Analyzing english native speaker´s pronunciation

DESCRIPTION OF CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH

Analyzing English native speaker’s pronunciation

Student: Carlos Joaquín CV


I. INTRODUCTION

Analyzing English native speaker’s pronunciation can be a useful tool to understand the rules adhered to it. The consistencies and inconsistencies among the speaker, the account of themand the reasons why they do happen will be observed in this analysis. Six native speakers were asked to read aloud some sentences. Five of them were American and one was British. They were told that all of them had nonsense words. Here are the findings and conclusions obtained from them.
These are the sentences:

1. The man pratted over to the group, bicked the woman and rathed on front ofher.

2. Susan went to the local market and bought her favorite crants, some fresh wugs and choice chugles.

3. The woiter told his brother, the woider, what to do.

4. Where did the fantastic sphinger learn to sphing so well?

5. A tingrene uses a metal tinger to point with.

II. FINDINGS

The following charts show the differentpronunciations given to the target words.
The numbers 1 to 5 reefer to American interviewees. The number 6 reefers to a British one. Number 5* reefers to a person who lived in The USA for 20 years but he was born in Mexico City. “Spanish speakers are accustomed to bundling consonants and vowels into successive syllables and pronouncing them all equally distinctly, equally loudly and equally long” (Brown1977:55) In case 5 the sentences were read a bit flat , probably due to Brown´s observation.



Sentence 1
word Phonetics(1) Phonetics(2) Phonetics(3) Phonetic (4) Phonetics(5)* Phonetics(6)
pratted /prɑ:ted/ /prɑ:ted/ /prɑ:ted/ /prɑ:ted/ /præted / /prɑ:ted/
bicked /bɪkt/ /bɑɪked/ /bɑɪkt/ /bɑɪkt/ /bɑɪkt/ /bɪkt/
rathed /rɑ :ðed/ /rɑ :ðɪd/ /ræðed/ /rɑ:ðed/ /rɑ:ðed/ /rɑ :ðet/Sentence 2
word Phonetics(1) Phonetics(2) Phonetics(3) Phonetic (4) Phonetics(5)* Phonetics(6)
Crants /crænts/ /crænts/ /crænts/ /crænts/ /crænts/ /crɑ:nts/
wugs /wʌ:gz/ / wu:gz/ /wɑ:gz/ / wʊgs/ / wu:gs/ /wɑ:gz/
chugles /tʃʌgləz/ /tʃglɛs / /tʃɔ:gləs/ /tʃʌgləz/ /tʃʌgləs/ /tʃɔ:gləs/

Sentence 3
word Phonetics(1) Phonetics(2) Phonetics(3) Phonetic (4) Phonetics(5)* Phonetics(6)
woiter /wɔɪtɛr//wɔɪtər/ /wɔɪrer/ /wɔɪder/ /wɔɪder/ /wɔɪtər/
woider / wʌɪrɛr/ /wɔɪrər/ /wɔɪdɛr/ /wɔɪdɛr/ /wɔɪdɛr/ /wɔɪdɛr/

Sentence 4
word Phonetics(1) Phonetics(2) Phonetics(3) Phonetic (4) Phonetics(5)* Phonetics(6)
sphinger /sfi:ngər/ /sfɪngɛr/ /sfɪngɛr/ /sfɪngɛr/ /spɪngɛr/ /sfi:ngər/
sphing /sfɪŋ/ /sfɪŋ/ /sfɪŋ/ /sfɪŋ/ /sfɪŋ/ /sfɪŋ/

Sentence 5
word Phonetics(1) Phonetics(2) Phonetics(3)Phonetic (4) Phonetics(5)* Phonetics(6)
tingrene /tɪngri:n/ /tɪngrɛnər/ /tɪngrɪn/ /taɪngɛr/ /tɪngrɛni:/ / taɪngrɪn/
tinger /tɪngɛr/ /tɪngər/ /tɑɪngər/ /tɑɪngər/ tɑɪngər/ /tɪngər/


III. ANALYSIS

Sentence 1

The word pratted was pronounced the same by 5 out of the 6interviewees.
The word bicked was pronounced the same by 3 out of the 6 interviewees.
The word rathed was inconsistently pronounced since it had 5 different pronunciations.

Sentence 2

The word crants was pronounced more consistently by 5 out of the 6 speakers.
The word wugs was pronounced the same just by two people.
The word chugles was pronounced in 3 different ways.

Sentence 3The word woiter was inconsistently pronounced just two people had the same pronunciation.
The word woider was inconsistently pronounced just two people had the same pronunciation.

Sentence 4

The word Sphinger was pronounced the same way by 3 people, the other 3 pronounced it differently.
The word sphing was the most consistent. It was pronounced the same by all of them.

Sentence 5...