The comparative typology of English, Russian and Uzbek languages
The ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of the republic of Uzbekistan
«The comparative typology of English, Russian and Uzbek languages»
Gulistan 2007
Introduction
A silence would be a lonely world. To listen, to answer, to share our thought and ideas through speech and hearing this is one of the most exciting ports of being human.
It is no doubt true that students grow toward maturity and independence of thought as they progress through the grades; but this growth is not as a rule a sharp and sudden one, nor does the psychology of the students undergo any great change during the various levels of the fundamental principles that underlie the work of the University remain the same from year to year. The need in every level is to bring about academic growth by providing near and broader experiences.
While working at school found out how difficult for the students of the secondary school, definite the national groups, to learn English, because there are no prepositions in Uzbek, but in English we have. If we talk about gender we have, of course some similarities. And when, I tried them to explain some examples in comparison they learned those words better than I thought.
Thus, the goal of the research is to investigate grammar of the English language in comparison with the Uzbek, to investigate phonetics, in comparison English with Uzbek.
The enabling objectives are as follows:
To review literature of comparative languages (English and Uzbek) in order to make theoretically we-motivated discussions on the choice of comparison.
To analyze the parts of speech of the English language and the Uzbek language.
The novelty is that this work contains the comparative analyses of the English grammar, phonetics and construction of the sentence. The student made her own investigation finding many examples of comparison not only in English, and in Uzbek.
Materials and literature which she used were «The comparative typology of English and Turkic languages», the lectures on «Comparative typology» and «Theory of phonetics» by A. Abduazizov.
The qualification work consists of several parts where she opened and analyzed the theme.
1. Main part
1.1 Comparative typology of English and Uzbek
The word typology consists of two Greek morphemes: a) typos means type and b) logos means science or word. Typology is a branch of science which is typical to all sciences without any exception. In this respect their typological method is not limited with the sphere of one science. It has a universal rise. So typology may be divided into:
1. Non-linguistic and
2. Linguistic typology
Non-linguistic typology is the subject matter of the sciences except linguistics.
Linguistic typology is a new branch of general linguistic which studies the systems of languages comparatively, also finds common laws of languages and establishes differences and similarities between them.
Typological classification of languages.
In linguistics we may come across many terms as to the terminological nature of linguistic typology.
The are: 1. Comparative methods, 2. Comparative – historical method, 3. Comparative (or contrastive) linguistics, 4. Comparative typology, 5. Comparative grammar, 6. Connotation grammar, 7. Descriptive – comparative linguistics and on the terms used in Russian and Uzbek are not exact either. They are: сравнительная грамматика, сопоставительная грамматика, сравнительно-историческое языкознание, контрастивная лингвистика, сравнительная типология in Russian and қиёсий типология, қиёсий тарихий тилшунослик, қиёсий грамматика, қиёсий тилшунослик and so on in Uzbek.
Classification of linguistic typology.
According to the notion of comparison of linguistics phenomenon and the aim directed on we may classify linguistic typology into the following parts a) genetic of genealogical typology, b) structural typology, c) areal typology and d) comparative typology.
Genealogical typology is a branch of linguistic typology which studies the similarities and the relationship between the related languages. It is applicated to the systems of genetically related languages. Genealogical typology developed from the comparative – historical linguistics dominated during the 19th century in Europe. It’s origin was stimulated by the discovery of Sanskrit, the ancient classical language of India. The discovery of Sanskrit disclosed the possibility of a comparative study of languages. The concept of relative languages was confirmed by the existence in India of a sister of the familiar languages of Europe e.g. Sanskrit «mata» means «mother», in the accuse case «matarum»
Dvau-two
Trayah – three
As ti-he is etc.
Before the discovery of Sanskrit European linguistics possessed very vague similarities for the current grammars built on the Greek model. They didn’t set clearly the features of each languages. It is worth to mention that at the same time Sanskrit discovery gave rise to confuse notions of linguistic relation which lived for a brief time that European languages were derived from Sanskrit. But this opinion gave way to a correct explanation, namely Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and other were later forms of one prehistorically language.
Comparatives gave two kinds of classification of languages – genealogical and morphological.
Genealogical classification deals with the family relationship of languages which descend from one common ancestor. It distributes languages into different families.
Morphological classification deals with the classification of languages according to their structural features instead of a genealogical origin.
According to the morphological classification the languages are divided into:
Isolating (Chinese; Vietnamese; Japan; etc.)
Analytic (Russian; English; German; etc.)
Agglutinative (Turkish languages) and other.
Genetic Typology compares the systems of languages in two ways: diachronically and synchronically. But in the second case genetic relationship is not taken into consideration.
Structural linguistic typology can be understood as a systematization of linguistic phenomenon from different languages according to their specific structural features.
Structural typology research makes it possible to establish some traits are universal, unique, and special.
Language Universals.
The notion of language universals is closely connected with the process of unification of linguistic facts with a process of establishing common features between the systems of different languages.
With the process of generalization of linguistic phenomenon the investigations or language universals began at the end of 1950s. The main event in this field is the international conference held in April, 1961 in New-York.
At this conference a report called «Memorandum» concerning the language universals was presented by the American linguists J. Greenburg, Ch. Ostgood and J. Genkings. In the former Soviet Union B.A. Uspensky published his monographic research «Структурная типология языка» (1965).
In 1966 there appeared J. Greenberg’s book «Language universals with special references to feature hierarchies.»
These works were followed by a number of other research works published as articles and special volumes.
According to the «Memorandum» languages universals are by their nature summary statements about characteristics or tendencies shared by all human speakers. As such they constitute the most general laws of science of linguistics.
Language universals study the universal features in the systems of different languages of the world. They find similarities which are typical of the absolute or overwhelming majority of languages.
Types of universals are as follows: 1. Definitional universals, 2. Empirical universals.
Definitional universals are connected with the fact which the speaker possesses and uses his extrapolation. It means that linguistic phenomenon exists in the system of these languages which the scholar does not know.
E.g. Indo-European languages have the opposition of the vowels and consonants. This phenomenon may be considered to be systems of other languages of the world.
Empirical universals are connected with the mental or imaginary experience that is a definite linguistic feature may exist in all languages, secondly he or she does not know if this or that feature exist in all languages. E.g. composition may exist in all languages in spite of their morphological structure.
Unrestricted universals. According to this type of universals linguistic supposition of hypotheses is not restricted. E.g. all languages have vowels or for all languages the number of phonemes is not fewer that 10 or more that 70 or every language has at least 2 vowels.
Universal implication. These universals involve the relationship between two characteristics. If a language has a certain characteristics, it has also some particular characteristics but not vise-versa i.e. the presence of the second doesn’t empty the presence of the firs.
E.g. If a language has a category of dual number it has also a category of plural but not vise-versa. Such implications are numerous particularly in the phonological aspect of languages.
Comparative typology is a branch of general linguistic typology. It deals with a comparison of languages.
Comparative typology compares the systems of two or more concrete languages and creates common typological laws. The comparison of the system of two languages are compared first of all.
E.g. the category of mood in English is considered to be a small system. Having completed the comparison of languages investigators takes the third language to compare and so on. Comparative typology is sometimes characterized by some scholars as characterology which deals with the comparison of the systems only.
1.2 Comparative – typological analysis of the phonological systems of English and Uzbek
In the linguistic literature phoneme is defined as the smallest distinctive unit. Unlike the other bigger units of language as morpheme and word it doesn’t have its meaning but helps us to distinct the meanings of words and morphemes. Comp. boy-toy, better-letter-latter-litter-later; бола-тола-хола-ола, нон-қон-сон-он, ун-ун(товуш)-ўн-ўнг(моқ), бўз(ўзлаштирилмаган) – бўз(материал), бўл-бўл(тақсима) etc. From the acoustic and articulatory points of view the phonemic system of any language may be divided into vowels and consonants.
The systems of vowel phonemes
From the acoustic point of the view vowels are speech sounds of pure musical tone. Their oscillagraphic melody tracing are characterized by periodically.
From the point of view of articulation vowels are speech sound in the production of which there are no noise producing obstructions. The obstructions by means of which vowels are formed may be of two kinds:
1) The fourth obstruction without which neither vowels nor voiced consonants are formed.
2) The third obstruction characteristic of both: English and Uzbek vowels.
The channels formed in the mouth cavity for vowel production by moving a certain part of the tongue and keeping the lips in a certain position cannot be regarded as obstructions. They change the shape and volume of the resonance chamber, and in this way, help to achieve the timbre (or quality) of voice, characteristic of the vowel in question.
In modern English we distinguish 21 vowel phonemes:
10. monophthongs (e, i, u, æ α:, c, c:, ۸,)ə, ə:)
9. Diphthongs (ei, ai, au, æ i, əi,)
In modern Uzbek we find 6 vowel letters and corresponding vowel phonemes (a, o, y, (e, э) i(и))
The main principles of classifying the vowel phonemes are as-follows: a) according to the part (place of – articulation or horizontal movement) of the tongue; b) according to the height (vertical movement) of the long; c) according to the position of lips; d) according to quality (length) of vowels.
1. according to the part (horizontal movement) of the tongue vowel may be divided into;
central (ə: ə), front (i:, i, e, æ,) and back (a, u, æ, u, α:, æ:) vowels.
2. according to the height of the tongue into: close (high) (i:), (u:) medial (e, ə: ə, ¬) and open (æ, α:, æ:, æ) vowels
In the languages, in which hot only the quality but also quantity of vowels is of certain phonemic or positional value, one more subdivision appears.
3. according to vowel length th vowels may be divided into short; (i, ə, u, æ, ¬,) and long (i: ə: u: æ: α:) vowels. (In this case it belongs only to the English vowels as far as in Uzbek the length of the vowel is of no importance).
4. according to the position of lips vowels may be; rounded (or labilialized)
(u:, u: ۸, c c,) and unrrounded (non-labialized) (e, ə: ə, æ) vowels.
5. we may also subdivide vowels according to their tensely or laxity into: lax
(i, c, e, ۸, ə, ə, æ) and tense (i: u: ə: æ: α:) vowels.
Vowel quality, vowel length and the position of the lips are denoted in the classification by transcription symbols of the phoneme itself. For instance (α:) is a long diphthongized vowel phoneme, pronounced with lips unrounded and (æ:) is a rounded long diphthongized vowel, while (۸) and (e) are an unrounded monophthongs. The first and the second principles constitute the basis of any vowel classification. They were firs suggested by H. Sweet (1898).
1.3 Comparative vowel table
The first comparative vowel tables appeared in the 19th-century. Their aim was to prove the common origin of some two modern languages belonging to the same family. In the 1920s of the XX century Prof. D. Jones suggested a classification based on the principle of the so called «cardinal vowels». But these cardinal vowels are abstract notion and have nothing to do with the comparison of two language from the typological viewpoint.
The aim of our comparison is pedagogical. Every phoneme of the English language should be compared with the' Uzbek vowels as comparison of an unknown language phoneme with that of one's mother tongue is of great use. The aim of our comparison (does not need any universal principle) and is to underline the specific features of vowel formation in the two languages in question. The tables of English vowels (accepted in our country) are based on the principles of acad. L.V. Sherba's vowel classification, later on prof. G.P. Torsueva’s and prof. V.AVasiljev's classification.
1. According to the position of the tongue in the horizontal plane English vowels are divided into 3 groups: close, medial, and open. Each of them is subdivided into: narrow and broad.
2. According to the part of the tongue: front, – front – retracted, mixed, back advanced and back.
In comparing the English and Uzbek vowel systems one more principle should be accepted – central vowels must be divided into: l) central proper and central retracted.
Comparison shows, that:
1. the Uzbek (a) should be classified as broad open central retracted vowel
2. the neutral vowel (ə) in English was pronounced by – the English speakers examined as a broad medial, central retracted vowel.
3. the English (۸) was pronounced as an open narrow, central retracted vowel (evidently thanks to the new tendency to make it less back).
As there is ho subdivision of Uzbek vowels according to their
quantity into long and short ones there is no perceptible,
difference in their tensely or laxity. So the Uzbek Vo – .veil
phonemes are differentiated by their qualitative features.
The main philological relevant features of the Uzbek vowels phonemes are: front–central–back, according to which they may form phonological opposition: close-mid-open (сил-сел-сал – кўр–кир, кўл – кел, тор – тер etc.)
It should be kept in mind that there is a difference between the phonetic and phonological classification of phonemes. In the phonetic classification articulation arid acoustic features ane, taken into consideration. Every point of its cliJference is of-pedagogical use.
But philological classification is based on the abstract differential features of phonemes. They serve the purpose of their differentiating, and are called philolbgically relevant attributes of phonemes. They may be defined with the help of, philological opposition in some pairs of words.
Comparative analysis of the English and Uzbek vowels systems
As has been mentioned above the system of English vowel phonemes consists of monophtongs, diphthongized vowels and diphthongs. There are 21 vowel phonemes in English. They are: (i:, I, e, æ, ά, c, c, u, u, ۸, ə, ə, ei, ou, au, ci, iə, ei, uə,) There are 6 vowel phonemes in Uzbek. They are: (i, u, əie, a, o, y, y)
The main point of difference: similarly between the English monophtongs, diphthongizes vowel and Uzbek may be summed up as follows:
1. The English and Uzbek Vowel phonemes are characterized by the oral formation. There are no nasal nasalized vowels in the languages compared.
2. According to the part of the tongue in the formation of vowel phonemes there are no front–retracted, central proper for mixed) vowels in Uzbek. Resembles may be found in the pronunciation of the back vowels in English and Uzbek. The Uzbek (y) and the English (o) are back-advanced vowels. The Uzbek (o) and the English (c), also (c) are back retracted vowels. Therefore, it is comparatively easy to teach the Uzbeks pronunciation of back English vowels.
3. According to the height of the tongue in English there are vowels of ail the 6 levels. Uzbek vowels belong to the narrow varieties of the 3 levels. In Uzbek there are no vowel phonemes like the English æ, əi, ə, (æ, ə:, ə)
These vowels are difficult for the student to master; especially the neutral vowel. But never the less the neutral (ə) can be compared with Uzbek unstressed in the words like. Кетди, келди, китоб etc.
4. According to the position of the lips in the formation of vowels English vowels are rounded without protractions. Uzbek vowels (a), (ə) (a) I are more closely rounded and protruded, where as the English (æ, ά, ۸, ə, ə), are. slightly rounded and. (a), (u:) are closely rounded without protrusion.
All the front and central vowels in English and Uzbek are ungrounded. In articulating the English vowels (i:, i, e) and the Uzbek vowels (u, e (ə)), (y), the lips are neutral. In articulating the Uzbek (ə, (e)) the lips may be either neutral or spread. In teaching the Uzbeks to pronounce the rounded English vowels care should be taken not to protrude the lips.
5. Besides considerable qualitative difference there is a quantitative difference between vowel phonemes of English and Uzbek. Traditionally all English vowels are divided into slier-and long. Short – (ə, c, æ, ۸, i), long (i:, ά, c: u: ə).
But at present the quantitative features of the English vowel) phonemes have become their main property and quality musty be regarded as additional. The Uzbek vowel phonemes. may only – be differentiated their quality. Philologically there. Is quantities difference in the Uzbek vowel phonemes. They typical «middle sounds», neither long nor shorter Some-Hines English vowels, (u:) may sound like the Uzbek (o) «and when they are pronounced short. This acoustic resemblance makes it possible to compare the vowels in question v
6. The English Vowels are usually neutralized and may be substituted by () in unstressed position. The Uzbek vowels may be used either in stressed or unstressed position. Thus there is little difference between stressed and unstressed vowels in Uzbek. It is better to pronounce the correct pronunciation of the English without trying to find any parallels in the native tongue.
The Vowels Criteria for Classification
The chapter before has examined the consonant phonemes of English from an articulator perspective. After trying to establish a general borderline between the two major classes of sounds – consonants and vowels respectively – by postulating some major articulator distinctions between them, an attempt was made to analyze English consonants in detail, discussing the distinctions among them as well as contrasting them with the corresponding sounds of Romanian.
We will remember then that if consonants are distinguished from vowels precisely on the basis of an articulator feature that all of them arguably share – a place along the speech tract where the air stream meets a major obstacle or constriction – it would be very difficult to describe vowels in the same terms as it will no longer be possible to identify a «place of articulation». Articulator criteria can be, indeed, used to classify vowels but they will be less relevant or, in any case, of a different type than in the case of consonants.
Acoustic and even auditory features on the other hand will play a much more important role in accurately describing vowels as vowels are sonorous sounds, displaying the highest levels of resonance of all speech sounds.
Vowels, like consonants, will differ in terms of quality ~ the acoustic features will differ from one vowel to another depending on the position of the articulators, but in a way which is distinct from what we have seen in the case of consonants where there is another type of interaction between the various speech organs – and in terms of quantity or duration – again in a way distinct from consonants as vowels are all sonorous, continuant sounds.
The quality of a vowel is given by the way in which the tongue – the main articulator, as in the case of consonants – is positioned in the mouth and by the activity of the lips. This position of the tongue modifies the shape of the resonating cavities above the larynx and decisively influences the quality of the resulting sound. The great mobility of the tongue and the absence of any definite place of obstruction – as in the case of consonants – accounts for the great variety of vowels that can be found in any language and for the fact that vowels rather than consonants are more intimately linked to the peculiar nature of each and every language. It will be therefore much more difficult for a student of a foreign language to acquire the correct features of the vowel system than those of the consonant system of the respective language.
Three will be then the criteria that can be used to distinguish among vowels on an Articulator’s basis: imposition of the tongue in the mouth – high or low on the vertical axis and fronted or retracted on the horizontal axis – and fast position of the lips. Many languages will also recognize a functional distinction between vowels produced by letting the air out either through the nasal cavity or through the oral one.
Tongue height. If we consider the position of the tongue in the mouth we can identify two extreme situations: one in which the body of the tongue is raised, almost touching the roof of the oral cavity and in this case we will be dealing with high or close vowels – the name clearly refers to the position of the tongue high in the mouth or close to the palate – and the opposite position when the body of the tongue is very low in the mouth leaving the cavity wide open as in the case when the doctor wants to examine our tonsils and asks us to say «ah». The vowels thus produced will be called open or low vowels since the tongue is lowered in the mouth and the oral cavity is open. If the tongue is placed in an intermediate position, raised only halfway against the palate, we shall call the vowels mid vowels. A further, more refined distinction will differentiate between two groups of mid vowels: close-mid/mid close or half-close or high-mid/mid high vowels and open-mid/ mid open or half-open or low-mid/mid low vowels.
If we consider the position of the tongue along the horizontal axis we can identify three classes of vowels: front vowels – uttered with the front part of the tongue highest, central vowels – if it is' rather the central part of the tongue that is highest, modifying the shape of the articulator and back vowels – the rear part of the tongue is involved in articulation.
The position of the lips. As I have mentioned earlier, the position of the lips is another major criterion that is used o distinguish among vowels. When we pronounce a vowel, our lips can be rounded, and then the resulting sound will be rounded, or they can be spread and then we shall say that the vowel that we have articulated is ungrounded. As we are going to see later, roundness may be more or less relevant, depending on the particular language we are talking about. The cavity through which the air is released – oral or nasal establishes an important distinction between oral and nasal vowels. There are nasal or nasalized vowels in all languages, but again this distinction will be more important in languages like, say, '• French, where it has a functional, contrastive, phonemic value, than in English or in Romanian where the feature is just contextual. More will be said about that later. As mentioned above, quantity is an important feature that we have to take into account when we discuss not only consonantal sounds, but vocalic ones as well. In fact, this is a feature that is much more important for vowels, because when we talk about duration in consonants we can contrast, for instance, non-durative sounds of the plosive type to continuant sounds of the kind fricatives are or simple to geminate consonants, while in the case of vowels much more refined distinctions can be established among various sounds. The fact that vowels vary in length is something we can intuitively become aware of if we contrast the vowel of peel (pi:l) for instance, to that of pill (pyl). As we are going to see later, however, the contrast between the two vowels is not limited simply to duration and, moreover, vowel length is very much a contextual feature. Thus, what we consider to be members of one and the same phoneme, the long vowel (i:) will vary considerably in length in words like sea, seed and seat. It is obvious even for a phonetically less trained ear that the vowel is longer in case it occurs in syllable-final position and it becomes shorter and shorter depending on the voiced or the voice lessens of the following consonant. The picture becomes even more complex if we compare the preceding contexts to seal, seen or seem. On the other hand all the occurrences of (i:) mentioned above will be kept apart from the variants of the short vowel (y) in words like Sid, sit, sill or sin which differ in their turn in length depending on the nature of the following consonant. We shall then say that vowel length is not always a reliable distinctive feature when we try to contrast vowels – since it is so much influenced by the context. Other features will be added to obtain a more refined and closer to reality representation. The next features we are going to examine will then be the degree of muscular tension involved in articulation and deposition of the root of the tongue.
Muscular tension can vary considerably when we produce different vocalic sounds and this is something we can easily become aware of when we contrast the long vowel (i:) in seat and the short one (y) in sit, the examples analyzed above. Long vowels – conventionally marked in the ERA alphabet by a colon – are always associated with a higher degree of muscular tension in the speech organs involved in then* articulation. We will say that these vowels are tense, since the articulators are so when we utter them. Conversely, when we examine the way the vowel of sit is produced, the articulator organs are less strained, laxer than in the previous case. We will consequently describe these vowels as being lax. As we shall see later, unlike in Romanian, vowel duration, associated with tenseness, has a phonemic, contrastive value in English. The position of the tongue root. The more advanced or retracted position of the root of the tongue differentiates between vowels having different degrees of openness. The vowels pronounced with the root of the tongue pushed forward of its normal position will be specified as advanced tongue root (ATK) vowels. Conversely, non-advanced tongue root vowels will be articulated with the root of the tongue in its common, resting position. The first group of vowels will be comparatively tenser and higher than the vowels in the second group. Vowel quantity – duration, length – combines with stability of articulation to make the distinction between simple or «pure» vowels or monophthongs on the one hand and diphthongs on the other. Monophthongs are comparatively shorter vowels that preserve the same quality throughout the entire duration of their articulation. A diphthong combines two different vocalic elements joined together in a unique articulator effort and consequently being part of the same syllabic unit. In any diphthong one of the vocalic elements will be stronger than the other, from which or towards which the pronunciation glides. If the weaker element comes first and we have a glide towards the dominant vocalic element, the diphthong is a rising one: it is the kind of diphthong we have in Romanian words like iatac, iubire, iepure, iobag, meandre, boal a etc. This is a type of diphthong that does not exist in English, a language that only has falling diphthongs, that is diphthongs in which the glide is from the dominant vocalic element to the weaker one. (e.g. boy, buy in English or boi, bai in Romanian – N.B. these examples do not suggest that the diphthongs in the two languages are identical!). It is often difficult to decide when we deal with a genuine diphthong (that is a sequence of two vowels pronounced together) and when we deal with a sequence of a vowel and a glide for instance. In other words, shall we describe the vocalic element in buy as the diphthong ay or shall we rather interpret it as the vowel a followed by the glide j? Many linguists opt for the second variant and some will go as far as interpreting long vowels like i: in beat for instance as a succession of. The duration of the glide can constitute the basis for a differentiation, since glides will arguably take shorter to pronounce than the second vocalic element in a falling diphthong. If the vowel is very short, however, it is often difficult do distinguish it from the glide. The scope of this study will not allow us to go into further detail, so for, the sake of simplicity we will adopt the widely embraced approach that considers long vowels monophthongs and vocalic sequences as that of buy genuine diphthongs.
The English diphthongs
Diphthongs have already been described as sequences of two vowels pronounced together, the two vocalic elements being members of the same syllable. We have shown that it is often difficult to distinguish a genuine diphthong from a sequence of a vowel and a semivowel, that we can often pronounce diphthongs and even long vowels as such sequences and it is often the shorter duration of the less prominent vowel in the diphthong that transforms it into a semi vocalic element. There is, for instance, a difference, both in quantity and quality between the second vocalic element in the English diphthong (ay) – that occurs, say, in the word buy, and the semivowel (j) in the Spanish interjection ayl (aj).
According to the position of the more prominent element in the diphthong we have already divided diphthongs into falling diphthongs – if the prominant element comes first – and rising diphthongs – if the less prominent element comes first. All English diphthongs belong to the first category, as it has already been pointed out.
Diphthongs can then be opening diphthongs if the degree of aperture increases with the glide or closing diphthongs if the less prominent vowel is closer than the first. We can also differentiate between wide diphthongs – those in which the glide implies a more radical movement of the speech organs (e.g. (a 2)) and narrow diphthongs – if the two vocalic elements occupy neighboring positions (e.g. (e) on the vowel chart. There are also cent ring diphthongs – if the glide is from a marginal vowel in the vowel chart – either back or front – to a central vowel. (See the three English diphthongs gliding towards schwa; (c) in dear, (eə) in chair and in moor – to which we should add (), no longer met in present-day standard English). A. The centering diphthongs is a centric &falling, narrow, opening diphthong that starts at about the position of the short, lax and glides towards schwa. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions: ear, deer, tier. If the first element of the diphthong does not have the normal prominence and length, it can be reduced to a glide and the diphthong is changed into (j:). There are several possible spellings for the diphthong: eer as in deer, peer or career; ea(r) as in ear, weary, idea, tear (n. «lacrim»), beard, eir as in weird, ier as in fierce or pierce, ere as in here or mere. Exceptionally we can have ia as in media(l), labia(l), genial, eu as in museum, iu as in delirium-, eo as in theory and theology; e as in hero or in the diphthongized version of (i:): serious, serial, b. (ec) is a centring falling, narrow, in most cases opening diphthong. The degree of openness of the first element varies, in some dialects of English the sound being quite close to (ae). In the more conservative pronunciations, closer to RP, the articulation of the diphthong starts somewhere in the vicinity of cardinal vowel 2 (e). Then follows a glide towards a variant of the schwa. There are dialects where the glide to (c) is very short and sometimes the diphthong is changed into a monophthong, a long, tense vowel (e:). The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions: air, scarce, fare. It can be spelt air: air, fair, chair, dairy, fairy; wee: fare, mare, care, care; ear: bear, wear, tear; acr: aerial, aero plane; ere: there; eir: their, heir. In words like prayer, layer, mayor, the spelling is ay followed by either or, or er. The vowel of Mary and derived words such as Maryland or Mary port is normally diphthongized to (ec). c. (c) is a centering, falling, narrow, opening diphthong. If in the case of the two diphthongs analyzed before the glide was from a front vowel towards the centre of the imaginary vowel chart, in the case of (6 c) the articulation starts with a fairly back, close vowel (5). (6 c) is distributed only hi word-medial: jewel or word-final position: sure. The most common spellings of the diphthong are: ure and oor – endure, mature, cure, pure (words where the semivowel (j) is inserted before the diphthong), sure, poor, moor, or ur followed by other vowels than e: curious, duration. In a number of cases we can have the spelling ou: our, gourd, bourse. The diphthong can also occur in words where the suffix er is attached to a base ending in (0) 8) fewer, newer, chewer, doer, pursuer.
d. () c) is a diphthong that has not survived in present-day RP. It used to render the vowel of words like floor, door, pore, score, snore, coarse, hoarse, oar, course now pronounced ():). It still does that in various dialects of English, though the general tendency seems to be to monophthong such diphthongs. This has been the fate of (5 c) as well, which in many variants of English is pronounced ():) in words like poor, sure etc.
B. The diphthongs to (y): (jy), (ey)
a. (ay) is a falling, wide, closing diphthong. It is the diphthong that actually implies the amplest articulator movement of the speech organs that shift from the position of an open vowel which is fairly central (the position varies between cardinal vowels 5 and 4) to a front, close, lax vowel (not far from the position of cardinal vowel 1. Historically, the vowel originates in (i:), that subsequently lowered to (ey), than centered and lowered again to finally become (ay). The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions: isle (aisl); bite (bayt), cry (kray). It can be spelt i as in ice, dime, loci, or y a in dyke, fly, or ie as in die, lie, pie, or in inflected forms: spies, spied; ye as in dye, ye; ei as in height, either, neither, and, exceptionally uy in buy, guy. Note also the pronunciation of ay(e) (ay), eye (ay) and aisle is y falling, wide, closing diphthong. It starts from a back, mid vowel, situated between cardinal vowels 6 an 7 and ends in a front, close, lax vowel, somewhere in the vicinity of cardinal vowel 1. Like the preceding diphthong, it also involves an ample articulator movement from a back vowel to the front part of the imaginary vowel chart. It is distributed in all three basic positions: ointment, boil, toy. It can be spelt either oi: oil, toil or oy: oyster, Boyle, is SL falling, narrow, closing diphthong. It starts with a front, mid vowel – between cardinal vowels (e) and (e) – and glides to a higher vowel value, closing. Often the second element is very short, sometimes even dropped, the diphthong being reduced to a long vowel monophthong (e:). In Cockney the diphthong starts with a lower and central vowel, being pronounced. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions: eight; plate, play. It can be spelt a: ace, lace; ai: aid, maid; ay: aye, clay; ei: eight, reign, ey: they, grey, ea: break, steak. Exceptionally, there are spellings like goal (goal), bass (bess), gauge (geuge), halfpenny (helfpeni). The diphthong also occurs in a small number of French loan words ending in et or 6: ballet, bouquet, chalet, cafe, fiancé, attaché, resume. The diphthong starts with a central mid vowel and glides to a back close one. It is a falling, narrow, closing diphthong. It is distributed in all three basic positions: old, gold, flow. It has various spellings: o: old, sold, wo; oa: oak, roast, oe: toe, ow: own, known, row; ou: poultry, dough; eau: beau, bureau, and, exceptionally, au: gauche; oo: brooch; ew: sew; oh: oh. b. (a) is a falling, wide, closing diphthong. It starts as an open, fairly front vowel (in the vicinity of cardinal vowel 4) and glides towards. It is distributed in all three basic positions: ouch, loud, cougar. It can be spelt by ou: oust, doubt, plough, or ow: owl, howl, how and, exceptionally eo in MacLeod.
English Diphthongs
The lax and tense vowels we have looked at so far are monophthongs, sometimes called pure vowels. This is because the tongue and lips are relatively stationary while these vowels are being pronounced – the vowels do not move around in the vowel chart. Diphthongs, on the other hand, move through the chart as they are pronounced: they start at one vowel-position, and move towards another. The word diphthong is from Greek: it means «two vowels», and we write them as two vowels.
Diphthongs are tense vowels; they can be unchecked, and are subject to clipping like the «pure» tense vowels – they can be long or short.
The centering diphthongs occur only in the nonrhotic accents. In the rhotic accents, words such as NEAR SQUARE and CURE are pronounced with a single vowel (monophthong) followed by r.
This is by far the rarest vowel in RP (with a frequency of 0.06% – see Vowel Frequencies) – and is getting rapidly rarer, since words in the CURE set are moving over to THOUGHT, . This happened decades ago in mainstream RP with words such as 'sure' and 'poor', , , and in newer RP and Estuary English all of the old CURE set have gone over to THOUGHT.
Difference between SQUARE and NEAR
You'll hear different pronunciations of these two vowels (for instance, in some accents the disappears and the remaining vowel lengthens) but most accents of English keep them clearly distinguished. On the other hand speakers of English as a foreign language sometimes confuse these vowels, and Icelanders often do.
The Diphthongs
There are 9 diphthongs in English. (əi, ei, ou, au, iə, uə, ci, eə, əi)
The English diphthongs are stable combination, no syllable division is possible in them. They may form phonological opposition either with monophtongs, diphthongized vowels or with each other.
E.g. bed – bid–bade–beard–bowed; letter – latter – later – litter (•33) is not an English phoneme, but a version of the vowel (c ۸). The first element of the diphthongs, which is called the nucleus, is pronounced distinctly arid clearly. The second element is glide. There are no diphthongs in Uzbek. According to the phonological approach combination of «vowel -+ – j» and vice versa, such as the Uzbek u-u, u–y, u – o, u-+ a, are considered to be these sequences of a vowel and consonant (y+c) They are not stable combinations but sometimes may be destroyed by the syllable division: cуй-унчи, тий-улиш.
The first element of the diphthongs (əi, ai, au, əi, uə), to a certain degree acoustically resemble the Uzbek vowels (əi u, a) and (y). Therefore it is not difficult to leach the Uzbeks to pronounce the nucleus of these diphthongs into (j) which is the most usual mistake in the pronunciation of the Uzbeks. There are also two combinations often used which consists of three vowels in English. There are: (əi, auα) them may be regarded as diphthongs and tile third consists of the vowel. Usually they are called trip tongs. But there is no trip tongs in Uzbek.
1.4 Consonants
Consonants are speech sounds in the pronunciation of which noise is heard. The degrees of noise are different There are consonants’ in the production of which only noise is heard, there are consonants in the production of which noise and voice are heard and there are consonants in the production of which voice prevails over noise, but the fact is that noise in different degrees and forms is always present, Consonants do not give periodic voice waves.
The consonants should be classified on the following 3
Principles;
1. The manner of production
2. The active organs employed in the production
3. The place of production
The last division is very important, due to it the parricidal difference in the formation of consonants in English and of consonants in Uzbek may be clearly shown. The system of English consonants consists of 24 consonants. They are: (p, t, k, b, d, g, mf n, 1, n, f, v, s, z, w, j, ð, ə, s, з, ts, w, j) and the problematic phoneme (ju).
The system of Uzbek consonant phonemes consists of 25 phonemes. They are: (п, т, к, б, д, г, м, н, л, нг, в, р, с, й, ш, з, х, ҳ, ф, р, ж, ч, с, қ, ғ)
Some of the English consonants like (ð, ə) have no counterparts ill Uzbek. There are also seine Uzbek consonants which do not exist in the system of the English consonant phonemes. They: are (x, тc,).
Many consonants have their counterparts in the languages compared, but they differ inn their articulation. The difference in the articulation and acoustics» of English arid Uzbek consonants phonemes may be summed up as follows:
1. The English (f, v) are labio – dental fricatives, whereas the Uzbek (4>, B) are bilabial fricatives. They have labio–dental versions in dialects. So Uzbek (B) pronounced in the same way as the English (в), especially in the – middle of words. Pg. қовун, совун, шавла, далат, шакат, қувват. Uzbek students often substitute (w) for (v): wine – vine.
2. (t, d, n, s, z) also (1) are alveolar in English. The corresponding consonants in Uzbek are dentals. The English (t, d, n) require apical articulation, while their Uzbek counter – parts are dorsal (dental). The dorsal articulation does riot exists in English.
3. The English (r) is a post – alveolar fricative, while the Uzbek (p) is a post–alveolar rolled (thrilled) consonant.
4. The English (1) phoneme consists of the main member; the clear alveolar (1), used before the vowels a ad semi – vowel and its positional, also dialectal, versions dark (1) which besides, being alveolar is also velar. The latter is used before'' consonants and in word final position. The Uzbek (A) is dental consonants.
5. The English (h) is pharyngeal. Uzbek has: a) the velar fricative (x), b) the pharyngeal fricative (х). The replacement of (h) by •(x) is a phonemic mistake. The English (h) is weak and there is loss friction than in the production of the Uzbek (x).
6. The English affricates (tS, dз) and fricatives (S, з) are polato–alveolar, while Uzbek (ш, ж) are post–alveolar fricatives and (ж) may be palatalized.
7. The English voiceless (p.h, k, s, S, ts) are more energetic
Than the corresponding Uzbek voiceless consonants. In the Uzbek (n, t, k) there is less aspiration than in the corresponding English voiceless plosives. While the English voiced (b, d, g, z, j;) are less energetic than the corresponding Uzbek voiced consonants.
8. We regard the jota combination (ju:) as u separate phoneme in English. It is not a chance combination, it is very often used and there is a letter in the alphabet to denote R In spelling. According to its first element it may be regarded as a consonants phoneme (c+v) may-form phonological opposition
9. The English (j) is a palatal semi–vowel. The Uzbek (й) is a palatal fricative» Gоmp, yet= ет (йт)
10. The English (ðə) are interdentally. The interdentally articulation is unknown in Uzbek. They are extremely difficult for me Uzbek to master.
11. The English sonant (m, 1, n) in word – final position are very sonorous and somewhat prolonged before a pause, especially when they are preceded by a short vowel, whereas the corresponding Uzbek sonant are les& sonorous in Use same position. Comp. Bell, Toni, on; Uzbek: бел, том, он.
12. The English voiced consonants remain voiced in word final position and before voiceless consonants, while the Uzbek voiceless consonants become devoiced in the.-same position. The Uzbek students of English are apt – to make phonologic mistakes: bed–bet, course-cause.
Word is usually characterized as the smallest naming unit consisting of a definite number of sounds and denoting a definite lexical meaning and expressing definite grammatical categories. It usually is a subject–matter of-morphology, which system the form and structure of the word. Iris well known that the neurological system of the language reveals it properties through the! morphemic structure of words. As a part of the grammatical theory morphology faces two set) mental units yogh the language: the morpheme and the word.
Morpheme is known as\he smallest meaningful unit of the language into which a word may be divided. E.g. in the word writ-err-s the root morpheme write expresses the lexical meaning of the word, lexical morpheme – er shows the doer of the action denoted by the root morpheme, and the grammatical suffix-s indicates the number of the doers, more than one person is meant, Similar opinion can be sad regarding the following units of the language, such as Finish – ed, courageous, un-prepared – ness: тугал лан ма ган лик дан дир, бедаволардан.
Being a meaningful segmental component of the word a morpheme is formed by phonemes but unlike word it is elementary, i.e. is indivisible into signaller components. There may be zero morphemes, i.e. the absence of morpheme may indicate a certain lexical or grammatical meaning: Cf: – book-s, hope-hope китоб-китоб-лар, но-умид– In cases of «students come children come, geese come» the morphs – s, en, and (i:) (of goose) are allomorphs of the morpheme of plurality «-лар» In Uzbek.
Like a word a morpheme is two-facet language unit, an association of a certain sound-pattern. But unlike the word a morpheme is not an autonomous body (unit) and can occur in speech only as a constituent part of the word. It cannot be segmented into smaller units without losing constitutive essence.
The morphemes can be divided into root (free0) morphemes and affixal (bound) morphemes (affixes). A form is said to be free if it may stand without changing its meaning; if not it is a bound form, as it always doubt to something else.
E.g: In the words sportive, elegant morphemes sport, elegant may occur alone as utterances, but the forms-ive, – ant, eleg cannot be used alone without the root morphemes.
The morphemes may be classified in two ways: a) from the semantic point of view, and b) from the structural point of view.
Semantically morphemes fall into two classes: the root morphemes and non-root (affixational) morpheme.
The root morphemes is the lexical nucleus of the word and it they usually express mainly the lexical meaning i.e. material part of the meaning of the word, while the affixes morphemes can express both lexical and grammatical meanings, this they can be characterized as lexical affixes (-er) and grammatical suffixes (-s) in «writ-er-s». The lexical suffixes are usually used mainly in word building process to form words (e.g. help-less, black-ness, teach-er, speak-er, нажот-сиз, қора-лик, ўқит-ув-чи, сўз-лов-чи) where grammatical suffixes serve to express the grammatical meaning of the word by changing its form (paradigm) (e.g. speaker) John’ – s, (case ending denoting possession) come a (person, number, tense, aspect, mood, active, voice) 3rd person singular present simple, indicative mood, active voice. Thus we can say that the grammatical significance of affixes (derivational) morphemes is always combined with their lexical meaning.
e.g. verb-to write‑ёзмоқ
noun – writer – ёзувчи
The derivative morpheme «-er» has a grammatical meaning as it serves to distinguish a-noun from a verb and it has a lexical meaning i.e. the doer of the action. The root of the notional words is classical lexical morphemes.
The affixes (derivational) morphemes include prefixes, suffixes and inflexions (grammatical suffixes). Prefixes and lexical suffixes have word building functions. Together with the root they form the stem of the word. Prefixes precede the root morpheme (im-personal, un-known, re-write), suffixes follow it (e.g: friend-ship, active-ize, readi-ness, дўст-лик, фаоллаш-тир-моқ, тайёр-лик).
Inflexions word-forming suffixes express different morphological categories.
Structurally morphemes fall under three types: a) free morphemes, b) bound morphemes, c) send-bound morphemes.
A free morpheme is the stem of the word, a great many free morphemes are root morphemes. (e.g. London-er, sports-man-ship). A bound morphemes for they are alwaysmake a part of the word. (e.g. – ness, – ship, – dom, – dis, – pre, un-, чи, паз, – дон, бе-, сер, по,) some root morphemes also belong to the class of bound morphemes.
1.5 The problem of Parts of speech
A word is known as the smallest naming unit of the language. According to L. Bloomfield, word is a minimum free form. Close observation and comparison of words clearly shows that a great number of words have a composite nature and are made up of smaller units, each possessing sound-form and meaning. In other words, the term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a grammatical employment is a word is therefore simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit.
The words of every language fall into classes which are called parts of speech. The problem of parts of speech is one of the controversial problems of modern linguistics. The theoretical side of this problem is the subject matter of the theoretical grammar. therefore we should base our comparison of system of parts of speech on the generally recognized (acknowledged) opinions of grammarians.
In order to make easier to learn the language the grammarians usually divide the word-stock of the language into some subclasses called in linguists the parts of speech.
The main principles of classifying words into parts of speech are: their meaning, form and function, that is to say the words of any language differ from each other in meaning in form and in function. different parts of speech have different lexical meanings.
e.g. verbs denote process or state; nouns express the names of objects, adjectives their properties…
Some parts of speech have different grammatical categories. Verbs have the category of mood, tense, aspect, voice, person, number etc., noun – case, number, adjective – comparison, etc. The parts of speech also differ from each other in their syntactic function; e.g. verbs are used in the sentence structure as predicates, nouns-as subjects, adjectives-as attributes etc.
All words of the comparing languages may be divided into three main groups:
1. Notional words
2. Structural words
3. Independent elements
Notional words have distinct lexical meanings and perform independent syntactic functions in the sentence structure, they serve as primary or secondary parts of the sentence. To this group belong the following parts of speech: Noun, verb, adjective, pronouns, numerals, statives and adverbs. It should be kept in mind that statives in Uzbek are otter interchanged with adjectives and not treated as an independent part of speech.
Structural words differ from the notional words semantically their lexical meaning is of a more general character than that of the notional words. Moreover they sometimes altogether avid it that they are independent syntactic function in the sentence structure but serve either to express various relations between the words in a sentence (e.g. trees in the garden, Tom and Joe, etc.) or to specify the meaning of the words (e.g. there is a book on the table, the book on the table is mine, etc.)
The following parts of speech are to be treated as structural words: articles, particles (only, solely, exclusively mainly) prepositions and conjunctions. Articles and prepositions are individual character of English differentiating it from Uzbek as the functions of these parts of speech in Uzbek are performed by other elements of the language.
Independent elements are words which are characterized by their peculiar meanings of various kind. They usually have no grammatical connections with the sentence in which they occur, i.e. they do not perform any syntactic function in the sentence. e.g. They certainly will come to the party.
Sometimes independent elements can even serve as sentences themselves; e.g. Yes, No, Alas.
Independent class of words include modal words, interjections, words of affirmation and negation.
It is noteworthy that the decision of words into parts of speech can be accepted only with certain reservation there are words which cannot be classed among any of the above motioned parts of speech such as a please, anyway ҳар қалай.
Typological categories of English and Uzbek words
The words of any language are characterized by their ability to express definite notions existing in this society, thus changing their forms. Most of the notions existing in the society have common peculiarities, i.e. they have universal character.
Among the linguistic categories which can be traced in most of the languages of the world we can see the categories which display typologically general character but can be expressed in different languages in different ways. Studying these linguistic facts figuring out their similarities and differences is much of importance for the man of letters, especially for the graduates of the language faculties of universities who are going to become English teachers and interpreters in near future.
For instance, such linguistic notions as case, gender person, tense, voice, possession, etc. are of general character for the comparing languages, but they may be expressed by typological different means of the language. In this chapter we try to generalize the main means of expressing the notions which are of peculiar type of the comparing languages.
1.6 Typological category of case
The system of grammatical forms indicating the syntactic relations of nouns (or pronouns) is usually treated as the category of case, in other words, case is a grammatical form which takes part in the formation of the paradigm of nouns (or pronouns). Grammarians seem to be divided in their opinions as to the case system of the English nouns. The most common view is that they have only two case: common (subject) and possessive (genitive) cases. The common case is characterized by a zero morpheme (suffix) e.g. child, boy, student, ir. and the possessive case by the indexing is and its phonetic variants as (s) and (z).
The Uzbek бош келишиги (common or subject case) corresponds in meaning and function to the English common case both of them are unmarked member of the case opposition and perform similar syntactic function in the sentence structure.
English common case and other five cases of Uzbek are marked members of the case opposition in both languages. The English possessive case is marked by the stiffly is which can sometimes be substituted by the preposition of (e.g. my father’s room, the room of may father) and therefore is sometimes called of – genitive – case. This case denotes possession of a thing or a person and in Uzbek it has its correspondence in the Uzbek караткич келишиги which is expressed by the case ending suffix num.
Dealing with notion of possession one should keep in mind that in Uzbek this category may be expressed not only by the nouns but also their antecedents in the pleonastic phrase such as менинг опамб сизнинг паспортингизю. In this case we have to face the problem of redundancy and often try to avoid it using the modified noun only which contains the possessive suffix. e.g. опам кeлди. In this case the suffix of possession can be rendered in English and in Russian by means of special possessive pronouns. e.g. My sister came. Моя сестра пришла.
Meaning and functions of the other Uzbek cases may be denoted in Uzbek either by means of prepositions or by word order. For instance the meaning and function of the Uzbek тушум келиши is expressed in Uzbek by means of the case ending – ши which denotes the object acted upon and it may be expressed in English by means of word order which is characterized in this language to be very strict in comparison with Russian or Uzbek (e.g. курдим кузингни колдим балога, кайга борайин энди давога? – Видел я твои очи черные (и заболел) куда мне теперь идти на лечение?) Some English grammarians O. Curme, M. Doutschbein recognize word order in English as dative case.
Dealing with this case one has to keep in mind the structure of the sentence i.e. the word order in the sentences of the comparing languages – sov (in Uzbek e.g. мен укамни курдим) and svo (in English I saw my brother»)
The Uzbek урин пайт келишиги denotes he place of the thing or a person in the space and it can be rendered in English by means of prepositions at, in, an, by, over, above, among, between, behind etc. (e.g.У:китоб жавонда. The book is in the bookcase.) It should be kept in mind that most of the English preposition may contain (more) additional meaning denoting the place of the thing or a person. (сu in – мчи-behind‑орқасида, between‑орасида, under‑остида, etc).
The Uzbek жуналиш келишиги denotes the direction of an action performed by means of the case ending‑га. It can be rendered in English also by means of prepositions to, at, into, etc. e.g. V(йигит) мактаб – га кетди. He went to school. У қиз менга қаради. She looked at me.
Чиқиш келишиги of Uzbek nouns denotes the beginning point of the action denoted by the verb. It can be rendered in English by means of preposition from, out of, from under, etc. e.g.:У(қиз) Лондон-дан келди. She came from London.У(йигит) сумкаси-дан қулқопларини олди. He took his gloves out of his bag.
1.7 Typological category of gender
The typological category of gender consists of the notions of natural (biological sex and the grammatical (formal) gender. The connection of this category with the natural sex is in the animals and birds. It is displayed by the nouns and pronouns in English. (But in Russian it can also expressed by the adjectives and the past simple tense forms of the verbs.) Most of the Uzbek grammar books do not contain any information about the category of gender of Uzbek nouns, because the authors consider Uzbek nouns not to have this category at all.
In accordance with their lexical meanings the nouns of the comparing nouns may be classed as belonging to the masculine, feminine and neuter genders. Names of male beings are usually masculine (e.g.: man, husband, boy, son, nephew, bull, ox, ram(whether), cock, stallion – ота, уғил, эркак, ҳукиз, буқа, новвос, қучқор, хуроз, айғир) and names of female beings are feminine (e.g.: woman, lady, girl, daughter, wife, niece, cow heifer(ғунажин), ewe (ju:) (совлиқ), hen, mare‑ауол, хоним, қиз(бола), қиз (фарзанд), хотин, сигир, ғунажин, соблиқ, макиуон, байтал).All other nouns are said to be neuter gender (e.g.:pencil, flower, rain, bird, sky-қалам, гул, уомғир, парранда, қуш, осмон).
Gender finds its formal expression in the replacement of nouns by the personal pronouns in the mind person singular, i.e., she, it.
However there some nouns in English which may be treated as either makes or females. e.g: friend, cousin, doctor, neighbor, worker, etc. The same can be said about the Uzbek terms of kinship e.g.: жиян, қариндош, холавачча, қуда, қушни, табиб, ишчи. They are said to be o