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Evstifeeva.qxd  03.08.2011  15:23  Page 1

М.В. Евстифеева

тЕорЕтичЕская фонЕтика

английского языка

лекции, семинары, упражнения

Рекомендовано УМО по образованию 

в области подготовки педагогических кадров 
в качестве учебного пособия для студентов 

высших учебных заведений, 

обучающихся по специальности 050303 — иностранный язык

Москва

Издательство «ФлИнта»

Издательство «наука»

2012

3

УДК  811.111’34(075.8)
ББК  81.2Англ-1-923
     Е26

Евстифеева М.В.

Е26      Теоретическая фонетика английского языка. Лекции, семинары, 

упражнения : учеб. пособие / М.В. Евстифеева. — М. : ФЛИНТА : 
Наука, 2012. — 168 с.

ISBN 978-5-9765-1115-6 (ФЛИНТА)
ISBN 978-5-02-037670-0 (Наука)

В пособии в сжатом виде изложены основные аспекты фонетической 

теории и практики английского языка в современной лингвистике; приведе-
на обобщенная информация о компонентах фонетической системы. Посо-
бие содержит лекционную часть и методические разработки к семинарским 
занятиям, а также практические упражнения.

Для студентов факультетов иностранных языков педвузов.

ISBN  978-5-9765-1115-6 (ФЛИНТА)
ISBN  978-5-02-037670-0 (Наука)

© Евстифеева М.В., 2012
© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2012

УДК 811.111’34(075.8)
ББК  81.2Англ-1-923

Р е ц е н з е н т ы:

докт. филол. наук, профессор, ректор, 

Новый гуманитарный институт Монина Т.С.;

канд. филол. наук, доцент кафедры иностранных языков, 

Владимирский государственный университет Камайданова Н.А.;

канд. пед. наук, доцент кафедры английского языка, 

Московский государственный областной гуманитарный институт Котова Е.Г.

CONTENTS

Предисловие .................................................................................................................. 6
От автора ........................................................................................................................ 8

PART I. Lectures and Seminars

Lecture 1.  IntroductIon ..................................................................................... 10
     § 1.  Phonetics as a science ................................................................................ 10
     § 2.  Process of oral speech production .............................................................. 10
     § 3.  Aspects of phonetics .................................................................................. 12
     § 4.  Units and components of phonetic system ................................................. 14
     § 5.  Branches of phonetics ................................................................................ 15
     § 6.  Methods of phonetic analysis ..................................................................... 16
Seminar 1 ...................................................................................................................... 17

Lecture 2.
MAIN ASPectS of fUNctIoNAl PhoNetIcS ................................ 19

     § 1.  Phoneme: definition and functions ............................................................ 19
     § 2.  Phonemes, allophones, phones: difference and relationships .................... 20
     § 3.  Meaning of phonemes and allophones in teaching practice ....................... 22
     § 4.  Main views of the nature of phoneme ........................................................ 24
     § 5.  Methods of phonological analysis ............................................................. 25
Seminar 2 ...................................................................................................................... 28

Lecture 3.
the SySteM of eNglISh PhoNeMeS ............................................. 30

     § 1.  Vowel and consonant phonemes ................................................................ 30
     § 2.  Articulatory and phonological views on the classification  
        of english consonants ................................................................................ 31
         2.1. general characteristics of english consonants ................................... 31
         2.2. Articulatory classification .................................................................. 31
         2.3. Phonological classification ................................................................. 33
         2.4. Problem of affricates ........................................................................... 35
     § 3.  Articulatory and phonological views on the classification  
        of english vowels ...................................................................................... 37
         3.1. general characteristics of english vowels ........................................ 37
         3.2. Articulatory classification .................................................................. 39
         3.3. Phonological classification ................................................................ 42

5

         3.4. Problem of diphthongs and diphthongoids ......................................... 45
         3.5. Problem of vowel length .................................................................... 47
Seminar 3 ....................................................................................................................... 49

Lecture 4.  ModIfIcAtIoNS ANd AlterNAtIoNS  
        of SPeech SoUNdS IN the eNglISh lANgUAge ....................... 51 
     § 1.  types of sound variations in connected speech ...................................... 51
     § 2.  Modifications of sounds in connected speech ......................................... 52
         2.1. Modifications of consonants in connected speech ....................... 52
         2.2. Modifications of vowels in connected speech ................................. 56
         2.3. complex vowel and consonant modifications .................................... 57
     § 3.  Notion of alternation and its types ............................................................. 57
     § 4.  Problem of phoneme identification. Main phonological schools ............... 60 
Seminar 4 ...................................................................................................................... 61

Lecture 5.
SyllABIc StrUctUre of eNglISh wordS ................................ 63

     § 1.  theories on syllable formation and division .............................................. 63
     § 2.  Syllable formation in english .................................................................... 66
     § 3.  Syllable division in english ....................................................................... 68
     § 4.  functional characteristics of the syllable ................................................... 70
     § 5.  graphic representation of syllables in english ........................................... 71
Seminar 5 ...................................................................................................................... 72

Lecture 6.
word StreSS IN eNglISh ................................................................. 74

     § 1.  Nature of word stress ................................................................................. 74
     § 2.  Placement of word stress in english ........................................................... 76
     § 3.  degrees of word stress in english .............................................................. 76
     § 4.  Phonemic distribution in stressed syllables ................................................ 78
     § 5.  functions of the english word stress .......................................................... 79
     § 6.  Stress tendencies in modern english .......................................................... 80
     § 7.  Stress patterns of english words ................................................................ 81
     § 8.  Basic rules of accentuation ........................................................................ 83
     § 9.  Variations of word stress in connected speech. Sentence stress ................. 84
Seminar 6 ...................................................................................................................... 86

Lecture 7.  INtoNAtIoN IN eNglISh ................................................................... 88
     § 1.  general characteristics of intonation ......................................................... 88
     § 2.  foreign views of the problem of intonation ............................................... 88
     § 3.  Problem of intonation in russian linguistics .............................................. 90

     § 4.  Prosodic components of intonation. Structure  
        of english intonation patterns .................................................................... 91
     § 5.  Methods of indicating intonation ............................................................... 95
     § 6.  functions of intonation .............................................................................. 96
     § 7.  Phonological aspect of intonation .............................................................. 98
     § 8.  english rhythm .......................................................................................... 99
Seminar 7 .................................................................................................................... 100

Lecture 8.
StylIStIc ANd regIoNAl VArIetIeS 

        of eNglISh ProNUNcIAtIoN ........................................................ 103
     § 1.  Spoken language as the object of linguistic investigation ........................ 103
     § 2.  territorial varieties of english pronunciation .......................................... 104
        2.1. National variants and regional accents of the english language ........... 104
        2.2. British english .................................................................................. 106
        2.3. American english ............................................................................. 109
        2.4. Spread of english .............................................................................. 111
     § 3.  Stylistic varieties of english pronunciation ............................................. 112
        3.1. Style-forming and style-differentiating factors ................................ 113
        3.2. classification of phonetic styles ....................................................... 115
Seminar 8 .................................................................................................................... 117

PART II. Exercises

exercise Block 1 .......................................................................................................... 120

exercise Block 2 .......................................................................................................... 126

exercise Block 3 .......................................................................................................... 128

exercise Block 4 .......................................................................................................... 133

exercise Block 5 .......................................................................................................... 136

exercise Block 6 .......................................................................................................... 138

exercise Block 7 .......................................................................................................... 142

PART III. Supplementary Material

Supplement 1. Proverbs, sayings, tongue twisters ........................................................ 148

Supplement 2. Phonetic phenomena ............................................................................ 155

Supplement 3. Stave representation of intonation ........................................................ 158

Supplement 4. Step-by-step phonetic analysis ............................................................. 161

Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 163

7

Предисловие

Пособие ориентировано на современные тенденции в системе 

высшего образования, предусматривающие сокращение аудиторных 
часов на изучение теоретических предметов и увеличение времени 
на самостоятельное изучение лингвистических дисциплин.

Цель учебного пособия — помощь студентам в овладении осно-

вами теории фонетики, установлении взаимосвязи новых теоретиче-
ских знаний с практическими умениями, полученными в рамках 
нормативного курса фонетики, а также в профессиональной ориен-
тации студентов, предполагающей использование полученных зна-
ний и умений в дальнейшей педагогической деятельности.

Задача учебного пособия — систематизировать и в доступной 

форме изложить элементы фонетической теории, существующие в 
современной лингвистике, дать обобщенную информацию обо всех 
компонентах фонетической системы современного английского 
языка и обеспечить контроль усвоения полученных знаний.

Учебное пособие включает в себя три раздела, объем которых 

определяется спецификой материала.

Первый раздел содержит лекционную часть и методические раз-

работки к семинарским занятиям. Лекционная часть разделена на 
восемь блоков, в которых в краткой форме изложены основные тео-
ретические положения современной фонетики и фонологии. В рам-
ках семинарских занятий после каждой лекции предполагается рас-
смотрение подробного списка контрольных вопросов для проверки 
усвоения лекционного материала. Отметим, что теоретический ма-
териал дается в минимальном объеме. С целью лучшего овладения 
учебным материалом перед обсуждением каждой темы студентам 
следует рекомендовать дополнительную литературу, указанную в 
библиографическом списке.

Второй раздел включает семь блоков практических упражнений, 

направленных на реализацию полученных теоретических знаний в 
практической области. При этом подчеркивается связь фонетики с 
другими подразделами лингвистической теории (лексикологией, 

грамматикой, стилистикой), а также осуществляется взаимосвязь 
теоретической и нормативной фонетики. Упражнения составлены с 
учетом постепенного нарастания сложности и нацелены на отработ-
ку определенных фонетических явлений, описанных в соответству-
ющих разделах лекционного курса.

Третий раздел содержит дополнительные материалы, включаю-

щие: 

—  упражнения, направленные на тренировку звуков и звуковых 

переходов в системе английского языка, вызывающих частые 
трудности у русскоязычных студентов;

—  информацию о фонетических модификациях звуков англий-

ского языка в связной речи и их графической репрезента-
ции; 

—  сведения о способах абстрактной передачи основных инто-

национных контуров английского языка; 

—  схему последовательного анализа фонетических явлений, 

представленных в английских текстах.

В конце книги приведен библиографический список. Отдельные 

пункты из данного списка можно рекомендовать студентам при под-
готовке к семинарским занятиям. Количество рекомендованной ли-
тературы зависит от специфики работы и объема аудиторных часов, 
отведенных на освоение дисциплины, и должно определяться самим 
педагогом.

9

От автора

Дорогие друзья! 

Перед вами — учебное пособие по теоретической фонетике ан-

глийского языка, в котором в сжатом виде изложены основные 
аспекты фонетической теории и практики. Книга предназначена для 
тех, кто хочет не только правильно произносить английские слова и 
хорошо интонировать предложения, но также знать и уметь объяс-
нить причины возникновения и существования тех или иных фоне-
тических явлений в изучаемом языке.

Фонетика — одна из важнейших лингвистических наук. Соглас-

но общепринятой иерархии, в лингвистике выделяются следующие 
уровни изучения языка: фонетический, морфологический, лексиче-
ский, словосочетания, предложения, текста. При этом фонетический 
уровень принимается за базовый, поскольку он составляет основу 
любого языка. Образно говоря, звуки являются своеобразной ‘пи-
щей’ языка, из них, как из кирпичиков, строятся слоги, слова, слово-
сочетания и предложения, реализуя наивысшую человеческую по-
требность — потребность в общении.

Возможно, этот учебник станет Вашим гидом в многообразии 

английских звуков, благодаря чему Вы сможете свободно общаться 
на изучаемом языке. Понятное и последовательное объяснение мно-
гочисленных фонетических теорий, существующих в современной 
лингвистике, поможет Вам овладеть навыками теоретического ана-
лиза языкового материала, которые пригодятся как при изучении 
других лингвистических дисциплин, так и в написании рефератов, 
курсовых и квалификационных работ. Знания и умения, полученные 
Вами, также будут способствовать профессиональному росту и по-
надобятся при обучении уже Ваших учеников.

P A R T  I

Lectures and Seminars

11

Lecture 1

INTrOduCTION

§ 1. Phonetics as a science

the word ‘phonetics’ comes from the greek word fonetika meaning 

‘the science of the voice’. Nowadays it means the study of the way humans 
make, transmit, and receive speech sounds. Phonetics is an independent 
branch of linguistics like lexicology or grammar. these linguistic sciences 
study language from three different points of view. lexicology deals with 
the language vocabulary, the origin and development of words, their mean-
ing and word building. grammar defines the rules governing the modifica-
tion of words and the combination of words into sentences. 

Phonetics is a basic branch of linguistics, which deals with speech 

sounds and studies the outer form of the language. Neither linguistic the-
ory nor linguistic practice can exist without phonetics, because language 
is a system and its components are inseparably connected.

the connection of phonetics with grammar is exercised through or-

thography and intonation. thus for example, the system of reading rules 
helps to pronounce singular and plural forms of nouns correctly (man — 
men, foot — feet). the use of the necessary nuclear tone helps to distin-
guish between different types of sentences. It’s especially important in 
colloquial speech where one and the same sentence may be understood as 
a statement when pronounced with the falling tone (He came \ home.) or 
a question when pronounced with the rising tone (He came / home?). 

the connection of phonetics with lexicology is exercised through pro-

nunciation and word-stress. for instance, some corresponding forms of 
verbs and nouns are homographs identical in spelling. they may be distin-
guished with the help of pronunciation (wind [wınd] — to wind [waınd]), 
word-stress ('object — to ob'ject), or the combinative use of word-stress and 
pronunciation (increase ['ınkrıs] — to increase [in'kri:z]). 

the connection of phonetics with stylistics is exercised through into-

national components or graphical expressive means. for example, repeti-

tion of words serves as the basis of rhythm and rhyme; capitalization or 
italics highlightning underline special prominence of information:

Look to left and look to right,
Note what traffic is in sight. 
Note, too, which light can be seen:
The Red, the Amber, or the Green.
Children, keep from dangerous play
And THINK before you cross today.

Phonetics as a science examines the inventory, structure and func-

tions of speech sounds. on the expression level phoneticians investigate 
the sound system of the language: phonemes and their allophones, word 
stress, syllabic structure and intonation. on the content level phoneticians 
are interested in the analysis and characteristics of phonetic phenomena 
and their role in a language. thus phonetics occupies itself with the study 
of the ways of sound organization into a system of units, variations and 
functions of these units in all types and styles of spoken language.

Phonetics is the kind of a science that may have application in various 

fields of knowledge besides linguistics. Phonetics is also connected with 
non-linguistic sciences which have educational or social value, like meth-
ods of language teaching, logics, history, psychology, sociology. the study 
of the structure of sound system is indispensable from sciences studying 
different aspects of speech production, like acoustics, physiology. the con-
nection of phonetics with other sciences is easily observed by the example 
of its branches. thus, acoustic phonetics is related to physics and mathe-
matics; articulatory phonetics — to physiology, anatomy, and anthropolo-
gy; historical phonetics — to general history and archaeology; functional 
phonetics — to communication theory and statistics.

Phonetics is also a part of some interdisciplinary subjects like socio-

linguistics, psycholinguistics, mathematical linguistics, etc. each of these 
sciences can have theoretical or practical application in the sphere of 
phonetic investigation.

§ 2. Process of oral speech production

human speech is the result of a highly complicated series of events 

that can be divided into 6 stages: psychological, physiological, physical/

13

acoustic, reception, transmission, linguistic interpretation. they are inter-
connected and constitute two parts of the speech act.

I. The first part of the speech act contains the stages made by the 

speaker. It includes the following:

1)  the psychological stage concerns the formation of the concept in 

the brain of a speaker;

2)  when the message is formed, it is transmitted along the nervous 

system to the speech organs which produce particular speech 
sounds within the physiological stage;

3)  the movements of the speech apparatus disturb the air and pro-

duce sound waves during the acoustic stage. 

II. The second part of the speech act includes the stages made by the 

listener, because any communication requires a listener as well as a speaker: 

1)  the sound waves are percepted by the listener’s ear within the 

reception stage;

2)  the spoken message is transmitted through the nervous system to 

the listener’s brain during the transmission stage;

3)  the information conveyed gets its linguistic interpretation. 

the analysis of the process of oral speech production makes it pos-

sible to define four levels of speech production: articulatory, acoustic, 
auditory and functional. they are inseparable in the real process of com-
munication. But each of them can be singled out in order to characterize 
different aspects of sound phenomena which in their turn are necessary 
to define the main branches of pnonetics: articulatory, acoustic, auditory 
and functional.

§ 3. Aspects of phonetics

the linguistic analysis of the sound matter of any language helps to 

distribute all the sound phenomena into the following aspects: articula-
tory, acoustic, auditory and functional. 

I. the articulatory aspect comprises all the movements and posi-

tions of the speech organs necessary to pronounce a speech sound. Speech 

organs have different functions and thus can be divided into four 
groups:

1)  the power (respiratory) mechanism supplies the energy in the 

form of air pressure and regulates the force of air stream. It in-
cludes the following speech organs: the diaphragm, the lungs, the 
bronchi, the windpipe (trachea), the glottis and the supra-glottal 
cavities, the larynx, the mouth cavity, the nasal cavity. 

2)  the vibration mechanism functions as a vibrator when producing voice. 

It consists of the vocal cords (voice box), situated in the larynx.

3)  the resonator mechanism consists of the speech organs which 

function as principal resonators. these are the pharynx, the larynx, 
the mouth and nasal cavities.

4)  the obstruction mechanism consists of the tongue (the blade, the 

tip, the front, the back/dorsum), the lips, the teeth, the soft palate 
with the uvula, the hard palate, the alveolar ridge. these speech 
organs form different types of obstructions.

II. the acoustic aspect studies sound waves. It is the way in which 

the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear. 

there may be different types of vibrations which affect the tone of the 

voice. the basic vibrations of the vocal cords over their whole length 
produce the fundamental tone of voice. the simultaneous vibrations of 
parts of the vocal cords produce partial tones (overtones). 

the number of vibrations per second is called frequency. frequency 

of basic vibrations of the vocal cords is called the fundamental frequency
which is very important in phonetic investigation. It determines the pitch 
of the voice and forms the acoustic basis of speech melody.

III. the auditory (sound-perception) aspect is a physiological and 

psychological mechanism. It combines the process of hearing with the 
process of discriminating sounds. People can perceive the range from 16 
to 20,000 hz with a difference in 3 hz. the human ear transforms vibra-
tions of the air into nervous commands and transmits them to the brain. 
this enables the listener discriminate the quality, pitch, loudness, and 
length of sounds and identify the sounds.

IV. the functional (linguistic) aspect is concerned with the linguis-

tic function of individual sounds and segments of speech. from the func-

15

tional point of view all sound phenomena of any language present a clear-
cut system of interdependent units: phonemes, syllables, stress, and into-
nation. these phonetic phenomena have no meaning of their own. their 
linguistic function is to constitute and distinguish larger meaningful units, 
such as morphemes, words, phrases, etc. 

§ 4. Units and components of phonetic system

the phonetic system of a language is a set of units arranged in an 

orderly way to replace each other in a given framework. Phonetics in 
general is divided in two sub-systems: segmental phonetics which is con-
cerned with minimal segments of speech and suprasegmental phonetics
which deals with larger speech units. 

Segmental units of phonetics include phonemes and their allophones 

as the representation of individual sounds. Suprasegmental units are syl-
lables, word-stress, and prosodic (intonational) phenomena (pith, stress, 
tempo, rhythm, pauses). Both segmental and suprasegmental units are 
used to form words, phrases and utterances in connected speech.

thus it’s possible to define phonetics as a branch of linguistics that 

studies speech sounds in the broad sense, comprising segmental sounds, 
suprasegmental units and prosodic phenomena.

the phonetic system of any language comprises 4 components: pho-

nemic, syllabic, accentual and intonational.

the first is the phonemic component. It is the basic component rep-

resented by the system of segmental phonemes of a language existing in 
the material form of their allophones. It may have manifestations in:

—  the system of phonemes as discrete isolated units;

—  the distribution of allophones of different phonemes; 

—  the methods of joining speech sounds. 

the second component is the syllabic structure of words. It has two 

manifestations which are inseparable from each other: syllable formation 
and syllable division.

the third component is the accentual structure of words when pro-

nounced in isolation. Its main manifestations are: 

—  the acoustic nature of word stress;

—  the stress position in disyllabic and polysyllabic words; 

—  the degrees of word stress. 

the fourth component is the intonational structure of utterances with 

the following manifestations:

—  the prosodic components of intonation;

—  the structure of intonation patterns; 

—  the representation of patterns in intonation groups. 

All the components of the phonetic system of the language constitute 

its pronunciation.

§ 5. Branches of phonetics

there are several ways to define branches of phonetics.
I. According to the object of the study there are four branches of pho-

netics. they are interconnected, because the sound matter of a language is 
a unity of four aspects: articulatory, acoustic, auditory, and functional.

Articulatory phonetics studies the way in which the speech organs are 

used to produce single sounds and combinations of sounds. It is the lon-
gest established and the most highly developed branch. that’s why most 
terms used by phoneticians are articulatory in origin. 

Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech 

sounds and the air vibrations between the speaker’s mouth and the lis-
tener’s ear. 

Auditory phonetics studies the way people perceive speech sounds. 
All these branches analyse, describe and classify all possible sounds 

that the human articulatory apparatus can make and thus concern only the 
material side of phonetic units. But scientists are also interested in the 
abstract, linguistic side of speech sounds and in the way different sound 
phenomena function in a particular language. 

the branch of phonetics, which studies the functional (linguistic) as-

pect of speech sounds, is called functional phonetics or phonology. 

II. According to the sphere of application phonetics can be divided 

into general phonetics and special phonetics. 

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general phonetics studies all the sound-producing possibilities of the 

human speech apparatus and the ways they are used for the purpose of 
communication. 

Special phonetics is based on general phonetics and studies the pho-

netic system of a particular language. 

According to the number of languages under study special phonetics 

is divided into descriptive and comparative phonetics. 

descriptive phonetics studies the system of pronunciation and pho-

netic units of a single language. 

the aim of comparative phonetics is to study the correlation between 

phonetic systems of two or more languages.

III. According to the time characteristics of sound phenomena under 

study linguists distinguish between historical and contemporary phonetics. 

historical phonetics traces and establishes the successive changes in the 

phonetic system of a given language at different stages of its development. 

the aim of contemporary phonetics is to find and fix the peculiarities 

of speech sounds of the language at the present moment of its existence.

IV. According to the field of application and methods of investiga-

tion phonetics is also divided into theoretical and practical. 

Practical phonetics studies the substance, the material form of phonetic 

phenomena with the help of different methods of phonetic analysis. 

theoretical phonetics is mainly concerned with the functions of pho-

netic units in the language and uses methods of phonemic analysis. 

All the branches of phonetics are closely connected with one another 

and study the language in a set of certain phonetic units arranged in an 
orderly way. 

§ 6. Methods of phonetic analysis

linguists distinguish between two groups of methods, which may be 

applied when investigating the sound matter of the language: subjective 
and objective methods of phonetic analysis.

Subjective (introspective) methods were available from the beginning 

of the study of sounds. they include the oldest and simplest methods of 
phonetic investigation: sensory analysis and direct observation. these 

consist in observing and fixing the movements and positions of one’s 
own or other people’s organs of speech in the production of various 
speech sounds, as well as in analyzing and comparing one’s own articula-
tory and auditory impressions.

objective (instrumental) methods of phonetic analysis appeared in the 

second half of the XXth century with the development of such sciences as 
physiology and physics. they involve the use of various instrumental tech-
niques like palatography, laryngoscopy, X-ray photography, electromyogra-
phy, etc. the use of the data of instrumental analysis gives a detailed study 
of different phonetic phenomena and articulatory processes. It’s quite clear 
that many instruments, which are used in analyzing different phonetic phe-
nomena, derive from other sciences. for instance, the articulatory parameters 
of speech are observed and fixed with the help of articulograph. the spectra 
of speech sounds are investigated by means of sound spectrograph. the pitch 
component of intonation is studied with the help of intonograph.

Nowadays practically no area of practical phonetic investigation can 

do without the combination of subjective and objective methods when the 
results of instrumental analysis supplement those available from intro-
spective analysis. 

Seminar 1

1.  what is your idea of phonetics?

2.  what is the role of phonetics in language teaching?

3.  what is meant by phonetics as a science?

4.  Prove that phonetics is a basic branch of linguistics.

5.  how is phonetics connected with other branches of linguistics?

6.  what is the object of phonetics on the expression and on the content 

level?

7.  explain the connection of phonetics with non-linguistic sciences.

8.  what interdisciplinary subjects does phonetics overlap with?

9.  Name the 6 stages of speech chain production.

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10.  comment on the peculiarities of the stages made on the part of the 

speaker.

11.  comment on the peculiarities of the stages made on the part of the 

listener.

12.  what are the levels of speech production? how do they correlate 

with the aspects of sound phenomena?

13.  characterize the articulatory aspect of phonetics. list the organs of 

speech that are included in the:

a)  power mechanism;

b)  vibration mechanism;

c)  resonator mechanism;

d)  obstruction mechanism.

14.  discuss the object of the acoustic aspect of phonetics. what are its 

main ideas?

15.  what does the auditory aspect of phonetics concern?

16.  what is the aim of the functional aspect of phonetics?

17.  Speak about phonetics as a system. what subdivisions does it in-

clude?

18.  Name the segmental and suprasegmental units of phonetics.

19.  give the definition of phonetics.

20.  what components of the phonetic system do you know? characte-

rize each of them.

21.  Speak about the main branches of phonetics defined according to the 

object of the study. what is implied by the term ‘phonology’?

22.  State the difference between general and special phonetics. 

23.  discuss the peculiarities of historical and contemporary phonetics.

24.  what are the objects and methods of theoretical and practical pho-

netics?

25.  what methods of phonetic analysis do you know? give examples of 

each of them.

Lecture 2

MAin ASPectS of fUnctionAL PhoneticS

§ 1. Phoneme: 

definition and functions

A speech sound is the unit of practical phonetics, which is studied 

from articulatory, acoustic and auditory aspects. A phoneme is the unit of 
functional phonetics, which serves communicative purposes. 

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 in order to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words.

the truly materialistic view of the phoneme was first proposed by an 

outstanding linguist l.V. Shcherba and supported by V.A. Vassilyev and 
other phoneticians. According to it the phoneme is viewed as a func-
tional, material and abstract unit, which performs three functions: distinc-
tive, constitutive and recognitive. 

1.  the phoneme as a functional unit performs the distinctive function. It 

distinguishes different sounds in a contrastive sense and serves as the 
smallest language unit that discriminates between larger language 
units. thus, the opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic envi-
ronment differentiates the meaning of morphemes, words and even 
sentences.

e.g., sleeper — sleepy;

bath — path, light — like;

He was heard badly — He was hurt badly. 

2.  the phoneme is a material, real and objective unit that performs the 

constitutive function. the phoneme is realized in speech in the form 
of its variants or allophones, which do not make meaningful distinc-
tions and serve to constitute the material form of morphemes.

21

e.g., cap [khæph] / [khæp]

—  the loss of plosion in the final phoneme [p] doesn’t bring any 

change of meaning.

3.  the phoneme is also an abstract and generalized unit, which performs 

the recognitive function. the phoneme serves to distinguish and un-
derstand the meaning, because the use of the right allophone in the 
certain phonetic context helps the listener to understand the message 
and thus facilitates normal recognition.

e.g., take it — tape it

—  the difference in two phrases is understood by two different pho-

nemes. 

this materialistic conception of the phoneme is regarded as the most 

suitable for the purpose of language teaching in modern linguistics.

§ 2. Phonemes, allophones, phones: 

difference and relationships

the sounds of language should be described and classified from the 

point of view of their functional significance. the same sounds can have 
different interpretations in different phonetic contexts. 

for example, the sound [t] may be opposed to [d] in words like ten—

den, seat—seed. But in the expressions let us — let them [t] remains the 
realization of one and the same sound though having certain pronuncia-
tion peculiarities.

In order to tell the difference linguists use two separate terms: pho-

neme and allophone. the term ‘phoneme’ means sounds of speech used 
in their contrastive sense whereas the term ‘allophone’ is used for non-
contrastive sounds representing variants of a definite phoneme. 

It’s been stated before that the phoneme is a minimal abstract linguis-

tic unit opposed to other phonemes in order to distinguish the meaning of 
morphemes and words. 

As a unit of language any phoneme possesses a bundle of distinctive 

features that makes it functionally different from all other phonemes and 
forms the invariant of the phoneme. the articulatory features characteristic 

of the invariant are called distinctive (relevant). they can be extracted 
when opposing to each other in the same phonetic context phonemes with 
a difference in one articulatory feature which brings changes in meaning. 

for example, all the allophones of the phoneme [d] are occlusive, 

forelingual and lenis, but when occlusive articulation is changed for con-
strictive one, [d] is replaced by [z] (breed — breeze, deal — zeal). In 
words port — court, both phonemes [p] and [k] have the same features of 
occlusive, fortis consonants, but labial [p] is opposed to lingual [k].

the articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning 

are called non-distinctive (irrelevant). they are observed within the al-
lophones of a certain phoneme. for example, the opposition of an aspi-
rated [kh] to a non-aspirated one in the same phonetic context does not 
distinguish meaning (back). 

there are two types of non-distinctive features: 

—  incidental (redundant) features (aspiration of voiceless plosives, 

presence of voice in voiced consonants, length of vowels, etc.);

—  indispensable (concomitant) features (tenseness of long monoph-

thongs, checked character of stressed short vowels, lip rounding 
of back vowels, etc.). 

Allophones are the possible variants of the same phoneme, which 

never occur in similar phonetic contexts. they are not used to differenti-
ate meaning and largely depend on the phonetic context, in which neigh-
bouring phonemes predict the use of this or that allophone. 

there are two types of allophones: principal and subsidiary. If an al-

lophone retains the typical articulatory characteristics of the phoneme, it 
is called a principal allophone. But when certain changes happen in the 
articulation of an allophone under the influence of the phonetic environ-
ment, an allophone is called subsidiary. 

for example, an english phoneme [d] presents a principal variant when 

it is taken in isolation or in words like door, darn, down, and retains its 
typical characteristics of an occlusive, forelingual, apical, alveolar, lenis 
consonant. But the same phoneme [d] may undergo changes under the influ-
ence of other phonemes, and thus present subsidiary variants. It may be: 

—  slightly palatalized before front vowels and sonorant [j] (deal, 

day, dew);