The readings this week were not only interesting from an academic standpoint, but were also personally relevant. As a native English speaker, I can't ever remember a time where I had to consciously consider changing my pitch during conversation. However, when I began studying a second language, Japanese, I began to understand the role that pitch has in a conversation, and that role is different across languages. Japanese pitch accent differs from the one I've grown up with in English, and so far I have had a difficult time both using that accent and picking up on it while in conversation. As an English speaker I might understand that although "tents" and "tends" sound the same I can pick up the difference in conversation, but as a Japanese speaker, it is difficult for me to notice the difference between sake and sake. Sake(/saꜜke/) and sake(/sake/) sound nearly identical to my English ear, but make the difference between ordering alcohol or salmon in a restaurant. The Gussenhoven readings touch on this difference in section 1.9 and more information on the difference in pitch accent between English and Japanese can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_accent_(intonation). This reading also really gave me a new appreciation for all of the physiological factors that go into producing even a single word. It made me consider what types of sounds I use in Japanese that I don't normally in English and what kinds of actions my vocal tract makes to produce those sounds.
Reading the Kenstowicz article it was fascinating to realize how much our mind can process while in conversation to be able to hear phonologically identical words and place separate meanings to both. At the same time, though, from a Japanese learner's perspective, this concept doesn't carry over very well. Each letter has a very defined sound, so everything that is said can be written down with complete clarity, with one notable exception. Oftentimes when the character す (su) appears, the 'u' is not voiced. For example, the word desu would often sound like "dess." However, this could never possibly cause any confusion because it is the only letter with such a change.
These articles were very interesting to look at, especially when comparing the English data and examples provided with my knowledge of Japanese and how it compares. I very much look forward to applying this sort of comparison the rest of the quarter as well.
I also found the section on pitch to be particularly interesting in the Gussenhoven article and I'm glad you did too. I really enjoyed the point your brought up about Japanese and how a different pitch can give a word an entirely different meaning. When I was in China it kept getting brought up to us that the word for woman and cow were the same but one had a slightly different pitch and I always thought that was very interesting. Going off of your point about how you didn't realize that the way in which your mouth/throat works for Japanese is different then for enlgish, I wonder if bilingual singers have more control over their voices due to the fact that they can use more parts of their vocal tract. Food for thought, anyways great post.
ReplyDeleteHey Jesse,
ReplyDeleteWhat you've said about pitch reminds me of my (admittedly brief) study of Ancient Attic Greek, where if I remember correctly the language is accented on the pitch of the speaker, denoted by three different diacriticals: the acute, grave and circumflex accents. I remember having trouble even trying to understand what an word accent derived from pitch would even sound like at the time.
But on to a more recent and relevant example of the difference in sounds and how that can be a bit jolting as a language learner, I experienced a similar problem in French. Now French and English obviously share certain historic similarities, but in no superficial way do they sound alike. I had and continue to have a lot of difficulty (although I have been told that my French accent is pretty alright) with the nasal sounds, as well as that of "u" (spoken in the alphabet). It's interesting to grow accustomed to new sounds. At first, when I would hear a French sentence, I couldn't even make up the word boundaries and distinctions, but as of late I have been able to fairly well transcribe what a French speaker is saying even if I have never heard the word before.
Hopefully we dive deeper into language acquisition and phonetic adaptation.