Phonetic Differences Exercise and Project 1

This exercise is designed to help you distinguish sounds, using the list of 32 words. 

Choose a sound file from the course reserves to work with.  The files are of speakers whose native language is not English pronouncing the words.  They are identified by the speaker’s first language. You may choose only one form among Spanish, Italian, French, Greek, German, and Punjabi.  http://fsweb.berry.edu/academic/hass/ejohnson Go to the Sound Files link.

On the chart provided as a class handout, you will transcribe the 32 words using the International Phonetic Alphabet, first showing the “normal” American English pronunciation, as a homework assignment.  Then you will transcribe the same 32 words in IPA showing this person’s pronunciation of them as a second homework assignment.  First, listen to the words, checking off which words sound different from the norm.  Then try writing the words that are different in IPA. Here are some hints for identifying the sounds that make up the accent:

Try imitating the way the speaker says the word and notice how you articulate it

Listen carefully to vowels, to interdental consonants and /r/, and to consonants at ends of words.

If the pronunciation is different from American English, but you do not know how to show the difference using the IPA, you should try to describe in the margins what is different about the sound.  Every word that sounds different from the American English pronunciation should be circled. 

Make a list of the pronunciation differences, for example

• Pronounces /I/ like /i/ in the words bitter and this
• Pronounces /r/ with a trilled sound in the words street and robe

By making a list of the differences between the two transcriptions, you can distinguish which sounds make up the person’s “foreign accent.”  This can be important in helping children learn English pronunciation.

• The chart with the speaker’s pronunciation written using IPA
• The list of pronunciation differences from American English, as before
• A summary description of the person’s accent

The summary should be one-half to one page, typed double-spaced, in 12 point font with 1 inch margins. You will write about how this person’s speech is different from American English, describing the sounds in articulatory terminology where possible (e.g., stops, fricative, interdentals, tense vowels, etc.).

Due Dates:

American English IPA due 9/9

Practice speaker IPA due 9/12

Project one speaker chart, list, and description due 9/16