ELT VOICES –

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

PARESH JOSHI Department of English, Christ College, Rajkot, India

ABSTRACT

Present paper is an endeavour to investigate underlying differences in supra-segmental features of (RP) and General (GIE), particularly Gujarati (GEP). The analysis takes into consideration peculiar features of all the three 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

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It is well known that no two can ever be identical in its phonology. Evidently, each 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 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 , one of the 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

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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

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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 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 /ə/. This divides English speech in two i.e. strong forms and weak forms. Moreover consistent recurrence of prominent syllables and weak create modulation which is the

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hallmark of rhythm in RP. GIE fails to exhibit this modulation under the influence of L1 which follow syllable timed rhythm. L1 transfer is evident in GIE speakers in their tendency to regularly put stress at the wrong syllables, or accentuate all the syllables of a polysyllabic English word, since stress is not considered an essential part of pronunciation of their native speech.

In the figure 1 and 2 given below, the figure represents the stress-timed rhythm, with an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables (adults represent stressed syllables and kids represent unstressed ones), and figure 2 represents the syllable-timed rhythm, with nearly equal weight and time in all syllables (identical soldiers represent the same length and weight that each syllable has).

(A) Stress-timed Rhythm (B) Syllable-timed Rhythm

Figure 1 Figure 2

The pictures shown above graphically but very vividly explicate the fundamental difference in the stress timed rhythm and syllable timed rhythm. In figure 1, 2 adults represent the stressed syllable, However, in figure 2, 9 identical soldiers represent unstressed syllables. The stressed and unstressed syllables go together to make up the English speech rhythm. (May. n. pag.)

English is an intonational language, in the sense that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. The intonation is nothing but the varying pitch. Pitch is one of the acoustic correlates of stress. From a physiological point of view, pitch is primarily dependent on the rate of vibration of vocal cords (Balasubramanian: 151). Thus, intonation is termed as the patterns of vibrations of the varying pitch. The peculiar characteristic of English is that it uses the changes in pitch for emphasizing or expressing emotion. Dr. R. K. Bansal observes several examples of non-RP like tone group divisions and nucleus locations in GIE which obviously is applicable to Gujarati being one of the Indian languages. For NNS intonation is probably one of those areas of pronunciation of RP which can adversely affect intelligibility. The problem L1 transfer on the level of intonation can be seen in the fact that there is always the pressure of the primary intonation system L1 on the secondary

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intonation system L2. GIE speakers face the similar problem as far as intonation is concerned. They duplicate intonation patterns of their first language while speaking English. Looking at Indian language it can be said that both the phonologies have considerable difference in the patterns of intonation. For having a fair command over intonation of any language, one needs to adequately study the pitch, loudness and length.

Considering this it can be stated without any doubt that there is a fundamental difference in the supra-segmental phonology of both RP and GIE including Guajarati. This fundamental difference amounts for most of the difficulty in acquiring system of supra-segmental phonology resulting into issues pertaining to intelligibility for GSE. As far as L1 transfer is concerned linguists across the world are divided in their opinion. There are some linguists who maintain that segmental phonology amount for maximum L1 transfer and some others who believe that it is supra-segmental phonology. However, the fact remains both phonological aspects require special attrition in the pedagogical frameworks aimed at teaching pronunciation for international intelligibility.

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References

Agnihotri, R. K., “Sound patterns of Indian English: A Socio-linguistic Perspective”. English in India: Issues and Problems. Eds. R.S. Gupta and Kapil Kapoor. Delhi: Academic Foundations, 1991. Print.

Balasubramanian, T., A Textbook of English Phonetics for Indian Students. CIEFL, Hyderabad. 2000. Print.

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Wells, J. C., Accents of English: Beyond the British Isles. Cambridge: CUP. 1982. Print.

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