May 3, 2009

Sounding natural while speaking English is a struggle. When one has learned to read English before speaking it, the struggle seems heightened.  Only with “out loud” practice does one become proficient.

To recap from the last blog entry :
Linking is joining words together while speaking without stopping the voice between each word.
For example “whaduhyuwant?” Not “What..do..you..want?”. That would sound robotic and make understanding difficult.

Linking ties into rhythm.  As we join words, we emphasize meaning via speed, pitch and pause between important phrases.

Rhythm and stress act as modes to emphasize words and phrases while speaking.  The brain actually focuses on rhythm and stress first to give it insight into the meaning of the words.

I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Outliers. Great book.  I liked this sentence in the first chapter:  “On the wall, was a hand-painted banner: ‘Embrace the struggle’.”

To say this quotation with good linking and rhythm:
“ONthuh-wall…..(1/2 sec pause) WAza HANpainudBAnner…(1 sec pause), emBRACEthuhSTRUgul”.

The [….] pause engages the listener to anticipate the next phrase. The BOLD capitals indicate a syllable with a higher pitch and longer duration. Also, if you noticed, I included “word reductions”. [hand-painted] becomes “ HAN painud”

The process of linking strives for efficiency of lingual movement. Therefore, as the /t/ and /n/ are made in the same place in the mouth, the voiceless /t/ sound gets eliminated in moving to an unstressed syllable.  This efficiency carries over into maintaining consonant voicing so that the larynx does not need to start and stop on voiceless consonants such as the /t/ .  The /t/ will morph into a /d/ mid word going to an unstressed syllable.  “WHAduhYUwant?”

Malcolm Gladwell emphasized in his book that an “Outlier” is one who is willing to do the consistent and persistent struggle of practice.  To be understood,… Embrace the struggle.  Speech is a muscle motor act and must be practiced out loud …and…. physically in order to get better.  As with the Outliers mentioned in the book, the rewards will come.