phonetic peculiarities of scottish english

The lateral approximant in British English is velarized when in syllable final positions and when after vowels. In Scottish English it tends to be velarized in every position - ladder [ladł], police [pəłis], plough [płau]Voicing Assimilation. The voicing assimilation will be briefly discussed despite its low occurrence in SSE. The assimilation of /s / is an exceptional feature possessed by Scottish speakers only. Consider the example most valuable /moz.valjəbl/. The consonant /t/ of most changes into the voiced sound under the influence of the following voiced fricative. The t-elision is perceptible at the end of a word which isfollowed by another word beginning with a voiced sound.In addition, there is the influence of the letter h when it appears after a consonant. This makes the consonant sound breathy. This phenomenon called aspiration. The meaning of aspiration is to change the sound of the word in different cases, in the presence or absence of the article. H appears after the voiceless consonants. After the voiced consonants l, n, r, it does not appear.Table 3 Influence of h letterLetterLetter with hSounds likebbhas Russian [в] in the beginning and at the end of the word oras English[w] in the middle of the wordcchsolid sound [x]ddhmute after a narrow vowel oras [й] before a narrow vowel or as southern Russian [г] after or before a wide vowel or almost like the previous sound, only muteffhmutegghmute after a narrow vowel oras [й] before a narrow vowel or as southern Russian [г] after or before a wide vowelmmhas Russian [в]pphas Russian [ф]sshas [h] in English «his»tthas [h] in English «his» ormute at the end of the wordAnother important process of sound formation in Scottish is the softening of the vowel and the subsequent consonant. This is done by appearing the letter i before the last vowel letter or group of vowels in the word.For example, the word cat. It reads like khaht. If the word is softened, i.e. i appears before the last vowel cait (read as khach), then this is already translated as cats. Note that the softening only happens at the end of the word.Usually, the mitigation applied when converting a noun to the plural. Word with a wide vowel / word with a narrow vowel:cat (cat) - cait (cats)dùn (fort) dùin (forts)In some cases, softening can cause the preceding vowel to change. Here are some examples:mac (son / mic (sons)fear (man) / fir (people, men)The lenited consonants have special pronunciations.Table 4 Lenition changesRadicalLenitedBroadSlenderOrthographyBroadSlender[p][pj]bbh[v][vj][kʰ][kʲʰ]cch[x][ç][t̪][tʲ]ddh[ɣ][ʝ][f][fj]ffhsilent[k][kʲ]ggh[ɣ][ʝ][l̪ˠ][ʎ]l[l̪ˠ][l̪][m][mj]mmh[v][vj][n̪ˠ][ɲ]n[n][n][pʰ][pʰj]pph[f][fj] [rˠ]r[ɾ][s̪][ʃ]ssh[h][hj][t̪ʰ][tʲʰ]tth[h][hj]Lenition of initial l n r is not shown in writing. Word initially, these are always assumed to have the strong values unless they are in a leniting environment or unless they belong to a small and clearly defined group of particle (mostly the forms of the prepositions ri and le). Elsewhere, any of the realisations of l n r may occur; [l̪ˠ] is lenitable only in Harris Gaelic which retains the fourth l-sound [l̪].The /s̪/ is not lenited when it appears before /m p t̪ k/. Lenition may be blocked when homorganic consonants (i.e. those made at the same place of articulation) clash with grammatical lenition rules. Some of these rules are active (particularly with dentals), others have become fossilised (i.e. velars and labials). For example, blocked lenition in the surname Caimbeul (Campbell) vs Camshron (Cameron) is an incident of fossilised blocked lenition; blocked lenition in air an taigh salach «on the dirty house» vs air a' bhalach mhath «on the good boy» is an example of the productive lenition blocking rule.2.3 ProsodyAll together, the prosodicfeatures of a language are created by the combination of pitch, length and loudness [5, p.51]. The most distinct prosodic features of Standard Scottish English will be compared to British English.Above all, the works by John C. Wells served as the background sources. Unfortunately, the amount of publications concerning Scottish prosody is not sufficient [2, p.102].SyllabificationAlthough the prosodic features of Standard Scottish English are not really different from those in British English, the process of syllabification operating in Standard Scottish English is altered. It is most palpable with the phrasal verbs; a consonant at the end of one word in a closed syllable tends to be syllabicated with the following vowel of the subsequent word. In British English, the consonant tends to be placed with the stressed syllable. A clear example of a different syllabification in Standard Scottish English is presented by Wells [9]. The words an aim and a name bear the same syllabification in SSE, thus, /ə.nem/ for the both of them. Furthermore, such examples may be found in put up /pu.t˄p/ or St Andrew /sn.tandru/ [8]. The pronunciation of the recorded speaker sustains both Wells’ and Stuart-Smith’s statements.StressAccording to Wells, the stress pattern varies across English accents only with minor differences, otherwise, the underlying principle traverses each English accent [9, p. 87]. Standard Scottish English stresses some verbs differently than British English. While British English has a tendency to stress the first syllable in verbs suffixed by –ize and –ate (criticize / kritisˊ˄iz /, duplicate / ˊduplikeit /), Standard Scottish English stresses these verbs on their second syllables. Our speaker stresses the second syllable in criticize, but the first syllable in duplicate.criticize [kritisˊ˄iz]duplicate [ˊʤʊlikeit]Nevertheless, both British English and Standard Scottish English distinguish between nouns and verbs by stressing the second syllable in the case of a verb and on the first syllable in case of a noun [9]. Elision Schwa [ə] is omitted at the end of a word if it is followed by a word that begins with a vowel. For example: duine ('man') - [ˈtɯɲə] an duine agad ('your man') - [ənˠ ˈtɯɲ akət].TonesOf all the Celtic languages, lexical tones exist only in the Lewis and Sutherland dialects in the far north of the Gaelic-speaking area. Phonetically and historically, they resemble the tones of Norway, Sweden, and western Denmark; these languages have tonal outlines characteristic of monosyllabic and two-syllable words. In Lewes Gaelic, it is difficult to find minimal pairs. Among the rare examples: bodh (a) [po.] ('pitfall') vs. bò [poː] ('cow') and fitheach [fi. əx] ('raven') vs. fiach [fiəx] ('debt'). Another example is the tonal difference between ainm [ɛnɛm] and anam [anam] , the latter of which has a tonal contour corresponding to a two-syllable expression. These tonal differences are not found in Ireland or anywhere else in the Scottish Gaidhiltachd. Moreover, they completely disappear among young speakers, even in Lewis.IntonationLet begin with Cruttenden’s universally agreed formulation concerning the continuity between pitch and intonation [5, p.5]: «The pitch is the principal perceptual correlate of intonation». The intonation patterns are very similar in almost all regions of the United Kingdom. However, the northern regions of England, the cities in particular, together with Belfast and Glasgow show rather different intonation from British English. The speakers from the mentioned locations have rising intonation in declarative sentences [5, p.289]. The falling intonation is palpable in declaratives and questions in the utterances of the most of the remaining Scottish regions [5]. Concerning other areas of Scotland, the series of falls (or rise-falls) with one fall on each onset and another fall on nucleus is very common [9].The sequence of rise-falls is prominent with accented syllables. Concerning wh- questions, we perceive the sequence of rise-fall and low-rise, and finally, the sequence of mid-fall and rise-fall is prominent for yes/no questions [9].RhythmThe stress pattern of a language is probably the most crucial factor influencing rhythm. According to [1], rhythm is one of the major factors which create a particular accent.Unlike other languages which are regarded as syllable-timed languages, British English is considered as a stressed-time language where the stressed syllables tend to occur at regular intervals of time. Rhythm of Standard Scottish English is not really regular, in disyllabic words the first syllable is short and the second is long. Stuart-Smith supports this notion of irregularity by her own experience when instructing rhythm to Scottish students who produce the rhythmical pattern as mentioned earlier [6, p.66].CONCLUSIONIn this paper, we have considered the main historical milestones of the formation of the Scots language and its separation from Standard English.Scottish English is a combination of a dialect with specific borrowings from Old English and unique grammatical constructions, more or less ordinary English, and a distinct Scottish accent.Scots generally, but not always, speak working-class Scottish language, while Scottish Standard English is typical for educated middle-class speakers. Scots are increasingly restricted to certain domains, such as among family and friends, while in more formal cases, Scottish Standard English is commonly used.The decline in the social role of Scots and the attitude to it as a language of «commoners» caused protest from a certain part of educated Scots, which led to the emergence of a new literary form of Scots - Modern Scots. The basis of Modern Scots is the colloquial speech of ordinary Scots. Since the middle of the 20th century, there have been constant attempts to establish a single standard for the written Scottish language.Today, the official languages of Scotland are:English or Scottish English - German groupCeltic Scottish or Scottish Gaelic or simply Gaelic - Celtic groupEnglish Scottish or Scots - German groupAlso, we have studied phonology of Scottish English. In Scottish English, vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule. Words which differ only slightly in pronunciation from Scottish English are generally spelled as in English. Other words may be spelt the same but differ in pronunciation.In addition, we learned the scotticisms – it is a word, phrase, grammatical construction, or other feature originating in or peculiar to the English spoken in Scotland.It is generally divided into two types: covert Scotticisms, which generally go unnoticed as being particularly Scottish by those using them, and overt Scotticisms, usually used for stylistic effect, with those using them aware of their Scottish nature.Next, we have analyzed Standard Scottish English phonetics – vowels and consonants. In the Scottish sounding speech, there are fewer vowel sounds than is in Standard English, because it is inherent in rotacism. The letter r is pronounced as the sound / r / after vowels and is not vocalized in / ɪə /, /ɛə/, /ʊə/ and /ɜ:/ as in Received PronunciationThere are 13 consonant letters in Scottish. However, in different letter combinations, approximately 29 consonants obtained. The system of consonants in the Standard Scottish English is almost the same as in British English, except some cases.Although the prosodic features of Standard Scottish English are not really different from those in British English, the process of syllabification operating in Standard Scottish English is altered. It is most palpable with the phrasal verbs; a consonant at the end of one word in a closed syllable tends to be syllabicated with the following vowel of the subsequent word.Standard Scottish English stresses some verbs differently than British English. While British English has a tendency to stress the first syllable in verbs suffixed by –ize and –ate (criticize / kritisˊ˄iz /, duplicate / ˊduplikeit /), Standard Scottish English stresses these verbs on their second syllables.The intonation patterns are very similar in almost all regions of the United Kingdom. However, the northern regions of England, the cities in particular, together with Belfast and Glasgow show rather different intonation from British English. The speakers from the mentioned locations have rising intonation in declarative sentences. The falling intonation is palpable in declaratives and questions in the utterances of the most of the remaining Scottish regions. Rhythm of Standard Scottish English is not regular, in disyllabic words the first syllable is short and the second is long.Based on our work we have done and the analysis of the different Scottish dialects, we consider it appropriate to conclude that Scots not is one of the dialects of the English language it is an independent language. The existing grammatical and lexical differences make Scots one of the most distinctive language, but perhaps one of the most similar to Standard English.REFERENCESAbercrombie, D. (1979). The accents of Standard English in Scotland. In A. J. Aitken & T. McArthur (Eds.) Languages of Scotland, (pp. 65-84). Edinburgh: Chambers. Aitken, A. J. (1981). The Scottish vowel length rule. In M. L. Benskin (Ed.) So many people, languages, and tongues (pp. 131-157). Edinburgh: Middle English Dialect Project.Crutteden, Alan. 2008. Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. London: HodderEducation.Cruttenden, Alan. 1997. Intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Millar, C. 2007. Northern and Insular Scots. Edinburgh: University Press.Oxford English Dictionary Online. – Электронный ресурс. – Режим доступа: http://oxforddictionaries.com/Stuart-Smith, Jane. 2004. Scottish English: Phonology. In Varieties ofEnglish. The British Isles, edited by Bernd Kortmann and Clive Upton. Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter. 48-70.Wells, John C. 1982. Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Аристова, Е.А. Проблема восприятия диалектов и акцентов английского языка студентами языковых специальностей// Вестник ПНИПУ. Проблема языкознания и педагогики-2011-№5 (36). - С.114-117.Денисова Е.А. Язык Шотландии Scots как продукт внешних и внутренних взаимодействий: автореф. дисс. … канд. филол. наук. Тверь, 2010. – 23 с.Сторожева, А.А., Ольховикова Ю.А. Фонетические и грамматические особенности шотландского диалекта// Молодой учёный. – 2015. -№10.5- С. 50-51.www.wikipedia.com