Phonology Flashcards
The Great Vowel Shift (3)
1400- Words would’ve sounded very different e.g. time would’ve sounded like team
Next few 100yrs: PEOPLE MOVED TO AN ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION RATHER THAN FRENCH
Gradual disappearance of the /r/ sound in words like far, horn, horse
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (4)
The difference in Middle (e.g. weef) and Modern English sound (e.g. wife) is not only the spelling/word choices but the way he spoke them.
Consonants normally the same as our own & pronunciation of short vowel sounds however the LONG VOWEL SOUND is very different- due to GREAT VOWEL SHIFT
The original pronunciation of words links to anomalies in spelling.
Spelling issues
Supporters of spelling reform (e.g. Masha Bell) point out that the English Language has unpredictable graphemes for identical sounds e.g. main/lane
‘ee’ sound-spellings (3)
ee, ea, ie
Inconsistent consonant doubling (2)
Trolley and hollow
Solid and holiday
Examples of Language Change (3)
Vowels being ‘nasalised’ e.g: ‘on’, ‘in, ‘am’.
Sound Pairs- Fricatives: sh, s, f, v, z, th.
Voiceless- fish, thin Voiced- then, zebra
The “Theory Of Least Effort” (2)
Sound changes are primarily due to an economy of effort
We are trying to fit more language into a shorter space of time- OMISSION. E.g ‘ten pence’ becomes ‘tempunce’
Assimilation
The pronunciation of one phoneme is affected by an adjacent phoneme e.g. ‘don’t you’ to ‘dohnchu’
Received Pronunciation (2)
Emerged in the 19th century.
We can observe a difference in the ‘marked’ RP of the newsreaders of the 1940s and 1950s and the more neutral, ‘unmarked’ RP of today
Labov- Martha’s Vineyard Study (Study and findings)
1960s- Labov was able to observe a change in language taking place on Martha’s Vineyard
A small group of fishermen began to subconsciously exaggerate a tendency already existing in their speech.
Findings: the fisherman were pronouncing certain vowels different, it was always a sublte difference from mainland America but was becoming markedly different. Found that this was because they wanted to differentiate themselves FURTHER from the visiting tourists in order to show covert prestige.
1983, Peter Trudgill:
Southern British speakers were showing a continuous slide from original rural dialects towards either RP or their school language, called this STYLE SHIFTING
Estuary English features (3)
Glottal stops
Pronunciation of /o/ as /ow/ e.g. Naow, not in that raow
Pronunciation of /u/ as /a/ e.g. cap o’ tea
Current developments (3)
Accent styles now fluctuate in popularity
America has influenced the pronunciation of words such as controversy, privacy, etc.
‘Estuary English’ has spread as RP styles become less marked.
Recent changes in pronunciation (2)
‘Witch’ and ‘which’ pronounced the same, ‘tune’ pronounced with the same sound as ‘choose’
