Problems of Ukrainian phonetic terminology (articulatory aspect)

Oksana Bas-Kononenko, Candidate of Sciences in Philology, Docent, Associate Professor in the Department of the Ukrainian Language and Applied Linguistics of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
14 Taras Shevchenko Avenue, Кyiv 01601, Ukraine

E-mail: baskon@ukr.net
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1329-8785

Heading: Articles
Language: Ukrainian

Abstract: The article examines some problems of Ukrainian phonetic terminology, draws attention to the importance of basic anatomical and physiological information for determining the articulatory characteristics of sound units of language.

The oral form of speech is the sound “face” of the language, therefore it is important that information about the pronunciation norms of the literary language is not only accessible to the general public, but also correct and scientifically based.

Unfortunately, in scientific, educational and methodological, and popular scientific literature, there are cases of the use of inappropriate or incorrect phonetic terms, descriptions of articulatory and acoustic characteristics of sounds.

Phonetics as a branch of linguistics is special in that, in addition to general scientific and actually linguistic terms, it has a special basic vocabulary organically and objectively connected with the concepts of related sciences – biology (human anatomy and physiology) and physics (acoustics). Experimental phonetics reveals the objective material nature of speech sounds with the help of articulatory and acoustic methods of research, and therefore helps to ensure the scientific correctness of phonetic terminology.

Sound formation is a coordinated, automatic process in which various systems and organs of the human body participate. Correct understanding of the structure of the speech apparatus, and of the actions of the speech organs provides the most clear and unambiguous description of all structural elements and phenomena of the phonetic level of the language system. The use of correct phonetic terminology is also important in related fields of knowledge, in particular in speech therapy. The most typical reasons for the emergence of terminological inconsistencies and errors are false or superficial ideas about the general processes and mechanisms of speech production, misunderstanding of the structure of the speech apparatus itself.

The article gives examples of incorrectly used phonetic terms, points out errors in the descriptions of the articulation of Ukrainian consonant sounds [в] ([w]), [ч], [д͡ж], [г] in speech therapy sources. To explain objective information about the articulatory characteristics of these sounds, materials (palatograms and cineradiographic images) from the funds of the Laboratory of Experimental Phonetics of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv were used.

Keywords: Ukrainian language, phonetic terminology, experimental phonetics, speech apparatus, articulation, speech therapy.

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