Unit 3

UNIT 3 The soft Russian affricate /чТ/. Affricates are consonant sounds having two phases of articulation. The first phase is a stop sound, the second phase a fricative sound produced at the same place of articulation. Instead of a clear-cut release of a stop consonant, the tongue is withdrawn from the point of contact a very short distance for a very short period of time and the air flows through this narrowed passage. It is important, however, that the two phases form a unit, that they be pronounced in very rapid succession. The soft Russian affricate /чТ/ begins as a soft Russian /тТ/, which changes to fricative sound at the same point of articulation. The sound is always soft, no matter what letter is written after it. In fact, the Russian sound is softer than the corresponding English sound Ц remember to keep the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth and the middle of the tongue high. The Russian Fricative consonants /ж/ and /ш/ The closest English equivalent to the voiced Russian fricative /ж/ is the r at the beginning of such words as СredТ if strongly exaggerated. The voiceless corresponding sound is /ш/. These are sounds with two focus points (as was the case with the Russian /л/) - both the tip and the back part of the tongue are raised, with a saddle in the middle of the tongue. To produce the sounds correctly turn the tip of the tongue up and slightly back, at the same time raising the back part of the tongue to the area where the vowel /у/ is pronounced. It helps if you will set the lower jaw firmly and jut it forward a bit. These two sounds have no soft equivalents they are soft by nature. Since the middle of the tongue must be low, it cannot possibly be raised to the necessary position for palatalization. Beware of the Russian spelling however, for the УsoftФ vowel letters и, е are written after these consonants, as in the soft sign ь. Whatever may be written following ж/ш, remember to keep the consonant hard. When the vowel и follows these consonants, it will be pronounced /ы/. The Intonation of Questions without an Interrogative word (IC-3) At first it might seem that the intonation of questions without an interrogative word is the most difficult intonation contour for Americans. But the very fact that it is so strikingly different from any contour Americans use in emotional speech makes it easy for them to keep its importance in mind. On the other hand, it is easy to forget about the subtle differences which exist, for example, in the intonation of neutral statements in the two languages, and therefore there is a tendency to become sloppy with them (cf. IC-1 in Unit 1). In this type of questions in English the voice usually rises at the last emphasized word and stays at a high level throughout the rest of the sentence. Is Anna at home? Is it she whoТs singing? In the Russian contour the syllables preceding the accented syllable of the emphasized word are pronounced at the speakerТs mid-level. The pitch rises very abruptly at the beginning of the accented syllable and continues to rise within the syllable. The vowel of this syllable will also be somewhat longer than usual. It is extremely important that any syllables following this accented syllable be pronounced at a low level Ц the voice must not be allowed to rise again, no matter how long the sentence may be. Ёто дом? Ёто мама? ќна поЄт? The main difficulty the American student will have in producing IC-3 is in making the rise in pitch sharp enough and high enough. Subtle psychological factors are at work here. In American English you tend to use a rather narrow range of pitches except in highly emotional or УgushyФ speech. Although you have rising intonation contours in English, none of them are as extreme as is IC-3. As a result even non-emotional Russian speech may appear to be emotionally-charged or gushy to an American, and an American student (particularly a man) may feel uncomfortable trying to produce IC-3. In order to master IC-3 you will need to throw aside your inhibitions and be willing to exaggerate consciously. An additional problem is created by the fact that American intonation system tends to make its native speakers react to any strong intonation as a falling contour. For this reason you may find yourself making sharp falling contours, even when trying your hardest to make sharp rising contours. (In so doing you will be producing not questions but emotional exclamations.) In the following exercise the intonation shift occurs on the very last syllable. Strive to make the rise in pitch very sharp Ц do not let it trail off gradually as you often do in English.