Journal of Languages for Specific Purposes (Mar 2016)
PHONETISCHE EXPERIMENTELLE ANALYSE VON PHONEMEN DER GERMANISCHEN UND SLAWISCHEN SPRACHEN
Abstract
The article is devoted to the problem of comparative analysis of vowel and consonant realization in contemporary German, English, Dutch, Ukrainian, Russian and Polish. This study also discusses the difference between comparative and contrastive methods, the procedure of the phonetic experiment, the tasks and hypotheses for comparative auditory and instrumental analysis of distinctive features of vowels and consonants of Germanic and Slavic languages. The organization of sampling and requirements for statistical data processing is described in the practical part of this study. In general, the realizations of 2313 German, English, Dutch, Ukrainian, Russian and Polish vowel and consonant phonemes are described separately in strong and weak positions. It is approved that Germanic consonants possess correlation of opposition both “density/ weakness” and “voiceless/ voiced”, while Slavic consonants are opposed only as “voiceless/ voiced”. The compulsory opposition “voiceless/ voiced” constitute stop consonants is observed in all studied languages although resonant, approximant, glottal and pharyngeal phonemes do not show it. The required devoicing of voiced consonants at the end of the word is characteristic only for German, Dutch and Russian consonants. Ukrainian and Polish consonants are marked with an optionality of this phonetic phenomenon, but in English it does not exist. The position of neutralization of the distinguishing feature “vocal cords activity” is the word end for German, Dutch, Russian and Polish consonants. A partial progressive assimilation of voiceless consonants is typical for German, English, Dutch, Russian, Polish, but in Ukrainian and Russian it is absent. The regressive assimilation of voiceless consonants is mandatory for Russian and Polish. For Ukrainian it is optional and positionally predetermined, and in Germanic languages it is not observed. A partial lenization of voiceless consonants in front of voiced consonants is peculiar to German, Russian and Polish. The most common change phenomenon is on the juncture of morphemes and phonetic words. In addition, the modification of Slavic consonants is often motivated by different morphological factors
