Assignments:

1. Find the words: “little”, “stared”, “thought”, “not”, “between”, “too”, “tight”. Point out the difference between the allophones of the phoneme [t] in these words. 2. How many syllables are there in the word “little”? What other consonant sounds in English may serve as syllabic elements? (Give examples). What is the necessary condition for a potentially syllabic consonant to be syllabic? What kind of plosion do we have with the sound [t] in “little”?

3. In the word “little” which of two lateral consonants is “clear” and which is “dark”? What is the difference between the two variants of the [l] phoneme as far as articulation is concerned? What is the difference (in the degree of palatalization) between the English “clear” variant of [l] and the Russian (palatalized) phoneme [л’] (as in the word [мел’])?

4. The combination “big cart”, may be understood as “big card”. What has the length of the vowel [a:] got to do with it?

5. What word will a native speaker of English hear, if the bilabial voiceless plosive in the word “path” is not aspirated?

6. What is the typical mistake made by Russian learners of English in the pronunciation of the preposition “of” in e.g. the prepositional phrase “of little gold once” or “of my way”?

7. The apical strong plosive [t] in the word combinations “not to forget” or “thought they” is pronounced without plosion. Why? What do we hear instead of the release?

8. What variants of the conjunction “and” are registered in D. Jones’s Dictionary? Which of these variants would choose in rendering the conjunction in the sentence “Nurse was helping Anni alter Mother’s dress which …”?

9. What form of “to” (in “to look after sun” and “not to forget things”) would you use and why?

10. In “a palm on his head” an advanced learner of English is apt to mispronounce the final consonant in the word “head”. What is the mistake?

11. What is the typical mistake in assimilation that Russian learner of English can make in the word-combination “chairs came”?

12. What word will a native speaker of English hear, if the [t] in “time” is not aspirated?

13. Should the nasal consonant in the word “ones” be long or not? What can be said about the pronunciation of the final [z] in the word?

14. The word “once” consists of four sounds. What is the difference in length between the nasal plosive in the word “once” and the nasal plosive in the word “ones”? Can the choice of the wrong variant lead to ambiguity?

15. The sound [t] in the word “not” in the combination “not real” is practically not audible. Why?

16. Is it very important to lengthen the nasal consonant in the word “things”? Why?

17. Is it possible to turn the word “palm” into “balm” without replacing the voiceless velar consonant by its voiced counterpart?

18. What variant of the definite article “the” should be used in the case of “in the afternoon” or “in the air” or “under the arms”?

English Intonation Assignments:

Make the last sentence “Out of my way children!” sound:

1. calm, gold;

2. soothing, encouraging, calmly, patronizing;

3. like urgent warning with a note of reproach or concern;

4. with a note of critical surprise;

5. calmly warning, exhortative.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL