DOCUMENT IteSUPOS ED 025 755 AL 001 673 By Sover an. Marilylle From Cree to English. Part One: the Sound System. Saskatchewan Univ., Saskatoon. Indin and Northern Curriculum Resources Centre. Pvb Date 1681 Note- 80p. EDRS Price MF-$0.50 HC-$4.10 Descriptors-*Contrastive Linguistics, *Cree, *English(SecondLanguage),InstructionalMaterials. Interference (Language Learning). *Language Instruction, Phonemes, *Phonology,Teaching Guides, Teaching Techniques This study compares the sound systems of Cree and English, withspecial attention given to identifying the differences between the two systemswhich are likely to cause interference or confusion. Specificteaching suggestions are provided for those who are teaching the English sound system to studentswho are more familiar with the Cree 'system. Facial diagrams illustrating the oralproduction of difficult sounds and suggestions for making drill sessions interesting areincluded with each drill. The pronunciation drill is described in some detail in the section"Teaching the Voicing Distinction: A technical knowledge of linguistics is not assumed onthe part of the reader. (AMM) WELFARE U.S. DEPARTMENT OFHEALTH, EDUCATION & OFFICE OF EDUCATION

EXACTLY AS RECEIVEDFROM THE THIS DOCUMENT HASBEEN REPRODUCED OPINIONS ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR PERSON OR ORGANIZATION OFFICIAL OFFICE OFEDUCATION STATED DO NOTNECESSARILY REPRESENT POSITION OR POLICY. FROM CREE TO ENGLISH

Part One: The Sound System

By

Mrs. Marilylle Soveran

Indian and NorthernCurriculum Resources Centre College of Education

University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

AL 001 673 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

all of the authors listed in the I am indebted to bibliography, but particularly to Dr. C.D.Ellis, who personally studied the first draft ofthis book and gave many helpfulcriticisms and suggestions. Most of the diagrams are based on thoseused in the book by Gordon and Wong. The Owen thesis was invaluable,especialiy as a source ofteaching ideas for presenting theEnglish vowel sounds.

M.S. CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: Learning a New Sound System 1

CHAPTER TWO: The English Sound System 5

CHAPTER THREE: The Cree Sound System 9

CHAPTER FOUR: Teaching the Sounds of English to Cree Speakers I4

BIBLIOGRAPHY 57 !NTRODUCTION

What's it all About? What is attempted in this book isnot a complete comparison between English and Cree -valuable though such a work would be. Rather, this study compares only the sound systems. Nor does it deal with all thevariations in Cree and English sounds thatwould interest a phonetics specialist. Itis an attempt to describe and compareonly the phonemes of each language - thesounds used contrastively. Special attention is given to identifyingdifferencos between the two systems which arelikely to cause inter- ference or confusion. Speci+ic teaching suggestions are provided for those who are teachingthe English sound system to students who are more familiarwith the Cree system. When could this Teachin Materia e t.Jed? The ideal time for a careful presentationof the English sounds is very early in theschool experience of the beginner. Interesting listening games using contrastive material from the drills suggestedwould fit in well with the other exercises in auditorydiscrimination which are part of the pre-reading program. Then, when students are "learning thesounds" in the readingligrogram, the teacher has an excellentopportunity to teach the English sound system verythoroughly, keeping in mind the special kinds ofpractice that will be of most help to those already acquaintedwith the Crae sounds. Other possibilities include:

-a few minutes of eachday devoted to listening and pronunciation practice. (A carefully planned sequence would be used,with provision for regular revIew.) - abrief presentation of a sound orsound contrast, with a pronunciation drill, couldprecede the regular handwriting period. (For instance, a pronunciation drill on /s/ and/z/ would be followed by writing the letters"s" and "z" and words in which they occur.) - a seriesof lessons on the Enalish soundsystem incorporated into the spelling program. (An advantage here would be that theseveral English spellings of any one sound could betaught together.) An understanding of the Creesound system will also help the teacher to be more effectivein a variety of incidental teaching situations wherepronunciation or spelling is influenced by the process ofchanging from one sound system to another. How should this Material beUsed?

The pronunciation drill, withvarious suggestions as to how it can be used,is described in some detailin the section "Teaching the Voicing Distinction". The basic pattern of the drill is essential in teaching contrastingsounds. However, the variations in how the drilling takes place arelimited only by the creativity of the teacher. A few suggestions as to ways tomake the drill sessions interesting are includedwhen the pronunciation drill is first described. For most of the other drills, thecontrasting word pairs are provided and the various gamesand exercises which can keep the drilllively and interesting are left upto the ingenuity of the teacher.

The Diagrams

The diagrams included in thismaterial are mainly to clarify descriptions of how the various sounds areproduced. Whether or not similar diagrams are used in theclassroom presentations will depend on the teacher, and theparticular needs of his students. Since the voicing distinction is oneof the most important ones to be taught to Indian youngsters,the diagrams are arranged to emphasize this feature as the oneseparating many otherwise identical pairs of sounds. You will note, for instance, thatthe diagrams for /p/ and /b/ are on the same pageand that they show the speech organs in the sameposition for both sounds. The oniy difference is the voicing for /b/. This feature has been indicated by pairs of wavy lines shown nearthe "Adam's apple" and vocal cords, suggesting the vibrationthat is involved in "voicing".

Symbols

The following is a key to thesymbols which have been used in this book to indicate thephonemes of English and of Cree.

El SYMBOLS USED TO REPRESENTENLGISH SOUNDS

Vowels Diphthongs

/1/ as in sit /iy/ as in seat /e/ as in set /ey/ as in ate be/ as in sat /ow/ as in boat /a/ as insot orsought /uw/asin tooth /a / as inbut /0y/asin boil as inngonnau /ay/asin sail /u/ asinpush lay/asin site 141 asinfir, /aw/asin crown women, /aw/asin out circus, wanted

Consonants

Stops: Fricatives

/p/ as in Litt /f/as infine /b/ as in bill /v/asinvine /t/ as in tear /9/asinthin /d/ as in dear /4/asinthis /V as in choke /s/as insee /j/ asin joke /z/asinprize asin coat 4/asin she /g/ asin vat /Y/ asin treasure /h/ asin hat

Nasals: Vowel-like Consonants or_glides: /m/ as in moon /w/ asin willow /n/ as in noon /y/ as in yellow /1/ as in sing SYMBOLS USED TO REPRESENTCREE SOUNDS

Vowels /1/ as in atim (dog) /ii/ as in kiiwehtin (it is anorth wind) /e/ as in meskanaw (road orpath) /a/ as in anima (thatone) /aa/ as inmaaskooC/ (maybe) /o/ as in piko (only) /oo/ asin mitoon (mouth)

Consonants

Stops: Fricatives:

/p/ as in keyak (one) /s/ as in siipiy (river) /t/ as in taapwe (right;truly) /;i1/*as in ii11p (duck) /Ci/ as in man-(bad) /h/ as in pihtokwew (he enters) /k/ as.in maaka (but) ornikaham (he chops it)

Nasals: Vowel-like Consonants or lides: /m/ as in maskwa (bear) /w/ asin wiiyas (meat) as in niska(goose) /y/ as in kwa/ask (properly)

Additional sounds occur1,gin some dialects:

(The following soundsreplace each other as shownin the example) "y" dialect -- niiya (I, me) "n" dialect -- niina (I,me) "I" dialect -- nilla (I,me) "th" dialect -- nii9a (I,me) "r" dialect -- niira (I, me)

Eastern Cree only

. '4= CHAPTER ONE

LEARNING A NEW SOUND SYSTEM

We all know that languages aredifferent. Perhaps the most obvious difference is thatthey "sound different". What is it that makes a newlanguage sound so different from our own? Itis not only the fact thatthe words are different words and are arranged indifferent ways. It is also that the words themselves aremade of a different system of sounds. Although the human speech organs arecapable of producing a great variety of sounds,only a very selected n umber of these areused as important signals in anygiven language. Even in the familiar words of our ownlanguage there are sounds that we hardlynotice because they are not among thosethat we use to tell words apart. For irstance, we sometimes add apuff of air after a /p/ sound, sometimes wedon/t. Compare the /p/ in pill with the sound as it occursin spin. English speakers have learned to ignoredifferences like this because they do not use them toseparate words that would otherwise be identical. Ina stream ofspeech sounds they w ill pick out allthe /p/ sounds but automaticallydisregard the puff of air that may or maynot follow each. But what happens if we arelistening to alanguage that u ses a differentset of speech sounds? If the language were Hindi or Korean it would make agreat difference whether or not the /p/ wasaspirated. If we used the wrong variety of /p/ we would be sayingsomething very different from what we intended. It wouid take some time befRre we could train ourselves to respondto /p/ and /p / as separate signals. In fact we would bein a very similar position to that of the Creespeaker who is not used to thinking of /p/ and /b/ as differentsounds.

What is an "accent"? We often hear the comment that someonehas an "accent". A foreign accent is theresult of hearing, and thusspeaking, one language in termsof the sound system of another. That is, our version of a secondlanguage is highly colored by the features of our firstlanguage. One example of a "Creeaccent" is the rather common confusion of theEnglish sounds usuallyspelled "s" and "sh". Although most Creespeakers are used to some variation in the soundof their /s/, andthough sometimes it may sound alittle like our/Y/,it is still /s/. Accordingly, when theyencounter the English/V, it wt11 simply be an /s/ tothem, They will "speakEnglis " or English buy "sells" for a"sotgun". A line from a common When the Cree hymn is "Thou wiltfind a solacethere." youngster sings ithe may well bethinking of a"shoe-lace"! English speakerslearning Cree fallinto many We are sure we arerepeating just what our similar traps. Cree informant said when,in fact, we havereplaced several sounds by the Englishsounds we thought weheard.

Is a Fore in Accent aHandicap.? When? when it causes I. A foreiqn accentis a handicap confusion in meanin or comrehension. For example, could confusion of thinand tin, or savingsand shavings context alter a messageconsiderably. Fortunately, the usually makes clearthe meaning intended. However such good deal common Cree-isms asthese continue to cause a English speakers of merriment amongteachers and other working in the North. Perhaps a moreserious block tocommunication results from a continuousflow of Cree-izedEnglish sounds. Perhaps the message comesthrough, but thehearer becomes the message. more consciousof the accentthan he does of 2. A foreignaccent is a handicap if it causes difficulties in learnin to read and sell in the new A class of Creestudents made thefollowing Lsaaaaat. Test. attempts to spellwords from theSchonnel Spelling "sound out words", They had beenwell-trained in how to but had not had anyopportunity to studythe words given on the test.

toboggan: tibuken, tapakan,tipbogan, tapakan description: descrebsen damage: damach guarantee: carantee the words, we Since they had notpreviously encountered dictated. have here theirreaction to whatthey heard they hadin choosing theright vowel, Besides the problems English sounds. we seetheir confusion ofseveral pairs of /k/ and /g/; //(the "ch" sound) 1) /p/ and /b/ ; and /j/ Their problem withall of these pairs growsout of a basic differencebetween the consonantsof English and Cree. Cree speakers useeach pair as twovariations of what isessentially the same sound. English speakers are very awarethat the second sound in each caseis different. Though they may not beconsciously aware thatit is a voiced sound (vocalcords are In motion),they use this voicing distinctionto separate manyotherwise identical sounds. The student who 2) /s/ and /s/ (the "sh"sound). wrote "descrebsen"wrote it very nearly ashe would pronounce it. His dialect of Creedoes not use /s/ contrastively;it was natural forhim to hear it as an /s/. Fortunately most of thestudents can memorize a spellinglist rather quickly,if given theopportunity. However it seems evidentthat, especially inthe initial stages of learning toread and write, thedifferences between the Englishand the Cree soundsystems may be more of abarrier than werealize.

3. A foreign accent is ahandicap when it colors speech in such a way asto cause socialdiscrtminatton, classing the speaker as an"outsider", making it hard for him to be accepted onequal footing with therest of the group. Although there maybe no negative discrimination, his accent cancause hisfriends to type-cast him in termsof his ethnic group,rather than happens as a personin his own right. If the listener to have warm feelingstoward the ethnicbackground of the speaker, he willbe positivelybiased;if he distrusts biased. or dislikesthe ethnic grouphe will be negatively In neither case isjudgment based entirely onthe speaker himself orthe worth of whathe might be saying. Teachers who like Indianpeople and have spent some time among them willprobably have no troublein understanding or acceptingtheir English speechhabits. But whether or not onebelieves that communication or discrimination problems areahead for his students,he will find that carefultraining in hearing andreproducing the sounds of Englishwill produce betterreaders and spellers, whether ornot the students can evenspeak Cree.

Erasing a Foreign Accent

How can a personlearn the sounds of a newlanguage with so thatthose of his ownlanguage cease to interfere Speech Veckanism

alveoicir ricI9e upper teet6 lips lower feeth

ictrynx vocalCOrds - 4 - his pronunciation? Informally, speakers learn throughcareful listening, much listening, andthrough imitation. For many Cree students,opportunities to hear standard English are very limited. The English they hear for many hours each dayis an English already colored by Cree or perhaps byboth Cree and French.

- Formally, the process can bespeeded up and improved by a direct study ofthe new sound system, with drills designedto teach the necessary distinctionsin sound, and to provide practice in hearing the newsounds as they are - not as they seem to be becauseof previous language experience. If the teacher knows somethipg about the sound systemof the learner's first language he can anticipateconflicts and difficulties and plan extra helpwhere itis needed most.

What are the difficulties facedby anyone in adjusting to the sounds of a new language?

1) Learning to respond to variationsin sound which he is conditioned toconsider irrelevant. e.g. A Cree-conditioned speakermust learn to respond to the voicing contrastsin English. He uses what we wouldcall /t/ and /d/ as one sound, not two. Although the vocal cords are in motion for /d/ he has neverhad to listen for this kind of a variation.

2) Learning to disregard variationswhich heis conditioned to consider relevant. e.g. Vowel length is an important signalin Cree; such differences in vowellength occur in English, but they don't carry anyparticular significance.

3) Learning to pronounce unfamiliarsounds. e.g. Such English sounds as/f/ or /v/ are ndt part of the Cree system.

4) Learning to pronounce familiarsounds when they occur in unfamiliarenvironments. e.g. A Cree speaker learning to pronounce/st/ or /nt/ at the end of a word isin a similar position to an English speakerlearning to pronounce /r.)/ or /kt/ at thebeginning of a word. We will deal with theselearning problams in detail later, but first will haveto determine just whatthe two sound systems are, and howthey differ from one another. CHAPTER TWO

WHAT IS THE ENGLISHSOUND SYSTEM?

If the teacher is anative speaker of English,his first task, oddly enough,will be to learn and to understand the sound systemof English. This is essential whether or nothe ever learns anythingabout the pupils' language. The problem is that forhim the English sound systemis built in and operates atthe subconscious level - likewalking, breathing, orswallowing. To explain this systemto someone else is likeexplaining what happens when youswe'low, or teaching someonehow to walk - or how to breathe. If you think very muchabout how to swallow, for instan you suddenly findit almost difficult. The English spe,ker may gothrough a similar experience in trying tounderstand the sounds ofEnglish. Often the hardest thingto teach someone else isthat which we already knowautomatically. An analysis of the system we are usingunconsciously may make ourtask clearer lo us.

How are Speech SoundsMade? During speech the flowof air from the lungsis stopped, restricted,shaped, or controlled bythe teeth, lips, tongue, throat, andnasal passages. To this flow of air which is beingconstantly shaped and modified we may add thesound of our vibratingvocal cords: (To become more aware of the useof the vocal cords - or voicing, press a finger onthe throat just belowthe "Adam's apple" and pronounceah.Th-h or oh. The vibration is easily felt. Then try s-s-s, and z-z-z. One is voiceless; one is voiced.)

VOWELS If the vocal cords arevibrating and the flow of air is allowed to passthrough the mouth relatively unchecked, a vowel soundresults. Such streams of sound are basic toall words. Experiment with variousvowel sounds, noting how theshape of the mouth andthe position of the tongue affectthe sounds produced. The English vowels and vowel combinationsthat are presented inthis material will be symbolized asfollows: Simple vowels: Diphthongs:

/1/ as in sit /iy/ as in seat /e/ as in set /ey/ as in ate /aa/ as in sat /ow/ as in boat /a/ asin sot orsought' /uw/ asin Tooth /2/ as in but /oy/ as in boil /o/ as in "gonna" /ay/ as in sigh /u/ as in push Apy/ as in site 2 /41 asin fir, or the /aw/ as in crown unstressed vpwel in Aaw/ as in out women, circus, or wanted

CONSONANTS

Stops Sometimes the stream of air isstopped momentarily. Some words begin this way; somehave these sounds at the end or between two vowels. For example,if the lips are used toproduce such a stop, a /p/ or a/b/ results. if the vocal cords are set inmotion, the sound is/b/. In English there are a numberof pairs of sounds like /p/ and /b/ - sounds which aredistinguishable from one another mostly because one isun-voiced and one is voiced. If the point of articulation isfurther back in the mouth, aga!nst the velum, we can pronounce a/k/ (voiceless) or a /g/ (voiced). Another pair of sounds may alsobe classed as stops,although sometimes they are given aspecial

Many analyses of Englishvowels add another soundhere, / $ /, to maka thedistinction between sot -/sg-t/ and sought -/sdt/, similarly between the vowel sounds incot and ca0Rht, or not andnaught. Since many Canadianspeaker's do not make this distinctionin their speech, and sinceCree speakers have enough newdistinctions to learn withoutthis dubious one,it has been considered as onesound for our purposes here. 2The difference between/ay/ and /ay/ is apparent but isnot u sually usedto keep otherwise identicalwords apart. Canadian speakers use the /ay/befor$,a voiceless consonant. Compare site - /saYt/ and side -/sayd/. Many American speakerswould u se /ayLinsuch words as sight, might or evenlike, where Canadians'iise the shorter /ay/. Similarly Canadians use /0w/ in many words whereAmerican speakers would use/a4140 e .g. about. The teacher will probablynot need to teach these distinctions but will presentthe pronunciation hehimself normally uses. classification. They are /c/ and /j/, formed bypressing the tongue against the alveolar ridge. Since there Is a vrtain amount of friction involved inytheproyciation of /c/ or /j/, they are often described as/ts/ and /dz/.

Fricatives

Sometimes a distinctive sound ismade by forcing the stream of air through a smallopening, the sound being determined by the kind of frictionthat results.

If we bring our lower lip upagainst our upper teeth, in biting position, andthen force air out past this partial obstruction, the/f/ sound results. If the sound is voiced it becomes /v/.

If the tongue is lifted torest loosc:ly between the teeth and air forced through,the resulting sound is / 9/, the initial sound inthistle. If voicing is added, the sound becomes the initial onein then which we will symbolize by /ir/.

If the tongue is against thealveolar ridge, just behind the teeth, and groovedslightly to let the air slide over /s/ is produced. If this sound is voiced itbecomes a /z/.

If the tongue is curled upagainst the alveolar ridge, a little behind thepositionvwhere the /s/ was produced, the souvis possible are/s/v (voiceless) and /Y/ (voiced) -- /s/ as in sure and /z/ asin azure.

A final fricative, the simplestof all, is /h/ -- the aspirate or breathing sound. It is voiceless.

Nasals

During the production of thesounds /m/, /n/ and /p/, the flow of air from themouth is stopped and re-directed through the nose - hence the termnasal. In all cases, the sounds are voiced. For /m/ it is the lips thatclose off the flow of air from themouth; for /n/, the tongue closes it off just behind the upperteeth; for //I/ the passpge is blockedfurther back as the tonguearches up against the velum.

/1/ and /r/

/1/ is sometimes called thelateral continuant -- continuant, because it ispossible to continue or prolong the sound, like the vowels,nasals, or fricatives, and lateral because /1/ ispronounced by letting the air flow past one or both sides ofthe tongue. Actually, it is the - 8 - movement towards or awayfrom /1/ position,that gives it its characteristicsound. Some analysts havedescribed three /1/ sounds wemake - but in English weconsider them all as onesignal. /r/ is another soundthat is characterizedby a particular tonguemovement. The /r/ sound alwaysbegins backward movement ofthe tongue. The movement that w ith a will depend on what w ill followthis backward movement vowel sound follows. /r/ is sometimes classed as a and semi-vowel. Often it does functionmuch as a vowel, it always affectsthe sound of the vowelpreceding it.

Semi-vowels Two other sounds oftenclassed as semi-vowels are /w/ and /y/. /w/ is produced by abackward movement of the tongue, usuallyaccompanied by some lipraunding. /y/ involves a forwardmovement of thelongue -toward the high front partof the mouth. We are so usedto our own soundsystem that we may think of it asuniversal, or as veryclear and unambiguous when it comes toforming words. However, theforegoing description of speechsounds Tncludes onlythe contrasting noises we emit whiletalking English - the oneswhich can be usedto make a differencein meaning. Actually, many of thesesounds could besub-divided considerably. We have noted, forinstance, that there arethree /1/ sounds and more than one wayof saying /p/. Although in suchazAourt.d4.101fts may includeseveral variations pronunciat/on It'still operates asonly one soundsignal which in English. Such a sound - orcollection of sounds operate as one forthe native speaker -is called a the phoneme. The use of slantbars indicates that transcription is aphonemic, one. Tengiv.ihse.forYowils: CHAPTER THREE a

WHAT IS THE CREESOUND SYSTEM?

CREE VOWELS A distinctivefeature of Cree vowelsis the use of Variations in vowel vowellength as a meaningsignal. length often occur inEnglish (e.g. comparevowellength in pairs like neatand need, or lit and However, having nothing to in English, thisfeature is ignored as do with the meaningcarried by the word. In Cree, vowel length may be the onlyfeature separating twootherwise identical words. In this material, alengihened vowel will be indicatedby a double letter, e.g./aa/. Since tongue positionis an importantfactor in the production of vowelsounds, such terms ashigh, back, or forward will be usedto indicate therelative tongue position used. These, then, are thevowel sounds of Cree: /i/ - similar tothe English /i/, but more forward, and also includingsome sounds similar to the English/e/ or even high/a/. /ii/ - alengthened /1/, which maysound a little like /iy/ tothe English ear. /e/ - similar to theEnglish /e/ butslightly more forward. The English speaker,being familiar with the/ey/ combination (as in cake),is likely to add a/y/ glide to the Cree/e/. /a/ - produced nearlyin the position ofthe English / / as in sun, butoften dropped to include theEnglish /a/ and even/ / sounds. /aa/ - thelengthened form of the/a/ or the / / sound. /o/ and /00/ - Thesesounds tend to overlapsomewhat in Cree, but both areproduced higher than the English /0/, morein the positionof /u/ as in book andwith less lip-rounding than Englishspeakers use for vowelsin the same position. Crees will tend to pronounce English/o/ or./ow/ in this way too, and may often confusethe /o/ and /u/ sounds.

Vowel combinations are very commonin English, and important in forming words. For example, the English vowels /i/, /e/, /a/,/o/ and /u/ often glide intothe semi-vowels /w/ and/y/. Cree speakers oftensubstitute their pure vowel sounds for Englishdiphthongs such as /ey/ or /ow/.

CREE CONSONANT SOUNDS The most important contrastbetween the Cree and English consonants is theEnglish use of voicing to aimost double the number ofpossible consonants. Before listing the Cree consonants,it would be well to consider this feature in somedetail.

Voicing: An important differencebetween English and Cree Consonants When language is considered as asystem of signals organized to convey meaning,it becomes apparent that the signals must.mean.the samething to,both_parties trying to.communicate. For example, suppose_we see a friend nearby and.he.wavesat us. This signal has meaning. Different ways of wavingcould change a simple.greeting to a distress signal: But suppose.our.friendhad chosen to_wave withhis other hand. Would we even notice? It is.untikely. Yet if we encountered.a.culturewhere such a change.inhands wassignificant,.we.would have to spendmuch time and effort before we becameautomatically aware of.the distinction. In English.there are manypairs of sounds.that are produced.almost identically, asfar as thepositionof.the lips and tongue are.concerned. The only disttnguishing feature is.that,.in.each case, onemember_of.the pair of sounds is unvoiced,.theother is Voiced..For.example, the articulation.of.thesound /p/ or /b/ ts_the same. In both cases,.the.flow.of.airis stopped bya...closingof the lips. However,.if.the vocal cords arein motion, the sound is /b/..SImilarily, without any changein position, itis possible to change a/t/ to a /d/, a /e// to a /j/ or a /k/ to a /g/. Itis this process of adding sound by a vibration of the vocal cords that is known as voicing. Speech sounds include both voiced and unvoiced consonants. All vowels are voiced. To demonstrate this feature, pronounce any vowel sound and feel the vibration of the vocal cords byplacing your hand over yoiur throat. Now pronounce the following: /t/, /k/, /p/, /c/, /f/, /s/, noting the absence of voicing. Then note the motion of the vocal cords necessary for /d/, /g/, /b/, /j/, /v/, or /z/. To become aware of how this feature serves to produce contrasting pairs, place your hands over your ears and start to say a word beginning with /p/. Change the sound to /b/. Immediately the voice comes on. Experivent with these additional pairs: t/d, k/g, f/v, s/z c/j. In EnglisK, these changes in sound are significant; they are real signals. There is a difference between a cheer and a jeer, orbetween a pill, and a bill. In Cree you will hear both voiced and unvoicedsounds, but the voicing itself never changes the signal. Itis like the man who may wave either hand, depending on conditions; the wave is a wave no matter which hand he uses. To the Cree ear, /t/ and /d/ are the same sound. He is conditioned to disregard the difference between them, andperhaps does not even hear the difference until trainedto do so. There is often an additional difference betweenthe voiced and unvoiced sounds. There is usually a greater puff of air released in making the unvoicedsounds, especially ininitial position in English words. However, itis not the aspiration, but the voicing thatis the significant signalin English. The following diagram may help to clarifythe difference between the Cree and English use of the four positions in which "stops" are made in bothlanguages.

1 Cree --k--

Eng. k (Voiceless)

b d g (Voiced) -12 -

If you are trying tolearn Cree, you must learn to disregard the differences causedby voicing. (e.g. You w ill not worry if you discoverthat Father LacombePs grammar spells acertain Cree word with a"b", and another source spells itwith "p", orif one person tells youthe word for "where" is taante,and another seems to besaying itis daande.) On the other hand,if you are teachingEnglish to Cree pupils you must teachthem to hear the difference, to respond to it as aseparate signal, and tomake the distinction clear.in their ownpronunciation of English.

List of consonants usedin Cree

Stops: The Cree and Englishproduce essentially the same stops, positionally, butthe voicing distinction isnot u sedin Cree. Post-aspiration (a puff of airafter the sound) occurs much less frequently inCree thanin English, but is non-phonemic in both languages. (i.e. itis never a feature used to separateotherwise identicalutterances) Pre-aspiration (a puff of airbefore the consonant) is important as a contrastivesignalin Cree, but does not form part of the Englishsystem. The Cree stops include: /p/, /t/, /k/, and/n.

Fricatives: /s/ is a common Cree sound,but the pronunclation varies from the English/s/ all the way back to/!/ particularly among WesternCrees. Further East, /g/ is occasionally used as a separatesound. As in thevcase of stops, there are novoiced alternatives(/z/ or /z/). The common English sounds/f/ and /v/ are not used in Cree. Except for the "th"dialect, /0/ and/3/ are not u sed either. /h/ is usedin both Cree and English,but in Cree it acts as a contrastive signalonly when it occursbetween two vowels.

Nasals /m/ and /n/ are common inCree and pronouncedmuch asin English. the /9/is not used as aphoneme in Cree, although sound sometimes is heardin the elisions occuringin rapid speech. /1/ and /r/ are notwidely used in Cree. (II/ is native to Moose Creeonly and /r/ is usedin a Cree dialect spoken around EnglishRiver.) - 13 -

Semi-vowels

is used frequently in Cree; itis produced with lesslip-rounding than is the English equivalent. /y/ is common to both languages. CHAPTER FOUR

TEACHING THE SOUNDS OF ENGLISHTO CREE SPEAKERS

THE CONSONANTS Teaching the Voicing Distinction What is the best way toteach the voicingdistinction important to English speech? Probably if the teacher launches a classroom campaignto correct such errors every time they occur,he will succeed in teachingthe distinction only to himselfand in teaching thepupils only to "clam up" completelyin his presence. Indian children are especiallysensitive to group censure or to being "put on thespot" in public. But if everyone is "on the spot" together,perhaps some progress canbe made in a more pleasant manner. Two important steps inthe teaching of voicingto Cree students are the I) an early anddirect approach in teaching nature and significance ofvoicing in English,

2) the use of carefullyconstructed pronunciation drills, to drill the contrasthome.

A specific explanation ofvoicing Very early in their schoolexperience the children should be given an introductionto this important feature in English. it can be explainedthat we use our mouth and voicebox in makingsounds. The voice coule be described as sounding like alittle motor we turn on in our throats, orperhaps like a bee that canbuzz in there. The child can hear his voice go onby pronouncing certain sounds with his hands overhis ears. Also, he can feel the vibration of the vocalcords by placing hishand over his throat while speaking. He will be amused bymaking his "motor" go on and offat will. In earlier grades, a Cree adultcould explain this inthe native language, emphasizing that althoughin Cree we don't have tothink much about this,in English it can make alot of difference. A few examples wouldillustrate the point.

er

- 15.-

The pronunciationdrill The pronunciationdrillis set up asfollows:

1) Choose the one particularsound distinction you want to teach. Find as many pairs ofwords as possible to illustrate thisdistinction. These should be distinguishable because ofthis one minimal pairs, the feature only. For instance,if you are teaching difference between/p/ and /b/, each pairof words must be those which arekept apart only bythe difference between a /prand a/b/ sound. pairs and 2) For a class drill,choose up to eight arrange them asfollows:

pill bill Paul ball puck buck pig big pack back pole bowl pike bike

Your choice ofwords will depend uponthe grade level Picture cards arebest at first. These of the pupils. above, cards can bearranged.the same way asthe word list large pocket chart. Itis importantthat this using a not a test of be a listening andpronouncila exercise, read all thewords reading skill. Unless the students can it is probablybest to pronouncethem without hesitation, advantage of for them and havethem repeat. This has the providing a correctmodel for them toimitate. columns, 3) First pronouncethe words DOWN the emphasizing the correctpronunciation of thesound in question. difference 4) Next, drill ACROSS,making sure the comes outclearly each time. making 5) Keep drill sessionsshort and lively, the lesson as muchfun as possible. Informal conversation something likethis: games arehelpful. First you can try "Let's see how well youcan listen. I'll tell you somelittle stories. Sometimes I will try to fool youby using a wrongword - a word - 16 -

which makes the story sound silly. So if you hear me use a wrongword put up your hand right away and be ready to tell mewhat

I should have said.

"My mother was sick last week. The nurse came to see her and gave her twobills to take. She Ronnie?"

"You said bills!".

"Oh? Don't you take bills when you'resick?

What should I say then?"

"Pills!"

"What was the word? Tell me again." (Include several pupils at this point. Make sure they do a good job of"teaching" you how to correct your mistake.) do enjoy this kind I have found that the children of fun, do get the point,and can relax, since thelaugh is at the teacher's expenserather than theirs. A guessing game could follow: "I am thinking of something in ourword list (or picture chart). Itis long. Itis made from a tree. What is it?" (pole)

Here the distinct pronunciationbecomes essential so that thepupil can make himselfunderstood. If there is any doubt, have him clarifyhis answer. Asking, "Did you say bowl?", point tothe word or picture. His answer will emphasizethe /p/ sound, and thatis just what you want. Only after this drill and gamesession on /p/ and /b/ could attention be drawn to errorspupils make during the day - and then not as arebuke, but in the same spirit as the game. Perhaps, "Did you saybin?" "Oh! ---- pin. Now'l hear." Drill on initial consonantsshould be followed by drill on the same sounds inmedial or final position.

- 17 -

Other word.pairscontrasting /p/ and/b/: final initial medial

pear/bear ripping/ribbing mop/mob pox/box roping/robing rip/rib push/bush napping/nabbing lope/lobe pound/bound tapping/tabbing lap/lab nap/nab pull/bull staple/stable punch/bunch maple/Mable ape/Abe peach/beach dapple/dabble cap/cab pouncing/bouncing cop/cob path/bath gap/gab pay/bay pus/bus pest/best peak/beak pail/bale push/bush

The other "stops" /t/ and /d/ -- Both/t/ and /d/ arepronounced with /t/ the tip of thetongue against thetooth ridge. is voiced. Both sounds maybe heard is unvoiced; /d/ different forms of in Cree but they arejust regarded as they do not makedifferent words, the same sound-signal: Also, the Cree like they do in/lit/ and /lid/ inEnglish. /t/ is not so stronglyaspirated as itsEnglish counterpart, and may sound morelike a /d/ to theEnglish ear. ii lustration /t/ and /d/ contrastssuitable for chart orcard

tear/dear tune/dune house tent/dent tall house/doll Ten/den cart/card beet/bead seat/seed

Other contrastingpairs:

tide/died time/dime talk/dock tin/din tick/Dick touch/Dutch 4 - 18 -

try/dry Dot/pod town/down lit/lid to/do but/bud bit/bid butting/budding bleat/bleed feet/feed goat/goad let/led

North AmericanEnglish pronunciation ofboth /t/ and /d/ in intervocalicposition is often voiced. For example, except in carefulpronunciation, "bitten" and"bidden" often sound the same, asdo "latter" and"ladder". Accordingly,it would seem bestthat, for teaching the voicing contrastbetween /t/ and /d/,drill examples should be restrictedto words with thissound in initial or finalposition. and /d/: A Spelling testto check ondiscrimination of /

Fillin the missingletters:

in li_ bu_ le_ _P _own _ent _IY fee_ _ime _en ed po_ co_ bea (rhe words are chosenand pronounced by theteacher, in sentence context. Each word is completedby the insertion

of titotr d.) .

/C'/ and /j/ These two sounds areclassified here amongthe stops, although they are oftendescribed more specifically as affricates - soundswhich begin in stopposition and then move into thefricative sound pronounednearest to that That is,/Y/ is sometimes described as/tg/, position. to a soundbeginning in /t/ positionand gliding rapidly th$ /X/ sound. Accordingly, /j/ may bedescribed as /dz/, embodying thevoiced equivalents ofthe same sounds. However, to stressthis feature of/// in teaching Cree children maybe to accentuate aproblem they are their //, in someword positions, likely to have already: /I sounds much like/ts/, e.g. "churts"instoat,of "church It mats" instead of "match". Perhaps this pronunciation is more commonto Western areas,where there is a prevalents/Y confusion. There are at least two approaches to thisproblem: -19 -

Either: 1) Draw attention to theA/as part of and relate the s/s drillsdirectly to drills onts/tY. or. 2) Present the/g/as a sound on its own, and practice itin initial position first.v(it should present little difficulty, as theinitial (,c/in Cree is very similar). Then practice a firlal /c/,striving to produce a similar sound whenthe /6/ isin final position. Follow this with ag/ts drillif needed.

Word list for teaching the(Cf/ in initial position: chicken, chill, cheer, chalk,cheese, choose, chuckle, chest, china, cherry

/Cf/ in final position Have students listen for the samesound at the beginning and at the end of theword church - and at the end of watch, catch,much, touch, itch, which, patch, match, such, 'stitch. Watch me catch the ball. Don't touch the match.

/j/, the voiced equivalentof //

If students have learnedhow voicing helps to contrast between /p/ and /b/, /t/ and/d/, they should have little difficulty in discovering /j/, thevoiced equivalent of /c/. As happens with the otherpairs, both variants occur in Creepdepending on the surroundingsounds. However, for English,theystudent must learn todistinguish clearly between /j/ andici.

Contrasting pairs for/Cf/ and /j/

Chill/Jill batch/badge cheer/jeer etch/edge char/jar search/surge cheep/jeep lunch/lunge chest/jest rich/ridge cherry/Jerry cinch/singe choke/joke -20 -

/c/ vs. /ts/

As was indicatedabove, many Cree speakersof English substitute a /ts/ for/ef/ in some positions. If they learn to pronounce// with the tongue a bitfurther back and pressedagainst the alveolar ridgeand released suddenly - more as astop, they may have lessdifficulty. Also, practice inmaking the meaningdistinctions clear in the following listwill give added emphasis.

each/eats hitch/hits pitch/pits 011101.11pats porch/ports batch/bats beach/beets catch/cats coach/coats hatch/hats pezJch/Pete's match/mats

Review of the /c/ invarious positions, withpractice sentences to test mastery:

choice each kitchen chance reach matches child march pitcher change inch teacher charge beach luncheon it was hard to catchthe cats. Pat's jacket had a patch on it. We found some beetslying on the beach. Each of these animalseats grass.

/j/ vs. /dz/ words for It is not so easy tofind contrasting these two sounds, butthe final /j/ soundis indeed common, andit does comenaturally for the Creestudent to pronounce it more as/dz/. Review the /j/ soundin initial position,giving attention to articulationand voicing: Jill jump Jack juiceJune July Johnny Jim Jane jolly joke

Then give carefulattention -to the finalsound in such words as:bridge, fudgeMarge edge page age cageridge badge

- 21- help those who The followingcontrast drill may position: have difficultyin pronouncing a/j/ in final /dz/ /J/

age aids siege seeds wedge weds hedge heads wage wades forge fords budge buds sledge sleds rage raids

/k/ and /g/ by Both /k/ and/g/ are formed bystopping the air of the tongueagainst the velum. pressing the back for /k/ is unvoiced;/g/ is voiced. The procedure contrast is the same asfor the other teaching the g/k pairs will unvoiced pairs. The followingcontrasting word provide the necessarydrili material.

Words suitable forcard or chartillustration: tag/tack curl/girl coat/goat back/bag pick/pig dock/dog buck/bug

Other g/k contrasts: cape/gape cave/gave could/good came/game tacking/tagging lacking/lagging lack/lag crow/grow rack/rag peck/peg kill/gill

THE FRICATIVESOUNDS

/f/ and /v/ /v/ are You will notefrom the chartthat /f/ and They are also apair distinguishable foreign to Cree. Teaching because one soundis voiced and oneis not. distinction willinvolve the sameapproach the voicing be some other suchpairs. However, there will as for will confusethem students encounteringthese sounds who

- 22 - with the "stops"made in nearsAt position --/p/ and /b/. e.g. Josephbecomes Chosep./&psep/,, Vaseline becomes Baseline/baes+liyn/. of It is important then forstudents to be aware the nature of thesound they are making. In the production of "stops" the flowof air is stoppedmomentarily - in the case of/p/ and /b/ this stopis made by closing the lips. The fricatives, onthe other hand, havethis feature each sound is roduced as air isforced through in common: familiar the a controlledopening. Perhaps where cars are idea of a "leaky tire"might prove usefulin explaining the production of someof these sounds. To make an /f/ sound, for instance,the children can beshown how to just bite their lower lips,and then relax the pressure enough to let air escape,leaky tire fashion. Or perhaps, just "bite your lipand blow". Keeping this sustained at the sound itis easy to turnthe voice on and off signal of the teacher. Each time the voice goeson, /v/ is produced. Large letter cardsmake good signals. Perhaps in the cornerof the /v/ card onecould draw a bee or a motor-car -- or arepresentation of whatever illustration was used toteach the childrenwhat it means to"turn on theirvoices."

Word list forcontrastin /f/ and /v/: feel/veal fain/vain few/view fine/vine fail/veil fairy/very fan/van fat/vat folly/volley fast/vast fault/vault fetch/vetch fine/vine foul/vowel infested/invested refuse/reviews wafer/waver These sounds are not sooften contrastedin final position, although there areat least some commonpairs, proof and leave. prove, safeand save, half andhave, leaf and The Tmportance ofusing the above pairsin a drill is not only to teachstudents to make thoseparticular words distinct, butto make them awareof the distinction between the two sounds sothat they can applysuch knowledge in the reading andspelling of unfamiliarwords. above, /f/ and/v/ are commonlyconfused As mentioned would be with the stops/p/ and /b/. Such a confusion difficult to removein cases wherepupils are even more often not hard of hearing. Since hearing defects are isolated communities,it would seemthat attended to in in Northern children having thisproblem may be more common -41ft 0 . -44k. <1 H - 23 - schools. For instance, one northernpupil who had suffered repeated earinfections had extreme difficulty in distinguishing fastfrom past. Since her classmates with more normal hearingability also made similar substitutions it seems safeto assume that thehearing difficulty had accentuated herdifficulty with the sound /f/,(a foreign one to Cree.) Some pronunciationpractice to make sure thatthe /f/ sound has become familiar andeasily distinguished from other sounds: This is my half; that is yourhalf. He fell off the roof. Pete got his feet wet. He was running fast whenhe passed me. My father has a bad cough. Puff has fluffy fur. Fifty-five fine furs fell onthe floor.

Also, counting by fivesprovides good practice with/f/ and /v/.

/p/ and /f/ contrasts:

initial medial final

put/foot supper/suffer reap/reef past/fast puppy/puffy leap/leaf pull/full copy/coffee lope/loaf pill/fill dipper/differ lap/laugh Paul/fall snipper/sniffer wipe/wife pace/face loping/loafing whip/whiff pine/fine spear/sphere cop/cough pole/foal lapping/laughing pup/puff pond/fond leaping/leafing gap/gaff pair/fair gulp/gulf Puff is not a pup. His wife told him towipe the dishes.

I don't have my supper. I will suffer if We laughed whenthe puppy lapped up allthe milk. '4

(Other such sentencescould be constructedto give practice in usingcontrasting words inordinary conversation. patterns be used It is importantthat normal intonation in the sentencepractice - not anexaggerated pronunciation of the words incontrast.)

/b/ and /v/ contrasts: note that As for the p/fcontrast, itis important to made by pressingthe lips together,the the first sound is teeth. second by pressingthe lower lip upagainst the top The use of a smallmirror may help tomake this distinction "biting position" clear. The children canwatch for this when pronouncingwords containing a/v/. bat/vat bane/vane best/vest bail/veil bolt/volt bile/vile bet/vet berry/very buy/vie dub/dove robe/rove rebel/revel banish/vanish boat/vote bent/vent sentences containing commonuses ofthe Practice words and true /v/ is /v/ sound, listeningcarefully to see that a used, not a /b/ or/f/. It's very heavy. visit. I came to Seven brave men arein the cave. love to hear hervoice. I He went to thevillage to buy someVaseline. Come and playvolley ball with us. sentence patterns,list a number of Using the following each suitable endingsand proceed roundthe class quickly, the sentence with asuitable ending. member completing /v/ sound. In rapid speechit will be harderto keep a clear I've been visiting

I have five heavy

I have a

The two soundsof th represent twocontrasting sounds in The th pair most forms of English, /0/ and/1F/, which are foreign to

-25 - to Frenchas.well. Since Cree andincidentally, foreign influenced by French,Cree, and an many Creechildren are with Frenchand Creecharacteristics, it English dialect cause agreat deal of is not surprisingthat these sounds difficulty. substitute forboth Non-Englishspeakers.commonly positionally. Thus instead of sounds thenearest "stop" /9/ is replaced 9/4rpair, they uset/d. The voiceless the by /d/: e.g."Tank by /t, and thevoiced /$ /is replaced you fordat." the sounds The importanithing to stressin teaching letters th is thatto pronouncethem represented by the The sound is put his tonguebetween his teeth. one must through the narrowspace made by the airbeing pushed out that the studentbe told,"Put between. Prator suggests teeth andblow." If they add yourtongue between your voice to thissound, the/e/ is produced. Have thempractice the /9/ 9 9 9 0 9 9 theft, think, thistle, thaw, thank, month, method, throw, third, truth, thirty, arithmetic, thick and thin, death, Ruth, thorn, thought, mouth, cloth, teeth, Arthur, Ethel, moth, .:ooth /t/, noting thatit is not a Review theproduction of of blowing sound,but a "stop"in the flnw friction or for the twosounds air. Contrast thetongue potition (use diagram). first down Practice thefollowing wordpairs, drilling columns, then across.

thick tick fate faith sheet sheath theme team tread thread nothing nutting thanks tanks bat bath

- 26 -

through true three tree

If the students have becomefamiliar with voicing distinctions, it will not bedifficult for them to voice the /9/ sound, to produce/ I. Practice the two sounds, turning thevoice on and off: 96919 9 9 9 Have the students listen for thevoiced sound in the following, and then pronouncecarefully after the teacher, noting whether the/a/ is at the beginning, end, or middle of the word. than these this the though thus soothe breathe leather bathing rather my other brother father and mother of the weather get them together either this or that

The main problem with the/A/ and /k1r/ sounds will be to distinguish them from thet/d pair, rather than to tell them one from another. The following drill contrasts /*/ and /d/:

though doe loathe load they day writhe ride then den tithe tide those doze worthy wordy there dare other udder

Itis common for some Europeanspeakers to substitute speakers, s/z for 9/4. . Itis not common, though, for Cree but if some do have thisdifficulty a similar dri!I can be constructed, using pairslike clothe/close, or for the other two sounds, mouth/mouse orthank/sank. In contrast to the way we usesuch pairs as t/d orf/v, itis seldom that the voicingdifference between /9/ and/15/is used as theonly signal to differentiate between two meanings. However, there are a few such pairs, e.g. mouth (noun)and mouth (verb), or ILL and thigh, thisf777is'll,ether777-Ter, etc. - 27 -

However, at least one popular languageworkbook requires students to sort words as towhether they contain the "hard" or "soft" th, i.e. the voiced sound /// and the voiceless'57. For such practice, the teacher, or a student,could dictate several words such as bath, then, this,that, thanks, and the others indicate by some signalwhether the voiced or unvoiced sound was used. Or,if they read, the pupils could say the words quietly tothemselves and mark them as voiced or unvoiced. Unlike the other similar contrasting pairs, the /0/ and/.x/ sounds are indistinguishable in English spelling. Even after individuals have becomefluent in English, many slip into the oldt/d pattern for th sounds in rapid speech, especiallywhen the o/ sounds occur in unstressedsyllables. Once word drills have fixed these two sounds in mind,making the distinction clear, practice must beextended to conversational sentences pronounced asin normal rapid speech.

For example:

I'm in the I'm looking for the

I think that

I think I'll This is a You said that First you and then you The old children's game, "Dothis, do that" may also provide some good practice.

Teaching the English /s/ and/Y/: Cree children will be familiarwith the /s/ sound, but the Cree /s/ varies IQ"position producing sounds all the way from /s/ to /s/. Eastern Cree does make use of /g/ as aseparate sound, but furtherwest the distinction becomes blurred orlost entirely. (You will hear in some communitiesthat the men are trucking loads of "savings". Sounds like a modern Aladdin story, doesn'tit!) In the production of/s/, the tip of the tongue may touch the lowerteeth and the blade of thetongue be near the tooth ridge,allowing the air to escape - -28 - over the frontsurface of the tongue, orthe tip of the tongue may contact thetooth ridge leaving a slight opening for the airto escape. In the production ofA/, the middle of the tongue is raised towardthe hard palate, with sides touching the upper teeth. Air excapes over the broad surface of the tongue. The lips are spread wider also, as this broaderstream of air escapes. Explaining how the sound ismade may help; it may not. It would seem that thefeature worth stressing is the position ofthe tongue and the way the lips tend to spread, andprotrude during pronunciation of the /s/. The diagram will show this change in tongue position,and the children should experiment with the twosounds until they can feel this change in tongueposition. However,if the explanation becomes too confusing,it may be best to drop it and concentrate onmimicry. Contrast Drill for /s/and //:

see she seat sheet save shave sigh shy Sue shoe said shed sell shell

Pronounce the words downthe columns first, until correct pronunciationis fixed for eachcolumn. Then drill across, sothat distinctions areclearly made. Develop conversation gamessuch as the following:

Each student asks in turn,"What did I save?" Another, or the teacher,will answer, "You saved your money." If the child has usedthe /7 sound for /s/, the answer is "You shaved yourface." This can give valuable practice to the onewho asks the question and to the one who answers.

Listening forg/: What would you say to yourbrothers and sisters if the baby in yourhouse had just fallenasleep and you did notwant them to wake him? ----"Sh!" I am going to say some wordsfor you. Some have a "sh" in put them. Some do not. If you hear the "sh" sound, - 29 - your fingerbefore your mouth and say"Sh!" (List would include words with/s/ and words with /s/%)

Other word contrastsfor /s/ and /s/:

sin/shin sort/short seep/sheep so/show sign/shine mass/mash plus/plush muss/mush lass/lash sealed/shield But even if you are sosuccessful that the pupils are proudlyreciting "She sells seashe,lls by the seashore," you are stillnot finished with thes/s problem. Trust English,if you add voicing youhave two new sounds! if voicing drills havebecome familiarl, the/s/ to /z/ switch will be readilygrasped. The /s/ to /z/ maybe hand at helping a little harder. Then you can try your them to distinguishbetween all four sounds. Don't overdo it, of course. Much of this can betaught as it coTes up in regularword presentations. Admittedly, the /z/ is not used veryoften in English, atleast not in direct contrastwith Af/. But you will understand when the students"mezzer tings with aruler" or read about "siningtrezzers." /s/ and /z/ contrAct!

seal/zeal sing/zing sip/zip see/zee said/zed lace/iays mace/maize face/phase

The following pairs mayalso be useful, thoughit must be noted thatvoicing the final consonantusually lengthens the syllabicnucleus, considerably,whether vowel or diphthong,and for Canadian Englishthe /ay/ diphthong becomes more an/ay/ if the final soundis an unvoiced one:

e.g. ice/eyes - /ays/ vs. /ayz/ dice/dies rice/rise lice/lies spice/spies price/prize

/s/ and /z/ as a signof the plural orpossessive: Just as the -ed iseither voiced or unvoiced depending on itsenvironment, so the final IL may represent either a/s/ or a /z/, depending onthe preceding sound. Actually, this is not ascomplicated as it sounds. Since we find it mostdifficult to pronounce avoiced and anunvoiced sound together, we usuallyautomatically make theadjustment.

- 30 -

A finals or rsafter a voiced soundis also voiced, becoming/z7

sees goes bows dogs fails towns Ronts Joets Bobts

A finals after anunvoiced sound remains voiceless also:

kicks wraps clocks laughs Dick's Kate's paints An exception to the abovepattern occurs when the -s or Is folj,ows another sibilantlike itself: /s/, /t/, /z/, /z/ or x /ks/. Just as is the case when-ed follows at or d,a separatesyllable is used, in this case, /.1.z/.

faces dishes fusses boxes lasses buzzes

The /4-z/ syllable isalso used qen thevs follows a ch or i, sounds whichendin a /s/ or /z/.

ages pages watches patches Whether or not thispattern is taught specifically will depend on thelearning level of the students,but in any case it would seemwise to include lists of these plurals and possessivesin practice sessions on /s/ and /z/. Also included should bethe common small words ending in s. There is no particularlogic to these spellings;they just have to bememorized.

/s/ finals /z/ finals

this is thus as us has yes was his

Teaching /z/ and/Y/: As is the case for someother important contrasts, However, itis difficult to findminimal pairs of words. if the ivpils practicethe two sounds in contrast -- back /z/ /z/ /z/ /i/ noting how the tongue moves Common ronguepos;tionscor /1/and/r/:

13rea e s coe s

over s icle5of fon3 ue)

(tr of +09vedoes not

foucti rinyt1)1.9 sickS

Or 116lbw dive 6ack alainstfke LA par+ of -f-6 footh rldcyc) -31 - contrasts, they will be prepared as for the/s/ and ,t/sf/ to listen for the/z/ in the following, andcorrect their own pronunciationshould it stray to /z/.

persuasion illusion camouflage rouge measure division rouge measure treasure usual barrage casual division pleasure Asia collision precision corsage mirage visual

-the glottal fricative No particular positionof tongue or lips is necessary for theproduction of /h/; it is simply a rush of air, a breathingsound. Itis voiceless, and what sound there is,is produced by thefriction of the air as it passesthrough the throat. /h/ should provide little difficultyto the Cree speaker asit is common in his owntongue. However, heis not used to using it as acontrastive signalin initial position. (See page 37)

/I/ and /r/ /1/ and /r/ are bothvoiced, continuant sounds. Since these sounds areboth foreign to mostCree dialects, one might expectthat they would cause some difficulty. However, both are very commonin proper names used bythe Indian people. French names abound in rts and Its Ladouceur, L'Hirondelle,Desjarlais, Durocher, Delorme. Christian names of bothEnglish and French derivationprovide most classroomswith plenty of familiarexamples of these sounds -Ronnie, Richard, Ruth, Laurie,Louis, Alex, etc.

The production of /1/

This soundis made by lettingthe breath escape over one orboth sides of thetongue. Normally the tip of the tongue restsagainst the tooth ridge, and the sides of thetongue do not touchanything. The characteristic soundof /1/ comes, though,from the movement of thetongue to or from thisposition. Pronounce the followingslowly and carefullynoting the movement from/1/ position to thenext sound:

love lake like lone line leaf Lou

Pronounce the following,noting the movementtoward -32 -

/I/ position:

call doll will wool fail tell pole fool

The production of/r/

The characteristicsound of /r/ also comes from the movement to or fromthe point of articulation. For /r/ itis the tip of the tonguethat does not touch anything, andthe sides move along againstthe back part of the toothridge and the back teeth. The essential featureof /r/ is a motiontowards the back of the mouth. Whatever movement it may endwith, it always begins withthis backward motion. The tongue tip curls back alittle and the edges of the tongue slide back asalong two rails. Since this characteristicbackward movement of /r/ greatly affectsthe sound of a precedingvowel, it may be best toteach the vowel -r combinations separately, treating/r/ as a semi-vowelin these cases. i.e. /o/ plus /r/ -/or/: for, door, floor, more shore, tore, boar /a/ plus /r/ - /ar/: car, far, mar,tar, jar, star /4./ plus /r/ - /4r/: farmer, fir, fur, church, bird, tern (pupils willlearn to recognize this common sound in its three standard spellings.) Other vowels followed by/r/ -- air, poor, and their rhyming words.

Initial /r/ Here the retroflex occursquickly, just before the tongue moves tothe following vowelposition. If the vowel isa back vowel asin words like room or roll,the tongue just movesright on back into position. If the vowelis a front one such as/iy/ asin reel or reef,the backward motion isimmediately interrupted as the tongueshoots forward toward the /y/ position. Probably,if enough commonwords are used in introducing /r/, therewill be little difficulty,and detailed explanationswould be unnecessary. But if the \Iasal Consonanfs Mao %P. fin/as 11A04000in moon /0/a.s tn si rja in how sounds aremade, pupils havebecome interested time spent onanalysis may enrichtheir a little to remember experience withthe /r/ soundand help them it - for spellingand reading purposes.

The Nasals -/m/, /n/, and / of air from For each ofthese sounds the escape point, and theair the mouth isblocked off at some through the nose,hence the termnasal. Both escapes system, /m/ and /n/ aresounds very commonin the Cree In thepronunciation and should causelittle difficulty. brought togetherand of the /m/sound the lips are through the nasalpassage. For /n/ the sound flows the tip the mouth passageis blocked offby pressing against the toothridge. These may of the tongue sounds", and well be described asthe "humming become familiarwith them andtheir students could through on/n/ production byactually humming a song or /m/. / With the familiar/m/ and /n/ as abackground, to present/r3 / as the thirdnasal it should be easy closing off the or hummingsound. / / is made by raising the backof the tongueto air stream by back part of+he pressagainst thevelum, or upper the same position asfor /k/ or/g/, mouth -- much the sound the nasal passageis opened and except that the nose rather is a continual oneflowing through is a little moredifficult to than the mouth. It to be lots hum using the/I) / sound,but should prove of fun forthe class, Though /0/ isnot a Creephoneme it is sometimes heard as avariation of /n/in initial common tonormal position, especiallyin the elisions Perhaps somecontrasts withother rapid speech. will help sounds producedin the sametongue position quality of /AI: to emphasizethe unique Pronounce columnsdown and then across

/k/ /r1 / tuck tongue kick kina thick thing rick ring brick bring /k/ /v) stick sting stuck stung luck lung

tug tongue rig ring bag bang rag rang tag tang lug lung rug rung realize that he is Itis importantthat the student not trying to make avoicing distinctionin these drills (both sounds arsvoiced); he is ratherdistinguishing between the velarstop, releasedthrough the mouth, through the nose. and the velarnasal sound,'released is a Another difference,of course, is that/r) / continuant sound and canbe p-onounced inisolation - or prolonged,while /k/ or /g/cannot be prolonged, but occur momentarilyonly. Other words forpractising the final/0 /: bring King sing thing ring fling wing strong bang sting rang song

/...y/ and /w/ Both these sounds arefamiliar to Creespeakers. as semi-vowels,they have been Since they often occur (See pages 41,54) introduced with thevowels in this booklet.

A Familiar Soundin an UnfamiliarEnvironment We are sittingin our desks. The teacherwalks "Our to the front ofthe room,smiles, and begins, pger." Almost new wordsfor today arempeed, ktain, and impossible, aren'tthey! Yet the initialsound cluster ineach word is one - 35 - familiar to English. We have no problem with camp, act or sing. Place these final soundclusters in initial position,however, and theyimmediately become foreign. But,if the teacherwill only let us put avowel soundin front of eachof those awkward words, we can make them intoperfectly respectableEnglish: impede, octane, and singer. The familiar sounds inquestion are now infamiliar territory, and cause usno discomfort whatever. There are, likewise, somesounds in Cree which, although familiar in oneposition, are foreign in another. The following chartis arranged to show where each soundusually occurs in Cree. Final Initial Position Between Vowels Position a. Consonant Sounds p, t, c, k, p, t,c, k p,t, , k, m, n m, n m, n (0)-in contracted forms (0) s,s (Eastern dialect) s,a) s,a) (I) (1) 1 (Moose Cree)

b. Consonant Clusters

sk,(gk), sei sk skw, (kw) sp, st - kw kw pw pw sw sw,aw) tw tw

nt, nk, tie% nt mp mp c. Pre-asairates ht, h, hk, hn ht, P1, hk, hp hl, hp, hkw, hw The blanks in the preceding chart are of most interest to us as we teach EnglIsh words toCree-oriented pupils. What sounds in English wfil be out of place, and thus foreign?

1. Final /9 /

2. Initial or final /h/ Finai /h/ sounds are unimportant in English too. Not so, however, with the Initial /h/ (e.g. pairs such as ate, hate; as, has; owl, howl.) You will sometimes hear Cree speakers adding or subtracting an initial /h/. This is permissible in their own language. For instance, the Cree name for an owl is oho, and may be pronounced hoho with no change in meaning.

3. Initial /sk/ Just as we have great difficulty pronouncing mpee, or nqer without inserting a vowel soundbefore the mp/ or the /, /, Crees tend to precede the /sk/ by a vowel sound such as /i/ (e.g.pronouncing school as ischool). Even the word squaw is our corruption of the Cree word iiskwew (woman). Granted, the initial /1/ is not stressed, but itis there.

4. Initial or final /sp/ or /st/ here ii it is my experience that the final position is the one causing the most difficulty. 'the distinction is lost between such words as pass and past. Pupils often need to be taught to hear and pronouncethat final /t/. The final /sp/ is not so common in English, but does occur in such words as wasp,whisp, and grasp.

5. Neither Cree nor English uses in finalposition a cluster ending in /w/

6. English does not make use of pre-aspiration as a meaning signal. Itis Important in Cree, however, and those of us who are tryingto learn Cree soon need to train ourselvesto hear and pronounce that puff of airbefore a consonant.

7. /nt/, /nk/, /nel/ and /mp/ These clusters, so common in English whenpreceded by a vowel, occur in Cree only ininitial or medial position Especially when these sounds occur infinal -37 -

position in English,will care be needed to see that Cree studentshear and pronounce thefinal consonant. Perhaps you havereceived notes fromparents similar to this: "I am sorry John can cometo school today. He is sick." In pronouncing our English can't, welengthen the vowel. To the Cree ear, itis likely thisfactor, not the final /t/, that makes candistinguishable from can't. In speech, too,they may oftendisregard this final /t/. Since wordsending in a"consonant-t" combination areespecially common inEnglish, this particularcombination will have tohe taught carefully. Many verbs form theirpast tense this way,though spelling doesnot indicate this. e.g. washed -/wagt/ splashed -/splagt/ fished -/figt/

Drill Su estions Initial h as a contrastivesound:

ate hate arm harm as has at hat owl howl old hold and hand am ham all hall ill hill it hit

He has as manyhats as Harry has. This is his This is her and other sentencesusing his, her and him in normalconversational sequence.

The Cree-ism, "John,his hat" or "Johnlis hat" is a direct translationof the Creepossessive form. 1.111

- 38 -

However, since Cree speakerstend to .ignore or drop the initial /h/ in his and sinceacceptable English demands "Is" or "est" it takes awhile before they realize that the English form is not"John his hat" or "The horse histail", as it would be in Cree. Drills for troublesome final clusters:

/s/ /st/

pass passed loss lost lass last mass mast Tess test Bess best boss bossed confess confessed dress dressed kiss kissed miss missed fuss fussed bus bussed face faced lace laced trace traced ice iced price priced

Sentence patterns; (I) passed by the (store) (I) passed (my) test. (I) missed the bus. He had the most (I) lost my came in last. The is best of all. - 39 - n/nt

can can't plan plant Ann aunt pan pant ten tent pain paint Patterns to check on the final /nt/:

(I) spent when I went to the store.

Can you ( )?

No,(I) can't or (Yes, I can). (I) won't Did (you) paint it (red)?

s/st IBM

wash washed splash splashed cash cashed dish dished wish wished dash dashed fish fished push pushed rush rushed Sentence patterns for the final/gt/:

Who pushed you? pushed me. He splashed the water when hewashed his hands. Where did (you) fish? (I) fished in (Trout Lake). (My mother) washed (the clothes). Sequence: "What do you wish?"

11 "I wish I could "What did wish?" "He wished he could ENGLISHVOWELS

CRE E VOWELS - 40 -

VOWELS - CREE AND ENGLISH

In the following material, adoubled letter indicates a lengthened vowel. Variation in vowellength is a feature just as impor/tant Cree as,stress isin English. e.g. permit/ permit or object/object. In Cree (and in many other languages) a "long" vowel means quiteliterally a vowel held for a somewhat longer durationthan is a "short" one. (This lengthened vowel sound is notto be confused with what English speakerscall the "long vowel"; that term is often used by teachersof primary phonics to refer to a syllablenucleus which may be written with a vowel symbol but isactually a diphthong. e.g. hate - /heyt/ like - /layk/ use - /yuwz/ Actually lengthened vowel soundsdo occur in English as well as Cree, especially before avoiced consonant. e.g. Compare the vowellength in neat and need, or inriaand rib. This variation in English is not important to the meaning ofthe word and usually passes unnoticed bythe English speaker. However, in Cree, such a lengthening of thevowel sound would be important to the meaning intended. The most important factor in thepronunciation of vowels is the position ofthe highest part of the tongue. It can be toward the front ofthe mouth or further back. It may also be high in themouth, or relatively low. The chart opposite shows thetongue position for the vowels of Creeand English. En.lis Teachin SuII estions Based on a Com arison of and Cree Vowels

English /i/ and /iy/ vs. Cree /i/ and /ii/ The Cree /i/ is similar to theEnglish, except that itis usually produced alittle lower and further back in the mouth. Often in unstressed positionsit seems to disappearaltogether in normal speech, especially in ni- theprefix indicating first person in verbs andin possessive forms, e.g.ninisitohten (I understand it)is usually pronounced morelike n'sytohten. However the short /1/ in Creecontrasts with the lengthend /ii/,which is produced much higher and more forwardin the mouth and is similar to our /iy/ as in eat. The Cree sound does notusually - 41 - move into the /y/glide, though, as does English - except when it is followed immediatelyby a /y/ sound, asin Laya, (you). To develop asgood English pronunciation of /iy/,it may be helpful to teach and contrast the sounds /i/ and/iy/.

Begin with a common example,such as the word bit. Have the pupils pronounce after you:

bit bit bit bit bi bi bi i thus gradually isolating the vowelsound. This is strictly an exercise in listeningand accurate reproduction of the sound; use no written wordsat this stage. Next have the children pronounceafter you other words containing the vowel /1/,listening for this sound in each word. bit fix pin if it ink lift kiss ring trip win hill Follow by repeating phrasesconfining this sound: this city which gift six inches swift kick a quick finish to visit my sister

Begin by presenting the /y/ sound: pronounce: yank young yellow yes yet yoke yell yawn Have the students noticethe position of their tongues as each word begins (/y/ isalways produced by a movement away from ortoward the high front sector of the mouth.) Now isolate the /iy/ sound anddraw attention to the similar movementat:the end of this sound. Have the students pronounce after you: beet beet beet beet bee bee bee ee ee ee ee Then the two sounds asfollows: bit beet bit beet bit beet bi bee bi bee

1 i ee bi bee I ee I ee ee dip deep dip deep dip deep di dee di dee

i I ee 1 ee di dee di dee i ee ee fact (N.B. It is important hereto be aware of the that when /iy/ precedes avoiced consonant it is lengthened. i.e. the /,y/ in bead islonger than the /iy/ in beat. Since English does not usethis variation in length todistinguish between two different meanings, theteacher will considerthese vowel sounds identical and they are, for our purposes. However, since vowellength is a significant feature inCree, it may be a goodidea to include amongthe examples for/iy/ words with both voiced andunvoiced finals.) cheat seeds peach heat sneeze meat treat lead key me see bee He's neat. Eat some meat. Feed the bees. That's cheap. Let me see the key.

More /1/ vs. /i/ contrasts:

sit/seat fit/feet sill/seal dip/deep hip/heap still/steal rip/reap his/he's mitt/meat fist/feast pill/peal bin/bean hit/heat slip/sleep rid/read

Liy/ in initial medial and finalacsitions.:

Beginning End Middle mean equal three green even knee read easy agree week eastern sea least evil tea

a deepsleep a freepeople reaching either tree three Cree preachers keeping these keys reason to eat the least These teacherscan't speak Cree. We drank teaunder the trees. Sleep, sleep, sleep - what a sleepyhead! Please teach me. La/ eat feel leave 43

/1/ /1y/

sin seen wick week rich reach itch each

/iy/ is produced with moremuscular effort and tenseness. Place the fingers underthe fleshy part of the chin. Pronounce iy iy iy - note the pressure. Contrast with /i/:

i iy i iy i iy i iy i ly Choose the right word: (pupils identify the wordthat was used) yesterday. ship sheep I saw the ship live leave He willleave hc-e this summer. fill feel Come and feel this cup. slip sleep He doesn't want toslip. Or use two words in onesentence: The shoes fit my feet. He's doing his work. The dog ate his meat,then started chewing on mymitt. Last week we bought a newwick for our lamp.

There are several ways to usethis type of exercise: The teacher can pronouncethe sentence, and the student point tothe word or words asthey are used. Pupils can taketurns.reading the sentences - and pointing out thecontrasting words. If the sentenceslisted are such thateither word would fit, depending onthe context, the teacher could provide asuitable setting, and the students say thesentence that wouldfit. e.g. slip sleep Maybe Johnny will Johnny is your littlebrother. You are riding home in the car. Maybe Johnny will Your little brotheris climbing up onto thehood of the car. Maybe Johnny will - 44 -

The chief value of such exercisesas this t not, of course, to teach the lexical meaning of words. In fact, the students must understand thevocabulary in order to respond intelligently. The value for him is that he is forced topronounce carefully in order to avoid confusion of meaning. He has practiced the sounds in order to imitate well: now he pronounces wellin order to be able to communicate.

/e/ and /ey/

The Cree sound /e/ is produced similarily to the English, but is phaced alittle further forward in the mouth. To the English-trained ear,it may sound like an /ey/. (Try eliminating the /y/ glide from some familiar words involving in /ey/-- pay, take, ache. If you seem to have acquired a Cree accent, you have been pronouncinga sound similar to the Cree /e/). In order that the Cree studentmay properly distinguish between /e/ and /ey/ inhis reading and spelling work, as wellasin his pronunciation of English,it may be well to use some brills which will fix these two sounds as distinct.

/e/- hearing and pronouncing the sound Begin by pronouncing bed bed bed bed bed bed bed Now repeat, with the same vowel sound, but without the final consonant be_ be_ be_ be_ be be_ be_ Now, the vowel sound only

e e e e_ e e _ _ 23 AMINO WWI* Try to encourage a production that isa little more relaxed than the Cree /e/, and this willlikely bring it back enough to approximate the Englishsound. Pronounce the following carefully, drawing attention to the middle sound in each: step ten leg press next length fresh egg end edge sent a red head

several presents her best dress when I left Hearing the contrast between /e/ and /ey/:

Pronounce fell/fail fell/fail fell/fail - 45 -

Isolate and practice the /ey/ sound as infail: It begtn6 like /e/ and glides into /y/ --practice: /ey/ ey ey ey ey ey ey ey ey pay say great ate age rain laid wait paint plays lay them straight a date at eight the baby's name he made me late Pronounce the following pairs of words,listening for the /e/ and the /ey/. The first word has an /e/ vowel init, the second word an /ey/: sell/sale dell/dale shell /shale bet/bait get/gate dead/day debt/date bed/bay head/hay get/gate test/taste rest/raced let/late bled/blade men/main edge/age Sentences for practice of contrasting words: My hand bled where the blade cut it. What do you bet that fox stole thebait? When will youattthe newasttmade? After we raced, we all had a rest.

In bringing out these and the contrastsin the words listed above the student will beforced to stress the /y/ glide, and this is thepractice he needs.

/1/ and /e/ Another contrast that may prove even moredifficult than the above is the one between thevowelin bid and the vowelin bed. These are both short sounds, so the length will not help in keepingthem apart, as it undoubtedly does in the /i/ and/iy/ contrast or the /e/ and /ey/. Both /i/ and /e/ exist phonetically in Cree, but are simply variants of asingle short vowel that covers about the same range asthe two vowels /i/ and /e/ in English. This means that Cree speakers are deeply conditionednot to hear any difference between the two sounds andof course this causes trouble whenthey occur as contrastive signals in English. The following drilllist may help to fix the difference between /i/ and/e/. Drill down each column until the vowel sound is familiar. Then drill across, to -46 - emphasize the contrasts.

bit bet bid bed hid head Dick deck pick peck will well slipped slept did dead

It may help inthis contrast to notethat the tongue and the jaw are alittle higher for/1/ than for /e/. Contrast the soundsand place a fingerunder the chin profitable to feelit drop for the/e/ sound. It may be for the pupils to usethis method withthe above word drill. Sentence contrastswill help to build anassociation between sound contrastsand meaningdifferences: slipped on thefloor. I

I slept on the floor. Did he pick theberries? Did he peck theberries? You dropped aRitaon thefloor. You dropped akenon thefloor.

I broke the lid.

I broke the lead. themselves well All of the aboveexamples would lend used, one person to illustration. If picture cards were could pronounce asentence while (teacher or pupil) choose a another chose theright picture. Or one could picture whila theother read or recitedthe appropriate sentence. exercise would be agood check on A phonic spelling contrast. how well thestudents had graspedthe /1/ and /e/ Fortunately, thesesounds are spelledfairly regularly conducted as in English. The spellingtest could be follows (no timebeing given to pupilpreparation,)

"Here are some wordsthat have an /i/sound and some wordsthat have an/e/ sound. If the sound -47

is /1/ in any ofthese words, theletter you willneed to use is L If the sound is /e/, you willneed to use e." left man tent tint mint sin pen rid lift pit rip vet bled

(A list likethis should includeat least some words that thepupiis do not knowand could not have memorized.)

/M.# / the The /a0/ soundis made anotherstep lower in mouth than in the/el. /1/, /e/ and /a!,/ areall produced well forwardin the mouth. "front vowels", Ar./ the lowest ofall. /1/ is the highest,/e/ next, and the Review the /1/vs. /e/contrast, stressing lowering of the jawfor /e/:

lid lid lid lid lid li led led led led led le le le leeeee lid led lid led lid 11 le li leleie

Now add-a thirdword and noticehow it is different from the firsttwo:

lid led lad Now isolate thevowel sounds:

1 e a

a

e a sound - /V./. Feel how the jawdrops lower yetfor the third the Pronounce thefollowing sets ofthree, noting same feature --

bit bet bat did dead dad hid head had miss mess mass big beg bag pick peck pack slipped slept slapped - 48 - Practice the third column, and other he/ words;

back bank plant rag tag glad pass sad ask act can fast as path pasi family half a glass faster and faster and faster a happy dancer Other drills to teach the contrasts between the front vowels, /iy/, /i/, /ey/, /e/, and Aw./.

/e/ /W.,/

bait bet bat pain pen pan bake beck back laid led lad lace less lass shale shell shall

(2) /iy/ /i/ /e/

feel fill fell bead bid bed "leed hid head least list lest deed did dead dean din den peak pick peck

/al../ and /a/ From the Cree vowel chart we see that there are two important Cree sounds pronounced in the area of the mouth which English speakers use for articulation of the three sounds, /a/, /aei, and /a/, as in cut, cat, and caught. Most analyses of English vowels would add a fourth vowel, AD/ to show a contrast between cot - /kat/ and caught - /kOt/.

I Use only examples that you as teacher pronounce with /aa/. British speakers will use /a/ asin father for some of these words. - 49 -

The following lists illustratethe difference intended here: /a/: not, rot, sot, body, hock,nod /0/: nought, wrought, sought, bawdy,.hawk,gnawed For many Canadian speakers, thedifferences.between these words are eithernon-existent, or so slight that it would hardly seemworthwhile to include this contrast among those to betaught to Cree youngsters. The AD/ words'often have a slightly longer vowelsound -- like /ah/. However for our purposes,it would seem best to consider the two sounds as variations ofthe one phoneme, /a/. As.the Cree long vowel /aa/ movesback in the mouth, it often sounds more like our/a/. This /aa/ contrasts with the short sound,/a/ in Cree, with a pronunciation ranging from our/4/ to /a/ or even lat./. It would seem, then, that somepractice in distinguishing between the English /9/ and/a/ would be helpful. /a/ Students may remember the AP/ sound best as a sound rather like the one you makeif you are suddeniy punched in the stomach. Pronounce it a few times with theclass, then use the following words to emphasizethis suund and teach them to hear itin words:

up us sun cup bun come run young of love money jump punch hum lung hunt rub brush mother tongue ugly duckling young love Pronounce groups of three wordsto the class, and have them identify and pronouncethe one word with an /g/ sound e.g. sing sang sung; soon,sun, sin.

/a/ /a/ is the most open vowel sound,the lips are rounded and relaxed and the jawdrops considerably.

Pronounce fox fox fox fox -ox -ox -ox -ox -o- -o- -o- -o-

drop clock god lot talk saw pots all off cross salt doll top to bottom walk across to the shop a soft cloth along box Contrasts between /a/ and /a /:

pop pup pop pup pop pup -o- au- -o- -u- -o- -u-

Drilllists for pronunciation practice and as a source for words to contrastin sentences and listening games:

AD/ vs. /a/:

hut / hot nut / not

but / bought done / Don

cut / caught run Ron stuck / stock puck / pock

cup / cop cub / cob

shut / shot rub / rob cluck / clock duck / dock luck / lock one wan

/ae/ vs. /19/:

hat / hut back / buck Cat cut sack / suck

bat / but tack / tuck cap cup match / much

/0/ and /u/ - the back vowels The two Cree back vowels are the shortand the lengthened /o/, both of these sounds beingpronounced in a position nearer to the English/u/ as in look. The /u/ sound in English is pronounced as a purevowel, but one very seldom hears a pure/o/. The sound occurs in the colloquial "gonna", and as thefirst sound in diphthongs such as the /ow/ in hope andthe /oy/ in coin. The /u/ sound also occurs often indiphthong- like combination with /w/ - /uw/ as inboot. In summary, it would seemthat the important sounds to teach are /ow/, /u/, and/uw/. Although /ow/ usually has a /w/ glideat the end, it may be simpler just to presentit as the sound we -51- make with our mouthlike an do - and infact, the name of that particularletter. Perhaps the firstpractice words could be thosethat end in an /ow/sound, as pronunciation of thesewill emphasize theglide into a /w/ sound. Then if the same soundis used in middle or initialposition, a moreEnglish sound will be produced. Practice the sound inisolation, noting therounding of the mouth, andhow the tongue movesback. /ow/ /ow/ /ow/ /ow/ mow go no so bow flow doe toe hoe show though know low The /ow/ sound at thebeginning of words:

old open over obey ocean oak only

The /ow/ sound as amiddle sound: cold bone home hope coat goat nose rose pole boat roast toast most

Mixed practice: There's smoke coming outof that hole. Those snowshoe tracks goclose to his home. Tie your pony tothis old post.

Contrast AP/ and /ow/

/ coat fun / phone cut / comb bun / bone come / poke hum / home puck / robe nut / note rub run / roan

/u/ This may be describedto children as thesound they make when they pushsomething, and,incidentally, also the words plilsh andpull. Perhaps it the vowel sound in their would fix this soundin pupils minds if they push the sound In the hands against theirdesk as they make fist practice session.

*push push push "u u u u *(Watch here thatthe final sound is/Y/, not /s/.) - 52 -

Now have them pronounce the following wordsafter you and if they arepronouncing the /u/ sound, push against their desk ( - or,if the desk would move, have tham push some imaginary heavy object.)

look pull could cook book should woman foot good bush wool wolf nook hood Put some sugar in. This is a good book. Look at the woman. She could cook. Contrasting /ow/ and /u/ sounds Younger students would enjoy someaction which would help them to distinguish the two sounds, or indicate that they had recognized therequired sound. Perhaps they could push, or pretend to push,something when saying or hearing the /u/, and form alarge "o" with their fingers, when hearing or sayingthe /ow/ sound. First, simple practice: Coke cook Coke cook /ow/ /u/ Then pronounce each word after theteacher, indicating which vowel sound was used: took broke brook goad good put hope told should showed mold

/uw/ The /uw/ sound is made similarly to/u/, but the lips are extended and rounded in "whistlingposition". The tip of the tongue touches nothing, butthe back of the tongue is raised and touches thevelum. It is a /u/ sound gliding into a /w/ sound. Cree speakers pronouncing English /uw/ may tend toomit this /w/ sound and produce a sound more like theirfamiliar /00/ (lengthened /o/). Again it is in final position that this /w/ sound is most conspicuous; sothe first practice could well be on words thatwill use the /uw/ in final position.

too too too too who who who who coo coo coo true glue shoe blue Sue - 53 -

Then strive for the same /uw/ sound in the following:

tools spool school goose loose choose fruit boot noon spoon a loose tooth through the school whose shoe a blue moon move into the room

/u/ vs. /uw/: AD/ vs. /uw/: /0/ vs. /u/: pull pool spun spoon buck book full fool sun soon luck look wood wooed dumb doom putt put could cooed but boot cud could look Luke skull school rush roost

/uw/ vs./ow/: /a/ /ow/ and/uw/: spook spoke flaw flow flew choose chose Shaw show shoe flew flow saw so Sue shoe show bought boat boot blew blow call coal cool cool coal Paul pole pool rule roll lawn loan loon

/yuw/, Sometimes the /uw/ sound Is preceded by a /y/ sound asin the name for the letter "u": use unite few feud cute, and sometimes in words like tune, dune, new, dew, - the pronunciation varies here with individuals, but the teacher should normally teach the pronunciation he himself uses.

Vowel sounds that lide into a /w/ sound Review the glide into /w/ position that often occurs at the end of the/uw/ and /ow/ sounds. First concentrate on the /w/ sound itself, noting how the lips are rounded in producing this sound, and - 54 - the tongue moves towardthe hjgh back part of the mouth. (Contrast with the /y/ sound,where tongue movement was toward the high front partof the mouth.) Practice a few words with an initial/w/ in order to note how the /w/ is produced. water wait wind well winter wish wall window willow Note that the last twowords end almost as theybegan in /w/ position. Pronounce several /ow/ wordsto review this feature: snow though throw gold road Notice the same feature inthe following /uw/ words: skye do moon blue

There is another vowel soundthat ends in a /w/glide.1 It begins like the/a/ In box and glides into/w/ position. Listen to the vowel sound in -vowel andin sound, in owl and in round. The /aw/ sound can beexplained as the sound weoften say if something hurts,"Ow!" Practice, listening for thissound in: cow how found proud count loud "How now, brown cow?"

Practice the three soundsthat glide into a /w/ sound: /aw/ /uw/ and /ow/ repeat several times untilquality is good.

Then follow each repetitionwith three words that illustrate these sounds -in the same order. cold e.g. /aw/ /uw/ /ow!, bounce boom bolt cow coo down do dough; found food fold; mouse moon most; sound soon so; mouth moose most; how who ho! (Since the /aw/ combinationis a common wordending in Cree, it shauld presentlittle difIficulty; however, careful attention to how it is produced may helpthe student to improve hispronunciation of the other /w/ glides, where he is notused to adding a /w/ sound in his own language.)

Most Canadian speakersalso use a glide from AD/ to/w/ in many words. e.g. house - /haws/, out -/awt/. This could be presented as aseparate sound, or as a variationof the /aw/ phoneme thatcommonly occurs beforevoiceless consonants. - 55 -

Two other di hthon s /o / and /a / Review the final glide to a /y/ positiln as illustrated in the practice sessions for/iy/ and /ey/. Note the ini+ial sounds, (/1/ and/e/) and how they glide into /y/ position. e.g. contrast bit and beat, i and ea - noting how the second sound begins like /i/ and changes to/y/.

Contrast alt and aatp, again noting howthe second sound begins like the first, but adds a/y/ sound.

Introduce the /ay/ sound as in fine. It begins like /a/, but immediately changesto-777.

fine ride shine side time mile shy fry sky die etc.

The easy way to remember the sound isthat itis a word in itself,"I", and also the name of the letter Hill. The following drill will give practicein pronouncing and distinguishing between three soundsending in a /y/ sound - /iy/, /ey/ and /ay/. Drill down these columns before drilling across.

/iv/ /ey/ /ay / deal dale dial feel fail file speed spade spied read raid ride real rale rile bead bayed bide wheel whale while knee nay nigh lead laid lied steal stala style team tame time

/oy/ Another diphthong ending in a/y/ glide is /oy/. It begins like /ow/, but instead of abackward movement of the - 56 - tongue, with lip rounding, towards /w/, there is a movement up and forward -- into /y/ position. Pronounce the following words, noting the /oy/ scund in each:

oil boy joy Roy coin boil loyal destroy Review and contrast of the four vowel sounJs andinn in/y/:

/iY/, /ey/ /aY/_ /oy/

deal dale dial dolly feel fail file foil be bay by boy see say sigh soy teal tale tile toil keen cane king coin lead laid lied loiter reel rail rile Roy

* * * * * * * * * * * BIBLIOGRAPHY

Church House, Ellis, C.D. Spoken Cree, Part 1 (Toronto: 600 Jarvis Street,1962)

Gleason, H.A., Jr. An Introductionto Descriptive Lin uistics (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1955)

Gordon, M.J. andWong, H.H. A Manual forSpeech Improvement (Prentice4lall, Inc.,1958)

Enstish_attch Owen, G.H. An Analysis ofthe Phonemes of with InstructionalMaterials for,Teachino them to non-Enlish S eakin Persons. Univ., 1958) (unpublished DoctoralThesis, Wayne State

Prator, C.H., Jr. Manual of AmericanEnglish Pronunciation, rev. ed. (Holt, Rinehart andWinston, 1956)

En lish to Nava oChildren Wall, C.L. Problems in Teachin (unpublished Doctoralthesis, OklahomaState University, 1961)