B. Read the short story aloud, observing phonostylistic characteristics of the declamatory prose reading.

Cutting off with a Shilling

Sheridan, the famous English playwright, wanted his son Tom to marry a young woman of a large fortune. The youth was in love with a penniless girl and refused pointblank to obey his father. Out of patience with his son, Sheridan threatened him: “If you don’t immediately obey me, I shall cut you off with a shilling.” “When you really make up your mind to cut me off with a shilling, ” said the youth, “you will have to borrow it first, sir.” Sheridan burst out laughing and dropped the subject altogether.

(Leonyeva, S.F. A Theoretical Course

of English Phonetics, 2004, p. 255)

Cеминар 8

Pronunciation Varieties of British English

1. The orthoepic norm of British English (RP).

2. Local dialects.

3. The Northern regional type of English pronunciation.

4. The Scottish type of English pronunciation.

Основная литература

Соколова, М.А. Теоретическая фонетика английского языка: Учеб. для студентов высш. учеб. заведений. 3-е изд., стереотип. / М.А. Соколова, К.П. Гинтовт, И.С. Тихонова и др. – М. Гуманитарный издательский центр ВЛАДОС, 2004. – С.215-221, 232-241.

Дополнительная литература

Леонтьева, С.Ф. Теоретическая фонетика современного английского языка: Учеб. для пед. вузов и университетов. – 3-е изд., испр. и доп. / С.Ф. Леонтьева. – М. Издательство «Менеджер», 2004. – С.246-247.

Brown, J. Listening to Spoken English. – М: Prosveshcheniye, 1984, pp.86-89.

A. Think about the following questions for class discussion.

·What is standard pronunciation?

·What accounts for the opinion that the orthoepic norm embraces a wide range of pronunciation rather than a single variety of pronunciation?

·Why do pronouncing dictionaries get out-of-date sooner or later?

·Do all the speakers of one and the same language necessarily use the same number of phonemes?

·May dialects (social or regional) doffer not only in the realizations of phonemes, but also in their phoneme inventories?

·Why have dialects shown such remarkable liveliness in spite of the numerous factors that encourage standardization of pronunciation?

·What accent places an English speaker in a privileged social category?

·Which of the developments of Received Pronunciation (RP) have become well-established and accepted?

·What is Advanced RP?

·What are the main differences in the phoneme inventories, of the Northern regional type of English pronunciation (as opposed to RP)?

B. Analyse the pronunciation of the following words: because, literature, resource, translate, education. Find more examples to illustrate the fact that the orthoepic norm is changing and developing, and that it embraces a wide range of pronunciation varieties.