Andrushka

I realize this blog can get "unbelievably nerdy" but I hope it's always believable. Here's what I've been thinking about today: liaisons in English. For example, when a word ending in /d/ comes in front of an unstressed syllable beginning in /y/, and extra /zh/ sound is added. The same phenomenon occurse with /t/ followed by /y/, except in the unvoiced form. So, the added sound is /ch/. Say this sentence fast: "I want you to want me, I need you to need me." Do you hear it? wan-tchyou need-zhyou. Yes, we were studying past/conditional modals today in my class. Ah could, would, and should. So much phonological fun lies therein. Besides that rule, there are plenty of other times that English adds and "extra" sound between stressed-unstressed syllables or two unstressed syllables. We also do it between vowels with slides. Consider Who are you anyway? In this case, we add /w/ sounds, Who-[w]ar you-[w]an-y-way? So, my obsession du jour has been similar glides added internally to words. Consider the difference between "die" and diet. In the first, the ie can be considered one vowel because the second letter only exists to specify the sound of the first. In Spanish or Polish though, both vowels would be distinctly pronounced: Dee-eh. So, when it comes to the two syllable version (diet), one would think it would be pronounced Deet by Anglophones. And I'm sure many children do. But, we soon learn it's two syllables. Then you'd think it would be pronounced Di-et. But it's not. We add a /j/ glide: Di-[y]et. (Actually, it should be more like Day-[y]et but then you'd think day as in 1/365 of a year. When I started this post I decided not to fool use IPA since it might be more difficult for casual readers, as if they would make it past the first line. Now I must live with my poor judgement.) Similarly, odious becomes o-dee-[ya]us. Now, this is perhaps my own lack of imagination, but I cannot, for the life of me, think of examples in English of two pronounced, vowel sounds, at least one unstressed, together that aren't linked by a glide like /j/ or /w/. But, though similar glides do occur in Spanish (?) and Polish, they have no problem with having similar situations without a glide. In Polish, this could be because they have very unusual intonation for a stress language. Still, I have a hypothesis. I know, everyone's been waiting with baited breath for this moment (and honey, we need to talk about eating bait. Seriously). I think it's related to our system of using two vowel symbols to make one vowel sign (as earlier discussed with the die example). But I still need to flesh this all out. So, are you bored yet? Well, I've secretly been watching "Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law" while writing this, so I've been incredibly entertained.

Posted by Scott on 06 December 2005 at 12/06/2005 12:08:00 AM | Permalink