PHONETIC TYPOLOGY

Abstract

In spite of many works in the field of phonetics some problems of typology still want systematisation both on segmental and suprasegmental levels. Experimental research is one of them. The research is aimed at determining phonetic typologi- cal characteristics in English and Ukrainian on segmental and suprasegmental levels. The results of the research demonstrate the significant amount of typo- logically similar characteristics in English and Ukrainian. The presence of fore lingual and back lingual vowels, plosives, fricatives, voiced and voiceless conso- nants, such phenomena as reduction and assimilation in both languages under investigation testify to it. Similar mechanisms of word stress production that is the total energy data (dynamic characteristics and duration time) is another mark of typological similarity of English and Ukrainian. The intonation models, the degree of stability of intonation models, sentence stress variability, the same functions of intonation in the process of speech produc- tion show similar mechanisms of prosody elements’ interaction. The most stable in both languages are the prosodic models of attitudinal and emotional functions of intonation. The status of different functions (the attitudinal function, sense-group delimitation, sense-groups relation, communicative type of utterances, sentence stress) of intonation changes from the subordinate one (as in the function of di- vision into sense groups) up to the dominating one (as in the function reflect- ing the speaker’s emotional state). In correspondence with this status and the poly-functional character of intonation the resulting intonation contour mainly preserves the relevant prosodic features of the dominating intonation function in English and Ukrainian. The qualitative and quantitative differences of segmental (phonematic length of vowels in English, phonemic length of consonants in Ukrainian, some difference in articulation) and suprasegmental units (variety of melody contour structure, prevalence of dynamic characteristics in English and temporal in Ukrainian) in the languages under investigation are explained by linguacultural peculiarities of the communities, their historical development