UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
Date: 5-Oct-2009
I, Barbara E. Paver , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice It is entitled: Reconsidering Language Orientation for Undergraduate Singers
Student Signature: Barbara E. Paver
This work and its defense approved by: Committee Chair: David Adams, MM David Adams, MM
Mary Stucky, MM Mary Stucky, MM
Kenneth Griffiths, MM Kenneth Griffiths, MM
10/5/2009 223
Reconsidering Language Orientation for Undergraduate Singers
A document submitted to the
Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Musical Arts
in the Performance Division of the College Conservatory of Music
by
Barbara E. Paver
B.M. University of Arizona, Vocal Performance, June 1992
M.M. University of Cincinnati, Vocal Performance, June 1996
Committee Chair: David Adams, M.M.
Abstract
Paver, Barbara E. Reconsidering Language Orientation for Undergraduate Singers . Doctor of Musical Arts Document, University of Cincinnati, 2009.
Foreign language lyric diction is a compulsory subject in all undergraduate vocal performance degrees in universities. However, the effectiveness of its teaching depends on the capacity of students to absorb the material, for which many are largely unprepared, due to their lack of previous language study. Further, native speakers of North American English experience difficulty in distinguishing reflex responses in their own speech from the proper articulations of foreign sounds.
Initially, lyric diction textbooks addressing Italian, French, and German are reviewed for their content, pedagogical sequence, use of International Phonetic Alphabet, and exercises, with regard to their appropriateness for use at the undergraduate level.
The role of phonetics in teaching lyric diction is then explored in relation to anatomy and physiology, as well as consonant and vowel formation. Consonant articulation and vowel formation as typically demonstrated by native North American singers are analyzed, and descriptive diacritics from the International Phonetic Alphabet are used to show the contrast between the native North American singers’ habits in speech and singing, and the articulatory adjustments necessary to form accurate foreign sounds.
English vowel and consonant sounds are compared to sounds in Italian, German, and
French with which they have allophonic relationships. Exercises are prescribed for the correction of North American accents in pronouncing Italian, German, and French.
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Contents
Illustrations...... vi
Acknowledgements...... vii
Introduction...... 1
Chapter One: Review of Multiple Language Diction Texts...... 4 A Handbook of Diction for Singers ...... 4 Diction ...... 11 Diction for Singers ...... 17 The Singer’s Guide to Languages ...... 21 A Singer’s Manual of Foreign Language Dictions ...... 27
Chapter Two: The Use of Phonetics in Teaching Vowels ...... 33 Adapting Basic Phonetics to Lyric Diction...... 33 Introducing Phonetics to Beginning Diction Students ...... 36 North American Regionalisms and Vowels...... 43
Chapter Three: Introducing Consonants: Place, Manner, and Voicing ...... 46 Narrow Transcription and Use of IPA Diacritics...... 50 North American English and Articulatory Reflex ...... 52
Conclusion...... 56
Bibliography...... 58
Appendix 1: Exercises for Vowel Formation...... 61 Exploring Sensations in the Vocal Tract...... 62 Locating and Forming Specific Vowel Sounds...... 63 Exercise One: Cardinal Vowels ...... 64 Exercise Two: Tongue Vowels and Lip Vowels...... 65 Exercise Three: Vowel Practice ...... 65 Exercise Four: Secondary Vowels ...... 66 Exercise Five: Contrasting Sounds ...... 67 Exercise Six: Mixed Vowels...... 67 Exercises Seven: English Mixed Vowels...... 68
Appendix 2: North American Vowel Formation ...... 70 Additional English Vowel Considerations...... 74 Diphthongs ...... 75
Appendix 3: Consonant Allophones ...... 79 Selected Adaptations from Peter Ladefoged’s Rules for English Allophones ...... 80
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Appendix 4: Exercises in Consonant Articulation...... 85 Classifying Consonants...... 85 Exercise One: Voicing ...... 85 Exercise Two: Aural and Visual Connection...... 86 Place of Articulation...... 86 Exercise Three: Place of Articulation: Initial Consonant...... 88 Exercise Four: Places of Articulation: All Consonants...... 88 Manner of Articulation...... 88 English Allophones ...... 90 Exercise Five: Articulatory Target Practice: /d/, /n/, /t/, and /l/ allophones...... 91 Diacritic Symbols...... 92 Exercise Six: Ear Training ...... 93 Pre Phonatory Tuning ...... 94 Exercise Seven: Pre Phonatory Tuning...... 94 Pilot Consonants...... 95 Exercise Eight: Pilot Consonant /θ/ ...... 95 Exercise Nine: Pilot Consonant /p/ ...... 95
Appendix Five: Sample Language Orientation Syllabus...... 96
Illustrations
Tables
Table 1: German English Homophones...... 7
Table 2: Exercises in /i/ Vowel ...... 12
Figures
Figure 1: TheVowel Tree ...... 23
Figure 2: The Consonant Flower...... 23
Figure 3: Table of Vowel Sounds ...... 36
Figure 4: Vowel Diagram...... 37
Figure 5: Vowel Triangle ...... 37
Figure 6: General IPA Vowel Quadrilateral ...... 38
Figure 7: Ladefoged’s Vowel Quadrilateral...... 39
Figure 8 Places of Articulation...... 47
Figure 9: Diacritics Recognized by the International Phonetic Association...... 79
Figure 10: Upper Vocal Tract ...... 87
Figure 11: Lower Vocal Tract...... 87
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to David Adams, Kenneth Griffiths, and Mary Henderson Stucky for their guidance and expertise. I also wish to thank Timothy Butz, for his invaluable technical support. My immense gratitude goes to my husband, Ashley, without whose encouragement and patience this document would have never come to be.
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Introduction
Foreign language diction is a compulsory subject in the first year of most vocal performance degrees. The majority of university programs require a one year course covering
Italian, German, and French lyric diction. The course often begins with a study of vowel and consonant formation, using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent each sound with a symbol. The students then learn the patterns of spellings in each language and the resulting IPA symbols. There is typically a performance component to the course, in which students make a direct application of their new skill to vocal literature.
The effectiveness of this standard diction course format can vary. Certainly, in the space of one year, such a course can only provide an introduction to the complexities of singing in foreign languages. However, ideas about vowel formation and consonant articulation introduced in this formative period have a lasting impact on the student’s entire concept of singing.
Discovering the most effective means of imparting this information is therefore of great importance.
The teacher of the beginning diction course faces many challenges. Some fortunate students have studied one of the three languages in high school, but far more have had no prior study. Furthermore, many colleges offering vocal performance degrees fail to offer a complete range of language courses, making the beginning diction course the students’ only undergraduate exposure to some foreign languages. Still, it is expected at most universities that freshmen present a jury to their voice faculty at the end of the first year, in which they must demonstrate beginning competence in singing foreign language songs.
Because of the typical freshman’s lack of linguistic education and the time allotted to the course in the student’s curriculum, the objectives of the class will inevitably differ from those of
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a graduate class. There are several diction texts available, but only a small number are written for the inexperienced freshman; most are written primarily for a graduate audience. A graduate student using these books will have some rudimentary understanding of grammar, and will be expected to reach intermediate competence in lyric diction by the end of the course. A period of language orientation for undergraduates, in which students are introduced to phonetics, the anatomy of the vocal tract, and IPA, would render them better prepared for the more advanced concepts to come.
All diction books written for a North American audience contain English words for the purpose of comparing them with foreign sounds. This is a convenient way to create a general aural proximity, but it has its dangers. Spoken English exists only as spoken by individuals with their regional accents and personal habits, which transfer directly to their singing. The fact that
English is one’s native tongue does not guarantee that one will naturally sing and communicate well in it.
If examples from English are to be used effectively, students need an understanding of proper formation of the vowels and consonants of the English language. If time is taken to secure this skill, students will develop well formed English sounds that can be adjusted to make well formed foreign sounds. Conversely, without a good understanding of English diction, poorly formed English sounds will only be repeated or further maladjusted in other languages. While the majority of voice students in North American universities are native English speakers, it is important to acknowledge the increasing number of those who are not. If a text contains English examples, then those who are not native English speakers will need more guidance than those who are, if these examples are to hold any meaning.
2
The review of lyric diction books that follows will consider several issues as they pertain to the teaching of undergraduates. Content, the pedagogical sequencing of information, choice of
IPA symbols, exercises, and examples will be considered.
3
Chapter One: Review of Multiple Language Diction Texts
Several lyric diction texts are available that are commonly used in undergraduate classes.
The discussion will include only diction texts that cover multiple languages, since they are most commonly used in the undergraduate setting. In some cases, the texts include English or other foreign languages, but for the purposes of consistent review, only Italian, German, and French will be addressed. The books reviewed are A Handbook of Diction for Singers , by David Adams,
Diction by John Moriarty, Diction for Singers by Joan Wall, Robert Caldwell, Tracy Gavilnes, and Sheila Allen, The Singer’s Guide to Languages by Marcie Stapp, and A Singer’s Manual of
Foreign Language Dictions by Richard Sheil.
A Handbook of Diction for Singers
David Adams’s A Handbook of Diction for Singers is currently in its second edition.
Adams gives Italian, French, and German equal consideration. Though the book is concise, it is one of the most detailed available. Adams defines beginning proficiency in his preface as
“mastering the basic rules of pronunciation, what sounds result from what letters in what context…”1 However, his book is intended to help students achieve intermediate proficiency, which might make it seem at first to be more appropriate for graduate study. In fact, it is appropriate for undergraduates to use the book to pursue Adams’s suggested standard of beginning proficiency, while being introduced to his detailed goals for intermediate proficiency as long term aspirations.
The introduction to each language includes a list of skills that constitute an intermediate level of proficiency. These concise and clear guidelines provide a benchmark for the evaluation of students’ singing and speaking. They identify the salient points unique to native pronunciation
1 David Adams, A Handbook of Diction for Singers: Italian, German, French , 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), xi.
4
in each language, with particular emphasis on common problems found in North American singers. It is appropriate for the young singer to be introduced to these standards at the earliest stage of study, since early awareness of the linguistic characteristics of each language will help tune the ears of young singers to detail, both in listening to professional singers and in their own oral and sung work. Adams’s standards for intermediate proficiency in each language follow:
Italian 2 1. Purity of vowels, with particular attention to unstressed syllables.
2. No diphthong in pronouncing /e/, /ε /, /o/, and /ɔ/.
3. Appropriate “lift” or brightness to /a/.
4. Long, sustained vowels in stressed syllables before a single consonant.
5. Proper linking of vowels between words.
6. Basic understanding of open and closed e and o.
7. Short single consonants.
8. Long double consonants.
9. Forward articulation and nonaspiration of consonant sounds.
10. Relative lengthening of l, m , n , and r when initial in consonant clusters.
German 3 1. An understanding of German word structure, which significantly affects the pronunciation of German, in particular vowel quality and length.
2. Proper pronunciation of the ich-Laut /ç/ and the ach-Laut /x/ and when each is used.
3. Correct and consistent formation of the mixed vowels.
4. Correct and consistent formation of /e/ and /o/.
5. Proper sequencing and articulation of consecutive consonant sounds within and between words.
2 Ibid., 3 4. 3 Ibid., 84.
5
French 4 1. A thorough understanding of French spelling and the sounds resulting from those spellings.
2. Purity (no diphthongs) of vowels.
3. Appropriate “lift” or brightness to /a/ and / ε /.
4. The sounds of the four nasal vowels (including not sounding the n or m) and keeping the sounds distinct one from another.
5. The proper formation of the mixed vowels.
6. Forward articulation and nonaspiration of consonants.
7. A basic understanding of liaison.
Each chapter is organized similarly. Adams lists the vowels and consonants of each language and the corresponding IPA symbols used for each sound. He groups the sounds into the following categories: vowels, glides, fricative consonants, lateral consonants, affricative consonants, vibrant consonants, and nasal consonants. While these terms are not specifically defined, they offer the opportunity for an expanded description of the place and manner of articulation. Foreign language examples are used to illustrate each sound. Included in the chart of sounds are diacritic symbols used to indicate vowel length, syllabic stress, and in the case of
German, glottal stroke.
A discussion of dictionaries follows, which is helpful given that pronunciation guides in dictionaries vary. Adams does not make specific recommendations for which dictionary to purchase, but he does list the basic requirements of a good dictionary for singers, and he stresses the importance of choosing a recently published dictionary with IPA.
Adams approaches each language systematically, discussing diacritical marks, word stress, syllabification, and (in the German chapter only) word structure and etymology.
4 Ibid., 145 6.
6
Introducing these concepts prior to the rules of IPA is essential in the pedagogical sequence.
Often, lack of understanding of these concepts at the beginning can cause students to have difficulty in correctly determining vowel quality and length when IPA is introduced. Young students will need exercises, both written and oral, to supplement these critical concepts.
Each chapter includes a detailed description of the vowels, glides and consonants. Adams elaborates on the formation of vowels and correct articulation of consonants using precise anatomical language, pointing out how American sounds differ in formation from the foreign language sounds. This distinction is essential, especially in the acquisition of pure vowels and dental consonants. Whereas some diction texts use English words as exemplars in helping students arrive at a foreign sound, Adams uses English words by way of contrast. IPA has its limitations, in that the same symbol can have slightly varied formation from one language to another. Adams uses homophones from German and English to contrast the minute difference in tongue and lips position of /u/ in Table 1.
German English Ruh’ rue
Mut moot
Flut flute
Schuh’ shoe
Table 1: German English Homophones 5
Adams makes an unconventional choice in his discussion of the quality of stressed e and o in Italian. Adams’s philosophy is as follows: “Because of the complexity of determining whether e is to be pronounced /e/ or / ε /, and whether o is to be pronounced /o/ or /ɔ/ in Italian, diction texts have had to devote a considerable amount of space to this point, giving the
5 Ibid., 97.
7
impression that it is perhaps the most important aspect of Italian diction. While certainly important, other aspects of Italian are more fundamental (for example, the purity of vowel sounds and appropriate articulation of single and double consonants) and should be perfected before spending a great deal of time learning the intricacies of open and closed e and o.”6 This proclamation is quite liberating to the teacher of beginning diction. A goal for beginning students should be the association between IPA symbol and properly formed sound.
As IPA has come into standard use, there has been an increase in the IPA transcriptions available. The musical scores edited by John Glenn Paton, and the opera libretti translated and transcribed by Nico Castel are notable among these. Online resources abound, too, and vary in their accuracy and approach. Among the more reliable resources for IPA transcriptions of songs and arias is IPA Source (http://www.ipasource.com), the creation of voice teacher and singer
Bard Suverkrop. It is tempting for young students to believe that they do not need to learn the rules of IPA, because these resources are available. Teachers cannot ignore their existence: students will find and use them. It is only the most standard repertoire that is available, but for young students studying mainly standard repertoire, it is possible to form the impression that everything that they need is readily available. It is the teacher’s responsibility to make students aware of particular sources’ reliability and to set a standard for their appropriate use. These resources are, of course, completely useless without a full understanding of the sounds and formations represented by the IPA symbols.
Until more advanced study allows for the memorization of specific rules for determining the use of open or closed e and o in Italian, each student’s primary resource should be a reliable dictionary. Other IPA sources can vary in their methods, and it will be important to establish consistency at this juncture. One way in which reliable sources can be used in the classroom is to
6 Ibid., 37 8.
8
set them as exercises in reading directly from IPA, rather than from a printed text. This is an excellent means of verifying a student’s ability to associate symbols with sounds correctly. It should be stressed that using IPA to read a foreign language text is only a first step. As students become proficient in using the rules of IPA, and accurately forming sounds, they must read original texts, not IPA transcriptions, which in themselves hold no meaning or prosody.
Adams’s chapter on German diction goes into a detailed explanation of word stems and word structure. There is no doubt that a thorough understanding of this material is necessary in an advanced setting. For students with no previous knowledge of German, this area needs simplification. There is often a lack of understanding of English grammar among freshmen, making it necessary to review terms such as prefix, suffix, and preposition before introducing them in German. Supplementary material will also be needed for beginners to understand
German verb conjugations and tenses. Though time consuming, this remedial work lays the foundation for a more complete understanding of German diction that can only come after the student is able to take a German language course.
Adams provides greater detail than any other text in pointing out the different rules governing the pronunciation of Germanic versus non Germanic words. This is crucial information, though perhaps an area that needs to be simplified for the undergraduate. The young student might be expected to recognize the difference in word origin, but to memorize only the rules governing words of Germanic origin. At this point in their studies, students should be advised to use a reliable dictionary to aid them with words of non Germanic origin.
There are different ideas in diction texts about how to represent German diphthongs in
IPA. Adams uses IPA that corresponds to the Siebs dictionary (/ae/, /ao/, and /ɔø/). The second
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vowel in all three German diphthongs is closed, giving a purer glide off sound than the English variants of the same diphthongs.
The French chapter is as detailed as the previous chapters, and certain concepts must consequently be simplified. Again, a basic understanding of grammar is necessary in order for the student to see features of the language, such as feminine adjectival endings and the verb ending ent . It is useful that Adams includes a brief section defining terms relating to French.
Here he introduces mute e, elision, liaison, aspirated and unaspirated h, and vocalic harmonization. These concepts are explained in full later in the chapter, but this brief introduction is sufficient for the young singer. Specific examples can be addressed in the literature students will prepare for the performance component of the course.
Adams’s only debatable choices in this chapter are his choice of nasal vowels, and the omission of stress marks in the IPA. He chooses the closed /õ/ instead of the open /ɔ̃/ found in most French dictionaries, and dark /ɑ̃/ in favor of the bright /ã/. Given the North American tendency to avoid rounding, one can see the wisdom of these choices. The omission of stress marks in Adams’s IPA accurately reflects the largely (if not completely ) unstressed nature of the French language. This distinctive feature may be one of the most challenging qualities for students completely unfamiliar with French to assimilate. Perhaps the only advantage to including stress marks in French would be to insure against the unintentional accenting of inappropriate syllables.
The overall thoroughness and clarity of this text is consistent in all three languages. Both the examples for speaking and the musical examples are well chosen, and could be expanded upon to create supplemental exercises. This book is adaptable for use in an undergraduate course,
10
with judicious omissions. Its clearly defined standards of proficiency and intelligently sequenced material make it simple for the diction teacher to create a comprehensive syllabus.
Adams fills a particular void in the academic writings on Italian diction. The topics of proper articulation of double consonants, the various types of diphthongs and triphthongs, and many musical examples showing phrasal doublings and triplings are not to be found anywhere else. He is the only author under consideration herein to observe intervocalic doublings of gli , gn , z, and sc that are standard in Italian dictionaries.
It is beyond the scope of those without prior language study to appreciate this book fully.
However, it contains the most accurate information, and used selectively, there is no better introduction to the rules of the languages. It is a book that will become increasingly valuable as students progress in their studies.
Diction
John Moriarty’s book Diction has been widely used in teaching undergraduate courses since its first publication in 1968. At the time of its publication, there were very few diction manuals in print, especially books that used IPA and addressed multiple languages. This book remains unconventional: first, in its 81 exercises for speaking and singing, and second, in its organization. It is divided into two sections of roughly equal length. The first half deals with forming and practicing vowels and consonants and the second half covers rules of pronunciation for Italian, Ecclesiastical Latin, French, and German.
The first section is especially appropriate for beginning students, as it introduces them to the anatomy of the buccal cavity. Each consonant and vowel is described in detail, and the 81 exercises are designed to refine formation. Words from English are relied on heavily to help students find the proper foreign sound. Moriarty’s inclusion of all sounds of Italian, German, and
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French side by side with English sounds opens up an interesting pedagogical question: how are familiar English words used to guide the student towards accurate foreign sounds? Additionally, is it beneficial for students to receive a general orientation to all sounds of Italian, German, and
French prior to an in depth study of the rules for IPA in each language?
In an exercise similar to the exercise using English and German homophones previously quoted from Adams’s text, Moriarty uses the sets of similar words shown in Figure 2 to guide students to the correct pronunciation of the /i/ in English, German, and French.
English German French veer wir vie
mere mir mie
ear ihr irise
dear dir dire
lease liess lys
Table 2: Exercises in /i/ Vowel 7
Most undergraduates have poor English diction, especially in casual speech, and it is probable that their native /i/ vowel is so poor as to make it an unusable model for other languages. Moriarty alludes to this difficulty in his preface, stating, “…American singers, because their speech tends to be quite imprecise, in particular need to make a thorough study of phonetics and diction. Our vowels are vague and often back produced. We tend to make diphthongs out of monophthongs, triphthongs out of diphthongs.” 8
He points out in his instructions to this exercise that the American /i/ may have a diphthong not present in the foreign sound /i/. This exercise would need careful aural monitoring,
7 John Moriarty, Diction: Italian, Latin, French, German: The Sounds and 81 Exercises for Singing Them (Boston: E.C. Schirmer Music Co., 1975), 24. 8 Ibid., xi xii.
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to ensure that students’ own native /i/ vowels were clear and well formed, lest they run the risk of simply rearticulating poorly formed sounds in the other languages.
There is also the problem of how the consonants surrounding the vowel affect the formation of the vowel itself. In the case of the English words, no mention is made of the effect of the American r on the vowel sound, which generally tends to be formed with tension in the back of the tongue. Since all words in Moriarty’s example use this consonant, rhoticity is likely to be an issue for a North American singer. For most young students, working with vowels independently from consonants is the simpler way to begin their orientation. The example also calls into question the effect of the German r and the French schwa on the general positioning of the lips and tongue, which could impact the sound of each /i/.
Moriarty chooses good examples to illustrate differences in vowel color from language to language. This exercise might work best for the beginner as an ear training exercise in which the student can hear the identifying colors of each language’s vowels and consonants. The skill of articulating the contrasting sounds accurately side by side could be used to make the general point that there are perceptible differences in the sounds of a single IPA symbol across different languages.
If English examples are used without undertaking some preliminary study in English diction, students’ speaking habits may be as much a liability as an asset. Study of students’ habits of native vowel formation would provide a frame of reference for this exercise that could markedly increase its effectiveness.
The merit of the opening section of this book is that it gives more attention to the description and formation of vowels and consonants than any other text. It seems appropriate to devote an equal amount of time to formation and to rules at the undergraduate level. Many of the
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exercises are extremely useful, especially those not based on English words, such as the exercises for the mixed vowels of French and German. Much information about the common errors in North American pronunciation and articulation is included, and the exercises would be helpful in bringing young students to an understanding of their personal reflex responses. A useful table explains voiced and unvoiced consonants. The introduction of this phonetic material will help students understand the rules that require this knowledge, as it is introduced with the
IPA rules of each language.
At the beginning of the chapters dealing with each language, Moriarty weighs the merits and faults of dictionaries, and makes specific recommendations. He begins each language section with a table of sounds, and goes on to address syllabification and stress, but only in a cursory manner. Perhaps this is because he does not use any symbols for vowel length or stress in his
IPA. He elaborates on rules of spelling for vowels and consonants in each language, and offers good examples of specific foreign words to illustrate. No musical examples are included.
Each chapter closes with a section called Traps for American Singers . It is interesting to compare these with Adams’s goals for intermediate proficiency. Moriarty summarizes these common mistakes as follows:
Italian 9 1. Are you pronouncing /t/ and /d/ on the teeth?
2. Are you sliding in and out of vowels?
3. Are you distinguishing between double and single consonants?
4. Are you using /I/ and /ʊ/ instead of /i/ and /u/ when these sounds occur before consonants?
5. Are your /e/ and /o/ too high and round?
6. Is your delivery relaxed and smooth?
9 Ibid., 150 1.
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French 10 1. Are you singing true legato?
2. Do your vowels keep the same quality from beginning to end?
3. Are your high vowels high enough and your round vowels round enough?
4. Do you sound an m or n in nasal vowels?
5. Are the nasal vowels too nasal?
6. Are you using the bright French /a/?
7. Are you accurate in the French neutral vowel /ə/?
8. Do you pronounce the consonant sounds /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ with a rich quality?
7. Is it clear?
German 11 1. Are the high vowels high enough? Are the round vowels round enough?
2. Do you slide into vowels?
3. Do you maintain the same vowel quality throughout the length of the vowel sound?
4. Are you articulating all consonants?
5. Are you correct in your use of /x/ and /ç/?
6. Do you elide into words or roots beginning with a vowel?
Some of Moriarty’s aims are similar to Adams’s, but there are notable differences, especially in Italian. His advice to American singers to check that the Italian /e/ and /o/ are not too high is of particular interest. Adams hears the North American problem as being the opposite in Italian pronunciation, stating that the North American /e/ and /ε/ lack appropriate lift or height. 12 Moriarty favors the open vowel in sung Italian. He postulates that “…unstressed vowels
10 Ibid., 218 19. 11 Ibid., 253. 12 Adams, A Handbook of Diction for Singers , 3.
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seem to keep their height (their closure, their tension) before the stressed syllable, perhaps even in anticipation of it. The stress (which is quite strong in Italian) then seems to release the tension in the word, causing subsequent vowels to relax and open.” 13
There is disagreement among authors as to how closely sung Italian mirrors the spoken language, in which both pre tonic and post tonic e and o are pronounced as closed vowels.
Moriarty’s interpretation allows for more than one open vowel in a word; one could argue that this obscures the natural contrast inherent in the spoken language. This is a complex debate, and many factors must be considered. Some students might respond more favorably vocally to an open or closed vowel depending on tessitura. Musically, one has to consider the tempo of text in making this choice; for example, secco recitative versus a sustained passage. Adams and
Moriarty are at odds on this point, and one would need to be convinced of the overriding vocal benefits of Moriarty’s position before requiring students to memorize his rules for unstressed
Italian e and o.
Another point of difference between the two authors is Moriarty’s lack of indication of vowel length and syllabic stress in the IPA. This is essential for the beginning student whose ear is still adjusting to the patterns and cadences of Italian speech. Furthermore, Moriarty makes no mention of the lengthening of Italian l, m, n or r before consonants, which is one of Adams’s suggested goals.
Moriarty’s discussion of French diction is clearly organized and presents information in a broad enough context for undergraduate use. He provides a helpful list of the most commonly used words beginning with an aspirated h, and a general list of troublesome French words that would be helpful to a beginner. His discussion of elision and liaison are not as thorough as
Adams’s, but would be appropriate for younger students. His advice to Americans singing in
13 Moriarty, Diction , 116.
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French to “richly” pronounce /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ is somewhat odd, as it would seem vital to consider these sounds in the context of the poetic and musical phrase. Perhaps he is making reference to the anticipatory gesture of lip rounding that accompanies the formation of these fricatives.
As with his Italian section, Moriarty does not use vowel length or syllabic stress in the
German chapter. In a language where there is an obvious connection between vowel length and quality, this seems lacking. Again, for the beginner developing an appreciation for the characteristic features of each language, this would be among the most noticeable features of
German. Moriarty refers to German words of foreign origin as “loan words” in his text, and treats them as exceptions rather than providing a new set of rules as Adams does. Moriarty uses the version of the German diphthongs that again favors the open vowel for the final glide off
(/aI/, /aʊ/, and /ɔY/), inviting the possibility that the German diphthongs will sound too similar to their English counterparts. His discussion of German grammar is broader than Adams’s, and offers a good reduction for a less experienced audience.
Despite the broad focus of this text, and its admirable amount of attention given to vowel and consonant formation, the author’s controversial pedagogical stance on certain vowels should be considered, if it is to be used in the undergraduate lyric diction course. The omission of word stress and syllabic stress in all languages would be particularly unfriendly to the young student.
Also, the lack of musical examples makes it difficult for the student to transfer the information from theoretical to practical use. However, the exercises in the first half of the book are useful, especially if used progressively, adding new sounds as the student learns each language.
Diction for Singers
This is a book written for the beginning singer. The introduction states, “…it is intended as a concise reference for singers who need to pronounce these languages in their libretti or song
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texts. It is especially suited for use as an undergraduate text in diction classes and offers a solid foundation in pronouncing these languages, as well as future use as a standard reference.” 14 It covers the three basic foreign languages, includes a chapter on English diction, and expands to include Latin and Spanish. Each chapter contains three sections, the first being an “at a glance” chart of all the sounds in each language. It lists each foreign letter and its position in a word, shows the resulting IPA symbol, and then provides an example word in the foreign language.
Next, the special features of each language are presented in topics such as syllabification, word stress, types of consonants, apocopation, and elision. The final section in each chapter is a detailed discussion of each letter alphabetically, in every possible configuration. The descriptions of formation, though not particularly specific, provide a general orientation. While this method of organization may appear user friendly to the undergraduate student, it lends itself to presenting too many rules in multiple places, making the material appear at once more complex and repetitive. It does not allow the student to see the similarities that sometimes aid memorization, such as the relationship between spellings of the c and g sound in Italian.
In the Italian chapter, Wall, like Moriarty, uses a colon to express consonant length, but does not use a colon to indicate a long vowel. She departs from Moriarty’s notation, in that the stressed syllable is indicated in her IPA. Unlike the previously discussed authors, she uses the symbol /ɑ/ for the Italian a. This symbol is for a darker sound than the bright /a/ symbol that is often used. The book suggests that the student use a sound that is “…located between bright ah and dark ah.”15 One might question the choice of the darker /ɑ/ for use in Italian IPA for North
American singers who already tend to substitute a duller, lower /ʌ/ sound. This text makes the choice to elaborate on determining open or closed vowel quality of Italian e and o. With a list of
14 Joan Wall et al., Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, French, and Spanish Pronunciation (Dallas: Pst...Inc., 1989), 1. 15 Ibid., 46.
18
exceptions following each rule entry, Adams’s advice to deemphasize this seems more practical at the undergraduate level.
The German chapter points out the similarities between German and English, offering the student the following advice: “You will need to make only minor adjustments in the shape or use of articulators to produce the German sound.” 16 This is a somewhat misleading start, since most undergraduates form imploded consonants and other misarticulations in their own language. This is also true with respect to vowel sounds, which are never pure in American speech. The laziness of lip rounding in general American speech makes the /o/ of German diction feel markedly different. Oddly enough, in her discussion of the German vowels, these differences are noted.
Both Wall and Moriarty choose to use the IPA symbols that are nearly equivalent to
American English diphthongs /aI/, /aʊ/, and /ɔY/ to represent the German diphthongs, departing from Adams, who uses /ae/, /ao/, and /ɔø/. Adams makes the following point: “The difference in the IPA rendering is in the second glide off sound of the diphthong, which reflects the difficulty in precisely defining this very short sound. The English equivalents of these sounds are rendered
/aI/, /aʊ/, and /ɔI/, suggesting a less tense, less pure glide off sound after the main vowel than in
German.” 17 Wall uses the example of the word Haus in German and the same word house in
English to illustrate the contrast.
She spends considerable time discussing German word structure and grammar, as well as more interpretative issues, such as the use of the glottal, and the expressive use of consonants.
Mixed vowels only get a small paragraph, which is not sufficient for the beginning student. As with the other chapters, the alphabetical charts of vowels and consonants make it difficult to see the similarities in the rules of pronunciation. With so many similarities in German (e.g. rules for
16 Ibid., 125. 17 Adams, A Handbook of Diction for Singers , 101.
19
closed e and o, devoicing of b, d, and g), it does not seem the most pedagogically efficient layout.
Wall’s introductory remarks in the French chapter are helpful in pointing out to the beginner that several letters are often produced as one sound, and that many letters are silent. She points out that French is a language of long vowels and unaccented consonants. She discusses syllabification and stress (which, unlike Adams, she includes in the IPA). Her discussion of mixed vowels is much more elaborate in the French section than in the German, offering exercises for oral practice that would be useful in class. Her terminology for referring to the nasal vowels is unique in the literature, referring to /ɛ/̃ as first position, /ɑ̃/ as second, /õ/ as third and /œ̃/ as fourth. Though she does not say why she has made this choice, one can assume it is intended to help a young student differentiate between the sounds. She has several lists of nasalized vowel words that make good spoken class exercises. She devotes a paragraph to the mute e, which might prove insufficient to a beginner trying to master this sound.
Throughout this text, one finds marginalia that offer helpful advice about additional sources that would be informative to a young singer. This book falls short in its attempt to simplify through alphabetical organization in each chapter, and in its idiosyncratic vocabulary. In comparing it to Adams’s and Moriarty’s books, it lacks a clear concept of what the student is expected to achieve in each language. One misses the broader comparison showing how each language is unique. There are no musical examples. The author’s decision to organize all information in exactly the same format for each chapter results in information being presented too narrowly. This imposing structure narrows the lens too tightly, missing the opportunity to guide the young student to perceive the patterns in the language that make it simpler to organize information into rules.
20
The Singer’s Guide to Languages
This is a diction text written for students with little to no foreign language background.
Her approach is quite different from other texts, offering not only a guide to pronunciation in
Italian, German, and French, but also a guide for translating texts. She too uses IPA, but with less regimentation. Much like Moriarty, Stapp introduces the sounds of the languages in her opening chapter, offering the most thorough description of vowel and consonant formation available. The chapter begins with a simplified diagram of the vocal instrument showing the pharyngeal, oral, and nasal cavities, and the surrounding anatomy. Channels through which breath flows are left white (trachea, larynx, vocal folds, pharynx, and oral/nasal cavity), while the articulators (lips, teeth, and tongue) are colored black. Stapp discusses how vowels and consonants are made in a pedagogically sound manner, even pointing out common flaws in speech sound that lead to poor vocalism, such as nasality, pressing, and constriction of the pharynx. In no other text will one find such a detailed connection between proper vowel and consonant formation, and good vocalism. There could be no more important concept imparted to a young singer in a diction class.
In her discussion of the IPA, Stapp humorously describes the trial of a young student listening to a recording of a native French singer, while trying to find English sounds that approximate the foreign sounds. She certainly makes a case for using IPA, but also points out its weakness: “…although the IPA alphabet does allow for good approximation of foreign sounds, it still fails to provide a perfect representation.” 18 She sets forth a table of vowels and consonants, using sample words from Italian, French, German, and English, with the following caveat: “It must be stressed that due to the major fallacy of the IPA alphabet just discussed, the English words are not to be used as ‘models’ for importing identical sounds into other languages. This
18 Marcie Stapp, The Singer’s Guide to Languages (San Francisco: Teddy’s Music Press, 2002), 11.
21
listing is rather designed to merely illustrate which basic sounds do or do not occur in each language.” 19
Vowels are divided into the following categories: tongue, lip, mixed, middle, nasal, glides, and special vowels. One possible advantage to these designations is the absence of the words “back” and “front”, which for a young singer can lead to poor vocalism if misunderstood.
Consonants are divided into unvoiced plosives, voiced plosives, unvoiced fricatives, voiced fricatives, liquid consonants, combinations, and special consonants. This is followed by a series of excellent exercises that require the student to perform experiments in vowel and consonant formation using a mirror or a partner for another perspective. Throughout, she makes references to specific regional accents, such as those of New England and the Upper Midwest, and explains the effect on the vowel or consonant under consideration.
While Moriarty invented the designations of /e² / and /o² / to represent variation in these sounds from Italian to French and German, Stapp invents an equally creative, if not elegant, solution. Below are two figures from her book, the “vowel tree” and the “consonant flower”.
These figures may seem somewhat whimsical, but they are completely reasonable representations of the subtleties that cannot be captured by IPA. Terms such as “offshoots” or
“close relatives” help put the imprecision of IPA into graspable perspective for the young singer.
One can see the similarity of her vowel tree to the less imaginative vowel triangle or vowel quadrilateral traditionally found in other diction textbooks.
19 Ibid.
22
Figure 1: TheVowel Tree 20
Figure 2: The Consonant Flower 21
20 Ibid., 30. 21 Ibid., 32.
23
The second part of Stapp’s book is also unique, and especially appropriate for the beginner. The fact that most freshmen lack an understanding of grammar in their own native language puts them at a disadvantage as they begin to study other languages. A case can be made for devoting more time to this area in the early years of study than at the graduate level. Stapp invests much effort in the interest of helping a young student develop a strategy for translating foreign text. This skill, so specific and central to the singer, requires a more accelerated pace than can be provided by the language classes that an undergraduate will take. If this skill is not included in a diction class, it is unlikely to be found elsewhere in the traditional curriculum.
The information is organized into the following categories: Sentence and Clause, Word
Order, Number and Person, Gender, Case, Tense, Mood, Voice, and Parts of Speech. Without basic understanding of these concepts, there will be holes in the young singer’s application of diction rules. Will memorizing a rule about using /e/ in Italian suffixes -etta and –ezza be retained by a student who is not able to identify a diminutive suffix? Will a student be able to identify a German separable prefix, without first understanding what a prefix is and how it functions?
With a vast body of translation books and online resources readily available, it is imperative for the young student to understand that there is no substitute for one’s own literal translation. There is no better way of becoming familiar with the structure of a language.
In this book, which spends a high proportion of time on vowel and consonant formation and grammar, it is interesting to see how Stapp approaches the IPA “rule” portion of her book.
Stapp’s philosophy can be summarized as follows: “…this book is offered as a simple yet precise guide to singing in English, Italian, French, and German. Its primary purpose is to acquaint the singer with the workings of his instrument, to suggest ways in which it may be used most
24
efficiently, and to provide him with the basic tools necessary to conquer the task of singing in foreign languages…Its fundamental premise is that the singer need not waste time conjecturing on rules of pronunciation but should rather follow a systematic approach to achieving a truly accurate and convincing manner of singing in each language.” 22
Nowhere in Stapp’s book will one find specific rules such as in the other reviewed texts, though her comments are pragmatic and echo many of the same ideas found in those books. She addresses vowel quality and length, consonant articulation, diacritical marks, apocopation, and homographs. These concepts are discussed succinctly, and she does not use many examples to illustrate them. The few she does use are not written in IPA. If this book has a fault, it might be that more concrete information about spellings and resulting IPA symbols is necessary for a young student. All of Stapp’s information is accurate and helpful, and would be well received as an introduction to the basic spellings and their resulting IPA symbols. It seems a large leap from the opening section, with its detailed and precise information about formation and articulation of language, to a discussion of diction that assumes an understanding of spellings and resulting symbols at a fairly refined level.
The missing step here is the mundane application of rules, which any young singer requires to build a foundation. Presence of syllabic stress marks and vowel length (and use of
IPA in general) would have served to clarify students’ understanding of many concepts that she eloquently explains. Used as an undergraduate text, the beginning student may be left with an excellent concept of how to form sounds, but without a set of rules specific to each language that detail how and when to use those sounds.
The most unique and effective contribution made by Stapp can be found in her sections for each foreign language, entitled “Method for Transcribing and Translating”. Clearly, her
22 Ibid., 2.
25
concept of working with language far exceeds the scope of good diction. Translation is a natural outgrowth, and one that enhances the student’s understanding of diction concepts, as well as being an independently necessary singer’s skill. In an ideal curriculum, there would be time to spend in this area, but in a course that generally allows ten to fourteen weeks to get through one or more languages, some important concepts have to be abbreviated or omitted.
One may imagine the possibilities that could be explored if this subject could be synchronized with traditional language studies. In terms of its direct application to diction rules,
Stapp’s charts of regular verb endings in all tenses, irregular verb stems, irregular verbs and past participles, would be most helpful in supplementing other texts. For each language, Stapp also offers a chart of key words containing articles, pronouns, possessives, adjectives, contractions, and other miscellaneous features.
The German chapter provides a fine introduction to word structure, word order, and grammatical case. This is especially useful information for the beginner, who is forming the most basic idea about how each language looks on the page. Stapp succeeds in helping the student form a visual/grammatical concept of each language. She recommends specific dictionaries and more advanced books to supplement her writings, though what she offers herself is more than adequate to get a young singer on the right track.
This book leaves the reader with an impression of holistic concern for the singer. Stapp’s astute connections made between good diction, good vocalism, and intellectual awareness are a vital and unique contribution to the discipline. It could be a highly effective companion book to a more rule oriented textbook for the undergraduate.
26
A Singer’s Manual of Foreign Language Dictions
Richard Sheil covers a larger number of languages in fewer pages than any of the aforementioned authors in his book A Singer’s Manual of Foreign Language Dictions. It purports to be a precise guide to the pronunciation of seven languages including French, German,
Hebrew, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Roman Church Latin. He suggests that this book be used in the context of a diction class or voice studio, “as an adjunct to the process of learning new sounds orally as well as aurally”. 23
Sheil devotes the first chapter of his book to sounds and IPA symbols of vowels and consonants from all languages covered. One unique and helpful point Sheil touches on in his introductory chapter, is the prevalent North American speech habit of syllabifying consonants in words like “eaten”, where the second syllable can be sounded without a vowel sound. He points out the impact this habit can have on similarly spelled words in German. Like many other authors, he uses English words to introduce foreign sounds. In Sheil’s introductory information on selected diacritical marks, he omits the colon, used for vowel and/or consonant length by other authors, but elects to include the stress mark in all languages.
Other preliminary topics include the importance of selecting and using a good dictionary, reserving specific information for future chapters. He also offers a simple sketch of the vocal tract to aid students in their understanding of the anatomy, as well as the often included “vowel triangle”, describing the tongue and lip position for each vowel sound. Most useful is the glossary of terms, containing not only the terminology Shiel himself uses, but also vocabulary a student might come across in other books. Definitions of vowel quality and length, for example, often need to be referenced by the young student. There is no mention of syllabification or the distinguishing features of each language.
23 Richard F. Sheil, A Manual of Foreign Language Diction for Singers , 6th ed. (Fredonia, NY: Palladian, 1975), xi.
27
Sheil’s chapter on Italian diction is concise, yet offers clear and sound information. His approach to organization is much like Wall’s, but without the imposing chart style layout. He begins by discussing each Italian vowel. Also, like Wall, he uses the darker /ɑ/ to represent the
Italian sound, comparing it to a slightly brighter vowel than the first syllable of the English word father . As with other texts that rely on English word comparisons, much depends on the individual speaking patterns of each student in order for it to achieve its purpose. With the exception of the darker /ɑ/, all other vowel symbols Sheil uses are standard.
Given the effort taken to include the sketch of the vocal tract, it might have been helpful to explain the formation of vowels, as opposed to offering English key words to approximate their position. There is some detailed discussion of rules for open/closed e and o , though he frequently makes reference to the fact that there are so many exceptions that a good dictionary is indispensable. There is an oddly placed, though very good, discussion of double consonant articulation in the middle of the vowel section. He describes the various types of double consonants and stresses the importance of not articulating them by the closure of the glottis.
There is important vowel information missing: for example, in his discussion of the /i/ sound, he says “it is always pronounced /i/”. 24 This will make the explanation of the silent i following c or g more difficult to grasp when it is included in the consonant section, or in the discussion of the
/j/ glide.
As with Wall, this book’s organization of consonant information actually complicates matters of memorizing rules. Instead of grouping like combinations together, it goes through each consonant alphabetically. While Sheil often states that Italian consonants should be “devoid of escaping air”, nowhere does he ever use the term “dental” or “unaspirated”.25 His instructions
24 Ibid., 27. 25 Ibid., 32.
28
for a properly articulated l are excellent, with a detailed description of a common American l and the faults it can cause in Italian pronunciation. There are a few misleading comments. Among them, Sheil’s assertion that “the front trilled r is the only r used in Italian” suggests that there is only a rolled r and no flipped r . 26 This could certainly mislead students in articulating the intervocalic flipped r. He leaves out nq as a spelling for /ŋ/. He also favors the Tuscan unvoiced
/s/ for intervocalic s, though he does offer the possibility of using /z/, and points out that consistency is imperative.
There is a section on linking syllables and on how to determine the precise rhythmic value of each vowel involved. This is a difficult subject to address purely in words, and does not lend itself well to precise formulation. He suggests dividing the vowels of a diphthong “roughly in half”. 27 This could easily be misinterpreted by a young singer looking for absolute guidance in an area that cannot practically be so defined. It does not take into account the many types of diphthongs that exist in Italian. Perhaps more musical examples than the three included would have provided a more flexible explanation.
Sheil’s German chapter is also rich with accurate information, but it is delivered in a way where rules are presented out of context from the broader understanding of the language. It is clear that Sheil obviously knows the logic behind the rules, but he elects not to explain it to the reader, perhaps for the purpose of being concise. German, even more than French or Italian, is a language where word structure and grammar affect pronunciation. Neither of these concepts is discussed, making rules appear random in a language that is actually quite orderly. For example, the endings bar , sal , sam , los, and -tum are listed as a group of closed vowel endings. This is done with no mention that all of these endings are suffixes.
26 Ibid., 35. 27 Ibid., 39.
29
Sheil’s vowel terminology is rather confusing in this chapter as well. He uses the term
“closed vowel” to mean “closed and long”, thereby omitting the need to use a colon to indicate length in the IPA. This is especially confusing to the student for the German /a/, which can be long or short. Sheil refers to it as a “closed” vowel, simply because it follows the same pattern as other closed vowel spellings. 28 He also refers to the /ø/ as an open vowel, which is a mixed vowel based on two closed vowels. 29 A precise discussion of German vowels requires a specific vocabulary to designate vowel quality and vowel length. Sheil’s vocabulary in this area is confusing.
Sheil’s spellings for the German diphthongs are the same as Moriarty’s, and seem to have more in common with English diphthongs than with German. The /aʊ/ is not round enough, nor is the /aI/ bright enough. Other terminology is troubling as well, such as his description of the /i/ as “similar to the sound of the double e in our word beet, although the German /i/ is much more closed and spread.” 30 This description gives no specific information about tongue position, but invites the student to make a spread sound; the diction teacher must take into consideration the negative connotation of the term “spread” in the voice studio. His discussion of the German schwa as being a malleable sound that can be adjusted to the environment of each individual word is helpful. He gives many examples of the different shadings of the schwa that occur, some towards /œ/, some towards /ø/, and others towards /ɛ/. This discussion is unique to this text.
The German consonants are organized in the same sort of alphabetical reference style as the Wall text and therefore suffer from the same problems. Final b , d, g rules, for example, would be much more easily memorized if presented as a group. Still, as a reference, it is easy to locate information. Though stress marks are included in Sheil’s IPA, there is no mention of how
28 Ibid., 41. 29 Ibid., 43. 30 Ibid., 47.
30
stress is determined in German. There is an almost deliberate avoidance of grammar. He presents both words of Germanic and non Germanic origin and applies the same rules of pronunciation to both types. There is a brief discussion of the glottal stop and a few text (but no musical) examples.
Sheil begins his French chapter with some remarks about the features of the language, pointing out that it is misconceived as a nasal language, and that there are no strongly accented syllables, as there are in Italian. He organizes material as in the previous chapters, beginning with vowels. Again he uses the terms “spread” and “tense” in his description of /i/ and /e/.31
Young students will certainly have heard these terms in lessons, and their negative connotation will likely cause confusion at best, and lip and jaw tension in the worst case.
Sheil’s book is the only one to use /e/ for French monosyllables (mes, tes, les, etc.) in all cases. He also makes mention of the -ai- combination being pronounced as /e/ when followed by the sounds /i/, /e/, or /y/. While this is a standard suggestion, he does not mention the concept of vocalic harmonization, which would be likely to aid the student. His discussion of the other vowels is more standard, with only the broadest rules being selectively highlighted. The section explaining the mute e states that /ə/ is generally spelled with an e vowel, but does not give the student any rule to help them distinguish a schwa from any other type of e sound.
Sheil’s discussion of the formation of nasal vowels is specific and clear, complete with comparison of American nasals with French nasals. Consonants are also listed alphabetically and spellings are listed with the appropriate corresponding IPA symbol. The question the diction teacher must ask is whether or not the material is sequenced in the most pedagogically beneficial manner. The section on elision fails to mention how the mute e works when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. Another concerning omission is syllabification, which can raise
31 Ibid., 67 8.
31
questions as to vowel choice. Nasal versus non nasal vowels can only be determined if the student knows to which syllables the consonants belong: for example, “bon” and “bonne”.
Generally speaking, Sheil omits critical information in all three languages. The diction teacher is left to patch up holes where information is omitted. There are problems with incompatible vocal/diction terminology, and vowel descriptions. The teacher who wishes to use this text will need to supplement the content heavily, as well as providing musical examples and written exercises. As an overview of IPA for the languages he addresses, Sheil’s text succeeds, but its lack of detail could prove problematic even at an undergraduate level.
32
Chapter Two: The Use of Phonetics in Teaching Vowels
It has been demonstrated that there are a number of texts that suitably present to the undergraduate audience accurate information about both the formation of vowels and consonants, and the rules of pronunciation of languages. The books considered in the previous chapter seem to fall into two categories: those which include substantial information about phonetics (Moriarty and Stapp), and those which include a reduced amount of phonetic exploration in favor of devoting more attention to the rules of pronunciation. While the Moriarty and Stapp texts might be the most useful in teaching vowel formation and precise articulation, they do not offer the same detail and accuracy in their presentation of the actual application of the sounds to the language. In the case of the Stapp text, few IPA rules are offered at all. Ideally, the undergraduate should be exposed to basic phonetic skills and grammar orientation in a preparatory period of study. Armed with this knowledge, the undergraduate will be able to more thoroughly digest the specific information in a book more focused on the rules of the IPA.
Adapting Basic Phonetics to Lyric Diction
Leslie De’Ath sets forth excellent ideas for a first year lyric diction curriculum in his article “Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part One”.32 In his list of materials, he includes vocabulary lists that draw largely on terms from general linguistics and phonetics. If we are to venture into this cross disciplinary exploration, it is important to keep the following in perspective: the phoneticist aims to accurately describe and transcribe speech sounds, while the student of singing ultimately aims to transfer accurate speech sounds into beautifully sustained tone at multiple pitches.
32 Leslie De’Ath, “Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part One,” Journal of Singing 62 (September October 2005): 60.
33
Peter Ladefoged describes his work in phonetics thus: “These rules are simply descriptions of language behavior. They are not the kind of rules that prescribe what people ought to do…To the extent that phonetics is part of an exact scientific discipline, I would like to be able to formalize my descriptions of speech in terms of a set of precise statements, but these statements should be regarded as descriptive, not prescriptive rules.” 33
If the goal of the singer is to produce the ideal form of each sound (a vowel that is not only accurate but beautiful, a consonant that is not only intelligible, but free of tension), it must be considered how the study of phonetics guides the student to that end. There are two ways in which the singer can use phonetic understanding to facilitate better singing. The first, and the most obvious, is that through phonetics one gains a vocabulary to describe the physical method of production and location of sounds. The second purpose is to use phonetics to gain insight into native North American sounds, as they are exemplified in individual speech habits.
Most lyric diction textbooks take a judgmental tone in their descriptions of North
American speech habits, using words such as “lazy”, “unclear”, and “dull”. Perhaps through gaining a better understanding of how they speak, speakers of North American English can simply acknowledge and accept their manner of speaking as normal, but with the understanding that their habits frequently prevent them from making the most accurate and intelligible singing sounds. While it is unlikely students will “unlearn” years of speech habits in their native tongue, it is certainly possible to acquire new habits for new languages, some of which will doubtless improve their singing in English.
Singers have to be able to perceive the changes that must be made from native speaking habits to new singing habits. What better way to accomplish that than to begin with an understanding of the speech patterns that have become habitual over a period of many years?
33 Ladefoged, A Course In Phonetics , 88.
34
Through the study of vowels and consonants (and how they are represented in IPA), students can begin to make a blueprint of their own speech that will become the basis for the perceptive strategy needed to make accurate sounds in other languages. From phonetics, we can take descriptive information and use it for purposes of contrast.
Leslie De’Ath states this pedagogical objective clearly: “Second language acquisition is thus not a simple matter of learning new, foreign sounds. It is equally important that the student be prepared to perceive sounds that may already be familiar in a different manner. The student requires a perceptual strategy that includes recognition of sounds as contrastive units in the new language that were undistinguished at a conscious level in the native tongue, and vice versa.” 34
This perceptive comment captures the essence of the biggest diction stumbling block for the young singer: the inability to distinguish native articulation patterns from those required for idiomatic articulation of other languages. As North American English becomes increasingly homogenized through the influence of mass media, regional accents are becoming less prevalent.
Still, each student brings particular regionalisms to his or her speech, and there are certain sounds that are problematic nationally. Content for the suggested prerequisite study should contain exercises to increase the awareness of the most common patterns of North American speech, especially if there is an allophonic relationship to a sound in Italian, French, or German.
A basic understanding of phonetics and grammar focusing on the student’s native language will make the acquisition of lyric diction skills happen more efficiently and with more accurate results. Ideally, students should complete some such study of language orientation as a prerequisite to a foreign language diction class, with a full understanding of their individual
34 Leslie De’Ath, “Phonetic Similarity and Language Acquisition,” Journal of Singing 60 (September October 2003), 83.
35
patterns and habits of articulation, as well as a concept of how those sounds differ from the sounds needed to sing beautifully in Italian, German, and French.
Introducing Phonetics to Beginning Diction Students
In comparing the diction books which devote a chapter to basic phonetics to introductory chapters in general phonetics textbooks, one finds a difference in the sequence of information.
The phonetics books consistently begin with consonant articulation as the opening subject, whereas the diction books consistently lead with vowel formation. There is perhaps no greater influence on a singer’s natural timbre than the method of vowel formation. From a singer’s perspective, consonants act as conduits from vowel to vowel, a basic principle of legato singing desirable in any language. A young student who can learn to sustain a clear vowel, free of tension, has discovered a basic principle of healthy vocalism.
Many diction books include a visual representation of the vowels with regard to tongue and lip position. Below are the vowel charts used by several of the authors discussed in Chapter
One, including Moriarty, Wall, and Sheil. I have also included Leslie De’Ath’s chart from his
“Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part One”.
Figure 3: Table of Vowel Sounds 35
35 Moriarty, Diction , 6.
36
Figure 4: Vowel Diagram 36
Figure 5: Vowel Triangle 37
36 Wall, Diction For Singers , 4. 37 Sheil, A Manual of Foreign Language Diction for Singers , 10.
37
Figure 6: General IPA Vowel Quadrilateral 38
Moriarty and Sheil use a triangular form, while Wall and De’Ath use a quadrilateral form. Both show the general vowel positions effectively. The latter is more commonly used in phonetics textbooks. De’Ath offers the clearest direction for how the chart is meant to be interpreted, explaining that it shows the placement of primary cardinal vowels, secondary cardinal vowels, and other vowels encountered in lyric diction. He explains the diagram as “a representation of the oral cavity, with the front being to the left side. The dots represent the highest arch of the tongue”.39 He also cautions the reader that these are approximations, and that their value rests in showing relative, rather than exact, relationships between vowels and diphthongs. 40
It is of interest to note that the authors of lyric diction texts, with the exception of Wall, tend to omit the traditional labels included in the vowel quadrilateral used in phonetics texts.
Below is the vowel quadrilateral taken from Ladefoged’s A Course In Phonetics . It uses the
38 De’Ath, “Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part One,” 72. 39 Ibid., 69. 40 Ibid.
38
terms high/low and front/central/back to describe the position of the tongue, while the rounded/unrounded element describes the position of the lips.
Figure 7: Ladefoged’s Vowel Quadrilateral 41
While the vowel quadrilateral may be the most accessible way to introduce vowel formation to the young voice student, it is not without its limitations. Though these designations are meant to refer to tongue and lip positions, the cautious teacher might be concerned about the negative connotations associated with terms like “back” and “low” when used to describe tone production in the voice studio. Like many terms used in the voice studio (head and chest resonance, for example), these phonetic terms were originally codified as descriptors, not as empirically derived terms. Ladefoged speaks to this point in his A Course In Phonetics :
“[T]here is only a very rough correspondence between the traditional descriptions in terms of tongue position and the actual auditory qualities of the vowels. If you could take x ray pictures
41 Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics , 38.
39
that showed the position of your tongue while you were saying the vowels [i, æ, ɑ, u], you would find that the relative positions were not as indicated...” 42
In fact, in his later book, Ladefoged provides MRI images of the vowels, along with charts showing acoustic representations. In Vowels and Consonants of the World by Ladefoged and Maddieson, the authors discuss issues that arise with the traditional vowel quadrilateral.
Among them is the inaccuracy of this model in reflecting the relationship between the height of the soft palate and the height of the vowel—a phenomenon that can be perceived aurally and documented acoustically. They assert that the chart does not take into account the fact that, in most spoken American English, there is a lowering of the soft palate for the low vowels /u/, /o/,
/ɔ/, and /ɑ/.43
Looking at the vowel quadrilateral, it would appear that there is similar palatal height between /i/ and /u/, but the MRI images of these spoken sounds show otherwise. This is a case where the singer can benefit from the phoneticist’s assessment of an American speech habit in recognizing its impact on the singing sound. In understanding a native tendency, in this case, the lowering of the velum for the low vowels, the singer can make the proper adjustment by way of contrast. Just as teachers of singing continue to use descriptive terms for resonance, phoneticists still use the vowel quadrilateral as an effective tool in communicating general orientation and sensation.
However, it seems there are scientific as well as pedagogical reasons for the diction teacher to reconsider the terminology used to describe vowels. Stapp’s solution of organizing vowels into tongue vowels, lip vowels, mixed vowels, middle vowels, and nasal vowels (there is
42 Ibid., 80. 43 Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson, The Sounds of the World’s Languages (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1996), 284 5.
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a category of special vowels as well for schwa based sounds), would still allow the discussion of tongue positions, without using vocabulary which may have a negative connotation.
For a student of diction to fully understand how vowels are formed, it is necessary to cover the anatomy of the vocal tract. The schematics in Stapp’s book are excellent. They are simplified to show only the parts relevant to diction. The following terms should be identified and explained to the student: trachea, larynx, vocal folds, glottis, pharynx, epiglottis, uvula, tongue, soft palate, hard palate, oral cavity, and nasal cavity. When this information is secure, the vowel quadrilateral can be introduced. Whether the teacher chooses to use the traditional descriptive terms of the vowel quadrilateral, or terms suggested by Stapp, the student will observe movements in the tongue, lips, and jaw during vowel formation.
This early exploration can be extremely useful in helping the student towards uncomplicated and tension free vowel formation. This should be a guided exercise, using both aural feedback and visual feedback via a mirror. Often in the exploration, a student becomes aware of tendencies such as spreading the /i/ vowel through tension in the lips, or nasality in non nasal vowels. A student becoming aware through listening and watching will gain an understanding of the physical properties of the sounds, and will also develop an accurate descriptive vocabulary. Using the tongue positions on the quadrilateral as a relative guide, the students will learn to plot their own speech vowels on the vowel quadrilateral. While the basic relationships will, of course, remain the same, students may discover some vowels feel closer together/further apart, or higher/lower, than the model might suggest. This exercise, based on
Ladefoged’s vowel exercises found in his A Course In Phonetics , and further suggestions for guided exploration of the vocal tract, can be found in Appendix One.
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It is advisable to introduce all vowels, including diphthongs and triphthongs, of English,
Italian, German and French, in this introductory exercise. De’Ath has done the work of putting together these schematics. 44 The pedagogical focus is not on absolute precision at this juncture, but rather on helping the student achieve a simple understanding of how a vowel sound is created through tongue and lip changes. Indeed the most important realizations to the student should be that sounds are malleable, and that conscious physical adjustments can significantly alter the sound of the vowel. Understanding what adjustment produces the desired effect is the target of this exercise.
In all of the diction books reviewed, there appeared to be a lack of exercises to be applied to actual singing. In an effort to connect good vowel formation with good singing, the students should be required to perform any spoken exercise sung on pitches in the comfortable middle register of the voice. Again, using the mirror will also make students aware of any unconscious movements or tension that they bring into singing, which may be entirely different from their speech habits.
Too often, young students rely on their ears as their sole guides in making changes suggested by teachers or coaches. For the student with the natural gift for imitation of foreign language sounds, auditory feedback might be sufficient. However, those who struggle to form the sounds that they can perceive audibly, such specific guidance will be particularly valuable.
Even for students who have a more natural affinity for producing sounds, a true understanding of their formation will only aid them in finding further refinement.
While auditory assessment is essential in both teacher and student in the diagnosis and correction of vowel sounds, precise vocabulary should be used to describe the physical changes that produce those auditory changes. For example, students whose French /ə/ are not round
44 De’Ath, “Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part One,” 62 63.
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enough will need both the knowledge of the physical change that must occur, as well as the auditory perception necessary to verify the accuracy of the vowel. This is especially important to the undergraduate singer who may only have limited experience speaking and singing in foreign languages. It is common for the young singer to develop an inaccurate repertoire of close approximations of foreign language sounds solely through imitation. Developing the student’s ability to change a sound, and to recognize how that change is happening, are among the first steps towards arriving at the accurate sounds good diction demands. As the student is guided to increasing accuracy in formation, another essential skill should be encouraged: the association of the sounds with IPA symbols. This skill should be tested so that the instructor is certain the visual/physical/aural connection is secure.
orth American Regionalisms and Vowels
Kathryn LaBouff’s Singing and Communicating in English offers excellent insight into many features of North American dialects that impact clear vowel formation. In addition to her precise descriptions of vowel formation, she offers IPA transcriptions of North American vowels and diphthongs in common regional pronunciation. Her transcriptions of these sounds, in addition to her well chosen text examples, will guide students to an awareness of any such habits in their speech. LaBouff’s chapter on the English mixed vowels (/ʌ/, /ə/, /ɝ/, and /ɚ/) would be especially useful in calling the student’s attention to the uniqueness of these English sounds, especially the rhotacized sounds that the student will perceive as similar to the /œ/ and /ø/ of
French and German. Introducing the IPA diacritic for rhoticity will be necessary for contrast, should the student have difficulty with unintentionally rhotacizing the pure vowels of other languages.
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As students become more adept in their IPA skills, it will become increasingly possible for them to feel and notate such minute differences. Not only will their English diction improve, but in acknowledging their own regionalisms in speech, the unintentional substitution of English articulation habits will be less likely to occur in other languages. Most importantly, the teacher and student will develop a frame of reference to understand the origin of vowel problems encountered in any language.
Another subject LaBouff addresses is the uses of the glottal stop in English vowels. She discusses the initiation of vowel sound, and the need for a healthy breath onset. Her perspective is clearly that of the voice teacher, her dual concerns being the health of the singer and the effective expression of text. She elects not to use the term “glottal”, but describes the action as a
“breath lift” that can be found by initiating a vowel with a nearly imperceptible /h/ sound, used to ensure firm closure of the vocal folds without unnecessary subglottic pressure. The student is introduced to three diacritical IPA symbols, the latter two of which are used more often in phonetics than lyric diction. The more familiar of the three symbols, /ʔ/, is used to indicate a glottal, while /ʰ/ is used to indicate aspiration of the /h/, and /ʼ/ is used to indicate a breath lift.
LaBouff uses the following exercise to contrast the various methods of production; she uses the lightly aspirated /h/ as a means to arriving at the healthy onset. 45
ʔaim ʰaim ʼaim
There is much value in this exercise. If healthy vocalism is the goal for the young singer, this particular feature, so common in North American speech, should be addressed early in the study of diction.
45 Karen LaBouff, Singing and Communicating in English: A Singer’s Guide to English Diction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 38.
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In phonetics there are two methods of IPA transcriptions: narrow and broad.
Traditionally, lyric diction uses broad transcription, representing the language in as close to its pure form as possible. A phoneticist’s narrow transcription is essentially descriptive, and requires additional diacritics, such as the ones used in LaBouff’s exercise, to transcribe accurately what is heard. One could argue that students should be able to make narrow IPA transcriptions of their own speech in order fully to understand their own habits. It is a tool that could be used between teacher and student to represent what is heard, as opposed to an ideal form. A complete list of
IPA diacritics needed to write a narrow transcription will be presented in Appendix Three.
In an ideal curriculum, thorough study of English diction would be an excellent preliminary study to foreign languages for the undergraduate. LaBouff’s research into North
American speech habits is a valuable resource to any diction teacher working with English speaking students. I have compiled a list of her observations regarding vowel production in
Appendix Two. They are obviously intended to help students improve their English diction.
Their value, however, extends beyond this aim. She cites cases of English speakers adding sounds, deleting sounds, and substituting sounds, among other errors. These reflex responses are likely to occur in similar foreign language environments as well.
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Chapter Three: Introducing Consonants: Place, Manner, and Voicing
In his book A Course in Phonetics , Peter Ladefoged provides “an overview of articulatory phonetics and the technical terms required for describing speech”. 46 This information, so often entirely passed over or given brief consideration in diction texts, is a cornerstone in lyric diction. Ladefoged sets forth the information in the following sequence: the vocal organs, places of articulation, manners of articulation, and the description of sounds as voiced or unvoiced. He follows each topic with exercises that could easily be adapted for use in an undergraduate diction class. On the inside cover of the book, he includes the IPA consonant chart, including diacritics for general reference.
Immediate introduction of the complete array of IPA consonant symbols relevant to lyric diction is advisable. The longer a young student is exposed to the symbol before attempting to work with it in more advanced settings, such as memorizing a set of complex rules resulting from spellings in a foreign language, the more ready a student will be to move on to a more complex task. The simple visual identification of an IPA symbol with a specific physical location and sound is the goal of this phase of study.
Anatomical terms that will be necessary to understand consonant formation are: vocal tract, pharynx, oro pharynx, naso pharynx, epiglottis, lips, teeth, tongue (tip, blade, front, center, back, root), alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate or velum, and uvula. Ladefoged suggests having the student learn to sketch this mid sagittal view of the vocal tract.
46 Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics , v.
46
Figure 8 Places of Articulation 47
In learning the places of articulation, the student will have the first important piece of the puzzle in describing a consonant. The following terms will ensure consistent and accurate description.
Bilabial (formed with two lips).
Labiodental (formed with lower lip and front teeth).
Intradental (formed with tongue tip or blade between the teeth).
Dental (formed with tongue tip or blade and upper front teeth).
Alveolar (formed with tongue tip or blade and alveolar ridge).
Palato alveolar (formed with tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge).
Palatal (formed with front of the tongue and the hard palate).
Velar (formed with back of the tongue and soft palate).
47 Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics , 3.
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Most diction books use these terms, or some variant of them, but often in a way that assumes that the reader is already familiar with them. While this is suitable for the graduate audience, the undergraduate will need definitions and exercises to ensure they understand how each consonant is formed. Adams’s book offers excellent descriptions. In this period of study, students will often become aware of how their own articulations of a consonant might differ from a description offered by the instructor. Both teacher and students should keep track of the differences, as they will become important in making any adjustments needed to form foreign sounds more accurately. As each consonant is introduced, students should note their own articulation habit in a narrow IPA transcription for the purpose of contrast.
One finds a great variety of terminology in diction books to describe the manner of articulation of consonant sounds. Here follows the terminology used in the diction texts discussed in Chapter One. Ladefoged’s terminology from his book A Course in Phonetics is also included. The sequence of each author has been preserved.
Adams: fricatives, laterals, affricatives, plosives, vibrants, and nasals.48
Moriarty: plosives, fricatives, nasals, lateral and trilled, and affricatives.49
Stapp: plosives, fricatives, liquids, combinations, and special.50
Wall: makes no designations in Italian, some in German and French. In her English chapter she uses fricative, plosive, stop plosive, lateral, and glide.51
Sheil: fricatives, plosives, nasals, trilled, and laterals.52
Ladefoged: plosive, nasal, trill, tap or flap, fricative, lateral fricative, approximant, lateral approximant, ejective stop, implosive.53
48 Adams, A Handbook of Diction for Singers , 4. 49 Moriarty, Diction , 81 101. 50 Stapp, The Singer’s Guide to Languages , 22 28. 51 Wall, Diction for Singers , 6. 52 Shiel, A Singer’s Manual of Foreign Language Dictions , 12. 53 Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics, 8 11.
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Ladefoged’s categories come directly from the designations agreed upon by the
International Phonetic Association, the body that codifies the symbols of IPA. Clearly, there are more designations than are necessary for the study of lyric diction at the undergraduate level.
Some of the IPA categories apply to sounds that do not exist in English, Italian, German, or
French, and can be safely omitted. Adams and Moriarty offer the only complete lists suitable for a lyric diction class.
Phoneticists consider the category of approximants (referred to in most diction books as
“glides”) as consonants, while diction authors seem to prefer to group them with vowels, perhaps because they are so closely associated with the vowels /i/ and /u/. Adams and Moriarty differ only in their description of the consonant r, which is named still differently by phoneticists, who use the official IPA terms “flap” or “trilled” to correspond to the more common terms “flipped” and “rolled”. Leslie De’Ath adopts the official IPA terminology. 54 Perhaps this is a good example to follow, simply to be consistent and to avoid confusion. Full description of each category and practical exercises for manner of articulation can be found in Appendix Three.
In addition to the place and manner of articulation, a student must be able to describe a consonant as being voiced or unvoiced. This skill becomes imperative when applying diction rules for IPA in Italian, German, and French. As with the terms to describe manners of articulation, most diction books written for the graduate audience refer to voiced and unvoiced consonants, assuming that the reader is already familiar with the terms. This may not be the case.
Further, it is quite useful for the young student to see the relationship between pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants. Such a study in articulation will help students to see how one simple change in production can alter the meaning of a word (e.g. thigh/thy, fat/vat). Students can verify the voicing of a consonant by lightly touching the larynx while speaking or singing. With this
54 De’Ath, “Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part One,” 60.
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final element in place, the student should be encouraged to describe consonant articulation using specific vocabulary to identify place, manner, and voicing for consonant articulation.
arrow Transcription and Use of IPA Diacritics
Most diction books are quick to point out that IPA is imperfect. As my colleague David
Adams is known to say, “We do not sing in IPA.” As noted earlier, IPA for singers is used to show as close to a pure form of the language as possible in broad transcription. As an approximation, it is the best tool we have. In narrow transcriptions of IPA, one sees a vast array of symbols not commonly used in lyric diction. Symbols to represent breathiness and rhoticity, as well as stopped and palatalized releases, are among the many diacritical symbols used by phoneticists to represent more specific articulations. The absence of these diacritics in lyric diction IPA clearly does not mean that they are absent in singing. These sounds, and more, are the very sounds that teachers and coaches work diligently to correct in North American singers’ diction.
The use of descriptive diacritics in the early study of consonant formation provides a tool for the diction student to identify allophones that exist between English and the other languages studied. Leslie De’Ath has made significant contributions to this area of scholarship in his many articles for Journal of Singing . In his article “Linguistic Challenges in the Voice Studio”, he takes a phonemic inventory of Korean, identifying allophones between Korean and English, so as to gain an understanding of native Korean articulation. A voice teacher or coach responsible for guiding Korean singers in making accurate sounds in foreign languages will be able to draw upon this information to do so more effectively. De’Ath states the following: “If one establishes a phonological profile of each voice student, one can target textual difficulties in a more efficient
50
fashion.” 55 As our classrooms become increasingly internationally diverse, this will be a necessary skill for voice teachers and coaches to develop.
One can easily transfer the value of creating a phonemic inventory to North American students whose native tongue is English. Again, De’Ath states, “…it is quite feasible to acquire the basics of phonological contrast between any languages without a background or formal training in vocabulary, grammar, or syntax in one or both. Such things are quite helpful, of course, but for the purposes of anticipating reflex articulation issues, unnecessary. Equipping oneself with such tools requires relatively little time, and yields efficient and effective results”.56
Much of the difficulty a North American singer will encounter in studying diction arises from native patterns of speech that have been ingrained over years of repetition. The most efficient means of changing such patterns will come from identifying and understanding specific formations, along with learning the manner of forming other, contrasting, similar sounds. It relies on the use of precise vocabulary and sensation, as well as aural feedback.
In order to help teachers and students to develop individual phonemic/allophonic inventories, Appendix Three contains a table of consonant sounds in English, and, where applicable, their allophones. For reference, it also includes the official chart of IPA diacritics.
Use of the entire chart of diacritics would require both prolonged study in phonetics and a trained ear, if it were to be applied to a narrow transcription of language. Consequently, only those diacritics that will have the most significant impact on articulation for North American singers have been highlighted. However, it is advisable for a diction teacher to understand as many of the sounds of the diacritics as possible in order to identify them in their students’ speech. The goal for beginning students should be to arrive at a more detailed understanding of their native
55 Leslie De’Ath, “Linguistic Challenges in the Voice Studio,” Journal of Singing 63 (November/December 2006): 190. 56 Ibid., 199.
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speaking habits. An individual phonemic inventory of articulation will serve as a valuable reference for the teacher and student as they move together into the detailed study of each language.
Another excellent resource for both teachers and students is the website http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu, supported by UCLA’s Phonetics Laboratory. Here, one can find selections from Peter Ladefoged’s A Course in Phonetics , and Vowels and Consonants . This is an interactive website where one can click on IPA symbols and hear the corresponding sound.
The site contains complete IPA charts, including diacritics, and excellent supplemental material for a lyric diction class.
The site includes videos of tongue and jaw movement, which are especially useful in helping a student become aware of the parts of the vocal tract that cannot otherwise be seen.
Being able to see the impact of a retracted tongue on the larynx, or seeing the action of a glottal onset versus a balanced onset, can greatly enhance a student’s understanding. Downloadable phonetics exercises are also available, of a level appropriate for an undergraduate diction course.
Ladefoged’s work in phonetics was seminal, and his texts remain the standards in phonetics classrooms today. The free access to this information online is a tremendous boon. It could be accessed directly in the classroom, or as part of course assignments.
orth American English and Articulatory Reflex
In his A Course in Phonetics , Ladefoged describes several important phenomena of consonant articulation that could offer insight into lyric diction challenges. He states that
“…consonant gestures are superimposed on the vowel in a way that their effect is audible throughout much of the syllable.” 57 The significance of this principle for singing should not be
57 Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics , 52.
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overlooked. Whatever tension or misarticulation is present in the consonant, will be present in the vowel. For example, if a student is articulating /l/ with a retracted tongue, the following vowel is likely to retain the retracted position. The young student will need much feedback in finding the freest, clearest, and most accurate method of forming each consonant. The impact this work will have on the vowel makes it a worthy endeavor.
The second idea Ladefoged offers is a corollary to the first one. Coarticulation, the overlapping of adjacent consonants, can be observed in many ways: anticipatory, preservative, and in assimilation. In anticipatory coarticulation, “an articulator that is not necessarily involved in a given sound will nearly always start moving toward the position in the next sound in which it is the primary articulator.” 58 This principle, which sounds entirely natural in speech, can make singing a pure legato line a challenge to the English speaking singer.
Due to the sustained nature of singing, especially in slower tempi, the singer must take care that articulatory movement from one consonant to the next happens clearly, without the addition of any extra sounds. This is a speech habit that must be avoided in singing. Ladefoged suggests we can regard “positions of the vocal tract that are specified for a given sound as target positions.” 59 To avoid anticipatory articulation, the student needs a precise idea of the articulatory target, and of how to arrive there most efficiently. This concept could easily be applied to vowel positions as well, and will have a notable influence on legato line.
Assimilation exists in many languages, and like the other coarticulations, it happens to facilitate ease in speech. Cases of assimilation in singing need to be reviewed carefully to see if they aid in intelligibility of text. The phrase “in the house” pronounced with dental assimilation of the n ([In̪ ðə haʊs]), is not only easier to say, but also easier and clearer to sing. This concept
58 Ibid., 56. 59 Ibid.
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will be best understood by beginning students in their own languages prior to its introduction in
Italian diction. Students are often introduced to d, n, t, and l in Italian diction as dental consonants, without ever realizing the many allophones for these sounds in their native tongue.
Vowel deletion is another of the concepts that North American English speakers will encounter in mapping their use of consonant allophones. In words like “little”, there is virtually no vowel present in the second syllable. The consonant /l/ itself becomes syllabic. The articulation of the /l/ varies. It is commonly velarized with a retracted tongue position in North
American speech. This speech mannerism is the source of much frustration for young singers.
Again, due to the nature of sustained sound, the singer needs some form of vowel to carry pitch.
Exercises to help the student understand how to form and sustain neutral vowels that do not superimpose a retracted tongue position on the ensuing vowel, will yield benefits beyond improved English diction.
Thus, when students are introduced to consonant combinations in German, such as in the often vexing word “schmeicheln”, they will already have a frame of reference for healthy solutions. Vowel deletion can be a serious problem in text intelligibility as well as healthy vocalism. One must be aware of its occurrence across word boundaries, as well in phrases such as “nymphs and shepherds”. While the discussion in this chapter is devoted to consonants, vowel reduction should be mentioned as another consideration. It is given further attention in Appendix
Two. Like most of these concepts, it makes speech sound idiomatic, but can be problematic in the context of a sustained musical line.
The opposite of vowel deletion is epenthesis, the insertion of a sound into the middle of the word. English words such as “hanger” are sometimes mispronounced as [hæƞɡɚ], with the
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addition of a /ɡ/ in the middle of the word. 60 Common occurrences of this allophone are listed in
Appendix Three. Like many other coarticulations, the addition of the secondary sound occurs in the same place as the primary consonant being articulated. Students who exhibit this allophone in
English will be able to recognize it and correct it more efficiently when the student is introduced to similar consonant environments in the study of German diction (note possible epenthesis in the word [ ɑlaƞ(ɡ)ə]).
In describing these features of secondary articulation, that is, “an articulation with a lesser degree of closure occurring at the same time as another (primary) articulation”, the following designations will be useful: velarization, pharyngealization (or glottalization), and labialization (the rounding of the lips during consonant formation). 61 The first two terms are explained and used frequently in the allophonic table presented in Appendix Three. Other diacritics essential in describing consonant articulation in narrow transcription for lyric diction are the symbols for exploded and unexploded consonants, and glottal initiation and release.
Tuning the ear to hear these differences will be essential in guiding students to accurate narrow transcription of their own speech patterns. It is possible for many diacritical features to be present in one sound. A velarized /ɫ/ will also have a retracted tongue, for example. It is not always necessary to notate all features. In the case of the velarized / ɫ/, simply adjusting the articulation to the alveolar ridge, or substituting a dental /l/, will probably correct the retracted tongue position. The teacher must listen judiciously, guiding the student to the most effective method of correction.
60 Ibid., 94. 61 Ibid., 230.
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Conclusion
There is no shortage of textbooks that seek to teach the rules of IPA for Italian, German and French in a suitable way for an undergraduate lyric diction course. Adams’s book, in particular, provides an accurate foundation of the sounds and rules of the languages, as well as greater subtlety for more advanced students. However, the more fundamental question is how best to prepare young singers to absorb this information, in the interest of their long term development.
It is likely that the diction course will take place early in the four years of an undergraduate course, often in the first year. The guidance undergraduates receive in this single year will have a lasting impact on their articulation habits and concepts of vowel formation.
Students invariably spend much more of their time vocalizing on vowels than on consonants, and for good reason. However, the utility of this work is easily undermined by ill formed consonants.
Consonants and vowels exert a mutual influence on one another, and both demand equal study and practice, in order that consonants do not become a hindrance to good legato.
By taking the time to come to a clear understanding of their own native speech patterns, students will be able to move into the diction sequence of Italian, German, and French with an informed, customized phonetic vocabulary, confident that their sounds can be changed, and knowing how to make these changes. This flexibility will allow students to approach the acquisition of new sounds with a positive curiosity rather than a sense of intimidation. They will have a working knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the vocal tract and the articulators, and familiarity with the sounds and symbols of IPA. As any teacher of lyric diction knows, finding time to devote to this formative study in an already overloaded curriculum can be
56
difficult, but is certainly not without justification. Indeed, in an ideal academic world, there would also be time for a preliminary study of English diction and grammar.
The size of classes is also a practical consideration. A class should be small enough that the teacher has sufficient time to listen carefully to each student speak and sing regularly. A large class can make effective testing nearly impossible. A written exam can only test a student’s theoretical understanding of the rules. Time must be devoted to aural and oral testing to verify that students are able to recognize and form the sounds represented by IPA symbols. Without these skills, IPA is completely useless. Further, if they are not developed as an undergraduate, a student will need to learn (and, if bad habits are unchecked, unlearn) them as a graduate student.
The exercises and allophonic information in the following appendices by no means form a comprehensive curriculum for language orientation. The information chosen for the appendices has been compiled largely from phonetics and English diction sources, and chosen to supplement a traditional multi language lyric diction textbook. The exercises are meant to be preparatory to the study of foreign language diction. They are designed to tune the student’s ear to perceive how adjustments in articulation can change a sound. A curriculum that includes the basics of
English diction, with much emphasis on vowel and consonant formation, is the context in which these exercises would work most effectively.
I hope that this document demonstrates how students beginning more advanced language study can be helped by understanding their individual speech patterns. The reflex response in articulation is strong, but native speech habits need not be regarded as the enemies of good diction. Adaptability and flexibility are qualities to be admired in the finest of artists. To guide students to understand that they are capable of changing the sounds they make, is to enable them to communicate text artistically.
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Bibliography
Books
Adams, David. A Handbook of Diction for Singers: Italian, German, French . 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Cox, Richard Garner. The Singer’s Manual of German and French Diction . New York: G. Schirmer, 1970.
Colorni, Evelina. Singer’s Italian: A Manual of Diction and Phonetics . New York: G. Schirmer, 1970.
Flexner, Stuart Berg. Speaking Freely: A Guided Tour of American English from Plymouth Rock to Silicon Valley . New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Grubb, Thomas. Singing in French: A Manual of French Diction and French Vocal Repertoire . New York: Schirmer Books, 1979.
Hall, Christopher. Modern German Pronunciation: An Introduction for Speakers of English . New York: Manchester University Press, 2003.
Hendrickson, Robert. American Talk: The Words and Ways of American Dialects . New York: Viking, 1986.
LaBouff, Kathryn. Singing and Communicating in English . New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Ladefoged, Peter. A Course In Phonetics . 3rd ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993.
———. Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages . Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001.
Ladefoged, Peter and Ian Maddieson. The Sounds of the World’s Languages . Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
Moriarty, John. Diction: Italian, Latin, French, German…the Sounds and 81 Exercises for Singing Them . Boston: E.C. Schirmer Music Co., 1975.
Odom, William McBride. German for Singers: A Textbook of Diction and Phonetics . 2nd ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1981.
Paton, John Glenn. Gateway to German Diction: The Singer’s Guide to German Pronunciation . Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co., 2004.
58
———. Gateway to German Diction: Teacher’s Supplemental Materials . Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co., 2004.
———. Gateway to Italian Diction: The Singer’s Guide to Italian Pronunciation . Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co., 2004.
———. Gateway to Italian Diction: Teacher’s Supplemental Materials . Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing Co., 2004.
Sheil, Richard F. A Manual of Foreign Language Diction for Singers . 6th ed. Fredonia, NY: Palladian, 1975.
Stapp, Marcie. The Singer’s Guide to Languages . Rev. ed. San Francisco: Teddy’s Music Press, 2002.
Wall, Joan et al. Diction for Singers: A Concise Reference for English, Italian, Latin, German, French, and Spanish Pronunciation . Dallas: Pst...Inc., 1990.
Wolfram, Walt, ed. American Voices: How Dialects Differ From Coast to Coast . Translated by Ben Ward. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Scholarly Articles
Adams, David. “On Teaching an Italian Diction Class.” Journal of Singing 61 (November 2004): 177.
De'Ath, Leslie. “Dictionaries of Pronunciation: A Bibliographic Guide for Musicians, Part II.” Journal of Singing 55 (March 1999): 5.
———. “The Hazards of Reflex: Caveats of a Voice Coach.” Journal of Singing 59 (November December 2002): 155.
———. “Linguistic Challenges in the Voice Studio.” Journal of Singing 63 (November December 2006): 189.
———. “Lyric Diction and the Concept of Standard English.” Journal of Singing 61 (September 2004): 65.
———. “Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part One.” Journal of Singing 62 (September October 2005): 57.
———. “Materials for Teaching a Lyric Diction Class, Part Two.” Journal of Singing 62 (November December 2005): 179.
———. “Perspectives on Italian Diction.” Journal of Singing 61 (May 2005): 503.
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———. “Phonemic and Lyric Diction.” Journal of Singing 62 (May 2006): 549.
———. “Phonetic Similarity and Language Acquisition.” Journal of Singing 60 (September October 2003): 77.
———. “Resonation and Articulation.” Journal of Singing 58 (November 2001): 167.
Electronic Sources
International Phonetic Association. “Reproduction of the International Phonetic Alphabet (Revised to 2005).” http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/diacritics.html (accessed October 3, 2009).
Ladefoged, Peter and Jenny Ladefoged. “UCLA Phonetics Lab Data.” http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu (accessed October 3, 2009).
Suverkrop, Bard. “IPA Source: IPA Transcriptions and Literal Translations of Songs and Arias.” http://www.ipasource.com (accessed October 3, 2009).
University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Linguistics. “The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive.” http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu (accessed October 3, 2009).
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Appendix 1: Exercises for Vowel Formation
The introduction of all IPA vowel symbols in vowel orientation will accomplish two major goals: first, students will develop an understanding of the relations between sound, symbol, and formation, and second, students will form a context for new, unknown sounds based on contrast with familiar sounds. By the end of vowel orientation, the beginning student will be able to do the following:
1. Describe tongue, lip and jaw position for each vowel sound using specific terminology.
2. Aurally identify vowels with the correct IPA symbol.
3. Execute accurately formed vowel sounds in speaking and singing.
4. Identify habits in personal vowel formation that require attention.
This formative period of study requires frequent personal feedback from the instructor.
Observation of speaking and singing, as well as comprehensive aural and oral testing are essential. The following concepts and terms will need to be understood by the student prior to beginning the exercises:
Phonetics.
Lyric diction.
International Phonetic Alphabet.
Cardinal vowels.
Secondary vowels.
Monophthong/diphthong/triphthong.
Anatomy of the vocal tract.
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Exploring Sensations in the Vocal Tract
The pedagogical goal of this exercise is to acquaint the student with the oro pharynx and the naso pharynx. The student should be able to identify a sound as nasal or non nasal. The student will develop the ability to raise and lower the soft palate to produce changes that are both audibly and physically perceptible.
Exercise One: Raising the Soft Palate Hold your nose closed with your finger and thumb, and sustain the following sounds in one breath at a comfortable pitch. Which are possible? Which are impossible? Try the same sounds without holding your nose. Are some possible or easier this way?
[i e a o u] [i m i m] [bi bi bi] [li le la lo lu] [mi me ma mo mu]
Exercise Two: asals Sustain each series of alternating sounds in one breath at a comfortable pitch. Do so with your fingers resting lightly on the bridge of your nose. Try the exercise using a hand mirror. It is possible to do this exercise with the jaw remaining loose and free, and with little (and in some cases no) jaw movement from vowel to consonant. Describe physical, visual, and aural perceptions.
[i n i n i n i] [e m e m e] [a ƞ a ƞ a]
Now try these alternating combinations of nasal and non nasal vowels and consonants in the same manner:
[a ɑ̃ ƞ a ɑ̃ ƞ] [o õ m o õ m]
It is important to note that, of the languages covered in these exercises, nasal vowels exist only in French. Since all vowels studied in the remainder of this appendix will be non nasal vowels requiring a lifted soft palate, it may be useful to verify a high palatal position as you
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continue with the exercises to follow. Some teachers find a slightly lowered palate can increase resonance in the vowel. If this exercise is performed very slowly, one can explore variations of palatal height.
Locating and Forming Specific Vowel Sounds
The pedagogical goal of this section is to guide the student towards the understanding of how movements of the tongue, jaw, and lips influence a sound. After initial orientation to the cardinal vowels, specific terminology must be used (high/mid/low, front/central/back, rounded/unrounded), and students should be encouraged to use accurate vocabulary in their descriptions.
Particular care should be taken when observing the students’ variations between speaking and singing given sounds. Often, tension from speaking is brought into the singing sound, or students may bring lip, tongue, or jaw tension into their singing unconsciously. Freedom in both speaking and singing is of utmost importance.
Warm up Loosening up the muscles involved in forming the vowel sounds will increase the chances of singing freely. Try the following exercises and take note of any tension you might be holding.
1. Move your head slowly from side to side, as if to say “no”.
2. Do some shoulder rolls, forward and back.
3. Massage your jaw, especially near the temporomandibular joint. Do the same with your
neck, especially under the chin, where you can feel the base of the tongue. You can
loosen the base of the tongue, using your thumb to massage it.
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4. Open the jaw to a comfortable position, and gently move it very slightly from side to
side.
5. With the jaw comfortably open, touch the tip of your tongue to the alveolar ridge, and
then downwards to touch the lower front teeth. Notice how the tongue can move
independently from the jaw. Now touch the back of the tongue to the soft palate. Raise
and lower your tongue while your jaw remains steady and free.
6. Fold your tongue under, behind your lower front teeth. Now try to stick your tongue out
several times.
7. Glide from a comfortable low pitch to a comfortable high pitch and back down again on a
lip buzz. This exercise can also be done with the tongue positioned loosely between the
lips. If you can sing a trilled /r/, try that sound also.
8. Locate your abdominal muscles by pulsing lightly on a hiss. Sustain a hiss for eight
counts, and then release the abdominal muscles as you inhale for two counts, and then
repeat. Many people unconsciously hold tension in the abdominal muscles during
inhalation.
9. Standing, inhale as you raise your arms slowly above your head, stretching upwards, as if
elongating your spine. Slowly exhale, and gradually bring your arms back down to your
sides, retaining a lifted rib cage, a tall feeling spine, and a comfortably lifted chest.
Inhale and exhale several times.
Exercise One : Cardinal Vowels For this exercise, use the vowel chart illustrating the cardinal vowels of English, and a hand mirror. The instructor speaks each sound. Using a mirror, the student repeats each sound several times, and should be encouraged to describe the position of the tongue, lips, and jaw.
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Exercise Two: Tongue Vowels and Lip Vowels Both with and without the mirror, at a comfortable pitch level, speak and then sing the following series of vowels. The following questions are posed.
What do you observe in the tongue, jaw, and lips?
Do you observe any tension?
Do you use your lips to form vowels that do not require them?
Can your jaw and tongue move freely while you speak and sing these vowels?
Is the air is channeled through your oro pharynx, and not your naso pharynx?
Start the following series of vowels with the middle of the tongue arching towards the hard palate and the tip of the tongue making contact with the lower central incisors. The jaw should remain loose and stable, and the lips should remain neutral.
[i e ɛ æ]
In the next series of vowels, feel the arch of the tongue raised towards the soft palate.
Again, the tip of the tongue should make contact with the lower central incisors. The lips should round for the first three vowels and relax for the final vowel. The jaw should be flexible and then open a little more for the last two vowels.
[u o ɔ ɑ]
Exercise Three: Vowel Practice Working with a partner, speak and then sing any combination of cardinal vowels.
Transcribe the vowels you hear into IPA. When you identify the vowel, classify it using the following terms:
For tongue position: forward (arch of tongue towards the hard palate) or back (arch of
tongue towards the soft palate), and high/mid/low.
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For lip position: rounded/unrounded.
For jaw position: slightly open, more open.
Note, however, that if these sounds are made in the comfortable middle range, one will notice very little change in the jaw. Check that the jaw feels mobile and free. If a vowel becomes distorted by an overly dropped jaw, try forming the vowels with the thumb turned on its side and placed just between the teeth. This should be enough jaw space for most students in the middle range. If the jaw appears tense, try speaking the vowels while fluidly and gently wiggling the jaw from side to side. Watch in a mirror. Vowels sung in the middle register need not look any different than a freely spoken vowel.
Examples: [i u i u] [e ɑ e ɑ]
Exercise Four: Secondary Vowels Introduce the secondary vowels of English, plotting them on the same vowel chart used to introduce the cardinal vowels. Their proximity in relation to the cardinal vowels should be noted. Repeat Exercise Two, adding the following vowels into the series:
[i I e ɛ æ a] [u ʊ o ɔ ɑ]
Transitions to and from the newly introduced vowels should be noted in terms of any changes in lip, tongue, or jaw position. The student should be able to speak and then sing these series of vowels in one breath, fluidly and without tension. I have included the bright /a/, even though it is not an English vowel. Establishing it as part of the first series of vowels will aid the student in contrasting it with the more familiar /ɑ/ of English. Because /e/ and /o/ do not exist as pure sounds in English, the next contrast exercise introducing two English diphthongs will also be useful.
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Exercise Five: Contrasting Sounds A diphthong consists of two consecutive vowel sounds happening in the same syllable. In
English, the first of the two sounds is always longer. There are ten diphthongs in English, two of which will be introduced now, due to their similarity to /e/ and /o/. Note that the English diphthongs /eI/ and /oʊ/ have two vowels. Based on the work done in the previous exercises, the student will be able to feel a slight change in tongue position from /e/ to /I/, and a slight change in lip position from /o/ to /ʊ/. Read the following English words and feel the very slight change of vowel towards the end the word:
day play say go foe know [deI] [pleI] [seI] [ɡoʊ] [foʊ] [noʊ]
The first sound of both of these diphthongs occurs as a single sound in other languages, but never in English. Try speaking the same words, but without the second vowel of the diphthong. This means one should feel no change or movement in the tongue or lips for the duration of the entire vowel. They will no longer sound like English words. Use the mirror to verify that there are no observable changes in the vowel, especially just before the release in both speaking and singing.
[de pe se] [ɡo fo no]
Exercise Six: Mixed Vowels Mixed vowels are formed by sounding two vowels simultaneously, one formed with the lips and one with the tongue. Each individual vowel sound must retain its specificity in order for the mixed vowel to be accurate. If students can freely and clearly form the cardinal and secondary vowels, they can confidently move on to learn to form mixed vowels. Though only some of the mixed vowels are used in English, all will be introduced for general orientation. The student should become familiar with the sounds and IPA symbols. It is easy to see the
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relationships between open and closed pairs of tongue and lips vowels in the formation of mixed vowels, using the vowel quadrilateral or triangle.
Sustain the following vowel sounds, noting the tongue position. These are the tongue vowels used to form mixed vowels.
[i] [I] [e] [ɛ]
When these vowels are sounded simultaneously with a rounded lip vowel, a mixed vowel will result. Sustain the first vowel and experiment with rounding the lips without altering the inside position of the tongue. Use a mirror to watch, and listen for small changes in sound.
To attain the specific mixed vowels of other languages, precise combinations are necessary. In the next exercise, explore pairing the tongue vowels with rounded vowels to form specific mixed vowels. Speak the tongue vowel first, and then add the lip vowel, thinking of it not as a new vowel, but as a frame for the tongue vowel.
Tongue Vowel Framing Lip Vowel Resulting Mixed Vowel
[i] [u] [y]
[I] [ʊ] [Y]
[e] [o] [ø]
[ɛ] [ɔ] [œ]
Exercises Seven: English Mixed Vowels English has some mixed vowels that do not exist in other languages. It is important to identify them and understand their formation, so that they are not substituted unintentionally for other sounds.
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The sounds /ʌ/ and /ə/ represent the same sound in English, the latter occurring in stressed syllables and the prefix “un ”, and the former in unstressed syllables. To locate this sound, Karen LaBouff offers the following description:
Tongue: tip touching lower front teeth, central in mouth, slightly arched in same position
as [ɔ].
Lips: neutral, without rounding or spreading.
Jaw: released, vertical drop, same position and drop for [ɔ] and [æ]. 62
These are flexible vowels that can shift towards other vowels depending on their environment, making them less easy to pinpoint. Speak the following words and listen to the sound:
trouble brother money sun
above alone fallen simple
The other English mixed vowels are /ɝ/and /ɚ/. Like the last pair, these symbols represent the same sound, but the first one is longer and stressed, and the second is shorter and unstressed. This sound is related to the consonant r, and is one of the identifying sounds of
English. Here is a description of its formation:
Tongue: like all other vowels, tip remains down in contact with lower front teeth, middle
of tongue arches, similar to /ɛ/, sides in contact with upper molars.
Lips: rounded but not tense, rounding similar to /o/.
Jaw: relaxed, steady, does not move during execution. 63
Listen to these sounds as you speak:
earth third master fervor actor ever
62 Karen LaBouff, Singing and Comminicating in English , 72. 63 Ibid., 76.
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Appendix 2: orth American Vowel Formation
Listed below are common misarticulations, substitutions, additions, and deletions observed in the vowels of North American singers. Singers who are prone to any of these patterns of speaking or singing may encounter the same problems in similar environments of
Italian, German, and French. With the help of the diction teacher, students should make phonemic inventories of their own conversational speech, which can be used to facilitate adjustments needed to progress in foreign language proficiency.
In her book Singing and Communicating in English: A Singer’s Guide to English Diction ,
Kathryn LaBouff has compiled lists of common English diction “pitfalls”, or mistakes to which she has found that North American singers are prone. This is similar to the lists of common foreign diction errors in Adams’s and Moriarty’s books discussed in Chapter 1.
LaBouff’s observations on North American English vowel tendencies will be used as a basis for discussing some of the most common errors. Examples of foreign words in similar environments are given, so that students can become aware of any influence of their native speaking habits on their pronunciation of other languages. In the case of English diphthongs, foreign allophones have been noted, together with exemplar words from the relevant languages.
As a student’s English diction is refined, adjustments can be explored which will enable foreign sounds to be reached less through aural approximation, and more through precise refinements of tongue, lip, and jaw movement.
LaBouff’s book, as well as those of Adams and Stapp, offers carefully considered instruction on the formation of vowels. Pedagogically, the student should be introduced to vowel formation, and the IPA symbols for the vowels, prior to using this appendix.
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When dealing with vowels, one must acknowledge the mutual influence that vowels and consonants exert upon each other. For example, in the case of a singer adding additional vowel sounds, the correction of the fault is not usually as simple as asking the student to maintain a single tongue position; the extra sound often occurs as the singer anticipates the articulation of the next consonant. Though vowels and consonants have been separated into respective appendices, it is possible to approach a single diction challenge from either direction. If a vowel problem is not corrected by the suggestions offered in this appendix, there may be an approach to consonant articulation that will address the problem more effectively.
/i/ 1. Avoid glottal attacks. Listen carefully to the onset of the initial vowel. The initial vowel can be articulated as a breath lift, rather than a pressured glottal attack. The student should feel the light engagement of the muscles of the abdominal wall while finding a balanced onset. 64
English examples eagle evening evil
Similar environments Italian: insieme, ideale German: ihr, Isis French: ici, immense
2. Avoid adding off glides while moving from /i/ to a consonant. For example, “steal” [sti(ə)l], which occurs when l is anticipated. 65
Similar environments Italian: mille, stille German: viel, Stil French: fil, stile
3. Avoid a nasal quality when /i / is adjacent to /m/ and /n/. 66
English examples seem between lean
Similar environments Italian: finite, simile German: ihnen, ihm French: inutile, immense
64 Ibid, 44. 65 Ibid. 66 Ibid.
71
4. Avoid substitution of /I/ for /i/. For example, in the word “feel”, substituting [fIl] for [fil].
Similar environments: see any of the examples above.
/I/ 1. Avoid substitution of /i/ for /I/, or /ɛ/ for /I/. This will occur if the tongue position is not precise. If the vowel sounds as /i/, the tongue is too high. If it sounds as /ɛ/, the tongue is too low and insufficiently arched. 67
English examples Do not use [piən] for [pIn] in the word “pin”, or [mɛlk] for [mIlk] in the word “milk”.
Similar environments German: mit, lispeln
2. Avoid off glides, such as “him” [hI( ǩ)m]. This can happen if the tongue does not remain in a constant position for the duration of the vowel. 68
Similar environments German: schimmern, Himmel
/ɛ/ 1. Avoid harsh glottal attacks. 69
English examples every ending any
Similar environments Italian: essere, ecco German: enden, Engel French: être, excellent
2. Avoid glide off sounds, such as [hɛ( ǩ) d] for [hɛd]. This can happen with any consonant following /ɛ/. 70
Similar environments Italian: verde, bella German: Felsen, denn French: belle, tiède
67 Ibid., 48. 68 Ibid. 69 Ibid., 51. 70 Ibid.
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/ɑ/ I have included this English vowel, even though it is only used in French. Young singers will perceive this vowel as an allophone to /a/, and therefore may be prone to making similar errors when singing the brighter /a/. The young student should master the English sound, then use it as a contrast sound to locate /a/. These pairs of English and foreign words use /ɑ/ in the
English word and /a/ in the foreign word.
Contrasting pairs: John/Gianni father/Vater calm/calme
1. /ɔ/ is often substituted for /ɑ/.71 This is the result of lip rounding, and often also of an overly dropped jaw. For a student with this tendency, it is useful to use contrast words in foreign languages. A mirror is helpful in finding a neutral lip position and a comfortable jaw position.
Below are pairs of foreign language words, the first with /a/ or /ɑ/, the second with /ɔ/.
Contrast words Italian: caro, core German: lachen, locken French: bas, bord
/u/ 1. Do not nasalize when adjacent to consonants /m/ or /n/. 72
English examples noon bloom moon
Similar environments Italian: giunge, nunzia German: nun, Blumen French: boumer, soumis
2. Avoid regional substitution of /ʊ/ for /u/, as in the word “room” (/ɹʊm/ for /ɹum/). 73
Since both sounds exist in German, the example for German uses two contrast words, the first using /u/, the second using /ʊ/.
Similar environments: Italian: l’umile, unico German: du, Duft French: soupir, doux
71 Ibid., 57. 72 Ibid., 60. 73 Ibid.
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3. Another common problem in North American singers is the substitution of /y/ for /u/. For students with this problem, check that the tongue arches towards the soft palate, not the hard palate, and that the lips maintain consistent rounding from start to finish. The examples for the previous rule will also work for checking any substitution of /y/ for /u/.
4. Avoid off glides with /l/, such as [fuəl] for [ful] in the word “fool”. 74
Similar environments Italian: fulmine, nulla German: Stuhl, Buhle French: boule, foule
/ɔ/ 1. Do not substitute /ɑ/ for /ɔ/. This is a common American regionalism, as found in, for example, [wɑtɚ] for [wɔtɚ], and [θɑt] for [θɔt]. 75 If a student has this tendency, check that the lips are round enough.
Similar environments: Italian: gioco, soffio German: Locken, Gott French: comme, dormer
Additional English Vowel Considerations
I have not included the English vowels /æ/ and /ʌ/ because they do not exist in foreign environments. However, it should be pointed out that North American singers substitute these sounds in foreign languages; /æ/ substituted for /a/ is often heard in cognate words, especially in
French. Because so many unstressed a vowels are pronounced as /ʌ/ in English, North American singers will frequently substitute this vowel for the pure, unstressed /a/ in other languages. These word pairs can be used to make the student aware of any tendency to substitute English sounds for foreign sounds:
English/Italian: ambulance/ambulante captain/capitan attention/attenzione English/French: accident/accident accent/accent align/aller English/German: alone/allein habit/haben action/Achtung
74 Ibid. 75 Ibid., 68.
74
Diphthongs /aI/ The /a/ part of this diphthong needs a higher tongue arch than /ɑ/. 76 Students are likely to mishear this English diphthong for its allophones in Italian, /a:i/, and in German, /ae/. In French, students may confuse the sound with the /a i/ combination. Contrast words will help the student identify the differences in formation. Avoid the Southern habits of substituting /ə/ or /ɛ /, as in
/spaət/ or /spaɛt/ for /spaIt/, and of dropping the /I/ altogether, as in /fa:n/ for /faIn/. Care must also be taken to avoid nasality when this diphthong is followed by a nasal consonant. 77
English examples height sign kind mine
Similar environments: Italian: mai, sai German: meine, Pein French: corail, bataille
Compare these with the English words: mine, sight, pine.
/eI/ Students are likely to mishear this diphthong for its Italian allophones /e:i/ and /e/, and also for its German and French allophone /e/. Contrast words can be used to show the different sounds. Mastering the difference between English /eI/, Italian /e:i/ and /e/, and German and
French /e/, takes considerable practice for the young singer.
LaBouff points out that the /e/ part of the English diphthong is often too closed for
American singers, and it is often formed with a tight tongue base. Students should start by arriving at a healthy English /eI/, noting their natural habits before proceeding to foreign sounds.
LaBouff also points out the possibility of off glides occurring in the /eI/ diphthong followed by
/l/.The off glide can also occur in foreign environments when the vowel is followed by an r.78
76 Ibid., 81. 77 Ibid., 82. 78 Ibid.
75
English examples way sail fate blaze
Similar environments Italian: Dei, sei, vedere German: Seelen, Erde French: baiser, parler, soleil
/ɔI/ Students will often mistake this sound for its allophones /o:i/ and / ɔ:i/ in Italian, and /ɔø/ in German. As with all allophonic sounds, one must first establish the healthy English sound, and then use it as a point of contrast with the foreign sounds, to highlight the adjustments needed for accurate formation of both vowels of the foreign diphthongs. One must not substitute /a/ for /ɔ/.
Nor should sounds be separated, but rather made continuous. 79
English examples joy voice cloy
Similar environments Italian: poi, suoi German: euch, Freude
/oʊ/ This sound may be mistaken for its allophones, the pure /o/ of Italian, and the more closed /o/ of German and French. As with the English diphthong /eI/ and its allophones, the young singer will need to devote much time to practicing the distinctly different sounds of the
English /oʊ/, Italian, /o/, and German/French /o/. North American singers should avoid the regional habit of modifying /oʊ/ to /əʊ/, substituting [nəʊ] for [noʊ] in the word “know”. 80 The differences in sounds can be best perceived in contrasting pairs of English words and similar foreign words.
English examples snow go pose sew
Similar environments: Italian: honore, colore German: Sohn, Boot French: autour, l’eau Contrast pairs: soul, solo boat, Boot low, l’eau
79 Ibid., 86 7. 80 Ibid., 90.
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/ɑʊ/ This diphthong is an allophone of the Italian and German diphthongs, /au/ and /ao/ respectively. LaBouff comments that the North American speaker is prone to spread the first /a/ vowel. 81 As with the other allophonic diphthongs, the student will need to master all three sounds, with an understanding of what adjustments need to be made to achieve accuracy.
English examples bound loud crowd pout
Similar environments Italian: causa, aurette German: Lauf, Baum
Contrast pairs: pout, pausa house, Haus
The r colored diphthongs : /ɛɚ/, /Iɚ/, /ɔɚ/, /ʊɚ/, /ɑɚ/
The student may confuse these English diphthongs with sounds in any foreign word formed with the first vowel of the English diphthong followed by an r. This is especially common in German, if the diction teacher introduces the /ɐ/ symbol. Because English rhotic diphthongs use open vowels, it is often a challenge for the young singer to form German words in similar environments that use closed vowels, such as [di:ɐ] and [de:ɐ]. Often, the student will substitute an open vowel when learning this sound. For the beginning student of lyric diction, the rhotic English diphthongs and the flipped /ɾ/ should be secure before introducing the /ɐ/ symbol.
In forming the English sounds, “…care should be taken not to pull back and arch the tongue tip, producing instead the characteristic constricted colloquial American r vowel.” 82
Word pairs that show contrast between the rhotic English sounds, and the flipped /ɾ/ can help a young singer distinguish the very different places of articulation. Often a young singer will reflexively retract the tongue even when articulating /ɾ/.
81 Ibid., 92. 82 Ibid., 94.
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Similar environments English/Italian: pair/per core/cor car/caro
English/German: fair/verlangen fear/vier hear/Hirten ford/fordern sure/Schurke heart/Haar
French: air/l’air more/mort part/par
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Appendix 3: Consonant Allophones
Phoneme: “One of a set of abstract units that can be used for writing a language down in a systematic and unambiguous way.” 83
Allophone: “A variant of a phoneme. The allophones of a phoneme form a set of sounds that (1) do not change the meaning of a word, (2) are all still very similar to one another, and (3) occur in phonetic contexts different from one another––for example, syllable initial as opposed to syllable final.” 84
Diacritics: “Small added marks that can be used to distinguish different values of a symbol.” 85
A complete list of the diacritics recognized by the International Phonetic Association is shown in Figure 11. Those most relevant to the discussion of English allophones are: syllabic, aspirated, no audible release, voiceless, retracted, pharyngealized, and velarized. The others may be present in speech. With guidance, they could be included in a narrow transcription, notating articulation habits more specifically. For practical purposes, this discussion will be confined to those listed above.
Figure 9: Diacritics Recognized by the International Phonetic Association 86
83 Ladefoged, A Course In Phonetics , 296. 84 Ibid., 291. 85 Ibid., 293. 86 International Phonetic Association, “Reproduction of the International Phonetic Alphabet (Revised to 2005),” http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/diacritics.html (accessed October 3, 2009).
79
Listed below are the consonants of English and some of their more common allophones.
IPA Phones b b, b̚ p pʰ, p̚ , pˁ d d̚ , d̊ , ʔ t tʰ, t̚, tˁ tʃ tʃʰ dʒ k kʰ, k̚ , kˁ ɡ ɡ, ɡ̚ f v v̚ θ ð ð̊ s z ʃ ʒ h m n n̊ ŋ l l ̊ , ɫ r ɹʷ, ɹ, ɾ w j h
Selected Adaptations from Peter Ladefoged’s Rules for English Allophones 87
Every person speaks in a unique manner. It is likely that a speaker will use some of these allophones and not others. A speaker may even exhibit a tendency towards an allophone without completely articulating it. This list is a collection of the most common North American English allophones. These rules focus mainly on consonants, and should be used in conjunction with the information on vowels in Appendix Two.
87 Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics , 88 96.
80
Using these together, it will be possible to write a narrower IPA transcription of speech than traditional lyric diction IPA provides. Students should be encouraged to transcribe their own usual conversational speech. The narrow transcription should represent the speaker’s reflex responses to articulation, with no conscious adjustments or corrections associated with singing.
For future reference, consonants in similar foreign language environments have been noted.
1. Unstressed vowels may become voiceless after an initial /p/, /t/, and /k/. This is called vowel deletion . When a speaker still includes the vowel as a voiced /ə/, it is called vowel reduction . potato [pəɽɑteItoʊ] police [pə̊ ɑlis] calamity [kə̊ ɑlæ̴̴mətɨ]
Similar environments: both vowel reduction and deletion are undesirable effects in Italian (palazzo, Toscana), German (Tonalität, passieren), and French (potager, calamité).
2. Unstressed vowels may become voiceless or reduced following a voiceless stop cluster with /ɹ/. introduction [Intrə̊ ɑdʌkʃən]
Similar environments: undesirable effect in Italian (credulo), and in French (introduction).
2a. Unstressed vowels following a voiceless stop cluster with /l/ may become voiceless or reduced. complicate [ ɑkɑmplə̊ keIt]
Similar environments: both vowel reduction and elimination are undesirable effects in Italian (complimento), German (Klavier), and French (clamer).
3. When a stop consonant /t/ or /d/ is followed by an unstressed /l/, the /l/ may become syllabic. The syllabic /l/ also has a tendency to be velarized. The release of a plosive by lowering the sides of the tongue is called lateral plosion . paddle [ ɑpædɫ̩ ] little [ɑlItɫ̩ ]
3a. Unstressed /l/ when following a nasal may become syllabic and/or velarized. tunnel [ ɑtʌnɫ̩ ] camel [ ɑkæmɫ̩ ]
Similar environments: undesirable effect in German (Händel, säuseln, Himmel).
4. Vowels before nasal consonants may be nasalized. This rule is explained by anticipatory coarticulation : “When two consecutive sounds have a feature in common, that feature will be retained throughout the transition between them. Articulators not involved in the
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primary articulation will take up or tend to the articulation of the following item.”88 In lyric diction, this can invite unintended nasality.
ban [bæ̃n] sing [sĨƞ] thank [ɵæ ̃ƞk]
Similar environments: An undesirable effect in Italian (finge), and German (Sängerin). This phonetic principle obviously exists in French, but with the elimination of the final nasal (sans, sang, ombre), and in this case it is desirable. It is not desirable in a French syllable with a pronounced m or n (bonne).
5. A front vowel may have a retracted tongue position and an addition of an extra /ʊ/ or /ə / when before final /l/. The final l is darkened and velarized, retaining the qualities of the retracted front vowel.
heal [hiə̠̠ ̠ ɫ] pal [pæʌ̠ ̠ ɫ]
Similar environments: an undesirable effect in Italian (fil’) German (viel), and French (fil).
5a. Some speakers do the same when a front vowel appears before /ɹ/.
fear [fiə̠ ̠ r] fair [fɛʌ̠ ̠ ɹ]
Similar environments: an undesirable effect in Italian (sospir’), German (der, dir). / ɹ/ is an allophone to the German sound /ɐ/. This is also undesirable in French (l’air).
6. Voiceless stops /p/, /t/, and /k/ are generally aspirated when they begin a syllable. pack [p ȹæk] tick [t ȹIk] kick [k ȹIk]
Similar environments: an undesirable allophone in Italian (parlare, tutti, caro), and French (pouvoir, tendre, calmé). This is not problematic in German.
7. The sounds /w/, /ɹ/, /j/, and /l/ devoice after initial /p/, /t/, and /k/.
play [pl̊ eI] twin [tẘIn] cue [k ̊ u]
Similar environments: undesirable effect in Italian (placabile, pietà, tuoi), and in French (pleine, quoi, tienne). The German environment is similar to English and this allophone will not obscure the text: Platte, Klopf.
8. /p/ and /k/ are generally unexploded before an unvoiced stop.
apt [æp̚ t] act [æk̚ t]
88 Ibid., 94.
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Similar environments: this allophone does not occur in Italian where pt and ct are spelled with double consonants in their cognate form (action/atto, captivate/cattivare). It poses no problem in French (obtenir, acteur). It is undesirable in German (liebt, fliegt).
9. Final /p/, /t/, and /k/ preceded by a vowel may be articulated as glottals. The most common consonant to be glottalized (pharyngealized) is /t/.
pit [pItˁ] tap [tæpˁ] cat [kætˁ]
Similar environments: undesirable in Italian, German, and French. Listen to all final /p/, /t/, and /k/ endings carefully. The sensation of a glottal stop can be aurally misperceived as a substitution for the Italian double /pp/, /tt/, and /kk/. Check words such as appoggiare , fatto , and vecchio to ensure that the student is not stopping the air at the glottis. The position of the tongue should be sustained in its precise articulatory target for the entire duration of the doubled consonant. Finding the correct articulatory target with the tongue, and keeping a relaxed glottis, are crucial for the freest, clearest release in all languages. This comment applies to 10 and 10a as well.
10. Final /p/, /t/, and /k/ preceded by a vowel may be articulated as unexploded stops.
pit [pIt ̚ ] tap [tæp̚ ] cat [kæt̚]
10a. Though Ladefoged does not include this, I have noted that some students also articulate the voiced stops /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/ as glottal or unexploded stops. This can occur across word boundaries.
read [rid ̚ ] have a good one [hæv ə ɡʊdˁ wʌn]
To distinguish rule 9 from 10 and 10a, locate the position of the tongue at the end of the word. In an unexploded articulation, the tip of the tongue remains on the alveolar ridge for /t/ and /d/. In a glottal articulation, the tip of the tongue is lowered and there is a tight closure of the glottis. For the voiced consonant stops, rely on the observance of breath alone to identify the difference.
11. When a voiced stop is followed by a nasal, the stop is not released in the normal way, but rather through nasal plosion . The nasal becomes syllabic. Additionally, some speakers replace the stop with a glottal.
hidden [ˈhIdn̩ ] sadden [ˈsæɂn̩ ]
11a. The unvoiced stop /t/ followed by a nasal may also be released by nasal plosion, making the nasal syllabic. Again, some speakers additionally replace the /t/ with a glottal stop.
beaten [ˈbiɂn̩ ] kitten [ˈkIɂn̩ ]
Similar environment: undesirable in German: Garten, Spaten, goldenen. If the /t/ is unexploded or the /d/ is not dental and voiced, nasal plosion will result.
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12. /t/ may be sounded as a flap, notated as /ɾ/ when it is the single consonant between two vowels, the second of which is unstressed. This can occur over word boundaries, especially in rapid speaking.
fatty [ˈfæɾɨ] bitter [ˈbIɾɚ] a year ago today [ə jiɹ əgoʊ ɾəˈdeI]
Similar environment: /ɾ/ occurs in Italian, German, and French. For English speaking students who have difficulty pronouncing a flipped or rolled r, using this allophone could help them establish an articulatory target that is not associated with the rhotic sounds of the North American /ɚ/ or /ɝ/.
13. Alveolar stops may be omitted when they are in syllable final consonant clusters. This can happen over word boundaries. This is called consonant deletion .
most people [moʊst̊ ˈpipɫ] sand paper [sænd̊ ˈpeIpɹ̠ ̠ ] best game [bɛst̊ ɡeIm]
Similar environments: undesirable effect in German (bist du, Handschrift, westlich).
14. Listen for epenthesis , the insertion of a sound into the middle of the word. Sometimes an additional sound occurs after a nasal, and before a voiceless fricative followed by an unstressed vowel. The added consonant will be formed in the same location as the nasal.
something [ˈsʌmpɵIƞ] youngster [ˈjʌƞkstɚ]
Similar environments: undesirable effect in German (lange, Jünglein).
15. /l/ is often velarized when following a vowel and before another consonant. The tongue is retracted during this articulation.
clap [kɫæp] talc [tæɫk]
Feel the allophones frontal /l /and velar /ɫ / in the word “lull”: [lʌɫ].
Similar environments: undesirable effect in Italian (calma), German (alt), and French (quelqu’un).
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Appendix 4: Exercises in Consonant Articulation
In these exercises, students will explore patterns of their articulation of English words.
Using diacritics, they will learn how to make a narrow transcription of their own speech.
Eventually, this information will be used to guide the student towards additional or alternate methods of articulation necessary for accurate pronunciation of foreign language sounds. After studying basic consonant orientation, the beginning student will be able to do the following:
1. Describe consonants in terms of their voicing, manner, and place.
2. Aurally identify consonants with the correct IPA symbol.
3. Execute consonant sounds with freedom and accuracy.
4. Develop a personal allophonic inventory of English consonants.
Classifying Consonants
Phoneticists use three categories to classify consonants: voicing, place, and manner. A consonant can be classified as voiced if the vocal folds are vibrating while it is articulated. If you pronounce these pairs of consonants while lightly touching your larynx, you will be able to feel the vibration of the voiced consonant. Notice that the sounds in each pair are formed in exactly the same place. When two different sounds share the same place of articulation, they are called homorganic .
Exercise One: Voicing Listen to, and then speak the following sounds, feeling the larynx vibrate for the voiced consonants.
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Voiced Unvoiced
/b/ /p/
/d/ /t/
/ɡ/ /k/
/v/ /f/
/z/ /s/
/ʤ/ /ʧ/
/ʣ/ /ts/
/ʒ/ /ʃ/
/ð/ /θ/
Exercise Two: Aural and Visual Connection You will notice that some of the IPA consonant symbols look and sound exactly like printed English letters. The symbols representing sounds that do not look like English letters will require extra time to learn. Try to think of many English words that use these sounds and practice writing them in IPA. Because English is not a phonetic language, IPA transcriptions can end up looking very different from a printed word. IPA these English words:
jilt cheese fads vision through thin
Place of Articulation
In order to understand the next factor in consonant classification, one needs a framework of where the articulators are in the vocal tract. Below are two labeled drawings that show the anatomy involved in articulation. Figure 10 one shows the upper part of the vocal tract, while figure 11 shows the lower part.
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Figure 10: Upper Vocal Tract 89
Figure 11: Lower Vocal Tract 90
89 Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics , 3. 90 Ibid., 4.
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Here are the descriptive terms used to describe places of articulation.
Bilabial (formed with two lips).
Labiodental (formed with lower lip and front teeth).
Dental (formed with tongue tip or blade and upper front teeth).
Intradental (formed with tongue tip or blade between teeth).
Alveolar (formed with tongue tip or blade and alveolar ridge).
Palato alveolar (formed with tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge).
Palatal (formed with front of the tongue and the hard palate).
Velar (formed with back of the tongue and soft palate). 91
Exercise Three: Place of Articulation: Initial Consonant Speak these series of words. Describe the place of articulation for the initial consonant of each word. Is the initial consonant voiced or unvoiced?
1. feed thesis seal shield 2. bite thy zip kite 3. love viola nip go
Exercise Four: Places of Articulation: All Consonants Describe the place of articulation and the voicing for all consonants in the words below. capital peculiar back dawn vocal think look minute cavity glide panther flip
Manner of Articulation 92
Manner of articulation refers to the three ways in which articulation can be accomplished: the articulators can close off air flow, they can narrow the space considerably, or they can modify the shape of the vocal tract by approaching each other. 93
91 Ibid., 6 7. 92 In this section, I have drawn generally on Peter Ladefoged’s excellent discussion of the manners of articulation in the first chapter of his A Course in Phonetics , 8 12. 93 Ibid., 8.
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Stops are created by the closure of two articulators. In an oral stop , the lips are closed, and the soft palate is raised. This creates build up of air pressure in the mouth which is then released as a plosive consonant. In a nasal stop , the lips are also closed, but the soft palate is lowered, allowing air to escape through the nose. The sound /ƞ/ is a nasal stop that occurs between the back of the tongue and the soft palate.
Many stop consonants exist in homorganic voiced/unvoiced pairs:
Voiced Unvoiced
/b/ /p/
/t/ /d/
/ɡ/ /k/
/m/
/n/
/ƞ/
A fricative occurs when two articulators come together closely, partially obstructing the airstream. A fricative can be identified precisely by indicating the place of articulation, as well as by its voiced or unvoiced quality. The higher pitched sounds of the alveolar and palato alveolar fricatives are called sibilants .
Place of articulation Voiced Unvoiced
Labiodental /v/ /f/
Intradental /ð/ /θ/
Alveolar /z/ /s/
Palato alveolar /ʒ/ /ʃ/
Glottal /h/
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Approximants are sounds in which two articulators come together closely, but not so closely that they produce a turbulent airstream as with a fricative. Sometimes these sounds are classified as glides . Approximants are voiced. A lateral approximant is an articulation where the air flows over the sides of the tongue.
Place of articulation Approximant or Glide
Palatal /j/
Labial/velar /w/
Alveolar /ɹ/
Alveolar or dental /l/ (this is the only lateral approximant)
A tap or flip is an articulation in which the tongue makes a single tap on the alveolar ridge. In a trill or roll , the tongue makes several taps. This is a voiced sound.
Tap /ɾ/ Trill /r/
An affricative combines the qualities of a stop and a fricative. The tongue rises to the alveolar ridge to form a stop, but the contact is then loosened to make a fricative sound. Note that the IPA symbol is a combination of sounds, the first indicating the tongue position for the stop.
Place of articulation Voiced Unvoiced
Palato alveolar /ʤ/ /ʧ/
English Allophones
Once students can describe the voicing, place, and manner of articulation of a consonant, they can use that information to gain insight into their personal habits of articulation. The simplest way to express this information is through a narrow IPA transcription of their speech.
The exercises that follow will yield different results for each student. Students will learn to recognize the allophonic sounds, and also their physical location.
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Exercise Five: Articulatory Target Practice: /d/, /n/, /t/, and /l/ allophones Locate these three places with the tip of your tongue: 1) the back of your front teeth; 2) the alveolar ridge; 3) the post alveolar ridge (a little further back than the alveolar ridge). The consonants /d/, /n/, /t/, and /l/ can be articulated in any of these places. Variations in articulation that yield similar sounds, and yet are all still represented by the same IPA symbol, are called allophones .
In this exercise, you will explore these allophones, most of which you probably use in everyday speech. Read down each column below and note the various positions of your tongue for the consonants /d/, /n/, /t/, and /l/. You will feel these consonants in one of the three places listed above, and you may find that you articulate the same consonant differently depending on its environment. The columns are arranged so that you can feel the consonants in different environments: initial, final, and in combination with other sounds.
Try to speak conversationally. If you have trouble precisely locating the place or manner of your articulation, freeze the articulatory gesture just before releasing it. You will be able to feel your tongue position more clearly.
Initial consonant Final consonant Consonant cluster two, ten, teeth cat, bought, night battle, title, kitten lap, light, laugh call, poodle, will lull, calm, playbill nod, nag, nip can, fin, wine candle, tenth, enter din, deep, day pad, good, should drizzle, under, ardent
Identify your natural place of articulation for these consonants. Compare your results with other students. You may be surprised to learn that articulation habits vary depending on your native language or where you grew up. As you record your findings, ask yourself these questions. You may find the answer varies depending on the environment of the consonant.
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1. Do you explode or aspirate the release of the consonant?
2. Does your breath stop as you articulate the consonant? If so, where and how?
3. Does the body of your tongue move back on any of these sounds?
4. Do any of these sounds create tension for you? If so, where do you feel the tension?
5. Are you able to identify which consonants are voiced?
6. Try to say the words using the two methods of articulation other than your normal
articulation. Can you alter the place of articulation and still make the word understood?
Diacritic Symbols
Diacritics are symbols used in phonetics to describe the allophonic articulations you may have just experienced. There are many more than I have listed, but the following ones represent the most common articulations in North American English. Use them in your narrow transcription of your speech to become aware of your reflex response to each consonant in its environment.
/tʰ/ This symbol is used to indicate an aspirated release. If you cup your hand in front of your
mouth, you will feel breath on your hand if you have used an aspirated release.
/d̚ / The diacritic mark above this symbol is used when there is no audible release of a
consonant. This happens when the articulators are positioned for a stop consonant, but the
consonant remains unreleased or unexploded.
/tˁ/ If there is no audible release of a consonant and the air is stopped at the vocal folds, this is
called a glottal release, indicated by the diacritic after this symbol.
/d̪ / This diacritic represents a dental consonant, one that is articulated with the tip of the tongue
on the back of the front teeth. You will feel bone with your tongue, not the fleshy alveolar
ridge.
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/t̠/ This is the diacritic used to show a retracted tongue position. It can be used with a vowel or
a consonant.
/ɫ/ If the retracted tongue position occurs with a consonant formed involving the soft palate, it
can be classified as velarized, and is shown with this diacritic.
/n̩ / Sometimes a vowel is deleted and a consonant becomes the only audible sound in a
syllable. That consonant is said to be syllabic, and this is indicated by this subscript
diacritic.
Exercise Six: Ear Training Working with a partner, notate each other’s consonants in a narrow IPA transcription of the following poems. Try to transcribe exactly what you hear.
1.
Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer's wife Who cut off their tails with a carving knife. Did you ever see such a thing in your life As three blind mice?
2.
Fly's in the buttermilk, Shoo, fly, shoo, Fly's in the buttermilk, Shoo, fly, shoo, Fly's in the buttermilk, Shoo, fly, shoo, Skip to my Lou, my darlin'.
Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, Skip, skip, skip to my Lou, Skip to my Lou, my darlin'.
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3.
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea, and one on shore, To one thing constant never. Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny, Converting all your sounds of woe Into hey nonny nonny.
Pre Phonatory Tuning
Pre phonatory tuning is the positioning of the vocal tract prior to phonation. In singing, it can be advantageous to position the vocal tract to a vowel shape prior to articulating a consonant.
Exercise Seven: Pre Phonatory Tuning In this exercise, coordinate your inhalation with the forming of a vowel shape, then articulate consonants. If the vowel is well formed (freedom in the jaw, tongue and lips), the consonant will be cleanly articulated. With some consonants (/k/ for example), you may notice a slight change in the place of articulation as you change your pre phonatory vowel. Notice the jaw can remain free and steady for all of these consonants.
1. Breathe /i/ sustain /i/ [di ni li ki ɡi ]
2. Breathe /ɛ/ sustain /ɛ/ [dɛ nɛ lɛ kɛ ɡɛ ]
3. Breathe /a/ sustain /a/ [da na la ka ɡa ]
Inhale through the nose and sustain /m/. While sustaining, move your tongue to form the following vowels.
1. Breathe /m/ sustain /m/ [mi mI me mɛ mæ ma]
2. Breathe /m/ sustain /m/ [mu mʊ mo mɔ]
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Pilot Consonants
Just as a vowel position can act as a pilot to a consonant, sometimes a consonant can be particularly useful in piloting the tongue position of a vowel. /θ/ can help release a retracted tongue. If the forward tongue position remains in place as the student moves to a vowel, it can help the student identify a more resonant sensation. The pre phonatory coordination involved in articulating the stop plosive consonant /p/ creates a high soft palate. It can be used to help the student find lift and height in the vowel.
Exercise Eight: Pilot Consonant /θ/ Intone these sounds on a pitch in the middle register. Check that you are not substituting
/ð/ for /θ/. The unvoiced sound requires a more forward tongue position.
[θi θe θa θo θu]
Exercise ine: Pilot Consonant /p/ Intone these sounds on a pitch in the middle register. Check that you are not anticipating the /p/ sound with the consonant /m/.
[po po po po po] [pɛ pɛ pɛ pɛ] [pa pa pa pa]
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Appendix Five: Sample Language Orientation Syllabus
Below is a sample syllabus for a fourteen week Language Orientation course that meets twice a week for a fifty minute class period. This could be supplemented by the vowel and consonant appendices for exercises and assignments.
Week One 1. Listening to regional accents. Examples from upper midwest, southern, mid Atlantic, southern Californian, and American standard accents 2. Anatomy of the vocal tract. How are vowels formed?
Week Two 1. Physical warm up, tongue vowel formation, mirror work 2. Lip vowel formation, mirror work, healthy glottal onset
Week Three 1. English diphthongs/triphthongs, the r colored sounds of English 2. Mixed vowels and nasal vowels
Week Four 1. Anatomy of the articulators, place and manner of articulation 2. Stops, fricatives, affricatives, approximants, mirror work
Week Five 1. Using the IPA symbols to represent sounds, IPA dictation and reading from IPA 2. Consonant and vowel allophones
Week Six 1. Using narrow transcription diacritics 2. Taking a personal phonemic inventory, reflex response in articulation
Week Seven 1. Vowel influence on consonant articulation 2. Influence of consonant articulation on vowel formation, choosing the best manner and place of articulation
Week Eight 1. Refining formation, a closer look at tongue, lip, and jaw positions based on personal articulation habits 2. Exercises for freedom of the articulators, pilot consonants, independence of tongue and jaw
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Week Nine 1. English diphthongs and their allophones 2. English l and r, healthy formation and their allophones
Week Ten 1. From speech to singing: legato and how it can be achieved 2. The relationship of breath to the vowel and consonant
Week Eleven 1. Intoning language as a practice tool for checking for freedom in the vocal tract and articulators 2. Composing nonsense IPA for intoning
Week Twelve 1. Exact transcriptions of sound versus approximate transcriptions 2. The impact of tessitura on diction
Week Thirteen 1. Speaking poems in English 2. Singing songs in English
Week Fourteen 1. Oral/aural testing of vowel and consonant recognition and precise formation 2. Written testing
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