en̪.t̪en̪.ˈd̪i ˈt̪o.ð̞o: how learning phonetics helps me in my foreign language acquisition
owadays it's very fashionable to say that to learn foreign languages it's not necessary, for example, to learn grammar. Or directly that you shouldn't learn grammar, as if learning it were something bad. I think the opposite, and the type of learner I am probably influences this: I need to know why a word is in a sentence, what it means and what function it fulfills. In fact, during my first years of learning German I not only studied German grammar, but also Spanish grammar, to compare them, and it helped me advance much faster. And I also took it one step further: I started studying phonetics. This also helped me advance faster: knowing phonetics saves time. A lot of time. Pronunciation is about fast and precise movements in which the organs of the vocal apparatus must be placed in a certain position. When we learn phonetics we learn what position we must place these organs in consciously, instead of learning it by imitation, in the long run, when we gradually manage to improve our pronunciation of the target language with practice. Because no, not all languages have the same phonemes and when we learn a foreign language we will face sounds that don't exist in our language or languages. Thus, learning theoretically how we should pronounce a sound allows us to execute those movements consciously. And while it's very difficult to achieve pronunciation equal to that of a native speaker in a foreign language acquired in adulthood, learning phonetics does help us improve it. Why do I believe that learning phonetics saves time when acquiring a foreign language in adulthood? Because it quickly improves pronunciation, that is, it allows us to reduce our foreign accent, something that often limits us, since when speaking we often concentrate so much on trying to pronounce correctly that we take attention away from the content of what we're saying. This is unlike children, who learn the sounds of their mother tongue or tongues naturally. In this article we'll see a bit of theory on foreign language acquisition and many concepts and examples of phonetics. Let's go!
The difficulty in sounding like a native after childhood has a fascinating scientific basis that was explained by linguist Noam Chomsky through his theory of Universal Grammar (UG). Chomsky postulates that human beings are not born as a “blank slate”, but with a biological and innate “instruction manual” for language. This faculty allows a child, just by listening to their environment, to automatically activate the rules and sounds of the language or languages around them without the need for formal study. However, this mechanism has an “expiration date” known as the critical period. In the field of phonetics, this is crucial: the infant brain possesses total plasticity to process any human sound but, as it grows, that “manual” specializes only in the phonemes of the mother tongue. When this biological window closes we lose the ability to acquire sounds by simple osmosis. This is where learning phonetics makes complete sense: since the “language organ” no longer does the work for us unconsciously, the theoretical study of phonetics becomes the necessary tool to hack that system and recover, through consciousness and technique, the precision that biology stopped giving us for free.
no en̪.ˈt̪jen̪.do ˈna.ð̞a: the International Phonetic Alphabet.
To be able to study phonetics consciously we can use a tool that allows us to represent speech sounds in a precise and universal way: the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA is a notation system developed by the International Phonetic Association that assigns a unique symbol to each sound of human speech, regardless of the language or how that sound is written in conventional spelling. This is fundamental because, as we already know, writing doesn’t always reflect pronunciation: the b and the v in Spanish are written differently but sound the same, while in English ough can be pronounced in at least five different ways (through, though, thorough, rough, thought). The IPA eliminates this ambiguity: a symbol always represents the same sound, regardless of the language. Thus, when we see [i] we know exactly which vowel it is, or when we see [β̞] we know it’s a voiced bilabial approximant. This precision makes the IPA an indispensable tool not only for linguists, but also for anyone who wants to consciously improve their pronunciation in a foreign language. I’m not going to detail the IPA in this article: I don’t even master it. But it’s a useful tool for transcribing a word whose pronunciation we find hard to understand and thus be able to know objectively how we should pronounce it.
The first distinction we must make when we want to learn phonetics is between vowels and consonants. Vowels are characterized by allowing air flow freely, without interposition of obstacles. That is, air comes out continuously and, furthermore, they are almost always voiced, that is, when pronouncing them the vocal cords vibrate. Consonants, on the other hand, involve some type of obstacle to air flow, such as a complete occlusion, a constriction or a momentary interruption of air flow with a subsequent constriction, to give some examples.
Vowels are classified according to three main parameters: the height of the tongue in the oral cavity, its anteroposterior position and the rounding of the lips. Thus, there are high vowels, like the i in Spanish, in which the back part of the tongue rises toward the palate, mid vowels, like the e in Spanish, in which the back part of the tongue remains in an intermediate position, and low vowels, like the a in Spanish in which the back part of the tongue moves away from the palate. According to the anteroposterior position of the tongue they can be front, in which the tip of the tongue is positioned forward in the oral cavity, as is the case with the i in Spanish, central, like the a in Spanish, in which the tip of the tongue is situated in the middle of the oral cavity, and back, like the u in Spanish in which the tongue is retracted. With respect to the position of the lips they can be rounded, like the u in Spanish, which is pronounced with the lips projected forward, or unrounded, like the a in Spanish, which are pronounced with the lips in a more neutral or relaxed position. There are also nasal vowels, for example in French and in Portuguese, in which the velum descends allowing air to exit through the nose.
A practical example.
When Spanish speakers learn German we have to face a sound that doesn’t exist in Spanish: that of the ü. The most common explanation of how this vowel is pronounced is that to pronounce it you have to position your mouth as if to pronounce a u but pronounce an i. And it’s not bad as an explanation, but it takes time to get used to and it takes time to understand the concept. But if the person learning to learn this sound knows phonetics they will consciously know how to position the vocal apparatus knowing that this vowel is high, front and rounded, a combination that doesn’t exist in Spanish. That is, the back part of the tongue approaches the palate, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth, the lips project forward. Doing this consciously makes it much easier to get used to pronouncing a sound that is foreign to us. And I don’t say this just to say it, I tell it here because it happened to me.
Consonants have a more complex classification, based on the manner of articulation, that is, how the difficulty to air exit is generated, on the place of articulation, that is, in which part of the vocal apparatus this difficulty is generated and on voicing. Let’s go step by step with a brief explanation of the most frequent consonant sounds.
Manner of articulation.
According to the manner of articulation consonants can be:
Plosives: the air flow is cut off completely and then released abruptly, as for example in the p.
Approximants: in the case of approximant consonants two structures approach each other but not enough to generate turbulence or friction in the air exit. In the case of Spanish there’s a very good example to understand this, and it’s the pronunciation of the b and the v. In Spanish, unlike other languages, these two letters are pronounced the same way: to simplify greatly, as plosives at the beginning of a sentence and as approximants after a vowel. Thus, in the word vivo to pronounce the first v the lips touch completely interrupting the air flow and then releasing it abruptly, but in the second v they approach each other without touching.
Fricatives: two structures get so close to each other that they generate turbulence or friction as air passes. An example is the f in Spanish, which is a labiodental fricative, because the friction occurs between the upper teeth and the lower lip, or the s, which is a predorsal fricative in most of Latin America, because a channel is formed between the predorsum of the tongue (which is the front part of its upper surface), the alveolar ridge, which is the rough area behind the upper teeth, and the lower teeth that generates turbulence, or an apico-alveolar fricative in most of Spain, because that turbulence is generated between the alveolar ridge and the tip of the tongue, which approaches them without touching them.
Affricates: they begin as an occlusion that then leads to friction. That is, they are a “combination” of plosive and fricative sounds: in plosive sounds after the occlusion the structures that caused it separate completely releasing the air passage. In fricative sounds there is no prior occlusion to the friction. In affricate sounds there is an occlusion and after this the structures that cause it separate slightly, so that turbulence occurs. The best example of an affricate consonant in Spanish is the pronunciation of the digraph ch.
Nasal: an occlusion to air flow occurs at some point in the oral cavity that makes air exit through the nose, as in the case of the n or the m.
Lateral: air exits through the sides of the tongue. That is, a partial occlusion to air flow occurs in the central axis of the air flow but allowing air to flow through the sides. This is the case with the pronunciation of the l.
Tap/trill: the tongue vibrates, or to put it in an easier way to understand, gives one or more “little taps” against the alveolar ridge. The tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge and immediately moves away, almost without interrupting the air flow. This is the case with the simple r in Spanish and the t in water in standard American English. In the case of the multiple vibrant r this same movement is repeated several times.
Place of articulation.
According to the place of articulation consonants can be:
Bilabial: the difficulty to air flow occurs between both lips. To cite again an example we already saw in this article, both the b and the v can be pronounced as bilabial plosives or as bilabial approximants, depending on the case.
Labiodental: between the upper teeth and the lower lip, as in the case of the f.
Interdental: the tongue is positioned between the upper and lower teeth. This is the case of the th in English in words like the or the c in Peninsular Spanish accents before e or i.
Dental: the tongue is positioned behind the upper teeth, as in the case of the d or the t in Spanish.
Alveolar: the tongue approaches the alveolar ridge, as in the s, the l or the r.
Postalveolar: the tongue approaches or touches the area immediately posterior to the alveolar ridge. This is the case of the digraph ch in Spanish, which is a postalveolar affricate in most variants of Spanish, and the case of the y and the ll in my own variant, in which yeísmo rehilado exists, a phenomenon by which these are pronounced as postalveolar fricatives.
Palatal: the dorsum of the tongue approaches the hard palate. This is the case, for example, of the ñ, which is a palatal nasal, or the y in most varieties of Spanish (and the ll in yeísta varieties), which can be pronounced as a palatal approximant, palatal fricative and even as a palatal affricate.
Velar: the back part of the tongue approaches the soft palate, as in the case of the j in Spanish, which can be fricative or approximant, or the c before a, o, u or a consonant, which is a velar plosive.
Uvular: although it’s not a frequent sound in Spanish it occurs when the back part of the tongue approaches the uvula producing a guttural sound. Examples are the r in French or the r in German in cases when it sounds.
Glottal: the sound comes from the glottis, which is the space that exists between the vocal cords. In Spanish this sound can be heard, for example, in the case of aspirated s. In my variant of Spanish in particular in the word esto the s sounds like the h in English in hello. There is more than one glottal consonant. In the particular case of the h in English, and therefore of the aspirated s in Spanish, there are discussions about whether it isn’t actually a voiceless vowel. Because in itself air flows freely, which would distance this particular sound from the definition of consonant.
Voicing.
Consonants can be voiced or voiceless. If they’re voiced our vocal cords vibrate when pronouncing them, if they’re voiceless they don’t. This is quite easy to practice: when pronouncing a consonant we touch the front of the neck. If we feel a vibration it’s a voiced consonant, if not, it isn’t. To give a practical example, the v in Spanish, as we’ve seen, can be pronounced as a voiced bilabial plosive or as a voiced bilabial approximant, depending on the case. But in English and in French, for example, it’s a voiced labiodental fricative, a sound that doesn’t exist in Spanish, and in German it’s a voiceless labiodental fricative, equivalent to the f in Spanish, except in loanwords. The usefulness of consciously practicing the voiced or voiceless pronunciation of a phoneme is evident, above all, when we have to produce a sound that doesn’t exist in our mother tongue: as we already saw, the s in Spanish is pronounced as a voiceless fricative with different places of articulation, but never as voiced. However, to give an example, the s in German in words like Sie or Sonne is pronounced as a voiced predorsal fricative, a sound that doesn’t exist in Spanish. So, the tendency of Spanish speakers when pronouncing these words in German is to pronounce the s as voiceless, because it’s the closest sound we have in our own language. This is, on the other hand, the basis of foreign accent: the assimilation of the sounds of the target language to the most similar ones in our repertoire. Conscious practice of these new sounds, based on knowledge of phonetics, brings us closer to native pronunciation. And, I promise, your ear becomes attuned: after a while we begin to differentiate sounds that previously sounded the same to us, because we acquire them and add them to our repertoire.
Pronunciation, furthermore, can change the meaning of words. Let’s take an example from French. In French fish is said poisson. That double s is pronounced as a voiceless alveolar fricative. And poison is said poison, and the s is pronounced as a voiced alveolar fricative. So, the difference between give me the fish (donnez-moi le poisson) and give me the poison (donnez-moi le poison) is… phonetics. Of course context always helps. If someone who is learning Spanish tells me perro yo mañana no puedo ir… I’m going to understand. But can you imagine what could happen if the poisson and the poison were both part of something and had to go in a specific order?
Reviewing the article I think I’ve already added too much information. Conscious of not having added all of it. To give an example, did you see that clicking sound we make sometimes when we want to express, for example, disappointment or annoyance? Well, that click and many more are part of some languages. Particularly some African languages, according to examples I’ve seen. Yes, it’s impossible to cover all of phonetics in a single article. In addition to which here and here you can read more about Spanish pronunciation rules.
I’m currently doing a language exchange with a person who is a native English speaker. I monitor myself a lot when I speak in a foreign language and, in my exchanges with this person I’ve noticed that, as time passes while we’re speaking in English, my foreign accent worsens. Or, rather, increases. I, thinking it was going to be the opposite, started researching. And what I discovered was fascinating. As our conversations become more complex I need to search in my brain for the vocabulary necessary to keep up. To achieve that my brain, apparently, turns off what’s most “superficial,” which is pronunciation, to allow me to find the appropriate vocabulary. And this despite my English being good, speaking it almost naturally, and having started learning it at 8 or 9 years old. But even so this happens to me. That’s why I brought you Chomsky’s concepts, which for me are super interesting. And that’s why I want to leave you with a final message, because those of us who decide to embark on the adventure of learning a foreign language as adults generally have the problem that we’re afraid of making mistakes. Behind a foreign accent, or a circumlocution, or simply not managing to express what we want, what there is is courage. The courage to try to express ourselves with other words, with other cultural codes, with other phonemes and without the ease we have in our own language. So go ahead, make mistakes and try again. As always, thank you for reading!
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