The Sound System of Language
[From Inside Language (1997), which is now out of print: this is the prepublication doc file. Sorry the pages don't work very well in Dreamweaver (to put it mildly). And of course it is now a bit dated]
Why do people speaking English and French sound so different when the languages look so similar in writing, apart from a few accents? This chapter looks at the some of the properties of sound systems that languages have in common and some of the ways in which they differ. This chapter starts by discussing the ways in which languages use the pitch variation of intonation, goes on to the mechanisms by which speech sounds are produced, and then turns to how sounds are organised in speech. Its theme is the diverse ways in which languages make use of the same resources for producing speech.
The pronunciation of English is taken as a starting point. However, this decision immediately raises the problem of selecting one out of the many accents of English. Most textbooks choose the variety of English called RP, originally taken from ‘Received Pronunciation’, now mostly known simply by the initials RP on their own. Usually RP is thought of as the accent of educated British speakers of English, which does not vary according to region within England, though it differs from other world accents such as General American English. RP accent is then a different concept from the standard language of English, which has a consistent grammar and vocabulary almost everywhere it is spoken, apart from a few well-known local peculiarities.
The Sound System of Language[From Inside Language (1997), which is now out of print: this is the prepublication doc file. Sorry the pages don't work very well in Dreamweaver (to put it mildly). And of course it is now a bit dated]Why do people speaking English and French sound so different when the languages look so similar in writing, apart from a few accents? This chapter looks at the some of the properties of sound systems that languages have in common and some of the ways in which they differ. This chapter starts by discussing the ways in which languages use the pitch variation of intonation, goes on to the mechanisms by which speech sounds are produced, and then turns to how sounds are organised in speech. Its theme is the diverse ways in which languages make use of the same resources for producing speech.The pronunciation of English is taken as a starting point. However, this decision immediately raises the problem of selecting one out of the many accents of English. Most textbooks choose the variety of English called RP, originally taken from ‘Received Pronunciation’, now mostly known simply by the initials RP on their own. Usually RP is thought of as the accent of educated British speakers of English, which does not vary according to region within England, though it differs from other world accents such as General American English. RP accent is then a different concept from the standard language of English, which has a consistent grammar and vocabulary almost everywhere it is spoken, apart from a few well-known local peculiarities.
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