Contrasting
selected aspects of Polish and English Phonetics
1.
Consonants
1.1.
English
The set of English consonants is
traditionally considered to comprise 24 consonants, i.e.
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17 obstruents: 6 plosives:
/p/ pɪn pin, /b/ bɪn bin, /t/ tɪn tin, /d/ dɪn din, /k/ kɪn kin, /g/ gɪv give 9 fricatives:
/f/ fɪn fin, /v/ vɪm vim, /s/ sɪn sin, /z/ zu: zoo, /ʃ/ ʃɪn shin, /ʒ/ ˈmeʒə measure, /hɪt/ hɪt hit, /θ/ θɪn thin, /ð/ ðɪs this 2 affricates:
/tʃ/ tʃɪn chin, /dʒ/ dʒɪn gin 7 sonorants: 3 nasals:
/m/ mɒk mock, /nɒt/ nɒt not, /ŋ/ θɪŋ thing 2 liquids:
/ r/ rɒk rock, /l/ lɒŋ long 2 semivowel glides: /w/ wɒsp wasp, /j/ jɒt yacht |
1.2.
Polish
Polish consonant system comprises 29 phonemes
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21 obstruents: 6 plosives:
/p/ pik pik, /b/ bit bit, /t/ test test, /d/ dɨm
dym, /k/ kit kit, /g/ gen gen 9 fricatives:
/f/ fAn fan, /v/ vilk wilk, /s/ sɨk syk, /z/ zbir, /ʃ/ ʃɨʃkA szyszka, /ʒ/ kAʒdɨ każdy, /x/ xɨmn hymn, /ɕ/ ɕfit świt, /ʑ/ ʑle źle 6 affricates:
/ʧ/ ʧɨn czyn, /ʤ/ ʤem dżem, /ʦ/ ʦAʦkɔ cacko, /ʣ/ ʣvɔn dzwon, /ʨ/ ʨmA ćma, /ʥ/ ʥvik dźwig 8 sonorants: 4 nasals:
/m/ mɨʃ mysz, /n/ nAʃ nasz, /ŋ/ tɨŋk tynk, /ɲ/ kɔɲ koń 2 liquids:
/r/ rɨk ryk, /l/ luk luk 2 semivowel
glides: /w/ wɨk łyk, /j/ jAk jak |
1.3.
Contrasting Polish and English consonantal systems
1.3.1.
Different manners and places of articulation
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bilab |
lab-den |
api-dent |
dent |
alv |
post-alv |
pal-alv |
alv-pal |
pal |
vel |
glot |
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plosiv |
p b |
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t d |
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t d |
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k g |
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affric |
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ʦ
ʣ
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ʧ
ʤ
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ʧ ʤ |
ʨ
ʥ
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fricat |
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f v |
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Ɵ ð
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s z |
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ʃ ʒ |
s z |
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ʃ ʒ
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ɕ
ʑ |
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x |
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h |
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nasals |
m |
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n |
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n |
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ɲ |
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ŋ |
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liquids |
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l |
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r |
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glides |
w |
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j |
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trills |
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r |
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Polish-specific
pronunciations are listed in left parts of split cells, English-specific
- in right parts of split cells. Pronunciations common to Polish and
English are given in non-split cells. Pronunciations specific to either English
or Polish are in bold type.
1.3.2.
Voicing differences between Polish and English consonants
1.3.2.1.
In Polish voiced obstruents do
not occur in word-final position whereas in
English they do
This difference
is a frequent source of underdifferentiation of word-final obstruents on the
part of Polish learners of English, and overdifferentiation on the part of
English learners of Polish.
e.g.
Polish kod and kot are pronounced as /kɔt/, whereas English cod and caught as /kɔːd/ and /kɔːt/ respectively; Polish error: E. cod /kɒt/, English error: P. kod /kɒd/.
Polish word-final devoicing may also affect sonorants
e.g.
[l] in myśl, may be realised as [l8], and in casual speech may be dropped altogether: [mɨɕ]. When transferred into English, this may
results in errors like people [piùp].
1.3.2.2.
Polish regressive voicing assimilation vs. English progressive voicing
assimilation
In English obstruent clusters,
the direction of voicing assimilation is rightwards, in Polish leftwards. In
cases where English progressive assimilation occurs, Poles tend to apply
word-final devoicing and regressive assimilation,
e.g.
Polish error: loves /lʌfs/, dogs /dɒks/
1.3.2.3.
Clusters of obstruents in Polish always agree in voicing whereas in
English
they can disagree in voicing.
Poles make two basic kinds of errors:
·
they devoice voiced consonants in English voiced-voiceless obstruent
clusters
e.g.
grandparents, bagpipe, newsprint,
ragtime
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and voice unvoiced consonants in English voiceless-voiced obstruent
clusters
e.g.
lifeboat, Afghan, Miss Brown, misjudge
Given that most English voiced-voiceless and
voiceless-voiced obstruent clusters occur across word or morpheme boundary, and
given the rule 1.3.2.1, the second type of error should be easier to eradicate
(remains to be checked!). Notice that because of the voicing agreement in
Polish, we’ve lexicalised e.g. the Greek word ανέκδοτο as anegdota; we can see the regressive assimilation
of voicing operating here: [ unvoiced ¬ voiced ] Þ [voiced voiced], cf. 1.3.2.2.
1.3.2.4.
Some more differences between Polish and English consonants
·
presence
of double consonants in Polish, absence in English (e.g.: panna vs. pana)
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Polish voiceless stop phonemes /p, t, k/ in onsets of stressed syllables
(e.g. pan P. /pAn/, E. /pʰæn/) and in utterance-final position (e.g.
cap P. /ʦAp/, E. /kæpʰ/) do not get so much aspiration as their
English counterparts
2.
Vowels
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2.1.
English
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2.2.
Polish
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Some examples of Polish nasals: /ʒɛ̃ʊ̃sA/ żęsa, / vɔ̃ʊ̃̃ski/ wąski, /prẽʊ̃ʒɨʨ/ prężyć, /vʑɔ̃ʊ̃̃fʃɨ/ wziąwszy
2.3.
Contrasting English and Polish vowel systems
| Polish (bracketed) and English monophthongs, Sobkowiak 1996:46 |
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English does not use
nasality for contrastive purposes as Polish does: kot /kt/
vs kąt /k̃Ũt/
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English vowels receive only
a modest degree of nasalisation
·
English uses quantity for
contrastive purposes whereas modern Polish does not: pot /pɒt/
vs port /p:t/;
(till the 15th c. there existed long and short vowel opposition in
Polish)
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English diphthongs have no counterpart in Polish (cf.Polish
vowel + glide, nasals)
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12 vowels in English vs 6 in
Polish, (excluding English diphthongs and Polish nasals)
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no mid-central vowel in
Polish; Polish vowels do not get reduced to mid-central vowel similarly to the
reduction of English vowels to /ə/.
3.
Vowels
vs consonants
3.1.
Proportions
of vowels to consonants in Polish and English
There are differences in the proportion of consonants
and vowels P and E have in their
inventories of phonemes and in the frequencies of consonants
and vowels found in P and E
texts.
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% of C
in the inventory of phonemes |
% of C
in texts |
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Polish |
78.4
(29C,8V) |
59.9 |
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English |
52.2
(24C,22V) |
63.7
(24C,20V) |
It is often assumed that if consonants constitute
not less than 70% in the phoneme
inventory of a given language, this
language is of a consonantal type. Otherwise it is
vocalic (Gołąb et al. 70). From the above is
follows, that Polish is a consonantal
language. English (depending on the adopted
phoneme inventory) is usually
considered a vocalic language. Notice,
however, that in real speech English uses
consonants more often than Polish.
3.2.
Most
frequent phonemes in Polish and English
10 most frequent phonemes in Polish
general texts are (Jassem & Łobacz 1971):
e, a, o, t, j, n, ɨ, m, i, v
10 most frequent phonemes in the English lexicon
are (Higgins 93):
ɪ, t, s, n, w, l, r, k, d, z
Since both studies are based on different material, their
results are not fully comparable; in spoken English texts schwa would probably
appear closer to the top of the frequency list.
4.
Suprasegmental differences
4.1.
Word stress
In both Polish
and English at least 3 levels of word stress can be distinguished. Differences
between P and E word stress include
4.1.1.
Constitutive features of Polish and English words stress
In Polish
(Jassem 1962:68) the increase of fundamental frequency is the main component of
word stress. Changes in intensity and duration are less regularly correlated
with word stress. In this respect Polish is very similar to English. In
English, modifications of fundamental frequency are the most important feature
of word stress. Additionally, perhaps English word stress makes more use of
duration to distinguish stressed syllables from unstressed ones.
4.1.2.
Stress placement
In Polish,
mostly penultimate syllable. English stress placement rules are more complex.
English word stress may be assigned to the last, second, third, forth (‘agriculture)
and fifth (e.g. ‘speculatively) syllable from the end of the word.
4.1.3.
Rhythm
Polish is
considered a syllable-timed language whereas English a stress-timed
language. It means that Polish tends to have equal distances between peaks
of syllables whereas English tends to have equal distances between stressed
syllables.
4.2.
Differences and
similarities between Polish and English intonation (see presentation by J.Rutkowska & M.Raczkowska)
4.2.1.
STRUCTURAL
differences
Some structures of nuclear pitch patterns are present in language but
absent in
another
1.
high-low (HL) not present in
English
2.
extra-low (xL) not present
in English
3.
middle-high (MH) not present
in Polish
4.
low-high-low (LHL) not
present in Polish
5.
middle-high-low (MHL) not present
in Polish
6.
high-low-high (HLH) not
present in Polish
7.
middle-low-high (MLH) not
present in Polish
4.2.2.
REALISATIONAL
difference between Polish and English intonation
Similar intonation patterns appear in different languages, but they are
realised in different ways
8.
Low-middle (LM) tone is
realised differently in English and in Polish: in Polish the increase of
fundamental frequency occurs most often at the end of a phrase whereas in
English it can occur at the beginning of a phrase
4.2.3.
SEMANTIC differences
between Polish and English intonation
Intonation patterns can be structurally similar, but they can have
different
meaning
9.
Low-high (LH) pattern can
mean different things in Polish and in English.
In English LH does not indicate a question. In the expression
|It isn't as bad
as all //that.
LH pattern indicates opposition.
In Polish the expression
\\Wcale nie jest
znowu taka zła.
would be probably realized with falling intonation
pattern of HL
EXERCISES
What errors are Poles likely to make in the following words:
1. apple, article, battle,
bicycle, special, atheism, pessimism, cataclysm.
2. bagpipe, wildcat,
woodchuck, Winsford, Hobson, jigsaw, obstacle, sandstorm, handful, eggshell,
foghorn
3. Give
graphemic equivalents 4. Give phonemic equivalents
a)
/klɛ̃ʊ̃skA/ =
<........> a) /......../ =
<dążyć>
b) /kɔ̃ʊ̃saʨ/ = <........> b) /......../
= <węch>