We’re Losing Our Long Vowel Sounds!
Jun 9th, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 13 Comments |
I came to a disturbing realization the other night: the long-O sound (as in “go,” “throw,” “load,” etc.) isn’t a simple sound. To say it, you have to begin with the short-U sound (as in “uh,” “tug,” “of,” “above,” etc.) and move into the long-U sound (as in, “rude,” “move,” “shoe,” “moo,” etc.).
The reason this is disturbing is that I realized a while back that the reason non-native English speakers so frequently call me “Mee-kuh” (rather than “My-kuh”) is that the English long-I sound isn’t simple either. To make it, you have to start with a short-U sound and move into a long-E sound (as in “leave,” “team,” “Frankenstien” [li'l Mel Brooks reference there], etc.).
(Also, you can begin with a short-O sound [as in "shop," "stop," "ought"] instead of a short-U. It makes you sound kind of British, I think.)
Combined with the fact that not all languages have such a sound (German has it ["Einstein," "Frankenstein"], French has it ["Ailleurs," "aille"], and I think some Asian languages do as well), if you’re a non-native English speaker it can be easy to miss the initial short-U/short-O at the beginning of the long-I sound. All that registers is the long-E sound at the end.
And then there’s the fact that the long-A sound (as in “day,” “prey,” “take,” etc.) is really a short-E sound (as in “Ted,” “Wednesday,” “fed,” etc.) moving into a long-E sound.
So, of the five long vowel sounds (A, E, I, O, and U), only two are simple sounds (E and U).
On the other hand, all the short vowel sounds are simple. They’re simply produced by changing “how open” the back of your mouth/throat is, or “how high” in the back of your mouth you say them.
Short-I is most closed/highest. Short-E is a little more open/lower. Short-A is a little more open/lower still. Then comes short-O; a little more open/lower. Short-U is most open/lowest.
Try saying — all as short vowels — i, e, a, o, u (”ih,” “eh,” “ah!!!,” “Aw!,” “uh”). Imagine trying to distinguish between short-E and short-A if you’d never been taught to hear the difference before . . . .
Also, the proximity in the back of the mouth between where you make the short-O sound and where you make the short-U sound explains why you can begin the long-I sound with either.
Anyway, I don’t know why I find this so fascinating. (Perhaps because I was picked on as a child for my Floridian accent?) But I do.
I’ve often splashed around in the same mental wading pool. It’s the only Roman-character-based language (that I know) wherein the names of the vowels are NOT the sound the vowels make, but dipthongs. What better evidence of how ad-hoc a mutt language English is.
The change to diphthongs is known as The Great English Vowel Shift and occurred somewhere between 1200 and 1600. It is a matter of debate why it happened and how it happened so quickly. It is also the reason behind a great many of the weird spellings in English, one of the least phonetic written languages in the world. (Spelling bees are almost unique to English speaking countries.)
Sweet. :-)
Letter Perfect, by David Sacks. Read it. It’s SO good.
Sweet, again. :-) Thanks for the recommendation!
Oh, and also, I just figured out that you Canadians aren’t as crazy as I thought. Know how y’all say “A boat!” when you mean “about”? And “hoass” when you mean “house”?
You’re just switching the initial short-A in the “Ow” diphthong (short-A-to-long-U) to an initial short-U. Which changes the “Ow” diphthong to the long-O sound.
So it’s not like you’re saying a completely different sound.
Now don’t you feel better about yourself? ;-)
No, I don’t feel better; I have always been more than comfortable in my Canadian skin. But why is it us who make the “different” sound? When did American English become the standard off of which everyone else deviates?
I eschew your premise :)
*laugh*
Good job!
Can I borrow that line, btw? “I eschew your premise.” I love it.
Feel free. Eschew is a wonderful word and ought to be shared with the world.
Sweet. Thanks!
Actually, in many, though by no means all, respects, it is indeed American English which everybody else is deviating from. Spelling differences are our fault, but most pronunciation differences are because we held to the classic pronunciations and the English changed them. E.g. schedule. There is no English word starting with sch which is pronounced with a “sh” sound instead of a “sk” sound. For some reason, after America was settled, the English decided to change it and we didn’t. (I don’t know what Canadians do with that word.) This is true of most changes in pronunciation and is probably caused because England had so many different accents competing to change pronunciations and America didn’t. (And those accent differences which do exist were imported from England.)
Having said all that, I suspect there’s just as strong an argument for Canadian pronunciations as the standard which don’t differ much from ours. In cases where America and Canada differ, it’s possible that the Canadians are the ones who are holding fast.
In my course work for Special Education, I took some speech and language development courses. There was some pretty fascinating stuff, which because I don’t regularly use it, I only half remember.
One of them was this funky camera which actually showed the vocal folds (vocal chords to we amateurs) while they made various shows. It was gross, but cool.
One of the other things we talked about is how infants go through an early stage where they make every kind of babbling noise that is humanly possible. As they hear a language spoken they begin making only the sounds that occur within that language. That’s the difference between late stage babbling and early stage babbling. Before we even speak our very first word we’ve already given up on the sounds that don’t occur in our native language. Kind of sad, in some symbolic way.
*laugh* That is fascinating. Weird too. Hmm . . . .
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