Sounds interesting: observations on English and general phonetics

219 Pages·2014·9.296 MB·English

by  J.C. Wells

Sounds Interesting
How do you pronounce omega, tortoise and sloth? – and why? Do
charted and chartered sound the same? How do people pronounce the
namesCharon,PunjabandSexwale?
Inthisengagingbook,JohnWells,aworld-renownedphoneticianand
phonologist,exploresthesequestionsandothers.Eachchapterconsistsof
carefully selected entries from Wells’s acclaimed phonetics blog, on
which he regularly posted on a range of current and widely researched
topicssuchaspronunciation,teaching,intonation,spellingandaccents.
Based on sound scholarship and full of fascinating facts about the
pronunciation of Welsh, Swedish, Czech, Zulu, Icelandic and other
languages, this book will appeal to scholars and students in phonetics
and phonology, as well as general readers wanting to know more about
language.
Anyone interested in why a poster in Antigua invited cruise ship
visitors to enjoy a game of porker, or what hymns can tell us about
pronunciation,shouldreadthisbook.
j.c. wells is Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College
London and a Fellow of the British Academy. His interests centre on
thephoneticandphonologicaldescriptionoflanguagesbutalsoextendto
lexicographyandlanguageteaching.
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Sounds Interesting
Observations on English
and General Phonetics
J.C. WELLS
EmeritusProfessorofPhonetics,UniversityCollegeLondon
Illustrations by Lhinton Davidson
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UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107427105
©J.C.Wells2014
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2014
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Wells,J.C.(JohnChristopher)author.
Soundsinteresting:observationsonEnglishandgeneralphonetics/J.C.Wells.
pages cm
ISBN978-1-107-07470-5(Hardback)–ISBN978-1-107-42710-5(Paperback)
1. Englishlanguage–Phonetics. 2. Englishlanguage–Pronunciation. 3. Englishlanguage–
Phonology. I. Title.
PE1135.W362014
414–dc23 2014022387
ISBN978-1-107-07470-5Hardback
ISBN978-1-107-42710-5Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
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Contents
Preface xi
1 How do you say…? 1
1.1 sloth 1
1.2 nucularsnitchel 2
1.3 artisanal 3
1.4 C.diff. 3
1.5 shihtzu 4
1.6 omega 5
1.7 plethora 5
1.8 diocese 6
1.9 WestIndianislands 7
1.10 placenames 8
1.11 Madejski 9
1.12 Charon 9
1.13 Judea 11
1.14 Chagos 11
1.15 proceedandprecede 12
1.16 hypernymyandthrombosis 12
1.17 amiodarone 13
1.18 French,GermanorWelsh? 13
1.19 Loonywhat? 14
1.20 Richter 15
1.21 Punjabandfengshui 15
1.22 ylang-ylang 16
1.23 Mbabane 17
1.24 brandnames 18
1.25 Sexwale 19
1.26 tortoise 20
1.27 continentalandEnglishvalues 21
1.28 myliege,wearebesieged 21
1.29 Rothersthorpe 22
1.30 Campbell 23
1.31 malapropisms 24
1.32 ho,ho,ho 24
1.33 d’oh,doh...duh 25
1.34 ringintheoldear 25
1.35 /Whodidyousaywereallliars? 26
1.36 anglicizedWelshplacenames 27
v
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vi Contents
1.37 Jerseyh 28
1.38 FriernBarnet 28
1.39 veterinary 29
1.40 MarcelBerlinsandSarkozy 29
1.41 repertory 30
1.42 Penwortham 30
1.43 hello? 31
1.44 Lucida 32
1.45 phoneticnumerals 33
1.46 LlantwitMajor 34
1.47 apostasy 34
1.48 pwn 35
1.49 Entwistle 36
1.50 ChineseintoEnglish 36
1.51 inter(n)ment 37
2 English phonetics:theoryand practice 38
2.1 assimilation 38
2.2 internalintrusiver 38
2.3 royaltoil 39
2.4 wronger 40
2.5 compression 40
2.6 compressioninhymnody 41
2.7 GOATcompression 43
2.8 analogicaldecompression 44
2.9 compressionanomalies 45
2.10 oh,oh! 45
2.11 stressingschwa 46
2.12 LatinstressinEnglish 47
2.13 geminationanddegemination 48
2.14 reductionsincasualspeech 50
2.15 abjecthaplologies 51
2.16 thehappYvowel 52
2.17 crazesandcrazies 53
2.18 bandedorbandied? 54
2.19 thestatusofschwa 54
2.20 chartedandchartered 55
2.21 singingstrongly 56
2.22 happYprefixes 56
2.23 happYendings 57
2.24 some 58
2.25 thesymbolforSTRUT 60
2.26 theTeutonicRule 60
2.27 problemswithlexicalstress 62
2.28 twenty-twenny 63
2.29 phantomr 64
2.30 Nadsatisnon-rhotic! 65
2.31 non-rhoticloanwords 66
2.32 GordonBrown 67
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Contents vii
2.33 analbatrossonthebalcony 68
2.34 changesinEnglishvowels 68
2.35 Christmaspuzzles 69
2.36 dataprocessingunderstress 70
2.37 acab,innit? 70
2.38 instancesandincidences 71
2.39 settee 72
2.40 imma 73
2.41 terracedattacks 74
2.42 synthetichomographs 75
2.43 mineandmy 75
2.44 um...er... 76
2.45 thouhast,hehath 77
2.46 rhotic 78
2.47 progressiveassimilation 79
2.48 homographs 80
3 Teachingandexamining 82
3.1 deceptivestrings 82
3.2 practicaltests 82
3.3 faultyabbreviations 83
3.4 exoticsounds 83
3.5 theSwedishsj-sound 84
3.6 pausingaproblem 85
3.7 volcano 86
3.8 suddenlyinSydney 87
3.9 perceptionsof/æ/ 87
3.10 misledbyspelling 88
3.11 unaspirated/ptk/ 88
3.12 Yokohamaandthelike 89
3.13 strugglingtoteachphonetics 91
3.14 accentsandactors 92
3.15 minimalpairsinaction 94
3.16 aFrenchuserofEnglish 95
3.17 TaiwanEnglish 95
3.18 theIPACertificate 96
3.19 deadletters 97
3.20 alveolopalatals 98
3.21 BrEorAmEforTEFL? 99
3.22 spotthemistake 101
3.23 excusemyexcuse 101
3.24 miscellanea 102
4 Intonation 103
4.1 introduction 103
4.2 intonationnotation 104
4.3 idiomaticintonation 105
4.4 systems 106
4.5 politeness 107
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viii Contents
4.6 fall-riseorfallplusrise? 108
4.7 emptythings 109
4.8 counterpresuppositionalinsists 110
4.9 that’sfunny 112
4.10 where?wohin? 113
4.11 examiningintonation 114
4.12 theimportanceofbeingaccented 115
4.13 accentedbe 116
4.14 Olift:yourvoice 117
4.15 statingthebleedingobvious 118
4.16 chunking 119
4.17 desaccentsenfantins 119
4.18 intonationidiomsintheGermaniclanguages 120
4.19 compoundstressinEnglishandGerman 122
4.20 accentingphrasalverbs 123
4.21 traintimes 125
4.22 theruleofthree 126
4.23 areyouaskingmeortellingme? 126
4.24 accentonaVPsubordinator 127
4.25 onthetrain 129
4.26 idiomaticnucleusonapronoun 130
4.27 notadrop 131
4.28 alittlewhile 132
4.29 internationalintonation 133
5 Symbol shapes, fonts and spelling 136
5.1 labiodentalflap 136
5.2 similarsymbols 137
5.3 clicks 138
5.4 IPAcapitals 139
5.5 dashes 139
5.6 linguolabialtrill 140
5.7 thesymbolɮ 140
5.8 scenesfromIPAhistory 141
5.9 affricates 143
5.10 orthographicschwa 143
5.11 placingthesuprasegmentalsymbols 144
5.12 whyHawai’i? 145
5.13 funnyletters 146
5.14 anomalousg 147
5.15 thespellingwor 148
5.16 practicing(sic)wotIpreach 148
5.17 whyph? 149
5.18 yoghandezh 150
5.19 bevy,bevvy 151
5.20 lowandlong 151
5.21 palatoalveolarsandthelike 152
5.22 IPAreforms,1976 153
5.23 Ortuguese 154
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Contents ix
5.24 Panglish,orunintelligibility? 154
5.25 definitely 155
5.26 lexicographersandspelling 156
5.27 respelling 157
5.28 pea’s,plea’s 158
5.29 sibilantgenitives 158
5.30 greengrocers’spellings 160
5.31 Otempora!Omores! 161
5.32 thecostofspelling 161
5.33 capitaleszett 163
5.34 Jumieka 164
5.35 fameatlast! 165
6 English accents 167
6.1 po(r)ker 167
6.2 holeyground 167
6.3 hairlair! 168
6.4 minorroyalty 168
6.5 PrinceHarry 169
6.6 fricativet 169
6.7 hypercorrection 170
6.8 MontserratCreole 170
6.9 televisionnewsreaders’RP 171
6.10 accentschangeovertimeshockhorror 172
6.11 badsociophonetics 173
6.12 TheBookofDave 174
6.13 character,calendar 176
6.14 GrandTurk 176
6.15 popularphonetics 177
6.16 changingLondonspeech 178
6.17 AmericanTvoicingandsentence 179
6.18 sexyaccents 180
6.19 Maorinames 181
6.20 richman,poorman 183
7 Phonetics aroundthe world 184
7.1 ScottishGaelic 184
7.2 tangnefeddathragwyddoldeb 184
7.3 Welshletternames 186
7.4 Welshll 187
7.5 cwhatImean 188
7.6 Leewards,ABCsandVirgins 189
7.7 clicksdemonstrated 190
7.8 animpossiblesound 191
7.9 fricativetrill,trillfricative 192
7.10 allthespeechsoundsintheworld 192
7.11 WALS 193
7.12 IPAinalogo 194
7.13 frozeninItalian 194
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x Contents
7.14 ugh! 195
7.15 Icelandic 196
7.16 wiewardas? 196
7.17 simplicity 197
7.18 Calonlân 198
7.19 YstradMynach 200
Postscript 201
Index ofwords 203
General index 205
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