Based pronunciation standards of English

Branches of phonetics: Special Ph is concerned with the study of the phonetic structure of only one l. 1. Descriptive- at a particular period of time- synchronically 2. Historical- in its historical development- diachronically. General Ph studies the sounds of several lang-s and observes the same phenomenon in these lang-s. It deals with analysis, description and comparison of ph phenomena. Experimental Ph studies the ph phenomena through observations and calculations with the help of different devices. Comparative Ph studies the correlation between the ph systems of 2 or more l-s, finds out the correspondences between their sp sounds. Theoretical Ph studies how the sounds are produced in real speech. Articulatory Ph studies and classifies the sp sounds as they are produced by other sp operators. Acoustic Ph deals with physical properties of sounds (quantity, timber/voice quality, intensity, the pitch of the voice and temporal factor). It studies the way the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and listener’s ear. Auditory Ph is aimed at investigating the hearing process. Phonology is concerned with social functions of ph phenomena. Functional Ph studies purely linguistic aspect of speech sounds. It investigates accent and intonation.


2)Experimental phonetics: Methods of investigation (The direct observation method; The experimental method; The distributional method; The semantic method).
Instrumental methods deriving from physics and physiology were introduced into the Ph in the second half of the 20^th century. The introduction of machines for the measurements and for instrumental analysis has resulted in their use for detailed study of many of the phenomena which are present in the sound wave or in the articulatory process at any given moment. Today there are no areas of phonetics in which useful work is done without combining these 2 ways of ph investigation. There are some principal methods of investigation which can be subjective or objective. Dickushina distinguishes 3 principal methods. 1) the direct observation. 3 modes of ph analysis: by ear, by sight, by muscular sensation. It’s the oldest and the simplest methods, most ready-available. It consists of observing the movements/position of one’s own sp organs while pronouncing various sp sounds as well as in analyzing one’s own kinesthetic sensations. Investigations by this method can be effective only if people are trained to observe even the slightest movements. 2) the linguistic method. The aim is to determine in what way the phonetic features are used in a l to convey a certain meaning. –Distributional method. It is mainly used by phoneticians of structuralism, who consider it possible to discover the phoneme of the l by grouping all the sounds into phonemes acc to the laws of phonemic and allophonic distribution: 1. Allophones of different phonemes occur in the same ph context;2. Allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same ph context. – Semantic method is based on a phonemic rule that phonemes can distinguish w-s and morphemes when opposed to one another. 3) the experimental method. It’s based upon the use of special apparatus and instruments. Artificial palate is used to ascertain the exact tongue-palate contacts in articulating sounds. Laryngoscope – a small circular mirror which is introduced into pharynx far back as possible. It helps to observe larynx, glottis and vocal cords. Magnetic tape recorder has gained wide popularity. It’s used for recording speech and sounds and then reproducing them exactly. Spectrograph is used for obtaining spectrograms of speech sounds mainly for the purpose of harmonic analysis. Intonograph measures automatically fundamental tone of the vocal cords, the duration of speech/ pauses.