Dialectical Variation (Lecture 10)

What language family tree is English on?

The Proto-Indo-European language family tree

Lingua Franca

Used when there are a variety of L1s. It is the common language.

what is an example of a common lingua franca

English

Pidgin

Forms of Lingua Franca. Pidgins are the combined elements of two or more languages to allow different language communities to communicate.

Creole

Similar to a Pidgin but a background in multiple languages with a more clearly defined grammar and vocabulary.

a language is said to be ____ when no one speaks it

dead

Dialects are generally understood to be _______

mutually intelligible variants of a language that differ in linguistic properties and are spoken by subgroups.

Mutual Intelligibility

When different languages can still be understood by each other's speakers (i.e., Danish, Swedish, and Norweigen)

What is an example of dialects that are not mutually intelligible?

English and Arabic - huge variability between dialects

What is a social dialect? What are some examples of parameters they may differ on?

A subgroup of a dialect which is related to shared identities. Ethnic, cultural, religious, age, social class, and others

What kind of language is English in respect to timing?

Stress-timed language

Stress-timed language

Stressed syllables are louder/longer, and the unstressed syllables are reduced (shortened/weakened) to reserve a rather steady rhythm.

Syllable-timed languages

Tend to lack reduced vowels and give fairly even timing to all syllables

What kind of languages are French, Italian, Mandarin, and Turkish?

Syllable-timed languages

Mora-timed language

The duration of every mora (basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable) is equal

What is the most popular mora-timed language ?

Japanese

Japanese mora are either __ or __ with /_/ or /_/ as the only consonant that can appear in the coda

V or CV; /n/ or /m/

What does it mean when a vowel is geminate in a mora-timed language?

It is doubled such that a CV would take half as long as CVV

Maximally discriminable vowels normally occur in languages with a ____ number of vowels

small (the vowels are most perceptually different)

Discrimination

In speech perception, it is the ability to perceive two sounds as different.

What is the typical small inventory of vowels?

/a, i, u, e, o/

Which language has a very small inventory of consonants?

Hawaiian

Accent

It is one element of dialect, and it is a unique way speech is pronounced by a group of people speaking the same language.

Regional accent

Same language, different pronunciation based on geography (e.g., Ontario vs. Newfoundland, Yorkshire vs. London).

Foreign accent (from the perspective of an English speaker)

Speech produced by someone whose L1 is not English.

Accents are neither _____ nor _________

speech nor language disorders

What are some of the things that will determine how different accents will sound?

Similarities between English and a person's L1, age at which English was acquired, and formal instruction vs immersion in a more natural environment

Code Switching

When a speaker alternates between two languages

What are the three metrics you should consider when discussing non-regional dialects or non-native English accents?

1. Intelligibility 2. Comprehensibility 3. Accentedness

What are ways accents can affect communications?

1. There can be difficulty making oneself understood
2. Possible avoidance of social interaction
3. The frustration of repeating oneself
4. Greater focus on accent than content of communication
5. Possible negative affects of job performance, educational advancement, everyday life activities
6. Possible negative affect on self-esteem and confidence

What types of accent modification are within an SLP's score of practice?

Non-native English speakers and speakers of a regional dialect of English

True or False - The purpose of accent modification is to eliminate all traces of a "foreign" accent through pronunciation drills.

False

True or False - Accent modification is impossible after critical period due to decreased plasticity and inability to modify speech behaviour.

False

True or False - with practice and knowledge, a speaker's L1 can sometimes be determined from the speaker's accent

True - Because certain sounds do not exist in speaker's L1.
L1 phonotactics may be different, and prosodic characteristics may be different

Language transfer

The influence of an L1 on the learning of a new language. How we cognitively map our L1 to apply to the new language.

What English vowels are often substituted?

/æ/ and /ɑ/ both by /a/ or /ɛ/ for /æ/ and /ɔ/ for /ɑ/

What vowels may not be defined in an L1?

tense and lax pairs

What are possible consonants challenges?

1. Aspiration changes on the voiceless stops /p, t, k/, including changes to allophones of /t/
2. De-affrication, e.g., /tʃ/ -> /ʃ/.
3. Voicing and devoicing.
4. Consonant cluster reduction. e.g. "Halifass"
-/ɹ/ omission or substitution

Intelligibility

The extent to which a speaker's utterance is actually understood by the listener. Can be measured by transcription.

Comprehensibility

The degree of difficulty a listener experiences while trying to understand the utterance. Highly correlated with intelligibility

Accentedness

A way to measure the listener's perception of a non-native English accent. Not well correlated with intelligibility and comprehensibility.

Epenthesis

When sounds are inserted due to phonotactics in their L1 (English uses many consonant clusters)

What is the key to fighting accent-based discrimination?

The key is direct training a workplace that discrimination is not tolerated, and that plurality of voices is good for an organization. Intelligibility should be the main concern, not accentedness.

What two challenges do grammatical endings of pluralizing and marking past tense in English pose (-s, -es, -ed)?

a phonological one and morphological one

What phonemic variations are common when your L1 isn't English?

Dentalizing, deaspirating, tongue retroflexion, and devoicing are common in accents, and it's all based on the L1 patterns.

In what scenarios might you hear /r/ in non-rhotic dialects of English?

Linking r and intrusive r

True or False - Most dialects of English throughout the world are nonrhotic

true

Linking-r

rhotic vowel precedes (comes before) a vowel (e.g., "here is")

Intrusive-r

may appear when it's not in the orthography, between a word that ends with a non-high vowel and a word that begins with a vowel (e.g., law and order)

Canadian Raising

A phenomenon of vowel raising in diphthongs that is common in Canada

When is Canadian raising typically seen?

Typically before voiceless phonemes, but in Atlantic Canada it can be before voiceless or voiced sounds

What are three things to expect in Atlantic Canadian English?

/æ/ raising to /eɪ/ before /g/, /ɑr/ fronting to /ar/, not moving to the tap as frequently, and word final /t/ aspiration more frequent

True or False - some dialects have more linguistic complexity than others

False - all dialects have the same linguistic complexity.

What is the standard UK dialect?

Received Pronunciation (RP)

What is the standard American dialect

General American (GA)

Examples of 3 vowel productions that may be considered phonemic in other languages but may just be allophonic/coarticulatory in English

nasality, voicing, and vowel length