Components of the phonetic structure of English language.

The English phonetic structure is systemic in character. It is made of the following components:

1) The system of English phonemes;

2) The syllabic structure of English words;

3) The accentual structure of words;

4) The intonational structure of English sentences.

The phonemic component includes not only the system of English phonemes but also the combination of their allophones, which occur in words. The character of this component means that phonemes and their allophones may occur only in definite positions in words. Definite allophones of phonemes may occur only in definite positions. This phenomenon is called distribution of allophones.

e.g. /twais/ - the rounded allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /w/;

/eito/ - the dental allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /o/;

/trai/ - the post-alveolar allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /r/

/ritn/ - the nasally released allophone of the /t/ phoneme is used before /r/ etc.

The same can be said about combinations of consonants and vowels. Their usage is determined by some regular rules of the language. For example, the combination of consonants /tl, dl, tn, dn/ never occurs at the beginning of English words. They may occur at the end or in the middle of words. (In Russian, on the contrary, they may come at the beginning and in the middle of words, but never at the end, eg. Тлеть, длина, атлас, отлично, дни, одна и т.д. In Kazakh such combinations of consonants are impossible.

To the phonemic component also belong different methods of joining sounds together in words and at the junction of words. We may speak of the following four types of sound transitions in English:

CV transitions, as in /ti: /, /mai/, /ka: / etc.

VC transitions, as in /it/.

CC transitions, as in /lukt/, /trai/.

VV transitions, as in /mai a: nt/.

VC transitions are reflected in syllable division of English words. The short stressed vowels are always checked. They can only occur in closed type of syllable.

Loss of plosion may serve an instance for CC transitions, as in October, effect, helped, strict, next day, wanted to come, blackboard, etc. Compare the similar Russian and Kazakh combinations of two plosives, which are pronounced with two plosions, as in: куртка, аптека, откуда, отбор, сковородка; ө кпе, айтқ айб сатпақ

In VV transitions we may have two different ways of joining vowels, with and without the glottal stop between them.

The second componentof the phonetic system of English is syllabic structure of its words in isolation and in phrases and sentences. This component may be viewed from two points – its syllable formation and its syllable division.

The third component of the phonetic system of English is the accentual structure of its words. It may be studied from three aspects:

1) the physical nature of word accent;

2) the position of word accent in different words;

3) the degree of word accent.

Languages may differ in the accentual structure of words as well. The most important of the three aspects enumerated above is the position of accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic words in English and in Russian, because these languages have the so-called free word accent. It means that the accent may rest on any syllable in different words, eg. Fellow, repeat, represent, representation – завтра, сегодня, посвящать, позавчера и т.д. In Kazakh language the word accent is fixed on the last syllable, eg. Бала, балалар, балалық, баласы.

The fourth component of the phonetic system of English is the intonation structure of sentences. Intonation is a complex unity of speech melody, prominence of words, tempo and voice-tamber which serve to express the speaker’s thoughts, emotions, feelings and attitudes towards reality.

Intonational structure of English, Russian and Kazakh differ greatly.

All the four components of the phonetic system of English (phonemic, syllabic, accentual and intonational) constitute the English pronunciation.