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Flag of England (All Waving Flags, 2018)

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The flag of England is a white flag with a red cross extending to the edges of the flag. The cross is the St George's Cross. In the Union Jack or Union Flag, this represents the entire Kingdom of England, including Wales.

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Flag of Louisiana (All Waving Flags, 2018)

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The Louisiana flag consists of a heraldic emblem showing a mother pelican in a blue area with the slogan of the State, "Union Justice Confidence".

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What is Grammar and Syntactic Variation?

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What is Grammar and Syntactic Variation?

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How did the English Language Spread in England and The United Kingdom?

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How did the English Language Spread in England and The United Kingdom?

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Recording from Samiha Bachoo on British English: Received Pronunciation

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Recording from Samiha Bachoo on British English: Received Pronunciation

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How did the English Language Spread in Louisiana?

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How did the English Language Spread in Louisiana?

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The word "England" and English originated from the Old English word Engla-land, literally meaning “the land of the Angles” where they spoke English with language itself took off with the invasion of Britain during the 5th century (Oxford International English Schools, 2019). As the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles (the three Germanic tribes) were seeking new lands to conquer and crossed over from the North Sea; the native Britons were driven north and west into lands we now know and refer to as Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

Furthermore, it must be noted that the English we study and are familiar with today were created as the inhabitants of Britain spoke various dialects of the Celtic language and that the language that was spoken at that time is almost incomprehensible to us now.

As the language has spread beyond Britain, it has continued to evolve in many different contexts. It has diversified to such an extent that some scholars suggest that it is no longer accurate to talk in 'English' as there are many variations of English languages around the world today. Hence, the study of Global Englishes. Received Pronunciation happens to be one of the many accents derived from those variations.

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Samiha Bachoo - British English: Received Pronunciation

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All the sentences that were read by Samiha are the same as the recordings/videos provided by YouTube for Cajun English. The only difference is that Samiha read the sentences according to the manner that she is comfortable with.

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Samiha Bachoo - British English (Received Pronunciation).mov

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Brief Details and Demographics of the Speaker

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Brief Details and Demographics of the Speaker

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Full Name: Samiha Bachoo

Date of Birth: July 24, 2000

Place of Birth: London, England, United Kingdom

Nationality: British

Ethnicity: African Asian (Afro-Asian)

Occupation: Student
University: Anglia Ruskin University

Major: Medicine

Year: 4 (Practical year)

Samiha is a British who is of African Asian descent. She is also a 4th-year medical student at Anglia Ruskin University and a native English speaker who practices the modern and mainstream Received Pronunciation accent simultaneously. Having attended the same primary school and high school as Masturina in London, they have become good friends ever since.

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A picture of Samiha and Masturina with their group of friends during their high school years together.

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Cajun English, or often known as Cajun Vernacular English, is an English dialect spoken by Cajuns in Southern Louisiana. The Cajun speech community spans the Gulf Coast from Texas to Mississippi, but it is primarily concentrated in tiny rural villages in Southern Louisiana, with Lafayette serving as its metropolis. Louisiana is still home to a large number of French speakers, and it is the only state in the US where the language is widely spoken.

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This padlet is prepared for our beloved and respected lecturer, Madam S. Suchithra A/P K. Sankaran.

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Phonemes are the smallest units comprising spoken language. Keijer (2014) described that the distinction between phonological and phonetic variation is relatively easy in this classic approach: if variation leads to a difference in meaning, it is phonological; if the variation has no effect on the meaning of sounds, it is purely phonetic variation.

There is a total of 44 phonemes in the English language, which include:

Consonants

Short vowels

Long vowels

Diphthongs

Triphthongs.

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The ways in which sentences are formed and constructed are referred to as grammatical (or syntactic) variations (OurDialects, 2019).

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Prosodic in language relates to the rhythm, pitch and intonation of a speaker. In other words, it is related to the analysis of the way a speaker's voice rises and falls while speaking. Furthermore, prosodic features also play a crucial role in forming the stress patterns within words and phrases. (Cambridge Dictionary, 2021)

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┊͙꒰ 𝚊𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚌 𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚐𝚒𝚏𝚜 ꒱┊͙ - 🌷

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Recordings from Youtube on Cajun English Speakers

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Recordings from Youtube on Cajun English Speakers

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A lexical variation is to use a linguistic element instead of another without making changes in the meaning of words or phrases (Collins Dictionary, 2021).

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We would like to express our utmost gratitude and give our thanks to Samiha Bachoo for making the time in sincerely helping us out with the recording of the British English: Received Pronunciation video for our EIC 453 Global Englishes e-Portfolio assignment.

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Phonetic and Phonological Variation: Nasalized Vowels in a Bidirectional OT Environment

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Original Text: And I got some good news for y'all.

/ænd aɪ gɑt nuz fɔr jɔl./

Samiha's Text: And I got some good news for you all.

/ænd aɪ gɒt njuːz fɔː juː ɔːl./

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Contraction is words that combine two or more words into a shortened version, using an apostrophe (') (Cambridge Dictionary, 2021). It is commonly used in spoken English.

Example common contractions: I'm, can't, aren't, don't, didn't, should've, would've, etc.

However, in this case, "y'all" is more seen as an informal American slang or a colloquial contraction that combines the two pronouns "you" and "all". Having relevance to this matter, it is a colloquial term that is rarely practised among Received Pronunciation speakers as they are still regarded as those who speak "proper" or standard English.

Even as a modern RP speaker, Samiha decided to read "y'all" as "you all" as she might be comfortable reading it as such and probably avoids using uncommon colloquial in her everyday life to maintain elocution of her speech. By doing so, the arrangement of words and phrases spoken through her speech form can be easily comprehended, especially by non-native speakers (Luu, 2017). This practice can benefit her current situation in the long run, as she is a medical student, who in the near future, may have to tend and treat patients from all walks of life.

Be that as it may, contractions, to an extent, are just as important as other grammar features of the English language. It cuts down words and makes them easier and faster to say, especially in conversational English. As it benefits mostly contributes to a conversational tone thus, one might want to consider using it sparingly and avoid using it during formal speeches and academic papers.

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Name: Masturina Binti Khairulazam
Student ID: 2021307065
Group: LG2432B
Life Motto: It always seems impossible until it is done. You can do it.

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Name: Nik Khalissa Iman Binti Nik Abdullah
Student ID: 2021352323
Group: LG2432B
Life Motto: I don't chase, I attract.

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Yeah, there’s plenty. There used to be more than they got, but people hunt them.

/jeə, ðeəz ˈplɛnti. ðeə juːzd tuː biː mɔː ðæn ðeɪ gɒt, bʌt ˈpiːpl hʌnt ðɛm./

Now, I tell you all this a lot of times, smart people do couyon things.

/naʊ, aɪ tɛl juː ɔːl ðɪs ə lɒt ɒv taɪmz, smɑːʔt ˈpiːpl duː kuːjɔːn θɪŋz./

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The first phonemic variation highlighted in this context of the Received Pronunciation speaker she pronounced the function words "there's", "than", "they", and "them" with a /ð/ sound. Contrastingly, she then pronounced the word "thing" is as /θɪŋz/ with a /θ/ sound.

The voiced dental fricative or /ð/  and the voiceless dental fricative or /θ/ are consonant sounds commonly used by Received Pronunciation speakers (Roach, 2004). The two letters t and h in combination (th) are prevalent in the English language.

The first variation of th, the /ð/ sound has the following features:

Its manner of articulation is fricative. That means the sound is produced by letting airflow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation.

Its place of articulation is dental. That means the sound is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the back of the upper teeth.

Its phonation is voiced. That means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.

The second variation of th, the /θ/ sound, has the following features:

Its manner of articulation is also fricative. That means the sound is produced by letting airflow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation. In comparison to the voiced th, the voiceless th is pronounced by making more airflow.

Its place of articulation is dental. However, in contrast to /ð/, the sound is pronounced with the blade of the tongue resting against the lower part of the back of the upper teeth. The tip of the tongue sticks out of the mouth slightly.

Its phonation is voiceless. That means the sound is produced without the vibrations of the vocal cords.

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British English Phonemic Chart - Standard Received Pronunciation (RP) (Liz, 2021)

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Now, I tell you all this a lot of times, smart people do couyon things

/naʊ, aɪ tɛl juː ɔːl ðɪs ə lɒt ɒv taɪmz, smɑːʔt ˈpiːpl duː kuːjɔːn θɪŋz./

You remember when Bill Clinton was president?

/juː rɪˈmɛmbə wɛn bɪl ˈklɪntən wɒz ˈprɛzɪdənt?/

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Another phonemic variation that was identified through the speech of the speaker is the usage of both the true T sound /t/ and glottal stop /ʔ/ (T-glottaling).

To put it simply, the true T sound is the regular and common /t/ sound, whereas a glottal T sound can be defined from the word "Glottal", which means produced by the glottis. Glottis is the vocal cords in one's throat and the opening between them. Therefore, Glottal Stop is when the consonant /t/ sound occurs before another consonant, or before a pause.

In this matter, the speaker utilises the two mentioned sounds depending on what that word may be and according to her attitude towards speech style. This is due to the fact that modern RP speakers (the younger generations) now consist of those from various social classes and educational backgrounds tend to incorporate and practice Received Pronunciation with the addition of some new colloquial terms and non-regional features (Fabricius, 2002).

This phenomenon is proven by the fact that Samiha, a 21 years old student who is a modern Received Pronunciation speaker that utilises both the true T sound /t/ and the glottalised T sound /ʔ/.  In British English, the application of T-glottaling changes depending on a geographical region or social factors (Monjo, 2020). Hence, the reason for the manner in which she chose to pronounce "klɪntən" and "prɛzɪdənt" with the true /t/ and "smɑːʔt" with a pre pause glottal t /ʔ/ might be due to her growing up in London, with an environment where her peers and most Received Pronunciation speakers surrounding her tend to practice the similar speech style.

There are a number of possible options regarding one’s own attitude to speech-style:

comfortable or uncomfortable with a regional accent

changing a regional accent in favour of Received Pronunciation

adapting speech-style to the social context

Note that Received Pronunciation is a non-regional accent, which is an approximate description of one's speech style, rather than being an exact specification. This also applies to the classification of other accents because speech style varies subtly between individuals and between social groups and areas. Thus, in this case, there is no correct or incorrect way of pronouncing the /t/ sound.

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Phonemic Chart Guide: British English (Received Pronunciation)

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Phonemic Chart Guide - British English - RP Accent - Vowel & Consonant sounds

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The national flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Jack, also known as Union Jack or Union Flag. It is a red, white, and blue flag formed by overlapping Saint George (England & Wales), Saint Andrew (Scotland), and Saint Patrick (Ireland) crosses.

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The Shard, London Eye and Big Ben at a glance (Architectural Digest, 2016).

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Located in the southeast peninsula of Great Britain, counted among the world’s largest monetary centres and known as one of the nine regions of England, London is the most populated city in both the United Kingdom and England.

The Metropolis is eminent for its iconic tourist spots such as the:

Big Ben

The House of Parliaments (Palace of Westminster)

St Paul Cathedral

Tower of London

Piccadilly Circus

There are also many other remarkable inheritances that cast a reflection of London’s ancient art and culture.

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The oldest part of London

There's nowhere quite like the City. Not only is it the oldest, most historic part of London, it is a leading international financial and business centre with the unusual ratio of 33 times more workers than residents; it also has its own unique system of administration and is not classified as a "borough", but is a small district at the heart of the capital.

Established in around AD50, seven years after the Romans invaded Britain, the City, or Square Mile as it has become known, is the place from which modern-day London grew.

The remains of the City's Roman wall can be seen in various locations, the foundations of the Roman Temple of Mithras have been unearthed here and London's only Roman Amphitheatre was discovered under Guildhall Art Gallery in 1988.

But it's not just the Roman remains and medieval structures that make the City's buildings so unique; it is their juxtaposition with contemporary architecture designed to house the global business giants that have located here. This is where ancient and modern sit side by side.

Thriving Londinium

Londinium (as the Romans called this place) was ideally located for business. Situated on the north bank of the Thames, it soon became a bustling port and trade thrived. As business increased, tradesmen came together to form livery companies or 'guilds' - bodies that regulated their respective professions to protect both customers and their members. Many of the City's street names such as Milk Street, Bread Street, Ironmonger Lane, Poultry, Cloth Fair and Mason's Avenue mark the sites where the companies began.

Ultimately, the guilds came to yield great power and influence and the City developed a reputation as an important centre for commerce. By the early 17th century (when exploration began to open up the world and new markets were there for the picking) many guilds invested money in setting up Merchant Venturer Companies. Seeking exclusive rights of trade with different parts of the world, the most famous of these companies was the East India Company whose power lasted until well into the 19th century.

Coffee House culture

Also in the 17th century, the coffee house arrived and they soon became the place to pick up news and gossip. Different houses began to attract different occupations and some houses became the makeshift offices of the trades they served, giving birth to some of the world's greatest financial institutions: the London Stock Exchange started in Jonathan's Coffee House in Change Alley and Lloyd's of London takes its name from Edward Lloyd, a coffee house proprietor in Tower Street.

This, coupled with the founding by Royal Charter of the Bank of England in 1694, was the catalyst for the development of the City as a financial centre. In 1631, the residential population of the City was put at 130,163; by 1901, it had dwindled to 26,923 with people moving out to make way for the influx of office buildings that still dominate.

Such a unique area needs a unique system of administration and it is the City of London Corporation that provides it. With its constitution rooted in the ancient rights and privileges enjoyed by its citizens before the Norman Conquest, the City developed a form of government which finally emerged as the first independent local authority in Britain.

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There's nowhere quite like the City. Not only is it the oldest, most historic part of London, it is a leading international financial and business centre with the unusual ratio of 33 times more workers than residents; it also has its own unique system of administration and is not classified as a "borough", but is a small district at the heart of the capital.

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Demographics of London, England, United Kingdom.

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Demographics of London, England, United Kingdom.

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In general, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign country in Western Europe. Its current population is 68,378,060 as of 2021 (Worldometer, 2021).

London is the capital and also the largest city by population with its population being approximately around 9,425,622 (World Population Review, 2021).

It is located in England and it is the capital of the United Kingdom. In addition, London is a multi-racial city hence, 36.7% of its population are foreign-born making London the city with the second-largest immigrant population, with New York City in the first place.

According to Population UK (2021), the people living in London consists of different races such as:

White (59.8%)

Asians (20.9%)

Black (15.6%)

Other race groups (3.7%)

Next, in London, various languages are spoken, among which English is spoken by 77.9% of the population as their first language. Even so, some of the residents are unable to speak the English language or they preferred to speak their national or native languages. Thus, 1.9% of them speak Polish, 1.5% converse in Bengali, 1.3% make communications via Gujarati and many more.

Moreover, the people of London have varied religions and beliefs. The ratio of major religions being followed in London is:

Christianity (58.23%),

Atheism (no data),

Islam (12.39%),

followed are Hinduism, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism, etc.

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Demographics of England, United Kingdom.

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Demographics of England, United Kingdom.

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England is one of the four constituent countries that is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). The other three constituent countries are known as Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is located in Western Europe is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, The North Sea, and the Irish Sea.

According to Population UK (2021), the top five races for people living in England are:

White (85.4%)

Black (3.5%)

Asian (7.8%)

Mixed (2.3%)

Chinese (0.45%)

Other ethnic groups (0.44%)

The top five languages (other than English) spoken in England are:

Polish (1.04%)

Punjabi (0.53%)

Urdu (0.52%)

Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya) (0.42%)

Gujarati (0.42%)

Polish dominate the non-English speaking Language due to the immigrant population.

The religion and beliefs that makeup of England are:

Christianity (59.38%)

Islam (5.02%)

Hinduism (1.52%)

Sikhism (0.79%)

Judaism (0.49%)

Buddhism (0.45%)

Other religions (0.43%)

No religion (24.74%)

Religion not stated (7.18%)

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Map of United Kingdom (Geology.com, 2021)

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Take a chronological journey through the key periods in England's past. Explore thousands of years of history and discover how the changes that the country has seen can be traced through English Heritage's sites.

Learn how the daily lives of ordinary people have altered over the centuries, and how seismic shifts in power and religion permanently shaped the nation.

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Discover thousands of years of England's history, stretching from the arrival of the earliest known humans 900,000 years ago to the 63-year reign of Queen Victoria. Take a chronological journey through the key periods in England's past, and discover how the changes that the country has seen can be traced through English Heritage's sites.

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Brief Details and Demographics of the Speaker

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Brief Details and Demographics of the Speaker

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Full Name: Lionel Le Blanc
Date of Birth: March 2, 1898
Date of Death: January, 1967
Place of Birth: Mississippi, United States
Occupation: Actor

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Cajun Comedian Kent Gonsoulin defines "Couyon"

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Brief Details and Demographics of the Speaker

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Brief Details and Demographics of the Speaker

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Full Name: Kent Gonsoulin
Current Residential: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Occupation: Comedian

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Louisiana is located at the mouth of the Mississippi River, above the Gulf of Mexico, and is bordered on the north by Arkansas, on the east by Mississippi, and on the west by Texas. Originally occupied by the French in the 18th century, it was acquired by the United States in 1803 as part of the famous Louisiana Purchase and incorporated to the union in 1812.

Baton Rouge is the state capital of Louisiana. It is also home to New Orleans, a historic port city known for its unique food, jazz, and the magnificent Mardi Gras festival.

It is home to a diverse range of cultural influences. Cajuns, descendants of a French-speaking population of Acadians from Canada, and Creoles, individuals of mixed French, Spanish, Caribbean, African, and/or Indian ancestry, are two important ethnic groupings.

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Y’all remember when Bill Clinton was president?

/jɔl rɪˈmɛmbər wɛn bɪl ˈklɪntən wʌz ˈprɛzəˌdɛnt?/

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In terms of syntactic variation, the speaker displayed a noticeable pattern of contraction in sentence structure. Bernstein (2009) described that ‘y’all’ is a contraction of you and all, and you-all is a combination of the two. 'Y'all' is the most common second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, while it can also be found in African-American English and South African Indian English. It is most commonly employed as a plural second-person pronoun, but whether it is always plural is a point of contention.

The first documented use of the term dates from 1824, and it was most likely coined in the South. According to one idea, 'y'all' may have sprung from the Scots-Irish word 'ye aw', which means 'you all'. Many Scots-Irish travelled to the southern United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, proving the notion. 'Y'all' has been synonymous with Southern American English, although it is steadily making its way north (Devlin, 2019). Since the speaker is a native English speaker from the South, it is very likely that he uses the word 'y’all' as part of his lexicon.

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You like some coffee, yeah?↗

/juː laɪk sʌm ˈkɒfi, jeə?/↗

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In linguistics, intonation is the modulation or variation of how the voice rises and falls in speech (Cambridge Dictionary, 2021).

There are known to be two common patterns of intonation, which are:

1. Falling intonation

2. Rising intonation

When the pitch of voice falls on the most important syllable, it is called the Falling Intonation. Whereas when the pitch of the voice rises on the most important syllable, it is called Rising Intonation.

Pertaining to this matter, the prosodic variation of the selected sentence is that the rising intonation was utilised in the speech of the Received Pronunciation speaker. She perceived it to be a yes-no question when reading the script. The reason is that on the nucleus word “coffee”, her voice starts on a high pitch, then rises even higher when it gets to "yeah?", e.g. You like some coffee, yeah?↗ (The upward arrow indicates the rising intonation).

Rising intonation is usually practised in the following situations:

Statements used as questions.

Yes or No questions.

Imperatives.

Greetings (at the time of the meeting).

In general, British speakers have a distinctive and noticeable tendency for higher pitch intonation in their speech pattern to avoid miscommunication (Grabe et al., n.d.). Hence, another reason why the Received Pronunciation speaker uses the rising intonation while reading the sentence is to make her point noticeable and avoid ambiguity in her speech style.

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Original Text: Now I know a lotta y’all know what a ‘couyon’ is, but if you don’t know, I’ll explain y’all that.

/naʊ aɪ noʊ ə ˈlɑtə jɔl noʊ wʌt ə kuːjɔːn ɪz, bʌt ɪf ju doʊnt noʊ, aɪl ɪkˈspleɪn jɔl ðæt./

Samiha’s Text: Now I know a lot of you know what a ‘couyon’ is, but if you don’t know, I’ll explain that.

/naʊ aɪ nəʊ ə lɒt ɒv juː nəʊ wɒt ə 'kuːjɔːn' ɪz, bʌt ɪf juː dəʊnt nəʊ, aɪl ɪksˈpleɪn  ðæt./

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Elocution and Omission of Second-Person Pronouns

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Elocution and Omission of Second-Person Pronouns

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Elocution is defined as having the appropriate manner of speaking or reading aloud in public and good control of the voice (Cambridge Dictionary, 2021).

"Lotta" is a verb and contraction of "lots of" or "a lot of". For some speakers, "Lotta" may have been fully grammaticalised, meaning it is no longer perceived as a phrase but a single lexical item instead. However, it is not a common lexicalisation among Received Pronunciation speakers. Instead, British speakers, in general, have lexicalised "you lot", which is a common British colloquial term that has the same context and meaning as "lotta". Both are phrasal extensions of the pronoun you created to make it explicitly and unambiguously plural.

Nevertheless, the Received Pronunciation speaker decided to be elocuted with her speech and said "a lot of you" as she reads the given sentence. Moreover, the speaker also omitted the contraction of the second-person pronoun, "y'all", when reading the second part of the given sentence as she might perceive it to be unnecessary.

She was born, raised and educated in London all her life. Although Received Pronunciation is a non-specific regional accent as it is a speech style and does not contain information about a speaker’s geographic background, it does reveal a lot about one's social and/or educational background (Research Guides, 2021). Evidently, this reveals her exceptional educational background because she situates her speech utterances accordingly. Another factor supporting this statement is that she is a 4th-year medical student ongoing her practical year at a hospital in London. In other words, Received Pronunciation speakers avoid non-standard grammatical constructions and localised vocabulary characteristics of regional or non-regional dialects in order to be taken seriously and deemed knowledgable by others (Luu, 2017).

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I used to hunt ‘em myself and sell the skin.

/aɪ juzd tu hʌnt ɛm ˌmaɪˈsɛlf ænd sɛl ðə skɪn./

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It was a good-sized alligator, I guess, about eight feet.

/ɪt wʌz ə gʊd-saɪzd ˈæləˌgeɪtə[r], aɪ gɛs, əˈbaʊt eɪt fit./

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Taking into account that the speaker was a native Southern American English speaker from Mississippi, United States, it is very likely that his accent was well spread out within the dialect features of the Standard Cajun Vernacular English (CajVE). Based on the IPA transcription above, one visible feature is how the word /alligator/ is pronounced by the speaker.

This linguistic phenomenon is known as rhoticity. To simply put, the pronunciation of the consonant /r/ is referred to as rhoticity (Nordquist, 2019).

Within the context of the speaker who was from Mississippi, he is applying a non-rhotic pronunciation in his accent in which the enunciation of the consonant /r/ is not present. This phenomenon is similar to the word ‘alligator’ that was pronounced by the speaker.

To be more specific, the /r/ sound in ‘alligator’ which is from the transcription [ˈæləˌgeɪtə[r]] is being dropped instead of being emphasised and highly accentuated. The bracketed /r/ in the transcription is to highlight the deletion of /r/.

In research from Carmichael (2019), the deletion of /r/ or r-dropping is commonly found in a variety of non-standard English dialects, including African American English and various New Orleans English dialects.

Some researchers argue that the original distinction of the non-rhotic accent within Southern American speakers originated in the mid-1700s, when affluent British tradesmen began eliminating the /r/ sound from their speech as a class differentiation between similar products or people (Pool, 2021).

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UL Grad School -- 01/10/2017

We've done some research and compiled a plethora of facts and data about to our home state of Louisiana. Some of our findings may surprise you!

Let's take a look at why Louisiana is a great place to geaux to grad school.
Find out more about our history and culture >

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Now for Something Lighter: Louisiana at a Glance

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UL Grad School -- 01/10/2017 We've done some research and compiled a plethora of facts and data about to our home state of Louisiana. Some of our findings may surprise you! Let's take a look at why Louisiana is a great place to geaux to grad school.

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Yeah, there’s plenty. There used to be more than they got but people hunt ‘em.

/jæ, ðɛrz ˈplɛnti. ðɛr juzd tu bi mɔr ðæn ðeɪ gɑt bʌt ˈpipəl hʌnt ɛm./

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AccentHelp American Southern Soft-R Accent Introduction

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The Omission of Interdental Fricatives from "Them"

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The Omission of Interdental Fricatives from "Them"

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Recording 1: Received Pronunciation IPA Transcription

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Recording 2: Received Pronunciation IPA Transcription

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Louisiana's population is expected to be 4.67 million in 2021, making it the 24th most populous state in the country. It has a land area of 52,069 square miles (135,382 square kilometres), making it the 31st largest in the country.

Louisiana is the only state in the United States that follows the Napoleonic Code's legal system, whereas the rest of the country follows English common law (World Population Review, 2021).

According to the 2020 U.S. census, White Americans made up 57.1 percent of the total population, while Black or African Americans made up 31.4 percent, American Indians and Alaska Natives made up 0.7 percent, Asians made up 1.9 percent, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders made up 0.0 percent, other races made up 3.1 percent, and people of two or more races made up 5.9 percent.

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Alligator caught him by the throat and the nose and almost cut his nose.

/ˈæləˌgeɪtə[r] kɔt [h]ɪm baɪ ðə θroʊt ænd ðə noʊz ænd ˈɔlˌmoʊst kʌt [h]ɪz noʊz./

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Prosodic traits are characteristics that emerge when one combines sounds in connected speech. It is also known as a suprasegmental which is a speech element that accompanies or is added over consonants and vowels in phonetics; these features are not confined to single sounds but often stretch over syllables, sentences, or phrases (Encyclopaedia Britannica, n.d.).

One visible feature of prosody that is displayed by the speaker is the use of stress and how it is placed at the end of a syllable.

In this particular context, the prosodic variation of stress is on how the speaker pronounce the word ‘skin’ [skɪn]. This can be notably heard in the recording that the speaker emphasised on the stress towards the last syllable of the word [ɪn] in ‘skin’.

The speaker applied the use of word stress whereby one speaks a syllable with more emphasis or force than the other syllables. Despite being heavily influenced by French, Cajun English has absolutely little resemblance to the accent of a current French individual.

However, Cajun English emphasises the last syllable of words, which is similar to how words are pronounced in French.

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Furthermore, another visible trait displayed by the speaker is the syllable-initial deletion of /h/ sound. This feature is also known as ‘h-dropping’, a linguistic phenomenon whereby many English speakers have a habit of dropping off the /h/ in words that are generally pronounced with it. Since the speaker was a native Southern American English speaker, his Cajun English phonetic and phonemic features can be identified through its consonantal features. When spoken, /h/ is a fricative, a group of sounds that includes /f/, /v/, and /z/. Fricatives are made by partially stopping the flow of air from the vocal passage, which limits the quantity of air that can be allowed out of the mouth (Ramos, 2013).

The omission of the prevocalic /h/ is prevalent in Cajun English; the deletion of /h/ could suggest Yat and Cajun French influences. Most people who use this linguistic feature are predominantly of the older generation since it was especially common in areas where the plantation culture had previously predominated before the Civil War (Abad-Santos, 2017).