The classification of English vowel phonemes.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 555.

System of English vowels

Practical significance

Theoretical significance

Each branch of the phonetics aims at the further development of one of the basic linguistic problems such as synchronic study and description of the phonetic system of a national language, the comparative analysis and description of phonetic systems of different languages and the study of the correspondences between them.

Practical applications of the phonetics are manifold (многочисленный). It is necessary in methods of teaching the pronunciation of a foreign language. It can be also applied in methods of speech correction (логопедия), teaching deaf-mutes (глухонемые), in film doubling (дублирование фильмов).

English vowel phonemes are classified according to the following principles:

I. According to the position of the bulk (основной объем) of the tongue.

II. According to the height of the raised part of the tongue.

III. According to the kip position.

IV. According to the length of the vowel.

V. According to the stability of articulation.

I. According to the position of the bulk of the tongue vowels are divided into five groups:

1) Front vowels (переднего) are produced when the bulk of the tongue is in the front part of the mouth. At the same time the front part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate, forming a large empty space in the back part of the mouth [i:, e, ǽ]. see, spell, man

2) Front-retracted vowels are produced with the bulk of the tongue in the front part of the mouth. However it is a little retracted (отодвинут назад). The front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate [i]. fish

3) Central vowels (смешанного ряда) are produced when the central part of the tongue is raised towards the juncture (соединение) between the hard and the soft palate [ , з:, ] muscles, work, about

4) Back vowels (заднего ряда) are produced when the bulk of the tongue is in the back of the mouth. At the same time the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate, forming an empty space in the front part of the mouth [o, o:, u:,]. got, saw, too

5) Back-advanced (задние продвинутые вперед) vowels are produced when the bulk of the tongue is in the back part of the mouth. However, it is a little advanced (продвинут вперед). The back part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate [a:, u]. arm, pull

II. According to the height of the raised part of the tongue vowels are divided into three groups:

1) Close (high) (высокого подъема) vowels are produced when the tongue comes close to the roof of the mouth. The air passage is narrowed [i:, i, u:, u]. see, sit, too, put

2) Open (low) (низкого подъема) vowels are produced when the tongue is very low in the mouth. The air passage is wide [ǽ, a:, o, /\]. man, arm, got, cup

3) Mid-open (mid) vowels are produced when the tongue is half way between its high and low position [e, e:, , o:]. ten, fur, ago, saw

III. According to the lip position vowels are divided into two groups:

1) Unrounded vowels (нелабиализованные) are pronounced when the lips are neutral (нейтральные) or spread [i:, I, e, ǽ, a, /\, з:, ]. see, sit, ten, man, cup, arm, fur, ago

2) Rounded vowels are produced when the lips are drawn together so that the opening between them is more or less round [o, o:, u, u:]. hot, saw, put, too