Орфоепічна та орфофонічна варіативність англійського мовлення британців, американців і канадійців (експериментально-фонетичне дослідження)
Abstract
The study focuses on orhtoepic and orthophonic variation in the speech of the British, Americans, and Canadians. It applies auditory and acoustic analyses of the vowel and consonant segments of the English language with a further linguistic interpretation of the obtained experimental data. The thesis identifies phonetic features of the native speakers’ speech predetermined by a number of factors, such as established codified norm, a significant influence of the geographical area they come from, and spontaneity of their speech. The paper outlines the orthoepy of contemporary English in Great Britain,
the USA and Canada. It fosters determination of common and distinctive features
of vowels and consonants in the the British, Americans and Canadians’ spontaneous speech, articulatory, temporal and spectral characteristics of vowel and consonant segments, as well as the degree of stability and variation of both vowel and consonant phonemes’ distinctive features in each of the national variants of English under consideration. The research defines an orthoepic norm as a standard of litrary pronunciation which consists of a set of phonetic units and the rules of their usage in speech. These rules are subject to certain laws and are implicitly accepted by language speakers within a certain time period in a specific geographical area and in a definite language environment. The norm is divided into codified and real. The codified one is consciously fixed, traditional, stable, obligatory, standardized, subjective, pertaining to language. In its turn, the real norm is objective, selective, dynamic, changeable, pertaining to speech. Thus, the orthoepic norm is a form of the unique literary pronunciation consisting of the phonetic units and the rules of their application. Codification, processing, accessibility and stability are the signs of the orthoepic norm. Therefore, the normative phonemic structure is subject to orthoepy, whereas, the normative realisation (pronunciation) of the allophones is subject to orthophony.The norm of pronunciation consists of two aspects. It causes the variation which stands for two or more equal ways of the realisaiton of phonemes in speech, as well as the variety which implies allophonic variation within the existing variants of the orthoepic norm. Oral speech of the native English speakers of different national variants
is characterized by a number of dissimilarities on the phonetic level which the distinctive features of vowel and consonant phonemes do not reproduce. Both aspects of the speech norm serve as the basis for carrying out of this phonetic experiment which consists of: 1) selection of the experimental material; 2) selection of native English language speakers; 3) auditory analysis of the speakers’ spontaneous speaking; 4) acoustic analysis of vowels and constants in the speech of the British, Americans and Canadians; 5) linguistic interpretation of the obtained experimental data. The research is based on spontaneous speech, namely interviews on different topics such as everyday life, social and political aspects of life, economy and culture. The topics were evenly divided between the interviewees. The British orthoepic norm is taken as a standard for comparison for the correctness or deviations in the speakers’ pronunciations. The fact that the allophonic variation is most vividly observed in spontaneous speech predetermined its choice as a material of the study. In spontaneous speech given distinctive features can lose some of their distinctive and integral features and show deviations from the standard of pronunciation. Another reason for choosing spontaneous speech is the fact that it is the basis for any human speech activity in the majority of cases in everyday life. Nine experts in phonetics have carried out the auditory analysis. They transcribed the speech of the speakers according to its real sounding, defined the distribution of the stress in utterances, marked all of the allophones on a perceptive level, and pointed out any deviations from the orthoepic norm.
The auditory analysis of 11 stressed English monophthnongs and 22 consonant segments in pre- and poststressed positions established a wide range of allophones of the given phonemes. The obtained data testifies to the fact that the American and Canadian English speakers tend to display a wider allophonic variation than the speakers of British English. That is their speech differs by the rhotic allophones of vowels and also partially and fully delabilised back vowels. Despite the relatively normative realization of vowels in the speech of the British, they tend to nasalize the low back /ɑː/ without nasal consonants around them which is caused by the articulation of this speech sound by lowering the soft palate and letting half of the breathed out air stream go out through the nasal cavity. It produces the effect of nasalization in words like car, park. The main tendencies in pronouncing English vowels by the British are as follows: the shortening of their duration, diphthongization of the tense /i/ and /u/ at the end of the utterance, delabialization, and their transformation into other speech sounds.
The auditory analysis of the 22 English consonant segments has shown that American and Canadian English language speakers display a wider range of allophonic variation than the British ones. Their speech is characterized by voicing, partial devoicing, palatalization, spirantization, and affricatization. The allophones ofthe alveolars /t/ and /d/ are the most modified since they are frequently used in speech, in fact, more often than other consonants. The North American speakers of English pronounce them with a flap, whereas the British ones with spirantization even before the stressed vowels. The allophones of the velar // are fully devoiced at the beginning of the phonetic word by all the speakers under research. The English fricatives are generally realized within the scope of the orthoepic norm which is caused by a lower degree of the movement of the active organs of speech when pronouncing them. Voiced fricatives become partly or fully devoiced, the allophones of /h/ become voiced. The speech of the North American speakers differs by the retroflex allophones of /s/, /z/ due to rhoticity in these variants of English. The voiced one are devoiced and the glottal // takes on as many allophones as there are vowels preceding it.
The sonorants are mostly realized within the set pronunciation standards. The bilateral /l/ is characterized by the biggest number of allophones such as partly devoiced ones [] when followed by tense plosives [p], [t], [k], "dark" ones, and the velarized [] which leads to the vocalization of this sonorant. The speakers of the British pronunciation standard tend to pronounce the [] sound with a slightly palatalized allophones [lj] when they are followed by front and back vowels //, //, //, //. It is caused by rolling up of the tongue in the direction of the hard palate when pronouncing this sound. The pointed out phonetic variation of the English vowel and consonant phonemes is predetermined by the spontaneity of the speech, positional and combinatorial variants of these segments’ realization, rhoticity, sparing of speech efforts in the production of these sounds, the history of the phonemes’ development, the specific features of the national variants of English, and the worldwide tendency to the accelerated speech. The auditory analysis shows that Americans and Canadians’ speech has no difference on a perceptual level. However, the pronunciation of the British differs mostly by the absence of the rhotic vowels and the spirantization of such as alveolars /t/, /d/.
The acoustic analysis of the temporal features of English vowels demonstrated a considerable shortening of the duration of the vowel sounds by 56-65% in the speech of all of the speakers under study in comparison with their standard duration. According to the spectral analysis of vowels, high vowels move a bit down, low ones up, front and back ones move closer to the centre. The back vowels //, //, //, // are most modified. They have their variants and variation in all of the national variants of English under consideration. It is caused by a bigger space between the tongue and the front teeth than with the other vowel sounds which gives room for a wider variation range.
The acoustic analysis of the consonantal segments in pre- and poststressed position confirms the data obtained due to the auditory analysis. Therefore, the manner of articulation appears as the most stable distinctive feature of vowel phonemes. The voicing and the place of articulation turn out to be the most variable distinctive features in all three national variants of English under study. Thus, the hierarchy from the most stable to the most variable distinctive feature of the vowels for British, American and Canadian standard English is as follows: quality row/labialization height duration, and of the consonants it is manner of articulation voicing place of articulation.
The research has both theoretical and practical significance since it allows
to characterize the current state of the pronunciation norm, its functioning among
the native speakers of the English language as well as predict the tendencies of the possible development of the English language system due to the fact that the orthophonic deviations noticeable in synchrony can become the rudiments for the emergence of the new phonemes in the future. Further linguistic studies can focus on phonetic peculiarities of vowel and consonant segments in unstressed positions, as well as territorial and functional stylistic variety of the segmental units within all the national variants of English in men, women and children. Диссертация посвящена изучению орфоэпической и орфофонической вариативности в речи носителей британского, американского и канадского национальных вариантов английского языка. В работе установлены общие и отличительные черты реализации гласных и согласных фонем в спонтанной речи британцев, американцев и канадцев; определены артикуляционные, темпоральные и спектральные характеристики единиц сегментного уровня; выявлена степень стабильности / вариативности дифференциальных признаков гласных и согласных фонем в исследуемых национальных вариантах английского языка. Дисертацію присвячено вивченню орфоепічної та орфофонічної варіативності англійського мовлення носіїв британського, американського та канадійського
національних варіантів англійської мови. У роботі встановлено загальні та відмінні риси реалізації голосних і приголосних фонем у спонтанному мовленні британців, американців і канадійців; визначено артикуляційні, темпоральні та спектральні
характеристики одиниць сегментного рівня; виявлено ступінь стабільності / варіативності диференційних ознак голосних і приголосних фонем у досліджуваних
національних варіантах англійської мови