IKE SHERR
Monday, February 8, 2016
SESSION #3
CD TRACK 1
SIGNATURE SOUNDS
1. Even the Indian most fluent in English rarely uses the full aspiration associated with [] in most dialects of English. The fact that these unvoiced plosives are also made unusually strongly – fortis – by Indian speakers makes the lack of aspiration that much more noticeable.
EXAMPLES: please, time, cutting, writer, pretty, cooking, not at all
2. The /t/ consonant, in addition to the absence of aspiration, is also retroflex. That is to say that the tongue tip contacts the roof of the mouth somewhat further back than the alveolar ridge (the bump behind the top teeth), which is the point of contact for most dialects of English. This is also the case with /d/ and /n/. They are written [], [], and [].
EXAMPLES: tell-tale, deity, utility, mutilate, details, indebted, topsy-turvy, naughty, tenement, penitent, nonetheless
3. The Indian speaker often taps the /r/ consonant, reflecting its treatment in Indian languages. However, like /t/, it too is retroflex, and the point of contact is further back. It is written [].
EXAMPLES: bringing, arrange, foreigner, strict, correct, problem, ice cream
4. However, for those Indians for whom British English (rather than American) is the model (and given Britain’s long occupation of India and the ties that continue between the two countries, this is usually the case), the treatment of /r/ when it follows the vowel tends to adhere to the modern English treatment. Hence, a lack of rhoticity (r-coloration) is in order.
EXAMPLES: perfect, harmful, border, career, endure, square, entirely, lawyer
5. Like many foreign-language accents of English, the pronunciation of /th/ – the fricatives [] and [] in Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GenAm) – tends to be plosive in Indian speakers, but somewhat retroflex.
EXAMPLES: three, those, although, breathing, faithful, soothe, bath time
6. In many Indian speakers, the bilabial (two lips) consonant [] tends toward labio-dental (lips & teeth); that is to say that it often sounds like []. Perhaps because of this ambiguity, the reverse is often heard too.
EXAMPLES: once, weary, quiet, go away; AND very, civilian, eventful
7. For non-English actors attempting the Indian style of speech, there will be several English sounds to be incorporated. While these are not strictly signature sounds of Indian but rather of the RP that influences it, they are important. As you might expect, when an Indian relocates to North America or some other English-speaking place, he or she is influenced by the dialect encountered there. The vowel of the thought set is sounded as [].
EXAMPLES: awful, daughter, awkward, flawless, called, Saul, halt
8. This is the second of those English sounds I’ve just referred to, and is the vowel of the lot set. The Indian speaker uses [].
EXAMPLES: dog, lost, office, moth, soft, cough, competent, hospital, floss
9. And this is the third: RP [] for the bath set.
EXAMPLES: can’t, pass, dance, advantage, crafty, command, laugh
10. And the fourth is [] (the first sound of yet), intruded into the example words by RP speakers. Please note that this feature is used only when an [] vowel, spelled /u/, /ew/, or /ui/, follows the alveolar consonants []. For North American actors, it is helpful to know that only when this pronunciation exists as an alternative pronunciation in your dialect should you use it in this.
EXAMPLES: duke, duel, news, lewd, tune, nuclear, student, suit; BUT NOT lose, noose, soon, two, doom
11. The Linking /r/. When one word or syllable ends in /r/ or /re/, and the following word or syllable begins with a vowel sound, for example, here is, even if the /r/ is normally unsounded in the first word, it comes back into play to “link” to the next word. This would seem to be true of all non-rhotic dialects of English. Give the /r/ the treatment described in #3.
EXAMPLES: here is, there are, we’re all, fear itself, far away, for honor, four hours, whereon, mere oblivion
12. Final /l/. In English, it is usual for /l/ following a vowel, or when it follows certain consonants, to be pronounced “dark.” The symbol is []. The Indian speaker pronounces it “light” – [].
EXAMPLES: feel, telltale, call, whole, school, hallway, silk, little, stable
CD TRACK 2
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
No additional features need to be listed for this dialect.
CD TRACK 3
RHYTHM, STRESS, INTONATION, TONE
All dialects and accents have characteristic acoustic patterning and tonal qualities. Often a successful imitation depends as much on capturing the intonation, rhythm, and tone of a dialect as on capturing the phonetic features.
However, one can describe these features only in terms relative to other dialects. Any blanket description is impossible. Depending on your dialect, you will have to make different accommodations to “capture” these features.
· Compared with both British and American English, Indian speech often seems less legato, more staccato in its style, with vigorous consonants, clipped vowels.
· At the same time, Indians use pitch more than duration or volume to emphasize key words.
· The use of rise/fall (RF) and fall/rise (FR) intonation patterns on single syllables (almost absent from American English, though used a little more by British speakers) is quite a feature of Indian speech.
· There is more range of pitch employed.
Listen to the rhythm and intonation (and particularly the use of FR and RF – underlined in these examples).
· All the passengers were lost in the terrible storm.
· I can’t quite grasp the nature of the problem.
Also listen for these features in the primary source recordings on IDEA and try to capture the essence of these non-phonetic, but very important, features.
CD TRACK 4
SIGNATURE SOUNDS IN SENTENCE CONTEXT
1. People in politics can’t take a lot of kickbacks.
2. David told me that it’s time for dinner when we are sitting down at the table.
3. Bring the car from the garage around to the front door.
4. In the dark church, I hardly heard the words of the fourth verse.
5. They thought those three things were there although they weren’t.
6. Which ones were quite the swiftest while swimming in the water?
7. Almost all the tall daughters were caught in small talk.
8. Polly collected lots of model cottages on her holidays.
9. We laughed as the dancer advanced her crafty commands at last.
10. During the students’ duel, the duke wore an alluring new suit.
11. Here is a rare opportunity for all four eager actors.
12. Jill feels tall while Phil feels small.
CD TRACK 6
COORDINATION EXERCISES
(The numbers under the text refer to the signature sounds needed.)
1. What time does the theatre normally open the door on Tuesday morning?
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2. I always thought that the punishment should fit the crime if at all possible.
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3. The silly play caused gales of laughter from the large and clever audience.
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4. The Bhagavad-Gita (The Lord’s Song) is a talk between Krishna and Arjuna.
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5. Forster wrote the novel A Passage to India, later a wonderful and powerful film.
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6. Martin Luther King’s doctrine of non-violent resistance was based on Gandhi’s.
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7. The weather was quite dreadful and consisted mainly of very violent hailstorms.
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8. The woman’s new car caused her nothing but trouble from the very first day.
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9. We all went to the cinema on this past Tuesday to see the new comedy.
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10. Stuart stupidly got lost when he tried to walk through the woods in the dark.
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CD TRACK 7
MONOLOGUE ONE
From A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. In this scene, three Indian men discuss the possibility, or rather the impossibility, of friendship between Indians and English, the “Anglo-English,” as they are called: the long-term English civil servants who ruled India at the time. Hamidullah is Cambridge-educated and is a magistrate at Chandrapore.
HAMIDULLAH
They all become exactly the same. I give any Englishman two years.
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And I give any Englishwoman six months. All are exactly alike. But take my case – the
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case of young Hugh Bannister. Here is the son of my dear, my dead friends, the
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Reverend and Mrs. Bannister, whose goodness to me in England I shall never forget or
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describe. They were father and mother to me; I talked to them as I do now. In the
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vacations their Rectory became my home. They entrusted their children to me – I often
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carried little Hugh about – I took him up to the Funeral of Queen Victoria, and held him
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in my arms above the crowd. I learn now that this boy is in business as a leather
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merchant at Cawnpore. Imagine how I long to see him and to pay his fare that this house
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may be his home. But it is useless. The other Anglo-Indians will have got hold of him
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long ago. He will probably think that I want something, and I cannot face that from the
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son of my old friends. Oh, what in this country has gone wrong with everything, Vakil
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Sahib? I ask you.
9
CD TRACK 8
MONOLOGUE TWO
Instead of the customary monologue: a short scene and a short monologue, from Richard Attenborough’s masterful film Gandhi.[1] In the scene, Gandhi berates his wife, Kasturba, Ba for short, for refusing to rake the latrines at the ashram, it being traditionally the work of “untouchables.” Remember that the mahatma pushed hard to remove the strict caste system in India, and his idealism insisted that even his wife should take her turn at this menial task. From John Briley’s screenplay:
Gandhi: What is it?
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Ba: Sora was sent to tell me I – I must rake and cover the latrine.
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Gandhi: That’s right. Everyone takes their turn.
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Ba: It is the work of untouchables!
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Gandhi: In this place there are no untouchables – and no work is beneath any of us.
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Ba: I’m your wife!
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Gandhi: All the more reason.
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Ba: As you command. The others may follow you, but you forget. I knew
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you when you were a boy.
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Gandhi: It’s not me. It’s the principle. And you will do it with joy, or not do it at all.
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Ba: Not at all then.
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Gandhi: All right, go! You don’t belong here! Go! Leave the ashram! Get out altogether!
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We don’t want you!
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Ba: Have you no shame? I am your wife. Where do you expect me to go?
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Gandhi: (ashamed) What’s the matter with me?
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Ba: (tenderly) You’re human. Only human. And it’s only harder for us
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who do not even want to be as good as you do.
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Gandhi: I apologize. (pause) I must get back to that reporter.
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