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

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

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

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

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)

Cords.mov

Consonants of Current English

Historical Stuff:

Similarity between [r] and [l]

Sally/Sarah, Kathleen/Katherine, stella (Latin)/steorra (Old English)

Consonants of Current English: Dropping [r]

New England, New York City, coastal South, British RP (received pronunciation)Dropped when followed by consonantKept 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

‘arf, cokernut, Eeyore, Marmee

http://www.superstickershop.com/catalog/images/EeyoreSitting.jpg

https://www.msu.edu/user/steinbr1/pooh/images/disney/eeyore14.gif

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

Vowels of Current English

Vowels

English Vowels and their IPA symbols

IPA symbol Example word(s) IPA symbol Example word(s)

i beat, meet, machine u boot, crude, new

bit, mitt, live book, could, put

e bait, great, play, they o boat, no, sew

bet, said, head ('open o')

bought, caught, coffee*

('ash')

bat, fad, plaid /a

bottle, father, palm (bought, caught, coffee in many

CA dialects)

('caret')

but, son, none, cup ay/aj bite, buy, fly, might

('schwa')

about, focus, sofa* aw/au about, cow, flour

oy/oj boy, coin, Freud

* Schwa appears only in unstressed syllables.The vowel of words like 'bought', 'coffee' varies among dialects. Northeastern American varieties use this one, called 'open o', while most Californians (esp. Southern Californians), use 'ah' (the next one down in the table).

Rubba (2003). Retrieved from http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/phon/learnipa.html

Vowel Tongue PositionFront Back

Dipthongs

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)

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)

Tense vowels are longer than lax vowels

Vowel length is hardly ever a distinguishing factor

can-can, halve-have, balm-bomb, vary-very

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.

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

Historical vowel merging before [r]

hoarse [o] – horse [ɔ]

Mourning – morning

borne – born

four – for

oar – or

foreword – forward

Present day merging before [r]

Mississippi Valley and the West

[ɑ], [ɔ], [ɒ]

form – farm

or – are

born – barn

lord – lard

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

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

Kinds of Sound Change: Assimilation

Assimilation – Sounds become more alike

Pancake

Spaceship

What is your name?

What’s yer name?

Whacher name? (palatalization)

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

Kinds of Sound Change: Elision

Elision – Sounds are omittedWhat 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

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

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

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

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

Causes of Sound Change

Contact with another language– substratum or superstratum theory

Distributing sounds evenly through phonological spaceEase of articulation (assimilation, etc.)– makes it easier to talk faster

Spelling pronunciationsHypercorrection

Causes of Sound Change

Spelling pronunciations– controller comptroller

Hypercorrection– talkin’, somethin’ chicking, Virging Islands

Overgeneralization– [ž] azure – rajah, cashmere, kosher

The Phoneme

Regarded as the same sound by speakers of a language

Phonemes are made up of allophones – similar sounds that are not distinctComplementary 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

Differing Transcriptions

Exercises