If you think you are the only one who gets confused with the present perfect or has trouble understanding fast speech then reassure yourself that this is not the case by reading these observations adapted from the very interesting by Learner English Michael Swan and Bernard Smith. I will be posting about a different aspect of language each, today’s subject is pronunciation.
Italian speakers
The fact that many English words and phrases have Latin origins can help Italian speakers but can cause them to sound more formal. Old English aspects of English common in basic, everyday conversation can be more difficult than more formal ways of expression.
( For an exercise to practice changing latinate verbs to less formal phrasal verbs see here - http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/phrasal.html )
Phonology
Watch this video of the stereotypical Italian accent
To avoid sounding like this read on.
General
The main difficulties for Italian learners are stress and rhythm and it is here that learners have most problems in understanding and in making themselves understood.
Vowels
1. /I/ is frequently used or perceived as /i:/: leave for live
2. /ae/ is frequently used or perceived /e/: met for mat
3. / ᴧ / is also sometimes pronounced /ae/: bat for but
Confusion is common between / ᵊᶹ/ and /ᴐ:/ or /ᶛ/ which are all /o/ in Italian; so the words coat, caught and cot sound the same. In the same way /e/and /eI/ as in get and gate sound like /e/.
In Italian vowel sounds do not change for sentence or word stress and this can make understanding of fast speech difficult. Unstressed vowels are often pronounced as they are written eg /’fotograefer/ instead of /fᵊtᶛgrᵊfᵊ/ for photographer and weak forms of verbs like can, have, are and must may not be recognized.
Consonants
/ᶿ/ and /ᶞ/ are often pronounced as /t/ and /d/: tin for thin and udder or other.
/ᵑ/ in Italian is like /n/. English ng ( as in singer ) is often pronounced /ᵑg/ by learners: /sᶛᵑg/ for /sᶛᵑ/.
There is no /h/ in Italian, and students either don’t pronounce it or use it more than necessary. ‘Hi ‘ope ‘e is’ – ‘I hope he is’.
In Italian final consonants are rare and are usually found only in foreign words eg bar, sport etc. S final consonants in English may be followed by a vowel – I wentᵊ to schoolᵊ onᵊ the busᵊ
Italian is less consonant heavy than English. Words with more than cluster (like understandable) are particularly difficult. Final clusters often cause problems, especially those containing / ᶿ/ or /ᶞ/ eg sixths, clothes.
Influence of spelling on pronunciation
Learners may expect every letter to be pronounced (eg /kni:/ for knee because of the close relationship between spelling and pronunciation in Italian.
1. The letter is always pronounced in Italian and this is carried over into English, leading to mistakes in words like farmer.
2. Double consonants are written as in Italian in words like summer, accurate, sitting, opposite.
3. As in Italian c is pronounced /tᶴ/ before i and e but as /k/ before other vowels; g is /dᶾ/ before i or e but as /g/ elsewhere; sc is /ᶴ/ before e or I, but as /sk/ elsewhere. Typical errors are
‘achent’ for accent
‘sinjer’ for singer
‘sheen’ for scene
4. A w in foreign words is often pronounced as /v/: vat for watt.
5. Learners sometimes pronounce initial silent letters as in pneumonia and psychology, where such initial letters are pronounced in Italian.
Rhythm and stress
Italian learners often say that English people eat their words. The stress timed patterns of English cause great difficulty to Italian learners, particularly in terms of perception and comprehension. The characteristics of stress timing need to be pointed out. Special attention needs to be paid to the presentation and production of weak forms , since learners will expect full attention to be given to all syllables.
Intonation
Contrasts in Italian are usually signaled by reordering the components of the sentence, so that the element under focus comes at the end, which coincides with the primary stress:
Il treno arriva alle nove (the rain arrives at nine.)
Alle nove il treno arriva (the rain arrives at nine.)
In English different emphasis cand be indicated by changes in the primary stress and the intonation pattern, without necessarily changing the order of the various elements. Italian learners need these distinctions to be pointed out.
If you don’t know phonetic symbols you can learn them here - http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/phonemic-chart
Go to English club for some excellent information on word and sentence stress - http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/
Check back tomorrow for another post on grammar.
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