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The Sounds of Spoken Language Talentcamp 9 PHONETICS THE SOUNDS OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE TALENTCAMP 9. KLASSE TØNDER 2018 Main focus areas of the course ■ Basic phonetics and phonology ■ Transcription ■ American versus English pronunciation ■ Speech production ■ Typical pronunciation problems for Danish learners of English Programme: Saturday ■ Variations in English ■ Introduction to phonetics versus phonology – Speech production / organs of speech – Spelling versus transcription – International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) – Phonemes, allophones and syllables Programme: Sunday ■ Consonant and vowel possibilities ■ Danish learner errors ■ Group work Læringsmål Gennem denne TalentCamp skal vi: ■ Fordybe os i engelsk fonetik (udtalelære) med fokus på to standardudtaler, nemlig standard britisk engelsk (Received Pronunciation) og standard amerikansk engelsk (General American). ■ Undersøge hvilke udtaleaspekter i engelsk, der er svært for danskere. ■ Analysere og diskutere udtale ved at benytte den relevante terminologi. Derudover skal vi træne jeres tale- og transskriptionsfærdigheder gennem: ■ Forskellige opgaver/transskriptioner i undervisningen Let’s get started ■ How do you perceive pronunciation – and the importance of correct pronunciation? ■ Partner up (A and B) ■ Each of you will get a set of questions to ask your peer. Take turns in asking and answering. EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT EARS. THEREFORE, WE HEAR EVERYTHING A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Phonetics ■ “Phonetic knowledge can help you to pronounce foreign languages more effectively” (Collins & Mees 2013: 2) Regional versus social variation An important distinction: Regional variation Social variation Differences between one Reflects differences between place and another one social group and another Examples: New York, Sydney, Examples: Gender, religion, Auckland, London, Leeds, ethnicity, age and (very Edinburgh significantly) social class Regional variation in English • Every language has a lot of variation, especially in the way it is spoken • In English, we find widespread variation in the way the language is spoken in different countries such as Australia, Scotland, and the USA and even within countries like England or even Denmark. Regional variation in English: The standard language • When we talk about words or grammar we are concentrating on the features of only one variety of English - the standard language. • A variety associated with administrative, commercial and educational centers • An idealized (official) variety, because it has no specific region • You find it in newspapers, books, etc. Regional variation in English: The standard language • Standard English: Where is it used and what is it? “If we think of standard English, it is the version we believe is found in printed English in newspapers and books, is widely used in mass media and most schools. It is the variety we normally try to teach to those who want to learn English as a second or foreign language” (Yule 2015: 243) Phonetics and the standard pronunciation? ■ Map indicating locations of main varieties of English worldwide (Collins & Meen 2013: 8) Fictional language based on accent Example: The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn I bet I was glad to see him. I says: ”Hello, Jim!” and skipped out. He bounced up and stared wild at me wild. The he drops down on his knees, and puts his hands together and says: ”Doan’ hurt me–don’t! I hain’t ever done no harm to a ghos’. I awluz liked dead people, en done all I could for ’em. You go en git in de river agin, whah you b’longs, en doan’ do nuffin to Ole Jim, ’at ’uz awluz yo’ fren’. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn. 1884. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter 8th edition, vol. 2, 2013, p. 130. Phonetics and the standard pronunciation? General American (GA) British Received Pronunciation (RP) ■ The umbrella variety of American ■ An accent of Standard English English. in the United Kingdom ■ Americans with high education or from the North Midland, Western ■ Formerly, colloquially called New England and Western “The King’s English” Regions of the country are the most likely to be perceived as ■ Sociolinguist, Peter Trudgill, having GA accent. estimated in 1974 that 3% of people in Britain were RP ■ American English dialects have diverged very little from each speakers other, when compared to dialects – Should we question this rough of single languages in other estimate? countries. – Any ideas why? RP OR NRP (NON-REGIONAL PRONUNCIATION) ■ Rather than dealing with what is now regarded by many of the younger generation as a quaint minority accent [i.e. RP], we shall instead endeavour to describe a more encompassing neutral type of modern British English but one which nevertheless lacks obvious local accent features. To refer to this variety we shall employ the term non-regional pronunciation (abbreviated to NRP). ■ We shall thus be able to allow for the present-day range of variation to be heard from educated middle and younger generation speakers in England who have a pronunciation which cannot be pinned down to a specific area. (Collins & Meen 2013: 4) REFERENCE ACCENTS: GA VERSUS (N)RP …TO WHICH WE SHALL RETURN LATER Programme, Saturday ■ Course introduction and variations in English ■ Introduction to phonetics versus phonology – Spelling versus transcription – International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) – Phonemes, allophones and syllables INTRODUCTION TO PHONETICS VERSUS PHONOLOGY …AND THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET, PHONEMES, ALLOPHONES AND SYLLABLES Phonetics versus phonology ■ The study of sound in general is the science of acoustics. – phonetics is the term used for the study of human language – phonology is the term used for the study of the selection and patterns of sounds in a single language ▪ Both phonetics and phonology are important components of linguistics, which is the science that deals with the general study of language. Phonetics Phonology ■ Identifying the place of ■ The description of the articulation in the vocal system of patterns of tract, mouth and nose speech sounds ■ Identifying the manner of ■ Deals with the sound articulation – including system of languages how air is channeled – How speech is organized and/or stopped during into systems in different speech sounds languages ■ Identifying which speech – How sounds are combined sounds are used in a – The relation between given language them and how they affect ■ Deals with physical each other. properties of the elements of the sound system ■ The movements of the tongue, lips and other speech organs are called articulation – hence this area of phonetics is called articulatory phonetics ■ The physical nature of the speech signal is the concern of acoustic phonetics. ■ The study of how the ear receives the speech signal we call auditory phonetics ■ The formulation of the speech message in the brain of the listener are branches of psycholinguistics In this course, our emphasis will be on articulatory phonetics! THE VOCAL ORGANS ORGANS OF SPEECH/SPEECH PRODUCTION Purpose and content ■ General introduction to how speech is produced (physically) ■ Overview of the specific mechanisms: ❖ Lungs, throat and mouth ❖ Presentation of different organs of speech and sounds that involve these Organs of speech Three systems/groups Articulatory system •RP /ɑːˈtɪkjʊlətri/ •GA /ɑːrˈtɪkjələtɔːri/ Phonatory system •RP /fəʊˈneɪtəri/ •GA /ˈfoʊnətɔːri/ Respiratory system •RP /riˈspɪrətri/ •GA /ˈrespərətɔːri/ Organs of speech ■ Three systems A different view – Articulation – Phonation – Respiration ■ Image copied from http://thesoundsofenglish.blogspot.d k/2013/02/the-organs-of- speech.html Respiratory system ■ Inhalation pulls air into the lungs ■ Exhalation forces air out through the trachea ■ Controlled (mostly) by the diaphragm ■ All speech in English produced on airstream from the lungs ■ Also called an egressive pulmonic airstream https://medlineplus.gov/ency/imagepa ges/19380.htm Phonatory system (larynx) ■ The larynx, aka voice box, sits at the top of the trachea ■ It can modify / modulate the airstream ■ Consist of cartilages, muscles and mucous membrane, most importantly: ■ The vocal folds, which extend from front to back, may be – apart (for breathing and voiceless sounds) – vibrating, i.e. rapidly opening and closing (for voiced sounds) – firmly kept together, preventing air from escaping Phonation / voicing ■ Voiceless: vocal folds apart / glottis open ❖ Air escapes freely ■ Voiced: vocal folds held loosely together ❖ Airstream will push vocal folds apart ❖ Elasticity of folds and especially aerodynamic forces will pull them back together ❖ Happens very rapidly, typically 100- 500 times per second! Articulatory system / articulation ■ Articulation refers to everything that happens above the larynx ■ The airstream enters the pharyngeal cavity as well as the oral cavity and/or the nasal cavity ■ Most important of these (for us) is the oral cavity (mouth). ■ Modifications of the airstream in the oral cavity creates different speech sounds. Articulation ■ Parts of the oral cavity ■ Passive articulators: – Teeth, alveolar ridge, hard and soft, palate – Upper lip ■ Active articulators: – Tongue: tip, blade, front, back, root – Lips / lower lip ■ Image from Cruttenden (2014): Gimson’s Pronunciation of English, p. 10. Routledge. Articulators 1 – nasal cavity ■ Cannot modify the cavity itself, so only relevant aspect is whether sound is produced with – lowered velum -> air flows through nose -> nasal sound ■ /m n ŋ/ (+ nasalised vowels) – Raised velum (velic closure)
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