THE PHONETIC ASPECT OF THE SYLLABLE.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 494.

GENERAL NOTES ON THE SYLLABLE.

THE SYLLABLE.

In connected speech sounds are pronounced not separately, but as elements of syllables. The smallest unit into which actual speech is divided , are syllables. The syllable is both a phonetic and a phonological unit. As a phonetic unit it has its own articulation auditory and acoustic features. As a phonological unit syllables are described with reference to a particular language. Each language has its own rules of combining phonemes into syllables .

Ex. The word mimsy does not exist in the English language, but it is not perceived as unnatural, because its syllables are built according to the norms of the English language.

The word vlk is perceived as foreign because it doesn't correspond to the norms of syllable construction in English, but it corresponds to the norms to the Czech language and it means wolf. According to the norms of the English language the vowel occupies the central position in a syllable and consonants are the margins of the syllable. In the unstressed syllable of 2 syllabic or polysyllabic words the sonorants \n,l\ may be the central of the syllable.

Ex. Nettle –кропива \'ne-tl\.

There are 3 serious formation:

1)the chest pulse theory. According to it, the syllable is a group of sounds pronounced in one chest pulse.

2)the relative sonority theory. According to it, sounds in a syllable group themselves arouse ?! the most sonorous one. Sounds may be classified according to the degree to the sonority (beginning with the most sonorous ):

a)open vowels \eeдогори ногами, o,o:,a:\

b)mid-open vowels \e

c)close vowels \i,i:,u,u:\

d)sonorants \r,l,m,n,nь,w,j\

e)voiced-fricative \v

f)voiced-stops \b,d,

g)voiceless-fricatives \s,sш,

j)voiceless-stops \p,t,k

3)the theory of muscular tension. According to it muscular tension increases at the beginning of the syllable, reaches its maximum at the peak of the syllable,which is a vowel or a sonorant and decreases. In this way an arc of muscular tension is formed. None of theory is perfect. There are cases of syllable formation that none of them can explain.There are several types of the English syllables (V- stands for vowel, C- stands for consonant):

a)uncovered open –V

America \a-mer-i-ca\

b)uncovered closed –V+C

On \o-n\

Entail \en-tail\

c)covered closed – C+V+C

cat \c-a-t\

map \m-a-p\

tension\ ten-sion\

d)covered open –V+C+V

no \n-o\

In English there can be up to 3 consonants before a vowel- straw.

It may be up to 3 consonants after a vowel- he asks.

Or up to 4 – taxes.