Language 321 L5, C1

Practice activity (answer key)

(30 minutes)

I Provide a few examples that follow each pattern below.

Strategy: think of words that end in the alveolar phonemes /t, d, s, z, l, n/ and then add a prefix
or another word that begins with the palatal glide /j/. This represents speech habit #3.

 site > situate, rite > ritual, at her > at you . . .

posi[t] > pos[t]ulate, legisla[t]e > legisla[t]ure, sain[t] > sanc[t]uary, righ[t] >

righ[t]eous, don’[t] > don’[t](y)a’, can’[t] > can’[t](y)a’

 reside > residual, creed > incredulous, did our > did your . . .
no[d]e > no[d]ule, gra[d]e > gra[d]uate, pen[d]ant > pen[d]ulum, gran[d] >

gran[d]eur, woul[d] > woul[d](y)a’, coul[d] > coul[d](y)a’

 face > facial, profess > profession, this week > this year . . .
spa[s]e > spa[]ious, pala[s]e > pala[]ial, offi[s]e > offi[]iate, confe[s]s > confe[]ion,

Gree[s]e > Gre[]ian, ra[c]e > ra[]e(y)a’

 close > closure, fuse > fusion, is he > is your . . .

revi[z]e > revi[]ion, u[z]e > u[]ually, sei[z]e > sei[]ure, (panty)ho[z]e, ho[]iery,

nau[s]eate > nau[]eous, ha[z] > ha[](y)our, i[z] > i[](y)our

 galley > galleon, solution > soluble, will they > will you . . .
fai[] > fai[]ure, ho[l]y > ho[]ier, Wi[l]l > Wi[]iam, da[l]ly > da[]iance, bi[]e >

bi[]ious, te[]l > te[](y)a’, ca[]l > ca[](y)a’

 convene > convention, vine > vineyard, can he > can your . . .
li[n]e > li[]ear, grai[n] > gra[]ular, domai[n] > domi[]ion, ge[n]e > ge[]ious, opi[n]e
> opi[]ion, i[n] > i[](y)our, o[n] > o[](y)our
II Identify the original vowel sound that was reduced to the schwa and give its IPA symbol.
 drama > dr[]matic /ɑ/
 banal > b[]nality /e/
 super > s[]pernal /u/
 senile > s[]nility /i/
 Canada > C[]nadian //
 systemic > syst[]matic //
 memorize > memor[]zation /ɑ/
 impose > imp[]sition /o/
 civil > c[]vility //
 torrent > t[]rrential //
 sound > s[]nority /ɑ/

III Circle all of the vowels that would get pronounced as [] in normal speech below.

We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth,
Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

IV What natural speech habits are revealed in the following creative spellings?
 Why dontcha cawl me laDer? (3, 5, 4, 2)
 C’n ya pahss me uh liddow piehce uh pieh? (5, 3, 5, 1, 5, 3, 4, 1, 5, 1)
 Will meetcha in thuh midduhl o’ thuh feeuhld. (5, 4, 3, 5, 5, 2, 4, 5, 5, 4)

V What do the following case studies suggest about pronunciation?

 On a trip to Mazatlan, Jerry wants to order his favorite Mexican dish, enchiladas. So
mustering up his best Spanish, he says to the waiter – “[-t-la-s] please”. With a bit
of a smile, the waiter repeats the order back to Jerry – “¿Usted quiere [-ti-la-as]?”
(‘You want enchiladas’?). Jerry proudly responds – “Sí señor” (‘Yes, please’).

What went wrong?

L1 transfer errors
 Jerry reduced the unstressed vowels /i/ and /a/ to schwa [] (speech habit #5)
 He produced the /d/ too quickly [] (speech habit #2)

Native Spanish speakers do not do this

 Elder Sorensen has been in Brazil for nearly 6 months when he realizes a relationship in
the Portuguese words for city (cidade) [si-da-di] and citizen (cidadao) [si-da-dao]. He
figures city must be the root of citizen. What he can’t figure out is why the “d” sound at
the end of the word comes out sounding like a “j” sound.

What might be the cause of this? How could you tell if it’s just a random pronunciation
or not?

L2 speech pattern
 /d/ > [d], and /t/ > [t] when these sounds occur before the high, front vowel /i/

 Elder Sorensen should listen for more words that follow this pattern to see how common
it is.

E.g. – [t]er (‘have’), eu [t]enho (‘I have’), but eu [t]inha / [t]ive (‘I had’)
po[d]er (‘to be able’), nós pu[d]emos (‘we were able’), but êle po[d]ia (‘he was able’)

Most dialects of Brazilian Portuguese follow this speech habit similar to #3 of American
English speakers.

 Cecilia is an international student at BYU-I who has taken several years of English
classes in her native Peru prior to coming to Rexburg. She shares a room in the Ivy with
Janice from Ririe. Cecilia says to Janice what sounds like “I gannot rraid mai baisaikil to
the estore. Gan yu gibe me a rraid a littil leitterr? Of course, Janice understands her and
helps her out.

What speech habits might be affecting her message?

Cecilia has not yet mastered the speech habits of her L2

 #1 – the /k/ before stressed vowels should be stronger [kh]; without this extra force it
sounds like a /g/, as in ‘[g]annot’ and ‘[g]an’

 #2 – the /t/ after a stressed vowel and before an unstressed one should be produced
quicker [] in ‘little later’

 #4 – the /l/ at the end of ‘bycycle’ and ‘little’ should have a darker quality []

 #5 – unstressed vowels should be reduced to [] or reduced altogether, ‘cannot’ > ‘can’t’,
‘bicycile’ > bic[]c[]le’, ‘yu’ > ‘y[]’, ‘littile’ > ‘litt[]le’, ‘later’ > ‘lat[]r’
 Cecilia is transferring speech habits from her L1
 She is still using the Spanish trilled /r/, which is most notable at the beginning ‘[r]ide’
(twice) and end of words ‘late[r]’; she needs to practice the American English //

 She interjects a brief vowel [], before the /s/ + /t/ combination in ‘[]store’ to break up
this cluster into different syllables since it does not occur in Spanish

 She uses the /b/ instead of /v/ in ‘gi[b]e’ since Spanish does not contrast these sounds –
both are considered the “same” sound or 2 different ways (allophones) of pronouncing
the same sound (phoneme)