Sound Of Language Film 02 (1961)

[Music] oh [Music] by 87 Imperial Service now leaving for Chicago San Francisco and Honolulu All Aboard please light 833 main ler service leading for Detroit Chicago Portland Seattle and Vancouver Excuse me yes uh where is it I find the plan to Chicago I beg your pardon where is the plan to Chicago may I see your ticket please here it is flight 6 oh gate 17 is that the north gate or the South Gate gate 17 is north right through that door I have not understand you see where the man in the tan raincoat is standing uh the man with the T rant cut go through that door down a Stairway until you come to a ramp Down The Stairway to a own that's right a ramp may I take the travel bag with me yes is the dinner served on the plane yes thank you very much you're very welcome the ticket agent and the passenger were able to communicate but with some difficulty what caused the difficulty it might be said because the passenger was speaking with a foreign accent but just what does a foreign accent mean one of the first things a person hears in a language is its tune the rise and fall of its Melody its intonation the diagrams and symbols used here are visual treatments of sound patterns not pictures of exact scientific sound values let's listen to parts of the conversation again where is the to Chicago an American speaker would say where is the plane to Chicago this is a different Melody where is the to Chicago the words of the French speaker begin on a fairly high pitch and gradually fall to a low pitch on the final syllable the words of the American speaker where is the plane to Chicago begin with a level or normal tone and remain level until the speaker reaches the syllable in the sentence which has the strongest stress Now The Melody of a language is important to its speakers a different Melody makes the language difficult to understand let's take another example is that the north gate or the South Gate an American would say is that the north gate or the South Gate notice that the speaker of English contrasts the word North and the word South the French speaker does not instead he stresses the word gate which is at the end of the sentence take the first sentence of the conversation excuse me the French speaker has a heavy stress on me an English speaker would normally say excuse me with a heavy stress on the cues of excuse in French syllables and words are relatively evenly stressed but at the end of every phrase the last syllable usually has heavier stress than any other syllable in English on the other hand the heaviest stress of a phrase may come at various places in the phrase depending on the words that are used and the grammatical construction involved where do the internation patterns the stresses and rhythms that the Frenchman uses come from let's listen again to some of the conversation we've already heard where is z to Chicago here's how he would say it in his native French the internation pattern of his French matches his English let's try another sentence is that the nor or this is how he says it in his native French again there is a parallel in The Melody of the speaker English and French what the speaker has done is to carry over the intonation of his native language into English particularly at the end of the sentence let's take the first sentence of the dialogue excuse me this is how the sentence is said in French excuse what the speaker has carried over the stress patterns of his language into English the stress patterns The rhythms and intonations are different for English and French of course the speaker has done more than that he has said among other things bag for bag he has said the South for South north for North this is because the a sound in the English word bag or the th sound in the English words North and South do not occur in his native French he comes as close as he can using sounds he has in his own language the case of R is somewhat different both languages have a sound which speakers recognize as r but they are made in quite different ways and sound different the broad sound patterns of intonation stress and Rhythm as well as the pronunciation of individual sounds are important in understanding speech these differ from language to language let's listen to a speaker influenced by her native Japanese language background Excuse me yes where is the right to Chicago I beg your pardon where is the flly to Chicago may I see your ticket please here it is right 633 oh gate 17 it's that nor or the S Gat gate 17 is north right through that door I don't understand you see where the man with the tan raincoat is standing the man with a tan rain cat I see go through that door down the stairway until you come to a ramp down to where ramp a ramp r a m p can I take with my traveling package yes is dinner served on the plane yes dinner is served thank you very much you're very welcome there are a number of sound and pronunciation differences that arose in the Japanese passenger speech Let's examine a few the question is characterized by a rise at the end of the sentence in English is that the north gate or the South Gate the normal intonation has a drop at the end of such a sentence in Japanese a question of this sort is usually a double question this means is it the north gate is it the south gate the Japanese speaker has followed the construction of the English sentence but has carried over the final Rising intonation that she uses in her native language many pronunciation difficulties occurred the speaker said rain coat for raincoat dump for ramp that is because there is no distinction between the L and R sounds in Japanese and to its native speakers these two English sounds seem to be alike the speaker also said very for ver and Saed for served there is no V sound in Japanese and the speaker uses the nearest sound in her own language the B for V the passenger said excuse understand Japanese uses no consonants at the end of a word all words end in a vowel or a nasal therefore Japanese speakers have a tendency to add a vowel to an English word which ends in a consonant if the passenger were a native speaker of Russian he would sound like this excuse me yeah yes uh where is plane which is flying to Chicago I beg your pardon where is plane which is flying to Chicago may I see your ticket ra please here flight uh 633 oh gate 17 is it North Gate or South Gate gate 17 is north right through that door I don't understand you see where the man with the tan raincoat is standing I see man with a tan rain coat you go through that door down a Stairway until you come to the ramp uh until I come to the ramp that's right the ramp uh uh can I take uh this uh pilm with me yes is dinner served in the plane yes dinner is served thank you you're very welcome let's listen to some of the Russian passenger speech is it nor gate or South Gate the intonation of the Russian speaker is characterized by a sharp drop after the or compare it with normal American English intonation is it the the north gate or the South Gate there is a rise on South and then a final drop now compare the Russian speaker's English intonation with his Russian intonation of the same sentence is it not the interation patterns of the speaker English and his Russian are similar the speaker's native language influences his pronunciation of English he says there for where this is because there is no W sound in Russian and he uses the nearest sound to it the V Russian does not have a th sound as in the English word North therefore the speaker says nor although there is an R sound in Russian it is different from the American R the speaker says ramp for ramp trilling his r neither French Japanese or Russian has the th sound as used in the English word three but the speakers of these languages pronounce the word three quite differently the French speaker says three the Japanese speaker and the Russian three each of these speakers is influenced by the sound patterns and habits of his native language there's a characteristic of English Rhythm that is difficult for non-native speakers to master take an expression like this I've ticketed him for the return trip notice the difference in the speed with which the syllables tick turn and trip are spoken compared with the syllables Ed M for the r that occur between tick and turn the stressed syllables tick turn and Chip are lengthened the unstressed syllables are crowded together and reduced this lengthening of stressed syllables and crowding together of unstressed syllables is characteristic of English if this same sentence is spoken by a native speaker of Spanish carrying Over The rhythms of his own language it would sound like this I've ticketed him for the return trip the Spanish speaker uses more regular rhythms giving all his syllables more equal value and creating a staccato like effect I've died him for the return return trip the crowding together of unstressed syllables in English gives Spanish speakers the impression that English speakers speak very rapidly I've ticketed him for the return trip the more regular rhythms and stresses of Spanish give English speakers the impression that Spanish speakers speak very rapidly listen listen to the sentence in Spanish now listen to it in English I've tied for the return trip the differences in the two languages are not so much in the speed of utterance as in The rhythms and stresses which the languages use the intonation stress and rhythmic patterns of language together with its pronunciation form the sound system of a language the covering interational patterns are just as important for understanding in conversation as are the exact phonetic qualities of the separate sounds there are sounds in one language that are totally different from those of another for instance there is nothing in English like the German sounds represented by R and CH in the Worden meaning to smoke a speaker of English has difficulty with this word the American speaker is substituting an American R sound and an American k sound for the German sounds nor is there in English anything like the French R sound there is nothing in English like the French but it is not only sounds that are totally new that create problems there are sounds in the new language that may be familiar to the learner but are used quite differently this mother is washing the baby a Latin American student learning English as a second language clearly understands the difference between this situation and this the mother is watching the baby but suppose the student just heard the statement the mother is washing the baby would the student know which situation was meant would it be this or this the chances are he would be confused he probably would have difficulty in even hearing the difference between washing and watching why the mother is washing the child the mother is washing the child the mother is watching the child the mother washing the child because Spanish does not use the difference between the sound sh and to distinguish meanings English does watching Wasing watching Wasing there are sound contrasts that distinguish meanings in Spanish but not in English English speakers have difficulty with the difference between the sound and because these sounds are not used in English to differentiate iate meanings per means but perro means dog there are vowel contrasts that distinguish meanings in Spanish but not in English re Reno REO Reno means Rainer raino means a kingdom now the differences in the English sounds sh as in wash and CH as in watch are important because they change meanings so are the differences between e and sheep and the e in ship the differences in the Spanish sound as in per and the ER as in perro are important because they result in a change of meaning so are the differences in the vowel sounds a in re and a in re a in Reno and a in REO these are differences that matter but not all differences in the way a sound is made change meanings for instance there is a word daa in Spanish meaning doubt do do do now notice that the initial D is pronounced d the middle D is pronounced differently like the when the DU sound occurs between vowels it is pronounced Z thus we have l meaning side like this side of the street or DOA meaning doubt now when the Spanish speaker says D or L he's pronouncing the DU sound differently in the two positions but to him this difference in sound does not make a difference in words he's probably not even aware that the sounds are different but take these two sounds in English there are words like dare and there ride and ride which have totally different meanings these sound differences do matter in English now what happens when a Latin American encounters an English word like latter he tends to pronounce it lather I need a lather which does he mean since he pronounces them both the same way sound differences that are meaningful in one language are not necessarily meaningful in another in English there is a difference between words such as Sip and zip racer and razor in English the difference between s and Z matters in Spanish there are words like s Kasa with the S sound there are also words like mismo AO with the z sound yet the difference between the two sounds does not change meanings if mismo were pronounced with a s sound and Kasa with a z sound they would still be understood as the same words since these differences do not result in new words yet the Latin American has difficulty with the S and Z Sounds in English they tend to say racer for razor sip for zip I bought a new racer I'm sipping up my goat the reason for this is that the differences in the S and Z Sounds do not change meanings in Spanish now linguists have a way of describing this situation they say that the sound contrast that change meanings are phonic the sh and CH sounds in English are two separate phones the A and E sounds are distinct phones the S and Z sounds as well are different phones in Spanish the and er are two separate phones the A and A sounds are phones the phonemic differences of a language are of major importance since they affect meaning here are charts listing the phones of several languages fortunately the total number of phones in any language is extremely small in English there are 38 in Spanish there are 24 in French there are 35 in Russian there are 40 there are other sound differences that do not matter in English the P sound in pi for instance is different from the P sound in lip Pi if the word Pi is pronounced with a lighted match held before the mouth the flame goes out Pi there is hardly a flicker in the P sound in the word lip Lip lip Lip lip pie actually the two P sounds are different but the difference does not matter in English this difference does matter in some languages in Thai for example it is a phic difference in Tai the word p mean danger and the word by means to go the different Pi by pi p p by sound differences that are regarded as mere variants of the same sound and do not affect meaning are called phonetic sound differences that are merely phonetic in one language may be phonemic in another language and vice versa modern teaching methods are sensitive to phonemic and phonetic differences in the language to be learned as well as in the language background of the learner s combinations may cause difficulties these combinations may occur in the language to be learned as well as in the native language of the learner both English and Spanish for instance have the sound combination St but in Spanish this combination is never used at the beginning of words a Spanish speaker frequently says not study but study a study study a study spend a spend spend stach such pronunciation difficulties are the result of the speaker's conditioning to his own language habits individual sounds such as consonants and vowels and sound patterns such as intonations and rhythms differ from language to language the sound system of a language consists of individual sounds which operate in patterns of Rhythm stress and intonation the sound system of each language is unique last in the modern classroom learning the proper intonation of a language is as important as learning its individual sounds intonation patterns are learned in correct grammatical structures along with whatever vocabulary is involved this is a modern Spanish class conducted by a native speaker of the language for the teacher is presenting an accurate oral model of the Expressions to the class in explaining the meaning of new Expressions to be learned the teacher is using objects gestures and the language he is teaching the teacher insists on accurate imitation of the model he is presenting [Music] when necessary he drills on the pronunciation of individual sounds and words drill on individual sounds and words is followed by incorporation of the sounds into the proper International patterns there is extensive Coral work this helps participation by all and eliminates any self-consciousness by the students the teacher provides sufficient practice for thorough Mastery of the patterns for Coral work is conducted in a dialogue situation by the teacher the class and the teacher frequently change roles in the oral dialogue there is considerable individual participation after Coral practice has helped the students learn the patterns thoroughly foree fore [Music] fore The rhythms and tempo of actual speech are maintained the give and take of actual dialogue situations are practi sound patterns are taught combined with grammar and vocabulary this is a valid procedure of modern teaching of languages for sound grammar and vocabulary exist not as separate entities but as parts of the unity of the living language [Applause]