SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY, 2018 – UWI TODAY
13
CAMPUS NEWS
InMarch2017
,aFacebookmeme“NameaWordTrinidadianPeople
always mispronounce” on Slam 100.5fm and Boomchampionstt.
com elicited over 500 reactions, over 1,500 shares, and over
1,000 comments and contributions. Many of the comments were
based on popular misconceptions about language in general, and
about Trinidadian speech in particular. While some comments
were good-natured and humorous, the general tone ranged from
condescension to mockery to horror, signalling both a lack of
awareness of the huge variation in the English language across the
Caribbean and across the globe, and an often disparaging attitude
towards both Trinidadian English and of Trinidadian English
Creole.There are obvious implications for language and education,
language and social equity and justice, language and nationhood,
and language and psychological well-being.
Linguistics helps us understand the nature of language change
over time and language variation. Here we take a look at some of
these pronunciation issues raised by that popular meme. Accents
are the subject of another article.
Errors? Not Just a Trinidadian Thing
Speakers of English around the world confuse
pacific
for
specific
,
prostrate
for
prostate
and much more. There has also
been a great deal written about past errors that are the source of
present pronunciations in English. David Shariatmadari’s article
“8 pronunciation errors that made the English language what it is
today”, published by
The Guardian
in March 2014, is particularly
accessible and helpful. Change, though constant, never comes easy.
What is accepted today may once have faced outrage, just as what
is rejected today may one day be the face of tomorrow.
Both modern Caribbean English and Caribbean English
Creoles share close connections with aspects of Early Modern
English (EModE) varieties which are the ones that settled here,
“Aks Me about Flim and Hoss”
Linguistics helps us understand the nature of language change
over time and language variation
B Y J O - A N N E F E R R E I R A
not prescribed and standardised Present Day English (PDE) which
came later. We would do well to study those EModE varieties, with
all their echoes here, instead of only PDE, which we must also use
in our writing and other media.
Shakespeare might have said “the cyat was hiding in the
gyarden”. He might also have said
buss, cuss, fuss, nuss, wuss
, for
burst, curse, first, nurse, worse
, andmore. He definitely would have
heard
hoss
for
horse.
Historical Phonology:
Different Emphases on Different Syllables
*
Character - CHAracter or chaRACter
?
The pronunciation with the second syllable stressed is the
earlier pronunciation that sailed the Atlantic around Shakespearean
times and stayed here in the Caribbean (and some parts of the
USA). Other words that used to have the stress on the second
syllable include
conTEMplate, balCOny, deCAdent, soNOrous
, and
many more. That
chaRACter
was right for one period of English
language history but not now is an issue of fashion.
Modern International Synchronic Variation
There is an increasing familiarity with and respect for General
American norms, what with increasing physical and virtual
access to the USA. This increasing contact also seems to parallel
increasing distance from the older Trinidadian self almost to the
point of mockery, scorn and derision, even a strained relationship
with traditional local and national norms. This is to the point
that some of the comments did not know that
forehead
does
rhyme with
horrid
,
Maths
and
Math
are both “acceptable” and
that
schedule
developed two current pronunciations (but lost its
original pronunciation of
sedule
from Old French
cedule
).
Phonology: Vowel/Syllable Deletion (Apocope)
The deletion of an unstressed vowel (leading therefore to a
reduction in the number of syllables) is common and normal, as
in
chocolate
which has two syllables these days (in English). This
is the reason for the way we pronounce
library
and
secretary
and
more with two syllables (like other speakers of English):
Phonology: Insertion (Epenthesis)
Icing, fishing
and
flowering
sometimes get an extra consonant,
and
athlete
and
translation
sometimes get an extra vowel. The
process is called epenthesis. Insertion and deletion processes fix
syllable structure to match existing syllable norms or templates,
sometimes by analogy with similar sounding words.
Phonology: Switching Sounds (Metathesis)
If
flim
and
cripsy
are wrong, then all English speakers should
revert to
waps
for
wasp
,
hros
for
horse
,
brid
for
bird
,
tronado
for
tornado
,
brust
for
burst
,
birght
for
bright
and other such examples!
*
Aks
and
Ask
they came from the verbs
acsian
and
ascian
,
respectively. People have been saying both for 1,200 years.
*
Film
and
Flim.
Why do speakers say
flim
? Take the [lm]
challenge and name 10 words that end with [lm], where the [l] is
actually pronounced. (These can’t include those words with a silent
but once pronounced <l> as in
calm, palm
, etc.; a word like
balm
never had the added <l> pronounced as it came to English via
French, and is related to Modern French
baume
.) Other varieties
handle this [lm] problemby breaking up the sequence with a vowel,
like some varieties of Irish English. Now name 10 words that start
with [fl] - much easier. So, deletion, insertion andmetathesis are all
skilful coping strategies to deal with any pronunciation problem.
Kumar
for
kurma
is a type of metathesis too.
Phonology: Assimilation
For most speakers of English, the “s” in
news
by itself is
different from the “s” in
newspaper
. In the second instance, it
sounds like an [s], but in the first, like a [z]. Assimilation also
happens when
pigtail
sounds like
picktail
and Princes Town sounds
like Princess Town. It is due to assimilation for ease of articulation.
Assimilation explains
punkin
for
pumpkin
, and
sangwich
for
sandwich
. Assimilation also explains
choon
for
tune
, and Chuesday
for Tuesday (and historically explains why
sure
and
sugar
have a
<sh> sound at the beginning).
(Mis)pronunciations are just the tip of the iceberg. Lexico-
semantics is another area of great interest to language users. See
more on our languageblag.com. So language exploration is as deep
as it is wide, and the Linguistics Sections on all UWI campuses,
along with the Society for Caribbean Linguistics, stand ready to
discuss and research all manner of language and language-related
issues.
Bob said it: “If you know your history, then you would know
where you coming from” (
Buffalo Soldier
).
“punkin?”
“sangwich?”
