Cambridge Pronunciation Dic Review....

Milton   Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:59 pm GMT
''Controversial transcriptions

In my opinion, some of the transcriptions in the EPD are quite strange, especially the ones for American English:

* Inch is transcribed /in(t)S/. The (t) symbol shows that t is optional, which suggests that inch can be pronounced "insh"! The same mistake is repeated with other words ending in -nch, such as lunch and punch.
* The American pronunciation of off is transcribed /a:f/. The pronunciation /o:f/ is not given at all, even though it is very frequent on American TV — in my experience, much more frequent than /a:f/. The same problem occurs for other words beginning with off, such as office.
* The American pronunciation of caught is transcribed /ka:t | ko:t/. The first pronunciation, which is supposed to be the most frequent one, uses the a: symbol. However, in my experience, the o: (rounded) version is much more frequent in American "Network English". The same goes for many other words like law, bought, or dog. Interestingly, for words like call and always, where the vowel comes before an l, the EPD gives the o: version first.

Because of these problems, I feel that I cannot fully trust the EPD as a source of American pronunciations. American dictionaries, most notably the Merriam-Webster Online, seem much more reliable. ''



Explanations:

1. The original American transcription/pronunciation written by prof. Jones is based on the conservative Western US English, which lacks [ɔ] phoneme. 1st editions of this Dictionary did not feature [ɔ] at all.

2. This is consistent with the traditional Southern Californian General American described in:
a) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association : A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet by International Phonetic Association (chapter on US English by Ladefoged, Peter)
b) A Course in Phonetics (with CD-ROM) by Peter Ladefoged (Paperback - Jun 24, 2005)

3. In newer editions of the C. Pronunciation Dictionary, unmerged variations are added, but neither consistently nor systematically.
I am sure prof. Jones would have done a much better job, were he still alive...

4. A pronunciation dictionary should stick to only one accent (for example: in the case of Brazilian Portuguese: Collins Portuguese dictionary gives the pronunciation from Rio, and Oxford Portuguese dictionary gives the pronunciation of São Paulo; No dictionary of Brazilian Portuguese uses the neutral newscasters standard which is artificial and used only on RedeGlobo evening news).

5. It's better for a speaker to be consistent, for example, choosing the traditional Western accent (used in 1st editions of Cambridge Pronunciation dictionary, all editions of Cambridge Advanced Learner's dictionary and MW Learner's Dictionary), than mix various accents all over the US.

6. ''National'' frequency is not easy to describe/measure

for example
Should it be

1. DOLL [dɔl, dɑl] or [dɑl, dɔl]
2. CALL [kɔl, kɑl] or [kɑl, kɔl]

No one can give the correct answer to this question because many people (especially in the Midwest and the South) use both pronunciations interchangeably. This is where a dictionary falls apart. You cannot write both pronunciations in the same place (in the same time), so the 1st one might get a preferred position, although it may not be the case at all.


I just watched ''White Oleander'' which features mainly Californian actors, and indeed, unrounded pronunciation is much more frequent: [kɑl, dɑl]. Rounded variants are used only occasionally, but the vowel is nowhere near [ɔ]. The alternative variant is [ɒ ]. So, when counting ''national preferences'' [ɒ ] should be counted as [ɑ] and not [ɔ].

(Ben Affleck once said: people in B[ɔ]ston pronounce the name of their city as: B[ɑ]ston.

This is, of course, not true, they pronounce it b[ɒ ]ston, but Ben Affleck's nonmerged ear hears [ɒ ] as an allophone of /ɑ/).


In California, [ɒ] can be an informal L-colored variant of the main vowel, it can replace many vowels: d[ɒ]llars, w[ɒ]lf, p[ɒ]ls, c[ɒ]lture. It's used only by some speakers tho', mostly informally...

Pronunciation Dictionaries are never perfect because one needs to master phonetics and phonology of the Language to be able to ''interpret'' them.

Southern Californian accent still has prestige in the US, for example Brooke Shields and Lady Gaga have a perfect traditional L.A. accent although they never fail to mention that they were ''born and raised on Manhattan''.

If I were to choose between L.A. and Omaha, I would choose L.A.
Why would anyone ever want to sound like a Nebraskan?
Even there, G.A. is moving to a cot/caught merged dialect, which makes all this idea of a ''Newscasters US English'' pretty wage.
Milton   Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:00 pm GMT
Explanations:

1. The original American transcription/pronunciation written by prof. Jones is based on the conservative Western US English, which lacks [ɔ] phoneme. 1st editions of this Dictionary did not feature [ɔ] at all.

2. This is consistent with the traditional Southern Californian General American described in:
a) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association : A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet by International Phonetic Association (chapter on US English by Ladefoged, Peter)
b) A Course in Phonetics (with CD-ROM) by Peter Ladefoged (Paperback - Jun 24, 2005)

3. In newer editions of the C. Pronunciation Dictionary, unmerged variations are added, but neither consistently nor systematically.
I am sure prof. Jones would have done a much better job, were he still alive...

4. A pronunciation dictionary should stick to only one accent (for example: in the case of Brazilian Portuguese: Collins Portuguese dictionary gives the pronunciation from Rio, and Oxford Portuguese dictionary gives the pronunciation of São Paulo; No dictionary of Brazilian Portuguese uses the neutral newscasters standard which is artificial and used only on RedeGlobo evening news).

5. It's better for a speaker to be consistent, for example, choosing the traditional Western accent (used in 1st editions of Cambridge Pronunciation dictionary, all editions of Cambridge Advanced Learner's dictionary and MW Learner's Dictionary), than mix various accents all over the US.

6. ''National'' frequency is not easy to describe/measure

for example
Should it be

1. DOLL [dɔl, dɑl] or [dɑl, dɔl]
2. CALL [kɔl, kɑl] or [kɑl, kɔl]

No one can give the correct answer to this question because many people (especially in the Midwest and the South) use both pronunciations interchangeably. This is where a dictionary falls apart. You cannot write both pronunciations in the same place (in the same time), so the 1st one might get a preferred position, although it may not be the case at all.


I just watched ''White Oleander'' which features mainly Californian actors, and indeed, unrounded pronunciation is much more frequent: [kɑl, dɑl]. Rounded variants are used only occasionally, but the vowel is nowhere near [ɔ]. The alternative variant is [ɒ ]. So, when counting ''national preferences'' [ɒ ] should be counted as [ɑ] and not [ɔ].

(Ben Affleck once said: people in B[ɔ]ston pronounce the name of their city as: B[ɑ]ston.

This is, of course, not true, they pronounce it b[ɒ ]ston, but Ben Affleck's nonmerged ear hears [ɒ ] as an allophone of /ɑ/).


In California, [ɒ] can be an informal L-colored variant of the main vowel, it can replace many vowels: d[ɒ]llars, w[ɒ]lf, p[ɒ]ls, c[ɒ]lture. It's used only by some speakers tho', mostly informally...

Pronunciation Dictionaries are never perfect because one needs to master phonetics and phonology of the Language to be able to ''interpret'' them.

Southern Californian accent still has prestige in the US, for example Brooke Shields and Lady Gaga have a perfect traditional L.A. accent although they never fail to mention that they were ''born and raised on Manhattan''.

If I were to choose between L.A. and Omaha, I would choose L.A.
Why would anyone ever want to sound like a Nebraskan?
Even there, G.A. is moving to a cot/caught merged dialect, which makes all this idea of a ''Newscasters US English'' pretty vague.