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Phonological Contrastive Analysis of Supra- Segmental Features RP and GIE with Special Focus on Gujarati Phonology

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Phonological Contrastive Analysis of Supra- Segmental Features RP and GIE with Special Focus on Gujarati Phonology ELT VOICES – INDIA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TEACHERS OF ENGLISH JUNE 2014 | VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3 | ISSN 2230-9136 (PRINT) 2321-7170 (ONLINE) Phonological Contrastive Analysis of Supra- Segmental Features RP and GIE with Special Focus on Gujarati Phonology PARESH JOSHI Department of English, Christ College, Rajkot, India ABSTRACT Present paper is an endeavour to investigate underlying differences in supra-segmental features of Received Pronunciation (RP) and General Indian English (GIE), particularly Gujarati English Phonology (GEP). The analysis takes into consideration peculiar features of all the three phonologies i.e. RP, GIE and phonology of Gujarati English. Although a contrastive analysis of RP and GIE will bring out gross phonological peculiarities of all the Indian Speakers of English including Gujarati Speakers of English (GSE), the rationale for such a contrastive analysis is to arrive at gross phonological features which are very peculiar to GSE under the influence of Gujarati phonology with a view to devising pedagogical strategies to resolve pronunciation problems pertaining to supra-segmental phonology there by enhancing the international intelligibility of GSE. Key words: Contrastive Analysis, Supra-Segmental Phonology, Received Pronunciation (RP), General Indian English (GIE), Gujarati English Phonology (GEP), Non-native speakers (NNS), Guajarati Speakers of English ELT VOICES – INDIA June 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 3 It is well known that no two languages can ever be identical in its phonology. Evidently, each language has some uniquely peculiar phonological features which are exclusive within themselves and different from other languages. Usually these phonological peculiarities pose innumerable challenges to the non-native speakers (NNS), initially in acquisition and later in the articulation of the second language. On account of this, segmental as well as supra-segmental phonological peculiarities of the Gujarati generally overpower the corresponding features of English resulting in negative L1 transfer adversely affecting the intelligibility of the NNS. Hence it is imperative to devise pedagogical framework to help NNS neutralize L1 interference and attain intelligibility. The present paper dwells on the contrastive analysis of the phonology of R.P. and GIE with special focus on the Gujarati speakers of English so as to help them attain intelligibility. ‘Patterns of accent, rhythm are strikingly different in Indian English and RP.’ (Agnihotri 178) RP has a very unique system of word stress which poses innumerable difficulties for non-native speakers (NNS) when they try to acquire it. This is so ‘because in an English word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables is pronounced with greater prominence than the other(s)….the syllable which is pronounced with prominence than other(s) is said to be accented.’ (Balasubramanian 133). On the other hand, because most of the Indian languages including Gujarati are syllable-timed, Indians tend to place equal stress on all the syllables in a given word. This very difference in the system of stress in English and GIE poses a challenge for the NNS in the acquisition of the supra- segmental phonology. ‘What is more difficult for non-native speakers of English is to place accent on correct syllable(s) of a word.’ This is so because in English word accent is both fixed and free.’ (Balasubramanian: 134). It is fixed in the sense that one of the syllables of a word with more than one syllables, will always receive accent on one of the syllables. And it is free in the sense that some disyllabic words in English like ‘teacher, ’wisdom etc. receive stress on the first syllable, on the contrary there are some disyllabic words like be’come, can’teen etc. which receive stress on the second syllable. Similar is the case of polysyllabic words in RP. Since accent in English is not associated with any particular syllable, a NNS will have to meticulously learn this very peculiar feature of RP for intelligible pronunciation. In fact, placing accent on the correct syllable is difficult for NNS because of the lack of guidelines or rules clarifying which syllable in a given word would receive accent. English does not have fix patterns of stress unlike French language in which stress is usually 113|ELT Voices – India International Journal|ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321-7170 (Online) ELT VOICES – INDIA June 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 3 placed on the last syllable, Polish language in which stress is placed on the second last syllable and Czech language in which stress is placed on first syllable is usually stressed. ‘There is second difficulty about English word accent and this is owing to the shift in the accented syllable. In derivatives the shift is quite common (Balasubramanian: 134).’ However, there are words like a’gree and a’greement in English in which the derived word takes accent on the same syllable which is accented in root. But there are words such as ‘photograph, pho’tographer, photo’graphic where the shift in the accented syllable is evident. GIE speakers with their tendency of putting equal stress to each and every syllable face difficulties in dealing with irregular stress patterns of RP. Besides, in English stress changes according to the function of the word which is not the case in GIE. These peculiar features amount to remarkable differences in the stress patterns of both the languages. ‘The patterns of word accent in English are not well organized. In some cases, a pattern different from that in British RP, is used. For example, the feature of change in accent according to the function of the word is not always found in Indian English (Bansal, 1998: 60).’ For instance, disyllabic words like absent, conduct, present, export receive accent on the first syllable when they are nouns/adjectives and on the second when they are used as verbs. In short, word accent in both RP and GIE demonstrate a sizeable difference and this difference of word accent makes it difficult for the non-native learners to acquire the desired accent and intelligibility. Languages across the world can be divided into two broad categories i.e. syllable timed and stress timed. Unlike most of the world languages which are syllable timed, English belongs to an exclusive group of languages which is stress timed. This very peculiar supra-segmental feature of English contributes largely to issues related to intelligibility in English for NNS. Indian native languages are actually syllable-timed like Latin, Spanish and French. ‘In GIE each and every syllable is said to receive similar stress producing syllable-timed rhythm which contributes to the sing-song impression Indian English creates.’ (Agnihotri: 179). In a syllable- timed language, every syllable is said to take up roughly the same amount of time when pronounced, though the actual length of time of a syllable depends on situation. Such a rhythm was metaphorically referred to as 'machine-gun rhythm' because each underlying rhythmical unit is of the same duration, similar to the transient bullet noise of a machine-gun. It is believed that the terms stress-timed and syllable-timed were used by Pike in his book The Intonation of American English 114|ELT Voices – India International Journal|ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321-7170 (Online) ELT VOICES – INDIA June 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 3 published (1945). The terms machine-gun rhythm i.e. syllable-timed languages and Morse code rhythm i.e. stress-timed languages, were used by Lloyd James to distinguish between two different rhythms of world languages in 1940. One of the eminent phoneticians from CIEFL now EFLU has made some useful observations in his study of Tamil speaker of English. Referring to the stress patterns in the Tamil speakers of English he states: “He (Tamil) stresses all the syllables in a polysyllabic word unfortunately all syllables are stressed (or unstressed) in his speech. This renders his English speech peculiar when he utters word in isolation and in connected speech positively funny (Agnihotri: 179).’ Indian-English speakers usually speak with a syllabic rhythm. Moreover, in certain Indian languages, stress is connected to a low pitch, whereas in most English dialects, stressed syllables are generally pronounced with a higher pitch. Thus, when some Indians especially GSEs speak, they appear to put accents at the inappropriate syllables, or accentuate all the syllables of a polysyllabic word in English. The most noticeable feature of the English spoken throughout South Asia is its syllabic rhythm, which can be a source of comprehension difficulty for those who are used to a stress-timed variety /almost all other varieties of English are stress-timed --especially when speech is rapid. (Crystal: 249) Since English is a stress-timed speech, consistent and timed reoccurrence of stressed syllable is an important feature of its rhythm. Therefore in an English utterance, the accented syllables have a tendency to reoccur at regular interval of time, irrespective of unaccented or weak syllables between two accented syllables. Along with English, German and Dutch are typical stress timed languages. Stress-timing is sometimes called Morse-code rhythm. Like Morse code which uses a series dots and dashes for encrypting different messages, English rhythm comprises of a series stressed and unstressed syllables which can be symbolized by dash and dots. When spoken faster, a stress-timed language usually shortens, obscures, or drops vowels to carry more syllables between two stresses without changing its rhythm so much. The stress timing in English is achieved by consistently putting stress on a particular syllable of content words and weakening the vowels of structural words by replacing their vowels by a weak vowel /ə/. This divides English speech in two i.e. strong forms and weak forms. Moreover consistent recurrence of prominent syllables and weak create voice modulation which is the 115|ELT Voices – India International Journal|ISSN 2230-9136 (Print) 2321-7170 (Online) ELT VOICES – INDIA June 2014 | Volume 4, Issue 3 hallmark of rhythm in RP.
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