Flibbertigibbet

Hooked on Phonemes

It's funny this should come up because just the other day a friend observed that accent and pronunciation are not strongly emphasized in foreign language education. In my mind, this is very important; I just think if you're going to bother learning a language you should at least give a go at imitating native pronunciation. This has paid off for me because when I've visited Central America and South America, I have been complimented on my accent. Some native speakers were surprised by my limited vocabulary and inability to properly conjugate verbs (Hey! I don't get much practice!) because of my pronunciation.

Accents and pronunciation basically consist of imitating the sounds native speakers make to pronounce words. You also have to learn what sounds can be substituted, run together, or just left out altogether without changing the understanding of what words you're saying.

pho•neme The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English.

But a phoneme also consists of all the sounds that can be substituted. For example, in English, we will often accept a D sound in place of a T sound, like in the word "button." (Compare the British English pronunciation versus the American English pronunciation.)

Well, I will tell you that I get annoyed when people deviate into questionable areas with their phonemes. For example, I have a coworker who is American, Southern even, and he doesn't consistently pronounce the letter H.

I am reminded of My Fair Lady. "In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire hurricanes hardly happen."

I think what bugs me about this is that this guy doesn't talk like Liza at all. He has a plain old American accent with a slight southern twang. Furthermore, he isn't consistent in not saying the H sound. Sometimes he says it and some times he doesn't.

For example, he might say, "Hello, Flibby! Meet Ms. Hughes," which sounds like, "Hello, Flibby! Meet Miss Yous."

This caused a problem for me in a meeting yesterday.

Dude Sometimes Without H's: I'm really surprised that you said that. I mean, it's really shocking because no one else makes comments like that.

Flibby: What was so strange about what I just said?

DSWOH: Not you. You. The consultant.

Flibby: What?

As it turns out, there is a consultant named Hugh somewhere. I've never met him and, in fact, I didn't even know about him until that meeting.

H's are important, folks! Please use them as appropriate! Don't make me crazy by not saying them.

I wonder how on earth this guy would deal with learning German, with all those glottal sounds.