INTERFERENCE AND TRANSPOSITION IN THE SPEECH OF JAPANESE SPEAKERS OF RUSSIAN

The purpose of the study is to describe, based on a comparative typological analysis, the phenomena of interference and transposition in the speech of Japanese speakers of Russian in terms of segmental phonetics. The main research methods are the comparative-typological method, empirical method, method of observation, method of auditory analysis, instrumental methods, and generalisation of obtained results in order to reveal phonetic interference. The analysis of the problem showed the following results: At the theoretical level, it was revealed as follows: 1. Palatalisation in the Russian language is the primary articulation while, in the Japanese language, it is secondary, with a lesser degree of intensity. Not all consonants in Russian and Japanese can become palatalised: some sounds in their articulation are already palatal, others always remain hard. 2. The phenomenon of accommodation in the Japanese language is manifested in a different way than it is done in the Russian language. In Russian, accommodation of vowels in the speech flow as a result of coarticulation is always two-sided (progressive, regressive, progressive-regressive) whereas, in Japanese, it is one-sided (progressive only). 3. In both languages, a vowel change its quality depending on its place in the word with respect to stress, type of syllable and adjacent sounds. Reduced vowels, having a short length and low intensity in an unstressed position, are not fully devoiced. In other cases, the nature of reduction in Russian and Japanese has a considerable difference: different conditions and types of reduction, different positions of reduced vowels - in Russian, unlike Japanese, all vowels undergo reduction. At the practical level, the following positions were considered: (1) of Russian palatalised and non-palatalised consonants and the vowels following them; (2) of combinatorial changes in the Russian and Japanese vowels depending on the hard-soft consonant environment; and (3) of Russian unstressed vowels as well as phonetic errors made by Japanese students when they pronounce sounds in these positions. The results of the study may help in solving theoretical problems of general, specific, comparative linguistics and general phonetic interference problems as well as contribute to solving practical problems of overcoming a foreign (Japanese) accent by arranging educational materials in textbooks and developing effective methods for overcoming phonetic interference.