones are devoiced.

3. the difference in phonetic bases of the languages.

Phonetic basis – is a number of typical pronunciation habits of the L. They are perceived by the listener.

Phonetic basis:

- articulatory basis

1) static aspect ( position of the organs of speech when a person doesn’t speak, he is about to speak) – Articulatory setting (AS)

2) dynamic aspect is a manner of transition from a consonant to a consonant, to a consonant to a vowel, from a vowel to a consonant within a syllable or at the junction of the syllables.

7. The static aspect of the articulatory basis. The influence of Russian articulatory setting on the pronunciation of English sounds. Errors, which occur as a result of the differences in the articulatory settings of English and Russian.

Phonetic basis – is a number of typical pronunciation habits of the L. They are perceived by the listener.

Phonetic basis:

- articulatory basis

1) static aspect ( position of the organs of speech when a person doesn’t speak, he is about to speak) – Articulatory setting (AS)

2) dynamic aspect

English AS:

1. the lips are spread and pressed tightly against the teeth.

2. the tip of the tongue is drawn back to the teeth, it is held opposite the alveolar but it doesn’t touch it.

3. the front and the back parts of the tongue are flattened and lowered (back part).

4. the soft palate is raised as in yelling.

=the increase of mouth resonator

So a specific English timber is created.

Russian AS:

1. the lips are slightly rounded, they aren’t pressed against the teeth.

2. the top of the tongue is put forward and touches teech.

3. the front, back parts of the tongue are slightly raised.

Accent – particular kind of deviation from the literary norm of the foreign L. which appears in the speech of a person under the influence of his native L.

Accent is a penetration into a foreign L. of the most typical, most natural pronunciation habits of the native L.

It results in phonetic errors:

1. palatalization (it’s typical of Russian). Russian learners palatalize consonants which precede front vowels.

2. Russian voiceless consonants are weak, but English voiceless consonants are strong

3. in Russian voiced consonants are strong but not in English.

4. aspiration (p, t, k)

5. the majority of Russian fore lingual consonants are dental. In English they are alveolar (т, д, н, ц, с, з)

6. In English [h] is glottal, there are no glottal sounds in Russian at all.

7. the substitution of labio-dental [v] for bilateral [w]

8. labialization of rounded vowels (у, о) to a very great extend in the Russian manner.

9. there are no diphthong in Russian.

10. the pronunciation of English diphthongoids as stable long vowels.

11. no differentiation of English vowels according to their length which results in notion mistakes.

12. in Russian there is no notion of checked character of short vowels

13. in Russian open vowels are not so open as they are in English. It’s difficult for Russian learners of English to make open sounds open enough [ai], [a:], [o].

14. we do more open variants of short [e], [^]. In Russian [э], [а] are more open.

15. mispronunciation of front [i]. Russian learners of English may it too close.

8.The dynamic aspect of the articulatory basis. Syllable as one of the levels of the phonetic basis: definition. Different approaches to the problem of syllable.The structure of syllable. Syllabic sounds in English and Russian.

Syllable is the minimal grouping of vowels and consonants necessary for articulation (phonetic unit) and for strong strings of phonemes in the mental representation (phonological unit). The syllable is a unit posited at both the phonetic and the phonological levels of analysis. Syllable can be defined as a complex unit made up of a nuclear and marginal elements, with vowels actins as nuclear, syllabic elements and consonants as marginal, or non-syllabic ones.

The notion of a phonetic unit is difficult to define. There have been attempts to describe it as a minimal articulatory unit in terms of “chest-pulse” theory (R.H.Stetson), sonority theory (O.Jespersen), as an arc of muscular tension (L.V.Scherba) or, perceptually, an arc of loudness (N.I.Zhinkin). Syllable is also a minimal prosodic unit in which prosodic features of pitch, length and loudness may be realized.

The syllable may consist of the onset, the nucleus and the coda. The nucleus plus coda constitute the rhyme. There is no syllable without the nucleus, the presence of the onset and the coda depends on the phonotactic rules of a particular language. Syllables can be open, when ending in a vowel (V,CV), closed, ending in a consonant (VC,CVC), covered, with a consonant for an onset (CV,CVC), uncovered, with no onset (V,VC), light, with a short vowel like [ə], or [I], or [υ] and no consonant to follow, and heavy, with a long vowel or a diphthong, or a short vowel with a consonant to follow. Heavy syllables attract stress, they become stressed, while light syllables are unstressed.

Dynamic aspect is a manner of transition from a consonant to a consonant, to a consonant to a vowel, from a vowel to a consonant within a syllable or at the junction of the syllables.

In Russian the transition from a consonant to a vowel is close, in English is loose.

Sounds are grouped in syllables, phonemes are realized in a syllable. This problem is very complicated.

Syllable - a minimal pronunciation unit which, on the one hand, ground for speech production, on the other hand, ground for speech perception.

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds.