V. English phonemes in writing

Language performs its function as a means.of intercommunica­tion not only in oral but also in written form. Therefore it is impor­tant to establish the relationship between orthography and pronuncia­tion, that is letters and sounds, which represent them.

English dictionaries usually indicate the pronunciation of each individual word, because the English spelling system is very diffi­cult. This is because 1) it represents two different languages, one of Romance and the other of Teutonic origin; 2) the English spelling has remained essentially the same since the days of Caxton * and the-other early printers. As a result of this 60 symbols are used to repre­sent vowels and diphthongs and 44 symbols are used to represent con­sonants in the written language. These symbols are separate letters-or combinations of letters, which correspond to vowel and consonant phonemes. They are called graphemes. Graphemic symbols are includ­ed into angle brackets.

Graphemes for the system of vowels are the following:

a, e, i, y, o, u oa, oe, oi, oy, oo, ou, ow, oe

ar, er, ir, yr, or, ur ue, ui, uy

aa, ae, ai, ay, au, aw, эе aer, air, ayr

ea, ее, ei, ey, eu, ew ear, eer, eir, eyr, eur, e\v(e)r

te, ye iar, ier, yer

oar, oor, our, ow{e)r, uer igh, aigh, eigh, ough

Graphemes for the system of consonants are the following:

b, c, ch, d, dg, f, g, gh, gn, gu, h, j, k, 1, m, n, ng, p, ph, q, qu, r, s, sc, sch, sh, si, ssi, sei, ti, ci, ce, t, tch, th, u, v, w, wh, x, xc_T У, z, zi

There are very few sounds which have one-to-one graphemic ref­erence, e. g. < w), (b), (]) in way, bay, lid, are single-valued graph­emes.

As a rule, one grapheme has many phonemic references, e. g;

—э banana —o: thought

—ei baby —u: through

< a> —ae back < ough> —ou though

— a: bask —э borough
—э: ball
—d wash

Graphemes may be simple (a) and complex (ough).

A grapheme, which consists of one letter, corresponding to one pho­neme is called a monograph; two-, three- and four-letter graphemes, which correspond to one phoneme are called " digraph", " trigraph'" and " polygraph" — accordingly, e. g. (a), < b> are monographs, {ng),,

Caxton W. (1422-91) — the first English printer.

< ck> are digraphs, (tch), (sch) are trigraphs, {eigh>, < ough) are poly-One and the same phoneme may be derived from both: simple and ■ complex graphemes, e. g, the phoneme lei is derived from (e>: tmt, egg; from (ea): ready, meat. In, ir./ are pronounced only in complex graphic contexts, e. g.

book, cook, look, shook, took

good, hood

bull, bullet, bullock, bully, full, pull

bush, cushion, push

could, should, would

However: bosom, wolf, woman.

If we analyse a word from the viewpoint of orthographic —■ pho­nemic and graphemic reference, the discrepancy between them will be almost universal. For example, the word stretch consists oi:

5 phonemes /s/ HI /r/ /e/ /tf/

5 graphemes s — t — r — e — tch

7 letters s — t — r — e — t — с — h

The word mouth consists oi:

3 phonemes /m/ /au/ /0/ 3 graphemes m — ou — th, 5 letters m — о — u — t — h

From the phonological point of view, a grapheme has a consider­able number of allophonic references, due to the complementary dis­tribution or free variation, in which a phoneme occurs. For example, ■ the grapheme < o> in box is in reference with a more front allophone lv] than in cot, where Ы is more back. The grapheme (t) in twice is in reference with a rounded allophone of Ш and with It] post-alveo-3ar in tree.

Morphemic reference of graphemes is many-sided. Any graphic -difference must be considered as having an independent morphemic reference. E. g.

boys /bolz/ — boys' /bolz/ —boy's /b? lz/

s, s*₍ 'shave different morphemic reference: s indicates the plural 'form*, s' indicates the plural form, possessive case; 's indicates the pos­sessive case of the singular form.

The knowledge of orthography is very important because changes in orthography are much slower than changes in phonology. Therefore there are a large number of rules of reading in modern English. Given below is a simplified table of some grapheme-phoneme correspond­ences, illustrated by typical contexts.

In " Phonemic references" only vowel phonemes are singled out to revise their spelling correspondences.

J58

Table

Orthography helps to differentiate homophones, e, g.

sight /sart/ — зрение; вид

cite /sait/ — ссылаться, приводить, цитировать

site /sait/ — местоположение

There are also cases when words coincide in their plural and sin­gular forms so far as the spelling and pronunciation are concerned. They may be distinguished only by the abbreviated forms, e. g. spe­cies /'spi: Ji: z/ (вид, порода): the singular and plural of this word!

159>

are pronounced alike. The abbreviation sp stands for the singular and spp stands for the plural.

Graphemes in the English language may indicate the phonemic reference of a preceding, or the following grapheme. They perform diacritic function. E. g.

1. The doubling of consonants:

(a) indicates the shortness of the preceding vowel jmd differenti­
ates the meaning of words:

planed — planned noted — knotted

(b) differentiates the meaning of words:

assent—a cent appear—a pier arrival—a rival occur—a cure

(c) lengthens the preceding vowel:

barred, stirred, furred

2. The use of a " mute" e or r:

(a) indicates'the alphabetical reading of the preceding vowel and
performs differentiatory functions:

rat — rate pet — Pete fin — fine

(b) differentiates homophones:

born—borne pleas—please step—steppe do /deu/¹—doe

(c) indicates the lengthening, or the diphthongal nature of a preced-
ü ng vowel:

are toe awe pore mere were due cure fury sire

There are two*notions in phonological literature which reflect the -connection of orthography with syllables and morphemes: (a) syllabo-•graph and (b_)morphograph. The parts of a word which represent syl­lables graphically are called syllabographs. They may consist of a •vowel, or a combination of vowels and consonants which corresponds to a syllable or syllables within the graphic norms of the analysed word, e. g.

Words Syllabographs

higher high-er

barring Ъаг-ring

bankrupt bank-rupt

refinement re-fine-ment

¹ rt is a noun denoting a musical note, but not the verb do, 160

A morphograph is that part of a word which represents a morpheme graphically, e.j-g. the suffix -ing is a morphograph in the word singing; the suffix -ed is a morphograph in the word long-legged, etc,

Sounds are indicated in writing by means of transcription. It is especially useful in studying English, where the interpretation of the orthography can be complicated and misleading.

Transcription is quite indispensable in transliteration of names of persons, geographical names, magazines, names of ships, etc. Trans­literation is writing a word, or words, of one language in the letters of some other language.

Transliteration differs from transcription: it is simpler and may use additional symbols. E. g. Bath is transcribed as /ba0/ but trans­literated as 5am (the length of /a/ and the sound /6/ are ignored).

Given below is a list of Russian equivalents for English letters and letter combinations and phonetic renderings.

English Russian

English

Russian

6—182

J —ДЖ

к —к; иногда не пере­дается

For example:

exact /igizaekt/ игзэкт

Exmoor /leksraua/ Эксмур

Levy /H, i: vi/ Ливи

Dyson /idaisn/ Дайсон

Byrd /ba: d/ Берд

Vyrnwy /iv3: nwi/ Вернуи

Woi thing /Iw8: 8ig/ Уэртинг, Вортинг

Urban /1э: Ьэп/ Эрбан

Whistler /iwisb/ Уислер

Furness /ifa: nis/ Фернесс

Proserpine /'prusapain/ Просерпайн,

Прозерпина (миф.) (название судна)

Louth /Iau9/ Лаут

Southend /'sauGend/ Саутенд

Highmoor /lhaimua/ Хаймур

Given below are several " difficult" Russian letters, which are transliterated in English in the following way:

ш—sh Sholokhov

ж—zh Zhukov

ч —tch, ch Chekhov, Tchaikovsky,

Cheboksary

щ—shch Shcherba

ы—у Bykov

x —kh Kharkov

я —ya Yalta

Questions

I. Why is it important to establish relationship between sounds and letters? What is a grapheme? 2. What are the types of graphemic reference? 3. What are the single-valued graphemes? What is a mono­graph? 4. What are the multi-valued graphemes? What is a digraph, txigraph, polygraph? 5. What are the simple and complex graphemes? 6. Give examples of /ae, e, u, u: / connection with simple and complex graphemes, 7. Give examples of orthographic-phonemic-graphemic reference. 8. How are graphemes connected with phonology? 9. How are graphemes connected with morphology? 10. Give examples of phonemic reference of some graphemes. 11. How is orthography con­nected with lexicology, grammar? 12. What is the importance of ortho­graphy in differentiating homophones? 13. What diacritic functions-of graphemes do you know? 14. What is a syllabograph? 15. What is a morphograph? 16. What is the difference between transcription and transliteration?

Exercises

*I. Give graphemic symbols of the phonemes:

/s/ in the word city /k/ in the word cat /J7 in the word oceanic /(j)u: / in the word beauty /л/ in the word courage /3/ in the word borough

2. Give some examples of English graphemes.

*3. Analyse these words from the viewpoint of the inventory of graphemes, phonemes, letters.

baobab, vest, duly, ship, dish, awful, dawn, light, high, work_t archaic, airy, laugh, watched

*4. Give explanation of the phonemic reference of the graphemes < r), (our), (ear) in the words;

right, afraid, pray, try, tour, tear, very, dry

*S. Give the phonetic reference of the tnorphograph " -ed" in the words:

worked, limited, pinned, begged, added, liked, barred, cared

*6. Transcribe these homophones. Translate them into Russian to prove the differentiator}¹ function of graphemes.

pact—packed barred—bard pair—pare — pear franc—frank

■ wear—where wea t her—whether

scene—seen ■ berth—birth ceiling—sealing sole—soul bare—bear pray —■ prey rain —reign pail — pale air—heir fined — find pains—panes teas—tease peace—piece

6*

feat—feet witch—which dear—deer bow—bough

bread—bred right—write

— rite peer—pier beach—beech hear—here fur—fir tale—tail male—mail sun—son beat—beet break—brake maize—maze weak—week currant—current serial—cereal

vain—vein —vane sell —cell sail—sale

compliment —comple­ment

hair—hare blue—blew

sea—see meat—meet heal—heel fare—fair cent—sent —scent rode—road team—teem hoarse—horse berry—bury gate—gait plain—plane key—quay