Contents Introducti

The unstressed vocalism of English
The phonemic analysis of the RP vowels шs based on the assumption that they occur under stress in monosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic words and their grammatical forms, with the exception of the neutral vowel phoneme /э/ which can occur, of course, only in unstressed syllables and can perform its distinctive function only when opposed to other unstressed vowels, e.g. /э— i/ in accept — except, or /о — э:/ in forward —foreword. These and many other examples show that English is a language in which vowels of more or less full formation occur not only in stressed, but also in unstressed syllables. The English vowels occurring in unstressed syllables also form a definite system, called unstressed vocalism, which also requires a phonemic analysis, although not such a detailed one as that of the stressed vocalism of English. The purpose of such an analy¬sis is to establish the distribution and phonemic status of vowels occurring in unstressed syllables.

A vowel in a stressed syllable is stronger and has a more definite, distinct tamber than an unstressed vowel. This is due to the fact that during the production of a stressed vowel the muscles of the organs of speech forming the resonator mechanism are tenser and the shape of the resonator remains constant for a long

time than in the case of an unstressed vowel. This gives rise to very distinct high-frequency formants, or overtones, which are characteristic of stressed vowels.

A vowel in an unstressed syllable is shorter, weaker, less distinct, i.e. it is reduced, or obscured. Reduction is the weakening of a sound due to a decrease in the tenseness of the speech organs resulting in the loss of some essential characteristics by the sound. Re-duction is one of the phonetic changes taking place in the historical development of a language. The final stage of this process of reduction is the dropping out of the sound (zero reduction).

Vowel reduction is a characteristic feature of Russian, English and some other languages, but there are languages in which there is no vowel reduction, such as Japanese, Italian, Polish.

The core of the unstressed vocalism of English is formed by the neutral vowel phoneme /э/, which has several allophones, different varieties of the neutral vowel sound known in linguistics as schwa-vowels,

The indistinct tamber of the neutral vowel is due to the following factors:

(!) The active speech organs are extremely lax, which results in the absence of high-frequency formants so character¬istic of stressed vowels.

(2) Because of its brevity (its duration is 30-40 msecs) it consists almost entirely of the on-glide and the off-glide. This means that throughout its duration the volume of the resonators changes so quickly that no definite distinct tamber is created. But however short and indistinct this vowel may be, it is capable of variation in different positions.

The neutral vowel sound in English has its independent phonemic status is proved by numerous minimal pairs in which the neutral vowel is opposed to other unstressed vowels. But not all English vowels are opposed to the neu-tral vowel phoneme; the most common opposition is /э — i/, e.g. armour — army, officers —
offices, accept — except, allu¬sion—illusion.
The phoneme /э/ may also be opposed to the diphthong /ou/ (/эи/), e.g. temper-—tempo, solar — solo.

In addition to the neutral vowel, there are in English the so-called semi-weak vowels occurring in unstressed syllables. I. Ward defines a semi-weak vowel as "a vowel that lies in an intermediate position between the strong vowels and the neutral semi-weak vowels such words as obey /o'bei/, November /no'vemba/, to protest /pro'test/, phonetics /fo'netiks/ instead of the neutral vowel pronounced in such words in rapid colloquial style (/a'bei, ns'vemba, pr9'test, fa'netiks/) and instead of the whole diphthong /ou/ pronounced in full style (/ou'bei, nou'vemba, proy'test, fou netiks/).

G. P. Torsuyev regards semi-weak vowels as products of partial reduction and points out that in a careful and slow style of pronunciation, as well as in recitation, the vowels which commonly undergo this partial reduction are [e], [as], [a:], [p], [э:], [З:] and the diphthong [ou]. In transcription they may be designated by putting a raised small-type sym-bol [э] after the symbol of the corresponding vowel of full formation, e.g. [e*], [ae9], etc.

Thus, in partition the tamber of [a:] may be partially preserved: [pa9'tijn]; collect may sound [kDa'lekt], the verb to abstract will be pronounced [aeab'str£ekt], November may have the semi-weak vowel [o] indicated also by [o9]: [no'vemba] or [поэЧетЬэ].

Phonemically, semi-weak vowels are, of course, variants of the vowel

phonemes which undergo this partial reduction, and not separate phonemes because they can never be opposed to ihe corresponding vowels of full formation or to the neutral vowel for distinctive purposes, cf. [foii'netiks, fo'netiks, fo'netiks].

In addition to the neutral and semi-weak vowels, unstressed syllables may contain vowels of full formation, which are used in all styles of pronunciation. Thus, the unstressed vowels ti:, i, u, ъ, oi] do not' differ very much in tamber from

the same vowels in stressed syllables, cf. [si:z— 'kraisirz] (seize—crises) /'indi,vizi'bihti/ (indivisibility), ['ruimatizm— ru:'mastik] (rheumatism — rheumatic), [buk — 'tekstbuk] (book — textbook), ['roral — 'vaisroi] (royal — viceroy). As a matter of fact, any English vowel of full formation can occur in unstressed syllables in certain words, and the use of the neutral vowel or a semi-weak vowel instead of it would be incorrect. The result of all this is that it is not always easy or possible to draw a line of demarkation between a semi-weak vowel as it is defined by I. Ward and an unstressed vowel of full formation.

I. Ward's definition of a semi-weak vowel as "a vowel that lies in an

intermediate position between the strong vowels and the neutral э" is rather vague. A definition on the basis of the occurrence of the neutral vowel, semi-weak vowels and unstressed vowels of full formation in different styles of pronunciation will, probably, be more precise. From this distributional point of view a semi-weak vowel may, therefore, be defined as a partially reduced vowel which is used in a more careful style of pronunciation instead of the neutral vowel used in the rapid colloquial style and instead of the corresponding vowel of full formation used in the full style.

An unstressed vowel of constantly full formation is, on the other hand, a vowel which is used in all styles of pro-nunciation and is rather close in tamber to the same vowel under stress. Unstressed vowels of constantly full formation are used, for example, in many words of foreign origin, es-pecially Latin and Greek, which have not yet been fully naturalized in English, e.g. insect /'insekt/ (cf. sect), epochs /'i:pt)ks/ (cf. pox), diagram /'daiggrasm/ {cf. gramme), mar-quee /ma:'ki:/ (cf. mark), etc.

Vowels of constantly full formation are also used in some structural words which have no weak forms, e.g. on /un/, not /nr>t/ (when not abbreviated to n4 /nt/) as in cannot /'kaeirot/, etc.
z
A phonemic analysis of the unstressed vocalism of a language has also a morphophonological aspect. There are certain correspondences, or alternations, be-tween stressed and unstressed vowels in different derivatives from the same root, or in different grammatical forms of the same word, or in different allomorphs of the same morpheme. The English term for such alternations is vowel gradation.

There are certain types of vowel gradation in English, because there is a more or less close interdependence be-tween the vowel of an accented syllable and the vowel that appears in its stead on loss of stress. These alternations are not so regular as to admit of no exceptions, but certain rules, or rather tendencies, can be formulated.

(1) Practically any English vowel of full formation occurring in a stressed syllable may alternate with the neutral vowel, cf.

the /Эк/ — the sun /Ээ 'элп/

pence /pens/— sixpence /'sikspans/

man /masn/ — postman /'poustman/

particle /'pa:tikl/ — particular /pa'tikjute/

a combine /'kombam/ — to combine /kam'bain/

toward /ta'wo:d/ — forward /'fo:wad/

fully /'fuh/ —beautifully /'Ь]и:ЫэЬ/

not 'from, but 'to /tu:/ — to the door /to .../

some /sAm/ — awesome /'o:s3m/

up /лр/

herd /hs:d/

face /feis/
— upon /э'рш/

— shepherd /'Jepad/

— preface /'prefas/

day /dei/ — Sunday /'sAndi/.

The phonemic status of the unstressed alternants may be determined either on the basis of the morphological school of thought, in which case the alternations are interallophonic ones, or on the basis of the theory of phonemic autonomy, in which case the alternations are interphonemic ones. The unstressed vowels in the first case will be considered var¬iants of the vowel phonemes occurring in the stressed syl¬lables of the correlated words, while in the second case they will be regarded as allophones of those phonemes with whose principal variants they coincide.