An accent is the unique way that speech is pronounced by a group of people speaking the same language.

What is an accent?

An accent is the unique way that speech is pronounced by a group of people speaking the same language. A person's accent depends on many factors; however, accents are usually grouped in the following way:

Regional Accents - for example, people who are from Texas often sound different than people who are from New York. Foreign Accents - for example, someone who was raised speaking English will sound different than someone who was raised speaking Spanish and learned English as an adult.

How do accents affect communication?

Accents reflect the unique characteristics and background of a person. Many people take great pride in their accents. However, some people may have difficulty communicating because of their accent. These difficulties include the following:

People do not understand you Avoiding social interaction with those who may not understand you Frustration from having to repeat yourself all the time People focusing on your accent more than on what you are trying to say

These types of communication problems may have negative effects on job performance, educational advancement, and everyday life activities. It may also negatively affect your self-esteem if you are having trouble communicating because of an accent. For all of these reasons, some people want to modify or change their accent.

History

As human beings spread out into isolated communities, stresses and peculiarities develop. Over time these can develop into identifiable accents. In North America, the interaction of people from many ethnic backgrounds contributed to the formation of the different varieties of North American accents. It is difficult to measure or predict how long it takes an accent to formulate. Accents in the USA, Canada and Australia, for example, developed from the combinations of different accents and languages in various societies, and the effect of this on the various pronunciations of the British settlers, yet North American accents remain more distant, either as a result of time or of external or "foreign" linguistic interaction, such as the Italian accent.

In many cases, the accents of non-English settlers from the British Isles affected the accents of the different colonies quite differently. Irish, Scottish and Welsh immigrants had accents which greatly affected the vowel pronunciation of certain areas of Australia and Canada.

Development

Children are able to take on accents relatively quickly. Children of immigrant families, for example, generally have a more native-like pronunciation than their parents, though both children and parents may have a noticeable non-native accent – however these generally differ: the parents' accent tends to be influenced by the sound system of their native language whilst the child is more inclined to apply hyper-pronunciation resulting from their need to correct their parents' shortcomings in fluency. Accents seem to remain relatively malleable until a person's early twenties, after which a person's accent seems to become more entrenched.

The questions of typology of accentual structure

The numerous variations of English word stress are systematized in the typology of accentual structure of English words worked out by G.P. Torsuyev. He classifies them according to the number of stressed syllables, their degree or character (the main and the secondary stress). The distribution of stressed syllables within the word accentual types forms accentual structures of words. Accentual types and accentual structures are closely connected with the morphological type of words, with the number of syllables, the semantic value of the root and the prefix of the word.

The accentual types are:

1. ['___]. This accentual type marks both simple and compound words. The accentual structures of this type may include two and more syllables, e.g. 'fafher, 'possibly, 'mother-in-law, 'gas-pipe.

2. [ '_ '_ ]. The accentual type is commonly realized in compound words, most of them are with separable prefixes, e.g. 'radio-'active, 're'write, 'diso'bey.

3. [ '_' _ '_ ] and 4. ['_' _ '_ '_]. The accentual types are met in initial compound abbreviations like 'U'S'A, 'U'S'S'R.

5. ['_ ,___]. The type is realized both in simple and compound words, very

common among compound words, e.g. 'hair-,dresser, 'substructure.

6. [, _'___]. The accentual type marks a great number of simple words and some compound words as well. In simple words the stresses fall onto:

1. the prefix and the root: maga'zine;

2. the root and the suffix: ,hospi'tality;

3. the prefix and the suffix: disorganization.

7. ['_,_'_] The type includes rather a small number of simple words with the separable prefixes, e.g. 'mis,repre'sent.

8. [,_,_'_ _]. The type is found in a very small number of words, usually simple words with the stresses on the prefix, the root and the suffix, e.g. ,indi,viduali'zation.

9. ['_'_,_ _]. The type is met in rare instances of compound words with separable prefixes, e.g. 'un'sea,worthy.

10. ['_ _,_,_]. The type is represented by rare instances of simple and compound words, e.g. 'soda-,water ,bottle.

11. [,_'_,_] The type is found in rare instances of compound words consisting of the three components, e.g. ,ginger'beer-,bottle.

The data given above suggest an idea of the great variability in the accentual structure of English words.

The most widely spread among the enumerated accentual types are supposed to be Type 1, Type 2, Type 5 and Type 6. Each type includes varieties of definite accentual structures with different numbers of syllables and marks thousands of words. So the four of them cover the main bulk of most common English words and are therefore most typical for the English vocabulary.

The variability of the word accentual structure is multiplied in connected speech. The accentual structure of words may be altered under the influence of rhythm, e.g. An 'unpolished 'stone but: The 'stone was un'polished.

The tempo of speech may influence the accentual pattern of words. With the quickening of the speed the carefulness of articulation is diminished, the vowels are reduced or elided, the secondary stress may be dropped, e.g. The 'whole organi'zation of the 'meeting was 'faulty.

The variability of the English word accentual structure presents great difficulty for students of English.

They should be well acquainted with the four most widely spread accentual types of words, mentioned above and be aware of the modifications of word accentual patterns influenced by rhythm and tempo in connected speech.

The given examples of the accentual structure of words in connected speech show that the word stress is closely interrelated with sentence stress. We shall now try to see their similarity and difference. The demarcation of word stress and sentence •stress is very important both from the theoretical and the practical viewpoint. Sentence stress usually falls on the very syllable of the word which is marked by word stress.

Thus the accentual structure of the word predetermines the arrangement of stresses In a phrase. At the same time the stress pattern of a phrase is always conditioned by the semantic and syntactical factors.

The words which usually become stressed in a phrase are notional words. They convey the main idea of the phrase, though any word including form words may be marked by sentence stress, if it has certain semantic value in the sentence.

The common character of word stress and sentence stress is also observed in their rhythmical tendency to alternate stressed arid unstressed syllables and pronounce them at approximately equal intervals.

Now we should like to distinguish the notions of word stress and sentence stress.

They are first of all different; in their sphere of application as they are applied to different language units: word stress is naturally applied to a word, as a linguistic unit, sentence stress is applied to a phrase.

Secondly, the distinction of the rhythmic structure of a word and a phrase is clearly observed in the cases when the word stress in notional words is omitted in a phrase, e.g.

I 'don't think he is 'right.

Or when the rhythmic structure of the isolated word does not coincide with that of a phrase, e.g.

'Fifteen. 'Room Fifteen. 'Fifteen 'pages.

So in a speech chain the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence stress falls on the syllable marked by the word stress it is not realized in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within speech continuum. Since the spheres of word stress and sentence stress fall apart their functions are actually different. Sentence stress organizes a sentence into a linguistic unit, helps to form its rhythmic and intonation pattern, performs its distinctive function on the level of a phrase.

Accents in Kazakhstan

Kazakh gained status as an official language of the Republic of Kazakhstan when it joined the world community after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Kazakh is also spoken by ethnic Kazakhs in China,  Mongolia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Germany, and the former Soviet republics.

Kazakh is a member of the Kypchak group of the Turkic languages family and is related to Nogai and Karakalpak. Modern Kazakh exhibits a lexical influence from Arabic, Persian and Russian. Due to the de-Russification of Kazakh, the process that has started since the fall of the Soviet Union, old Kazakh words (some with old Persian and Arabic origins) are replacing Russian loanwords. 

Modern Kazakh does not have distinctive dialects, but exhibits the following accents: north-eastern, southern, and western. They are spoken by three zhuz (or unions of Kazakh tribes): the Eldest Zhuz, the Middle Zhuz, and the Youngest Zhuz, respectively. Members of the Tore (descendants of Genghis Khan) and Kozha (descendants of Arab missionaries) clans generally  speak the southern accent, as a majority of them come from the south.     

Four types of writing scripts have been used in the territory of Kazakhstan. Old Turkic, the predecessor to Kazakh, was written in the ancient Orkhon script. In the centuries following the Middle Ages, Kazakh was then scripted in Arabic and Latin. Today, Kazakh is written in Russian Cyrillic in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, while Kazakhs in China still employ the Arabic script.  

Kazakh shares some, if not all, of the following linguistic features with other Turkic languages:

*It is a verb-final language and a subject-object-verb word order is observed in written Kazakh; 

*It is an agglutinative language, with an exclusive suffixation;

*Suffixes are attached to a noun in the following order: plural, possessive, and case or personal endings.

*Various combinations of tense, aspect, and mood are formed through the use of verbal structures or through a system of auxiliary verbs; 

*Verb structures, such as passive, causative, reflexive, reciprocal, conditional and negative are formed by adding relevant suffixes to the verb;

*There is no gender;

*Kazakh is marked by the absence of definite and indefinite articles. However, the word “one” is used to express indefiniteness of a noun;

*Postpositions are used because there are no prepositions;

*Nouns are inflected for case and there are seven cases: nominative, genitive, accusative, ablative, locative, dative, and instrumental;

*Modifiers precede the modified head nouns;

*Various participles replace relative clause structures found in English;

*It has a vowel and consonant harmony with the exception of foreign loanwords;

*Accent falls on a syllable that is either the final or preceding to the final syllable. 

Conclusion:

In this course paper we have treated some problems of accentual structure, such as the quantitative and qualitative components of word stress, vowels and consonants.

 From chapter I we have known that vowel of the stressed syllable is perceived as never reduced or obscure and longer than the same vowel in the unstressed syllables.

In the point 1.1. we have said about European languages such as English, German, French, Russian, and that they are believed to possess predominantly dynamic word stress. In Scandinavian languages the word stress is considered to be both dynamic and musical.

In the point 1.2. we have paid attention to the instability of English accentual structure of words and that the English presents much difficulty for Russian learners, because of his multisyllabic words the accentual structure of which is regulated by the rhythmical tendency.

In chapter II We have pointed out that in a speech chain the phonetic structure of a word obtains additional characteristics connected with rhythm, melody, and tempo. Though the sentence stress falls on the syllable marked by the word stress it is not realized in the stressed syllable of an isolated word but in a word within speech continuum.

In the point 2.1. we singled out that the opinions of phoneticians differ as how many degrees of stress are linguistically relevant in a word.

So, we think that we have achieved the aim of the course paper and fulfilled all the tasks which were put in this work.