How pronunciation provokes passionate reactions

Thanks to Marijke de Lang for pointing this out.

Extracted text from https://www.theguardian.com:

Skip to main content The Guardian - Back to home Make a contribution News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle

News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle What term do you want to search? Search with google Become a supporter Subscribe Sign in/up US edition Jobs The Guardian app Video Podcasts Pictures Newsletters Digital archive Crosswords Facebook Twitter Film Books Music Art & design TV & radio Stage Classical Games More Sound and fury: how pronunciation provokes passionate reactions Auditory beauty lies in the ear of the listener but to focus on sounds we dont like is to miss out on the riches, power and beauty of the English sound system David Crystal Sat 13 Jan 2018 03.59EST View more sharing options Shares 1,234

When I used topresent programmes on English usage on Radio 4, people would write in and complain about the pronunciations they didnt like. In their hundreds. (Nobody ever wrote in to praise the pronunciations they did like.) It was the extreme nature of the language that always struck me. Listeners didnt just say they disliked something. They used the most emotive words they could think of. They were horrified, appalled, dumbfounded, aghast, outraged, when they heardsomething they didnt like.

The Guardian podcasts - click here for everything you need to know about our podcasts Read more Why do people get especially passionate about pronunciation, using language that we might think more appropriate as a reaction to a terrorist attack than to an intruded r (as in law(r) and order)? One reason is that pronunciation isnt like the other areas of speech which generate complaints, such as vocabulary and grammar. You may not like the way people use a particular word, such as disinterested, but youre not going to meet that problem frequently. Similarly, if you dont like split infinitives, you wont hear one very often. But every word has to be pronounced, so if you dont like the sound of an accent, or the way someone drops consonants, stresses words, or intones a sentence with a rising inflection, theres no escape. Pronunciation is always there, in your ears.

Pronunciation gives us a clue about a speakers ethnic group and social class ... always a potentially sensitive subject Another reason is that pronunciation is not only the foundation ofclarity and intelligibility, it also expresses identity. When we hear someone speak our language, we not only recognise the words that are said, we recognise who is saying them. It ispronunciation, more than anything else, that makes someone sound British, American or Indian; from Liverpool, Newcastle or London. It ispronunciation again, more than anything else that gives us a clue about a speakers ethnic group, social class, education or occupation. So its always a potentially sensitive subject.

Identity is primary. My BBC critics were not usually suggesting listeners couldnt understand what speakers were saying; they were complaining about the way they were saying it. Some criticisms were aesthetic: a pronunciation might be called ugly or sloppy. Some expressed dislike ofan accent. Indeed there was the occasional comment about unintelligibility, such as when presenters emphasised a word ambiguously ordropped their voice at a critical moment. But typically, when people talked about unacceptable pronunciation, they werent thinking of the content but the delivery.

Its the same today. Sometimes the criticisms reflect a state of affairs that everyone would agree with, because its based on objective fact: if a voice isgenuinely inaudible, or someone speaks so quickly that its impossible tofollow (such as over a public-address system), there is nothing to dispute. But most pronunciation complaints arent like that: they are matters of taste, where the viewpoints reflect differing perceptions as to whatis appropriate, pleasing or correct auditory beauty, lying in the ear of the listener.

What voices will we ascribe to our robots? Photograph: Aflo / Barcroft Images I wrote Sounds Appealing to introduce a broader perspective not to ignore the problems, but to put them in perspective, as just a tiny part of the amazing range, intricacy, power and beauty of the English sound system. Phonetics opens our ears to a fascinating world. Why do we favour certain sounds when we write poetry, tell nursery rhymes, devise clever character names or swear? There are powerful and productive phonetic patterns underlying Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hickory Dickory Dock, Augustus Gloop, and feck. They need to be appreciated. Or again: what happens to our speech in unusual speech situations, such as when we tryto talk with our mouth filled or covered? The occasions go well beyondeating think dentists and Darth Vader.

Then theres the time dimension the inexorable process of pronunciation change. How do we discover the speech sounds of the past? We can hear Florence Nightingale, in an early recording, read Isaac Newtons notes describing his accent, and listen to the BBC archive, but how do we reconstruct Shakespeare, Chaucer or Beowulf? And what about the future? Big pronunciation issues face us in this century not least, what voices will we give our computers and robots?

If we spend all our auditory energy paying attention just to the things wedont like, we are missing out on somuch. All the moans about h-dropping, r-intruding and the like amount to less than 5% of everything that goes on when we pronounce our words and sentences. So my phonetic manifesto for the 21st century and thetheme of my book is: its time tofocus on the other 95%. As Anthony Burgess once said (in A Mouthful of Air): Phonetics, phonetics, and again phonetics. There cannot be too much phonetics.

Sounds Appealing: The Passionate Story of English Pronunciation is published by Profile.

Since youre here we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we havent put up a paywall we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardians independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters because it might well be your perspective, too.

I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be purchased by a few. Im happy to make a contribution so others with less means still have access to information. Thomasine F-R. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $1, you can support the Guardian and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

Support the Guardian

Topics Reference and languages Language

Linguistics

Radio

features Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Google+ Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger Most viewed Film Books Music Art & design TV & radio Stage Classical Games back to top

jobs become a supporter make a contribution guardian labs about us work for us contact us advertise with us ask for help terms & conditions privacy policy cookie policy securedrop complaints & corrections all topics all contributors facebook twitter subscribe digital newspaper archive 2018 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Allrightsreserved.