Appunti di English 1

1° lezione 14.02.23: English around the world

English is widespread but in the countries where it's an official language, it can be as a majority language (immigration history) or a not majority language (exploitation/ex colonies history). There are so many ways of speaking English, but the model we adopt is the "General British (GB) / Southern Standard British English (SSB)" >>> "standard" accent of England.

In the past, "Received Pronunciation (RP)" was the model: the accent of courts, public schools and used by the BBC. Over the years, the Queen’s accent has changed closer to SSB, to be nearer to younger speakers and lower classes.

Varieties of English

>> The power of the language is in relation to the activity of the people, like politics/university.

• Variation within Britain (Cockney, Northern and Scottish English, etc.)
• Varieties in other countries (Irish, American, Indian English, etc.)
• The use of English as an international language

Variation

Language variation can include:

• Regional variation (DIATOPIC) - It involves differences between one place and another.
• Social variation (DIASTRATIC) - It reflects differences between social groups (with reference to gender, ethnicity-African American English- age, social class, profession). Clique (Cricca = to identify a gender)

We adopt the Southern Standard British English / General British as a model, but remember there are many accents and varieties, each with its distinctive pronunciation and the mother tongue may influence the pronunciation of English as an international language. It’s very important to be tolerant and use strategies to have success in interaction (use of gesture). Jennifer Jenkins says that exposing users to many accents can improve understanding.

Phonetics and phonology

IPA /aɪpi:eɪ/: International Phonetic Alphabet

• Universal → used to represent all sounds for all languages
• Phonetic alphabet → one symbol corresponds to a sound

Basic definitions

• Phonetics: “study of the way humans make, transmit, and receive speech sounds” has multiple branches:
  • Articulatory phonetics: the way the human vocal apparatus moves to produce sounds
  • Acoustic phonetics: physical properties of speech sounds as they travel from mouth to ear
  • Auditory phonetics: perception of speech sounds: how the ear reacts to sound waves
• Phonology: "concerns how sounds function in a systemic way in a particular language", it studies how sounds work in a language and it includes three aspects:
  • Phonemics: analyses contrasts between sounds that have meaning within the language. Ex. hat /hæt/ - cat /kæt/ → changing /h/ with /k/ changes meaning
  • Graphemics: relationship between the phonemes (sounds) of a language and the letters used in its writing system
  • Phonotactics: describes the combinatory possibilities of the sounds Ex /str/ → words starting with the cluster (=combination of sounds)

2° lezione 17.02.23

Phonetics informs:

• Morphology: inflection of plural form > the final sound of the singular form influence in the plural
  • Voiceless consonant (sorda) calls voiceless sound /s/
  • Voiced consonant/vowel (vocale) calls voiced sound /z/
  • To create a clearer distinction: /ɪz/ hats → /s/ boys → /z/ boxes → /ɪz/
• Pragmatics: the intention of the speaker behind the word (I'm hungry = I want to eat) intonation
  • Enthusiasm → yeah, right!!
  • Sarcasm → yeah, right.
• Syntax: thanks to the stress (intensità) that we give to the syllables we can determine words class differences (ex. noun or verb)
  • Word class differences
  • Present (noun) → PREsent
  • Stress in 1° syllable: noun Stress in 2° syllable: verb
  • Present (verb) → preSENT

Phone and phoneme

Phone - An individual sound > the smallest identifiable unit in speech; any possible speech sound in any language ex. /ə/ /m/

Phonemes - The sounds in a specific language > “Distinctive segments that speakers of the language use to distinguish one word from another” ex. hat ≠ cat The difference in meaning between hat and cat is a result of the exchange of the phoneme /h/ for the phoneme /k/ → /h/ and /k/ are phonemes of English. Phonemes have semantic value > they are information-bearing (information about the meaning) ex. æ /hæt/ /kæt/ /bæt/ /ðæt/ The difference between [pʰ] (with aspiration) and [p] (without aspiration) [pʰɪn] and [spɪn] does not change the meaning of words in English → they are different phones but not phonemes in English (differenti pronuncie ma stesse parole)

Phonetic and phonemic transcription

• Phonetic transcription (narrow transcription): indicated all the properties of the articulation of any particular sound through IPA symbols and diacritics → symbols that indicate extra detail
  • Indicated within square brackets [ ] [kʰɹiːm] > cream
  • Can show different level of details:
    • Only major significant features [ˈɹɒkˌklaɪməz] → rock climbers
    • Finer details [ˈɹɒ˞kˌkɫaɪməz]
• Phonemic transcription (broad transcription): shows phoneme contrasts and does not provide the precise realisation of the sound.
  • Eliminates superfluous detail
  • Gives only necessary information
  • But it requires a basic knowledge of the language (è più imprecisa, per la trascrizione mi serve sapere un po' la lingua)
  • Indicated between slashes //
  • Phonemic: /kriːm/ - Phonetic: [kʰɹiːm] > is up to us to know how this r is pronounced
  • So when we see /t/ in broad transcription, it can refer to different pronunciations: in English it might be [tʰ] [t̬] [ɾ] (Cockney British, American) [ɹ] (American) according to where the sound is found and to regional and social variation.

Making sounds

How do we produce sounds?

• Organs of speech - Organs of speech originally evolved for other purposes. Further evolution, sometimes different from the original function:
  • Larynx – originally to keep food from going into the lungs → now it plays a crucial role in speech food normally goes down the oesophagus, a tube that goes into the stomach
• Most sounds are produced by egressive pulmonic airstream:
  • Egressive vs. ingressive - Breathe in and out.
  • Majority of sounds are egressive: Air is pushed outside the lungs, passes through the larynx and vocal tract (mouth and nose).
  • If the configuration of the vocal tract changes, the sound changes too
• Pulmonic vs non-pulmonic - Some sounds do not require an air flux to be produced English people produce one of these sounds, represented graphically as ‘tsk’ to express disapproval (tsktsk → IPA [ǀ ǀ]) However, it is NOT a PHONEME of ENGLISH = it's a communicative sound, paralinguistic phenomenon.

Organs of speech

• Head → articulatory system
• Throat → phonatory system
• Chest → respiratory system

Respiratory system

• Lungs and bronchial tubes

Phonatory system

• Trachea or windpipe
  • At the top of the trachea, there’s the larynx > box made of cartilage, it’s more visible in men (Adam’s Apple).
  • In the larynx, we find two vocal cords (vocal folds) > Vocal cords can vibrate when air passes between them and produce voice.
• Phonation system
  • The gap between the two cords is called the glottis >> suono sordo, corde vocali non vibrano ≠ suono sonoro, corde vocali vibrano
• Vocal cords /ˈvəʊkəl kɔːdz/ - Vocal folds are open when we breathe normally and when we produce voiceless sounds. They are loosely together and vibrate when pronouncing voiced sounds, they're membranes that attach separately to the arytenoid cartilages in back of the larynx and come together in front.
• Positions of vocal folds:
  • Open (abducted) → for normal inhalation/exhalation
  • Closed (adducted) → for phonation
• Voiceless sounds: the vocal folds are held apart as in relaxed breathing (pulmonic airstream escapes freely)
• Voiced sounds: vocal folds vibrate at high speed as the airstream passes through the larynx

Glottal stop

Vocal cords and cartilage pressed together → airstream is momentarily stopped >> The air remains pent up behind the glottis. Ex. the sounds ‘uh-oh’ (made a mistake), before the vowels there is a glottal stop /ˈʔʌʔoʊ/.

The articulatory system

Divided in three resonating cavities:

• Oral cavity > mouth
• Nasal cavity > nose
• Pharyngeal cavity > throat (pharynx)

Cavities

• Pharynx (above the larynx). At the top, the passage splits in two and goes to the nasal cavity and oral cavity. Generally called throat (/θrəʊt/), the pharynx is a vertical that connects the nasal cavity to the larynx. The soft palate (velum) directs the airstream in either cavity. If we raise the velum, the nasal cavity is closed – airstream goes through the mouth → ORAL SOUND. If the velum is lowered, the airstream goes through the nasal cavity → NASAL SOUND.

Oral cavity

• Lips /lɪps/ (m,p,b) - Upper lips and lower lips
• Teeth /tiːθ/ (th) - Upper and lower teeth
• Together (f,v) - Alveolar ridge /ˈælvɪlər rɪdʒ/ (t,d, no dentali come in italiano, n,s,z) - It’s a hump directly behind the teeth
• Hard palate /ˈpælət/ - anterior roof of mouth (k,g) - Bone covered with membrane
• Soft palate or Velum /ˈviːləm/ with hard palate → muscle than can be raised against back of pharynx → continuous divides oral cavity from nasal cavity → At the end we find the uvula
• Tongue /tʌŋ/ muscular organ → divided into multiple parts:
  • Mobile
    • Tip
    • Front or blade – under alveolar ridge
    • Middle - under hard palate
    • Back - under velum
    • Root - most posterior part of tongue
• Mandible /ˈmændɪb(ə)l/ - Jaw has considerable movement, controls distance of teeth and lower disposition of lips, tongue is connected to the mandible by the lingual frenum

Nasal cavity

• Extends from the nostrils to pharynx
• Important for the production of certain sounds
• The soft palate needs to be lowered to allow the air to flow into the nasal cavity and produce nasal sounds /m, n, ŋ/

Three processes to speech production:

• Initiation: creation of flow of air
• Phonation: vibration or not of vocal cords (voiced or voiceless sounds) (=how?)
• Articulation: movements of lips and tongue direct and OBSTRUCT the airstream (= where?)

1. Place: where the obstruction occurs → ex lips “p-b”

2. Manner (maniera): the degree of obstruction → “b” complete obstruction vs “s” incomplete obstruction

3. Active articulator: organ that moves (lips / tongue)

4. Passive articulator: does not move, target of the articulation

Nasal sound in English: n m ŋ (alveolar sound)

Whisper

(=sussurrare) Vocal folds are together but do not vibrate There is a gap between the two cartilages where the airstream flows

Breathy voice

Combination of voice and whisper. Vocal cord configuration as in whisper + vocal cord vibration > Used for effect by singers – especially women

Creaky voice

It combines the ‘creak’ and voice

• Creak → the vocal cords are pressed together except for the front part of the vocal cords that vibrate slowly.
• Voice → the rear portion of the vocal cords vibrates rapidly

Creaky voice is common in American speech → it is associated with the younger generation. This habit is referred to as the vocal fry and is often stigmatised (Kim Kardashian - Gina Linetti from Brooklyn 99).

3° lezione 21.02.23

Sounds and spelling

1. Organs in our body make the air vibrate and form sound waves
2. Sound waves travel to the hearer’s ears
3. The brain translates them into sound again

Speech

«Speech is a continuous flow of sound with interruptions only when necessary to take in air to breathe, or to organise our thoughts. The first task when analysing speech is to divide up this continuous flow into smaller chunks that are easier to deal with»

Sounds combine to form words: units that make sense

Sounds: /k/ /æ/ /t/ → /kæt/ Sounds: /tʃ/ /ɛə/ /tʃ/ → /tʃɛətʃ/

Graphemes: c a t → cat Graphemes: c h u r c h → church

Written text: “the pen is on the table”

Sounds: [ðəˈpʰenɪzənðəˈtʰeɪbl] = Phonetic → /ðə pen ɪz ɒn ðə ˈteɪb(əl)/ = Phonemic

Grapheme: The smallest unit that has meaning in a writing system. The symbols (letters) used in a writing system such as our alphabet.

How can we represent sounds?

Phonetics makes use of an international phonetic alphabet (IPA) to represent sounds. The representation of sounds is called: transcription. Transcription is really useful to indicate pronunciation:

Each language has its own system of vowels and consonants, and has also specific rules for combining them.

Sounds and spelling

During the development of the English language, two events occurred that contributed to the separation of spelling and pronunciation:

• Norman conquest
• Great vowel shift

The process took place from the 15th to 18th century = A LONG TIME • pronunciation of vowels changed but spelling remained the same. There is no systematic relationship between how English is written and how it is pronounced.

Norman conquest

1066: Battle of Hastings → William d’Orange (William I) defeats the Anglo-Saxons, conquers England and brings a Norman French-speaking court to England.

Establishment of Norman reign over Britain and Norman French as the language of the court:

• French-speaking barons, abbots and bishops
• Strong aristocratic links with Normandy
• French merchants and craftsmen came to Britain to do new commerce

Bilingualism existed:

• The English learned French to gain advantages
• Frenchmen who interacted with locals learned English

Norman influence on spelling

Norman scribes spelled English according to the conventions they used for French.

• Cw becomes qu > cwen → queen
• H becomes gh > night
• C becomes ch > church
• Sc is replaced by sh: Englisc → English

4° lezione 24.02.23

Great vowel shift

The long vowels changed their sound quality BUT differences between vowels remained → The process was not immediate: this development took place over the course of multiple centuries (14th century to 17th-18th century)

Vowel quadrilateral: “the last vowel became a diphthong (dittongo)”

Esercizio: Feel: sound > ey ea ee ie eo ei e…e uay i…e oe ei ie…e

- The same written letter does not always represent the same sound

- The same sound is not always represented by the same letter

- Some letters are not pronounced at all

- Sounds are pronounced in some places where there is no letter

Homophones and homographs

Homophones: words that sound the same but they are written differently

• Meet - meat
• Bare - bear
• Scent - sent - cent

Homophones can vary across English accents > different features from different parts of nations = creation of new accent (mix) ex American English/ Australian accent

Merger: pin/pen > in New Zealand English are pronounced the same = Homophones In British English there is the difference

Homographs: words that are spelt the same but pronounced differently

• Lead (metal) - lead (guide)
• Read (present) - read (past)

Homophones: I-eye; corps-core; steal-steel; red-read; peace-piece; sea-see; too-two; serial-cereal; heel-heal; guest-guessed; bare-bear; brake-break; cell-sell; dear-deer; hole-whole; know-no

Homographs: bass (instrument) bass (fish); can (noun) can (verb); tear (verb) tear (noun); right (giusto) right (destra); mean (significare) mean (verb); bat (animal)-bat (baseball equipment)

To distinguish:

• I: suono corto(i) — i: suono lungo (ee; ea)
• Sit seat ill eel
• Ship /ʃɪp/ sheep /ʃiːp/ hill heel
• Pill peel lip leap
• Fill feel
• U: suono corto(u) — u: suono lungo(oo)
• Full /fʊl/ fool /fuːl/
• Pull pool
• 2 vocali diverse:
• Scritto spesso con a /æ/ — scritto spesso con e /e/
• Pan /pæn/ pen /pen/
• Can ken
• Bad bed

Articulation of consonants

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with an obstruction or narrowing, or partial closure of the vocal tract, which produces a noise.

• There are 24 consonants
• We refer to consonants according to the sounds:
• Place of articulation (where?)
• Manner of articulation (what type of closure?)
• Energy of articulation (voiceless/voiced sound)

Place of articulation

Place of articulation → WHERE the sound is pronounced

Several places:

1. Bilabial
2. Labio-dental
3. Interdental
4. Alveolar
5. Post-alveolar
6. Palatal
7. Velar
8. Labio-velar
9. Glottal

Bilabial

Articulation of upper and lower lip:

• If the soft palate is raised, the sound is oral – /p/ in pit, /b/ in bat
• If the soft palate is lowered, the sound is nasal – /m/ in /mom/

Labiodental

Sounds pronounced by lower lip and upper incisors:

• /f/ (voiceless) in fit, /v/ (voiced) in vitamin

Interdental

Tip of tongue makes contact with the back of upper incisors or protrude slightly between them, two interdental sounds:

• /θ/ > thick
• /ð/ > that

Alveolar

The blade (or tip and blade) of the tongue touches or comes close to the alveolar ridge:

• Soft palate raised (oral sounds)
• /t/ in tip and /d/ in dip
• /s/ in sip and /z/ in zip
• /r/ as in red
• /l/ as in lead