Белорусский государственный

Reduction
– weakening (either qualitative or quantitative) of vowels in unstressed positions. 
Regressive assimilation
– the process when the second of the neighbouring sounds 
influences the first and makes it similar to it. For example, in the combination 
in the
/n/ is 
regressively assimilated by /ð/ and becomes dental and is pronounced with the tip of the tongue 
against the upper teeth (its free variant is pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the 
teethridge). 
Relative sonority theory
, or the 
prominence theory
– It was created by O. Jespersen. It 
considers that sounds tend to group themselves according to their sonority. Pronounced with 
uniform force, length and pitch, speech sounds differ in sonority (prominence, audibility or carrying 
power). The most sonorous sounds are vowels, less sonorous are sonorants /w, j, r, m, n, ŋ/ and the 
least sonorous are noise consonants. 
Resonator mechanism
– a group of speech organs which can change their shape and 
volume, thus forming the spectral component of the sound, it includes nasal and mouth cavities. 
Retentive tendency
– this tendency is characterized by the retention of accent in the 
derivative on the same syllable on which it falls in the parent word, e.g. 
ˈsimilar
, 
asˈsimilate
. 
Retroflex
– an articulation involving the tip of the tongue and the back part of the alveolar 
ridge. Speakers of American English have retroflex approximants in 
rye
and 
err
. This term is 
traditionally said to refer to a place of articulation of consonants, but refers, in fact, to the curling 
backwards of the tip of the tongue, something which can happen in vowels as well as consonants. 
Rhotic
– a form of English in which /r/ can occur after a vowel and within a syllable in 
words such as 
car
, 
bird
, 
early
. Most forms of Midwestern American English are rhotic, whereas 
most forms of English spoken in the southern part of England are non-rhotic.