Varieties of English: Sounds and RhythmsBased on: Kachru & Smith, Ch. 5WeinbergerEsling

The Course Project

Have you thought about it yet? Why not?Some possible topics:

Speech acts across cultures (i.e.,, apologies, refusals, correcting, etc.) – Discourse completion tasks

Attitudes toward accents (e.g., foreign or regional) – Matched Guise technique

Other topics of interest?

Mid-Term Exam Questions? What are the three theories that Rickford

describes for the rise of Ebonics? What evidence is provided to support each?

Discuss how Cunha and Hong (see course reader) either assimilated to or resisted those ‘mainstream’ American values.

According to Park, how does Korean English reflect Korean language and culture?

What are some features of Kenyan English, according to Zuengler? What does her examination of Kenyan English as presented in literature tell us about Kenyan society?

In the previous chapter of Kachru & Smith, we read about … The causes of misunderstanding

Intelligibility Comprehensibility Interpretability

Think about instances in which you could not understand someone who spoke with a foreign accent. What made it difficult to understand?

The Emergence of “New Englishes”The emergence of “New Englishes” is the backdrop for linguistic features of non-native varieties of English.Salman Rushdie, “The English language ceased to be the sole possession of the English some time ago.”

Within fifty years time, the only possible concept of ownership regarding English will be a global one.

The emergence of new varieties of English in different territories results in “new Englishes.”

Different dialects of British and American English are examples of this.

The way English is spoken identifies one’s location, region, and other factors.

Does it matter if we hear someone with an accent?

Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) and Ana Kasparian discuss an interesting study from the University of Chicago. The study asked people to rate the believability of a statement when read by people with different accents, and the results are pretty unfortunate for non-native speakers. Cenk also tells us how he avoids trouble in airports despite being "brown skinned."

What causes foreign accents?from: Steven Weinberger,

2006. Gileadites vs. Ephraimites

‘shibboleth’ > ‘sibboleth’ ‘These things’ >

/zeeze singz/ vs. /deeza tingz/ vs. /deese tinks/ We transfer the sounds from our native

language to our second/foreign language Thai

/dam/ ‘dark’, /tam/ ‘pound’, /tham/ ‘do, make’ /mai/ ‘a lot’, /mài/ ‘new’, /mâi/ ‘not’, /mái/ ‘wood’, /mãi/ a

question particle Vietnamese, Thai, Tagalog /ng-/

Can we speak a foreign / second language without an accent?

The ‘critical period’ hypothesis

Exceptions

What are the disadvantages of speaking with a ‘foreign’ accent?

What are the advantages, if any?

Question:

So what is the main reason people say, “Everyone has an accent except me”?

We learn to speak the way people around us speak as we are acquiring language.

So we don’t notice the way we speak until we are confronted with people who speak differently.

When confronted with people who speak differently, we may subconsciously adapt to them by adjusting the way we speak (accommodation).

Or we may deliberately diverge from their way of speaking (divergence).

Accommodation Theory

As interlocutors get familiar with each other’s system of phonological organization, they accommodate their habitual patterns to those of the other speaker(s).

National “Standard” AccentSome countries have a standard accent

• Usually enjoy a higher social prestige• In UK (Received Pronunciation), standard French

in France

Many countries have a broadcast for the media• People feel that national standard is accentless,

but that non-standard speakers do have accents

Use of a particular group’s accent in broadcasting gives a wider reach, but it’s no less an accent than any other

Categorizing Accents

- - We categorize , and stereotype, accents according to what we have heard before

- “Our experience of perceiving the sounds of human speech is very much a question of ‘agreeing’ with others to construct certain categories and then place the sounds we hear into them” - Co-construction of reality (Esling 1998:171)

- Speech of colleagues seem ‘normal’; that of a stranger stands out as different

Abercrombie’s Three Strands of Accent (from Esling 1998: 172-72)

Consonant and vowel sounds – e.g., degree of aspiration of consonants, height of vowels, etc.

Rhythm and intonation – beat (stress) patterns and rises and falls of pitch patterns

Voice quality – more or less permanent features of voice, e.g., nasality, resonance, breathiness, squeaky voice, etc.

Ways in which the English of speakers from outer and expanding circle contexts may differ from that of inner circle speakers:Stress and rhythm

◦ Word stress◦ Sentence stress◦ Etc.

Consonants and vowels◦ Spelling pronunciations◦ Consonant cluster simplification◦ Loss of vowel distinction◦ Etc.

Stress Patterns: Different values attached to the mores

(weight of syllables in terms of duration) Inner circle varieties

RE cog nize

suc CESS

Stressed syllable is of longer duration than unstressed syllables

Outer / expanding circle varieties

re cog NIZESUC cess

Stress goes on ‘heaviest’ syllable, i.e., diphthong [naiz]

Given vs. New information Inner circle varieties

Use stress to mark new information ‘JOHN did it.’

Outer / expanding circle varieties Use other means: ‘It was John who did it.’ ‘John he did it.’ ‘John only did it.’

Spelling Pronunciations

Pronunciation of ‘silent‘ consonants: ‘lamb’ -> /læmb/, ‘comb’ -> /komb/

Pronunciation of all vowels without reduction:

‘biology’ > /ba YAL a gi/ ~ /ba yo LO gy/

Sounds

Pronunciation in Outer and Expanding Circle varieties are different from Inner Circle varieties.◦ Simplification of final consonant clusters◦ ‘Desk’ = / dɛsk/ -> /dɛs/◦ ‘Picked’ = /pɪkt/ -> /pɪk/

Other Possible Pronunciation Differences

Voiceless plosives lose aspiration /p/, /t/, /k/: ‘pay,’ ‘time,’ ‘key’

Fricatives replaced by other sounds /θ/ > /t/: ‘thin’ > /tɪn/; /ð/ > /d/: ‘then’ > /dɛn/

‘Clear’ vs. ‘dark’ /l/ distinction lost ‘little’

/r/ vs. /l/ distinction lost ‘rice’ ~ ‘lice’ > /rais/ ~ /lais/

Initial consonant clusters simplified ‘school’ > /ɛskul/ ~ /səkul/

/ɪ/ ~ /i/ distinction lost‘sick’ ~ ‘seek’ > /sɪk/ ~ /sik/

Sounds and Intelligibility

How important is accent for intelligibility? Sounds, stress, intonation, rhythm can at

times cause a breakdown in intelligibility More likely, attitudes toward particular

accents may become a barrier in communication across varieties.

Accommodation Theory RevisitedThose who interact with other variety users accommodate to the variation they notice in each other’s speech or writing and gradually learn to communicate more effectively.

This experience is shared by a large number of expatriate workers and professionals all across the globe in this era of globalization.

Discussion: Accents in the Popular Media

Watch this trailer for the movie Cars 2.How many accents can you identify?What kind of vehicle is associated with each?What are the traits associated with the

accent exhibited by each vehicle?What does it mean in terms of the perception

of individuals with such accents?YouTube – Cars

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““Th-th-th-that's all folks!" Th-th-th-that's all folks!"