English Variety + Allophony
September 16, 2015
For Friday
•
Please take a stab at the following exercises from
Chapter 2 of A Course in Phonetics before Friday:
•
A 1-10
•
B 11-20
•
D 31-40
•
(American speaker)
•
(phonemic transcriptions)
•
Here’s the online link:
•
http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter2/exercises.htm
•
This will be a practice transcription exercise that we will
go over together in class.
Helpful Hints
•
You can use Praat to help you listen to the sound files
for the transcription exercise.
•
•
Let’s walk through the basics together…
Another thing: I post all of the lecture notes (in
Powerpoint) for a reason.
•
It can help to listen to the example sounds at home!
A Word of Caution
• The vowel system of English can vary greatly from one
dialect to another.
• Ex: the vowels of Canadian English have shifted away from
their American counterparts…
• (for some, but not all, speakers)
• Shift #1:

Unshifted:
• Shift #2:

Unshifted:
• There are also new shifts underway!
• Shift #3:

“head”
• Shift #4:

“hid”
• Shift #5:

“hood”
/u/-fronting
• The final element of the shift involves the “fronting” of the
vowel /u/.
• Compare:
Los Angeles
Saskatoon
• Note that not every Canadian does this.
Calgary
• Also note that North American vowel systems are diverging:
• Chicago
• Saskatoon
• New York City
Source: http://accent.gmu.edu
What’s Going On?
•
Vowel articulations can be characterized along four
dimensions:
1. Height (of tongue body)
•
high, mid, low
2. Front-back (of tongue body)
•
front, central, back
3. Roundedness (of lips)
•
rounded vs. unrounded
4. “Tenseness”
•
tense/lax
Corner Vowels
X-Ray Videos
The (American) Vowel Space
Further Observations
• In the Canadian vowel shift:
• However, this rule only applies to native
• For borrowed words,
 [a] or [æ]
• For example:
pasta
Mazda
gracias
garage
• Also note: William Shatner.
.
Moral of the Story #2
• Phonology is important.
• Sounds exhibit patterns in a language.
• Remember:
• Specific allophones of a phoneme often emerge in
specific phonetic contexts.
• Ex: the flap
in English.
• appears when /t/ or /d/ precede an unstressed
syllable
• metal
metallic
• The production of specific allophones is often specified
by phonological rule.
Patterns
• There is an interesting rule regarding the production
of
in some English dialects.
• Compare Canadian English with English English
CE
“care”
“park”
“read”
“other”
“ride”
“carrot”
“cart”
• Do you see any patterns?
EE
The Rules
• In English English:
•
surfaces as
when it precedes vowels
• Examples: read, carrot
•
surfaces as
syllable or word
when it appears at the end of a
• Examples: care, other
• makes a preceding vowel long when it appears
before a consonant in the same syllable
• Examples: park, cart
Rhotic vs. Non-Rhotic
• Note: English is divided up between “rhotic” dialects and
“non-rhotic” dialects
• rhotic:
appears everywhere
• non-rhotic:
disappears, sometimes
• Rhotic dialects:
• Canadian English, General American, Irish English,
Scots English…
• Non-Rhotic dialects:
• English English, Australian English, some areas of
the American East Coast…
Overheard in New York
Old lady with heavy accent, pointing to a closed store:
What’s that?
Young lady: I’m not sure.
Old lady: Is that a pahwn shop?
Young lady (startled): No, that looks like a pawn shop…
Old lady: That’s what I said--a pahwn shop.
Young lady (relieved): Ohhh, I thought you said ‘porn shop’!
Old lady: No, I said, ‘pahwn’, not ‘pahwn.’
Young lady: Oh, you say them exactly the same!
Source: www.overheardinnewyork.com
Overheard in New York
Old lady: I do?
Young lady: Yeah! Saw ‘aw.’
Old lady: Ahw.
Young lady: Now say ‘or.’
Old lady: Ahw.
Young lady: No, it’s orrr. With an R.
Old lady: That’s what I said -- ‘ahw’.
Source: www.overheardinnewyork.com