Blaoism

Phonetic length of vowels

2012-01-25T22:21:00.001-08:00

spay > spain > spate
eɪː >eɪ ˑ > eɪ

low back unrounded vowel before r = car

2012-01-23T23:45:00.000-08:00

horror
Florida
orange
authority
honor
horrible
sorrow
borrow
sorry

Some reduced forms

2012-01-19T08:38:00.001-08:00

BIN=BEEN
How have you "bin"?

Y=YOU
Y'know what I mean?

WHADDJA= WHAT DID YOU
Whaddja do over the weekend?

WHADDYA= WHAT DO YOU
Whaddya say?

HAFTA= HAVE TO
I have to go now.

WUTCHER= WHAT IS YOUR
Wutcher name?

TSKO= LET'S GO
Tsko to the movies!

TSUP= WHAT'S UP?

DUNNO= DON'T KNOW
Does she go with you? I dunno.

NKU= THANK YOU
Nky. It's very kindavyou!

KINDA= KIND OF
It's very kindavyou.

SORTA= SORT OF
She is sorta cool.
DJA= DID YOU
Dja ever notice she is quite beautiful?

WOULDNA= WOULD NOT
I wouldna notice the use of this Relaxed Forms if...

WOULDA= WOULD HAVE
I woulda gone but she showed up and I had to stay home.

SHOULDA= SHOULD HAVE
You shoulda told me he was your boyfriend!!!!

COULDA= COULD HAVE
You coulda come with us. The party was a blast!

MIGHTA= MIGHT HAVE
She mighta gotten sick.

PROLLY= PROBABLY
He is prolly working now.

KIN= CAN
I kin stay here with you.

WATCHA= WHAT DO YOU
Watcha mean?

WHADJUH= WHAT DID YOU
Whadjuh say, Sir?

BETTA= HAD BETTER
I betta go now.

MELP YOU= MAY I HELP YOU?
Melp you, Sir?

GOTTA= HAVE GOT TO
I gotta go now.

GONNA= GOING TO
I'm gonna write to you.

WANNA= WANT TO
I wanna see ya again.

DJUHVA= DO YOU HAVE A
Djuhva wife?

LEMME= LET ME
Lemme show you something!

GIMME= GIVE ME
Gimme a few minutes to think it over.

OUTTA= OUT OF
Get outta here

LOTTA= LOT OF
I have a lotta friends

CUP A LOVE= COUPLE OF
I have a cup a love friends

IZZY= IS HE?
Izzy your brother?

DOEZZY= DOES HE
Doezzy like you?

YOUSTA= USED TO
He usta come here every day.

SOUN SCOOD= IT SOUNDS GOOD!

CUZ= BECAUSE
Cuz I don't like you.

SUM= SOME
Dyav sum for me?

FUR= FOR
Dyav sum fur me?

grapheme th as t

2012-01-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

Mathilda, Thomas, Thames, thyme, beethoven: t
Needham, MA = d

San Francisco or San Vrancisco

2012-01-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

In the SF bay area, whenever people utter the word "San Francisco", that utterance doesn't become 'prominent' most of the time. In such cases, you hear 'vrancisco' instead of 'francisco'.

Similarly, if you are working for a VOIP company that sets ups voice conferences, you utterance of 'conferences' is not prominent. It sounds like 'convrences'

fth clusters

2012-01-17T08:03:00.000-08:00

fth > f

fth > ft

fifth > fith

twelfth > twelf

twelfth > twelft

fifth > fift

A consonant that we are not aware of!

2012-01-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

ugh: it is a voiced velar fricative!

Internuclear consonant clusters: -ory

2012-01-15T19:24:00.000-08:00

Obstruent + t

'Vctory: directory, victory, olfactory, satisfactory, trajectory, perfunctory, benedictory
'Vstory: history, con'sistory
'Vptory: pe'remptory, per'ceptory, re'demtory

Sonorant + t
Vn ,tory: inven,tory, promon,tory
Vl ,tory: desul,tory
Vr ,tory: offer,tory, reper,tory

-tery
,stery: allostery, monastery, phalanstery ,
Vntery: 'mesen,tery, 'dysen,tery (4 syl)
e'ffrontery, 'wintry, 'splintery, 'printery

An observation about "u"

2012-01-11T23:17:00.000-08:00

Eustace Strong vowel + tautosyllabic cl, yuu

Houston Strong vowel + tautosyllabic cl, yuu

custard Heterosyllabic cluster

mustard Heterosyllabic

rubric Tautosyllabic br, hence yuu

Acoustic Strong vowel, hence tautosyllabic

couscous

Stress, syllabification: tense and lax vowels

2012-01-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

To help her successfully, you need to make your student aware of Russian syllabification and stress. And also teach her syllabification in English and how stress dictates the syllabification. Most if not all accent reduction courses don’t focus on the foundations of stress.For instance, there is a productive heuristic for the -ic prefix: just stress the penultimate syllable. Another heuristic: there exists at least one unstressed syllable between the primary stressed syllable and a secondary stressed one.So far, so good. There is a greater point that L2 speakers should know: stress dictates the quality of underlying vowel. Let me illustrate with the following example.algebraic: ,al-ge-’BRA-icHere, the first and the third are stressed. Even though the underlying graphemes are same (“a”) and stressed, the quality of vowels is difference: one being tense, the other being lax.Imagine another word: ,al-ge-BRAT-ic . Here, the primary stressed vowel is lax (and the syllable is closed).The moral of the story: one can predict whether stressed vowels (syllables) are lax (closed syl) or tense (open syl).Compare the stress of the following words: compulsive, elusive. Also check the stress of the words “compusive (no l) and eluxive (x instead of s).The other part is: American accent reduction courses and specialists are not aware of the theories of Intonation. For instance, Pierrehumbert’s theory of intonation developed from Bolingers theory of pitch accent. There are five to six pitch accents in American English. The more knowledge the leaner possess, the better he/she can perceive vowel qualities, pitch accents, cadence (phrasal accent, phrasal accent + boundary tone), etc.Mere knowledge of phonemes and allophones in American English is like learning very very basics, which don’t help perceive other features.

Posted at: http://englishwithjennifer.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/where-do-we-begin-to-teach-beginners/#comments

Stop + liquid clusters and syllable

2012-01-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

{p,t,k} + {r,l}

Observation: This cluster doesn't get split across two syllables. This has an impact on the neighboring vowels: whether lax or tense.

Abraham > 'a-bra-,ham
April > 'a-pril
apron > 'a-pron
rubric > 'ru-bric (cf. rustic >' rus-tic; 'Eu-stace, 'hous-ston)
fabric > 'fab-ric
Nebraska > ne-'bras-ka
zebra > 'ze-bra
vibrate > 'vi-,brate
hubris > 'hu-bris (not 'hub-ris)
fibrosis > fi-'bro-sis (i a diphthong)
hybrid > 'hy-brid
inebriate > i-'ne-bri-,ate (ee)
glabrous > 'gla-brous (ay)
scabrous > 'sca-brous or 'scab-rous

cupric > 'cu-pric (yoo)
caprice > ca-'price (first schwa)

Factual 'should'

2012-01-07T15:55:00.001-08:00

It is interesting that you should say that. Here 'should' is not modal, but factual.

Retracted lips: American English

2012-01-07T00:46:00.000-08:00

1. Consonants of American English are produced with a more retracted lip position than French/Spanish
2. "to smile, in order to place the voice towards my nasal resonator - one of the three voice resonators along with the facial and throat resonators. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7509572.stm
3. Retracted lips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZy2XqcPLlE

How to pronounce Arab in English

2012-01-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

2 syllable word, where the stress usually falls on the first syl; hence, 'ar-ab > 'ær-əb (reduction of the 2nd syl> 'ɛɚəb (thanks to the historic r neutralization)
In Singapore, there is a street called "Arab Street", which is pronounced as A-rab, where the syllabification is different: ˈeɪ-ræb. Merriam-Webster lists this pronunciation as dialectal.

Contrastive stress vs contrastive accent

2012-01-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

cf. Bolinger's contrastive accent and stress paper; Bailey talked abt the same in his works
Phonemically similar or dissimilar
Being phonemically dissimilar, COUNTERsign and BROADcast can be accented on their normal stressed locations.
We can tolerate some similarity--even a difference of only one linear phoneme, if it is in the stressed syllable. Not conFESSion, conCESSion; Not deFECtion, deFLECtion
We can tolerate identical stressed syllables if there is enough contrast elsewhere: He is as inSIStent as any woman, but not really SISsified.
If the similarity of the words get any closer, a change may be demanded. A change in stress. EXport, not IMport
If two such words occur very often, a permanent change of stress could happen. cf. WHOLEsale, REtail, EXTrovert, INTRovert--in these words, the change happened. EXhale-INhale (contrastively).
Same with --ee words. PORTugeese is heard more often than portuGEESE. CHInese, JAPAnese, even when not joined.
The shift occurs even when one from such pairs is part of the background. AAA clerk, after discussing about motel accomodations in Mexico city, says: in Mexico city I recommend a HOtel (instead of hoTEL)
There are restrictions on where the shift can stress. Usually, long syl. The book refers to CYtology, not HIStology (shifted from the second to the first syl, which is long). I would call that legal action PERsecution, not PROSecution (shifted from the third to the first). Which kind of compound is it, sulFATE or sulFITE? (shifted from the first to the second)

Aspiration and the garbage from accent reduction courses

2012-01-04T23:55:00.000-08:00

Aspiration is gradient
Pierrehumbert and Talkin (1992) reported that the aspiration of /t/ depends on the location of tomahawk in an ip and IP
VOT of /t/ if phrase-initial > VOT if phrase-medial.

Pitch accents in AmE

2012-01-04T20:43:00.001-08:00

H* (a local peak at the stressed syllable)
L* (a local valley at the stressed syllable)
H+L* (a fall to the stressed syllable)
H*+L (a fall from the stressed syllable)
L+H* (a rise to the stressed syllable)
L*+H (a rise from the stressed syllable)

Voice of Ray Taliaferro

2012-01-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

I found Ray Taliaferro's voice to operatic, whenever I listened to him on KGO 810. What I mean is this: it is a product of operatic voice training. Yes, my 'intuition' or inference is correct. Yeah, he was trained in operatic voice.

Unstressed full vowels in English

2011-12-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

1. Stressed vowels are not reduced

2. Not all unstressed vowels are reduced

3. Not all stressed vowels are accented

The following two claims are pervasive in L2 teaching circles.

4. Unstressed vowels are reduced to a schwa/schwi/schwu

5. All stressed vowels are accented

In this post, I will address myself to (4).

Stress dictates the syllabification of English words. There are two kinds of syllables when stressed: open and closed.

Open stressed syllables occur before a CVV (cf. curious) and a CVVV (cf. courageous, erroneous). In this case, the stressed vowel tends to be tense (like in may, gee, oh, you/noon). However, if the stressed grapheme is i, the stressed vowel is a lax i (cf. bit, kin). You know why? The grapheme 'e' produces a tense -ee- (as in beat). The options left for the grapheme i: either a lax i (cf. kin) or a diphthong like kite. We can pursue this matter elsewhere.

How about VCCVV, VCCVVV cases? Closed syllables; therefore, stressed lax vowels. cf. compare obnoxious with erroneous: in both cases, we see CVVV. However, x is a consonant cluster -ks; /k/ joins the previous unstressed syllable, changing the vowel from OH to COT vowel.

There is a special case of open stressed vowels; cf below. This,due to the lack of a coda consonant in the stressed syllable.

a: algebraic, mosaic, Passaic river, archaic, mosaic
e: allogeneic
o: benzoic
u: Toluic acid

Closed stressed syllables are seen elsewhere; cf. dy-nam-ic, a-mer-i-ca/a-mer-ic-a.

What happens to the adjacent unstressed syllables/vowels?

If the adjacent unstressed vowel is closed, then the underlying vowel is NOT reduced. However, if it is open, the the underlying vowel gets reduced. That's why you see full vowels in many unstressed vowels.

fan-TAS-tic

mag-NIF-ic-ent

pos-TER-i-ty > po-STER-i-ty

MAN-ches-ter

COM-pen-SA-tion (this version is heard along with the second being a schwa variety)
re-lak-SA-tion (AmE) vs rel-ak-SA-tion (the secnd being a schwa)

Merriam-Webster is good at listing these.

Unless you know abt theories of syllabification, this phenomenon of unstressed full vowels appear arbitrary. So, you need these lens to see the phenomenon in a new light!

L2 English speakers fantasy of "Difficult words to pronounce"

2011-12-30T10:36:00.000-08:00

1. These threads were started by some non-native speakers of English. Why these schmucks focus on 'difficult' words. There are no difficult words to pronounce if they are anglicized. Anglicizing is a phenomenon well known in Load word phonology.

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/pronunciation-phonetics/161717-words-most-difficult-pronounce.html

http://www.englishforums.com/English/TheHardestWordsPronounce/cqbvk/post.htm

2. I don't think these idiots wanted to learn systematically about how to anglicize foreign words. Rather, they think that 'pronunciation' is all there is to learn when one wants to acquire a native-like accent.

3. Yes, English words have lexical stress. Not all lexically stressed syllables are accented (cf. pitch accents of Bolinger, Pierrehumbert, Gussenhoven, Ladd, etc). If you listen to spoken English corpus, you see many instances of lexically stressed syllables getting unstressed. These accent reduction guys explain away the foregoing as an aberration. It is not an aberration, but a systematic phenomenon. Richard Cauldwell of Discourse Intonation and many in ToBI traditions know about this.

For instance, from Charles-James Bailey's "New Intonation theory to account for pan-English and idiom-particular patterns"

In rapid tempos heavy non-nuclear accents have lowered to unaccented status, while unaccented vowels other than schwa (in idioms that preserve them) may become schwa (except word-finally) and then undergo rules affecting the loss of schwa. Conversely, in syllable-timed rhythm vowels that are ordinarily reduced may have their underlying target values (as though they were tertiarily or quaternally accented).

Here is another instance from Corpus, discussed by Mark Liberman.

Career center > cur center

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3637

Intrinsic pitch, duration and loudness of American vowels

2011-12-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

Prosody

2011-12-28T18:52:00.001-08:00

Prosodic phrasing
Prosodic dephrasing
Prosodic pausing
Prosodic lengthening

Loan word phonology: metathesis, epenthesis

2011-12-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

epenthesis:

Knuth: k(uh)nuth
gnu: g(uh)nu
Dvora Alon wife of Yosef Alon: duhvora
Knoepfle: Kuhnoepfle

metathesis:

favre: farv

Many Sanskrit words went through process like these when they become part of Telugu, Hindi, Kannada vocabularies.

Perception and theory-ladenness

2011-12-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

Experience is structured. Structured by what? By the language we use, by the implicit beliefs (which we are not unable to describe) and explicit beliefs and theories, and by our actions.
You can't really observe what's out there unless you are working with some or another working hypothesis. In other words, the experience of the world is different based on which competing theory you subscribe to.
"[W]hat is more important, the very notion of ‘observability’ also changes as our knowledge of the world evolves. The problem of some clerical contemporaries of Galileowith the telescope had to do with what they were ‘observing’: were they seeing what was ‘there’ on the moon, or an illusory image projected by the telescope which had nothing to do with the so-called mountains on the moon?" (p.170, The Heathen in His Blindness, S.N. Balagangadhara)
Many English second language speakers can't observe many segmental, suprasegmental, paralinguistic phenomena related to native English.
So, we need instruments for these second language speakers to make them perceive the above phenomena.
Are the accent reduction coaches helpful in giving these instruments? To some extent, yes. But to a large extent, these native speakers are NOT aware of the phenomena related to English.
Therefore, both accent reduction coaches--who happen to be native speakers-- and second language learners need instruments (not like telescope, but theories--after all, theories are instruments, since they change your perception of the world) to observe these phenomena.
What kind of instruments (theories) we need?
English Phonetic Transcription by Charles-James Nice Bailey is an essential instrument.
The other is: various theories of Intonation (Intonation Phonology by Robert Ladd, ToBI, JC Wells English Intonation, Alan Cruttenden's Intonation, CJN Bailey's intonation theory)
Books related to English nonverbal communication
Unless these accent reduction coaches master these works, they can't help the foreign speakers achieve a native-like accent, except for the fact they can take these speakers from one point to another better point.

Why is Brett Favre's last name pronounced "Farv"?

2011-12-23T17:18:00.001-08:00

Pedro Alvarez, Freelance Pastor Edit Bio

Simple answer: phonatactics. In English, certain constant clusters are not permitted in the coda, and some other consonant clusters in the onset of a syllable.

When foreign words are anglicized, English makes some changes to fit to its phonotactics.

The cluster /vr/ is not permitted in the coda. The easy way to anglicize is: epenthesis, by inserting a vowel (a) between v and r or (b) after r : fav-(uh)re or fav-ruh.

For instance, Macabre is pronounced as muh-KAH-bruh. American cadre is pronounced as cah-DREY. This follows the process (b).

The other way is: metathesis. Just transpose v and r--becoming the cluster rv, which is permitted in the coda of English word--and see whether it fits the native pattern. That's what happened in 'Farv'

unmonitered pronunciations: credit, wanted, united

2011-12-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

credit card > cred card
united states > unid states
wanted that > wand that > wan' that > wan' 'at (CJ Bailey)

stress and accent

2011-12-21T23:26:00.001-08:00

We need to keep two things distinct: stress and accent. Different authors call these categories differently. For instance, accent (Bolinger) is referred to as pitch-accent (ToBI), and as intonational-accent (Charles-James Bailey).

The plain old heuristic "stress content words, but not functors" doesn't help a foreigner to acquire a native-like accent. Peter roach demonstrates this in his video (check below). He plays three versions of a small paragraph: (a) monotone (no pitch accents); (b) stress content words, but not functors; (c) pitch accent one or two words per intonational phrase. Even though this video is about British English, it is applicable to all English varieties wrt pitch accents. The version (c) appear native; the version (a) appears like those of fast speakers with a flat pitch pattern (no excursions in the pitch, that means); the version (b) sounds mechanical, non-native.

1. Chunk your paragraphs into breath/intonation/tone/tune/phonological unit or phrase or group. These all words breathe phrase/tone unit/etc are part of different intonation theories.

2. Change pitch on the focussed syllables, but don't change pitch on all stressed syllables in that phonological phrase. If you change pitch (up or down) on every stressed syllable, you sound like (b).

3. Whenever you change your pitch abruptly, you hear a micropause just before that syllable. If the pitch change is gradual, you dont hear that micropause: that's why it is called flat. However, foreigners get confused with the notion that they are monotonic. In a way, both foreigners and native speakers are right. It is just that they don't understand each other when it comes to describing the musicality. The foreigner sees pitch variation in his speech (like smooth gradual line); whereas the native speaker sees abrupt excursions in his pitch, and describes some foreign accent as having a monotone (no tonal change). If you bring in the notion of pitch accent (this concept is heavily discussed in ToBI --tone and break indices), we can make sense of both foreign and native accents. In fact, it helps you perceive these differences. Just plain ears and eyes don't help you observe the world; theories function as instruments to observe the world.

4. The dispute among Intonation theorists about English intonation is about how to describe deeper patterns beyond pitch excursions.

For instance, British school, the proponent of nuclear tone theory, describes the intonational phrase as thus:

IP = pre-head + head + nucleus + tail

Nucleus contains kinetic tone (low rise, high rise, flow fall, high fall, fall-rise, rise-fall).
head contains level tones.

You can split a sentence into multiple intonational phrases.

S = IP1 + IP2.

If S is delarative, the nucleus of IP2 contains the declarative tone (in this case, fall); however, the nucleus of IP1 contains continuative tone.

There are many heuristics available about what to focus on in intonational phrases.

Collapse this post

Stress and intonation. A Lecture by Peter Roach, part 3.

youtube.com – Peter Roach is Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at Reading University. He is also the author of 'English Phonetics and Phonology', the fourth edition of...

Velar and alveolar softening

2011-12-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

pharyngeal - uvular - velar - prevelar - palatal - retroflex - alveolar - interdental - bilabial

back vowels - central vowels - front vowels

back consonants + front vowels, velar softening
front consonants + back vowels, alveolar softening

gesture, genuine, etc: g > j
furniture, etc: t > ch

Palatalization, affrication, softening.

Regressive assimilation

2011-12-11T14:46:00.001-08:00

A + B > A' + B Regressive
A + B > A + B' Progressive

used + to = useta

æv > æf
have + to = hafta

əz > əs > s
has + to = hasta

as fast as Tom:
> æz fæst æz tɑm
> æz fæst æz tɑm

> æs fæst æs tɑm

> əs fæst əs tɑm

> sfæst əs tɑm

has to move his car:

>hæz tu muv hiz kɑr

> hæs t' muf hiz kɑr

Why I love to>wɑɪ ləftu

Bolinger's patterns

2011-12-11T14:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.speakmethod.com/stress5.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvroe4i30Hs

To my friends, I might say: To my new business partner, I'd say, ... or

Steve? Where

Where's is Steve?

Steve? Where is

The story of the "to"

2011-12-11T14:18:00.001-08:00

The word "to" reduces all the time. You will even notice that names, such as "The Today Show" are pronounced with this reduction. On TV, they will say, "The T'day Show." On the other hand, you often hear people saying a regular "to" when thinking of what to say next. So reduce "to" in words like "today" and "tomorrow" and in complete thoughts, as in "we're going t'the store now."

http://www.speakmethod.com/stress4.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4YKbAbbkVI

head movement and tones

2011-12-06T14:24:00.001-08:00

Seeing pitch: Visual information for lexical tones of Mandarin-Chinese by Trevor H. Chen and Dominic W. Massaro

Watch Vivian Cook's head movement when he utters English tones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HGxfR7Sziw

" For example, vowel duration tends to be longest for tone 3 and shortest for tone 4; amplitude tends to be lowest for tone 3 and highest for tone 4 "

Tone 4: 2-1-4 (low-fall-raise): longest

Tone 5: 5-1 (high fall): louder

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811545/table/t1/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811545/

Intonation and Indian English

2011-12-04T01:33:00.001-08:00

However I'd like to mention an interesting usage that is common among Indian English speakers (those from the Asian subcontinent, not Native Americans)… the use of a rising inflection followed by a pause on the word (usually an article) just before the key word of the sentence.

Could it derive from a habit of schoolteachers testing students' knowledge or memory with just such an intonation: "it's aaaa ….. RABBIT!" (or whatever). Students from another language background, taught in English-only schools, would have been exposed to frequent use of this intonation and might have concluded this was normal for declarative speech in English.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=864

-ent, -ant

2011-11-26T01:53:00.001-08:00

Penultimate Law: stress falls on the penult syl if the latter is heavy; otherwise on the antepenult syl.
heavy = CVCC, CVVC; light = CV, CVC
light: arrogant, belligerent, benevolent, decadent, fumigant, percipient, permanent, reticent, significant
light: subsequent, 'consequent
light: con'stituent (constrast the above)
heavy cluster: absorbent, abundant, astringent, correspondent, convergent, insistent, malignant, reluctant
heavy sc: acquiescent, quiescent, incandescent, luminescent, florescent, effervescent, coalescent
heavy po: component, exponent, opponent, potent, impotent, idempotent
'pla complacent
heavy ar: apparent, transparent
heavy rr: ab'horrent, aberrent, recurrent, deterrent, concurrent, susurrant
heavy ll: ap'pellant
heavy: defiant
'Protestant
a'dja-cent
heavy ss: in'cessant

Free books on phonetics, pronunciation, etc

2011-11-25T19:51:00.001-08:00

Speaking American English: a practice book for advanced foreign speakers

By Thomas Lee Crowell

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=phonetics%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts

Practical French Phonetics

University lectures on phonetics by Alexander M. Bell

A Handbook of French Phonetics

Manual of Elementary Phonetics

Walter Ripman's Phonetics

The pronunciation of American English by Arthur Bernstein

Phonetics,: an introduction to the principles of phonetic science from the point of view of English speech Robert West, AmE

English sounds for foreign tongues, a drill book

Phonetics,: an introduction to the principles of phonetic science from the point of view of English speech

Four syllable words and stress: -ant, -ent, -cy

2011-11-23T23:34:00.001-08:00

X - - -
affluency ('affluent)
adequacy ('adequate)
bankruptcy (or Xx--) 'bank,rupt
accuracy ('accurate)
celibacy ('celibate)
candidacy ('candidate)
competency ('competent
delicacy ('delicate)
hesitancy ('hesitant)
intricacy ('intricate)
militancy ('militant)
occupancy ('occupant)
profligacy ('profligate)

-X--
conspiracy
diplomacy
dependency (dependent)
redundancy (redundant)

X-x-
geomancy
necromancy
pyromancy

Also http://blaoism.blogspot.com/2010/11/ant-ent-ance-ence.html

ient

proficient pro-'fi-cient
pro-'ficiency

2 syllable -al words

2011-11-16T15:57:00.001-08:00

#o#al : OH
______
local
total
coral
modal
tonal
loyal
nodal
royal
coral
vocal
______
a#al: AY

anal
banal
nasal
natal
fatal
vasal
rachal

exceptions: ca'bal, ca'nal
-----
a##al

rascal
pa'scal
randal

______

u#al: YOO OO

rural
mural
fugal
pupal
________
e#al EE

renal
fecal
penal
pedal (adj)
regal
venal
________________
i#al IA

final
viral
tidal
vital
rival
cital

"No problem" in casual speech

2011-11-13T00:39:00.001-08:00

No problem > No prom

blem > boem (l vocalization) > bm (reduction) > m (assimilation)

theory of price

2011-11-09T22:38:00.000-08:00

Marx: price = labor value + surplus value
price = f(supply, demand)
price = f(supply, demand, credit or fiat money that increases the demand)
price = f(supply, demand, credit or fiat money that increases the demand, futures/swaps)
or demand = g(credit, fiat money, elasticity of money, futures, etc)

Even worse, you actually believed all that stuff about prices being set based on market fundamentals. Little did you know that it’s no longer the supply and demand for companies, houses, office buildings, natural gas or wheat that sets prices. More likely it’s the supply and demand for the futures, swaps and other derivative instruments linked to those things.

These markets have long since outgrown their original function of providing producers and consumers of these commodities with a way to hedge their risks by guaranteeing supply and locking in prices. All futures markets require a certain number of “speculators” to take the other side of the contracts from commercial users and producers. Typically, these speculators would represent 30 percent of the participants in a healthy futures market.

But today, because of a sudden desire to earn higher returns and diversify investment portfolios, there are more people wanting to invest in corn and copper and oil than there is corn and copper and natural gas produced and consumed. But no problem. The financial wizards on Wall Street have magically conjured up synthetic corn and copper and West Texas oil so that speculators can provide hedging opportunities for other speculators. Instead of 30 percent of the market, these “passive investors” typically account for 70 percent or more.

More at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/steven-pearlstein-you-bet-its-another-bubble/2011/10/31/gIQAKOtxnM_print.html

Technical and fundamental analysis are useless

2011-11-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

One of the long-term recurring themes both here and in other more objective media, has been the encroaching domination of the central planning regime, or monetary authorities, read central banks, in the domain of capital markets and overall broad sovereignty, to the point where there is neither technical nor fundamental analysis left, but merely the question of where is the next batch of excess liquidity going to come from. Welcome to the death throes of the fiat system.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/fall-house-money-artemis-capital-how-%E2%82%ACentral-banking-took-over-capital-markets-and-world

Muscularity, tonality, point of resonance, articulatory settings: American Accent

2011-11-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

I remember seeing a story of someone who wanted to be an actor in the US, but had a think Eastern European accent. He hired a vocal coach to teach him... the coach suggested putting a small piece of cork between your molars in the back of your mouth. He said this greatly helped his accent. Apparently it has a lot to do with the placement of your teeth, tongue and jaw. tl;dr Put cork in between your molars, bite down, sound american. Profit?

I'm American, and actually, I kinda understand what you're talking about. After having myself and co-workers try talking with a pen in their mouths, they sound...like, ultra-American somehow. I don't really know how to describe it other than that.

American here, when I studied abroad in France my host mother told me that, "The English always take great care to pronounce every letter. Americans always sound as though their mouths are full of potatoes."

Another tip, from a linguistics student:
A lot of your consonants are probably retroflex, which means that your tongue is curled back when you say them (for example, the English [l] and [r] are retroflex, but no other consonants are). Try saying your consonants the way you normally would in your accent, and then try it again but this time straighten out your tongue (so instead of the underside curling over and touching whatever the part of your palate it is, the top side is touching it).

fast speech pronunciation of "united states"

2011-10-27T23:58:00.001-07:00

united states > unide states

Phonation and singing

2011-10-12T20:09:00.001-07:00

As a teacher I always found that trying to encourage a singer who forces toward a more easy and healthy production was extremely difficult and often entangling task.
Through years of such attempts I had the best success by describing the phonation versus breath relationship in this way.
Controlling the exhale is simply a matter of balancing the action of the exhaling abdominal muscles with the gentle resistance of the diaphragm. We have a sense of the movement of the abdominals but we do not have that same sense of the movement and resistance of the diaphragm. So some easy exercise to make one aware of the balancing between abdominal and diaphragm is necessary. I found that the act of gently expelling a small amount of warm, moist breath on my fingertips when placed at the lips of the open mouth did the trick. It is much the same action one uses to steam eye glasses for cleaning. During this process, if one pays special attention, it is possible to sense the gentle tension of the abdominals in the lower pelvic region and also sense of suspended breath in the epigastric region just below the breast bone while the gentle warm moist breath is being expelled.
This is the essence of the singer's breath. Now start a small, soft yet clearly attacked tone with this breath. In so doing the vocal folds are closing just firmly enough so that the expelling air must push them apart so they can close again. The is the only vocal fold pressure needed to produce tone. It is proper phonation. If you swell the tone louder, the vocal folds will simply close a bit more firmly and more breath pressure is needed to blow them apart but that slight increase in needed breath pressure is almost completely immeasurable and the singer's sensation is mostly that the tone is automatically louder. It is never necessary nor desirable to sense that the folds are holding back the breath. There should be no tension in the throat. There should be a slightly increased sense of tension in the abdominals as they act against the increased resistance of the diaphragm to control the breath, but the vocal folds are not the primary resistance to the exhale as is often imagined by the forced tone singer.
Lloyd W. Hanson

What is Indianness? What is to be an Indian?

2011-10-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

The word 'Indian' is multivocal--meaning this word refer to multiple things, and hence, can have multiple senses.

We got a triplet: (a word, reference, sense) There are many theories out there in philosophy of language: theory of reference; theory of sense; how sense and reference are related. I am not dwelling on these issues. I am merely registering the fact that the word 'Indian' is multivocal. Whenever we engage in discussion, we should be univocal (at least referring to the same thing); otherwise, we will commit the fallacy of equivocation.

Let me list various referents that are associated with 'Indian'

1. One who looks Indian (South Asia): colors, looks, etc

2. One who holds an Indian passport

3. One whose culturality is Indian: in this group falls the cultural attitudes about human psyche, etc.

4. One who wears Indian clothes, eats Indian food, listen to Indian music etc.

All these four sets are not co-extensive, and hence, are not synonyms.

A person born in the states to South Asian parents can be (1), but not of (3).

The Indianness has more to do with (3).

-que, que

2011-09-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

http://onelook.com/?w=*que&scwo=1&sswo=1
*a+que: AY: o- 'pa-que
*i+que: EE: an-'ti-que, u-'ni-'que, o-'bli-que, my-'sti-que, phy-'si-que, tech-'ni-que; ,mo-zam-'bi-que, bou-'ti-que
*o+que: ba-'ro-que
*VC+que: short vowel and closed syl [+stress]: bur-'les-que; ,pic-tu-'res-que

tonit, tunit

2011-09-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

In tonal languages (such as mandarin), tone is lexical, meaning that (a)a tone is associated with a segment and that (b) a change in the tone of the segment changes the meaning of the word. This is called a"tone unit (tonit)" (cf. Charles-James N. Bailey). Pitch accent languages fall in the same category.
In intonational languages (like English), the tone is suprasegmental, meaning that tone spreads across segments. This is called a "tune unit (tunit)"

C-J.N Bailey Intonation:

tunit = anacruis (which exists in the first tunit) + head + tail
tunit + tunit + tunit = anacrusis + head + tail + head + tail + head + tail
cadence, a concept is abused by the naive in dialect training = the tail of the tune
tunit = precadence + cadence
the head of a tunit = a stressed syllable of a focus [ +focus] word
stressed syllables of [-focus] words are NOT tunit heads.
the anacrutic tone: mid-toned (neutral); otherwise, low or high tone
check

Discourse Intonation

Tone units, similar to tunits above.
tone unit = proclictic segment + tonic segment + enclictic segment
tonic segment = 1 or 2 prominent syllables
in 2-prominent syl tone unit = onset (1st prom. syl) + tonic syl (pitch change or tone) (TOBI pitch accent fits the tonic syl)
proclictic, enclitic segments = no prom. syl
unique to DI = sub-components in tone units (prominence, tone, key, termination) and speaker options
prominence sub-system: " Where the speaker chooses to say something he believes the hearer cannot take for granted from the existential paradigm, he makes it prominent. Whenever this paradigm is reduced to a choice of one however, the item becomes non-prominent."

British School:

tone unit = pre-head + head + tonic syl + tail
pre-head = all unstressed syl preceding the first stressed syl
head = part of a tone unit that extends from the first syl up to (not including) the tonic syl
tail = any syl b/w the tonic syl and the end of the tone unit

Luciano Canepari:

intonation group = pre-intoneme + intoneme
intoneme = pretonic syl + tonic syl + one or two posttonic syl
preintoneme = one or more stressed (protonic) and unstressed syl (intertonic)
preintoneme = antetonic + 1st pro + 1st inter + pro + inter + last pro + last inter
antetonic = initial unstressed syl
intertonic = unstressed syl
protonic/tonic = stressed syl

Intonation: attitude, grammar, etc

2011-09-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

"Studies of data show that in guessing games, for instance, speakers tend to use falling tones in yes-no questions when making initial guesses but switch to rising tones as they begin to have an idea about what the answer might be. (Brazil, 1997: 107). Similarly, a grammatical description cannot explain why yes-no requests for help sound pushy if accompanied by a rising tone."

"It is equally dangerous to attach specific attitudinal labels to pitch choices. Native speakers rarely agree when matching intonation contours with attitudinal labels as Crystal’s experiments (1969) show. (Crystal in Coulthard, 1977: 98) Furthermore, tones can represent more than one attitude and a number of attitudes can reflect more than one tone. (Crystal in Cauldwell, 2000: 1) Studies demonstrate that judgements about a speaker’s emotional state cannot be made without contextual knowledge. Cauldwell, for instance, has shown that people judgements change depending on whether utterances are heard inisolation or in-context. (Cauldwell, 2000: 5)"

Wynnpaul Varela's review of the treatment of Intonation in courses.

How to pronounce "Santa Ana, CA"

2011-09-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

Santa Ana > Santana

Add pre-velar nasal tensing

How to go to turkey/Europe from Pakistan by bus?

2011-09-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

1. Go to Quetta/Zhob/Chamman, Balochistan
2. Catch a bus to Tehran. Ac bus costs ya like 8000 paki rupees, another 2000 for food and drinks, etc
3. Zehdain, Iran-pak border
4. Kheran
5. Shiraz
6. Tehran or tabrez, then take another bus to turkey

2300 Kilometers from Quetta to tehran, takes 2 days, that is, 48 hrs

Tehran to Tabrez: 650 km
Tabrez to Istanbul: 2300 km
Istanbul to Turkey/Bulgaria/Greece border, Edirne: 250 kms

Turkey Border point:

GREECE from Turkey:

By road, to Athens: 950 kms

By ferries, from alexandropoulis to myrina, then to rafina/athens

BULGARIA from Turkey:

Edirne to Sophia: 350 Kms

ROMANIA from Turkey via Bulgaria:

Edirne to Bucarest/bucuresti: 400 kms

Car clicks but won't crank, lights work

2011-09-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday:

(1) clicks, but won't crank
(2) radio and lamps work (didn't check wipers)
(3) No alternator system bad sign on the dashboard.

I thought (4) the culprit would be the starter (relay, solenoid or both).

However, called GM motor club for jump start. Yeah, jumpstart did the trick. Since I don't carry a voltmeter handy, I took it to O'reilly auto parts to have the battery tested. Yes, the battery is dead. The funny thing is that (5) the battery is just 2 years old, which got 7 years warranty. They prorated and gave me another battery for $40.

Today: the generator sign or the battery sign showed up on the dashboard. Checked the alternator/generator belt, which is working fine. Had the alternator tested; its hosed.

The real culprit: not the battery, but the alternator, which killed the battery in the first place.

back-channel feedback

2011-09-10T02:26:00.000-07:00

Here are five of the most typical back-channels in a few languages.
American
English [5] Mexican
Spanish Japanese [5] Iraqi
Arabic French [10] German [1]
1 yeah si un aih oui ah (ach)
2 uh-huh si si ee nam ouais ja (ahja, aja)
3 hm ajá aa repetition humhum mhm
4 right mjm laughter mmm hum nein (ne)
5 okay laughter hai hmm ah okay

Australian English yeh, hm, mhm, oh, ah, right [9]
British English yes, m, no, yeah, really [8]
Dutch: uh-huh, okay, ja, hela, jawel, nee, nou, zo [10, 1]
Egyptian Arabic: ah, mmm, laughter, tayeb, aiwa [5]
Finnish: joo, nii [11]
Italian: ah, mhm, mm, oh, si, uhuh [1]
Korean: mhm, n, ney, yeh, a, ah [6]
Mandarin Chinese: ao, ai, dui [4]
Swedish: ja, m, nä, va, nej, jo, jaha, aha, okej, just [2]
Vietnamese o', u', vang [7]

Clicks

Phrasal back channels: really? , wow, is that right?, etc.

First two lists are from http://www.cs.utep.edu/nigel/bc/

Fernardo Poyatos' work

Why TESOL certification is a piece of shit!

2011-09-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

Native speakers get TESOL certification from places like this, and think that they are read to teach English to non-native speakers.

1. Being a native speaker is neither necessary nor sufficient to teach non-native speakers
2. The next step is: get a TESOL certification. This is not sufficient as well.
3. TESOL is worthless when it comes to help others learn American dialect.
4. See a voice trainer (one who can teaches you to discriminate pitch and who knows how to produce all possible sounds, like those in William Smalley's Manual of Articulatory Phonetics.

Some bland suggestions given by wannabe teachers:

1. The first bland suggestion: listen carefully! This is a brute force method to acquire an accent, the worst way to go. Get trained on what to listen for before embarking on that 'careful' listening program. For instance, try to understand various English language-specific phenomena: for instance,
Blaoism: Pronunciation phenomena

2. The second bland suggestion: imitate! This suggestion is devoid of content. There are six things you should focus on before you go on that imitation exercise.

Here are six things:
Pitch--high/low
Pitch characteristic -- gravelly, raspy, breathy, scraping, creaky, etc
Tempo -- faster/slowerRhythm: dadada-daah (clipping), military style
Placement: nasal, back
Mouth work: dialect

Voice Matching and Imitating Voices | Voices.com

Here is the problem with those who give bland advice: either (a) they have not acquired any L2 with a native-like proficiency; or (b) they have not done any voice over work that involves voice matching or automated dialogue replacement.

3. Find a guy, who is good at articulatory phonetics. Or one who can guide you all lessons in Manual of Articulatory Phonetics by William Smalley, a missionary.

One day you can come up with your show like Family Guy, South Park, etc, or with a movie like Borat, if you master these skills.

Somewhere else I wrote wrt AmE:

Is it possible to acquire a native-like accent? Yes, if necessary strategies exist; otherwise, nope.

One should focus on the folllowing areas:

1. Phones and allophones of both vowels and consonants

2. reduced forms

3. stress patterns (Don't waste your time reading Chomsky's Sound pattern of English, not that much productive)

4. Phonological processes (http://blaoism.blogspot.com/2008/09/pronunciation-rules.html)

5. Rhythm--and this is linked with 2, 3 and 4.

6. Melody (Pitch contours, pitch configuration, etc)--and how they are linked to discourse, syntax (functors vs contents), etc.

7. Non-verbal communication: gestures, paralanguage, etc (proxemics, etiquette, non-phonetic voice features, etc, watch Borat ). This is all

It is very hard to find a course or book that covers all of the above. It is also very hard to find a tutor that deals all of the above. (It is also very hard to find a student that is interested in these details; most of them want a quick fix) So, you need to do research on your own, and use tutors from different areas: a music teacher for pitch contours (in singing, you need to discriminate a semi tone apart--in speaking, you are good to go when you discriminate 2 to 3 semitones apart); etc.

All L2 research assumes that necessary learning/teaching strategies exist to acquire a native-like accent. Hence, they come up with all explanations as to why a native-like accent can't be acquired. This is a fallacy of petitio principii.

imaginative > imagitive

2011-09-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

imaginative > imagitive fast speech, prosodic effect

Pronunciation feedback

2011-09-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

It's fun to give feedback to those who 'really' seek it!

1. Yod:

The second syllable of 'computer' contains a yod (or /y/); however, the second syllable of 'popular' doesn't contain a yod. Your 'newest' contains a yod; however, AmE doesn't have a yod after alveolar and dental consonants (l, r, s, z, d, t, n, th, voiced th, ch, dz) I don't hear a yod in the second syllable of "January": even though /n/ is alveolar, there is a yod, since /n/ is not part of that syllable.

2. Macintosh: the last syllable contains a COT vowel; in your version, I hear a monophthong OH.

3. "brand continues to * stay" I hear a sound like "the" before stay.

4. processing: I hear a /z/ in the second syllable.

5. MacOS: /s/ sound is not consistent. I hear both /z/ and /s/.

You got AmE lilt; so, you can pass off as a native speaker. You can work on "where to keep yod; where to drop y"--and this is a systematic phenomenon in AmE.

Here is the requester's recording: http://www.sendspace.com/file/42ua1s

My response

glides; intrusive r in BrE; glottal stop

2011-09-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

front vowels + unstressed vowel > palatal glide y
back vowels + unstressed vowel > labio-velar glide w

some mice vs some ice: in the latter ?aIs

A very convenient use of the glottal stop is to seperate successive vowels between which no natural glide develops to bridge the hiatus, as in Anna asks.(p.127, Applied phonetics, Claude Merton Wise)

In BrE, schwa + vowel > intrusive or excrescent r

A comment on 10 Tips on English pronunciation and accent improvement!

2011-08-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

1.Focusing on individual sounds (allophones of a phoneme) would not help much. The way Indians syllabify English words is the basis of what is grating to Native speakers. English syllabication is dictated by stress, which changes the quality of the underlying vowel.
Learning stress patterns is of certain help: these exercises don’t explain the basics of syllabication.

2. The other problem is pitch. The vocal range of Indian speakers is another source of accent. Indian speakers have less pitch range when compared to native speakers. Going higher/lower is not same as louder/softer, even though pitch and loudness are related. Emphasizing a syllable in English is all about pitch variation: Indians associate emphasis with loudness.

3. The so-called accent reduction coaches and books don’t pay much attention to the above two. Of course, they talk about intonation of questions, statements, tags, etc: these exercises don’t help much. What is needed: awareness of pitch variation and how to produce that pitch variation.
For instance, take the word “John”, emphasize that word using pitch in many ways: long rise; short rise; long fall; short fall; rise fall; fall rise; etc.

Then apply that on both English and un-English words. Of course, what I am advising is familiar to the students of singing.

From

Passaggio and schwa

2011-08-30T00:57:00.000-07:00

Head register --> chest register (registration change)
high tones --> low tones

Use the back vowel of "book" instead of schwa.

Yod again

2011-08-29T23:02:00.001-07:00

figure, fig-u-re
accumulate, a-'cu-mu-,late (double yod)

Prosody and pronunciation

2011-08-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Absolutely > absoly
Necessarily > Necessily
(un)fortunately > forchnly

How to bribe Indian politicians?

2011-08-21T01:08:00.000-07:00

If you are a multi millionaire, and wanna become a billionaire in the emerging India market, what should you do?

Of course, bribe union cabinet ministers, state chief ministers!

How to bribe in a legal fashion?

1. Of course, you are a multi millionaire; you must be owning several companies. In this example, assume you own a cement factory.

2. You need 3000 acres mining lease--which is worth $500M--for peanuts from the Indian government, or you wanna secure $500M worth of real estate in a metropolitan city like Hyderabad. Pay a 'pimp' to get an appointment with a cabinet minister or chief minister.

3. Offer the minister that you gonna provide $250M UNSECURED loan to build a cement factory that will be owned by his son or grand daughter, etc.

There you go!

Mimicry?

2011-08-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

Voice matching, Voice replacement, Looping, ADR (automated dialogue replacement)

6 parameters:

Pitch--high/low
Pitch characteristic -- gravelly, raspy, breathy, scraping
Tempo -- faster/slower
Rhythm: dadada-daah (clipping), military style
Placement: nasal, back
Mouth work: dialect

Check

Bad breath, ugh!!

2011-08-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

Isn't it frustrating for you to deal with people with bad breath? Esp a bad breath colleague, who sits next to you.

How do their friends deal with it? How do their family members deal with it? Have they developed tolerance to it? Are these badbreathers aware of their badbreath? If so, have they done any thing about? If not, why your loved ones don't tell you about this? No matter how smart you are, you are treated like shit at work if you got bad breath!!

Of course, these badbreathers, if they are aware of their badbreath, dont smack of badbreath when they come to interviews.

1. Oral hygiene is important. Dirtbags out there think that brushing teeth is enough for oral hygeine!!

2. Brush your teeth

3. Floss and check your gum health

4. Clean your frigging tongue!!

5. Check your dental work--esp crowns, bridges, etc, since flossing doesn't help rid of the gunk !

6. Check whether your mouth becomes dry. Better check with a doctor!

7. Beat the shit outta your spouse/bf/gf, if they haven't told you about the bad breath!

Fancy trends in naming Indian kids

2011-08-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

I have noticed a trend about how the new Indian middle class name their kids: exotic names, which are hard to pronounce by kids' grandparents.

How to pick a trendy name?

Pick a Sanskrit word and change/add a consonant: for instance,

Antara is one such word, or call it root; its variations: mantara, gantara, santara, etc.

Take some English word, mess that a bit.

Peak, its variations kapeek, gapeek, maneek, kupeek, japeek, and the list goes on.

So far, so good.

Now listen to their babies' nick names, which are like: honey, bunny, goldy, duddy for kapeek, Ushkala, markasa,kurkuray names!

This middle class lacks the common sense that the illiterate rural folks possess!

Apocope of frequently used words

2011-08-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Pamela > Pam
Alligator > gator (Aphesis)
Crocodile > Croc
Professor > Prof, which is pronounced differently from the first syllable in professor
Password/Passcode > pass (customer service agents have started using this when you call banks, etc)
Photograph > Photo
American > merican (Aphesis)
Opossum > possum (aphesis)
synchronization > sync, synch, syncro, or synchro (recall sync rate in flying)
Alexander > Alex
Massachusetts > Mass
Agriculture > Ag

Three syllable words, loan word phonology

2011-08-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

In Eng, two kinds of pronunciations are possible for any three syllable word: SUU and USU, where U and S denote unstressed and stressed syllables.

Stress attracts onset and coda consonants, thereby affects adjacent syllables.

In this post, the focus is on -a-a/e-a words.

SUU variety:

Canada
Panama
Tamara
Cabala, Jewish th
Camera
Pamela

USU variety:

banana
Havana, Cuba
Sahara
bandana
Amanda

Recent discussion on American dialect society list: here, here

Indian Politicians and Chinese Communist Party Politburo

2011-08-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Why anyone in India wants to become a politician--be it a MLA (Member of legislative Assembly) and a MP (member of parliament)?

-- Those who want to protect their assets, companies, etc. For instance, SPY Reddy, MP from Nandyal, owns many companies there and these companies pollute, for instance, Kundu river nearby, thereby causing problems for drinking water along that river. Since he is a MP, no official can take action on him.

-- If you wanna become rich, you need to rob the richest. Who is the richest? Of course, the government. That's what Russian don Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich did. That's what hedge funds do: they don't like investors who have $100K, rather want public pension funds. In India, you need to compete to get access, the way students compete for a seat in an IIT, an IIM.

Many Indian politicians own companies (like Halliburton) that get huge contracts from government--construction of roads, power plants, reservoirs, bridges, dams, etc. If you are not politically connected, you will go bankrupt.

How about Ambanis? Of course, they are as 'corrupt' as an average Indian politician. They pay off parties to get what they want--cellular specturm, gas, oil reserves.

How this Indian Political system different from Chinese Communist Party?

No difference in kind: from wikileaks

The need for consensus and the desire to protect
vested interests are the main drivers of Politburo Standing
Committee (PBSC) decision-making and Chinese leadership
dynamics in general, according to Embassy contacts with
access to leadership circles. Contacts have variously
described relations at the top of CHINA's Party-state
structure as akin to those in the executive suite of a large
corporation, as determined by the interplay of powerful
interests, or as shaped by competition between "princelings"
with family ties to party elders and "shopkeepers" who have
risen through the ranks of the Party.

CHINA's top leadership had carved up
CHINA's economic "pie," creating an ossified system in which
"vested interests" drove decision-making and impeded reform
as leaders maneuvered to ensure that those interests were not
threatened

.

Who controls what in China?

Former Premier Li Peng and his family, all electric power interests
PBSC member and security czar Zhou Yongkang and associates, the oil interests
the late former top leader Chen Yun's family, most of the PRC's banking sector;
PBSC member and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Chairman Jia Qinglin, Beijing real estate developments;
Hu Jintao's son-in -law, Sina.com
Wen Jiabao's wife, CHINA's PRECIOUS GEMS sector.

Paradox of Singapore: no minimum wage!

2011-08-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

1. Singapore is an expensive place to shop if you are familiar with the states. $35 sketchers shoes at the US outlets are sold for $90 in Singapore--and the list goes on.

2. Food is cheap; so is renting a cab.

3. Both renting and owning space is expensive. One reason for high prices has to do with this.

4. Of 5 million population, there are about 900,000 lower-skilled foreign workers in Singapore, and about 150,000 skilled workers. I know one Indian, who worked in singapore for S$550 a month. An illegal amigo can make more than that in the states.

5. Government-linked corporations (GLC) control the 60 percent of the singaporean economy.

Why Singapore resists minimum wage?

My hypothesis is simple: implementing minimum wage eats into the profits of both GLCs and other parasites that run the remaining 40 % economy, if there is no control over the real estate.

What are the options?

(a) Regulate the rentals of office and shopping space
(b) cut down the profits
(c) suck the blood outta desperate workers coming from India, Myanmar, Philippines, etc and, of course, legally!

With both (a) and (b), Temesek holdings, Singapore sovereign fund, will loose money.

Indians, who are seeking 20,000 rupees a month in Singapore, should instead bilk the gubmint back home!

-100 days drought scheme in Andhra pays about 300*100 = Rs 30,000
- 2 Rupees rice per kilo
- become a real estate broker
- Ask for free electricity, free home, free medicare, so that the government can get loans from NABARD, IMF and World bank to fund these schemes, while at the same time your local legislator (MLA, MP) would get free land, construction/mining leases/power station/real estate/hospital ala arogya sree conracts through their holding companies from the govt.
- Start to learn how to lathe metals or buy a 3d printer, so that you can get ready when the shit hits the fan.

Indians' crazyness about English medium

2011-08-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks to concept, techno, international, concept-techno, techno-concept, concept-international, international-concept, etc, schools, every rural Indian parent wants his kid to go to such schools and learn/study in English medium.

One glaring problem in Indian schooling system: 99.99 percent of English teachers--despite their credentials from CIEFL or ENglish and foreign language university--are INCOMPETENT. These teachers can't make these students curious about language, in particular English; they got LIST mentality. To them, learning a language = learning a list of rules. This is the case with English teachers in the states/UK; but students in the states/UK/Aus/NZ are native speakers--so, the incompetency of their English teachers doesn't incapacitate students as much as English teachers in India do.

One can teach any language in a systematic fashion: building grammar as a system--a set of structures, substructures, etc.

CJ Bailey showed that English grammar can be built out of four building blocks.

1. three on horizontal dimension of predication: subject, predicate, optional complement (object or predicate complement)
2. one on vertical dimension of modification: of and by different parts of speech

Tense, mood, and all other crap taught by list mentalities is not conducive to learning English; more on this later.

How to screw the Indian middle class?

2011-08-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

1. Acquire a few thousand acres using aliases or holding companies
2. Announce that some 'specialized' tech city will be built.
3. Before doing (2), bring in public-private partnership--that is, have political allies buy up land nearby.
4. Lay down the foundation stone by public figures
5. Build a couple of sham companies there
6. Start selling matchbox sized plots, so that KPHB style UGLY matchbox style houses can be built there.

Don't show mercy at the new middle class. Just screw them whenever you get a chance; thats the only way to change the typical 'middle' class attitude.

How to mimic various telugu accents?

2011-08-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

1. Don't focus on individual sounds per se.

2. Focus on nasals when you hear. Why? This help ya fix the appropriate resonant configuration (or voice placement.)

3. Observe mouth during pauses; and during speech

4. Once you get the voice placement right, you can focus on how they realize certain phonemes in their lects, etc.

Assimilations in Spoken Telugu

2011-08-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

Approximants (ya, ra, la, va, ha) tend to get deleted in rapid speech.

Venka > enka > yanka
subba reddy > subbaady (in rural Kurnool district)
hallu > allu
chaaka raaju vemula > chakadijaamula ( two elisions: ve, ra)
vijaya vaada > ijaada (two v's, one ya)

What is preventing you from becoming a singer?

2011-08-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Q: What is preventing you from becoming a singer?

- You lack genes. This does not explain any thing. Postulating some entity doesn't explain; one needs to provide mechanism.

- You haven't cultivated the ability to sing ever since a kid; once you are past a certain age, you can't become a singer. This explanation has its cousin in acquiring native-like accent in L2 (see the 'rebuttal' in Dorothy Chun's Discourse in L2 Intonation). This explanation is ad hoc as well!

Q: Can you become a singer even if you are 70?

Yes, if you dont have articulatory problems (loosing teeth, TMJ). You can't become a singer without becoming a good listener. Perception precedes production: how many of us do perceive all fine details of what is sung? Not many.

What should one learn to perceive?

1. Pitch discrimination
2. Pause discrimination (time)
3. Vowels and consonants
4. breath management
5. Resonance and phonation

All of these fall under vocal awareness. We are hardly aware of how we speak whichever L1 we speak; after all, the way we speak etc is part of learning. However, majority of us end up equating these learned habits as being part of persona. Once you gain 'this' awareness, you will wise up: after all, you have been acting all along!

Wanna become a singer?

Find a good voice coach, shell out $10K or so. How to find a good voice coach? Follow the discussions on Vocalist to judge your coach. Money doesn't transform you into a good singer, the way Indian concept, techno, International schools have been selling. You need to be curious and willing to learn!

Can you learn to sing duets?

Hell yeah! In duets, you need 'emotional' awareness more than so in solo. Acting lessons help: coordinating emotions, emotional memory, etc.

Can you sing in any language?

Yes, it is possible if you know how to articulate vowels, consonants, pitch in that language.

Is it possible to find a good voice coach who can help you in all aspects: articulatory phonetics, voice, acting?

Not really. Find help as needed.

Four Pillars of Indian Wisdom

2011-08-01T05:36:00.000-07:00

Four pillars of Indian Wisdom

1. Those who procure real estate land (land mafia, politicians, the so-called civil servants--from IAS to sub registrars, swamijis, babas, gurus, people with 'divine' inclinations like T Subba Rami Reddy, etc)

2. Construction Industry: cement companies owned by some or all of the above; construction companies, etc, that build villas (a new concept in Indian real estate), apartments, airports, fab cities, baba ashrams, etc

3. Software, IT, etc: the so-called Middle class that buys villas, apartments, lands in the hope that they can make a million dollars in another 4 years.

4. Concept schools, Techno schools, International schools: This is where all but the ignorant send their kids.

If you wanna get 'enlightened', or seeking Indian 'gyan' or 'wisdom', you should be part of the above pillars!

Why Indians are getting fatter?

2011-07-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered about Indian women switching from rice to wheat, yet gaining weight?

Answer is pure and simple: carbohydrates (whether rice or whether).

Have you wondered why people on low-fat diet are not loosing any weight, instead gaining?

Next time when go to a grocery store, check the caloric content of that LOW FAT SHIT you are fond of: this low fat shit contains more in sugar than its ordinary variant.

When you consume carbohydrates, your blood sugar goes up, at which point insulin kicks in, transferring that carb sugar to muscles and fat cells. There you go, baby!

Whatever Indians do to loose weight is antithetical to weight loss: be it 'starving', switching to low fat, switching to wheat, etc.

Aspartame is used to replace sugar (to reduce carbs, thereby total cals): even though this is less caloric, it doesn't help weight loss.

worn out ignition switch cylinder and battery

2011-07-09T23:10:00.000-07:00

1. Never ever make duplicate keys for your car at walmart and such like.
2. Not so-perfect copies screw up the key cylinder in the ignition switch
3. When you turn off the ignotion key, if you see the ignition position is not OFF, your battery gonna get drained.

How to fix:

1. Remove the cylinder from the ignition switch (1 hr to 3 hr labor depending on your car)
2. Take it to a locksmith (not a dealer, who would suggest replacing the whole thing)
3. Locksmith will fix the cylinder and rekey it for you. $70 labor + $3 for each duplicate key

/w/ + grapheme a

2011-07-07T21:53:00.002-07:00

/w/ + grapheme a = /a/ / _[-velar]

a will correspond to /a/ when preceded by /w/ and followed by a nonvelar segment: swamp, swan, quality, wand, wander, want, wanton, wash, walter, rwanda, etc

However, when preceded by /w/ and followed by a velar, it will typically correspond to
/æ/: quack, twang, wax, wag, etc

umlaut and certain irregular English plurals

2011-07-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

umlaut: a vowel harmony phenomenon. For instance, "fronting of back vowels" in American English.

How to tell which of the following is plural?

1. foot vs feet
2. tooth vs teeth
3. mouse vs mice

Answer: fronted version is plural.

Phonation and resonance; formants; vowels

2011-07-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

Lloyd Hanson wrote:

I have long held and taught that resonance factors have so strong an effect
on vocal phonation that resonance can and does alter the position of
registration events by as much as a minor third for closed vowels as
compared to open vowels. Consequently, when I give registration pitch
ranges it is always for the vowel [a].

Research by Donald Miller (no relation to Richard Miller, that I know of)
delves into the effect of resonance on phonational tone and explains the
phenomenon by defining which of the phonated partials is emphasized by the
resonance attributes of the vocal tract. Because the vocal tract is
adjustable, the singer can, in many instances, make adjustments such that a
different phonated partial is affected which, in turn, will change the
tonal color of the voice in a very dramatic manner.

For example, male call voice which occurs in most untrained singers in their
passaggio area can be altered to become a ringing covered tone by lowering
the resonance attribute of the vocal tract through lowering the larynx.
This is exactly what males have done for centuries as they learn to
negotiate from chest voice into head voice in the passaggio area. And it
us usually called cover. Donald Miller's research explains why this
happens and givs us much better clues about how to train male voices to
achieve this desirable ability.

But the primary phenomenon that occurs is an alteration of phonated tone by
the vocal tract which is selectively emphasizing one phonated partial over
another. This kind of alteration of the vocal tract to effect phonated
tone is also what occurs when we change from one vowel to another. Vocal
tract alterations are, therefore, used to produce all vowels and to alter
slightly any given vowel.

Johan Sundberg says:

The vocal tract resonator has different requirements for the sounds that try to pass through it, depending upon the frequency of that sound. Certain frequencies pass through the resonator easily and, as a consequence, are given a high amplitude....In the vocal tract these resonances are called formants. They and they alone determine vowel quality and donate personal timbre to the voice. Vowel color is determined by the two lowest formants; timbre is determined by the third, fourth, and fifth formants. Tuning the formant frequencies is done by changing the shape of the vocal tract: the jaw, the tongue, the lip opening, the larynx, and the side walls of the pharynx. Adult females have shorter vocal tracts than adult males. Therefore their formant frequencies are 15% higher on average than those of the adult male.

∙ Adjusting the shape of the vocal tract is the most common
method for tuning the formant frequencies.
∙ The first formant is responsive to the jaw opening.
∙ The second formant responds to the tongue shape.
∙ The third formant is responsive to the position of the tip
of the tongue and to the size of the cavity between the
lower teeth and the tongue.
∙ The fourth and fifth formants are more difficult to control by
these means.

Prosody and intonation

2011-07-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

Prosody and intonation are not co-extensive.

-Pitch related:Melody, since horizontal or no simultaneous notes (cf. harmonic = simultaneous)
--interval (two notes); scale (major/minor--the root note)
- accentuation (cf. pitch accent of Bolinger, pierrehumbert)
- temporal: compression of anacrusis; pre-boundary lengthening; lexical stress in English

heavy coda and stress

2011-07-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Whether 2 syllable or 3 syllable, the syllable with the heavy coda (-pt, -kt) receives the stress.

cor'rupt
ex'cept
ac'cept
a'dapt
a'dopt
con'tempt (n)
intercept
un'kempt (n)
e'rupt
dis'rupt

3-syl

inter'rupt

eject
deject
reject
redact
contract
disres'pect

American English Voice Placement

2011-06-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

Anonymous wrote:

Please try to listen some english lectures done by Americans or Europeans.And the most important try to speak with nasal sound and then speak in the normal way we Indians speak(sound produced with throat).You will see vast difference.

We need to go beyond the standard way of describing "producing with throat", etc, since it is inaccurate. Phone is a sound; phonation is the act of producing sound: how to produce sound? Of course, the standard story: larynx, vocal folds, etc.

What, then, distinguishes from one sound from another: resonance, of course. What impacts the resonance: the configuration of the vocal tract. What is the vocal tract, anyway: the space above the vocal folds, from the epiglottal place, pharynx, the mouth to tips and lips. This vocal tract is able to resonate 7 to 8 formants; the first two formants distinguish one vowel from another. In other words, vowels are formed in the vocal tract.

Here comes the interesting part: the voice placement, which is a language specific configuration of the vocal tract. AmE is different from French, which is different from Hindi.

The AmE voice placement is much more different from grossly inaccurate "nasal resonance"!

http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowToGetRidOfIndianAccent/3/bdxkc/Post.htm#1331244

consonant cluster -ns- vs epenthesis

2011-06-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Merriam Webster:

intrinsic: in-'trin-zik, -'trin(t)-sik
transact: tran-'zakt, tran(t)-'sakt
trangress: tran(t)s-'gres, tranz-
transduce: tran(t)s-'duce, tranz-
transit: 'tran(t)-s, 'tran-z
translate: 'tran(t)s-,late, 'tranz-; ,tran(s)-'late; ,tranz-
transmit: tran(t)s-'mit; tranz-
transmute: tran(t)s-'mute; tranz-
transverse: tran(t)s-'verse; tranz-

Check: http://blaoism.blogspot.com/2011/06/epenthesis.html

-nz- sound

Wednuesday
Words ending with -ns
consonant cluster -nz-

Post nasal, post lateral Epenthesis

2011-06-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

Nasal + Obstruent = Nasal + Fricative or Nasal + Stop

Between a nasal and a tautosyllabic obstruent, English introduces an "epenthetic" stop that has the place of articulation of the preceding nasal and the heavy or light order of the following obstruent; e.g., warmth (with deleted //m// by rule 12), respon[t]se, prin[t]ce, Sampson, sempstress, Thompson, contempt, bumpkin, presumption,. Although epenthesis occurs in U.S. barytonic princess, it does not occur in British prin'cess nor in tramˌcar, where the environmental consonants are heterosyllabic to begin with. They become heterosyllabic after epenthesis, one of a number of syllabic changes resulting from the rules--this suggests to some that syllabization rules are "anywhere" rules. (p.29 Charles-James Bailey Variable Syllabic Boundaries)

John Wells discusses about tautosyllabic Nasal + Fricative

Lateral + Voiceless Fricative:

eIn some dialects, fal[t}se, el[t]se,

Andrew says: In the U.S. state of Utah, where I'm currently studying, strong plosive epenthesis occurs after [l] as well as [n]: words like 'salsa' and 'Chelsea' become [sɑlʔtsə] and [tʃɛlʔtsi]. 'Also' is normally realized as [ɑlʔtsɔʊ] but is sometimes hypercorrected to something like [ɑssɔʊ]. Words like 'infinite' and 'information' normally become [ɪɱʔfɨnɪʔ] and [ɪɱfɚmeɪʃən] but in close speech (speaking at church, for example) they are clearly and deliberately pronounced as [ɪntfɨnɪʔ] and [ɪntfɚmeɪʃən].

Airport Runways, direction of flight, direction of wind

2011-06-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Pattern traffic: treat it as a rectangle

A -------------------------------B

C -----------Runway-------------D

E -------------------------------F

C, and D are named with 2 digit numbers. In fact, they are directional number: 30 for 300 degrees; 15 for 150.

The difference between C and D is 18, since they are opposite, 180 degrees apart.

In major airports, you see parallel runaways--one for landing, one for takeoff. For instance, SFO got 28L and 28R (opposite ends being 10R and 10L). You also happen to see another perpendicular runway-At SFO, you see two perpendicular runways 19L and 19R (opposite ends being 1R and 1L).

When the airplane is in the air, it’s relatively simple to calculate the eﬀects of it. But what if the aircraft is near the ground? We ﬁrst consider the take-oﬀ and then look at the landing.

During take-oﬀ the aircraft needs to reach the lift-oﬀ speed Vlof to be able to lift oﬀ from the ground. This speed is measured with respect to the wind. The speed of the aircraft is, however, measured with respect to the ground. So there is a diﬀerence. Let’s suppose Vlof = 100kts. If there is a headwind of 20kts, then the aircraft only needs to have a velocity of V = 80kts with respect to the ground to take oﬀ. If, however, the wind comes from the back of the aircraft, it needs a velocity of V = 120kts. So if you take oﬀ with headwind, you need a much lower velocity, and thus a much shorter runway. Therefore its preferable to take oﬀ with headwinds.

The situation is virtually the same for landings. If you land with headwinds, you have a much lower velocity with respect to the ground, and therefore it’s much easier to come to a full stop. If you land with the wind blowing in your back, then you need a much greater distance to come to a complete stop.

From

The other intuitive way: the more headwind there is, the easy it is take off. Propeller blades, for instance, can make use of more wind coming towards it.

Names for runway pattern:

LP: left pattern; RP: right pattern

DIRECTION of FLIGHT
--------------------
Upwind (Take off)
Left or Right Crosswind
Left or Right Downwind
Left or Right Base
Final (Landing)

DIRECTION of WIND
-----------------

Left quartering headwind
headwind
right quartering headwind
cross wind (3 o' clock) btw o' = contraction of 'of the'
right quartering tailwind
tailwind
left quartering tailwind
cross wind 9 o' clock
Headwind, tailwind

Palatal Nasal: cognac, poignant, lasagna

2011-05-29T23:56:00.000-07:00

gn Palatal nasal

ˈkoʊn,yæk

ˈpɔɪnyənt

ləˈzɑnyə

Sauvingnon Blanc /ˈsoʊvɪnˌyõʊ̃ ˈblɑŋk; Fr. soʊvinyɔ̃ ˈblɑ̃/

lagniappe /lænˈyæp, ˈlænyæp/

balogna /bəˈloʊni, -nə, -ˈloʊnyə/

chi·gnon

/ˈʃinyɒn, ʃinˈyʌn; Fr. ʃiˈnyɔ̃/

car·ma·gnole

/ˌkɑrmənˈyoʊl; Fr. karmaˈnyɔl

palatalization and stress

2011-05-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

Palatalization is -stress; when +stress, there is no palatalization.

cf verdure, perdure, picture, nature vs. oppor'tunity (no ch sound in the latter)

mature (ch or t sound?)

ma'ture (no ch sound, since it is stressed)
oppor'tunity (no ch sound either)

"If these sounds begin an accented syllable, this shift usually does not take place"

verbs: unvoiced sibilant

2011-05-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

verbs without sibilant softening:

[s]: lease, release
crease, decrease, increase
grease, degrease
cease, decease, surcease
fleece
produce, adduce, deduce

verbs with sibilant softening:

[z]: please, use, abuse

[s] spruce (v), loose (v), refuse (n,adj), close, closer (adj,n,adv), noose (v,n), voice (n,v)
[z] ruse (n), refuse (v), close (v)

flying: pitch and power

2011-05-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

Attitude meter:

1. pitch angle: up and down
2. bank angle: left and right

A properly trimmed plane or a configuration wherein Vx (airspeed) and Vy (vertical airspeed)are sorta constant.

Add time component as well.

point A: (Vx1, Vy1, t1)
point B: (Vx1, Vy2, t2)

Case 1: No power change, pitch up, what's the relationship between V's?

Vy2 > Vy1; Vx2 < Vx1, where Vy2 is positive.Case 2: No power change, pitch down, how V's change? Vy2 < Vy1; Vx2 > Vx1, where Vy2 is negative

Note: Vy is +ve during the climb, -ve during the descent.

Can you climb forever without touching throttle?

No, you reach a certain point, then you loose the lift.

Can you descend forever without touching throttle?

Nope, you reach a certain point, you gain the lift.

In other words, by playing with pitch, you end up doing sinusoidal zigzag motion. That's the reason, you should keep Vy = 0 and then trim up.

We can talk about stalls some other time.

Flying: Pitch and power

2011-05-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

"The closest one can come to a formula for determining airspeed/altitude control that is valid under all circumstances is a basic principle of attitude flying which states:

“At any pitch attitude, the amount of power used will determine whether the airplane will climb,
descend, or remain level at that attitude.”

Through a wide range of nose-low attitudes, a descent is the only possible condition of flight. The addition of power at these attitudes will only result in a greater rate of descent at a faster airspeed. Through a range of attitudes from very slightly nose-low to about 30° nose-up, a typical light airplane can be made to climb, descend, or maintain altitude depending on the power used. In about the lower third of this range, the airplane will descend at idle power without stalling. As pitch attitude is increased, however, engine power will be required to prevent a stall. Even more power will be required to maintain altitude, and even more for a climb. At a pitch attitude approaching 30° nose-up, all available power will provide only enough thrust to maintain altitude. A slight increase in the steepness of climb or a slight decrease in power will produce a descent. From that point, the least inducement will result in a stal"

Flying Hand Book, chap 3

melody vs rhythm

2011-05-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

melody: pitch interval, cf. Parsons code Parsons, Denys (1975). The Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes.

first tone (*), up (u), down (d), repeat (r)

rhythm: time interval

melody + rhythm = metre (time signature)

Prosody divided into 3 distinct parts: (a) the rhythm or tempo of speech; (b) changes in intensity or loudness of the voice; (c) changes in pitch (intonation). These are 3 of the four lowest-level factors studied in music theory in deciphering the "meaning of music". The fourth factor is timbre, or pitch quality. Timbre in speech related to the so-called formants.

Pitch studied in two aspects: vertical changes (harmony); horizontal changes (melody)

harmonic interval; melodic interval
harmonic chord; melodic chord

cf. Tone of voice and mind, cook

CJB: Loading of prevocalic stressed vowels

2011-04-30T23:23:00.001-07:00

Various: variety

Impious: impiety

CJB: gymnasium rule

2011-04-30T23:20:00.001-07:00

V -> long V /__CiV
Long V -> V /__Civ

Spencer: Spencerian

History: historian

Custody: custodian

Comedy: comedian

Colony: colonial

Roman: Rumania

Revise: revision

For the 2,

Revise: revision

Ignite: ignition

Decide: decision

CJB: Trisyllabic lightening

2011-04-30T23:15:00.001-07:00

VàV(light) /__SS

Wild: wilderness

Grain: granary

Christ: Christian

Serene: serenity

Penal: penalty

Lever: leverage

Coal: colliery

Type: typify

Trope: tropical

Code: codify

Table: tabular

Derive: derivative

Midwife: midwifery

Profound: profundity

Mary: Marilyn, Marigold

Angel: Angela

Flame: flammable

Conspire: conspiracy

CJB: Vocalic quantity changes

2011-04-30T23:09:00.001-07:00

V(long) à V(light) /__C(+)C

Wide: width

Deep:depth

Heal:health

Moon:month

Wise:wisdom

Goose:gosling

Sleep:slept

Feed: fed (=fed+t)

Kneel:knelt (but kneel#ed)

Creep:crept (creep#ed)

Drive:drift (driv+th)

Break:breakfast

Child:children

Boil:ebullient

Float:flotsam

The following CC function as a single consonant.

Occlusive + //r//: cathedral, apron, matron
//kw//, sequence
–nge: change, range, lounge vs. sponge, tangent, fringe
–nce, bounce, pronounce
//ld// wild, child
//rd// weird, beard
//st// coast, beast, toast, waste
//nd//, bind, bound, find
//nt// count

CJB: Velar softening

2011-04-30T22:58:00.001-07:00

gà dʒ /_{i/e}

kàtʃ às/ _{i/e}

purgatory: purge

regal:regent

pedagogue: pedagogy

product: produce

electric: electricity

critic: criticism

: nagios

CJB: Sibilant Softening (s to z)

2011-04-30T22:51:00.001-07:00

For [s], one hears [z] between vowels (especially if the second is stressed), or between a vowel and //m//, provided no # stands on either side of the sibilant.

s à z /V__{V/m}

[z] [s]

dismal dis#mount

plasma plastic

spasm spastic

lous+y louse

dis+ease dis#own

re+sign re#sign

re+serve re#serve

smile

re+servation

BrE has [z] before [l] as in Wesley, Chrysler, Moslem, Islam, and Oslo; NA has [s] here (cf. Wesley Clark of Calif). But grisly has [z] everywhere.

There is a substantial group of words where speakers in all countries differ over [s] or [z] for internuclear "s": greasy, Jerusalem, blouse, philosophical (not philosophy), resources, and endings –ose and –ese are most frequent. The same difference is heard in absurd and absorb. Contrast further BrE erase#r with [z] and NA erase#r with [s].

Diagnose, dose, and usage have NA and BE [s], also BE [z].

half moon bay, ca

2011-04-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

How to pronounce Half moon bay, esp when you are a pilot and announcing to fellow pilots, etc.

Half moon bay > half m'n bay > half'm'bay

Pacifica Suckers Incorporated

2011-04-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

This sucker thought he got a best deal for this town home on Apr 26, 2010; bought for $360K, since then he been trying to flip out: listed in 01/11 for $415K, now listed for $350K. ROFL

American dream requires suckers like these guys. This suckeresque trait is found among many immigrants: Asians, East Indians, persians, etc. LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

check

English conditionals in a systematic fashion

2011-04-25T19:20:00.001-07:00

Charles-James N. Bailey classifies conditionals in a systematic fashion, better than what is known so far.

Classifying the English Conditionals CJN Bailey

pyekut, eyeperation, etc

2011-04-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

pyekut for pocket
eyeperation for operation
swan for swine
wadder for wawder ("water")

p.136 Wrights and Wrongs in Teaching English: A vademecum, CJN Bailey

	American English [5]	Mexican Spanish	Japanese [5]	Iraqi Arabic	French [10]	German [1]
1	yeah	si	un	aih	oui	ah (ach)
2	uh-huh	si si	ee	nam	ouais	ja (ahja, aja)
3	hm	ajá	aa	repetition	humhum	mhm
4	right	mjm	laughter	mmm	hum	nein (ne)
5	okay	laughter	hai	hmm	ah	okay