Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Bc. Gabriela Marková
The Schwa Sound in Two Speeches by Elizabeth II Master’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph.D.
2017
1
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………….. Author’s signature
2
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph.D. for her guidance, advice, and support.
3
Table of Contents
List of figures ...... 6 List of tables ...... 6 Notations and conventions ...... 7 List of phonetic symbols ...... 9 Introduction ...... 13 Reasons for research ...... 15 Preliminary research questions ...... 16 1 Schwa - origins of the term and symbol ...... 18 1.1 Origin of the term ...... 18 1.2 Origin of the Latin symbol ...... 21 1.3 Definition of the term in modern linguistics ...... 23 1.3.1 The short schwa sound ...... 24 1.3.2 Schwa as a cover symbol ...... 25 1.3.3 The long schwa sound ...... 27 1.4 Further notes on transcription ...... 28 1.4.1 Broad and narrow notation ...... 31 1.4.2 Simple and comparative transcription ...... 32 1.4.2 The IPA and the mid-central sounds ...... 33 2 Phonetics and phonology ...... 34 2.2 Production of sounds ...... 36 2.2.1 Vowels ...... 38 2.2.2 Monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs ...... 49 2.2.3 Consonants ...... 51 2.2.4 Prosodic features ...... 52 2.2.5 Coarticulation ...... 54 3 Language changes and sound shifts ...... 56 3.1 General features of language change ...... 56 3.1.1 Permanent character of a change...... 57 3.2 Progress of a sound change ...... 58 3.3. Major types of vowel change ...... 60 3.3.1 Reduction ...... 61 2.3.2 Intrusion ...... 62 2.3.3 Elision ...... 63
4
4 Vowel changes in the history of English ...... 65 4.1 From Proto-Indo-European to Old English ...... 66 4.2 From Old English to Middle English ...... 68 4.5 Contemporary British English and RP ...... 72 4.5.1 Changes in RP involving schwa sounds ...... 74 4.6 Notes on schwa in other English variants and dialects ...... 76 4.6.2 American English ...... 76 4.6.3 Australian and New Zealand English ...... 78 4.6.4 South African English ...... 79 5 Acoustic analysis ...... 80 5.1 Research question ...... 80 5.2 Sample determination ...... 81 5.3 Preliminaries ...... 83 5.4 Methodology ...... 87 5.4.1 Transcription, segmentation, and annotation ...... 88 5.4.2 Distributional analysis ...... 89 5.4.3 Formant analysis ...... 90 5.5 Text 1 (1957) ...... 95 5.5.1 Transcription ...... 96 5.5.2 Distributional analysis and formant measurements ...... 99 5.6 Text 2 (2016) ...... 101 5.6.1 Transcription ...... 101 5.6.2 Distributional analysis and formant measurements ...... 103 5.7 Findings ...... 105 6 Conclusion ...... 107 References ...... 110 Primary sources ...... 110 Secondary sources ...... 110 Summary ...... 120 Summary in Czech ...... 121 List of Appendices ...... 122 Appendix 1 The IPA chart...... 123 Appendix 2 Queen’s Christmas speech, 1957 ...... 124 Appendix 3 Queen’s Christmas speech, 2016 ...... 128
5
List of figures
Figure 2.1. Speech organs. 36 Figure 2.2. Vowel space. 38 Figure 2.3. Vocal tract in the neutral configuration 39 Figure 2.4. Positions of tongue in vowel production after Bell. 42 Figure 2.5. Two vowel diagrams by Daniel Jones. 45 Figure 2.6. Central part of Jonesian quadrilateral. 45 Figure 2.7. Formants of British vowels. 42 Figure 2.8. Plot of the first two formants of British vowels. 47 Figure 2.9. Diphthongs and triphthongs. 50 Figure 3.1. S-curve schematic. 59 Figure 4.1. The Great Vowel Shift and the Short Vowel shift. 71 Figure 4.2. The Second and Third Vowel Shifts. 71 Figure 5.1. Sample of annotation of the recorded text. 94 Figure 5.2. Formant measurement. 95 Figure 6.1. Plot of average F2-F2 frequencies of schwa sounds. 108
List of tables
Table 2.1. Vowel table after Bell’s vowel descriptions. 42 Table 2.2. Cardinal vowels. 44 Table 2.3. Mean F1 and F2 values for female General British speakers. 46 Table 2.4. Closing and centring diphthongs of RP. 50 Table 2.5. Triphthongs of RP. 51 Table 3.1. Strong vowels and their weak counterparts. 61 Table 4.1. Neogrammarian system of short PIE vowels. 68 Table 4.2. Well’s lexical sets. 75 Table 5.1. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 1. 99 Table 5.2. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 2A. 99 Table 5.3. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 2B. 100 Table 5.4. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 2C. 101 Table 5.5. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 1. 95 Table 5.6. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 2A. 95 Table 5.7. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 2B. 96 Table 5.8. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 2C. 96 Table 5.9. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies from Text 1. 100 Table 5.10. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies from Text 2. 100
6
Notations and conventions
In phonetic/phonological transcriptions, the conventions of the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are followed, in accordance with the principles set out in the Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (1999) and/or
Phonetic Symbol Guide by Pullum and Ladusaw (1986).
[...] allophonic, phonetic or narrow transcription (e.g. [pʰɔˑt])
/.../ phonemic or broad transcription (e.g. /pɔːt/)
<...> graphemes (e.g.
C any consonant
V any vowel
> goes to, becomes, is realized as
< comes from
EME Early Middle English
EModE Early Modern English
LME Late Middle English
LModE Late Modern English
LOE Late Old English
ME Middle English
ModE Modern English
7
OE Old English
PE Proto-English
PDE Present-Day English
PIE Proto-Indo-European
PG Proto-Germanic
EE Estuary English
NZE New Zealand English
IPA International Phonetic Alphabet
8
List of phonetic symbols
IPA Usage Symbol name a open front unrounded (Cardinal No. 4) lower-case A ȧ Am. low central unrounded (IPA: ɐT) overdot A ä open central(lized) unrounded; Am. low umlaut A front unrounded ᶏ, [a] with rhotacization (r-coloration); also aʴ right-hook A ɐ not fully open, central unrounded vowel turned A ɑ open back unrounded (Cardinal No. 5) script A ɒ open back rounded (Cardinal No. 13) turned script A æ not fully open, front unrounded (midst Cardinal ash No. 4 & 3) ʌ open mid back unrounded (Cardinal No. 14) turned V; ‘wedge’ b voiced bilabial stop lower-case B c voiceless palatal stop lower-case C d voiced dental or alveolar stop lower-case D ʤ voiced postalveolar affricate (not in current D-Yogh ligature IPA usage) ð voiced apico-dental or indental median fricative eth e close mid front unrounded (Cardinal No. 2) lower-case E ᶒ [e] with rhotacization (r-coloration); also, əʴ right-hook E ə mid central unrounded schwa ɚ [ə] with rhotacization or frictionless ɹ when used right-hook schwa as a vowel ɘ close-mid central unrounded reversed E ɛ open mid front unrounded (Cardinal No. 3) epsilon ᶓ [ɛ] with rhotacization (r-coloration) right-hook epsilon ʚ open-mid central rounded closed epsilon ɜ central unrounded vowel of the Cardinal No. 3 reversed epsilon height ɝ [ɜ] with rhotacization (r-coloration) right-hook re. epsilon ɞ open-mid central rounded closed re. epsilon f voiceless labiodental fricative lower-case F g voiced velar stop lower-case G ɤ close mid back unrounded (Cardinal No. 15) ram’s horns ɣ close mid back unrounded (in pre-1989 IPA) baby gamma h voiceless glottal fricative or approximant lower-case H ɦ voiced (or whispery, or murmured) glottal fricative hooktop H
9
ɧ combination of x and ʃ hooktop heng i close front unrounded (Cardinal No. 1) lower-case I ɪ near-close near-front unrounded (midst Cardinal small capital I No. 1 & 2) j voiced palatal median approximant lower-case J k voiceless velar stop lowercase K l voiced alveolar lateral approximant lower-case L ɫ velarized (‘dark’) voiced dental lateral approximant tilde L ƚ voiceless alveolar lateral fricative (American usage) barred L m voiced bilabial nasal lower-case M ɯ close back unrounded (Cardinal No. 16) turned M ɰ voiced velar median approximant long-leg turned M n voiced dental or alveolar nasal lower-case N ŋ voiced velar nasal eng ɳ voiced retroflex nasal right-tail N θ voiceless interdental median fricative theta o close-mid back rounded (Cardinal No. 7) lower-case O ø close-mid front rounded (Cardinal No. 10) slashed O œ open-mid front rounded (Cardinal No. 11) O-E ligature ɶ open-mid front rounded (Cardinal No. 12) small capital O-E lig. ɔ open-mid back rounded (Cardinal No. 6) open O p voiceless bilabial plosive lower-case P r voiced dental or alveolar trill lowercase R ʀ voiced uvular trill small capital R ɾ voiced dental or alveolar tap fish-hook R ɹ voiced dental or alveolar approximant turned R s voiceless alveolar fricative lower-case S ʃ voiceless postalveolar fricative esh t voiceless alveolar stop lower-case T ʦ voiceless dental or alveolar affricate t-s ligature tʃ voiceless postalveolar affricate t-esh ligature u close back rounded lower-case U ʊ near-close near-back rounded upsilon v voiced labiodental fricative lower-case V w voiced labial-velar approximant lower-case W x voiceless velar fricative lower-case X y close front rounded vowel lower-case Y ʏ near-close near-front rounded small capital Y z voiced alveolar fricative lower-case Z ʒ voiced postalveolar fricative ezh, tailed Z ʔ glottal stop glottal stop
10
ː diacritic marking of full length of preceding vowel length mark ˑ half-long half-length-mark -̆ extra-short breve -̌ rising contour wedge ʼ ejective apostrophe ˈ primary stress indicator; placed before the superior vertical stressed syllable stroke ˌ secondary stress/full vowel indicator inferior vertical stroke . syllable break period -̥ voiceless under-ring -̊ voiceless over-ring -̈ centralized umlaut -̋ extra high level double acute accent -́ high level acute accent (over) -̄ mid level macron -̀ low level grave accent (over) -̏ extra low level double grave accent -̺ dental subscript bridge -̩ syllabic syllabicity mark -̝ raised raising sign -˔ raised raising sign -̞ lowered lowering sign -˕ lowered lowering sign -̹ more rounded subscript right half- ring -̜ less rounded subscript left half-ring -̟ advanced subscript plus -̠ retracted under-bar -̽ over-cross mid-centralized -̘ advancing sign advanced tongue root -̙ retracting sign retracted tongue root -˞ right hook rhoticity -̚ no audible release corner | tone-unit boundary, metrical feet break, minor (foot) group ‖ marking for continuing and final prosodic boundaries major (intonation) group . syllable break ‿ absence of a break linking
List prepared after Pullum and Ladusaw (1986), IPA (2015), and other sources.
11
12
Introduction
“The schwa vowel is of great importance: though it has no unique representation in spelling, . . . it is the most frequently-occurring vowel” (Roach, 2004, p. 241)
Schwa, the most frequent vowel sound of English, is often considered the poor relation to the stressed vowels. Despite its high occurrence in Present-Day
English (PDE) and substantive developmental change in usage if compared to
Old and Middle-English, its role has been often neglected, for various reasons.
The aim of this work is to determine the present state of schwa-like sounds in Received Pronunciation (RP) by proceeding from articulatory characteristics of schwa and other neutral sounds, phonological rules and an overview of historical development over to a synchronic analysis of a couple of chosen spoken texts delivered by Queen Elizabeth II and encompassing approximately the last sixty years.
The introductory part of this work consists of a research into history of the term and symbol, and is accompanied by an overview of transcription approaches. It will be followed by a chapter dealing with articulatory characteristics that will endeavor to determine all the important features of schwa-like sounds to be taken in consideration in the final synchronic analysis.
13
The following two chapters will focus on general principles of sound changes and description of historical development of schwa from the Old
English period up to the present day, with special attention to Standard British.
They will be prepared with an intention to review the historical changes, compare them with the current shifts and thus better particularize the initial stands for the final synchronic analysis. As such, the first part of this work will be predominantly descriptive and will include a research of available sources.
The synchronic acoustic analysis will focus on a collection of two spoken texts and will attempt to scrutinize them in order to confirm or refute the claimed tendency of a schwa shift in Received Pronunciation (RP) as proposed by certain authors1. The analysis of the two texts is in compliance with the scope of this work and the author is aware of the fact, that in an ideal case, speeches by other female members of the Royal family, delivered during similar occasion, could add to the accuracy of the findings.
Paradoxically, the scope of the thesis presented may seem to be very narrow if judged only by its title, given the fact that it concerns only one vowel, additionally a reduced and unstressed one, and its place in history of one accent of one language solely. This may seem to be rather a limited point of interest, nevertheless it was chosen intentionally for the best results possible - in hope that a very limited area of research and appropriate application of simple methods will yield perhaps not definite but still much more precise conclusions than expected. By choosing a limited area of research and suitable
1 E.g. Cruttenden (2001, p. 83).
14
methods, the aim of the research can be defined more exactly and may offer more accurate and transparent results, bringing in clear light both the scope and limits of the findings.
Reasons for research
Schwa has moved from its former morphemic role in Old English into a role of a mere syllable placeholder in Present-Day English, oscillating between phonemic and allophonic roles in different variants and dialects of English, and finally surpassing all other sounds as for frequency. Simultaneously, the English language as such has changed from a language of a synthetic (or inflectional) type into an analytic (or isolating) language2 and from a syllable-timed language into a stress-timed language. These changes must be seen as influencing each other and besides, numerous other factors of linguistic and extra-linguistic nature have played their roles as well.
To unravel the precise roles, relations and causes, is mostly no longer possible due to the complexity of the language change. In order to reach new insights, the challenge of the contemporary era is to revise the known either from new perspectives or by new means. Computerized speech analysis, possible to some extent by ordinary personal computers, is one of such means.
2 McIntyre (2009, p. 40)
15
Preliminary research questions
The initial research will focus on finding similarities of schwa with other sounds of RP, in various articulatory and diachronic aspects like similarities with other weak vowels, with other lax vowels, with other sounds whose roles in history of
English language has greatly changed, etc. Is schwa really a ‘lazy’ sound, as often described, that requires significantly less energy if compared to other vowels and could this economical aspect of sound production be the possible reason why schwa is the most frequent vowel sound of English? Or is the prosodic nature of the English language the factor responsible for such a high occurrence of this sound?
Special attention will also be paid to the role of schwa at the phonological level especially in regard to conceptions of schwa as a phoneme or as a reduction, i.e. an allophone of a full vowel. Could schwa possibly play both roles?
In aspect of language changes and sound shift, the research will inquire into finding which sounds tend to change into schwa more likely and under which circumstances. And vice versa, evidence for reverse sound changes, i.e. cases when schwa is restressed, will be described noting. The same questions will be also asked for other processes such as schwa deletion or intrusion.
Besides a survey of the role of schwa in language changes and sound shifts, the attention will be directed to find any similar processes and their motives in the present-day language.
16
In the final acoustic analysis, the chosen texts will be compared in terms of schwa occurrence with aim to determine the existence or scope of a possible shift of schwa articulation or usage in RP, for instance changes in place of articulation with respect to other RP vowels, diphthongization or substitution of other weak vowels by schwa.
17
1 Schwa - origins of the term and symbol
‘No two persons of the same nationality pronounce
their own language exactly alike’ (Daniel Jones,
1918/1979, p. 11).
1.1 Origin of the term
It is generally accepted that the term ‘schwa’ (/ʃwɑː/) came into English as a name of a vowel of central quality from German into which it came from
Hebrew.3 The German provenance is easily deductible since
However, the claim that the term schwa denoted a sound of central quality in Hebrew as well (Crystal, 2008, p. 4245) is probably inaccurate. It is generally believed that the term Schwa was introduced into European linguistics
3 ‘... schwa (the German form of the name of the 'obscure' [ə]-like Hebrew vowel).” (Catford, 1977, p.178) 4 Besides schwa and shva (transliteration from Hebrew), another spelling variation is ‘shwa’. Trask’s Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology (1996) notes: “shwa: n. A less usual spelling of schwa.” However, this spelling is so rare that it may be considered a typo. 5 Crystal (2008, p.424) writes exactly that “The term ‘schwa’ comes from the German name of a vowel of this central quality found in Hebrew.” However, in Hebrew, the term (or rather a diacritical marking in pointing) was most likely not used for a central quality vowel, at least exclusively, and it is not used for such a vowel in Ivrit (Modern Hebrew).
18
by Jacob Grimm6 (1785-1863), father of the traditional terminology of German linguistics, but much earlier, it was familiar to theologians who, after the Middle
Ages, became interested in the original languages of the Bible. Johann Severin
Vater noted in his 1802 Handbuch der hebräischen, syrischen, chaldäischen und arabischen Grammatik, that the schwa symbol is used ‘actually quite redundantly’ in Hebrew (except word-finally): “Das Zeichen (:) Schwa steht
(eigentlich ganz überflüssig) unter allen Konsonanten, welche keinen
Vokalpunckt unter sich haben, außer unter den Schlußbuchstaben eines Wortes
.in certain cases he enumerates later (Vater, 1802, p ”… ו und א und unter dem
3). [The symbol (:) schwa stands (actually quite redundantly) below all consonants that do not have any vowel symbol below themselves, except below
.[…ו and א the word final letters and below
The distinctive feature of the Semitic languages like Hebrew is the triconsonantal root, composed of three consonants separated by vowels. In writing, it was therefore initially considered sufficient to letter only consonants.
Later, after the daily speech has altered considerably, it was felt essential to preserve the original form of pronunciation in prayers and other religious texts.
Thus, out of necessity to ensure proper oral repetition of the sacred texts, vowels started to be denoted by means of additional diacritical markings under the consonants. ‘Shva’ was one of such diacritical markings and has the appearance of a colon (:).
6 Regretfully, the author was unable to verify this information, available on various web pages including Wikipedia. For instance, the Grimms’ dictionary (Grimm & Grimm, 1854–1961) does not list this word at all. It is interesting, that German has many words beginning in ‘schwa-’ (‘schwach’ means ‘weak’, ‘schwank’ is ‘thin, varying’, ‘schwanken’ means ‘to sway, to be unstable’), and the similarity of both meaning and pronunciation of Hebrew ‘shva’ might have facilitated the onset of usage of the Hebrew term in German.
19
shva [ʃva] or shewā [ʃəˈwa]) literally means ‘vanity’ or) שְׁ וָא ,In Hebrew
‘emptiness’. Therefore, in Old Hebrew, this diacritical marking was used both to indicate lack of a vowel (the so-called ‘resting shva’ or ‘shva nach’ denoting the end of a syllable, and ‘shva meraḥef’ serving the function of opening a vowel) and to represent a sound (the ‘mobile shva’ or ‘shva nah’, and ‘shva ga'ya’), most usually a short sound (such as /ĕ/ or /ă/7) but sometimes a shortened copy
א ח of any vowel of the next syllable (when joined to one of four guttural letters
,its pronunciation copied the next vowel of the word). In case of shva ga'ya ,ה ע the colon-like diacritics was merged with the gaya diacritics (similar to a Latin small capital T) and, in this case, the syllable was stressed.
In Modern Hebrew (Ivrit), this diacritical marking stands only either for the phoneme /e/ or /ĕ/ in narrow transcription (pronounced as [e̞ ]), or the complete absence of a vowel (in which case it is not transliterated). The reduced mid- central sound [ə] does not exist in Modern Hebrew, although the symbol <ə> is sometimes rather misleadingly used for the mobile shva.8
In conclusion, it is evident that the concept of schwa in Old Hebrew varied according to different reading traditions, and it was denoted by a different symbol.
7 Short /ă/ in Greek was also calle “Schwa”: ‘Der schwache vokalische Klang (Schwa-Vokal), der sich in tiefstufiger Silbe neben den Liquiden λ und ρ im Ablaute zu él lé ér ré entwickelte, war in Griechischen gewöhnlich kurzes ă.’ (Hoffmann, 1898, p. 292). 8 This practice is, however, not recommended by the Academy of the Hebrew Language for transcription (cf. https://web.archive.org/web/20140703210016/http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il/ hahlatot/TheTranscription/Documents/taatiq2007.pdf)
20
1.2 Origin of the Latin symbol
Initially, the mid-central sounds were not recognized as independent vowels in
English (probably under the influence of Latin). They were either omitted in spelling dictionaries or transcribed as the shortened versions of the original vowel qualities. In The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography, Graham Pointon notes: ‘Inevitably, the hardest vowel to represent has been schwa, which in the earliest dictionaries was either ignored completely, or equated with the short ‘ŭ’ of but; ‘ĕdūkā’shŭn’ would be a typical respelling for education. Most occurrences of schwa were assumed to be versions of the short vowels ‘ă’, ‘ĕ’,
‘ŏ’.’ (Pointon, 2016, p. 479).
A step forward in the usage of a separate symbol the mid-central sound
(in contrast to shortened versions of other vowels) was made by William Kenrick in his New Dictionary of the English Language (1773) where he called schwa
‘the indistinct sound’9 and used a ‘cypher’ [o] as its symbol10. Reddick (2006, p.161) notes, that recognition of schwa as a distinct sound makes Kenrick
‘almost unique amongst eighteenth-century authors: most other pronouncing dictionaries use the same symbol for the ‘indistinct sound’ as for the ‘short u’ in, for example, cup, blood.’
9 He defines the schwa sound ‘as practised in the colloquial utterance of the particles a and the, the last syllables of words ending in en, le, and re, as a garden, the castle &c. also in the syllable frequently sunk in the middle of words of three syllables, as every, memory, favourite, &c. which are in versification sometimes formally omitted in writing, by the mark of elision’ (Kenrick, 1773. p. v). 10 Reddick (2006, p.161) also notes that ‘most other pronouncing dictionaries use the same symbol for the ‘indistinct sound’ as for the ‘short u’ in, for example, cup, blood.’
21
In European linguistics, the symbol <ə> is believed to be used first by
Johann Andreas Schmeller in his three-volume work Die Mundarten Bayerns grammatisch dargestellt (1827-1837, p. 25)11 and later in his Bayerisches
Wörterbuch12 as a symbol for a reduced vowel in German.
It is unclear how the symbol came into English usage and whether it was in connection with the German usage, which was most likely the case.
Sometimes, it is claimed, that it was the English mathematician and philologist
Alexander John Ellis who included it into his paleotype alphabet already in
1845. Given the works he referred to in The alphabet of nature (1877), it is clear that he was familiar with German sources. He distinguished three kinds of monosyllabic vowels - long, short and stopped (p. 66) and added that: ‘Among all European languages, the English [sic] is peculiar in possessing a stopped sound of ə...” (1877, p. 66). Henry Sweet acknowledged his indebtedness to this ‘first pioneer of scientific phonetics in England’ and noted that he created his Broad and Narrow Romic ‘on the basis of the Ellis’ Paleotype from which the latter differs mainly in the values assigned to the letters’ (1877, p. 120).
Another instance of early usage of the schwa symbol comes from The
Principles of Sound and Inflexion as Illustrated in the Greek and Latin
Languages by King and Cookson in 1888. In a chapter named ‘The indeterminate vowel’, King and Cookson notice different spellings of the schwa
11 ‘ə ist jener dumpfe Vocal-Laut, welcher nach den gewöhnlichen hochdeutschen Aussprache, in unbetonten, auf einen Konsonant endenden Nachsylben gehört wird, z. B. das zweyte e in: Semmel, nennen, Wetter, Bettes, nehmet, rettet. Es kann jeder Vocal, den in eine tonose Nachsylbe fällt, zu ə verftumpft werden.’ 12 This time, Schmeller (1827, p. viii) finds schwa to be most similar to ‘italian’ long and defines it as similar to certain common French words, ‘ə, der dumpfe, am meisten dem á ähnelnde Laut, (wie z. B. in den französischen Wörtchen je, me, te).’
22
sound in Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit (where it is called a svarabhakti vowel) and introduce the notation of <ə> for the (reconstructed) Indo-European language:
‘...In the notation of the I.-E. alphabet we write it ə, and speak of it as the I.-E. schwa.’ (p. 70). However, they refrain from the traditional usage of different symbolic representations of this sound in the remaining three languages mentioned above.
Probably the most important milestone in usage of the schwa symbol was its inclusion in the International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA) promoted by the
International Phonetic Association. It was included both in the 1887 draft version and all official versions from 1888 on. The 1888 version was supplemented by six policy statements, and the second one explicitly formulated the principle that
“The same sign should be used for the same sound across all languages.”
(Brown, 2012, p. 2826).
Despite the promotion of the IPA, the path of the schwa symbol into general dictionaries was still very long. For instance, the schwa symbol was not introduced to American dictionaries until 1947 when it was used by the Clarence
Barnhart’s American College Dictionary, the first collegiate work to use the schwa symbol at all (Landau, 2009, p.222).
1.3 Definition of the term in modern linguistics
In contemporary phonetics and phonology, the term schwa refers to a groups of mid-central vowel sounds pronounced with either rounded or unrounded lips
23
and in various lengths. In English, the variability of the usage of the term ‘schwa’ is more restricted than in other languages, and to a lesser degree, it varies across different English dialects, too.
1.3.1 The short schwa sound
In most of the introductory literatures on English sounds, the short schwa sound is defined as:
1) voiced (i.e. produced with vibrating vocal chords)
2) mid-central13 (i.e. produced in the centre of the oral cavity)
3) unrounded
4) neutral (i.e. pronounced with laxed tongue and lips)
5) unaccented (occurring in unstressed positions)14
6) short (and even shorter than other short vowels15)
7) indefinite16
8) of murmured or obscured quality17
9) a reduced vowel18
13 ‘schwa’ … is central both on the vertical and horizontal axes’ (Carr, 1993, p.10) 14 ‘Presence or absence of stress also correlates to some extent with the presence of schwa in phonemic transcriptions. Schwa is almost invariably diagnostic of stresslessness.’ (McCully, 2009, p. 62) 15 ‘This vowel is typically even shorter than the short vowels’ (Carr, 1993, p. 67) 16 ‘schwa/shwa...The usual name for the neutral vowel [ə], heard in English at the beginning of such words as ago, amaze, or in the middle of afterwards; sometimes called the indefinite vowel. It is a particularly frequent vowel in English, as it is the one most commonly heard when a stressed vowel becomes unstressed... The term ‘schwa’ comes from the German name of a vowel of this central quality found in Hebrew. (Crystal, 2008, p. 424). 17 "[ə] is a mid-central unrounded vowel; the symbol [ə] and the general type of obscure central vowel...” (Catford, 1977, p.178) 18 This is phonological classification, reduction is ‘referring to a vowel which can be analysed as a centralized variant of a vowel in a related form’ (Crystal, 2008, p. 424). The reduction can be of various intensity and may end in total deletion of the vowel.
24
Voicing is typical for all vowels and devoicing of vowels is rare in English, but can occur if schwa is further reduced19. Also, the unroundness is typical of
English, although rounded variants of the schwa sound appear in e.g. New
Zealand or Australian English. Description of schwa as neutral refers to the neutral position of tongue, i.e. in respect to front, back, high or low tongue position. In other words, neutral tongues position refers to a vowel only while neutral lip position may also refer to a consonant. Some of these features will be dealt with in more detail later.
1.3.2 Schwa as a cover symbol
While the nine features mentioned above are commonly accepted as basic characteristics of schwa in English, the notion itself is often used in a much wider sense even in English, especially regarding place of articulation. Many scholarly works admit variability of the sound. The following definition mentions that schwa is ‘mid central’ and suggests that low central or upper central sounds can be covered by this term as well.
"...the symbol [ə] and the general type of obscure central vowel it represents are often known as schwa ... The symbol is often used for a fairly wide range of reduced or 'obscure' central vowels, such as the English unaccented vowel in the first syllables of again, potato.” (Catford, 1977, p.178)
19 Shoup and Pfeifer (2012, p. 217) note that: ‘The schwa vowel is normally thought of as a voiced sound, but when it occurs in a reduced form, there is a likelihood that it will be pronounced without voicing, giving it the qualities of an /h/, or aspiration’ and, on p. 2018, they show spectrographic and acoustic wave representations of an example of devoicing of the reduced vowel /ə/ after the /k/ in commercial.
25
Trask (1996, p. 128)20 uses schwa as an example to illustrate the term
‘elusive’. Similarly, Carr (1993, p.10) notes, that it is used ‘rather loosely’ and the area it covers is ‘fairly large’.21 Ogden adds that variable quality of schwa also stems from its immediate environment: ‘Its precise quality is highly variable, partly because it is very short and strongly coloured by neighbouring consonants; this is one reason why a ‘float’ symbol, with no precise definition, can be a useful tool for transcription: it can cover a wide range of qualities in one symbol.” (Ogden, 2009, p.63)
These sample definitions are revealing of the ambiguous attitude to schwa since purely articulatory synchronic approach would certainly prefer to define schwa simply as a mid-central sound, while the historical comparative approach would prefer to retain the fact that the final vowels -e, -a, -u, -o gradually coalesced into the weak neutral vowel of schwa, and similarly to the phonological approach, it would tend to make clear that schwa is a reduction of other vowels, i.e. an allophone, and would probably opt to use the symbols of the founding vowels with diacritic markings for centralisation and reduction (this will be showed in the next chapter). Alongside, there are approaches that attempt to combine these two basic approaches, at least in certain aspects such as in establishing a transcription that would be both phonetic and phonemic.
The long schwa sound is also a part of such considerations.
20 ‘Having a somewhat indeterminate and often variable nature, such as English schwa.’ Trask, 1996, p. 128. 21 ‘Both the term and the symbol are used rather loosely at times by phonologists to cover vowels of a fairly large area in the centre of the vowel space.’ (Carr, 1993, p.10)
26
1.3.3 The long schwa sound
A long mid-central sound also exists in RP and, contrary to the short schwa sound, it is stressed, as in bird or nurse. The duration and typologically different occurrence of the sound are important in phonology and may be reasons why there can be found certain discrepancy in usage of the symbol and the term.
According to IPA, “schwa” is the official name of /ə/ symbol, but there are other symbols with their own names used for sounds of central qualities, such as <ɜ>, a reversed lowercase epsilon, which is used often as a symbol for the long version of the sound, and also by reversed e, barred o, turned epsilon, and closed turned epsilon (see IPA chart, section Vowels, in Appendix 1).
Obviously, it may be perceived unsystematic to call a sound ‘schwa’ and denote it by a schwa symbol in case it is short and by an ‘epsilon’ in case it is prolonged22. For instance, Underhill defines the both schwas in the following way: ‘The central vowel /ə/ can claim to be the ‘smallest’ English vowel sound and yet it is the only phoneme with its own name. It is by far the most frequent vowel sound in continuous speech … It is its unstressed nature that contrasts with stressed vowels to contribute to the rhythmical nature of English … /ɜː/ is its longer, stressed equivalent.’ (Underhill, 1994, p. 11)
This definition implies that schwa is not only a name for a symbol and for a sound of mid-central quality, but also for a phoneme (with various allophonic realisations in real speech), and /ɜː/ is its equivalent, thus also a phoneme of its own, only nameless. In other words, the reasoning behind this transcription of
22 However, if the term schwa is left aside, the IPA symbols for mid-central sounds consists of 3 variants of
27
the short and long sound as /ə, ɜː/ rather than /ə, əː/ is usually defended on the grounds that the /ə, ɜː/ pair may better illustrate the much narrower range of allophonic variation of the longer sound and it also enables to leave out the then redundant diacritical marking of length (/ə, ɜ/) since the phonological definition of the symbol may contain the duration. In other words, it deviates from IPA principles, established primarily on articulatory basics, where length is showed by additional diacritical markings.
However, not all authorities share the view that long and short schwas are two distinct phonemes. For example, Daniel Jones (1979 [1918], p. 88) considered the long vowel an allophone of the short one. Also, the phonological status of the sound may differ in various kinds and stages of English.
1.4 Further notes on transcription
The student of phonetics may be acquainted with the prevalent system of transcription used in Europe, the standard promoted by the International
Phonetic Association called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)23, and may be aware of the fact that The International Phonetic Association has frequently revised and expanded the alphabet, thus it may be considered an ever-evolving standard and the versions are not identical. Obviously, the original
1888 version of IPA and the most recent version are vastly different but the changes made in recent decades were rather minute.
23 The current version of IPA (2015) is included in Appendix 1.
28
It should be noted, that IPA was designed as an articulatory standard
(Cruttenden, 2001, p. 38), i.e. it is best suited to note down the articulatory features of a sound. Despite of the fact that IPA is the most widely embraced system of transcription, not all authorities who claim to use the IPA transcribe the same words in the same way. IPA is not a prescriptive standard and academicians are free to deviate from it according to their purpose
(lexicography, linguistic fieldwork or annotation of an acoustic display, etc.). In other words, IPA offers general guidelines for transcription, and care should be paid to quotation of phonetic renderings of various authors since they may note down the same sound differently or, vice versa, use the same symbol for different sounds. It is obvious that in some languages, there are traditions of transcription were limited by printing demands, for instance, in transcription of
Tibeto-Burman languages, the symbol
IPA is based on six policy statements that had been formulated by the
International Phonetic Association as early as 1888. According to Brown (2012, p. 2826) they were as follows:
1. Each sign should have its own distinctive sound.
2. The same sign should be used for the same sound across all languages.
3. As many ordinary Roman letters should be used as possible, and the
usage of new letters should be minimal.
4. International usage should decide the sound of each sign.
29
5. The look of the new letters should suggest the sound that they
represent.
6. Diacritics should be avoided when possible, as they are difficult to
write and hard to see.
In English, another widely used notation used is so-called Americanist phonetic notation, also known as the North American Phonetic Alphabet, abbreviated as APA or NAPA. Despite its name, it is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by both European and American anthropologists and language scientists (with neogrammarian roots). The APA is not standardised in the way the IPA is. It may be used in books on British English published in America.
The system of notation used in this work is in compliance with IPA and the symbols used for schwa and long schwa are /ə/ and /əː/ respectively24.
Within IPA, several transcriptional variations will be briefly mentioned, more precisely those that are used in Great Britain (and consequently for the RP), such as the Clive Upton’s scheme.
A good reference book to consult in case of question on usage of almost any symbol, is Pullum and Ladusaw (1996).
24 This symbol pair was also used by Daniel Jones (1979 [1918]).
30
1.4.1 Broad and narrow notation
The notation practice is also influenced by both articulatory and phonological approaches. In phonetics, there is need to use a one-to-one correspondence between speech and writing, a system with a phonographic relationship. The twenty-six letters of the Roman alphabet are not clearly enough for the task of noting down all sounds of any language, and further distinction of the sound is given by diacritics.
The basic difference in transcription needs between a phonetician and a phonologist is in the detail such a system conveys - the phonetic notation transcribes what happens in real speech while the phonological notation only works with phonemes (basic sound representations) and leaves out their variants (allophones). Thus, the phonologist is able reduce the sounds into distinct units and work with them on an abstract level. In other words, the transcription system generally reflects the phonetic analysis. In particular, the chosen symbol set reflects approaches to segmentation of the language data and a subsequent phonemicization or phonological treatment of the language data.
At the same time, any system that is used at various levels of precision or accuracy is potentially confusing. That was why some linguists such as
Sweet (1877)25 endeavoured to solve this problem by two sets of symbols, one to be used for more accurate analyses and another one as an approximate,
25 See Part IV, Sound notation, p. 100ff.
31
simplified and easily mastered transcription system of sounds aimed at the general public and suitable for e.g. dictionaries.
The original word to be transcribed is often given in angle brackets
(
1.4.2 Simple and comparative transcription
For practical purposes, the transcription system for a given language should be kept as simple as possible as for symbol choice. For instance, it is typographically easier to transcribe the English consonant in rod as
32
Another example of simplification may be a choice between two symbols for a vowel that lies between them in the vowel space. The choice of the symbol is based on either tradition or personal conviction that the real pronunciation has already moved toward the non-traditional symbol to such a degree that the traditional symbol must be abandoned (see <ɛ> instead of
1.4.2 The IPA and the mid-central sounds
The IPA defines the schwa as the ‘mid-central unrounded vowel’ (IPA, 2015).
Pullum and Ladusaw (1996, p. 48) further comment that the symbol is used “for a range of non-peripheral vowels for which other symbols could also be used …
[ɐ] in word-final position in British English, [ʒ] in stressed positions in British
English, [ɨ] in many American dialects…”
26 Clive Upton worked as a pronunciation consultant for Oxford's dictionaries of English and his quantitative-qualitative scheme of transcription was adopted by the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995). As for vowels, it differs from the standard scheme in the symbolization of five vowels - he adopts <ɛ> instead of
33
2 Phonetics and phonology
Although our species has the scientific name Homo sapiens, ‘thinking human’, … an even more appropriate name would be Homo loquens, or ‘speaking human’. (McMahon, 2002, p. 1)
Phonetics and phonology are two linguistic subdisciplines which deal with sound. Their relation is a complex one, sometimes with indistinct and obscure boundaries since they overlap at times and, quite naturally, they supplement each other.
Phonetics (articulatory, acoustic and auditory/perceptual) is associated mainly with anatomy, physiology, physics and neurology. From the structuralist point of view, phonetics describes language at the parole level and its aim is to provide an objective method to describe and analyse human speech sounds.
Since there are many reasons for doing phonetic studies, there are many kinds of phoneticians who study speech from various perspectives. Some of them may be concerned with speech acquisition, pathological speech, kinds of sounds found in world languages, sound changes in a particular language, etc.
It would be very interesting to study schwa from all these perspectives, but it is beyond the scope of this work. Obviously, it will be necessary to skip
34
some areas of phonetics in order to keep the task in mind manageable. The whole domain of auditory phonetics, i.e. reception and perception of speech sounds by the listener, will be left untouched. On the other hand, special attention will be paid to articulatory production of the sounds, and to auditory characteristics which are measurable.
Phonology is interested in the abstract level of language, langue, and works with the symbolic representations of sounds as abstract units or segments, phonemes, which can have one or more realisations in a given language, allophones. The phoneme is an abstract category and if applied on a language, each language/dialect will yield different set of phonemes with different allophones. In other words, what can be defined as two phonemes in one language or a dialect, may be defined as a phoneme and an allophone in another one.
Phonology is interested in rules and once the rules are found they can, for instance, bring a deeper insight in sound shifts and language changes.
However, they work in rather complex relations being triggered by various factors, and since the language is an ever-changing system, and so are the rules.
35
2.2 Production of sounds
This subchapter will deal with basics of sound production, and is aimed to possibly provide an answer whether schwa can be considered the most ‘lazy’ sound of English.
Articulatory phonetics describes sounds of a language from the point of articulation. More specifically, it is concerned with the transformation of aerodynamic energy (the airstream produced in lungs) into acoustic energy. The egressive/ejective air flow is pushed out of lungs, steps through the vocal tract, i.e. through various speech organs (larynx, pharynx, trachea, vocal cords, oral and nasal tract) which further transform it. Articulators, or speech organs above larynx, are of two types: passive and active. Passive articulators remain static during the articulation of sound (upper lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, and pharynx). Active articulators move relatively to the passive articulators (tongue, lower lips).
The sounds of English are traditionally divided into consonants and vowels. It is worth to note that certain consonants behave at times as vowels
(/j/, /w/ - also called semivowels) from the phonetic point of view and phonology is needed to affirm their consonantal nature. The articulation of consonants and of vowels is described from a different perspective though both groups share certain common features - the vowels are described by positioning them into a so-called vowel trapezium (see the IPA chart in Appendix 1, section Vowels).
36
Also, the exact articulation of a sound can affect the articulation of the particular sound to such a degree that it may lose some of its basic features
(such as voicedness) or it noticeably influences sounds in the immediate environments. Lastly, but certainly not leastly, the brain plays its role and what may be perceived by a hearer as said by a speaker may not correspond to the real acoustic data of the spoken unit since the brain uses various (and often redundant) clues to derive at the final image of the utterance.
Figure 2.1. Speech organs. Although the place of articulation of vowels is mainly formed in the oral cavity in correspondence to lingual positions, other speech organs are responsible for other additional features of the vowel sounds, e.g. voicing is created by vocal chords, the size of vocal tract determines sound frequency, timbre etc. (Source: Quatieri, 2001, p. 58).
37
2.2.1 Vowels
Vowels can be pronounced as stand-alone sounds and in English, they are all voiced27. The vowels are formed in the oral cavity, without stricture, and are determined by the position of the tongue, the shape of the lips and the jaw position. While the place of articulation of consonants partially corresponds to the oral cavity where the vowels are produced as well, the system of referential description of vowels is specific. For example, the articulatory role of the tongue is different. According to Wang (1968, p. 702), the tongue height in vowel productions ‘cannot correspond to anything in consonant productions, since consonants are by definition impossible when the aperture in the vocal tract exceed a certain cross-sectional area’. It is therefore obvious that their quality is more difficult to determine and formulate than the quality of consonants. Also, the quality of vowels is more unstable and more likely to shift and fluctuate.
Throughout history and until very recently, the vowels were divided into three categories: palatal (produced in the mouth), labio-velar (produced with lip shaping) and pharyngeal (produced in the throat). Such a division of vowels assumed that the airstream is constricted by the tongue that is moved towards one of the above mentioned passive articulators. Further distinctions were made with reference to jaw height or tongue position affecting the aperture. In other words, the emphasis in vowel production was placed on the location and degree of constriction in the oral cavity.
27 English vowels are voiced in their full pronunciation, but they can be devoiced if reduced or whispered.
38
Modern descriptive approaches to vowel articulation were designed from the continuous vowel space perspective that describes the vowel to a greater degree acoustically. It means that the vowels are defined in reference to an abstractly defined place in the oral cavity encompassing the area within which the tongue can move. This abstract place is usually simplified into a shape of a quadrangle (quadrilateral). However, the vowel’s quality is not given by the place of articulation within the oral cavity - it is also affected by lip rounding.
Acoustically, the oral cavity and the throat can be seen as a tube, a continuum resonance place, a tube, that can be prolonged by lip gesture (see Figure 2.3).
A B
Figure 2.2. Vowel space. A. Vowel production according to tongue constriction theories (after Ladefoged & Johnson, 2011, p. 19; arrows pointing to unmovable articulators added. Numbers represent English vowels). B. Continuous vowel space in modern vowel theories (after Ladefoged & Johnson, 2011, p. 221; vowel trapezoid added).
39
Figure 2.3. Vocal tract in the neutral configuration. The tract is in position for schwa and is simplified into a tube closed at its right end. (Source: Ladefoged, 1996, p.117).
The constriction theory of vowel production was not fully abandoned until deep in the twentieth century and it still can be still found in reprints of famous works such as in ‘The Outline’ of Daniel Jones (1979 [1918]) or in comparative linguistics.
The continuous space vowel theory was partially defined by Bell, but even in Bell’s concept, the influence of the older perspective was always noticeable. However, from the point of interest of this work, it is especially worthy to note the changes in definition of the mid-central sounds.
Initially, guttoral, palatal, and velar sounds were described as sounds with variable aperture (constriction) held by the tongue against these articulators. From this point of view, the mid-central sounds could not be as easily described as from the perspective of the continuous space. Sounds that fall within the broad category of central vowels were hard to described and some of them were defined rather recently. For instance, A. M. Bell (1867, p.
15) depicted his struggle to define the sounds in
40
words: ‘One sound—that of the English err, sir, &c.—was confessedly out of place in the published Table, but the Table evidently did not contain a place where the sound could be satisfactorily located. This sound haunted the ear and the mouth by day . . . and with it flitted a train of obviously kindred sounds. . . .
Among them were an American sound heard in the words err, sir, &c., very different from the ordinary English sound in the same words, yet having some features of family resemblance ; the French vowel in 'que,' and the obscure sounds of the English articles 'a' and 'the;' all of which were felt to be mutually related in some undiscovered way.’
Finally, Bell has introduced a category of ‘mixed’ vowels that were both front and back28. His description of lingual vowels was in categories front-mixed- back and high-mid-low, i.e. he used two-dimensional reference points. The vowels could be further changed acoustically by labialization, which he considered an additional feature component of articulation. The articulatory theory derived from Bell’s findings later became the ‘classic’ phonetic theory.
However, it is interesting to note, that Bell (1867, p. 44) did not defined the above-mentioned sounds in
English at all, unless the sound is ‘wide’ (see Table 2.1). He defined schwa in
28 Bell notes that his research ‘resulted in the identification of a new category of vowels, — a series moulded simultaneously by the back and the front surfaces of the tongue’, and adds that ‘these sounds were each susceptible of labial modification’ which ‘revealed the principle that the so-called Labial Vowels were all, in reality, compound formations. He further adds that ‘It was evident that there were three classes of purely lingual vowels, moulded respectively by the back, the front, and by 'mixed' back and front positions of the tongue; and that each element in this triple scale was the basis of another vowel, in forming which a definite labial modification was simply added. There were then six sets of vowels instead of three, as formerly supposed, one half being labialized or 'rounded' forms of the other half.‘ (1867, p. 15-16)
41
‘the’ as a ‘High-Mixed-Wide’ sound, and he asserted, that a ‘Mid-Mixed sound
‘is not an English sound, but it is found in dialects of Ireland, being given to most of the unaccented vowels indiscriminately, as in genuine, reply, ordinary, average, wickedness, entice, elephant, etc.’ He classified the sounds found in
42
Front Mixed Back High High-Front: High-Mixed: High-Back: ee in feel i in sir (American) ao in laogh (Gaelic) i in fille (French) (long and short) (long and short) High-Front-Wide: High-Mixed-Wide: High-Back-Wide: i in ill e in the (unaccented) u in turn (Cockney) (long and short) (long and short) ou in -ous Mid Mid-Front: Mid-Mixed: Mid-Back: a in day (Scotch) ‘not an English sound’ u in turn e in est (French) Mid-Mixed-Wide: it is heard in u in up (American) Mid-Front-Wide: unaccented syllables instead of Mid-Back-Wide: a in air Low-Front-Wide (-al, -ance, - o in ore (but unrounded) ant, -able), and instead of Low- Mixed-Wide (-er, -yr) Low Low-Front: Low-Mixed: ‘does not occur in Low-Back: ê in bête (French; English’ except:’ u in ugh (Scotch) long) i in sir (Somerset) u in up (Scotch) e in let (French) e in penny (Cockney) Low-Back-Wide: Low-Front-Wide: Low-Mixed-Wide: a in ah a in half (Irish) e in err (long) a in man (Scotch) a in man (American) e in perform (short) Table 2.1. Vowel table after Bell’s vowel descriptions (1882, p. 44).
Figure 2.4. Positions of tongue in vowel production after Bell (1867, p. 73).
43
Bell’s category of mixed sounds was later renamed to ‘central’ by Jones.
His primary/wide distinction was again renamed to narrow/wide by Sweet, and changed to today’s tense/lax. Higher/lower is now described as raised/lowered.
The closeness/openness of a vowel (referring to configurative aperture) is today defined in degrees of height (high/low). But the Bell’s model is still in heart of the models used today.
Bell’s system demonstrates his deep sense for accuracy, since all the measurements and adjustments were based on his personal experience29. In
1917, Daniel Jones, Professor of phonetics at University College London, made advantage of the latest scientific discovery - the X-ray - to place the vowels into the articulatory area more precisely. He decided to produce X-ray images of the mouth from the side of the face, and to take down the position of the tongue and the shape of the oral cavity during vowels production by different speakers including himself. Since X-rays pass through the soft tissues and cannot generally offer clear images of the tongue shape, Jones inserted a small lead chain into his mouth before allowing himself to be X-rayed (Zsiga, 2013, p.3).
Inevitably, the technique was of limited precision and, moreover, it was detrimental to health.
Jones formulated a so-called vowel trapezium whose outlines deliminate the most extreme articulation while the ordinary English vowel sounds (or the
29 Bell’s primarily motivation for his work was to reach more advanced methods in teaching the deaf to speak.
44
‘pronounceable’ ones) find themselves within the inner area of the trapezium.
The edge sounds are called the Cardinal vowels and are used as reference
points in the description of other vowel sounds. For instance, such a referential
system reference was extremely helpful in jotting down pronunciation of foreign
languages.
Contrary to Bell’s system, the Jonesian system is dual-based since any
Cardinal vowel is defined both by its place of articulation and by lip rounding.
The Jonesian system can also be classified as a system of articulatory-acoustic
reference points30. This is where another hindrance of the system lies - the
acoustic values of the vowels must be learnt from a trained phonetician, in other
words, the trained ear is necessary (Jones, 1979 [1918], p. 35).
Primary IPA IPA symbol Secondary IPA IPA symbol Cardinal Number Cardinal Number Vowels Vowels 1 301 [i] 9 309 [y] 2 302 [e] 10 310 [ø] 3 303 [ɛ] 11 311 [œ] 4 304 [a] 12 312 [ɶ] 5 305 [ɑ] 13 313 [ɒ] 6 306 [ɔ] 14 314 [ʌ] 7 307 [o] 15 315 [ɤ] 8 308 [u] 16 316 [ɯ] 17 317 [ɨ] 18 318 [ʉ] Table 2.2. Cardinal vowels. Cardinals by their numbers, with the corresponding the IPA number, symbol, and definition. The primary vowels are numbered 1-8, the remaining are the secondary vowels.
30 The Cardinal vowels were further divided into Primary and Secondary, and symbols for central sounds were added as well. It is also apt to note that the correspondence of the Cardinal vowels to IPA chart is limited - on the IPA chart, the unrounded vowel is always the first of the pair and the rounded the second one, but not all Primary Cardinals are unrounded while some of the Secondary ones are.
45
A B
Figure 2.5. Two vowel diagrams by Daniel Jones. A. Lens-shaped Jonesian diagram. It depicts the range of tongue movements most precisely (Jones, 1979, p. 36). B. Jonesian quadrilateral adapted for teaching purposes (p.64). Cardinal vowels are represented by small dots and English vowels by large dots.
Figure 2.6. Central part of Jonesian quadrilateral. Jones defines schwas in the
following way: ə2 is the most common variation, ə1 is mostly found in environment of k
and g, and ə3 is similar to /ʌ/ (as the final schwa in villa or collar) (Jones, 1979, p. 36).
The legitimacy of the Jonesian vowel quadrilateral was later confirmed by sound measurements. The sound produced in the vocal tract resonates in the vocal tract and oral cavity. Broad peaks (or overtone pitches) of resonance frequencies are called formants31 and are measured in Hertz (Hz). The peaks occur in certain intervals and for a vowel, usually five peaks are found within the
31 In phonetics, formant can mean either the resonance of the vocal tract or the broad spectral maximum that the resonance produces. In this work, the term is used only in the latter sense.
46
0 - 5500 Hz range, while it is generally asserted that the first two or three
formant peaks are the only ones needed to tell the vowel sounds apart
acoustically.
Figure 2.7. Formants of British vowels. Formants appear in the form of black horizontal bands. The first formant is at the bottom. The vowels in the upper row are open, the F1 and F2 are noticeably further apart that F1 and F2 of back vowels in the lower row. This means that F2-F1 values can tell degree of backness of vowel articulation. (Source: Ladefoged & Johnson, 2011, p. 196).
Vowel [i:] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ:] [u:] [ɜ:] [ʊ] [a] [ʌ] [ɒ] [ɑ:] [ɔ:] F1 319 432 645 691 339 650 414 1011 813 602 779 431 F2 2723 2296 2287 2210 1396 1593 1203 1759 1422 994 1181 799 F2-F1 2404 1864 1642 1519 1057 943 789 748 609 392 382 368 Table 2.3. Mean F1 and F2 values for female General British speakers. The vowels are sorted according to F2-F1, i.e. from the most front to the most back vowels with long schwa in the middle (source of data for F1 and F2: Cruttenden, 2014, p.104)
47
The frequency of the first formant (F1) is determined by the height of the tongue body. The frequency of the second formant (F2) related to the backness of the tongue and both the second and the third (F3) formants are usually lowered by lip rounding. If the formant values for the vowels are placed in a graph, where the horizontal dimension represents the F1 frequency and the vertical dimension represents the F2 frequency, they surprisingly correspond to a reversed Jonesian quadrilateral. To keep this feature noticeable, the horizontal and vertical axes of the diagram in Fig. 2.8 are manipulated so that the visual correspondence with the quadrilateral is instantly observable.
Figure 2.8. Plot of the first two formants of British vowels. F1 frequency is basically the only difference between schwa and /ʌ/ (F2 frequencies of these vowels are close). (Source: Ladefoged & Johnson, 2011, p. 226).
48
Also, it is necessary to mention that the absolute frequency values may vary in a vowel production of a male and female speaker, a child and an adult, but the relative formant ratio remains in the same ratio with all speakers. Kent and Read (1992, pp. 154-155) lists characteristics of women’s speech that may differ from men’s voices: for instance, women’s voices are more breathy, weaker, tend have more air escaping through glottis during its closed stage, vocal cords tend to be open longer during the glottal cycle, have more symmetric and shorter vocal pulses, more dominant and higher fundamental frequency with a different range, larger formant bandwidths and different interaction between subglottal and supraglottal cavities. Cruttenden (2014, p.104) also gives data for male and female speakers. For data on female speaker, see Table 2.3.
2.2.2 Monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs
Monophthongs are simple sounds, such as the examples described in the subchapter above. In real pronunciation, some monophthongs have a glide at the end, or another vowel sound, that may be only used in informal speech or in dialects.
Diphthongs are sounds that consist of a glide from one vowel to another within a single syllable. The first part of a diphthong is always longer and stronger (louder) than the second part. In English, there are eight diphthongs in
RP and schwa occurs at the end of centering diphthongs in all cases (as a
49
reduction of /r/), and once as the more prominent part of the diphthong (/əʊ/)
before the glide to /ʊ/.
Closing diphthongs Centring diphthongs IPA diphthong /əʊ/ /nəʊ/ know /ɪə/ /bɪə/ beer /eɪ/ /beɪ/ bay /eə/ /beə/ bear /ɔɪ/ /bɔɪ/ boy /ʊə/ /pʊə/ poor /aɪ/ /baɪ/ buy /aʊ/ /baʊ/ bough Table 2.4. Closing and centring diphthongs of RP.
A B
Figure 2.9. Diphthongs and triphothongs. A. Closing and centring diphthongs of RP. The dots represent the first vowel and the arrow stand for the movement towards the second element. (After Roach, 2004, p. 242). B. Two ways of representing a triphthong graphically. Triphthongs are also movements, but more complex. (source: Silverman, 2009, p. 43).
Triphthongs are those sounds that consist of a glide from one vowel to
another and then onto a third. They are similar to diphthongs, but they all have
an extra schwa on the end. The centring diphthongs already have schwa at the
end, so only five triphthongs can be created in English this way. Triphthongs
only occur in careful speech.
50
Besides the diphthongs and triphthongs, there is a number of occasions
when vowel sounds meet other vowels over word edge boundaries.
Triphthongs /ǝʊǝ/ lower /lǝʊǝ/ /aɪə/ liar /laɪə/ /aʊə/ power /paʊə/ /eɪǝ/ layer /leɪǝ/ /ɔɪǝ/ loyal /lɔɪǝl/ Table 2.5. Triphthongs of RP. Triphthongs unanimously end in schwa. As such, all triphthongs are centring. The triphthong /ǝʊǝ/ also begins in schwa.
2.2.3 Consonants
The name ‘con-sonant’ implies that the main feature of these sounds is their
inability to stand alone - they can occur only ‘with’ (con) other sounds. In other
words, i is impossible to utter them separately and, if the attempt is made to
utter them in isolation, a short schwa-like sound follows them.
The consonants can be described by presence or absence of (1) voicing,
(2) place of articulation and (3) manner of articulation. According to manner of
articulation, three main groups of consonants are classed (1) stops (the airflow
is stopped in oral cavity), (2) fricatives (the active and passive articulator are
brought close together but not enough to stop the airflow) and (3) approximants
(the active and passive articulators are not close enough to even create
friction).
The approximants are therefore the closest to vowels (they fall half way
between vowels and fricatives). These sounds mostly hold the position of a true
51
consonant (can occur at onsets or codas of syllables) but they also can behave as vowels (i.e. occur at peaks of syllables) and in these cases, they are called syllabic. In RP, there are four approximants [j ɹ l w], in rhotic variations of
English (GA), the retroflex approximant [ɻ] is a consonantal [ɚ].
2.2.4 Prosodic features
Both phonetics and phonology divide speech into segments (sounds), though for various reasons, but there are certain features (like stress, rhythm and intonation (also called pitch contour or pitch movement) that cannot be segmented and they come under scrutiny of suprasegmental phonology. The
IPA provides symbols for stress, length, intonation, syllabification, and tone under the general heading "suprasegmentals". However, this division is not indisputable (for instance, phonetic correlates of stress often manifest in at the segmental level). Therefore, some authors prefer a more general term
"prosody" for these (and other) phenomena. From these, loudness, pitch, tone of voice, duration/length, air stream and the state of glottis constitute purely phonetic features.
Loudness (or the amplitude of sound vibration) is a component of stress, thus a suprasegmental feature in phonetics, but in phonology it cannot distinguish meaning and is therefore not distinctive.
Pitch (or the frequency of sound vibration) is likewise a stress component falling in the same categories as loudness.
52
Tone of voice (voice quality or timbre) is considered a paralinguistic feature and in phonology, it is not distinctive. By means of different patterns of vibrations of vocal chords, it can carry information about the speaker’s age, gender or mood.
Duration refers to duration of a sound in phonetics while length is usually restricted to phonology. Length is a distinctive feature in many languages
(including Czech) but not in RP. In English, apart some English dialects, long and short vowels differ in articulatory quality as well.
Air-stream mechanism was already described in the beginning of this chapter and in English, it is not a distinctive feature. The state of glottis is distinctive, causing voicedness, voicelessness or glottal closure. While the latter produces a glottal stop, which is not present in RP, the voiced/voiceless contrast distinguishes meaning and is considered a distinctive phonological feature by some linguist, while other do not follow this opinion. The reason is that the voiced/voiceless contrast is usually accompanied by fortis/lenis contrast
(hard/soft intensity of articulation or higher/weaker tension/force). The fortis sounds are always voiceless while the lenis sounds are voiced or devoiced. For instance, although the initial sound in
53
English rhythm is defined as stress-timed and it means that the intervals between stressed syllables are likely to be constant and unstressed syllables are compressed to preserve the isochrony of the inter-stress intervals (Roach,
2004, p. 243). It is also true of RP, and is a reason for such a frequent schwa occurrence (some English variants are syllable-timed and have no schwa, e.g.
African English).
2.2.5 Coarticulation
Coarticulation denotes a simultaneous or overlapping articulation. In anticipatory (or right-to-left) coarticulation, an articulator not involved in a particular sound already begins to move in the direction of an articulation needed (the target) and this move influences the articulation of the actual sound. In perseverative or perseveratory (or left-to-right) coarticulation, a sound is influenced by articulation of an earlier sound.
As for the degree of influence, two possibilities emerge: either the two points of articulation influence the sound approximately equally (so called double articulation or co-ordinate coarticulation) or one point of articulation cay be the distinguished as the dominant one (the primary co-articulation), while the other is the secondary. Examples of secondary articulation are palatalization, velarization, pharyngealization and labialization.
In case of schwa, a mid-central sound, we can distinguish raising, fronting, backing or lowering of shwa. In general, the quality of mid-central
54
sounds is influenced by its environment to a great extent. When other vowels reach the central place of articulation, they are termed as centralized.
55
3 Language changes and sound shifts
Time changes all things: there is no reason why languages should escape this universal law. (Saussure, 1915, p. 77)
Language change is one of the most dealt-with linguistic topics, yet one that cannot offer unequivocal conclusions. Still, studies of language change can offer valuable insights into the nature language. This chapter will particularly deal with role of phonetic changes and will make a distinction between phonetic changes and other language changes.
3.1 General features of language change
Language is a code that has communicative function, and it simply means that it is required to convey information in the most effective and accurate way. Any system is limited, and so is human thinking (or information processing), sound production, perception, and any context in which language happens. It may explain why the language is ever evolving and changing, since though it may reach higher accuracy and/or efficiency in certain areas, it inevitably loses some of the mentioned qualities in other respects. Language can be seen as a system that is self-balancing. The language changes may be seen as therapeutic, as a sign of decay (Aitchison, 2001, p. 212), or simply as a transition to another state
‘dominated by certain general laws imposed by the equilibrium of the forces with which they are confronted.” (Vendryès, 1925, p. 359).
56
As a matter of fact, the reasons for any language change are numerous and, both synchronically and diachronically, it is hardly possible to enlist them.
Words acquire new meanings and new pronunciations due to changes in society such as a changing lifestyle, younger generation searching for its identity, war, or technological advance.
3.1.1 Permanent character of a change
Historical changes are usually stated as persistent rules, but synchronic changes (and sound changes especially) may be temporal, recurring after several decades of existence. In other words, what may seem to be an ongoing change may be, in fact, a fluctuation of a language system that sways to a certain direction and returns backwards to the point of balance ready to sway again in any direction. Some changes span over many centuries, other may be relatively abrupt. However, most of the causes of a fluctuation and a stable change are the same, and the point where a fluctuation becomes a stable rule, may be very obscure. Section on ‘changes in progress’ in different editions of the authoritative Gimson’s Pronunciation of English (published since 1962) can serve as an apt example - some changes in this section mentioned in earlier editions were neither included in the given section in a later edition nor in sections on ‘‘changes in progress’ or among ‘changes well established’32.
32 For instance, cf. the fifth and sixth editions.
57
3.2 Progress of a sound change
Language changes can be divided into two basic groups - sound changes and grammatic changes (i.e. syntactic, semantic and lexical changes). Language changes on all its levels, but sound changes, and vowel changes especially, are most common.
The Neogrammarians considered any sound change regular, phonetically gradual, and general (i.e. affecting all words simultaneously), perhaps advancing by imperceptible increments, but affecting all words simultaneously. In other words, “linguistic change cannot be demonstrated in the speech of one speaker during a short period of time, especially in laboratory conditions, even if it is actually taking place: this is because change takes place in the speech community, not in the speech of one person” (Milroy, 1994, p.
121).
Aitchison (1991, p. 84) models the sound shifts in time as S-curves - starting at the bottom of the letter S, the change is slow, horizontal and unstirred, after which a major increase occurs, represented by the central part of the letter and the depart from the bottom line, but some elements of language are less prone to change and the change slows down, which is again represented by the upper shape of the letter. The most resistant to elements take significantly longer to change and some never change and later are considered ‘irregularities’ of the system thought they were regularly formed before the change happened. Language changes seem to never take place in a
58
definite and regular way, and e.g. if a /e/ is raised to /i/ in a language, it is raised in most occurrences but not in all.
Figure 3.1. S-curve schematic. The change begins slowly, then becomes more rapid and general, and finally, it slows down leaving certain residue unchanged. (source: author).
The famous French linguist, Andre Martinet, in his 1955 book Economie de changements phonétiques, proposed two types of changes seen from the point of the course of their movement - drag chains and push chains (chaîne de traction and de propulsion). He endeavoured to find evidence to illustrate this type of changes. In a drag chain change, one sound moves from its original place and leaves and unoccupied place to which moves another sound, and so on. One sound invades the territory of another, and it is expelled to another sound’s territory, and so on.
It is not always possible to identify the nature of type of the first change, and generally, the efforts to reconstruct chain types (e.g. Grimm’s law or the
Great English Vowel Shift) stir passionate debates. However, some scholars
59
believe, it is possible to determine the nature of the High-German or Second
Germanic Consonant Shift as a drag chain shifts.
Absolute or exceptionless changes were defined by the Neogrammarians who considered the sound changes as lexically abrupt (i.e. analogically applied to all lexemes with relevant sounds), but phonetically gradual (i.e. the change of the sound was not audible between two generations). Obvious exceptions to these rules were explained for instance as borrowings from languages or dialects that had not undergone the relevant sound change. Diffusional changes explain the phonemic change as caused by lexeme changes. It is now accepted that both types of sound change exist (e.g. McMahon, 1999).
While unconditioned changes happen without restrictions on the environment, the conditioned changes occur in particular environments only
(e.g. schwa deletion in OE happened word-finally). From a perspective of level, a change can be divided in featural change (change in subset of features), segmental change (change of an entire segment), prosodic change (change in higher than segmental structure). From a phoneme perspective, a change can be described as phonemic (either one phoneme becomes two during a phoneme split or two phonemes merge, i.e. one is lost).
3.3. Major types of vowel change
Vowel changes are basically divided into diphthongization and monophthongization. The change of a monophthong into a diphthong (or a
60
triphthong) is termed as diphthongization (or triphthongization), vowel fracture
or breaking. Breaking is mostly associated with the earliest period of Old
English but is not restricted to this period (Jones, 1979 [1918]).
Monophthongization is a sound change by which a diphthong becomes a
monophthong, i.e. the opposite of the diphthongization mentioned above. Most
often, the diphthong changes to a monophthong by leaving out the second
element and slight lengthening of the first sound (for instance: /əʊ/ > [əː])
3.3.1 Reduction
A reduction is a phonological process which leads to a reduced vowel which can
be analysed as a centralized variant of a vowel in a related form. Most usually,
vowels are reduced in schwa and reduction is connected to absence of stress.
Reduction as a phonological rule can also refer to simplification of sound
sequences such as consonant-clusters reduction.
Vowels Strong /i:/ /ɪ/ /u:/ /ʊ/ /ɔ:/ /ɒ/ /ɑ:/ /ʌ/ /ə:/ /æ/ /e/ Weak /ɪ/ /ɪ/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ /ə/ Table 3.1. Strong vowels and their weak counterparts. Source: Birjandi & Salmani- Nodoushan (2005, p.64). Note: /ɪ/ may be further reduced to /ə/ and in case of /ʊ/, it may be kept in unstressed syllables without further reduction.
After a reduction takes place, as in fast speech (and fast or casual
speech is the dominant mode of speech of any native speaker), there is need to
revert to proper pronunciation, as in formal environments, and restressing the
unstressed vowels. Nathaniel M. Caffee (1951, pp. 103) asserts that “The
unstressed vowel sounds of English, because of their quality and because of
61
their conventionalized spelling, can be readily restressed by any literate speaker into almost any of the accented vowels. The illiterate speaker, unaware of the conventionalized spelling, does not restress them into as great a variety of sounds. Actually, his choice is fairly wide in syllables bearing secondary stress; but when the syllable is normally unstressed in the isolated word, he is limited to
[i] or [a].” In fact, this tendency to mistakes in native speakers is revealing of a potentional to a language change in this respect.
2.3.2 Intrusion
This term is used both in phonetics and phonology and refers to the inclusion or addition of sounds in connected speech that have no basis or justification in the pronunciation of the words or syllables if spoken in isolation. The most frequent motivation for such a process is the elimination of a consonant cluster and the added vowel simply re-syllabifies the word. The intrusive /r/ is the most typical example of intrusion, introduced as a linking element between a vowel occurring word-finally and word-initially. An example of schwa intrusion is mentioned by
Crystal “... one may hear other cases of intrusion, such as the introduction of an unstressed, schwa vowel between consonants in such words as athletics
/aθəletɪks/.” (Crystal, 2008, p. 253).
Three basic kinds of intrusion according to the position of the extra sound in a word are usually differentiated: prothesis (word-initial position), anaptyxis or epenthesis (word-medial position), and paragoge (word-finally). Epenthesis is
62
the most usual kind of intrusion33. According to the type of a sound involved, the following two subtypes of the above-mentioned categories are distinguished: excrescence34 (addition of a consonant), and anaptyxis (addition of a vowel; terms ‘parasite’ or ‘svarabhakti’ vowel are also used). While an intrusive vowel is a vocalic interval that is not segmental and non-syllabic, an epenthetic vowel is segmental and syllabic, but not underlying.
2.3.3 Elision
Elision, the opposite effect of intrusion, refers to omission of sounds.
Consonants, vowels, and rarely whole syllables may be elided. In English, elision is mostly prompted by absence of stress (which is an environment where schwa predominantly occurs). Unstressed grammatical monosyllabic words
(e.g. and /ənd/ > /ən/ > /n/) are generally elided in normal speech, and elision also occurs in polysyllabic words (e.g. camera /’kamrə/) and with complex consonant clusters (e.g. twelfths /twelθs/ or /twelfs/).
Three basic kinds of elision according to the position of the elided sound in a word are usually differentiated: aphaeresis or prosiopesis (in word-initial position), syncope (in word-medial position), and apocope (word-finally).
33 In fact, perhaps since epenthesis is the most frequent kind of intrusion, it is understood as a term that denotes intrusion in general and is further divided into prothesis and anaptyxis. E.g. Crystal (2008, p. 171) defines: ‘epenthesis (n.) A term used in phonetics and phonology to refer to a type of intrusion, where an extra sound has been inserted in a word; often subclassified into prothesis and anaptyxis. (Compare with the entry ‘intrusion’ on p. 253.) 34 Schwa (and other noticeably weaker vowels) can also be called “excrescent’ in case it is a part of the consonant and is non-syllabic. ‘Typically, excrescent vowels are short in duration and centralized in quality. The excrescent vowel may have a quality not present in the language’s lexical vowel system; for example, excrescent schwa may exist in languages that otherwise has no schwas. The excrescent vowels are systematically ignored by other phonological processes...excrescent vowels are a kind of phonetic effect, likely a transition between consonant articulation...The excrescent vowels are subject to extensive free variation.’ (Hall, 2005, p. 1584).
63
There are other changes that pertain to vowels such as metathesis, an alteration (reordering) in the normal sequence of elements (often a mere lapsus linguae), seen as a as genuinely unsystematic change generally. It most commonly occurs in clusters of consonants or with a vowel and /r/ (OE bridd >
ModE bird).
64
4 Vowel changes in the history of English
We should consider theories that have a least effort flavor, e.g., requiring that derivations be short, or movements be local or operations simple or that there be no vacuous projections or operations, etc. (Hornstein et al., 2005, pp. 9–10)
This chapter covers with the major vowel changes and sound shifts in English with special regard to schwa. By application of various linguistic laws and principles, certain phonetic facts were inferred even from the scarce written documents that have been preserved to our times. Still, much is unknown about the pronunciation of Old English or Middle English, not to mention their precursors. For that reason, the historical vowel changes will be only briefly mentioned, and primarily in cases they pertained the unstressed vowels.
Special attention will also be paid to Received Pronunciation and its development.
The role of schwa in history of English in undoubtedly the most prominent if compared to other vowels - the process of vowel reduction to schwa and its subsequent loss in word-final positions (most significantly in endings of the nominative case) has had a more profound effect on English prosody, grammar and phonology than any other quantitative or qualitative change in stressed vowels (Minkova, 1991, p. ix).
65
This part of research will be prepared in particular regard to language changes in history of the English language involving schwa or other weak vowels (changes in frequency, semantic roles etc.), description of historical processes involving schwa deletion in word-final positions, effects of schwa deletion on grammar structures (e.g. lexical and phonotactical restructuring), comparison of historical functions and treatment of schwa sound and other weak vowel sounds, occurring in similar positions, functions and environments).
The historical periods of English language are usually divided in Proto-
Indo-European (PIE); Proto-Germanic (PG); Proto-English (PE); Old English
(Anglo-Saxon) (OE); Late Old English (LOE); Early Middle English (EME);
Middle English (ME); Late Middle English (LME); Early Modern English
(EModE); Modern English (ModE).
4.1 From Proto-Indo-European to Old English
Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic are languages that are constantly being re-enacted according a complex set of hypotheses and theories.
Nevertheless, the effort to revive these two extinct languages has been enormous and has brought about valuable insights.
Both languages are considered to be inflected or synthetic, in contrast with PDE which is analytical. In inflected languages, the morphemes not only carry a combination of meanings but the meaning they carry is sufficient to
66
overtake, to large extent, the functions other grammatical means can cover, e.g. the word order.
The phonetic reduction of a morpheme would lead to loss of a set of meanings and thus is more unlikely in inflected languages than in agglutinative or analytical languages. Subsequently, it can be deduced that neutral schwa- like sounds could not be as frequent in these ancient languages as in PDE and, if they were present, their phonological nature would likely be phonemic.
While the prosodic properties of PIE are still debated, it is assumed to have a free accentual system, where accent was marked by high pitch
(Minkova, 2009, p. 69). In Germanic, stress became fixed on the first syllable of the word root (the Germanic Stress Rule).
As can be seen from the table, the PIE system of vowels was believed to include two mixed vowels called denoted as schwa primum (ǝ1), a reduction of unstressed long vowels ē1, ā, and ō, and schwa secundum (ǝ2), a reduction of short vowels e, and o. (the numbers stand for the order of discovery). However, not all contemporary theories follow this approach and, for instance, the laryngeal theory interprets schwa as a vocalized consonant found inside a consonant cluster (between two consonants).
67
i/ī ǝ2 u/ū
e/ē ǝ1 o/ō a/ā
Table 4.1. Neogrammarian system of short PIE vowels. (After Chamonikolasová, 2010, p. 72).
In late Proto-Germanic (i.e. before 100 BC), unstressed word-final /a/ and /e/ were lost (and also other word-final short vowels in words of three syllables or more). Non-word-final /e/ was raised to /i/ in unstressed syllables
(but it remained when followed by /r/, and was later lowered to /ɑ/). Also, /e/ was raised to /i/ when an /i/ or /j/ followed in the next syllable (early i-mutation), before /z/ (z-umlaut), and before nasal + consonant (pre-nasal raising).
4.2 From Old English to Middle English
Cruttenden (2001, p. 73) notes on the classical Old English sound system that
‘[ə] occurs in certain weakly accented syllables’ and lists the following long and short diphthongs: [eːə, ɛə; eːə, eə]. On the same page below he states that ‘[ə] occurs in unaccented syllables’ and his lists of diphthongs of that period does not contain any schwa-like sound, neither at the beginning nor at the end of the diphthong.
From LOE to ME, lengthening and shortening of stressed vowels occurred, in certain positions (lengthening took place in open syllables and
68
consonant clusters with semivowels or nasals, while other consonant clusters caused shortening.
Unstressed vowels were reduced to schwa and in final positions, schwa was deleted. The final
The period of ME can be described as a period of vowel shifts. Both long and short vowels underwent a change, separately and symmetrically, in a process called the Great Vowel Shift (or the Great English Vowel Shift). The
Great Vowel Shift is the most important vowel shift in history of English.
Aitchison (2001) and Labov (1994) refer to it as to a prototypical instance of a chain shift. However, Stockwell and Minkova (1988, p. 376) suggest that it is a mere “linguist’s creation through hingsight”.
According to Robertson and Cassidy (1954, p. 99) it was Jespersen who gave the Great English Vowel Shift its name. He described as consisting of a
“general raising of all long vowels with the exception of the two high vowels [i] and [u], which could not be raised further without becoming consonants and which were diphthongized into [ei, ou], later [ai, au]. ...while the value of the short vowels … remained on the whole intact, the value of the long vowels … was changed.’ (Jespersen, 1909, p. 231).
69
Stages of the Great Vowel Shift (after Chamonikolasová, 2014, p. 81):
1. raising of vowels: [e:] > [i:] (ca. 1400 – 1500), [o:] > [u:] (ca. 1400 – 1500),
[ɛ:] > [e:] > [i:] (ca. 1500 – 1700)
2. diphthongization: [i:] > [ii] > [ei] > [əi] > [ai] (ca. 1400 – 1750), [u:] > [uu] >
[eu] > [əu] > [ɑu] (ca. 1400 – 1750), [ɔ:] > [o:] > [ou] > [əu] (ca. 1650 – 1950),
[ɑ:] > [æ:] > [ɛ:] > [e:] > [ei] (ca. 1400 – 1800)
The Second and the Third Vowel shifts were proposed by Luick (1914-
1921), and they also involve schwa. However, these models have not gained general acceptance due to their lack of symmetry.
The change of short vowels in Early Modern English can be arranged into a chain shift similar to the Great Vowel shift. Schendl and Ritt (2002) propose such a shift and note that it essentially lowered and centralised the vowels (in a contrasting symmetry to the Great Vowel Shift during which the long vowels were essentially raised and moved outwards (i.e. from the centre).
Schendl and Ritt base their Short vowel shift on the mentioned two shifts of
Luick. For the purpose of this work, it is noteworthy that the Luick’s changes in the central area of the Second and the Third Vowel Shifts were omitted, and the reason was that only the symmetrical (and thus logical) changes were included.
In other words, the shifts do not tell the whole picture, but are to be taken as certain simplification and generalisation of the changes of the time.
During the approximately same period, three of the pre-existing ME diphthongs were first monophthongized during EModE to long vowels and
70
diphthongized to different diphthongs during ModE (1. /ai/ > /ɛː/ > /eː/ > NE /eɪ/;
2. /au/ > /ɔː/, 3. /ɔu/ > /oː/ > NE /oʊ/.)
Figure 4.1. The Great Vowel Shift and the Short Vowel Shift. Note that the shifts are arranged into a tringle instead of a trapezoid, since the degree of backness of /a/ is generally argued over. (Source: Schendl & Ritt, 2002, p. 418).
Figure 4.2. The Second and the Third Vowel Shifts according to Luick. (Source: Schendl & Ritt, 2002, p. 410).
4.4 Modern English
The most important vowel changes in EME are umlauts and breaking.
Palatalization of stressed vowels (palatal umlaut or i-mutation) caused by the occurrence of i or j in the following syllable. Back mutation (Velar umlaut or u-
71
mutation) consisted in diphthongization of e and i before v, l, and r, followed by velar vowels. Breaking (diphthongization) took place before the following groups of consonants: r-C-h[x]-C (i > io; e > eo; æ, a > ea; ī > īō > ēō).
For the Early Modern English, Cruttenden (2001, p. 73) notes that the occurrence of [ə] remains the same, enlists the diphthongs containing schwa found in EModE as ‘əi, əu’ and in PDE ‘əʊ, … ɪə, ɛə, ʊə’. He further notes (p.
75) that [əʊ] shows tendency to monophthongization ([əu] is an outcome of diphthongization during the Great Vowel Shift, see above). Also, he notes (p.
76), that the rise of diphthongs /ɪə, ɛə, ʊə/ and /əː/ is due to the loss of postvocalic [r] in the eighteenth century.
4.5 Contemporary British English and RP
Accents spoken on the British Isles are many and vary significantly. Usually, the accents are described in contrast to RP, a non-regional sociolect, described in books by authorities such as Jones (1979 [1918]) and Cruttenden (2001). The extent of description is such that most scholars of English accents are reasonably familiar with it and can relate easily to descriptions given in terms of them.
RP is called both an accent (precisely the accent component of Standard
Southern British English) and a sociolect. It has its native speakers, but their number is small (less than 3%) and probably diminishing. While the majority of
RP speakers originate or live in the south-east of England, other native
72
speakers originate in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales (Roach, 2004, p. 239). Other speakers of RP have acquired this accent during years of their secondary or tertiary education, and continue to use is in their professions.
As a sociolect, it is spoken by members of middle-class and upper-class.
Orwell has called “a copy of the mannerism of the upper class” (1970, p. 151), considering it a mere imitation of nobility in pronunciation and would have preferred a Cockney-based version of English that would unify English pronunciation. However, due to its social prestige, as it was taught in the elite schools and in universities such as Oxford and Cambridge.
Daniel Jones named it Public School Pronunciation first, but changed the name to RP, which originated from the phrase ‘received in the best society’.
Other alternative names are General British, Educated Southern British English, and, also, BBC English/Accent/Pronunciation since RP was originally used as the official accent of BBC speakers. Today, most broadcasters use a neutralized version of their own regional accents (even the BBC allows for non-purely RP pronunciation).
Linguists offer different definitions of RP in regard to other dialects and accents, and variants within RP are also often noted. Queen and the Royal family used a standard called Conservative, Traditional or Upper RP while the less formal RP are called Contemporary or Modern RP.
73
4.5.1 Changes in RP involving schwa sounds
Changes almost complete:
Cruttenden (2001, p. 82) notes among the changes almost complete the following ones:
1) lost distinction between /ɔː/ and /ɔə/ in favour of /ɔː/ (i.e. a merger of a
diphthong in ‘floor’ and a long monophthong in ‘flaw’ to favour of the
monophthong)
2) diphthong /eə/ is realized monophthongally as /əː/35
3) /əʊ/ is heard more often than the older pronunciation as /oʊ/ (this is a
change in the quality of the GOAT vowel, see below).
Changes well-established:
Cruttenden (2001, p. 82) notes among the well-established changes the following ones:
4) /ə/ replaces /ɪ/ in many unaccented syllables, e.g. in suffix -ity
5) /ɔː/ is realized instead of /əʊ/, particularly in monosyllabic words
6) /əʊ/ is heard more often than the older pronunciation as /oʊ/
Recent sound changes and changes on the verge:
Cruttenden (2001, p. 83) notes among the new innovations the following ones:
7) /ɪə/ and /ʊə/ are realised as /ɪː/ and /ʊː/
8) use of glottal stop before unaccented /ɪ, ə/ both inter-word and intra-
word
35 Cruttenden uses /ɛː/.
74
Wells (1982, p. 257) also notes a drift from weak /ɪ/ to /ə/ in various categories of weak syllables but the so-called ‘happy-tensing’ or tensing of final and prevocalic /ɪ/ must be distinguished since in words such as happy, valley, or coffee, the final /ɪ/ is realised by many nowadays speakers as /i:/ in beat while the actual phonetic symbol used is a symbol of a weak/lax vowel /i/ since it appears in a weak syllable.
Lexical set IPA Lexical set IPA Lexical set IPA Lexical set IPA KIT ɪ CLOTH ɒ GOOSE u: NORTH ɔː DRESS e NURSE ə: PRICE aɪ FORCE ɔː TRAP æ FLEECE i: CHOICE ɔɪ CURE ʊə LOT ɒ FACE eɪ MOUTH ɑʊ happY i STRUT ʌ PALM ɑː NEAR ɪə lettER ə FOOT ʊ THOUGHT ɔː SQUARE eə commA ə BATH ɑ: GOAT əʊ START ɑː Table 4.2. Wells’ lexical sets. J.C. Wells' (1982, p. 120) introduced the concept of using a single word as a referent to the pronunciation of a particular group of English words (or lexical sets). The words represent classes of words according to their different development (for instance, START and PALM have the same vowel /ɑː/, but the classes develop separately).
In RP, Fabricius (2007) notes FOOT fronting that began in the
1970s/early1980s and STRUT rising which slightly earlier than FOOT fronting.
The outcome of these moves is TRAP/STRUT rotation, since while TRAP lowered and backed, STRUT rose and fronted. As pointed out by Torgersen and
Kerswill (2004), FOOT has also undergone a process of unrounding, in harmony with Labov’s (1994) model of predictions of universal directions in vowel chain shifts - that close back vowels move towards the front of the mouth over time. While most lexical sets shift, LOT has been remarkably stable within
RP (Hawkins & Midgley, 2005).
75
4.6 Notes on schwa in other English variants and dialects
English is spoken around the world and its variants are many. Wells has argued
(1982, p. 181) that the basis of a typology of accents of English should be based on vowels. Dialects of the British Isles and Ireland vary as for vowels and, also, as for rhoticity. For instance, hyper-rhoticity, or the addition of /r/ after a final schwa, e.g. window RP /'wɪndəʊ/ pronounced as /'wɪndər/ in some West
Country dialects in England. Sometimes, the English dialects are influenced by the stratum language, like Welsh or Scottish.
Alan R. Thomas (1994, p. 120) notes, that ‘Welsh English has no contrast between /ʌ / and schwa /ə/: it has only the short vowel /ə/, so that both short vowels can be identical in forms like’ runner /rənə/ or butter /bətə/ and that
RP diphthong /ɛə/ is pronounced in Welsh as /ɛː/, /iə/ as /ɪːə) and /uə/ is
‘represented by a dissyllabic sequence of long vowel and schwa, with a strong tendency to develop a following /j/ or /w/ glide between the two vowels, homorganic with the first one, as in [di:ə] ~ [di:jə] deer.’
4.6.2 American English
General American (GA) is an idealised version of the English accent which is most widespread in the United States, excluding specific linguistic features which mark the speaker as coming from New England, New York, or the South.
GA is sometimes referred to, rather misleadingly, as ‘northern’, since it is closer
76
to the northern pronunciation. For instance, in Lower Southern “/ɪ/, /ɛ/, /æ/ often take a schwa offglide in many stressed monosyllables. At its most extreme, this process of 'breaking' … can give pronunciations such as bid [bɪjəd], bed [bejəd], bad [bæijəd].” (Trudgill & Hannah, 2013, p.47)
In RP, non-rhotacism is the prestige norm, while in GA, rhotacism is the majority pronunciation in prestigious use. Both present varieties originate from the same rhotic variety of British English. There is disagreement among historians as to when the [r] was dropped in England. The [r]-dropping is first recorded in John Walker’s rhyming dictionary of 1775, and discussed in his pronouncing dictionary of 1791. However, Dobson (2: 967–8) finds [r] lost before [s] and [] without lengthening of the vowel (burst/bust, curse/cuss, horse/hoss) from 1300 onwards, and Krapp (1925, 2: 222) finds this early loss without lengthening a vulgarism that continues into present English. In the subsequent eighteenth-century development, [r] was not simply dropped but was replaced by lengthening of the preceding vowel followed by schwa (Dobson
2: 992); and this is the pronunciation that became characteristic of RP.
The rhotacism in the New York accent has almost disappeared in last century as well, but since 1940s, the revival of it can be seen in period films.
Aitchison (2001, p. 53) offers an explanation on cultural and social grounds – the need for an American identify in contrast to the British identity as a reaction to WWII. She also mentions contrast it with strong wester rhotacism before (and after) 1930s. Another possible explanation for rhotacism revival can be
Hollywood movie production.
77
As for formant frequencies, it is interesting to note that low F3 is typical of
/ɹ/ and /ɝ/ as shown by several acoustic studies (e.g. by Lehiste, 1964).
4.6.3 Australian and New Zealand English
Schwa /ə/ of Australian English is the same as schwa in RP in many respects: it is always unstressed and variable in realisation. However, it is not found in contrast with unstressed /ɪ/. According to Turner (1994, p. 288), as for vowels found before a consonant in unstressed or partially stressed syllables, the usual
Australian preference is for /ə/, while in RP, the preference is for /ɪ/ (roses, AE
/'roʊzəz/, RP /'roʊzɪz/; wanted AE /'wɒntəd/, RP /'wɒntɪd/). Turner further notes that ‘even in cultivated Australian English the vowels of fleece and goose are slightly diphthongal, phonetically [ɪi:] and [ʊu:], while in general or broad speech a more markedly lowered first element approaches schwa in quality (so [əi:] and
[əu:]). (p. 289).
New Zealand English goes further than Australian English as for substitution /ɪ/ for /ə/ even outside unstressed positions36, merging /ɪ/ and /ə/ to a sound of schwa-like quality (Wells, 1982, p. 606). Turner notes that although this pronunciation variety is a source of jokes (‘New Zealanders in Australia have to put up with questions like Dud you brung your fush and chups in a chully bun?’), there is a noticeable trend in the Sydney pronunciation to move in
36 According to Bernard (1975, p.32) in educated varieties of Australian English a tertiary degree of stress can be present (absent in the Broad varieties of Australian English).
78
the New Zealand direction (Turner, 1994, p. 295). Besides /ɪ/, which is indistinguishable from /ə/ for most native speakers due to its centralized realisation, other vowels in unstressed syllables are reduced to schwa ‘less frequently in New Zealand English than in RP, with the result that the former can sound more syllable-timed than the latter. Also, the NURSE vowel is heard in unstressed syllables in New Zealand English, particularly in careful speech in words like mastered. The quality of the full vowel used in place of the schwa appears to be determined in terms of the orthography, although the influence of an underlying morphophonemic value cannot be ruled out. (Bauer, 1994, p.
390).
Leech and Svartvik (2006, p. 109) believe that a kind of sound shift happened there, so-called Southern hemisphere sound shift, expressed as change from /æ/> /e/ >/ɪ/ > /ə/ (in AE) or /i/ (in NZE).
4.6.4 South African English
English spoken in Africa is very varied, especially if we consider ‘African
English’ including pidgins and creoles outside the South Africa. The pronunciation of ‘African English’ vowels is, quite unsurprisingly, different from
Standard English, but the most interesting fact is that the most frequent vowel of
Standard English – schwa /ə/ – is avoided. This may be caused by the fact that
African English tends to be syllable-timed (Svartvik & Leech, 2009, p. 116).
79
5 Acoustic analysis
This work is concerned with the schwa sound, the most prominent representative of the weak sounds, and the practical part will therefore aim to analyse its occurrence in contemporary RP. Further, the present analysis will be concerned with the articulatory-acoustic features and will be aimed at ascertaining any possible recent shifts in the schwa articulation and frequency.
The reasons behind the choice of RP are purely practical. The vowel shifts in RP are well documented by various authorities, and material for the analysis is easily accessible. At the same time, RP is a standard (though not definitely defined which is impossible for any dialect), moreover, it is a standard that is spoken today, and, being a standard, it can be compared either against other languages and dialects or its various stages can be compared against each other.
5.1 Research question
While vowels in unstressed syllables tend to change toward the mid- central articulation, in a formal style, the author supposes, no signs of a reverse shift will not be found. This hypothesis is connected to the supposition that the
80
schwa-like sounds are anticipated to become more uniform, i.e. more centralised, reduced and neutral.
h1: A shift of articulation of schwa-like sounds will not be found.
5.2 Sample determination
Since the principal line of research of this work is concerned with the change in the articulation of certain sounds in RP over time, sound recordings by native speakers of RP were sought. It was obvious, that the ideal samples would be by a native speaker of RP, made over a substantial span of time, by a speaker delivering the speeches at the same kind of occasions, i.e. delivering the same kind of spoken text or a very similar one in the same or very similar mode that would be recorded under very similar conditions. Also, it was necessary that such recordings were accessible to the author, either via libraries, corpora, or online.
Taking all these facts into consideration, Queen’s Christmas messages were chosen above other possibilities for the following reasons. Queen is a native speaker of RP and, due to her long reign, her speeches are suggesting themselves to be phonetically compared. The first Queen’s Christmas message was recorded and broadcasted in 195237, as a radio broadcasting and since
1957 the broadcasting included television.
37 Though marginal for the interests of this work, it is also worth mentioning that Queen’s Christmas speeches are well suited for other kinds of linguistic analyses as well. While it was Rudyard Kipling who drafted the first speech for King George V (the broadcasting tradition started in 1932 as The King's Christmas Message), the Queen writes her own Christmas
81
Queen’s Christmas messages were chosen over several other alternatives, for instance songs and poems interpreted by various artists over the course of time (where the issue the artists’ hard-to-specify dialect background had arisen); or spoken texts recorded on other occasions, either delivered by the Queen or by other members of the royal family (but such were hard to obtain given the other requirements); comparison of corpora. As for the preliminary research of the corpora, it was found that the BNC, according to
David Lee (2010, p.110-111) ‘does not qualify as ‘speech corpus’ as the original sound recordings can currently only be accessed at the National Sound Archive at the National Library, apart from the subset of recordings that are shared with the Bergen Corpus of London Tennage Language (COLT), which is available on
CD-ROM’. Another corpus on RP, The Spoken English Corpus (SEC) consist mainly of radio broadcasts from 1984 to 1991. London–Lund Corpus of Spoken
English (LLC) is also a bit outdated, with recordings made in the 1960s and
1970s. The Queen’s Christmas messages were found to be more readily accessible while covering longer period.
The number of the chosen texts was determined to be two, one as earlier as possible, and the second the most recent one. It might be argued that two texts are not enough and more earlier and recent texts or texts from additional
(middle) period(s) should have been included to reach results of higher precision. The choice of two texts was mainly dictated by the scope of this work.
The unstressed vowels are the most frequent vowels in English, and in spite of
speeches and decides their topics. Reading one’s own text or repeating one’s own text by heart may enhance the easiness of oral delivery.
82
the fact that the Christmas messages are rather short, more than 700 measurements were done in each of them.
5.3 Preliminaries
There are certain aspects that will be taken into regard. Sum of these aspects has already been dealt with above (signal-to-noise ratio of the recording was found to be unimportant the factors such as gender and physical size of the speaker, the phonetic context, speaking rate, etc. are unchanging). However, the analysis must consider factors of age (both physical and social) and measurement errors.
5.3.1 A brief overview of the linguistic backgrounds
Numerous linguistic papers deal with schwa from various perspectives and approaches, but they are usually very specific and only some consider schwa in RP. Mostly, these papers are written deal with intrusion, elision, and phonotactics38. Since schwa may be rare of play different roles in other languages, some papers deal with schwa perception or pronunciation mistakes by foreign learners of English, or compare the English sound to a similar sound found in the given language (e.g. to French e-muet).
The schwa sound is also very briefly mentioned in countless books on phonetics, phonology, and history of English language. At the time of writing
38 E.g. Heselwood (2007), Song (2013), LoCasto & Connine (2002), Lee (2011), Davidson (2006).
83
these lines, only one monograph on the schwa sound written from the historical perspective was known and available to the author (Minkova, 1991).
The present work will differ from the previous authors in several respects: it will analyse the Queen’s Christmas speeches similarly to papers of Harrington
(see e.g. Harrington et al., 2009), but unlike them, it will concentrate not on strong vowels but rather on schwa.
5.3.2 Changes in the accent of an individual
Although Wells (1982, p. 24) asserts that 'speakers do not alter their accents much once they are past puberty', Labov mentions that even 'older speakers show a limited tendency towards communal change, participating to a small extent in the changes taking place around them'. (Labov, 1994, p. 112). We can therefore conclude that the changes in one’s personal accent may not be as pronounced as the overall general change of the accent, but still it will be marked by the general change. On this basis, the aim of this work can be defended as justifiable.
However, for a very formal accent like RP, the change is likely to be small in general, since the speakers are encouraged (by the social prestige of the accent) to conform rather than modify.
It is obvious that the measured resonances of the voices are in correspondence to the gender, age, and the size of the speakers. As the
84
present author compares recordings delivered by the same speaker, only the age as a factor influencing the measured values will be considered.
Speaker’s vocal tract changes with time, not only in early years when the body is growing, but also after reaching maturity. It was confirmed that older women often speak in a lower voice than young women and after reaching about 70 years of age, their voice starts to sound higher again (cf. Reubold,
Harrington, & Kleber, 2010). Harrington carried out numerous analyses on
Queen’s English and in his research on age-related changes in fundamental frequency and formants (2007, p. 2753), he noted a fall of F0 and F1 formants between the 1950s and 2000s and a tendency to fall for F2 and tendency to increase in F3 over this period. It is also interesting to note that his comparison of a New Zealand speaker’s samples spanning over 20 years has shown a tendency for all vowels to move approximately by the same step in the same direction towards the upper right corner of the F1 x F2 plot diagram. (Harrington et a., 2007, p. 2755). If such a shift will be found in the present analysis of
Queen's speech, it will be therefore considered not as a sign of a vowel change in RP accent.
An interesting study of the speaking pitch of a group of women over a 48- year time span was made by Russell, Penny and Pemberton (2005). They had high quality recordings from 28 young women between the ages of 18 and 25, made in 1945. They could find 15 of them in 1993 and recorded them reading the same passages. They found a decrease in frequency over time, precisely
85
that the mean fundamental frequency of the group was 229.0 Hz in 1945 and
181.2 Hz in 1993.
5.3.3 Changes of RP found by previous researches
As for previous researches on shifts and changes in RP and/or Queen's
English, it is necessary to note findings of Bauer (1985) who noted a shift of vowels in a speaker over a span of 19 years (1964 and 1983) in direction of vowels of other speakers of the same community.
The phonetic analysis of the Queen’s Christmas message was carried out by Harrington et al. (2009). Queen’s speeches from the 1950's (1952, 1954,
1957); the late 1960's/early 70's (1967, 1968, 1972); the 1980's (1983, 1985,
1988) were analysed for vowel changes, and it also means that the scope of this research was large. The findings showed that strong vowels have shifted slightly apart and by becoming more distant from each other, they also became more distinct. Though this research aimed at changes of accented vowels only, i.e. not at changes of schwa, it still has implications for the schwa-like sounds as well.
The formant values for a schwa sound uttered by an adult male whose vocal tract is 17.5 centimetres long are the following: F1 (first formant) - 500 Hz,
F2 (second formant) - 1500 Hz, F3 (third formant) - 2500 Hz. Frequencies for people whose vocal tracts are longer or shorter than 17 cm (women, children) will be higher, but the pattern of 1:3:5 will be the same. (see Ladefoged, 1996; or Johnson, 2003).
86
5.4 Methodology
As for the acoustic analysis, it will be partially done by hearing and by Praat39, a software package for linguists written and maintained by Paul Boersma and
David Weenink of the University of Amsterdam. Pratt is available for free, with open source code. Both hearing and automatically measured values by Praat will be used as cues in decision during the following analysis.
Praat enables sound files to be measured, e.g. as for spectrum
(spectrograms), pitch, formants, intensity, jitter, shimmer, voice breaks and excitation patterns. Formants (or frequency response curves indicating the preferred resonating frequencies of the vocal tract) are more telling than raw spectrum of the wave.
The steps of the analysis will include the following:
1. Extraction of the audio from the video files and saving it as a
mono .wav file.
2. Transcription of the recordings into IPA noting occurrences of schwas
as monophthongs, schwas in diphthongs, in environments of nasals,
long schwas, schwas in word initial, medial and final) positions, and
weak vowels in final syllables (distributional analysis).
3. Segmentation and annotation of the spoken texts in IPA in Praat (with
aid of Praat oscillogram and spectrogram functions).
4. Measurement of formats (F1, F2, and F3) of individual sounds in
Praat. The values will be copied in a spreadsheet.
39 All screenshots are from Praat 6.0.20 running on Windows 7.
87
5. Plot diagrams of the measured values will be created, in Bark scale.
6. The findings will be discussed.
5.4.1 Transcription, segmentation, and annotation
Transcription, segmentation, and annotation will be done manually.
Transcription will be done in compliance with IPA and principles outlined in the first chapter of this work. The aim of the transcription is to determine the points of interest for further steps of research. There are various applications available able to transcribe text to IPA, but these are very approximate in especially as for the weak forms are concerned. The very same thing can be said about automated speech-to-IPA software: humans are sometimes much better than such programs while in certain cases they are outperformed by these programs in precision. Such programs are not available to the present author and Praat does not offer this function.
Principles for segmentation were thoroughly delineated by Machač and
Skarnitzl (2009). Annotation (or labeling points or periods of interest in the speech signal) must be done manually as well. It will be done with the help of audio and visual clues from Praat’s spectrogram and oscillogram. In other words, the values that were arrived at by hearing will be checked against the software. The procedure is rather time-consuming since the sound files are quite long.
88
Annotation of the spoken texts will be done with aid of Praat oscillogram and spectrogram functions. Oscillogram shows the amplitude of the sound and allows for faster discernment of sentences, words, and segments. The spectrogram window shows formants more clearly, and is an indispensable guide for decision where to measure them. Given the scope of this work, the present author will only consider the most basic method of measurement.
5.4.2 Distributional analysis
The distributional analysis will be aimed purely at phonetic distribution of schwa sounds. The duration and environment of the sounds will be noted. The duration of vowels can also be easily compared to the Praat spectrogram.
However, in English the length is relative and the real length of a short vowel may be longer than of a long vowel (the distinctive feature is place of articulation).
Groups of measured sounds:
Group 1 - Long schwas, i.e. those traditionally transcribed as /əː/ or /ɜː/
Group 2 - Short schwas, i.e. those traditionally transcribed as /ə/
Group 2A – Word initial pre-stress schwas (pattern V’)
Group 2B - Pre-stress schwas (pattern CV’)
Group 2C - Word-final schwas (usually the suffixial -er)
89
5.4.3 Formant analysis
Formants are concentrations of acoustic energy around a particular frequency in the speech wave and they are represented as prominent bands (in a wideband spectrogram they are seen as dark bands). Each formant corresponds to a resonance in the vocal tract. Unlike consonants, vowels have peaks at several frequencies, roughly one in each 1000 Hz band. The frequencies depend on such effects as the tongue height or tongue advancement. Usually five formants are found in a vowel spectrogram, but, the acoustic structure of vowel productions can normally be adequately specified by measuring the center frequency of the first three formant resonances with the first two formants often being sufficient (Kent & Read, 1992, p. 92), to tell the vowels apart, particularly in languages such as English, which do not contain vowel distinctions that depend solely on contrasts in lip position (Ladefoged &
Disner, 2012, p. 187). The first three formants are the most important ones as much as the vowel place of articulation is concerned (while the remaining formants correspond rather to the individual voice characteristics such as timbre).
The first formant (F1) is inversely related to vowel height (or the vertical tongue position). It is affected by the degree of constriction and is a cue for manner of articulation while it is unrelated to the place of articulation. High frequency of F1 corresponds to a low vowel (lowered tongue body) and vice versa, low frequency of F1 corresponds to high vowel (raised tongue body).
90
The second and third formants (F2 and F3) are both affected by lip rounding, which usually lowers them. The second formant (F2) is related to the degree of backness of a vowel (or with the horizontal length of the oral cavity).
High F2 corresponds to a front vowel, low F2 means a back vowel. More precisely, the backness is proportional to the difference between F1 and F2, the closer the values of F1 and F2 are to each other, the more back a vowel is.
It is interesting to note that, the differences in the measured acoustic values may potentially be in relation not with the backness of a vowel but with lip protrusion. While it might be theoretically considered that a speaker could reach the same audible quality of a vowel by less backing and greater lip protrusion, it was never attested to happen in reality since the lip protrusion is an observable articulatory gesture that is generally imitated during language acquisition (in other words, the speakers of a given group do not differ in this respect). However, lip protrusion is typical of certain RP consonants and coarticulation would very likely cause data variation. Coarticulation is the main reason why only central (leveled) intervals of schwas will be measured.
As already mentioned above, the formant measurements are relative and not absolute values, because they relate to the dimensions of the vocal tract that vary between individual speakers according to gender, size or, as is the case of this analysis, to the age of the speaker. To deal with this variation, methods consisting in normalizing formant values are. Speaker-specific procedures were first proposed by Joos (1948). His theory that the listeners relate the vowels of the so-called point vowels /i, a, u/ of a speaker was later
91
confirmed by Ladefoged and Broadbent (1957). Without relation to the point vowels and merely depending on the consonantal environment of a given vowel, the listener may perceive the vowel to be belonging to a different phonological class. From this, it can already be seen that it is very difficult to propose a method of normalization and the precise aim of the research is alway taken into account. Normalization methods for cross-linguistic studies, vowel realization over sexes, ages, speech mode, accent stress, and others. Most of these factors were found to be stable in the given samples.
The Praat program offers several methods of formant measurement, but the most efficient are the Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) algorithms. However, even the LPC method assumes that there are no prominent antiformants (such as nasalization) present in the vowel as these would cause issues. For this reasons, schwas with nasals in close environment will not be measured. As for the parameters of the Praat’s the Formant menu, the preset maximum frequency 5000 Hz (optimal for male voice) will be set to 5500 Hz (the corresponding optimal frequency range for a female voice).
Generally, the stress vowels are longer than the unstressed ones and they are articulated with greater accuracy, (i.e. with less centralisation). It is worthy to not, that is also implies, that the unstressed vowels are more affected by coarticulation and less reliable in terms of acoustic regularity.
92
Measurement rules that will be followed:
1. To avoid coarticulation, only middle part of the sound will be
measured, i.e. the place where the formants are level (see Figure
5.2).
2. Where the formants are not clear, the measurement will not be
carried out.
3. The formants will not be measured if /r/, /w/, /j/. /l/ are preceding or
following. The formants of these consonants cannot be easily
distinguished from vowel formants. /l/ was also avoided because of
the substantial anticipatory influence of this consonant (especially if
‘dark’ or velarized) on vowel targets (Lehiste, 1964).
4. The measurement of formants following /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ will be
likewise avoided. Due to nasalisation of vowels in a nasal context, F1
can be mistraced by the software.
93
Figure 5.1. Sample of annotation of the recorded text. Praat window with the oscillogram and spectrogram of “it’s understandable” from Text 2. Source: author.
Figure 5.2. Formant measurement. Formants of /əː/. Source: author.
94
5.4.4 Plotting the results
The measured values are in Hertz. The Hertz scale corresponding to the acoustic measure of fundamental frequency expressed in Hertz is often used in plot diagrams, but some authorities prefer other scale. Besides the Hertz scale, the Mel and Bark scales are also used. The Mel scale was promoted by
Ladefoged as it was claimed to better correspond to the auditory scale of pitch.
Other strategies include approximation of the bandwidths (such as the
Equivalent rectangular bandwidth (ERB) rate scale or improving formant plots by plotting the difference between F1 and F2 for a given vowel on the horizontal axis instead of the F2 value. However, mostly, Hertz and Bark scales are used.
The measured frequencies in Hertz will be converted to Bark using a conversion equation based on Zwicker (1961).
fBark = 13tan-1 (0.0076 fHz) + 3.5tan-1 (fHz2/ 7500)
where fBark and fHz are the frequencies in Bark and Hz respectively and tan"1 is the arctangent in radians.
5.5 Text 1 (1957)
Elizabeth II was 31 at the time of giving the speech on December 25, 1957. The broadcast was made live from the Long Library at Sandringham, Norfolk. It was the sixth Christmas speech of Elizabeth II. The speech was an historic event, as it was the first one ever to be televised. Also, it marked the 25th anniversary of
95
the first Christmas Broadcast given on the radio by King George V. Full Text 1 is included in Appendix 2.
5.5.1 Transcription
In the transcription below, short and long schwas are highlighted in grey background colour. Diphthongs and triphthongs containing schwa are underlined. Vowels measured (with clear formants) are given in Table 5.1. Note that the transcription was prepared with special attention to schwa and not to other sounds.
[ˈhæpi ˈkrɪsməs ‖ˈtwɛnti-faɪv jɪəz əˈgəʊ maɪ ˈgrændˌfɑːðə ˈbrɔːdkɑːst ðə fəːst ɒv
ðiːz ˈkrɪsməs ˈmɛsɪʤɪz ‖ təˈdeɪ ɪz əˈnʌðə ˈlændmɑːk bɪˈkɒzˈtɛlɪˌvɪʒən hæz meɪd ɪt ˈpɒsəbl fɔː ˈmɛni ɒv juː tə siː miː ɪn jɔː həʊmz ɒn ˈkrɪsməs deɪ ‖ maɪ əʊn
ˈfæmɪli ˈɒːfən ˈgæðə raʊnd tʊ wɒʧ ˈtɛlɪˌvɪʒən æz ðeɪ r ɑː ət ðɪs ˈməʊmənt, ænd
ðæt ɪz haʊ aɪ ɪˈmæʤɪn juː naʊ ‖ aɪ ˈvɛri mʌʧ həʊp ðæt ðɪs njuː ˈmiːdɪəm wɪl meɪk maɪ ˈkrɪsməs ˈmɛsɪʤ mɔː ˈpəːsnəl ænd dɪˈrɛkt ‖ ɪts ɪnˈɛvɪtəbəl ðæt aɪ ʃʊd siːm ə ˈrɑːðə rɪˈməʊt ˈfɪgə tə ˈmɛni ɒv jʊ ‖ ə səkˈsɛsə tə ðə kɪŋz ən kwiːnz əv
ˈhɪstri; ˈsʌmwʌn huːz feɪs meɪ biː fəˈmɪlɪə r ɪn ˈnjuːzˌpeɪpəz ən fɪlmz bʌt huː
ˈnɛvə ˈrɪəli ˈtʌʧɪz jɔː ˈpəːsnl laɪvz ‖ bʌt naʊ ət liːst fɔːr ə fjuː ˈmɪnɪts aɪˈwɛlkəm juː tʊ ðə piːs ɒv maɪ əʊn həʊm ‖ ðæt ɪt ɪz ˈpɒsəbl fɔː sʌm ɒv juː tə siː miː təˈdeɪ ɪz
ʤʌst əˈnʌðər ɪgˈzɑːmpl ɒv ðə spiːd æt wɪʧ θɪŋz ɑː ˈʧeɪnʤɪŋ ɔːl əˈraʊnd ʌs ‖ bɪˈkɒz ɒv ðiːz ˈʧeɪnʤɪz aɪ æm nɒt səˈpraɪzd ðæt ˈmɛni ˈpiːpl fiːl lɒst ən ʌnˈeɪbəl tə dɪˈsaɪd wɒt tə həʊld ɒn tuː ænd wɒt tuːˈdɪskɑːd ‖ haʊ tuː teɪk ədˈvɑːntɪʤ ɒv
ðə njuː laɪf wɪˈðaʊt ˈluːzɪŋ ðə bɛst ɒv ði əʊld ‖ bʌt ɪt ɪz nɒt ðə njuː ɪnˈvɛnʃənz wɪʧ
96
ɑː ðə ˈdɪfɪkəlti ‖ ðə ˈtrʌbl ɪz kɔːzd baɪ ʌnˈθɪŋkɪŋ ˈpiːpl huː ˈkeəlɪsli θrəʊ əˈweɪ
ˈeɪʤlɪs aɪˈdɪəlz æz ɪf ðeɪ wəːr əʊld ænd aʊtˈwɔːn məˈʃiːnəri ‖ ðeɪ wʊd hæv rɪˈlɪʤən θrəʊn əˈsaɪd, məˈrælɪti ɪn ˈpəːsnəl ænd ˈpʌblɪk laɪf meɪd ˈmiːnɪŋlɪs,
ˈɒnɪsti ˈkaʊntɪd æz ˈfuːlɪʃnɪs ændsɛlf-ˈɪntrɪst sɛt ʌp ɪn pleɪs ɒv sɛlf-rɪsˈtreɪnt ‖ æt
ðɪs ˈkrɪtɪkəl ˈməʊmənt ɪn ˈaʊə ˈhɪstəri wiː wɪl ˈsəːtnli luːz ðə trʌst ænd rɪsˈpɛkt
ɒv ðə wəːld ɪf wiː ʤʌst əˈbændən ðəʊzˌfʌndəˈmɛntl ˈprɪnsəplz wɪʧ ˈgaɪdɪd ðə mɛn ænd ˈwɪmɪn huː bɪlt ðə ˈgreɪtnɪs ɒv ðɪs ˈkʌntri ænd ˈkɒmənwɛlθ ‖ təˈdeɪ wiː niːd ə ˈspɛʃəl kaɪnd ɒv ˈkʌrɪʤ, nɒt ðə kaɪnd ˈniːdɪd ɪn ˈbætl bʌt ə kaɪnd wɪʧ meɪks ʌs stænd ʌp fɔːr ˈɛvrɪθɪŋ ðæt wiː nəʊ ɪz raɪt, ˈɛvrɪθɪŋ ðæt ɪz truː ænd
ˈɒnɪst ‖ wiː niːd ðə kaɪnd ɒv ˈkʌrɪʤ ðæt kæn wɪðˈstænd ðə ˈsʌtl kəˈrʌpʃən ɒv ðə
ˈsɪnɪks səʊ ðæt wiː kæn ʃəʊ ðə wəːld ðæt wiː ɑː nɒt əˈfreɪd ɒv ðə ˈfjuːʧə ‖ ɪt hæz
ˈɔːlweɪz biːn ˈiːzi tuː heɪt ænd dɪsˈtrɔɪ ‖ tuː bɪld ænd tuː ˈʧɛrɪʃ ɪz mʌʧ mɔː
ˈdɪfɪkəlt ‖ ðæt ɪz waɪ wiː kæn teɪk ə praɪd ɪn ðə njuːˈkɒmənwɛlθ wiː ɑː ˈbɪldɪŋ ‖
ðɪs jɪə ˈgɑːnə ænd məˈleɪə ʤɔɪnd ˈaʊə ˈbrʌðəhʊd ‖ bəʊθ ðiːz ˈkʌntriz ɑː naʊ
ɪnˈtaɪəli sɛlf-ˈgʌvənɪŋ ‖ bəʊθ əˈʧiːvd ðeə njuː ˈsteɪtəsˈæmɪkəbli ænd ˈpiːsfʊli ‖
ðɪs ədˈvɑːns ɪz ə ˈwʌndəfʊl ˈtrɪbjuːt tuː ði ˈɛfəts ɒv mɛn ɒv ˈgʊdˈwɪl huː hæv wəːkt təˈgɛðər æz frɛndz, ænd aɪ ˈwɛlkəm ðiːz tuːˈkʌntriz wɪð ɔːl maɪ hɑːt ‖ lɑːst
ɒkˈtəʊbər aɪ ˈəʊpənd ðə njuː kəˈneɪdɪən ˈpɑːləmənt, ænd æz juː nəʊ ðɪs wɒz
ðə fəːst taɪm ðæt ˈɛni ˈsɒvrɪn hæd dʌn səʊ ɪnˈɒtəwə ‖ wʌns əˈgɛn aɪ wɒz
ˌəʊvəˈwɛlmd baɪ ðə ˈlɔɪəlti ænd ɪnˈθjuːzɪæzm ɒv maɪ kəˈneɪdɪən ˈpiːpl ‖ ˈɔːlsəʊ
ˈdjʊərɪŋ ˈnaɪnˈtiːn ˈfɪfti ˈsɛvən maɪ ˈhʌzbənd ænd aɪ peɪd ˈvɪzɪts tuː ˈpɔːʧəgəl,
ˈfrɑːns, ˈdɛnmɑːk ænd ðə jʊˈnaɪtɪd steɪts ɒv əˈmɛrɪkə ‖ ɪn iːʧ keɪs ði
əˈreɪnʤmənts ænd fɔːˈmælɪtiz wəː ˈmænɪʤd wɪð greɪt skɪl bʌt nəʊ wʌn kʊd hæv ˈmænɪʤd ðə ˈwɛlkəm wiː rɪˈsiːvd frɒm ðə ˈpiːpl ‖ ɪn iːʧ ˈkʌntri aɪ wɒz
ˈwɛlkəmd æz hɛd ɒv ðə ˈkɒmənwɛlθ ænd æz jɔː ˌrɛprɪˈzɛntətɪv ‖ ðiːz ˈneɪʃənz
97
ɑːr ˈaʊə frɛndz ˈlɑːʤli bɪˈkɒz wiː hæv ˈɔːlweɪz traɪd tə duː ˈaʊə bɛst tuː biː ˈɒnɪst
ænd ˈkaɪndli ænd bɪˈkɒz wiː hæv traɪd tuː stænd ʌp fɔː wɒt wiː bɪˈliːv tuː biː raɪt ‖
ɪn ði əʊld deɪz ðə ˈmɒnək lɛd hɪz ˈsəʊlʤəz ɒn ðə ˈbætlfiːld ænd hɪz ˈliːdəʃɪp æt
ɔːl taɪmz wɒz kləʊs ænd ˈpəːsnəl ‖ təˈdeɪ θɪŋz ɑː ˈvɛri ˈdɪfrənt ‖ aɪ ˈkænɒt liːd juː
ˈɪntuː ˈbætl, aɪ duː nɒt gɪv juː lɔːz ɔːr ədˈmɪnɪstə ˈʤʌstɪs bʌt aɪ kæn duː ˈsʌmθɪŋ
ɛls, aɪkæn gɪv juː maɪ hɑːt ænd maɪ dɪˈvəʊʃən tuː ðiːz əʊld ˈaɪləndz ænd tuː ɔːl
ðə ˈpiːplz ɒv ˈaʊə ˈbrʌðəhʊd ɒv ˈneɪʃənz ‖ aɪ bɪˈliːv ɪn ˈaʊə ˈkwɒlɪtiz ænd ɪn
ˈaʊə strɛŋθ, aɪ bɪˈliːv ðæt təˈgɛðə wiː kæn sɛt ən ɪgˈzɑːmpl tuː ðə wəːld wɪʧ wɪl
ɪnˈkʌrɪʤ ˈʌpraɪtˈpiːpl ˈɛvrɪweə ‖ aɪ wʊd laɪk tuː riːd juː ə fjuː laɪnz frɒm ˈpɪlgrɪmz
ˈprəʊgrəs, bɪˈkɒz aɪ æm ʃʊə wiː kæn seɪ wɪð ˈmɪstə ˈvælɪənt fɔː truːθ, ðiːz wəːdz: ‖ ðəʊ wɪð greɪt ˈdɪfɪkəlti aɪ æm gɒt ˈhɪðə, jɛt naʊ aɪ duː nɒt ˈriːpənt miː
ɒv ɔːl ðə ˈtrʌbl aɪ hæv biːn æt tuː əˈraɪv weər aɪ æm. maɪ sɔːd aɪ gɪv tə hɪm ðæt ʃæl səkˈsiːd miː ɪn maɪ ˈpɪlgrɪmɪʤ ænd maɪ ˈkʌrɪʤ
ænd skɪl tuː hɪm ðæt kæn gɛt ɪt ‖ maɪ mɑːks ænd skɑːz aɪ ˈkæri wɪð miː, tuː biː
ə ˈwɪtnɪs fɔː miː ðæt aɪ hæv fɔːt hɪz ˈbætlz huː naʊ wɪl biː maɪ rɪˈwɔːdə ‖ aɪ həʊp ðæt ˈnaɪnˈtiːn ˈfɪfti eɪt meɪ brɪŋ juː gɒdz ˈblɛsɪŋ ænd ɔːl ðə θɪŋz juː lɒŋ fɔː ‖
ænd səʊ aɪ wɪʃ juː ɔːl, jʌŋ ænd əʊld, weərˈɛvə juː meɪ biː, ɔːl ðə fʌn ænd
ɪnˈʤɔɪmənt, ænd ðə piːs ɒv əə ˈvɛri ˈhæpi ˈkrɪsməs ‖]40
40 Some cases of intrusive /r/ were registered and an instance of preposition
98
5.5.2 Distributional analysis and formant measurements
In certain environments, the formants were unmeasurable, very often between nasals in endings as -ment /mənt/ or after alveolar stop /t/ or palatal affricate /tʃ/ and in other cases such after velar stop /k/ as the first syllable of corruption
(probably due to aspiration). As for distribution, the formants were sometimes unclear in both pre- and post-stress places and word-initially, medially, and finally. Naturally, in these cases, the measurements were not made, as well as in cases mentioned in the rules for this formant analysis above.
In Group 1 - Long schwas, seven tokens were selected out of 12. The data are in Table 5.1.
Number Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F2-F1 5 first fəːst 729 2254 3968 1525 23 personal ˈpəːsənəl 727 2074 4195 1347 41 personal ˈpəːsnəl 707 2186 4192 1479 72 personal ˈpəːsnl 732 2110 4178 1378 81 certainly ˈsəːtənli 807 2429 4001 1622 151 first fəːst 810 2613 3719 1803 191 personal ˈpəːsnl 725 2016 4264 1291 Table 5.1. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 1. Long schwas.
Group 2 - Short schwas, i.e. those traditionally transcribed as /ə/
Group 2A - Short schwas in pre-stress position (pattern V’)
Number Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F2-F1 2 ago əˈgəʊ 443 2412 4428 1969 9 another əˈnʌðə 568 1918 4076 1350 49 another əˈnʌðər 577 2185 4106 1608 52 around əˈraʊnd 564 1929 4282 1365 57 advantage ədˈvɑːntɪʤ 515 2641 3946 2126 70 aside əˈsaɪd 526 2081 4077 1555
99
88 abandon əˈbændən 763 2391 4008 1628 111 afraid əˈfreɪd 540 2907 3900 2367 126 achieved əˈʧiːvd 664 2772 3650 2108 153 again əˈgɛn 412 2556 4139 2144 165 America əˈmɛrɪka 450 1881 4029 1431 Table 5.2. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 2A. Short schwas in pre-stress position (pattern V’).
Group 2B - Pre-stress schwas (pattern CV’)
Number Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F2-F1 8 today təˈdeɪ 516 2814 3675 2298 48 today təˈdeɪ 452 2623 4136 2171 71 morality məˈrælɪti 480 2433 4273 1953 97 today təˈdeɪ 816 2814 3906 1998 123 Malaya məˈleɪə 684 2320 3942 1636 145 Canadian kəˈneɪdɪən 636 2888 3678 2252 158 Canadian kəˈneɪdɪən 502 2986 4007 2484 Table 5.3. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 2B. Short schwas in pre-stress position (pattern CV’).
Group 2C - Word-final schwas
Number Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F2-F1 3 grandfather ˈgrændˌfɑːðə 606 2228 4181 1622 10 another əˈnʌðə 477 2490 4254 2013 18 gather ˈgæðə 618 2062 4293 1444 28 rather ˈrɑːðə 547 1894 4116 1347 29 figure ˈfɪgə 607 2609 4206 2002 38 newspapers ˈnjuːzˌpeɪpəz 485 2379 4151 1894 40 never ˈnɛvə 787 1907 4222 1120 50 another əˈnʌðə 863 2062 3567 1199 124 brotherhood ˈbrʌðəhʊd 688 2620 4258 1932
100
138 together təˈgɛðə 778 2221 4077 1443 142 October ɒkˈtəʊbə 788 2052 4344 1264 188 leadership ˈliːdəʃɪp 578 2855 3959 2277 196 administer ədˈmɪnɪstə 559 2611 4338 2052 203 brotherhood ˈbrʌðəhʊd 683 2343 4111 1660 Table 5.4. Text 1 (1957). Average formant frequencies for Group 2C. Word-final schwas.
5.6 Text 2 (2016)
Elizabeth II was 90 at the time of giving the speech on December 25, 2016, i.e.
59 years later than Text1. Full Text 2 is included in Appendix 3.
5.6.1 Transcription
In the transcription below, short and long schwas are highlighted in grey background colour. Diphthongs and triphthongs containing schwa are underlined. Vowels measured (with clear formants) are given in Table 5.1. Note that the transcription was prepared with special attention to schwa and not to other sounds.
[ðə wəz ə taɪm wɛn ˈbrɪtɪʃ əʊˈlɪmpɪk ˈmɛdl ˈwɪnəz bɪˈkeɪm ˈhaʊshəʊld neɪmz bɪˈkəz ðə wə səʊ fjuː əv ðɛm ‖ bət ðiː ˈsɪkstɪ ˈsɛvən ˈmɛdlz ət ðɪsjɪəz geɪmz ɪn rɪəʊ ænd wʌn ˈhʌndrəd ænd ˈfɔːtɪ ˈsɛvən ət ðə ˌpærəˈlɪmpɪks mɛnt ðət ðə ʤiː- biː ˈmɛdlɪsts rɪˈsɛpʃən ət ˈbʌkɪŋəm ˈpælɪs wəz ə ˈkraʊdɪd əndˈhæpi ɪˈvɛnt ‖
θru(ː)ˈaʊt ðə ˈkɒmənwɛlθ ðə wər ˈiːkwəli ˈʤɔɪfʊl ˌsɛlɪˈbreɪʃənz. grəˈneɪdə, ðə
101
bəˈhɑːməz, ʤəˈmeɪkə ənd njuː ˈziːlənd wʌn mɔːˈmɛdlz pəː hɛd əv ˌpɒpjʊˈleɪʃən
ðən ˈɛni ˈʌðə ˈkʌntriz ‖ ˈmɛni əv ðɪs jɪəz ˈwɪnəz spəʊk əv ˈbiːɪŋ ɪnˈspaɪəd baɪ
ˈæθliːts əv ˈpriːvjəs ˌʤɛnəˈreɪʃənz. ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃən fɛd ðeər ˌæspəˈreɪʃ(ə)n; ənd
ˈhævɪŋ dɪsˈkʌvəd əˈbɪlɪtiz ðeɪ ˈskeəsli njuː ðeɪ hæd, ðiːz ˈæθliːts ə naʊ
ɪnˈspaɪərɪŋ ˈʌðəz ‖ ə fjuː mʌnθs əˈgəʊ, aɪ sɔː ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃən əv ə ˈdɪfrənt kaɪnd wɛn aɪ ˈəʊpənd ðə njuː ˈkeɪmbrɪʤ beɪs əv ði iːst ˈæŋɡlɪən eər ˈæmbjʊləns, weə prɪns ˈwɪljəm wəːks əz ə ˈhɛlɪkɒptə ˈpaɪlət. ɪt wəz nɒt hɑːd tə bi muːvd baɪ ðə
ˌdɛdɪˈkeɪʃən əv ðə ˈhaɪli skɪldˈdɒktəz, ˌpærəˈmɛdɪks ənd kruː, huː ə kɔːld aʊt ɒn
ˈævərɪʤ faɪv taɪmz ə deɪ ‖ bət tə bi ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃənl jʊ dəʊnt həv tə seɪv lɪvz ɔː wɪn ˈmɛdlz. aɪ ˈɒf(ə)n drɔː strɛŋθ frəm ˈmiːtɪŋ ˈɔːdnri ˈpiːpl ˈduːɪŋ ɪksˈtrɔːdnri
θɪŋz: ˌvɒlənˈtɪəz, ˈkeərəz, kəˈmjuːnɪti ˈɔːgənaɪzəz ənd gʊd ˈneɪbəz; ʌnˈsʌŋ
ˈhɪərəʊz huːz ˈkwaɪət ˌdɛdɪˈkeɪʃən meɪks ðəm ˈspɛʃəl ‖ ðeɪ ər ən ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃən tə ðəʊz huː nəʊ ðɛm, ənd ðeə lɪvz ˈfriːkwəntli ɪmˈbɒdi ə truːθ ɪksˈprɛst baɪ
ˈmʌðə təˈreɪzə, frəm ðɪs jɪəsənt təˈreɪzə əv kælˈkʌtə. ʃi wʌns sɛd: nɒt ɔːl əv əs kən dʊ greɪt θɪŋz. bət wi kən dʊ smɔːl θɪŋz wɪð greɪt lʌv ‖ ðɪs həz biːn ði
ɪksˈpɪərɪəns əv tuː rɪˈmɑːkəbl ˌɔːgənaɪˈzeɪʃənz, ðə djuːk əv ˈɛdɪnbrəz əˈwɔːd
ənd ðə ˈprɪnsɪz trʌst, wɪʧɑː ˈsɪkstɪ ænd ˈfɔːtɪ jɪəz əʊld ðɪs jɪə. ðiːz ˈstɑːtɪd əz smɔːl ɪˈnɪʃɪətɪvz bət həv grəʊn bɪˈjɒnd ˈɛni ˌɛkspɛkˈteɪʃənz, ənd kənˈtɪnjuː tətrænsˈfɔːm jʌŋ ˈpiːplz lɪvz ‖ tə mɑːk maɪ ˈnaɪntɪəθ ˈbəːθdeɪ, ˌvɒlənˈtɪəz ənd səˈpɔːtəz əv ðə sɪks ˈhʌndrəd ˈʧærɪtiz əv wɪʧ aɪ həv biːn ˈpeɪtrən keɪm tʊ ə lʌnʧ
ɪn ðəmɔːl. ˈmɛni əv ðiːz ˌɔːgənaɪˈzeɪʃənz ə ˈmɒdɪst ɪn saɪz bət ɪnˈspaɪə mi wɪð
ðə wəːk ðeɪ duː ‖ frəm ˈgɪvɪŋ ˈfrɛndʃɪp ənd səˈpɔːt tʊ ˈaʊə ˈvɛtərənz, ði ˈɛldəli ɔː
ðə bɪˈriːvd; tə ˈʧæmpjənɪŋ ˈmjuːzɪk ənd dɑːns; prəˈvaɪdɪŋ ˈænɪməlˈwɛlfeə; ɔː prəˈtɛktɪŋ ˈaʊə fiːldz ənd ˈfɒrɪsts, ðeə ˈsɛlflɪs dɪˈvəʊʃən ənd ˌʤɛnəˈrɒsɪti əv
ˈspɪrɪt s ən ɪgˈzɑːmpl tʊ əs ɔːl ‖ wɛn ˈpiːpl feɪs ə ˈʧælɪnʤ ðeɪ ˈsʌmtaɪmz tɔːk
102
əˈbaʊt ˈteɪkɪŋ ə diːp brɛθ tə faɪnd ˈkʌrɪʤ ɔː strɛŋθ. ɪn fækt, ðə wəːd ɪnˈspaɪə
ˈlɪtərəlimiːnz tə briːð ɪn. bət ˈiːvən wɪð ði ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃən əv ˈʌðəz, ɪts
ˌʌndəˈstændəbl ðət wi ˈsʌmtaɪmz θɪŋk ðə wəːldz ˈprɒbləmz ə səʊ bɪgðət wi kən dʊ ˈlɪtl tə hɛlp. ɒn ˈaʊər əʊn, wi ˈkænɒt ɛnd wɔːz ɔː waɪp aʊt ɪnˈʤʌstɪs, bət ðə
ˈkjuːmjʊlətɪv ˈɪmpækt əv ˈθaʊzəndz əvsmɔːl ækts əv ˈgʊdnɪs kən bi ˈbɪgə ðən wi ɪˈmæʤɪn ‖ ət ˈkrɪsməs, ˈaʊər əˈtɛnʃən z drɔːn tə ðə bəːθ əv ə ˈbeɪbi səm tuː
ˈθaʊzənd jɪəz əˈgəʊ. ɪt wəz ðə ˈhʌmblɪst əv bɪˈgɪnɪŋz, ənd ɪzˈpeərənts, ˈʤəʊzɪf
ənd ˈmeəri, dɪd nɒt θɪŋk ðeɪ wər ɪmˈpɔːtənt ‖ ˈʤiːzəs kraɪst lɪvd əbˈskjʊəli fə məʊst əv ɪz laɪf, ənd ˈnɛvə ˈtrævld fɑː. hi wəz məˈlaɪnd ənd rɪˈʤɛktɪd baɪ ˈmɛni,
ðəʊ hi həd dʌnnəʊ rɒŋ. ənd jɛt, ˈbɪljənz əv ˈpiːpl naʊ ˈfɒləʊ ɪz ˈtiːʧɪŋ ənd faɪnd ɪn
ɪm ðə ˈgaɪdɪŋ laɪt fə ðeə lɪvz. aɪ əm wʌn əv ðəm bɪˈkəz kraɪstsɪgˈzɑːmpl hɛlps mi siː ðə ˈvæljuː əv ˈduːɪŋ smɔːl θɪŋz wɪð greɪt lʌv, huːˈɛvə dəz ðəm ənd wɒtˈɛvə
ðeɪ ðəmˈsɛlvz bɪˈliːv ‖ ðə ˈmɛsɪʤ əv ˈkrɪsməs ˈrɪmaɪndz əs ðət ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃən z
ə gɪft tə bi ˈgɪvn əz wɛl əz rɪˈsiːvd, ənd ðət lʌv bɪˈgɪnz smɔːl bət ˈɔːlweɪzgrəʊz ‖ aɪ wɪʃ jʊ ɔːl ə ˈvɛri ˈhæpi ˈkrɪsməs ‖]
5.6.2 Distributional analysis and formant measurements
In Group 1 - Long schwas. Only three tokens were available. From the 14 instances of occurrence, 2 cases had unclear formants, 3 were following /w/ and, therefore, only 7 instances of the sound occurring in 3 repeating words were measured (first, personal, certainly). The formants were showing little variance (even including long schwas following /w/ that were excluded by rule).
103
Number Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F1-F2 49 per pəː 902 1945 3507 1043 189 birthday ˈbəːθdeɪ 964 2677 3968 1713 281 birth bəːθ 909 2304 3575 1395 Table 5.6. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 1 .Long schwa sounds.
Group 2 - Short schwas, i.e. those traditionally transcribed as /ə/
Group 2A - Short schwas in pre-stress position (pattern V’)
0 Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F1-F2 71 abilities əˈbɪlɪtiz 521 2268 3331 1747 78 ago əˈgəʊ 542 2506 4032 1964 236 about əˈbaʊt 644 1772 3727 1128 277 attention əˈtɛnʃn 559 2009 3063 1450 Table 5.7. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 2A. Short schwas in pre-stress position (pattern V’).
Group 2B - Pre-stress schwas (pattern CV’)
Number Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F1-F2 39 Granada grəˈneɪdɑ 549 1949 2943 1400 62 generations ˌʤɛnəˈreɪʃənz 848 2079 2925 1231 64 inspiration ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃn 535 1757 4482 1222 67 aspiration ˌæspəˈreɪʃn 620 2256 2975 1636 80 inspiration ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃn 547 1803 4432 1256 106 paramedics ˌpærəˈmɛdɪks 527 1927 2815 1400 113 inspirational ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃənl 570 1775 3780 1205 126 community kəˈmjuːnɪti 512 1774 3601 1262 148 Teresa təˈreɪzə 473 1908 3090 1435 149 Teresa təˈreɪzə > a 964 2677 3968 1713 192 supporters səˈpɔːtəz 597 2358 5055 1761 224 protecting prəˈtɛktɪŋ 643 2640 4120 1997 247 inspiration ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃn 543 2050 4178 1507 309 maligned məˈlaɪnd 1366 3135 3392 1769
104
Table 5.8. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 2B. Short schwas in pre-stress position (pattern CV’).
Group 2C - Word-final schwas
Number Word IPA F1 F2 F3 F1-F2 53 other ˈʌðə 572 1889 3213 1317 70 discovered dɪsˈkʌvəd 647 1987 3130 1340 76 others ˈʌðəz 593 1674 3206 1081 97 helicopter ˈhɛlɪkɒptə 489 1906 3345 1417 128 organisers ˈɔːgənaɪzəz 725 2318 3249 1593 193 supporters səˈpɔːtəz 519 1920 3611 1401 250 others ˈʌðəz 757 2056 3109 1299 272 bigger ˈbɪgə 675 2320 3237 1645 306 never ˈnɛvə 812 1956 3428 1144 330 whoever hu(ː)ˈɛvə 693 2038 3422 1345 334 whatever wɒtˈɛvə 1173 2686 3420 1513 Table 5.9. Text 2 (2016). Average formant frequencies for Group 2C. Word-final schwas.
5.7 Findings
The data are summed up in Tables 5.5. and 5.6. Higher values are marked by shadowing. In Group 1 - Long schwas, the vowel is lowered, very slightly fronted, showing slightly less lip rounding.
In Group 2 - Short schwas, the data are as follows: Group 2A - Word initial pre-stress schwas (pattern V’) - the vowel is lowered, backed, showing slightly lower lip rounding.
105
Group 2B - Pre-stress schwas (pattern CV’) - the vowel is slightly
lowered backed, with slightly lower lip rounding. The difference between pre-
stressed schwa in CV’ syllable in 1956 and 2016 could be cause by slight
variance in word tokens – in the 2016 tokens schwa often appears in second
syllable of the words.
Group 2C - Word-final schwas (usually the suffixial -er) - the vowel is
slightly lowered, backed, with slightly lower lip rounding.
Groups 1957 F1 average F2 average F3 average F1-F2 average
/ə:/ 748 2240 4074 1492
/ə/ pre-stress (V’) 547 2333 4058 1786
/ə/ pre-stress (CV’) 584 2697 3945 2113
/ə/ word-final (-er) 647 2334 4148 1662 Table 5.5. Average formant frequencies from Text 1. (Higher values higher than in Table 5.6. are marked by shadowing.)
Groups 2016 F1 average F2 average F3 average F1-F2 average
/ə:/ 952 2309 3683 1383
/ə/ pre-stress (V’) 567 2139 3538 1572
/ə/ pre-stress (CV’) 664 2149 3720 1485
/ə/ word-final (-er) 695 2068 3285 1358 Table 5.9. Average formant frequencies from Text 2. (Higher values higher than in Table 5.5. are marked by shadowing.)
106
6 Conclusion
In the measured data, there is a noticeable shift in both long and short schwas, but in different directions. Long schwa tends to be lowered while short schwa shows tendency to be backed with not so noticeable lowering.
Figure 6.1. Plot of average F2-F2 frequencies of schwa sounds. < ə’> - word-initial short schwa in pre-stress syllables, < Cə’> - short schwa in pre-stress syllables (syllable type CV), < _ə> - word-final schwa, < əː> - long schwa. Source: author.
107
Also, there is a higher difference between short and long schwas as for
F1, but as for F2, the variance is not high. In other words, it is predominantly F2 frequency where the long schwa has shifted and F1 frequency where the short schwa has shifted.
It was found in previous researches that vowels of RP were moving from the central part of the vowel quadrilateral towards the edges (Harrington et at.,
2009). It could also mean that if the place of articulation of RP vowels tends shift away from the centre, the vacant place among the vowels in the quadrilateral becomes wider and it may, among others, result in 1) inclusion of more distinguished vowel sounds within this area, 2) of a shift of schwa articulation within this area, i.e. lowering or raising, and/or fronting or backing. It is therefore also possible, that the shift of schwa is made possible by the shifts in other vowel, as a pull chain shift.
Harrington et al. (2007, p. 2753) showed, that the same speakers have ‘a lower F1, a marginally lower F2 … in their later recordings’. The data show higher F1 of long schwas in Text 2, but lower F2-F1 value. It remains an open and interesting question whether the schwa shifts are the result of passive physiological changes to the vocal tract, or whether speech production is actively modified with increasing age, to compensate perceptually for the influences of the age-related decline in F1/F2 on vowel quality. Or vice versa, whether decreasing ability to monitor one’s own speech (for instance a decline in hearing) may be one of the causes. Other factors may include higher experience manifested as lower carefulness in pronunciation.
108
The hypothesis that no shift in place of articulation of schwa-like sounds would be found was therefore not confirmed. The shifts were found and since there are in different directions, there must be other reasons behind them besides the mere aging of the vocal tract. The author believes that the found formant shifts can be a sign of a vowel shift or fluctuation in RP.
As for other features mentioned in the theoretical research, usage of schwa instead of weak /ɪ/ was registered in a couple of cases (rɪsˈpɛkt > rəsˈpɛkt, ɒnɪstɪ > ˈɒnəstɪ), r-intrusion was present, and short schwa was reduced or deleted in many unstressed syllables, especially in pre-stess positions.
Diphthongs and triphthongs containing schwa occurring in these two texts were not regarded as their number was moslty low, except of certain diphthongs. For such an comparision, several texts from the two given periods should be selected. Also, for the diphthongs and triphthongs to be comparable with monophthongal sounds in general, different method of measurement should be selected, suitable fur such a comparison.
The place of articulation of schwa in relation to a place of articulation of other vowels in RP can be a topic for further research and could be confirmatory in regard to findings of the present work.
109
References
Primary sources
The British Broadcasting Corporation (Producer). (1957, December 25).
Christmas Broadcast 1957. Retrieved from
https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051146/http://www.royal.gov.uk/I
magesandBroadcasts/TheQueensChristmasBroadcasts/ChristmasBroa
dcasts/ChristmasBroadcast1957.aspx
The Queen's Christmas message [video]. (2016, December 25). BBC News.
Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38431575
The Queen's speech in full: 'We can do small things with great love'. (n.d.) The
Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-
news/2016/dec/25/the-queens-speech-christmas-day-full-transcript-
elizabeth
Secondary sources
Aitchison, J. (2001). Language change – progress or decay? Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Bauer, L. (1985). Tracing phonetic change in the received pronunciation of
British English. Journal of Phonetics 13, 61-81.
110
Bauer, L. (1994). English in New Zealand. In R. Burchfield (Ed.), The
Cambridge history of the English language. Volume 5. English in Britain
and overseas: origins and development (pp. 382-429). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Bell, A. M. (1882). Sounds and their relations. A complete manual of universal
alphabetics. London: Trubner.
Bell, A. M. (1867). Visible speech: the science of universal alphabetics. London:
Sompkin, Marshall.
Birjandi, P., & Salmani-Nodoushan, M. A. (2005). An introduction to phonetics.
Tehran: Zabankadeh Publications.
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2017). Praat: doing phonetics by computer
[Computer program]. Version 6.0.20, retrieved 9 March 2016 from
http://www.praat.org/
Brown, A. (2012). International Phonetic Alphabet. In C. A. Chapelle, (Ed.), The
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 2825–2832). Malden: Wiley-
Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781405198431
Caffee, M. N. (1951). The phonemic structure of unstressed vowels in English.
American Speech, 26-2, 103-109.
Carr, P. (1993). Phonology. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Catford, J. C. (1977). Fundamental problems in phonetics. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
111
Chamonikolasová, J. (2014). A concise history of English. Brno: Masarykova
univerzita.
Cruttenden, A. (2014). Gimson's pronunciation of English. London: Routledge.
Cruttenden, A. (2001). Gimson's pronunciation of English. London: Arnold.
Crystal, D. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing.
Davidson, L. (2006). Schwa elision in fast speech: segmental deletion or
gestural overlap? Phonetica, 63(2-3), 79–112. doi:10.1159/000095304
Ellis, A. J. (1845). The alphabet of nature; or, contributions towards a more
accurate analysis and symbolization of spoken sounds; with some
account of the principal phonetical alphabets hitherto proposed.
London: Bagster.
Fabricius, A. (2007). Vowel formants and angle measurements in diachronic
sociophonetic studies: FOOT-fronting in RP. In Proceedings of the 16th
ICPhS, Saarbrücken, August 2007, 1477-1480.
Grimm, J, & Grimm, W. (1854–1961). Deutsches Wörterbuch. 16 Bände in 32
Teilbänden. Leipzig: S. Hirzel.
Hall, N. (2005). What distinguishes an “excrescent” vowel? In M. van
Oostendorp et al. (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Phonology (pp.
1584-1585). Oxford: Blackwell.
Harrington, J., Palethorpe, S., & Watson, C. (2009). Monophthongal vowel
changes in Received Pronunciation: an acoustic analysis of the
112
Queen’s Christmas broadcasts. Journal of the International Phonetic
Association, 30(1-2), 63–78. doi: 10.1017/S0025100300006666
Harrington, J., Palethorpe, S., & Watson, C. (2007). Age-related changes in
fundamental frequency and formants: a longitudinal study of four
speakers. In INTERSPEECH 2007 (pp. 2753-2755). Antwerp: ISCA.
Hawkins, S., and Midgley, J. (2005). Formant frequencies of RP monophthongs
in four age groups of speakers. Journal of the International Phonetic
Association 35(2), 183-199.
Heselwood, B. (2007). Schwa and the phonotactics of RP English. Transactions
of the Philological Society, 105(2), 148–187. doi:10.1111/j.1467-
968x.2007.00186.x
Hornstein, N., Nunes, J., & Grohmann, K. K. (2005). Understanding minimalism.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jespersen, O. (1909). A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part
I: Sounds and Spellings. Winter: Heidelberg.
Johnson, K. (2003). Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics. Maldon: Blackwell.
Jones, D. (1979). An outline of English phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. (Original work published 1918).
Joos, M. (1948). Acoustic phonetics. Language, 24(2), 1–136.
Kenrick, W. (1773). A new dictionary of the English language. London: J. & F.
Rivington.
113
Kent, R. D., & Read, C. (1992). The Acoustic analysis of speech. San Diego:
Singular Publishing Group.
King, J. E., & Cookson, C. (1888). The principles of sound and inflexion as
illustrated in the Greek and Latin languages. Oxford: Clarendon.
Labov, W. (1994). Principles of linguistic change. Volume I. Internal factors.
Oxford: Blackwell.
Ladefoged, P., & Broadbent, D. E. (1957). Information conveyed by vowels.
Landau, S. I. (2009). Major American Dictionaries. In A. P. Cowie (Ed.),
The Oxford history of English lexicography (pp.182-229). Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Ladefoged, P., & Disner, S. F. (2012). Vowels and consonants (3rd ed.). Malden:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2011). A course in phonetics. Belmont: Cengage
Learning.
Ladefoged, P. (1996). Elements of acoustic phonetics. Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press.
Lee, D. Y. W. (2010). What corpora are available? In A. O'Keeffe, & M.
McCarthy (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics (pp.
107-121). London: Routledge.
Lee, S. (2011). The perceptual interaction between schwa deletion and English
phonotactic constraints. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 36(3), 699–733.
doi:10.18855/lisoko.2011.36.3.006
114
Lehiste, I. (1964). Acoustical characteristics of selected English consonants.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.
LoCasto, P. C., & Connine, C. M. (2002). Rule-governed missing information in
spoken word recognition: schwa vowel deletion. Perception &
Psychophysics, 64(2), 208–219. doi:10.3758/bf03195787
Machač, P., & Skarnitzl, R. (2009). Fonetická segmentace hlásek. Praha:
Epocha.
McCully, C. B. (2009). The sound structure of English: an introduction.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McIntyre, D. (2009). History of English: a resource book for students. London:
Routledge.
McMahon, A. (2002). An introduction to English phonology. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press.
McMahon, A. (1999). Understanding language change. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Milroy, J. (1994). Neogrammarian sound change from a social dialectological
perspective. In G. Melchers, & N.-L. Johannesson (Eds.), Nonstandard
Varieties of Language, (pp. 118-130). Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell
International.
Minkova, D. (2009). Phonological weakness in English: from old to present-day
English. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
115
Minkova, D. (1991). The history of final vowels in English: the sound of muting.
Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Ogden, R. (2009). An introduction to English phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
Orwell, G. (1970). Politics and the English language. In The collected essays,
Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Vol. 3. As I please. 1943-
1945. (pp. 143-157), Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Pointon, G. (2016). The representation of pronunciation in general dictionaries.
In P. Durkin (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography (pp. 472-487).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pullum, G. K., & Ladusaw, W. A. (1996). Phonetic symbol guide. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Quatieri, T. F. (2001). Discrete-time Speech Signal Processing: Principles and
Practice. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs.
Reddick, A. (2009). Johnson and Richardson. In A. P. Cowie (Ed.), The Oxford
history of English lexicography (pp.155-181). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Reubold, U., Harrington, J., & Kleber, F. (2010). Vocal aging effects on F0 and
the first formant: A longitudinal analysis in adult speakers. Speech
Communication, 52(7-8), 638–651. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2010.02.012
Roach, P. (2004). British English: Received Pronunciation. Journal of the
International Phonetic Association, 34(2), 239–245.
doi:10.1017/s0025100304001768
116
Robertson, S., & Cassidy, F. G. (1954). The development of modern English,
(2nd ed.). New York: Prentice-Hall.
Russell, A., Penny, L. & Pemberton, C. (2005). Speaking fundamental
frequency changes over time in women: A longitudinal study. Journal of
Speech and Hearing Research, 38, 101-109.
Saussure, F. de. (1959). Course de linguistique générale (Eds. Ch. Bally & A.
Sechehaye). The Philosophical library: New York. (Original work
published 1916).
Schmeller, J. A. (1821). Die Mundarten Bayerns grammatisch dargestellt.
München: Karl Thienemann.
Schmeller, J. A. (1827). Bayerisches Wörterbuch. Stuttgart und Tübingen: J. H.
Cotta’schen Buchhandlung.
Schendl, H., & Ritt, N. (2002). Of vowel shifts great, small, long and short.
Language Sciences, 24(3-4), 409–421. doi:10.1016/s0388-
0001(01)00041-9
Shoup, J. E., & Pfeifer, L. L. (2012). Acoustic characteristics of speech sounds.
In N. Lass, (Ed.), Contemporary Issues in Experimental Phonetics
(pp.171-124). Burlington: Elsevier Science.
Silverman, D. (2009). A critical introduction to phonology: of sound, mind, and
body. London: Continuum.
Song, J. J. (2013). Variable schwa deletion in English: a corpus study. Studies
in Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology, 19-1, 33-52.
117
Stockwell, R. P., & Minkova, D. (1988). The English vowel shift: problems of
coherence and explanation. In D. Kastovsky & G. Bauer (Eds.), Luick
revisited (pp. 355-394), Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Svartvik, J., & Leech, G. N. (2006). English: one tongue, many voices. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sweet, H. (1877). Handbook of phonetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Thomas, A. R. (1994). English in Wales. In R. Burchfield (Ed.), The Cambridge
history of the English language. Vol. 5. English in Britain and overseas:
origins and development (pp. 94-147). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Torgersen, E., & Kerswill, P. (2004). Internal and external motivation in phonetic
change: dialect levelling outcomes for an English vowel shift. Journal of
Sociolinguistics, 8, 23–53.
Trask, R. L. (1996). A dictionary of phonetics and phonology. London:
Routledge.
Trudgill, P., & Hannah, J. (2013). International English: a guide to the varieties
of standard English. New York: Routledge.
Turner, G. W. (1994). English in Australia. In R. Burchfield (Ed.), The Cambridge
history of the English language. Volume 5. English in Britain and
overseas: origins and development (pp. 382-429). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
118
Underhill, A. (2005). Sound foundations: learning and teaching pronunciation.
Oxford: Macmillan.
Vater, J. S. (1802). Handbuch der hebräischen, syrischen, chaldäischen und
arabischen Grammatik. Für den Anfang der Erlernung dieser Sprachen
bearbeitet. Leipzig: Crusius.
Vendryès, J. (1925). Language. London: Kegan Paul.
Wang, W. S.-Y. (1968). Vowel features, paired variables, and the English vowel
shift. Language, 44(4), 695. doi:10.2307/411892
Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 1-3. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Zsiga, E. C. (2013). The sounds of language: an introduction to phonetics and
phonology. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
Zwicker, E. (1961). Subdivision of the audible frequency range into critical
bands (Frequenzgruppen). Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
33, 248.
119
Summary
The aim of this work is to determine the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of schwa in English (Received Pronunciation) by proceeding from articulatory characteristics to a synchronic analysis of chosen spoken texts. The introductory diachronic part includes a research into origin of both the term schwa and the symbol of the same name in English, and its journey into English from Hebrew via German. It also includes remarks on transcription practices. It covers basics of vowel phonology and notices vowel sound shifts in history of
English.
For the acoustic analysis of the schwa vowel, two Queen’s Christmas messages spanning over almost 60 years were chosen with aim to determine the possible scope of sound shift in Received Pronunciation. The recordings were produced by the same speaker, under similar conditions, for the same occasion, recorded in identical kind of environments, and are thus ideal for such an analysis.
In the measured data, a shift in both long and short schwas was found, but in different directions. Long schwa tends to be lowered while short schwa shows higher tendency to backing. While is possible that sound shifts occur in an individual as a consequence of aging, in such a case the shifts are usually in the same direction (Harrington et al., 2007). In the presented analysis, the shifts are in different direction which may be a sign of a real sound shift in Received
Pronunciation.
120
Summary in Czech
Cílem práce je posoudit posun centrální hlásky zvané šva (schwa) v současné standardní angličtině. Teoretická část práce postupuje od rešerše původu termínu a užívaného symbolu přes poznámky k transkripci a základní fonetice samohlásek, ke změnám hlásek v jazyce, jejich principy a příčinami, se zvláštním přihlédnutím k posunům anglických redukovaných samohlásek.
Experimentální část práce tvoří akustická analýza, pro kterou byly vybrány dva vánoční projevy anglické královny z období začátku její vlády a z posledního roku. Vánoční poselství královny jednak překlenují období téměř
šedesáti let, a dále jsou v mnoha ohledech pro synchronní analýzu přímo nabízejí vzhledem k tomu, že jde stále o stejného mluvčího, stejný typ promluvy obsahově i co do charakteru řeči, nahrávky jsou dále pořizován ve velmi podobných podmínkách a tím samým způsobem (tradičně je zajišťuje BBC).
U krátké i dlouhé varianty hlásky byl shledán akustický posun, ale jiným směrem – u krátké hlásky byl zjištěný akustický rozdíl odpovídající artikulačnímu posunu směrem dozadu, zatímco u dlouhé hlásky směrem dolů. K posunu hlásek může docházet i vlivem stárnutí, ale obvykle jsou všechny hlásky posunuté stejným směrem (Harrington a kol., 2007). V tomto případě je změřený posun spíše znamením hláskového posunu v Received pronunciation.
121
List of Appendices Appendix 1 The IPA chart Appendix 2 Queen’s Christmas speech, 1957 Appendix 3 Queen’s Christmas speech, 2016
122
Appendix 1 The IPA chart
International Phonetic Association (2015). IPA Chart. Available from: http://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License. Copyright © 2015 International Phonetic Association. Accessed: March 1, 2016.
123
Appendix 2 Queen’s Christmas speech, 1957
Happy Christmas.
Twenty-five years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages. Today is another landmark because television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day. My own family oft- en gather round to watch television as they are [sic: at] this moment, and that is how I imagine you now.
I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct.
It is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you.
A successor to the Kings and Queens of history; someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and films but who never really touches your personal lives. But now at least for a few minutes I welcome you to the peace of my own home.
That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us. Because of these changes I am not surprised that many people feel lost and unable to de- cide what to hold on to and what to discard. How to take advantage of the new life without losing the best of the old.
124
But it is not the new inventions which are the difficulty. The trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were old and outworn machinery.
They would have religion thrown aside, morality in personal and public li- fe made meaningless, honesty counted as foolishness and self-interest set up in place of self-restraint.
At this critical moment in our history we will certainly lose the trust and respect of the world if we just abandon those fundamental principles which guided the men and women who built the greatness of this country and
Commonwealth.
Today we need a special kind of courage, not the kind needed in battle but a kind which makes us stand up for everything that we know is right, eve- rything that is true and honest. We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics so that we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future.
It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult. That is why we can take a pride in the41 new Commonwe- alth we are building.
41 In the reconding, there is ‚a‘ instead of the‘
125
This year Ghana and Malaya joined our brotherhood. Both these coun- tries are now42 entirely self-governing. Both achieved their new status amicably and peacefully.
This advance is a wonderful tribute to the efforts of men of goodwill who have worked together as friends, and I welcome these two countries with all my heart.
Last October I opened the new Canadian Parliament, and as you know this was the first time that any Sovereign had done so in Ottawa. Once again I was overwhelmed by the loyalty and enthusiasm of my Canadian people.
Also during 1957 my husband and I paid visits to Portugal, France, Den- mark and the United States of America. In each case the arrangements and formalities were managed with great skill but no one could have 'managed' the welcome we received from the people.
In each country I was welcomed as Head of the Commonwealth and as your representative. These nations are our friends largely because we have always tried to do our best to be honest and kindly and because we have tried to stand up for what we believe to be right.
In the old days the monarch led his soldiers on the battlefield and his leadership at all times was close and personal.
42 In the reconding, ‚now‘ is not heard, but intrusion r is.
126
Today things are very different. I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our bro- therhood of nations.
I believe in our qualities and in our strength, I believe that together we can set an example to the world which will encourage upright people everywhe- re.
I would like to read you a few lines from 'Pilgrim's Progress', because I am sure we can say with Mr Valiant for Truth, these words:
"Though with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles who now will be my rewarder."
I hope that 1958 may bring you God's blessing and all the things you long for.
And so I wish you all, young and old, wherever you may be, all the fun and enjoyment, and the peace of a very happy Christmas.
(The British Broadcasting Corporation, 1957)
127
Appendix 3 Queen’s Christmas speech, 2016
There was a time when British Olympic medal winners became household na- mes because there were so few of them. But the 67 medals at this year’s Ga- mes in Rio and 147 at the Paralympics meant that the GB medallists’ reception at Buckingham Palace was a crowded and happy event.
Throughout the Commonwealth there were equally joyful celebrations.
Grenada, the Bahamas, Jamaica and New Zealand won more medals per head of population than any other countries.
Many of this year’s winners spoke of being inspired by athletes of previ- ous generations. Inspiration fed their aspiration; and having discovered abilities they scarcely knew they had, these athletes are now inspiring others.
A few months ago, I saw inspiration of a different kind when I opened the new Cambridge base of the East Anglian Air Ambulance, where Prince William works as a helicopter pilot. It was not hard to be moved by the dedication of the highly skilled doctors, paramedics and crew, who are called out on average five times a day.
But to be inspirational you don’t have to save lives or win medals. I often draw strength from meeting ordinary people doing extraordinary things: volun-
128
teers, carers, community organisers and good neighbours; unsung heroes who- se quiet dedication makes them special.
They are an inspiration to those who know them, and their [in our] lives frequently embody a truth expressed by Mother Teresa, from this year Saint
Teresa of Calcutta. She once said: ‘Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love’.
This has been the experience of two remarkable organisations, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and the Prince’s Trust, which are 60 and 40 years old this year. These started as small initiatives but have grown beyond any expectati- ons, and continue to transform young people’s lives.
To mark my 90th birthday, volunteers and supporters of the six hundred charities of which I have been patron came to a lunch in the Mall. Many of these organisations are modest in size but inspire me with the work they do.
From giving friendship and support to our veterans, the elderly or the be- reaved; to championing music and dance; providing animal welfare; or pro- tecting our fields and forests, their selfless devotion and generosity of spirit is an example to us all.
When people face a challenge they sometimes talk about taking a deep breath to find courage or strength. In fact, the word ‘inspire’ literally means ‘to breathe in’. But even with the inspiration of others, it’s understandable that we
129
sometimes think the world’s problems are so big that we can do little to help. On our own, we cannot end wars or wipe out injustice, but the cumulative impact of thousands of small acts of goodness can be bigger than we imagine.
At Christmas, our attention is drawn to the birth of a baby some two tho- usand years ago. It was the humblest of beginnings, and his parents, Joseph and Mary, did not think they were important.
Jesus Christ lived obscurely for most of his life, and never travelled far.
He was maligned and rejected by many, though he had done no wrong. And yet, billions of people now follow his teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them because Christ’s example helps me see the value of doing small things with great love, whoever does them and whatever they themselves believe.
The message of Christmas reminds us that inspiration is a gift to be gi- ven as well as received, and that love begins small but always grows.
I wish you all a very happy Christmas.
(‘The Queen's speech in full’, n.d.)
130