The Origins and Development of the English Language Chapter 2: The Sounds of Current English

1. The Origins and Development of the English Language Chapter 2: The Sounds of Current English John Algeo and Thomas Pyles Michael Cheng National Chengchi University

2. Introduction • 26 letters in the English alphabet • More than 26 sounds (phonemes) in the English language • a cat, came, calm, any, call, was • [e]  baker, day, bait, gauge, mesa, they, neighbor, great • Phonetic alphabet solves this problem

3. The Organs of Speech • 1-nasal cavity2-lips3-teeth4-aveolar ridge5-hard palate6-velum (soft palate)7-uvula8-apex (tip) of tongue9-blade (front) of tongue10-dorsum (back) of tongue11-oral cavity12-pharynx13-epiglottis14-larynx15-vocal cords16-trachea17-esophagus

5. Consonants of Current English • Classified according to • place of articulation (where they are made) • manner of articulation (how they are made) • Voicing • (see interactive flash)

7. Consonants of Current English • Historical Stuff: • Similarity between [r] and [l] • Sally/Sarah, Kathleen/Katherine, stella (Latin)/steorra (Old English)

8. Consonants of Current English: Dropping [r] • New England, New York City, coastal South, British RP (received pronunciation) • Dropped when followed by consonant • Kept when followed by a vowel, or the next word begins with a vowel • farm, far distance, the distance is far • faring, there is, far away, very, Carolina • ‘arf, cokernut, Eeyore, Marmee

9. ‘arf, cokernut, Eeyore, Marmee • http://www.superstickershop.com/catalog/images/EeyoreSitting.jpg • https://www.msu.edu/user/steinbr1/pooh/images/disney/eeyore14.gif

10. Consonants of Current English: Dropping [r] • Intrusive r • New England, New York City, RP • Have no fear, the fear of it • Have no idea, the idear of it

11. Vowels of Current English

12. Vowels

14. Vowel Tongue PositionFront Back

15. Dipthongs

16. Variant vowel sounds[a], [æ:], [ɨ], [ө], [ɒ] • [a] ask, half, laugh, path (eastern New Eng) • [æ:] cap[kæp]-cab[kæ:b], bat-bad, lack-lag, can (be able) – can (to tin) • [ɨ] in just, children, would ???? • [ө] short o sound ???? • [ɒ] pot, top, rod, con (slightly rounded in Brit Eng)

17. Variant vowel sounds[ɔ], [ɑ], [ɪ], [ɛ] • [ɔ] and [ɑ] caught-cot, taught-tot, dawn-don, gaud-god, pawed-pod (Pittsburg) • Lack of a contrast in a specific environment • [ɪ] and [ɛ] pin-pen, tin-ten, Jim-gem (before nasal in American south)

18. Tense vowels are longer than lax vowels • Vowel length is hardly ever a distinguishing factor • can-can, halve-have, balm-bomb, vary-very

19. Vowels before [r] • Sound of the vowel changes before [r] • cut-curt • bust-burst • moan-mourn • father-farther • Schwa glide can intrude • near [niər] [n ɪ r] • The time drew néar. The time dréw near.

20. Vowels before [r] • Tenseness is not distinct before [r] • nearer-mirror [i] (tense) or [ɪ] (lax) • Fairy-ferry [e] (tense) or [ɛ] (lax) • Touring-during [u] (tense) or [ʊ] (lax) • Lax vowel more common

21. Historical vowel merging before [r] • hoarse [o] – horse [ɔ] • Mourning – morning • borne – born • four – for • oar – or • foreword – forward

22. Present day merging before [r] • Mississippi Valley and the West • [ɑ], [ɔ], [ɒ] • form – farm • or – are • born – barn • lord – lard

23. Stress • [i] [ɪ] [ə] are often used in unstressed syllables • [i] and [ɪ] vary in final position and before another vowel • lucky, happy, city, seedy • various, curiosity, oriel, carrion

24. Stress • [ɪ] and [ə] vary before a consonant • [ɪ] bucket, college, elude, illumine • [ə] many Americans starting to prefer [ə] in these words • Emerging rule: used [ɪ] before velar consonants and [ə] elsewhere • ignore, comic, hoping • stomach, mysterious

25. Kinds of Sound Change: Assimilation • Assimilation – Sounds become more alike • Pancake • Spaceship • What is your name? • What’s yer name? • Whacher name? (palatalization)

26. Kinds of Sound Change: Dissimilation • Dissimilation – Sounds become less alike • Diphthong [f] replaced by [p] • Chimney [n] replaced by [l] • Complete loss of sound because of proximity to another sounds • caterpillar, Canterbury, reservoir, terrestrial, southerner, barbiturate, governor, surprised

27. Kinds of Sound Change: Elision • Elision – Sounds are omitted • What is your name? (unstressed vowel in is elided) • Aphesis– loss of unstressed initial vowel • about  ‘bout • Apheresis – loss of sound from beginning of word • almost  ‘most

28. Kinds of Sound Change: Elision • Apocope – loss of sound from end of word • child  chile • Syncope – loss of sound from middle of word • family  fam’ly

29. Kinds of Sound Change: Intrusion • Intrusion – Sounds are added • svarabhakti, epenthesis, anaptyxis • Intrusive [ə] often appears between consonants • elm, film • Henry, Dwight, Smyrna • arthritis, athlete

30. Kinds of Sound Change: Intrusion • Consonants can be intrusive • warmth  warmpth (p inserted) • sense  [sɛnts] (t inserted) • length  lenkth (k inserted) • Nasal + voiceless fricative • Nasal + stop (vcls) + voiceless fricative

31. Kinds of Sound Change: Metathesis • Metathesis: Sounds are reordered • Tax and task originally developed from the same word • [r] frequently metathesizes with an unstressed vowel • produce, perform • A sound and syllable boundary can metathesize • another  a whole nother thing

32. Causes of Sound Change • Contact with another language • substratum or superstratum theory • Distributing sounds evenly through phonological space • Ease of articulation (assimilation, etc.) • makes it easier to talk faster • Spelling pronunciations • Hypercorrection

33. Causes of Sound Change • Spelling pronunciations • controller  comptroller • Hypercorrection • talkin’, somethin’  chicking, Virging Islands • Overgeneralization • [ž] azure • rajah, cashmere, kosher

34. The Phoneme • Regarded as the same sound by speakers of a language • Phonemes are made up of allophones – similar sounds that are not distinct • Complementary distribution – allophones only appear in specific environment • after [s] unaspirated [t] occurs but not aspirated [t] • Free variation [t] or [t*] can appear at the end of fight • stone, tone, fight, item, little, matter, bottle, out come

35. Differing Transcriptions

37. Exercises