ñ

First broadcast: January 26, 2005
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer a couple of questions with help from English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles.
The first is from a listener who teaches physics at Hebei Normal University in China. Bill Zhao wants to know if all voiceless consonants should be pronounced as voiced consonants if they come right after the sound of "s." Voiced means the vocal chords vibrate. For example, in the word "sports," he hears people pronounce the "p" as a "b." Lida Baker has the explanation:
LIDA BAKER: " It's not actually a 'b,' but it has certain characteristics of a 'b,' and I'll tell you why that is.
"'S' is a voiceless sound and 'p' is a voiceless sound. The problem in a word like 'sport' is that the vowel after the 'p' is a voiced sound. All vowels are voiced sounds: oh, ah, ee, oo, right? So what happens when you have a voiceless sound like a 'p' next to a voiced sound like a vowel, to some people that 'p' is going to sound a little bit like a 'b.' And that's what Mr. Zhao is hearing. There's a little bit of crossover between the voiceless and the voiced sound because of the fact that they're neighbors in that word.
"But if you look in any dictionary at the phonetic spelling of a word like sport or scout, that voiceless sound is written phonetically as a voiceless sound -- in other words, as a 'p' or a 't' or a 'k.' And dictionaries don't indicate that there is this kind of intermediate quality to the sound because native speakers don't hear that. O.K. The bottom line is, it is still a voiceless sound but it has qualities of a voiced sound because of the fact that the vowel comes after it.
"Now there is one exception which I'm sure Mr. Zhao was also aware of, which is the case where you have what is written as a 't' occurring between two vowels in a word like pretty, p-r-e-t-t-y, which in British English is pronounced pri-tee. But in American English that 't' changes into a 'd' sound and we say ... "
RS: "Pri-dee."
LIDA BAKER: "That's right, and the reason for that is that you have this voiceless 't' sound between two vowels.'
AA: "Wait, a voiceless 't' between two vowels, or is it -- "
LIDA BAKER: "Well, don't think about the spelling. Think about the pronunciation: preh-tee. If I slow it down, I'm going to pronounce it as a 't.' But there's those two vowel sounds there -- eh, ee -- and the voiceless 'tuh' will change to a 'd' sound in American English because of the fact that the consonant is surrounded by two voiced sounds.
"And the voiced sounds around it overwhelm, if you will, the voiceless quality of the consonant, and in this case it changes to a 'd.' But that's as far as I know only true in most dialects of North American English and it certainly isn't true in British English and in a lot of other varieties of English around the world."
AA: The next question is from Atefeh in Iran. She's studying English literature at a university, and would like to know the difference between the abbreviation U.S.A. spelled with periods and U.S.A. spelled without periods. As Lida Baker explains, the only difference has to do with style.
LIDA BAKER: "The meaning is the same, and whether you use the periods or not is something that your writing teacher is going to tell you that she prefers for you to write it this way or that way. Or if you're a professional writer and you're working for a newspaper or a magazine, generally different publications have their own style guidelines and they will tell you how they want you to write it.
"I should point out for people who are in the university and writing papers that there are style manuals for different college fields. For example, there is the style manual of the American Psychological Association, the APA style manual ... Students who are majoring in psychology as well as other social sciences are required to follow the guidelines of that style manual when they write papers. In my writing classes, I don't care which way students do it, as long as they're consistent."
AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and writes textbooks for English learners.
That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

j

Talking in Rhythm: How to Manage the Stresses of American English

Download MP3   (Right-click or option-click the link.)AA:  I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is linguist Herb Stahlke to talk about rhythm in English speech.

HERB STAHLKE: "Learners of English really have to master the rhythms of English early, and the teaching has to be aimed at rhythm, because the structure of an English sentence is determined so much by the rhythm of speech. And English speech rhythms are really characteristically English -- very different from other languages. And if you can spend time getting those rhythms down, then the words will fit in better."

AA: "What are some really common rhythms in English?"

HERB STAHLKE: "In English we have strongly stressed syllables that we have at roughly equal intervals when we're speaking. And then we have weakly stressed syllables that get kind of scrunched up in between the strong stresses. And we can have a sentence like 'John left' -- two stresses, two words. 'JOHN'S gonna LEAVE,' and the reason we say 'gonna' instead of 'is going to' is because we've got to fit it between those two stresses.

"And it's those unstressed syllables that we have to scrunch down and fit into the space between the stresses that lead to what some people call sloppy speaking but which is in fact really good English speaking, because that's what gives English its rhythm. And if you don't speak English with that rhythm, English speakers will have a hard time understanding it."

AA: "So you've got to master some of those reductions [gonna, for example]."

HERB STAHLKE: "That's right."

AA: "What's another common rhythm?"

HERB STAHLKE: "Well, on top of those rhythms we've got something called accent, where what you're doing is identifying the most important thing in a sentence. So usually it comes toward the end. I could say 'I'm going to the STORE after supper.' 'I'm going to the STORE after supper.' Store is what's important there -- 'I'm going to the STORE after supper.'

"But that accent can go in various different places, and it's kind of independent of the rhythm. And that idea that you can make one word or one syllable stand out is really important to how we put meaning together. And a lot of other languages don't work that way."

AA: "So, right, if you emphasized 'I'm GOING to the store after dinner' that has a different -- I guess that would have a different meaning. Or if you say 'I'm going to the store after DINNER -- "

HERB STAHLKE: "Yeah."

AA: "Then you're emphasizing that, and that has its own meaning. You're sort of emphasizing when you're going."

HERB STAHLKE: "That's right."

AA: "And is there another sort of rhythm that comes up that may take some work learning for English learners?"

HERB STAHLKE: "Well, there's a lot of work involved in mastering this layering of the regular rhythm, roughly equally spaced stresses, and layering accent on top of that to show what's important.

"That's the kind of things that if you get students practicing that early on, their speech is going to be a lot more comprehensible. And ultimately they're going to understand more easily, too, because they'll understand why all these reductions occur."

AA: "What sorts of tips do you have for teachers who are trying to teach this to non-native English speakers -- how to gain some skill with first recognizing the rhythms, and then mastering them?"

HERB STAHLKE: "There are some good sources out there that have been in use for a while. Oh, it came out in the seventies, was something called 'Jazz Chants' -- "

AA: "By Carolyn Graham."

HERB STAHLKE: "Yeah, right, where you've got rhythmic speech, hand clapping involved with it, or any other kind of rhythm reinforcement that you can get, and the idea is to do a lot of that early. We learn -- speakers of any language learn the melodies and rhythms of their mother tongue before they're born, when you hear melody and rhythm in the womb. And so you know that when you're born, which means that it's really deeply planted in us. And when you start learning another language, what you automatically do is you import your own rhythm and melody into that new language, and it's not going to work."

AA:  Linguist Herb Stahlke is professor emeritus in the English department at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Archives are at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti.

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: expanding on reductions. When speakers compress a phrase like "going to" into "gonna," or "what do you" into "whaddaya," that's a reduction. We mentioned their importance when we talked last week about the natural rhythms of spoken American English. To explain more, we found a segment we did with Slangman David Burke where he talked about reductions. DAVID BURKE: "One of them is 'you.' Instead of saying you, we just say ya. Instead of saying `How are you?' [we say] `How are ya?' If I were to say to you 'Didja eat yet?' and you replied `No, didju?' we would understand that. 'Didja eat yet?' Did you eat yet? "We talked about ya which is a reduction of you, but after the letter d the you or the ya becomes a 'ja' sound always after the letter d. `Would you like to come to the movies?' `Wouldja like to come to the movies?' `Did you eat?' `Didja eat?' And, for some reason after the letter t the ya becomes 'cha' -- `I'll let you come with me.' `I'll letcha come with me.' `What's that you have in your hand?' `Whatcha have in your hand?' So, we have about four different ways of saying `you' which is 'ya,' 'ja,' 'cha' and even 'ju.'" AA: "This is spoken English, right? Now if you were writing a report or something for work, you would want to be more careful about using the formal non-reduced forms." DAVID BURKE: "Absolutely. But, I would have to say yes and no, because reductions are used typically in speaking; however, a lot of times when we are writing to friends or especially in comic books we'll see the reduced form. "True, in a formal report, you do not want to use reductions, but when we are writing a letter to somebody we might say in the beginning of the letter `How are ya?' and spell y-a for ya. That's pretty common." AA: "Also on the most-often-heard reduction list are the reduced forms of going to and want to. They become gonna, g-o-n-n-a, and wanna, w-a-n-n-a." RS: "As in 'I'm gonna be late,' or 'Do you wanna go with me?'" DAVID BURKE: "And what's a little bit difficult to understand about `gonna' [is that] `gonna' is the reduction of `going to' only when it is something that is happening in the future. "But when it indicates going from one place to another you cannot reduce it. For example, `I'm going to the movies tonight.' You can't say `I'm gonna the movies tonight.' Or `Are you going to the market?' You can't say 'Are you gonna the market?' So, it's only used to indicate the future, and it's really popular." AA: "Sometimes, when reduction takes place, two different words are reduced to the same sound." RS: "That happens with 'and' and 'in'." DAVID BURKE: "'And' is pronounced 'n': `Rosanne n Avi.' The word `in' -- 'Let's go inside' -- it's pronounced absolutely the same. `Put the pencil 'n' the box.' It sounds like `Put the pencil and the box.'" AA: "So someone coming to this country who is not used to the fast-speaking ways of your average American is going to be confused by these `wannas, gonnas -- " RS: "Can't ya, don'tcha." DAVID BURKE: "Absolutely. In fact just now you said a very common reduction, `used to' - `usta' means to be accustomed to, to be acclimated to. I'm usta getting up early. He usta be my best friend. We would never say `used to.'" RS: "The question I have for you is that given the fact that Americans speak with reductions, how do people who speak English as a foreign language learn to tell the difference? How do they learn these reductions?" DAVID BURKE: "The only way they can learn is to live in this country, and of course when they arrive they will be absolutely shocked and all of a sudden someone comes up and says, `How do ya do?' not `How do you do?' They are stunned." AA: Slangman David Burke, talking about reductions in a segment from two thousand. You can learn about his language teaching materials at slangman.com. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Archives are at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy?" / Chris LeDoux/Garth Brooks

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: expanding on reductions. When speakers compress a phrase like "going to" into "gonna," or "what do you" into "whaddaya," that's a reduction. We mentioned their importance when we talked last week about the natural rhythms of spoken American English. To explain more, we found a segment we did with Slangman David Burke where he talked about reductions.

DAVID BURKE: "One of them is 'you.' Instead of saying you, we just say ya. Instead of saying `How are you?' [we say] `How are ya?' If I were to say to you 'Didja eat yet?' and you replied `No, didju?' we would understand that. 'Didja eat yet?' Did you eat yet?

"We talked about ya which is a reduction of you, but after the letter d the you or the ya becomes a 'ja' sound always after the letter d. `Would you like to come to the movies?' `Wouldja like to come to the movies?' `Did you eat?' `Didja eat?' And, for some reason after the letter t the ya becomes 'cha' -- `I'll let you come with me.' `I'll letcha come with me.' `What's that you have in your hand?' `Whatcha have in your hand?' So, we have about four different ways of saying `you' which is 'ya,' 'ja,' 'cha' and even 'ju.'"

AA: "This is spoken English, right? Now if you were writing a report or something for work, you would want to be more careful about using the formal non-reduced forms."

DAVID BURKE: "Absolutely. But, I would have to say yes and no, because reductions are used typically in speaking; however, a lot of times when we are writing to friends or especially in comic books we'll see the reduced form.

"True, in a formal report, you do not want to use reductions, but when we are writing a letter to somebody we might say in the beginning of the letter `How are ya?' and spell y-a for ya. That's pretty common."

AA: "Also on the most-often-heard reduction list are the reduced forms of going to and want to. They become gonna, g-o-n-n-a, and wanna, w-a-n-n-a."

RS: "As in 'I'm gonna be late,' or 'Do you wanna go with me?'"

DAVID BURKE: "And what's a little bit difficult to understand about `gonna' [is that] `gonna' is the reduction of `going to' only when it is something that is happening in the future.

"But when it indicates going from one place to another you cannot reduce it. For example, `I'm going to the movies tonight.' You can't say `I'm gonna the movies tonight.' Or `Are you going to the market?' You can't say 'Are you gonna the market?' So, it's only used to indicate the future, and it's really popular."

AA: "Sometimes, when reduction takes place, two different words are reduced to the same sound."

RS: "That happens with 'and' and 'in'."

DAVID BURKE: "'And' is pronounced 'n': `Rosanne n Avi.' The word `in' -- 'Let's go inside' -- it's pronounced absolutely the same. `Put the pencil 'n' the box.' It sounds like `Put the pencil and the box.'"

AA: "So someone coming to this country who is not used to the fast-speaking ways of your average American is going to be confused by these `wannas, gonnas -- "

RS: "Can't ya, don'tcha."

DAVID BURKE: "Absolutely. In fact just now you said a very common reduction, `used to' - `usta' means to be accustomed to, to be acclimated to. I'm usta getting up early. He usta be my best friend. We would never say `used to.'"

RS: "The question I have for you is that given the fact that Americans speak with reductions, how do people who speak English as a foreign language learn to tell the difference? How do they learn these reductions?"

DAVID BURKE: "The only way they can learn is to live in this country, and of course when they arrive they will be absolutely shocked and all of a sudden someone comes up and says, `How do ya do?' not `How do you do?' They are stunned."

AA: Slangman David Burke, talking about reductions in a segment from two thousand. You can learn about his language teaching materials at slangman.com. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Archives are at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

MUSIC: "Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy?" / Chris LeDoux/Garth Brooks

El Dr Erotiko Opina:: Daiana Guzman En Playboy

El Dr Erotiko Opina:: Daiana Guzman En Playboy: ¡ Increíble !, Andy Warhol dijo que todos alguna vez en nuestra vida íbamos a tener nuestros 15 minutos de fama, y tal parece que es...