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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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Consonants of Current English

• Historical Stuff
• Similarity between r and l
• Sally/Sarah, Kathleen/Katherine, stella
  (Latin)/steorra (Old English)

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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

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arf, cokernut, Eeyore, Marmee

• http//www.superstickershop.com/catalog/images/Eey
  oreSitting.jpg
• https//www.msu.edu/user/steinbr1/pooh/images/disn
  ey/eeyore14.gif

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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

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Vowels of Current English
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Vowels
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Vowel Tongue PositionFront Back
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Dipthongs
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Variant vowel soundsa, æ, ?, ?, ?

• a ask, half, laugh, path (eastern New Eng)
• æ capkæp-cabkæb, bat-bad, lack-lag, can
  (be able) can (to tin)
• ? in just, children, would ????
• ? short o sound ????
• ? pot, top, rod, con (slightly rounded in Brit
  Eng)

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Variant vowel sounds?, ?, ?, ?

• ? and ? caught-cot, taught-tot, dawn-don,
  gaud-god, pawed-pod (Pittsburg)
• Lack of a contrast in a specific environment
• ? and ? pin-pen, tin-ten, Jim-gem (before
  nasal in American south)

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

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Vowels before r

• Sound of the vowel changes before r
• cut-curt
• bust-burst
• moan-mourn
• father-farther
• Schwa glide can intrude
• near ni?r n ? r
• The time drew néar. The time dréw near.

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Vowels before r

• Tenseness is not distinct before r
• nearer-mirror i (tense) or ? (lax)
• Fairy-ferry e (tense) or ? (lax)
• Touring-during u (tense) or ? (lax)
• Lax vowel more common

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Historical vowel merging before r

• hoarse o horse ?
• Mourning morning
• borne born
• four for
• oar or
• foreword forward

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Present day merging before r

• Mississippi Valley and the West
• ?, ?, ?
• form farm
• or are
• born barn
• lord lard

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Stress

• i ? ? are often used in unstressed
  syllables
• i and ? vary in final position and before
  another vowel
• lucky, happy, city, seedy
• various, curiosity, oriel, carrion

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Stress

• ? and ? vary before a consonant
• ? bucket, college, elude, illumine
• ? many Americans starting to prefer ? in
  these words
• Emerging rule used ? before velar consonants
  and ? elsewhere
• ignore, comic, hoping
• stomach, mysterious

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Kinds of Sound Change Assimilation

• Assimilation Sounds become more alike
• Pancake
• Spaceship
• What is your name?
• Whats yer name?
• Whacher name? (palatalization)

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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

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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

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Kinds of Sound Change Elision

• Apocope loss of sound from end of word
• child ? chile
• Syncope loss of sound from middle of word
• family ? famly

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Kinds of Sound Change Intrusion

• Intrusion Sounds are added
• svarabhakti, epenthesis, anaptyxis
• Intrusive ? often appears between consonants
• elm, film
• Henry, Dwight, Smyrna
• arthritis, athlete

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Kinds of Sound Change Intrusion

• Consonants can be intrusive
• warmth ? warmpth (p inserted)
• sense ? s?nts (t inserted)
• length ? lenkth (k inserted)
• Nasal voiceless fricative
• Nasal stop (vcls) voiceless fricative

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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

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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

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Causes of Sound Change

• Spelling pronunciations
• controller ? comptroller
• Hypercorrection
• talkin, somethin ? chicking, Virging Islands
• Overgeneralization
• ž azure
• rajah, cashmere, kosher

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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

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Differing Transcriptions
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Exercises