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Rate, Direction, and Continuity of Movement in French and English Speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

James L. Barker
James L. Barker*
Affiliation:
University of Utah
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Extract

The imitative tones of a French boy saying, “y-e-e-e-s-o-o-y-e-e-e-s” have greeted more than one American from a distance as his nationality has been recognized, and the boy has called the words with a slow, drawling intonation. Any discussion of the cause of the quality the boy has heard as distinctive does not come under the head of “vowels and consonants” treated as individual sounds, nor under “stress,” nor even under “intonation,” “which may be defined as the variations in the pitch of the voice, i.e. variations in the pitch of the musical note produced by vibrations of the vocal cords.” Though this English acoustic quality is perfectly obvious, the underlying physiological differences of rate, direction, and continuity in the shifting of position of the vocal organs seem as yet untouched by phonetic study.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , December 1930 , pp. 1258 - 1263
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1930

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References

1 Jones, English Phonetics, Leipzig, 2nd. ed., p. 135.

2 “End-Consonants and Breath-Control in French and English,” Mod. Philol., November 1916.

3 “Beginning-Consonants and Breath-Control in French and English,” Language.

4 “Initial” consonants—pronounced as if initial; “final” consonants—pronounced in connection with the preceding vowel, see “End-Consonants and Breath-Control in French and English,” Mod. Philol, November 1916, and “Beginning-Consonants and Breath-Control in French and English,” Language.

5 “An Explanation of the Differences in Length and Voicing of Consonants in French and English,” Mod. Philol., February 1929.

6 “Syllable and Word Division in French and English,” Mod. Philol., Feburary 1922.

7 As shown in slow-films in 1925 at the Ann Arbor meeting of the M. L. A., and as may be seen by direct observation.

8 Also shown in slow-film at the Ann Arbor meeting.

9 A detailed criticism of the use of the artificial palate will be published later accompanied by palatograms.

10 The experiments on which this article is based were subventioned by the Modern Foreign Language Study (American Council on Education).