Contrasting vowels and consonants (phonemes)
Principles of consonant classification
2.1. Classification of consonants by method of formation
2.2. Classification of consonants by place of formation
2.3. Classification of consonants by noisiness/sonority and strength of articulation
2.4. Additional Consonant Classification Options
Principles of vowel classification
3.1. Basic parameters of vowel classification
3.2. Additional vowel classification options
3.3. Monophthongs and polyphthongs
Literature
––––––––––––––––––––
Contrasting vowels and consonants (phonemes)
In all languages of the world there are two classes of speech sounds: vowels And consonants. The combination of vowels forms vocalism(lat. vō cā lis 'vowel'). Set of consonants - consonantism(lat. consonantis 'consonant'). Consonants in the languages of the world more than vowels [Kodukhov, p. 120, 125].
The division of speech sounds into vowels and consonants is based on several criteria:
acoustic criterion,
three articulatory,
functional.
Degree of sonority(acoustic criterion)
The following are involved in the formation of sounds:
or tone,
or noise,
or tone combined with noise(in various proportions).
Classification of sounds by degree of sonority Scheme No. 1.
speech sounds (phonemes)
┌─────────────┴────────────┐
sonorous noisy
┌──────┴─────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐
vowels sonants voiced voiceless
consonants
Vowels sounds - maximally sonorous, because when they form in the larynx, as a result of the work of the vocal cords, tone, and in the cavity of the pharynx and mouth there is an air stream meets no obstacles which could create noise.
Sonants(< лат.sonans ‘sounding’), or sonorous(< лат.sonorus‘sonorous’) is especially sonorous consonants. During their articulation, as well as during the formation of vowels, a tone in the larynx, but in the oral cavity the air stream meets obstacle, creating noise:
[m], [n], [l], [r], [j], [ŋ].
In Russian language plus corresponding soft:
[m’], [n’], [l’], [r’].
Voiced consonants pronounced with obligatory participation vocal cords in the larynx, a tone is formed there, but noise in the oral cavity, which occurs when an air stream passes through an obstacle, prevails over tone. Voiced consonants less sonorous than sonants.
Voiceless consonants- This noises, the proportion of tone during their formation is very insignificant.
So, With acoustic points of view vowels – sounds based on tone, A consonants- sounds that are based on noise.
The differences between vowels and consonants are not absolute: articulatory and acoustic differences between vowels and some sonants may be completely absent [LES, p. 477]. For example,
In fact we are dealing with sonority scale.
Polar In terms of sonority in the Russian language, they are the vowel [a] and the consonant [p].
A e o i u m n l r y v z f ... b d g f s w x ... t k P
vowels sonants voiced consonants voiceless consonants
In addition, the degree of sonority of similar sounds can be different
a) in different languages:
[l] maybe sonant and form a syllable (cf. Czech. vl k'wolf'),
he can be deaf noisy(in Korean, Khanty and other languages);
b) in different phonetic positions in the same language:
Wed in Russian: [l] before a vowel ( l ampa) – very sonorous, and at the end of the word ( one hundredl ) – stunned [Kodukhov, p. 110].
“Not all linguists share the opinion about the possibility of separating vowels and consonants. Thus, Saussure and Grammont distribute all speech sounds into 7 (or 9) “solutions”, where the boundary of vowels and consonants is erased (although Saussure has corresponding reservations).
Shcherba and his students do not find a sharp boundary between vowels and consonants, contrasting only vowels and noisy consonants […]. This theory does not illuminate the nature of sonorant consonants clearly enough” [Reformatsky, p. 170 (note)].
Character of articulation(1st articulatory criterion)
The most significant feature distinguishing vowels and consonants from a physiological point of view:
vowels are formed due to the opening movements of the pronunciation organs (“mouth openers”),
A consonants– thanks to the closures (“mouth closures”)
(This distinction was proposed by V. A. Bogoroditsky (1857–1941)).
Differencein the tension of the speech apparatus(2nd articulatory criterion)
During education consonants is created in the speech apparatus block, and tension of the speech apparatus localized at the place where the barrier is created, and when formed vowelsthere is no barrier, and tension distributed throughout the speech apparatus.
Differencein the intensity of the air stream(3rd articulatory criterion)
Due to the need to overcome an obstacle, the air stream is more intense when forming consonants[OOF, p. 19–20; Reformatsky, p. 171–172].
ParticipationVsyllable formation (functional criterion)
Typically, the top of a syllable is a vowel.
However, sonorant consonants can also form a syllable:
Czech: pr st, vl k,
English: garden .
Wed. Russian extR , wisdomR , R zhav,l style
Not only sonants, but also noisy consonants can form the apex of a syllable (cf.: shh!),But
the syllable-forming function is uncharacteristic for them and
in combination with a vowel cannot be realized: in the combination of a vowel + consonant, the top of the syllable is necessarily the vowel [LES, p. 165, 477; Vendina, s. 71].
Vowels, as already indicated, are purely tonal sounds. Having arisen in the larynx as a result of vibration of the vocal cords, the musical tone and voice acquires a special timbre in the supraglottic cavities. The mouth and pharynx are the resonators in which differences between vowels are formed. These differences are determined by the volume and shape of the resonating cavities, which can change as a result of movements of the lips, tongue and lower jaw. Each vowel sound in every speaker is pronounced with a special arrangement of the organs of the mouth, characteristic only of this sound.
The classification of vowels is based on three characteristics: 1) the participation of the lips, 2) the degree of elevation of the tongue vertically in relation to the palate, 3) the degree of the tongue being pushed forward or pushed back horizontally.
Based on the participation of the lips, vowels are divided into rounded (labialized) and unglobbed (non-labialized). When rounded vowels are formed, the lips come closer, rounded and protrude forward, reducing the exit opening and lengthening the oral resonator. The degree of rounding can be different: less at [o], greater at [y]. The vowels [a, e, i, s] are unrounded.
According to the degree of elevation of the tongue in relation to the palate, the vowels of the upper rise [i, ы, у], middle rise [e, o] and lower rise [a] differ. When articulating high vowels, the tongue occupies the highest position. In this case, the lower jaw usually moves slightly away from the upper, creating a narrow mouth opening. Therefore, high vowels are also called narrow and. When articulating lower vowels, the lower jaw is usually lowered to its lowest position, creating a wide mouth opening. Therefore, low vowels are also called wide.
According to the degree to which the tongue is advanced or pushed back horizontally, the vowels of the front row [i, e], the middle row [s, a] and the back row [u, o] differ. When articulating the front, middle and back vowels, the tongue is concentrated in the front, middle or back of the mouth, respectively.
_ _ _ [s] Vowel articulation scheme:
The shape of the tongue can be different. When the front vowels are formed, the front part of the back of the tongue rises towards the front of the palate. When forming back vowels, the back of the tongue rises towards the back of the palate. And when forming middle vowels, the tongue either rises with the middle part to the middle part of the palate, as sometimes happens when pronouncing [s], or lies flat, as when pronouncing [a].
The simplest table of Russian vowels is:
Rounded vowels are indicated in bold.
The study of vowels in school is limited to this set of sounds.
But this table is too schematic. The division into three rises and three rows does not reflect the full richness of vowel sounds. So, in addition to [and], there is also a sound pronounced with a slightly greater openness of the mouth and a slightly lower rise of the tongue. This sound is called [and] open. In a more accurate transcription this is [and e]. There is [e] closed - a sound that differs from [e] by a slightly greater closedness of the mouth and a slightly higher rise of the tongue. In a more accurate transcription it is [e and] or [e¨].
Thus, open and closed vowels are “shades” of sounds, pronounced with a slightly greater openness or closure of the mouth and a slightly smaller or greater rise of the tongue.
Shades of sounds can be considered as special sounds. Then the table should be more detailed. This is the following table (although it shows, of course, not all vowel sounds of the Russian language).
The vowel [ъ], one of the most common sounds of Russian speech, is pronounced, for example, in the words [въдаόс] water carrier,[flutter] steamship,[gόrt] city. It can be pronounced in isolation if you form a continuous series of sounds from [s] to [a] and stop in the middle.
The vowels [ä, e, ö, y] are advanced and upward compared to [a, e, o, y]. They are pronounced between soft consonants, for example, in the words [p’ät’] five,[Pat') sing,[t’ot’) aunt,[t'ul'] tulle.
Vowels [and e, ы ъ, а ъ] occur only in an unstressed position. For example: [and e sk’it’] spark,[s’i e zhu] sitting,[breeze] breathe[zhy ry] fats,[wa da] water,[tra b va] grass. For some speakers, instead of [a ъ], [Λ] sounds - an unrounded vowel, in terms of the position of the tongue, intermediate between [a] and [o].
SYLLABLE
Syllable theories. Syllabic and non-syllabic sounds. Our speech is divided into words, and words into syllables. A syllable can consist of one or more sounds. One sound in a syllable is syllabic (or syllabic), the rest are non-syllabic (non-syllabic).
There are several theories of the syllable.
The expiratory theory interprets a syllable as a sound combination that is pronounced with one impulse of exhaled air. This definition of a syllable is the most obvious. This is what is taught in elementary school. You can check it like this. If you say the word in front of a burning candle house, the flame will flicker once, word hand- the flame will flicker twice, milk- three times.
But this theory does not explain all cases. Let's say a one-syllable word alloy, and the candle flame will flicker twice: the closure of the lips at [p] will break the air flow into two parts. Let's say ow!- and the flame flickers once, although the word has two syllables.
In modern Russian linguistics, the sonorant theory of the syllable, based on acoustic criteria, is most recognized. In relation to the Russian language, it was developed by R.I. Avanesov. According to this theory, a syllable is a wave of sonority, sonority. A syllable groups sounds with varying degrees of sonority. The most sonorous is the syllabic (syllable-forming) sound, the remaining sounds are non-syllabic.
Vowels, as the most sonorous sounds, are usually syllabic. But, for example, the vowel [i] can also be non-syllabic: [iu-b’i-l’ei] - anniversary. Consonants are usually non-syllabic, but sometimes they can also be the top of a syllable. Most often, sonorant consonants play this role, as the most sonorous of the consonants.
Here are Lermontov's poems:
I used to think it was kisses
I have a happy life...
Each line has 3 trisyllable feet with stress on the last syllable. Size - anapest:
At the same time the word life pronounced in two syllables [zhy-z’n’]. The syllable-former of the second syllable is a sonorant consonant.
We can designate according to the degree of sonority: vowels - 4, sonorant voiced consonants - 3, noisy voiced consonants - 2, voiceless - 1. We will designate a pause as 0. On the rulers corresponding to these indices, we will put off sounds, denoting them with dots. If you connect these dots, you get waves of sonority that characterize the word.
Then the word long-haired will be presented like this:
There are so many syllables in this wave of peaks, peaks of sonority. The sound [and] is a vowel, but with weakened sonority, so it is lower than the upper line.
Words ice, viewing in this diagram they look like this:
These words are disyllabic - they have two peaks of sonority: [l’dy], [look]. Words can also be spoken mosses, Mtsensk, flatter, lions, lies, mouths, mercury, ditches, rusting, blushing And Peter, boar, meaning, thought, execution and so on.
But these same words can also be monosyllabic, with one peak of sonority:
When pronounced in this way, a sonorant is partially or completely deafened, its sonority is at the level of a noisy consonant, voiced or voiceless. The words [mkh’i], [l’s’t’it’], [v’epr’], etc. can also be pronounced.
Poets use the duplicity of such words. So, in a poetic line by Khlebnikov V. "This Life and That Life" word life in the first case it is monosyllable, and in the second it is disyllabic.
But syllabic consonants are atypical for the Russian language. Therefore, they often develop a front vowel. Pronounced [káz’in’], [t’iá’tar] execution, theater,[b rzhy], [b l’n’inόi] rye, flax, and in the dialects [arzhanόi], [il’n’inoi], etc. The voiceless sonorant is poorly perceived by the ear, so it is often dropped out. Related to this is the pronunciation [rup’] from ruble,[akt'apsk'ii] from October etc. In the Old Russian language, along with forms of verbs carried, carried, could, could etc. there were also masculine forms carried, could with a vowel [ъ] at the end of the word. After its loss, the voiceless [l] also ceased to be pronounced. This is how the forms arose carried, could, carried, died down and so on.
In some languages, syllabic sonorants are quite common, for example in Serbo-Croatian and Czech: Serbian-Croatian. LOL- "rye" krv- "blood", rushing- “finger, finger” vrba- “willow”; Czech vrch - “top, top”, vlk - “wolf”, slza - "a tear".
Not only sonorant consonants can be syllabic, but also noisy, even voiceless ones. So, Russians can call a cat Puss, puss, puss. This interjection has three syllables, although all sounds are unvoiced. The syllabic sound here is [s]. The voiceless fricative consonant also appears as a syllabic consonant in the exclamation of scaring away birds ksh! and in a call for silence shh! In Russian colloquial speech and in southern Russian dialects, an unstressed vowel can be dropped, but the number of syllables in a word can be maintained. The role of the syllabic sound in these cases is taken over by a consonant, including a voiceless one: [t] it's time- ax, you[With] pano- poured out. Such a syllabic consonant differs from neighboring sounds in greater tension. Thus, the apex of a syllable can be formed not only by the most sonorant sound in the syllable, but also by the most intense.
Sounds characterized by increased sonority and increased tension have a common feature: they have greater strength and intensity, which manifests itself in an increase in the amplitude of vibration. The dynamic theory of the syllable is based on taking into account this acoustic feature of syllabic and non-syllabic sounds. From the point of view of this theory, a syllable is a wave of force, intensity. The strongest, most intense sound of a syllable is syllabic, less strong ones are non-syllabic.
One syllable can have two vowel sounds. The combination of two vowels within one syllable is called a diphthong. There are no diphthongs in the Russian literary language, but they are found in Russian dialects where they are pronounced core[y^o] wow, milk[y^o], l[u^e] With, with [and ^ e] but, etc. Diphthongs exist, for example, in English, German, Spanish and many other languages. Diphthongs can be balanced when both vowels have the same strength and duration, as, for example, occurs in Russian dialect pronunciation. If in a diphthong the first vowel is syllabic and the second is non-syllabic, then it is a descending diphthong, for example in English time - “time”, table - “table”, go - “to go”, in German mein - “my”, heute - "Today". If in a diphthong the first consonant is non-syllabic and the second is syllabic, then it is an ascending diphthong, for example in Spanish puerta - “door”, tierra - "Earth", pievo- "new". Diphthongs always refer to the same phoneme (see §119).
A syllable that begins with a syllabic sound is called undisguised: [on], [il], [á-ist]. A syllable that begins with a non-syllable sound is called covered: [sam], [da-ská], [iu-lá] spinning top
A syllable ending with a syllabic sound is called open: [da-lá], [za-kό-ny], [t’i-gr]. A syllable ending with a non-syllable sound is called closed: [table], [edge], [pai-mát’] catch.
Articulation of speech sound.
Articulation of speech sounds- this is the work of the speech organs necessary to pronounce a sound. To form each speech sound, a complex of works of the speech organs is required in a certain sequence, that is, a very specific articulation is needed.
The articulation of the sound of speech consists of a set of movements and states of the speech organs - the articulatory complex; therefore, the articulatory characteristic of speech sound turns out to be multidimensional, covering from 3 to 12 different features.
The complexity of sound articulation also lies in the fact that it is a process in which three phases of sound articulation:
1) attack (excursion) consists in the fact that the organs of speech move from a calm state to the position necessary to pronounce a given sound;
2) excerpt - this is maintaining the position necessary to pronounce a sound;
3) indentation (recursion) – articulation consists of transferring the speech organs to a calm state.
4. Classification of speech sounds is based on the acoustic and anatomical-physiological characteristics of sounds.
Each language typically contains about 50 speech sounds.
1) From an acoustic point of view they are divided into vowels, consisting of tone, and consonants, formed by noise (or noise + tone). When pronouncing vowels, air passes freely, without obstacles, and when articulating consonants, there is always some kind of obstacle and a certain place of formation - the focus.
During the formation of vowels, the voice prevails over noise, while during the formation of most consonants (with the exception of sonorants), the relationship is the opposite: noise dominates over the voice. The presence of two types of speech sounds (vowels and consonants), differing in articulation, forces a classification of vowels to be made separately from the classification of consonants.
As their name suggests, vowels are formed with the help of the voice, i.e. they are always sonorous (from lat. sonus- sound).
2) The articulatory difference between vowels and consonants consists of different tensions of the pronunciation apparatus and the absence or presence of a focus of formation.
3) But the main difference between vowels and consonants is their role in syllable formation. A vowel sound always forms the top of a syllable and is a sonant; a consonant accompanies a sonant and is a consonant.
Vowel classification
Vowels are classified according to the following main articulatory features:
1) row, those. depending on which part of the tongue is raised during pronunciation: when the front part of the tongue is raised, front vowels ( and, uh), average – average (s), rear – rear vowels ( OU);
2) climb, i.e. depending on how high the back of the tongue is raised, forming resonator cavities of varying volumes; vowels differ open , or, in other words, wide (A), And closed , that is narrow (and, at) (in some languages, for example, in German and French, sounds that are similar in articulation differ only in a slight difference in the rise of the tongue. Compare open [b] in words derm(German); fait, pret(French); and closed [e] in words Meeg(German); fee, pre(French));
3) labialization– participation of the lips in the articulation of sound: depending on whether the articulation of sounds is accompanied by rounding of the lips extended forward or not, rounded (labial, labialized) are distinguished, for example. [o], [u] and unrounded vowels, e.g. [A];
4) nasalization– the presence of a special “nasal” timbre that occurs depending on whether the velum is lowered, allowing a stream of air to pass simultaneously through the mouth and nose, or not. Nasal (nasalized) vowels, for example, are pronounced with a special “nasal” timbre. Vowels in most languages are non-nasal (formed when the palatine curtain is raised, blocking the path of air flow through the nose), but in some languages (French, Polish, Portuguese, Old Church Slavonic), nasal vowels are widely used along with non-nasal vowels;
5) longitude: in a number of languages (English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Czech, Hungarian, Finnish), with the same or similar articulation, vowels form pairs, the members of which are contrasted in duration of pronunciation, i.e. differences, for example, are short vowels: [a], [i], [o], [i] and long vowels: [a:], [i:], [o:], [i:].
In Latin and ancient Greek, this phenomenon is used in versification: various poetic meters (hexameter, dactyl) are based on the ratio of long and short syllables, which correspond to modern poetic meters, which are based on dynamic stress.
Phoneme system
A system is a set of phonemes of a given language, interconnected by constant relationships. The phoneme system reveals a certain internal division. It breaks down into two subsystems: the subsystem of vowel phonemes - vocalism, and the subsystem of consonant phonemes - consonantism.
Differences between phoneme systems of different languages
1. The total number of phonemes, the ratio of vowels and consonants. So in the Russian language there are 43 phonemes (37 consonants and 6 vowels), in French there are 35 (20 consonants and 15 vowels), in German there are 33 (18 consonants and 15 vowels).
2. The quality of phonemes, their acoustic-articulatory properties.
3. Differences may appear in the positions of phonemes. If the position of the end of a word in Russian and German for voiced and voiceless consonants is weak, then in French it is strong.
4. They differ in the organization of phonemic groups (oppositions), for example, hardness - softness, deafness - voicedness, closure - gapiness. Opposition - opposition of phonemes based on their differential features, can be of two types: correlative (phonemes differ in only one differential feature, for example b-p on the basis of voicedness - deafness) and non-correlative (phonemes differ in two or more differential features a-at.)
Phonemic oppositions
Phonemes are unthinkable outside the phonetic system of a language, which is established by its historical development as a whole. Therefore, there are no “universal” or “cosmopolitan” phonemes: the system of phonemes, and thereby its members, phonemes, is one of the characteristic properties of the identity of a given language of a nationality or nation.
Phonemes are always members of a given phonetic system characteristic of a particular language, and it is the content of each phoneme that is determined by its position in the system. To do this, we need to consider different types of phoneme oppositions in the language system.
The easiest way to establish oppositions is to select words that differ from each other by only one phoneme (pot - that - cat - bot - dot - goth - lot - mouth, sot - zot - here - note - mot, etc.; chorus - ferret, horse - horse, gol - gol, tem - darkness, top - swamp, mat - mother, vile - vile, blood - blood, elm - elm; drink - sing - five, soap - small - mole - mule, etc. P); but this is not necessary, just more convincing. If there are no such two words or two forms of the same word, then you can compare the word with a part of the word, as long as these are possible combinations of sounds for a given language. The resulting series of oppositions must be distributed according to differential criteria; for example, sweat - bot, tot - pillbox, far - var, garden - back, ball - heat, caviar - game differ in the opposition of voiceless and voiced consonants; choir - polecat, horse - horse, goal - goal, mat - mother, vile - vile - opposition of hard and soft consonants; sweat - that - cat, swearing - dran - verge - opposition of consonants by localization; bal - small, dam - us - opposition of consonants in orality-nasality; dal - hall, tom - com, measles - polecat - opposition of consonants according to occlusion-fricativeness; soap - small - mole - mule or sneeze - cheh - chah - choh - opposition of vowels according to various characteristics (narrow - wide, non-labialized - labialized).
Non-correlative
Correlative (correlations)
Closed
Unclosed
in Russian
in German
in French
Stepped
[u] - [ú] - [ü]
in Norwegian
Non-stepped
"Chains" "Bundles"
[p] - [t] - [k); [ts]
[F] - [S] - [W] - [X] /
in Russian [t] - [s]
[p] || [t] || [c] [d]
in ancient Greek /
in Russian
in ancient Greek
Correlative oppositions are those whose members differ in only one attribute, but coincide in all others; in this case, the opposition can be exhausted by two terms (forming a closed pair, for example, unvoiced || voiced: [p] || [b], [t] || [d]; hard || soft: [p] || [p" ], [t] || [t"]; unrounded || condensed: || [y:]; back || front: [o:] ||; short | long: [e] || [e:] and etc.) or consist of more than two members that can enhance some feature, for example [and] || [and] | [and] in Norwegian: back, middle (more anterior, higher in hearing) and anterior (even more anterior and even higher in hearing); here the sign of pitch “from left to right” increases, and “from right to left” decreases - these are step (gradual) correlations. When there is no increase or decrease in any one characteristic, but in three or more members one of the characteristics changes, for example [n] (labial), [t] (forelingual) and [k] (rearlingual), [p] || [t] || [c] in ancient Greek - the same ratio - these are “chains”; a similar relationship in “bundles”, which, however, do not form a consistent series, for example [ts] (affricate), [t] (plosive), [s] (fricative) or [d] (plosive), [n] (nasal ), [l] (lateral) or [k] (strong plosive), [p] (weak plosive) and [sr] (aspiratory plosive) in ancient Greek are “bundles”.
Some oppositions are accompanied in parallel by others, for example in Russian consonants: [n] [| [b] - [t] || [d] - [k] || [G];
[n || t || k] - [b || d || G]; [m || b] - [n || d]; [t || s] - [k || X]; others remain isolated, such as [ts || h].
Phonetic laws
Phonetic laws (sound laws) are the laws of the functioning and development of the sound matter of a language, governing both the stable preservation and regular changes of its sound units, their alternations and combinations.
The laws of functioning of the sound matter of language control living phonetic processes, allophone variation, and living positional alternations. Such allophone variation is determined only by the phonetic environment (position) and operates, in principle, regularly in all words, among all representatives of a given language community; for example, in all words of the Russian language, a voiced consonant, once in the position of the end of the word, is regularly replaced by the corresponding voiceless one: “frosts - moro[s]”, “gardens - sa[t]”, etc. There are no exceptions.
The laws of development of the sound matter of a language form the historically successive stages of the sound evolution of a given language and determine the historical (traditional) alternations of sound units. During the period of their emergence, the laws of development are historically ordinary laws of functioning, giving rise to regular positional variation of allophones. The transformation of a living law of functioning into a historical one is carried out by removing positional conditionality (i.e., the disappearance of a given law of functioning) through the transformation of living phonetic alternation (allophone variation) into a non-positional, historical alternation of independent phonemes. Thus, the historical alternation (k ~ ch) of the modern Russian language was positional in ancient times; in position before front vowels (i, e)<к>changed regularly<č>: *krīk- > krīč + ētī. Allophones (k/č) are in conditions of additional distribution: some positions regularly predetermined the appearance<č>, other -
The concept of “phonetic law” was introduced by neogrammarians as a formula for regular sound correspondences between two dialects of the same language or between two successive synchronous states of language development.
Sound changes occur only in strictly defined phonetic positions (P) in a given language (L) at a given stage of its development (T). The relationship between the parameters of language changes can be expressed by the formula: L (a > b / P) T, i.e. goes into only under strict observance of the corresponding (P, T, L) conditions. Violation of one of these conditions is the reason for deviation from the transition predicted by the law. There are no unmotivated exceptions. The discovery of the phonetic law comes down to identifying the conditions of positional variation (P) in a given language (L) at distant stages of its development (T), i.e. to the reconstruction of the law of functioning for a certain era of language development. Some phonetic laws are named after their discoverer (Grassmann's law, Pedersen's law, etc.). The idea of a strict pattern of phonetic changes was most consistently pursued by F. F. Fortunatov and his school.
Phonetic changes are carried out according to strict laws; their violation, in turn, can only occur naturally, i.e., the existence of a pattern or irregularity that needs to be discovered is assumed. Imaginary exceptions are the result of another law that abolished the first one, or borrowing from another language (dialect), or a non-phonetic change in the sound side of individual words. Thus, in modern Russian, in place of the form “ruce” (dative prepositional case singular) expected from the second palatalization, the form “ruke” is presented. The deviation from the expected reflex is caused by the natural morphological process of alignment of the base “ruk-a”, “ruk-u”, ... “ruku”. To explain this kind of exception, neogrammarists put forward the principle of analogy. For the first time, the idea of morphological analogy as a natural source of exceptions to the phonetic law was put forward by I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay.
The idea of phonetic law as a fundamental position of comparative historical linguistics lays the foundations for its further development: from the reconstruction of the external (correspondence between related languages) - to the reconstruction of the internal (L, in a given language), from the reconstruction of inventory - to the reconstruction of the system (parameters L, P , the relationship of sounds that react equally to the corresponding positions), from static reconstruction to dynamic reconstruction (relative chronology of phonetic laws successively replacing each other), etc. The provision on phonetic laws introduced a system of necessary prohibitions for a researcher in the field of comparative historical linguistics , for example: it is impossible to compare (in the genetic reconstruction procedure) facts of sound transitions of different times (T) and different dialects (L); when reconstructing a particular language transition, it is necessary to strictly determine the positions of its implementation (P). It is possible, however, to make a typological comparison of different linguistic phonetic laws in order to identify universal principles of phonetic changes.
Modern linguistics confirms the postulate of non-exclusivity of phonetic laws: positional alternation itself (allophone variation) is indeed carried out without exception in all words of a given language. Modern sociolinguistic research has shown that certain linguistic changes occur from word to word at different speeds in different social groups (compare, for example, Russian ze[rk]alo, but tse[rk]ov and tse[r"k]ov , ts[rk]ovnik, etc.). This kind of sound changes do not relate to positional alternations and are possible only if the previous law of functioning ceases. In this case, this is evidenced by the possibility of pronouncing the combinations [erk] and [er" To].
Historical changes in the phonological system of language
A single language can be described in both synchronic and diachronic aspects. The synchronic approach is aimed at fixing the elements of language and the structural interdependencies between them in a given period of time. This means that these elements coexist in time and are given synchronously. The synchronic approach dominates the perception of a language by its native speaker. Linguists give preference to it when descriptions of a language are made for the purpose of teaching it as a native language or as a foreign language. Synchronic descriptions are relied upon by those specialists who are interested in the problems of normalizing language use.
But the scientific study of language will be incomplete if the problems of historical changes in the lexicon, in the grammatical structure, in the organization of the sound system of the language are left aside. The synchronic approach to language is complemented by the diachronic approach, which allows in many cases to provide answers to questions like “why” and makes linguistics an explanatory science.
The diachronic point of view is that states of language belonging to different time slices are opposed to each other. Both different-temporal states of the state of a given language system as a whole or different-temporal states of its, for example, phonological system, as well as individual linguistic facts can be compared. But being carried away by individual facts can lead to atomism, i.e. to forgetting that any linguistic fact is an element of the language system existing in the corresponding historical period.
The diachronic point of view underlies the history of language, which can be constructed
as the internal history of language, if it is aimed at understanding the processes and patterns of evolution of the language system itself, and
as an external history of a language, when the scope of its interests involves consideration of the evolution of a language in the context of the history of the people who are native speakers of this language, changes in ethnogeographical conditions, the social structure of society, material and spiritual culture, taking into account the contacts of a given people with speakers of other cultures and languages.
Depending on the level (subsystem) of the language being studied, historical phonetics (or diachronic phonology), historical grammar, and historical lexicology are distinguished.
The sources of knowledge about historical changes in a language are, first of all, information that is extracted from written monuments in this language, including the most ancient ones.
In addition, indirect evidence is taken into account in monuments in other languages, which may contain information about the way of life and social organization of the people who are native speakers of the language under study, their own personal and local names.
Of particular importance are the data of comparative historical linguistics, which make it possible to judge the previous (especially preliterate) states of the language under study based on the facts of related languages and, on this basis, to carry out an external reconstruction of the history of a given language.
Structural analysis of the facts observed in a given language in its modern state (for example, traditional, or historical, interphonemic alternations) makes it possible to detect in it remnants of previous eras and carry out the so-called internal reconstruction of linguistic evolution.
The information obtained by dialectology (and dialectography) is extremely important, making it possible to detect relics of previous linguistic states in dialects and trace the spread of new formations (innovations), understand the nature of the mutual influence of dialects among themselves and between territorial dialects, on the one hand, and supra-dialectal forms of language (Koine, literary language in its codified, i.e. book-written, and oral-spoken varieties, vernacular), on the other hand. In the latter case, data from historical sociolinguistics can be used.
Turning to the sound side of language, one must keep in mind that from the point of view of history, what is important is not slow, gradual shifts in the articulation of certain sounds, as is often wrongfully emphasized, but the phonological status of the elements that were inherent in the past state, and the phonological status of the elements recorded in a given historical period.
We should not forget that each phoneme is an invariant, in other words, a set of its differential features, which are reproduced with each new reproduction of a given phoneme, in each of its variants. This set of differential characteristics allows for a fairly wide range of variation. And only the discrepancy between sets of differential phonological features indicates the presence of not one, but two or more different phonemes.
In recent decades, the phonological principle has become dominant in historical phonetics (or, as they often say today, diachronic phonology).
Language cannot function without remaining itself. And at the same time, it is constantly changing. Each of the private systems within it is being rebuilt. The sound side of the language is no exception.
Much of the phonological system is preserved over centuries and millennia. But in many ways it is affected by changes that can either be irregular, sporadic, or follow fairly strict patterns and turn out to be regular. Regular changes are subsumed under the concept of sound (or phonetic) laws.
Some of them may affect, firstly, the phonological system as a whole (i.e., the inventory of its elements and structural relationships between them), and others, the phonological structure of the exponents of sign units (i.e., words and morphemes).
In the first case, the number of phonemes and prosodemes changes in the direction of increasing or decreasing, one type of syllable structure is replaced by another (for example, in Common Slavic, closed syllables gave way to open syllables, and in Russian, along with open and closed syllables, closed syllables were again possible), one type of accentuation is replaced others (for example, musical stress in Indo-European languages mostly gave way to dynamic stress; the movable stress inherent in Proto-Indo-European in Common Germanic became fixed and assigned to the root morpheme, and subsequently, in individual Germanic languages, for various reasons it again acquired the status of movable).
In the second case, a restructuring of the phonological (phonemic and prosodic) structure of the exponents of words and morphemes occurs.
Changes concerning the phoneme system are of the following types:
splitting one phoneme into two;
coincidence of two phonemes in one;
monophonemization of phonemic combination;
The splitting of one phoneme into two is the result of phonologization of the allophones of this phoneme. Non-phonemic differences between the corresponding allophones acquire phonemic significance and become a differential feature that forms the basis of the phonological opposition between them. If such a process concerns not one phoneme, but a series of them, a phonological correlation arises.
Thus, in the history of the Russian language, the splitting of non-palatalized and palatalized variants of a large number of consonant phonemes led to the formation of two large correlative series /p/ - /p"/, /b/ - /b"/, /t/ - /t"/, / d/ - /d"/, /k/ - /k"/, /g/ - /g"/, /m/ - /m"/, /n/ - /n"/, /f/ - /f "/, /v/ - /v"/, /s/ - /s"/, /z/ - /z"/, /x/ - /x"/, /r/ - /r"/, /l / - /l"/. Initially, palatalized consonants appeared in certain phonetic positions (before front vowels and j) as combinatorial variants. When they acquired the ability to function before back vowels or at the end of words, as well as, on occasion, to distinguish different words in as part of one minimal pair, they became independent phonemes: cf., for example, rad /rat/ - army /rat"/, rad /rat/ - row /r"at/, bow /luk/ - hatch /l"uk/, cat /kot/ - weaves /tk"ot/. Thanks to the splitting of phonemes, Russian consonantism has been significantly enriched.
The same enrichment of consonantism took place in more ancient periods of the development of Slavic languages. The first Slavic palatalization consisted in the fact that before the front vowels, the Proto-Slavic back-lingual consonants /k/, /g/, /x/, having passed the stage of palatalized allophones , , , became sibilant allophones, and then independent phonemes /t"S"/, / Z"/, /S"/ (cf. modern Russian ruk-a - manual, friend-a - friend, sin-a - sinner). Thus, /t"S"/ receives phonemic status when it begins to be used before non-front vowels (krit"S"ati). /Z"/ and /S"/ are already losing their softness in the Russian language.
The second palatalization (also of the Proto-Slavic period) led to the emergence of whistling consonants /c" || t"s"/, /z"/, /s"/ from palatalized allophones of the same back-lingual phonemes /k/, /g/, /x/ The softness of /t"s"/ is lost in the Russian language.
The third palatalization of the same back-linguals after front vowels led to similar results as the second: obseslavl. *kъne~gъ (cf. Common German *kuninga- “a man coming from a noble family; king”, Gothic kuningas, Old German kuning, Dutch konung, Swedish konung, English king) > kъne~z"ь> modern Russian prince. As a result, in the modern Russian language not only the back-lingual non-palatalized phonemes /k/, /g/, /x/ were recorded, but also their reflexes (4 alternants in each series of phonemic alternations): k - t"S" - ts (< t"s") - k"; g - Z - z" - g"; x - S - s" - x".
In the German language, as a result of distant anticipatory (regressive) assimilation, front labialized vowel phonemes /y:/, /Y/, /2:/, /9/ arose, which were originally combinatorial advanced allophones of the corresponding back vowel phonemes /u:/, / U/, /o:/, /O/. The splitting of phonemes is recorded in alternations along the umlaut (i.e., in alternations along a row).
The opposite direction in the development of the phoneme system is also possible, namely, a reduction in the number of different phonemes (and, accordingly, the list of phonological oppositions).
Thus, in Russian and in many other Slavic languages (except Polish), the opposition between nasal and oral vowels has disappeared.
In German, the expanding diphthongs io/ia > ie, uo/ua have disappeared, coinciding with the long vowels /i:/ and /u:/. In the modern German phoneme /s/, two frontal fricative phonemes, which were still different in the ancient German period, coincided, one of which (old s) was designated by the letter s, and the other (interrupted s) by the letter z “tailed”: glas “glass” " - daz (< dat) "это". Исчезло имевшее место в др.-в.-нем. фонематическое противопоставление кратких и долгих (геминированных) согласных.
An example of monophonematization of a two-phonemic combination is the formation in German of a single sibilant phoneme /S/ (< /s/ + /x/).
The restructuring of the phoneme system is a process, the results of which become apparent after very significant intervals of time. Acts of restructuring the phonemic structure of exponents of words and morphemes, using substitution (substitution) in a given phonetic position of some phonemes instead of others, are more frequent. Sporadic changes affect only some words (hello > zdraste > draste > in fast speech drast; February< феврарь). Их именуют спорадическими.
Regular sound changes affect certain phonemes (and phonemic combinations) either in all or in some phonetic positions, regardless of specific words. In the first case, we talk about frontal, or spontaneous, independent changes (for example, the replacement in Slavic languages, except Polish, of all nasal vowels in all positions by non-nasal ones). In the second case, we mean dependent changes that are determined either positionally or combinatorially.
The formulation of the sound law fixes the previous, initial state and the new, resulting state. The direction of the sound transition can be indicated by a corner directed to the right (b > p, s > s"). When reconstructing a previous state, first what is now is recorded, and then what preceded it (s"< s).
Information about sound transitions that took place in the history of a language is drawn from a comparison of monuments of a given language at different times, is extracted from the analysis of phonetically non-conditional interphonemic alternations currently observed, and from comparisons of material from related languages.
The phonetic law differs, for example, from the physical law in the following respects:
* The effect of the sound law is limited to a specific language (or some regional variant, dialect or group of dialects).
Thus, the Germanic languages (in accordance with the phonetic law fixing the so-called first, or Germanic, movement of consonants) replaced the original Indo-European voiced stops d, g at the beginning of words with their voiceless counterparts (Latin duo, Russian two, Gothic twai, English .two). High German, which had a phonetic law concerning the second, or High German, movement of consonants, replaced the Germanic initial p, t, k with the affricates pf, ts, kx, but these sound changes, originating in South German, spread unequally to the more northern territories of High German language area and did not affect the Low German language area.
* The effect of the sound law is limited to a certain time frame. Thus, in the Russian language, the replacement of the vowel phoneme /o/ in an unstressed position with the phoneme /a/ obeys the current (or living) sound law. In the same way, replacing voiced consonants in the absolute outcome of a word with corresponding voiceless ones is a manifestation of a living sound law. In the linguistic system we find correspondingly living interphonemic alternations: /o/ ~ /a/; /d/ ~ /t/ etc.
But the replacement of the phoneme /g/ (friend) with the phoneme /Z/ (to be friends, friendship) or the phoneme /z"/ (friends) is explained in historical, now no longer valid sound laws. Their evidence is historical (or traditional) interphonemic alternation.
* The presence of exceptions to sound laws can be explained by borrowings from another language (or dialect) at a time when the corresponding law ceased to be in force.
Therefore, for example, the Russian word prince and its equivalents in other Slavic languages have an initial /k/, since they go back to the Proto-Slavic borrowing from the Proto-Germanic of the era when it had already completed the first movement of consonants, according to which the Indo-European /g/ became Germanic /k/ (cf. I.-E. *gen-, Lat. "genus "origin; noble origin; clan, tribe, people", Germanic kunja- "(noble) family".
Gothic kaisar and German Kaiser "emperor", borrowed from Latin caesar (originally the name of Gaius Julius Caesar, and then the title of emperor), have an initial /k/, reflecting the condition that was characteristic of the Latin language of the classical era. Subsequently, in Latin /k/ before front vowels became the affricate /ts/. This state was reflected in the Slavic borrowings of a later period (Proto-Slavic *cesarь, Old Russian Tsar (with the letter E instead of yat), formed on this basis in the Bulgarian tsar, old Russian tsar).
* The results of the sound law in force in the past may be overlapped by the action of analogy, i.e. the process of formal or semantic assimilation of one linguistic unit to another. The action of analogy explains, for example, the dialect form bake (instead of bake, by analogy with bake, bake).
Phonetic laws reveal themselves as linguistic, systemic-structural laws, and not purely articulatory changes, although they presuppose the presence of a material, articulatory substrate. The history of each individual language reveals its own specific phonetic laws. General phonetics and phonology can build a typology of sound transitions.
See, for example, the following illustrations:
vowel reduction (cf., for example, Old German zunga, German Zunge “tongue”);
lengthening of a short vowel (for example, /I/ > /i:/: Old German spil, German Spiel “game”);
shortening a long vowel (for example, in Latin /a:/ > /a/ before final l, m, r, t: laudat “he praises”);
diphthongization of a long vowel (for example, /i;/ > /aI/: Old German min, German mein);
monophthongization of a diphthong (for example, in Lat. /ae/ (from /ai/) > /e/; cf., further: /uo/ > /u:/: Old German guot, German gut " good");
replacing a back rounded vowel with a corresponding front rounded vowel before /i/ and /j/ in an affix (i-Umlaut in West Germanic and Scandinavian languages);
delabialization of front rounded vowels (cf.: Old English fyllen, English fill "to fill");
reducing the solution, i.e. replacing a more open vowel with a more closed one (German Tonbrechung “tone refraction”; for example: ich spreche “I say”, du sprichst “you speak”);
the appearance of a prosthetic vowel (cf.: Lat. spiritus “spirit”, French esprit “mind, spirit”; Lat. spero “hope”, Spanish espera “expectation, hope”);
the appearance of an epenthetic vowel (cf.: Lat. actus, Serbo-Croatian akat “action, act”);
omission of a vowel, elision (French articles le, la before vowels in the form l");
deafening of voiced consonants in the outcome of words (Russian /z/ > /s/ goat - goats), which does not occur in English;
voicing of voiceless consonants before voiced ones (Russian /t/ > /d/ set aside - give), not observed in German;
simplification of the group of consonants (cf.: Latin status “standing, condition, position”, French etat “state”);
the appearance of a prosthetic consonant (cf.: Latin octo, Russian eight);
the appearance of an epenthetic consonant (cf.: Greek Ioannes, Russian Ivan);
replacement, in accordance with the law of assimilation of the final consonant, of the prefixed morpheme before the root with another consonant (up to complete assimilation); Wed: distribute, crucify, expand, get hold of; lat. adaequo "compare", accumulo "gather in a heap", affectus "mood, experience, emotional excitement", aggressio "robbery", allabor "quietly creeping up", appositum "application (in grammar)", applaudo "clap", arripio " I grab it."
Signs that distinguish vowel sounds from consonants
1. The main difference between vowels and consonants is their role in syllable formation. A vowel sound always forms the top of a syllable and is a sonant; a consonant accompanies a sonant and is a consonant.
2. The articulatory difference between vowels and consonants consists of different tensions of the pronunciation apparatus and the absence or presence of a focus of formation.
The presence of two types of speech sounds (vowels and consonants), differing in articulation, forces a classification of vowels to be made separately from the classification of consonants.
Classification of vowel sounds.
The basis for the classification of vowels is the row and rise of the tongue, as well as the work of the lips.
Articulatory vowels are distributed horizontally along the row, that is, along the part of the tongue that is raised when pronouncing a given sound. There are three rows, and accordingly three types of speech sounds, which are front, middle and back.
Front vowels - and e; middle row - s; back row at o a.
Vertically, vowels differ in their rise - that is, in the degree of elevation of one or another part of the tongue during the formation of a given vowel. There are usually three lifts - upper, middle and lower. In the Russian language, high vowels include u y, middle vowels e o, and low vowels a.
According to the position of the lips, vowels are divided into labial, that is, in the formation of which the lips take part - o y (labialized, rounded) and unglobbed, that is, in the formation of which the lips do not take part - a e and s. Labial vowels are usually back.
Nasalization.
In a number of languages, there are nasal vowels, for example, in French and Polish. Old Church Slavonic also featured nasal vowels, which in Cyrillic were represented by special letters: yus large, or o nasal and yus small, or e nasal. Articulation of nasal vowels occurs when raised? the palatine curtain and the lowered back of the tongue, so that the air stream simultaneously and equally enters the oral and nasal cavity.
Related information.
In all languages of the world, there are 2 types of speech sounds: vowels and consonants. The combination of vowels forms vocalism, and the combination of consonants forms consonantism. Vowels and consonants are different functional, articulatory And acoustically.
Articulatory difference consonants and vowels consists of different tensions of the pronunciation apparatus. Functional difference lies in their role in word formation. Acoustic difference– vowels are contrasted with noisy ones, i.e. voiceless consonants like [f] and [n]; Between vowels and noisy consonants there are, on the one hand, voiced consonants, and on the other, sonorant consonants.
Vowel classification
All vowels are sonorant (vocal) and fricative. The classification is based on row And tongue lift, and lip work; are additionally taken into account nasalization, voltage And longitude. The row is determined by the part of the tongue that rises when a given vowel is formed. Distinguish three row, and accordingly three types of vowels: front, middle and back. For example, in Russian, [i] is a front vowel, and [ы] is a middle vowel. Rising is determined by the degree of elevation of the tongue when forming a given vowel; usually differ three lifts: upper, average, lower. According to the participation of lips in their formation, vowels are divided into labial(labialized, labial) and nonlabial. These vowels are sometimes called monophthongs.
In addition to monophthongs and long vowels, in the languages of the world there are diphthongs- vowels with complex articulation, pronounced in one syllable and acting as one phoneme. For example, German: au, eu, ei ; English: g o, n o – are pronounced with one effort on [o], the second element is pronounced less clearly, like a [y]-shaped overtone. Diphthongs are divided into descending And ascending. In a descending diphthong, the first element is strong, as in English go , descending are also German and Baum, mein . Rising diphthongs have a strong second element (found in Spanish).
Classification of consonants
When consonants are formed, a strong stream of air overcomes an obstacle, explodes it, or passes through a gap, and these noises constitute the characteristic of the consonant. The classification of consonants is more complex, since there are more consonants in the languages of the world than vowels. The basis for the classification of consonants are four main articulatory features: articulation method, active organ, place of articulation, vocal cord work.
Articulation method– the nature of overcoming an obstacle and the passage of an air stream when creating noise necessary for the formation of a consonant. There are two main ways of articulating consonants - bow and slit; According to the method of articulation, consonants are divided into stops And slotted.
Stop consonants are formed by exploding an obstacle with an air stream, therefore stop consonants are also called explosive and explosive. Stops are [p], [b], [t], [g], etc. Friction consonants are formed by the friction of an air stream against the walls of the passage created by the convergence of the speech organs of the oral cavity; therefore, fricative consonants are also called fricatives (from Lat. frico– true).
Along with pure stop and fricative consonants, there are complex (mixed) stop-friction consonants. According to their acoustic characteristics, they are of two types: on the one hand, it is voice (sonorant)), with another - noisy (voiceless and voiced). Sonorant consonants: nasal [m], [n], English, German. [ŋ] morning, Zeitung; lateral [l], trembling, for example [r], French. [r] rose.
Sonorant consonants are articulated when the air stream overcomes the stop and passes through the gap; when pronouncing, the nasal stop remains undisturbed, since part of the air stream passes through the nasal cavity, and when articulating the lateral consonant stop, formed by the tongue and palate, is preserved, since the side of the tongue is lowered and a gap is formed for the passage of the air stream.
The duration of a consonant is related to the formation of affricates: the onset of an affricate is a stop, and the indentation is a fricative [ts] flow .
By active organ Consonants are divided into three types: labial, lingual And lingual(laryngeal). Labial there are labiolabial[b], less common labiodental[f], [v]. Linguistic consonants are divided into front-lingual, middle language And posterior lingual. Front lingual consonants by place of articulation there are dental (wheezing)) And anterior palatal (hissing) [s] and [w]; [ts] and [h]. Middle language are formed by the convergence of the middle part of the tongue with the hard palate. The central consonant is [j] (this sound is called yot); when pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue rests against the lower teeth, the sides of the tongue against the lateral teeth, the middle back of the tongue rises towards the hard palate, forming a very narrow gap through which the voice passes. Plingual consonants are divided into uvular(reed), pharyngeal And laryngeal. Example uvular The French burr [r] can serve as a consonant. When pronouncing this sound, the tip of the tongue rests on the lower teeth, the back part, straining, rises to the sky, so that the air stream causes a small tongue (uvulu) to vibrate, which periodically comes into contact with the raised back of the tongue, interrupting the stream and creating noise. Pharyngeal consonants are articulated by moving the root of the tongue backward and contracting the muscles of the pharynx wall. An example is Ukrainian. G ora. Laryngeal consonants are represented mainly by glottal plosive. As an independent speech sound, it is found in Arabic; called gamza. Laryngeal sounds often act as additional articulation of vowels and consonants. For example, when pronouncing German words beginning with a vowel, a dull guttural noise is heard from the sudden rupture of the closed vocal cords; such a utterance is called a strong attack, and the sound is called a knaklaut.