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1. Collecting electronic variants of written texts in the Kazakh language.
2. Scoring/sounding a text.
3. Listening to scoring texts, that is recordings.
4. Checking the recordings on naturalness.
5. Finding mistakes in recordings, suggesting other correct variants.
Collecting electronic variants of written texts in the Kazakh language.
We collected texts printed in the Kazakh language and other texts in the Internet, checked for
mistakes and inadequacy. We selected suitable for scoring texts only and sent them to our
companion.
Scoring/sounding a text.
Professional script readers were chosen for sounding the printed material, that is voices of a
man and woman passed the special selection. Script readers tried to read every text according to
naturalness. Unqualified texts were eliminated immediately.
Listening to scoring texts, that is recordings.
Finding mistakes in the sounded texts, interpreting them.
Checking the recording on naturalness.
We checked the texts and eliminated those which sounded artificially and were not adequate
to the linguistic situation.
Finding mistakes in recordings, suggesting other correct variants. Wefound some mistakes
in the written texts, compared them with the correct variant and gave the right variants.
After passing this stage we worked on eliminating difficulties appeared during the process of
creating the speech synthesizer. That is, a script reader had various problems according to the
mechanism of the speech synthesizer which were opposite to tendency of the Kazakh language. For
instance, the first problem:
1.
Omission of sounds in the Kazakh language.
In materials in the Kazakh language omission of sounds is explained by reduction, for
example, akel (alypkel) (әkel (alyp kel)) – apar (alyp bar) (apar (alypbar)) – aket (alypket) (әket
(alyp ket)) –soit (solai et) (sojt (solajet)) – armen (aritaman) (әrmen (әrіtaman)).
According to S. Myrzabekov such shortenings can be found in archaisms. Omission of the
sound ы (y) is explained by reduction, that is if the suffix begins with a vowel, ы (y) is omitted. We
can say that decrease of the number of syllables is a phenomenon which is especially peculiar to
obsolete words. It is known that majority of endings were once formed by reduction (omission) of
complete words by sounds (syllables). As an example we can give the recent fact of the suffix –tyn,
-tin (-tyn, -tin) and the ending of the ablative case.
“Therefore, when an ending that begins with a vowel is added, narrow vowels are in the
second syllable of two-syllable words are omitted and the number of syllables decrease: oryn – orna
(oryn-y), orny (oryn-y), ornym (oryn-ym). Such phenomenon in the Kazakh language is called
reduction. It is correct to say thatthe sound affected by reduction doesn’t disappear, but becomes
muffled and murmured. And in such words like orny, murny, auly (orny, murny, auly) it is easy to
notice omission of the whole syllable”. Initially reduction was shown in orthography, then writing
with an omitted sound became a normality. «Narrow vowels often become muffled and omitted. For
instance, kіshkene (kіshіkene), sarғaj (sarygaj), kelsap (kelіsap), borzhar (borіzhar»[6, 40-41 p.].
“Every language has its own normality for the sound system, and it is one of the
features that makes a certain language an individual one” [7, 7], however, the language can't help
borrowing words from other languages. Such words undergo reprocessing in the “plain language of
people” (manner of pronunciation, articulation) and more or less have sound changings. in десек,
сол тіл өзге тілдерден сөз қабылдамай тұра алмайды. Sound changing can be different. It is
common that some unfamiliar sounds in the structure of borrowed words can be exchanged with the
own sounds of a language, while other sounds, syllables are omitted, on the contrary some sounds
and syllables can be added. Thus, a word undergoes quantitative as well as qualitative changes.
Such changes can be noticed in proper words of a language.
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Reduction (latin reductio – return, shift) is a phenomenon which is peculiar to vowels.Vowel
becomes muffled in the word. Usually narrow vowels undergo reduction [8].
In the Kazakh linguistics usually narrow vowels in such words like orny (oryn-y), ernі (erіn-
і), murny (muryn-y), karny (karyn-y) undergo reduction, narrow vowels are lost from the structure
of words [9, 361].
2.
Phonetic image of the letters и (i) and у (u).
Pronunciation of the letterи is connected with the sounds around it, that is if the sounds are
glottal, it is pronounced as a glottal sound. For instance, transcription of tiin (squirrel)is [тиін]
[tiin], and if the sounds around it are front sounds, it is pronounced as a front vowel, tiyn (coin),
transcription is [tyiyn] [tyiyn].
According to S. Myrzabekov, «Letter is a conventional sign of the sound. It is very important
to estimate the relationship of sound and letter and differentiate them correctly. The letters i, u, ju, е
are often confused with sounds in researches and manuals about the Kazakh linguistics. The
phonetic image of the letters which are met in texts of the contemporary Kazakh language will be
the following. The letter и. 1.When they are in the structure of obsolete words of our language: а)
yj; қi, mi, zhi, қiқym, қisyқ, etc.; b) іj: ki, kiіm, ti, tiіn, tershidі, shәni, shіltі; c) ұj: mұқijat, tұңғiyқ,
oқi, bұlti; d) үj: tүski, үsi, өsiet, dүnie, tүrti. 2. In the structure of words borrowed from the Russian
language: monophthong и (institut, universitet).The letter у. 1. In obsolete words: а) uu: u, bu, su,
zhuan, oқu, alu. b) үu: kүlu, zhүru, kelu, іlu, tіlu. c) monophthong sonorant consonant: tau, zhau,
dәulet, auyl, sәule, ojnau, ojlau. 2. In words borrowed from the Russian language monophthong
vowel phoneme universitet, uran, ukol, uchske, avtobus, sputnik, turnir» [6, 23].
There are two ways of pronunciation of the letter u: in the first case it functions as a vowel, in
the second – a consonant. For example, тау, ау. Here it functions as a consonant sound. Double
vowels are used in the Kazakh language, that’s why it is considered as a consonant vowel. Among
vowels it functions as a consonant, on the contrary among consonants it functions as a vowel. For
instance, suyқ, kelu, bіlu.
A diphthong (/ d fθ
ŋ/ dif-thong or / d pθ
ŋ/ dip-thong[1]) (Greek: δίφθογγος,
diphthongos, literally "two sounds" or "two tones"), also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two
adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with
two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during
the pronunciation of the vowel. A diphthong is made when two vowels are met in the process of
speech. Diphthongs are divided into real and false ones. In the structure of a real diphthong both of
the vowels are equal by the power of being pronounced and making a syllable.A real diphthong can
be met in languages very seldom. For instance, in Lettish the diphthongs еі, аи in words
meitci(girl), tauta(people) are considered as real diphthongs.
In false diphthongs one of the vowels can make a syllable, but the other cannot. If the first one
can make a syllable, and the next functions as an auxiliary one, such diphthongs are called closed
diphthong. For example, sounds ій, ұуin words kіjіm – kiіm, zhuuar – zhuar, suuat – suat. If the
first part of a diphthong cannot make a syllable, and the next part can make a syllable, it is called
open diphthong. For example, sounds е, о, ө at the beginning of a word are pronounced as j, u, jje
(el – jjel), uo (ol – uol), uo (or – uor). Actually, these types of the false diphthongs in the Kazakh
language can be nominated as diphthongoid vowels.
Diphtongoid – a special type of the vowel which is close to diphthong.Theyare sounds i, u, ie,
uo, uө. For instance, bu, su, zhuan, oқu [ұu].kүlu, zhүru, kelu [үu] [9].
Thus, in the Kazakh language phonetic image of the above given sounds и and у is considered
according to diphthongoid, but not diphthong. According to the materials given above it was
identified that these sounds cannot function as complete sounds. They are given by double sounds
and can be met in different positions. Their quality of pronunciation depends on the sounds around
them, that is, if the surrounding sounds are glottal, they are pronounced as glottal sounds, and if the
surrounding sounds are front, they are pronounced as front sounds too. That’s why, if we want to
provide naturalness of pronunciation and meet the requirements of the Kazakh language articulation
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