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REDUCTION
In English as well as in Russian vowels in unstressed syllables! are usually reduced. The laws of reduction, in these languages are not the same, however.
Reduction is a historical process of weakening, shortening or disappearance of vowel sounds in unstressed positions. This phonetic phenomenon, as well as assimilation, is closely connected with the general development of the language system. Reduction reflects the process of lexical and grammatical changes.
The neutral sound represents the reduced form of almost any vowel or diphthong in the unstressed position, eg:
combine ('kombain] — combine [kam'bain] project ['procfcikt] — project [pra'cfcekt]
The vowel sounds of the two related words are in contrast because of different stress positions.
The sounds [i] and also [u] in the suffix -fulare very frequent realizations of the unstressed positions, eg possibility [.posTbiiiti|. beautiful ['bjictiful].
There is also a tendency to retain the quality of the unstressed vowel sound, eg retreat, programme, situate. Non-reduced unstressed sounds are often retained in:
(a) compound words, eg blackboard, oilfield,
(b) borrowings from the -French and other languages, eg
bourgeoisie, kolkhoz.
Reduction is closely connected not only with word stress but also with rhythm and sentence stress. Stressed words are pronounced with great energy of breath. Regular loss of sentence stress of certain words is connected with partial or complete loss of their lexical significance. These words play the part of form-words in a sentence.
So reduction is realized:
(a) in unstressed syllables within words, eg demonstrative [di'mDnstrativ];
(b) in unstressed form-words, auxiliary and modal verbs, personal and possessive pronouns within intonation groups and phrases, eg
What do you think you can do? [~* wDt dju Girjlc ju êýï Ndu:J.
Three different types of reduction are noticed in English.
1. Quantitative reduction, i.e. shortening of a vowel
sound in the unstressed position, affects mainly long vowels, eg
lie [hi: — hiJ — hi].
When does he come? [~* wen daz hi vLvm].
2. Qualitative reduction, i.e. obscuration of vowels to
wards [ý, i, è], affects both long and short vowels, eg can
|kaen —: êýï].
You can easily do it. )w êýï "* i:zili xdu: it].
Vowels in unstressed form-words in most cases undergo both quantitative and qualitative reduction, eg to (tu: — tu- — to].
3. The third type is the elision of vowels in the
unstressed position, eg I'm up already [aim ëð xo:lredi].
Comparison with Russian. In Russian as well as in English M'duction is both quantitative and qualitative but at the same lime it depends on the place of the unstressed syllable in the word. The farther the syllable is away from the stressed one, the weaker it is, eg ãîëîâà [ãúëëâà]. Vowels of full value do not nfcur in the unstressed position, as a rule. Elision is rather i ommon in Russian.
Recommendations.1. Reduced vowels should be made very weak. Sometimes they are even dropped in fluent speech, eg factory ffaektn).
2. Unknown words especially compound and borrowed
should be looked up in a dictionary to check their pronunciation.
Be sure not to reduce vowels of full value in the unstressed posi-v
tion, unless you are to do so.
3. When practising reading as well as speaking weaken un
stressed form-words, personal and possessive pronouns, auxiliary
and modal verbs whenever it is necessary.
Possible Mistakes of Russian Learners. 1.Russian students of English do not shorten or obscure unstressed vowels in the cases they should be strongly reduced, eg forget [fa'get], o| course [av'kas].
2. Russian students of English easily reduce the vowels of full value in unstressed positions, they often substitute them by the neutral sound in the cases where there should be no reduction at all. eg blackboard fblaekbord]; architect ['akitektj.
3. Russian learners do not always observe secondary stress in polysyllabic words and reduce the vowel of full value. Care should be taken to observe the rhythmical tendency of secondary stresses and to pronounce the vowel of full value in the syllables marked by secondary stresses, eg conversation [.kDnva'seifn], revolution [,rev3'lu:/n).
Any good dictionary can help you in the three cases mentioned above.
4. Form-words and especially personal and possessive pro
nouns, auxiliary and modal verbs are often (made) strongly
stressed by the Russians, though they have no special logical
prominence. Mind that those words are normally unstressed an
are very weak in English speech.