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November 10, 2005
My Conversations...
I have been trying this week to listen to other people's speech and notice the subtle differences. There were three main things I noticed this week and in the past:
My roomate Sarah is from Norwood, about 20 minutes from Boston. During the past couple of months I have noticed that she pronounces vowels, particularly "a" and "o" differently than I do. For example, I pronounce the word "dad" with what I would call a soft "a". Sarah says "Dad" with a very long, hard, exaggerated "a", like "Daaad". (Sorry for the weird notation, but this is difficult to convey in writing.) Similarily, she pronounces "o" more like "u". Instead of saying Mommy with a distinct "o" sound, she says something closer to Mummy, with a "u" sound. There are lots more words which signify the same thing, but these are the two best examples. Since I met her I have been trying to "correct" her speech. (Meaning bring it closer to mine!!)
My cousin Kate is five years older than me, but we basically grew up together and did everything together. For this reason, many of our mannerisms are the same. Kate went to college at UCONN and returned after four years with distinctly different vowel sounds which my sister, brother, and I love to make fun of. She, similar to Sarah, but not in the same way, also exaggerates her "a" sound. A clssic example of this is the word "traffic". Her "a" sound is very exaggerated, as if she is saying "I am stuck in traaaaffic." Also, she calls her mother "Ma". Instead of saying "Ma", she says "Maaa" (which ryhmes with Baaa--like a sheep. I think this is interesting because her speech used to be identical to mine, and it has now altered slightly because she was in a different geographical location for few years.
Lastly, I have been studying my father's speech for years. As I mentioned in class, he does not pronounce the "h" sound. He says "uge" for "huge", "appy" for "happy", "urricane" for "hurricane", etc. Once, just for fun and because I like to bother him, I tried the candle trick from "My Fair Lady" on him. For those not familiar with this, the "h" sounds produces a short puff of air which should make the candle flame move. With my dad, nothing happened!! My dad also makes many speech errors. For example, we have some good friends with the last name "Scothon". Most people pronounce it "Sco-thin". My dad has no clue how to say it. Usually, he says "Sco-shin". I honestly have no clue why he makes such errors. I think it is just his personality, he does not really pay attention to difficult pronounciations and spellings. It is something to ponder though!!
--Brenna D.
**P.S. I am REALLY sorry that this is so long.
Posted by lciscotis at November 10, 2005 01:31 PM