Voiceless Interdental Fricative Research Articles

An Articulatory Analysis Of English Consonants Produced By Pashto Native Speakers Of Different Dialects

This perceptual study explores the challenges faced by Pashto ESL learners in articulating nine English consonants. The study focuses on identifying the most problematic sounds and providing a learnable solution. Previous studies examined around six troublesome consonantal sounds, however, this perceptual and productive study focuses on the targeted consonantal sounds. The primary goal of the study is to determine why Khilji, Khatak, and Afridi dialects of Pashto speakers struggle with these sounds. The study examines the phonetic and phonological differences between the two languages and how these disparities affect the articulation of Pashto native speakers. The study is designed based on the Contrastive Analysis Theory formulated by Lado (1967). For this, nine consonants were selected for recording, which include the voiceless labio-dental fricative /f/, the voiced labio-dental fricative /v/, the voiceless dental fricative /θ/, the voiced dental fricative /ð/, the voiced post-alveolar fricative /ʒ/, the voiceless velar stop /k/, the voiceless alveolar ridge stop /t/, the voiced labio-velar approximant /w/ and the voiced alveolar stop /d/. By utilizing the purposive sampling technique, six participants were selected from colleges and universities in Karachi speaking three different dialects of Pashto. Pashto speakers recorded the speech stimuli as per protocols of the study. The results reveal that Pashto ESL learners find the voiceless labio-dental fricative /f/, voiceless velar stop /k/, voiceless alveolar ridge stop /t/, and voiced alveolar stop /d/ less challenging to articulate. On the other hand, the most problematic sounds were voiced and voiceless inter-dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, voiced labio-dental fricative /v/, voiced Alveo-palatal fricative /ʒ/ and voiced labio-velar approximant /w/. The finding reveals that the difference in sound systems between the two languages and the absence of sounds in their native language cause Pashto native speakers to have difficulty in pronouncing these sounds. The finding is not in line with the previous studies in terms of articulation variations on account of dialectal features.

Deviation among Ghanaian Basic School Pupils Use of English in the Classroom: A case study of Bono and Ahafo Regions

The focus of this study is to discuss some deviations and innovations basic school pupils in the Bono and Ahafo regions of Ghana use in their classrooms and how these deviations are applied to their communication in the classroom. A descriptive survey design was adopted to help achieve these objectives. A qualitative approach was adopted to help explain the study better. A total population of 9,219 pupils and a sample size of 400 pupils were observed for the study. The findings of the study revealed that in the area of phonology, pupils replace the inter-dental fricative /ð/ with a voiced alveolar stop /d/. They also used the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ in place of /t/ a voiceless alveolar in their speech. Again, most pupils also use the trill /r/ in place of the /l/ sound both in writing and articulation. Under semantics, pupils usually transliterate statements from their L1 into the target language (English) and tend to use hyperbole for emphasis. Furthermore, over-generalization of syntactic rules was found as one of the innovations pupils make in classroom communication. Spelling pronunciation was also found as part of the innovations basic school pupils use in classroom communication.

Sound Production of English Dental Fricatives by Papuan EFL Students

This study aims to reveal to what extent Papuan EFL students correctly produce English dental fricatives and to find out what consonants substitute voiceless dental fricative /θ/ and voiced dental fricative /ð/ when misarticulation occurs. A descriptive analysis of 30 native Papuan EFL students was taken as the participants of the study. Data were collected by giving pronunciation tests and targets of either voiceless dental fricative /θ/ or voiced dental fricative /ð/ in an onset or coda syllable position. Correct sound production of English dental fricatives, both voiceless and voiced dental fricatives, by Papuan EFL students hardly found and almost unrecognized that only 12.0% of Papuan EFL students correctly pronounce voiceless dental fricative /θ/ and only 3.3% of Papuan EFL students correctly pronounce voiced dental fricative /ð/. It can be stated that the sound production of English dental fricatives lies in low-level production. Furthermore, Papuan EFL students mostly substitute voiceless dental fricative /θ/ with voiceless alveolar plosive /t/ indicated by 84.0% sound substitution. In other words, Papuan L1 speakers dominantly substitute the consonant /θ/ with the consonant /t/. Papuan EFL students frequently substitute voiced dental fricative /ð/ with both voiced alveolar plosive /d/ indicated by 51.6%, and voiceless alveolar plosive /t/ indicated by 43.3% substitution. Thus, Papuan L1 speakers primarily replace the consonant /ð/ with both consonant /d/ and /t/. The implications for the EFL teaching and learning process may assist Papuan EFL students in learning the correct pronunciation of English dental fricatives in order to improve their speaking proficiency

Difficulties in Production of Voiceless Interdental Fricative // Sound for Chinese Learners of English

Chinese learners of English have long been known to have significant difficulties with the voiceless fricative // sound in English. This study focuses on the challenges and errors faced by Chinese learners of English while producing the voiceless interdental fricative sound //, and aims to find out the speakers error rate and possible reasons when pronouncing it. In this study, six Chinese adult learners of English were selected as a sample for pronunciation recordings, and the average pronunciation accuracy of // and the accuracy of each individual were calculated. Next, a short interview is conducted with each of them, containing possible reasons for the mispronunciation. The results of the study showed that the overall average correct pronunciation rate of the six Chinese English learners was only 37%. There was a positive correlation between the learners' long-term exposure to a pure, full English environment and the accuracy of their pronunciation. And the correct position of the tongue during pronunciation determines correct pronunciation.

A Corpus-based Study on Speech Errors in Pronouncing the Fricative // by Chinese Learners of English

There were quite a few studies investigating English pronunciation errors of Chinese learners of English. However, studies focusing on one typical sound and its detailed features are still inadequate. Besides, limited studies used speech corpora to investigate this topic due to a lack of available speech corpora. To fill such a research gap, this study uses the corpus L2-ARCTIC to investigate the speech errors of voiceless dental fricative // among four Chinese learners of English, and analyzes the possible reasons for the speech errors. Data are collected by analyzing the speech recordings from the corpus L2-ARCTIC, and the pronunciation errors of speakers are classified into different types. Results show that, in this corpus, the types of speech errors of the fricative // are the substitution and deletion. The sounds that have very close manners and places of articulation are easier to become the error sounds to replace the // sound.

An Analysis of Interference from Javanese in the Pronunciation of ,  and  in English by the Students of Faculty of Letters in Gajayana University.

English as one of the international languages has been learned by the students of Faculty of Letters in Gajayana University. In learning English as foreign language, most learners have problem in pronunciation, especially in the way they pronounce the sound of the target language. Mispronunciations which are produce by the learners is caused by the interference of the source language or first language. The object of this research is the students of Faculty of Letters in Gajayana University 2005/2006 intake who are native speakers of Javanese and have been done phonology class. Some specific sounds are discussed in these research namely English sounds of inter-dental fricative,  and alveolar approximant. The finding of the research are some interferences occur in pronouncing those sounds, they are 1) voiceless inter-dental fricative  is pronounced using voiceless dental stop , aspirated voiceless dental stop , voiced dental stop , and voiceless palato-alveolar affricate . 2).Voiced inter-dental fricative is pronounce using voiceless dental stop , aspirated voiceless dental stop , voiced dental stop , and voiceless palato-alveolar affricate . 3).Voiced alveolar approximant  is pronounced using voiced alveolar trill. 4). the possible reasons for the interferences made are based on the similarity of characteristics in the state of vocal cords, place of articulation, and manner of articulations.

TH variation in Hong Kong English

The current study examines patterns of TH variation in Hong Kong English (HKE). In particular, it examines patterns in the realization of the voiceless interdental fricative /θ/ as the voiceless labiodental fricative [f],2a process known as TH-fronting, as well as realization of the voiceless of TH as [s]. Previous research on HKE (Bolton & Kwok 1990; Hung 2000; Deterdinget al.2008; Setteret al.2010) has established that TH-fronting is a variable phenomenon in HKE, with both intra- and inter-speaker variation, though no research to date has examined the social and linguistic constraints that govern this phenomenon in HKE. The current study also examines the realization of TH as [s], which has not been documented in previous research on HKE, but was found to be a variant of TH in the current study. This article thus examines the social (defined here as non-linguistic constraints such as gender, medium of instruction and proficiency) and linguistic (syllable position, linguistic environment, stress) factors which impact the realization of TH in HKE and whether these factors differ for the realization of TH as [f] or [s].

Using phonics as a method of teaching reading in basic schools

This study examines the use of phonics as a method of teaching reading in basic schools within the framework of generative phonology proposed by Chomsky and Halle (1968) in the Sound Pattern of English (SPE) as discussed in Hawkins (1992).The study aims at describing the patterns of phonic sounds with the application of phonological rules. It describes naturally occurring phenomena (phonemes) without experimental manipulation. The data which is collected from some existing data onphonic teaching and learning and used in this paper are from both verbal and written sources. Participants selected include teachers (T), teacher-trainees (TT) and pupils (P). The study shows the relationship between phonic symbols and letters of thealphabet in English. It attempts to present consonants and vowels occurring in wordinitial, word-medial and word-final positions in English as the major sounds in the English language. Based on the synchronic data available, the paper hypothesizesthat the voiceless dental fricative /0/ and the voiced dental fricative /6/ are the difficult sounds that are not easily pronounced in English words by the LI learner in Ghana. The study, therefore, suggests that both teachers and teacher-trainees shouldhave some knowledge in phonic sounds, and that an introduction to phonetics and phonology should be considered as a course in the Colleges of Education.

L1 Transfer in the Production of Fricatives and Stops by Pattani-Malay Learners of English in Thailand

This study investigated the English fricative and stop pronunciation errors produced by Pattani-Malay learners of English. The participants, speaking L1 Malay, were recruited from fifth and sixth graders at Thamwittaya Mulniti School, Yala province, Thailand. The major research instruments used to examine the errors were the word list reading task and the sentence reading task. The findings of this research demonstrate that Pattani-Malay learners of English seemed to have difficulty in producing errors in some specific English fricative sounds in particular positions. The medial voiced labiodental fricative /v/ and the medial voiced interdental fricative /ð/ were apparently the most problematic. The errors in pronouncing the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ and the voiced interdental fricative /ð/ in the initial and final positions were ranked second, followed by the final voiced palato-alveolar fricative /?/ errors and the final voiceless interdental fricative /?/ errors respectively. The results revealed that the learner’s problems in pronouncing English fricatives and stops are mainly attributed to first language transfer.

Think or Sink: Chinese Learners' Acquisition of the English Voiceless Interdental Fricative

This study investigates the production of the English interdental fricative [θ] by Chinese learners of English, using a variationist framework. Twenty‐seven Chinese participants were asked to evaluate the acceptability of four possible substitutes for the variable (th) and to perform four oral production tasks. The results indicated that immediate phonetic environment and speech style accounted for the accurate production of [θ]. Learners who had good control over the pronunciation of [θ] used monitoring strategies, whereas those who had lower production accuracy depended on phonetic salience strategies. Lexical frequency slightly facilitated accurate production of [θ]. In addition, speakers from both Taiwan and China rated [s] as the most acceptable substitute for (th), confirming that they make up a single English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language speech community.

Human biology and human speech.

(1) ISOGENS AND ISOPHONS Since a discussion at the British Association, several scientific and other journals have given wide publicity to views which Darlington published in 1947 under the title Genetic Component of Language. In their book, Elements of Genetics, Darlington and Mather (1949) again set forth this thesis. A large number of their readers will accordingly gain the impression that it is already acceptable to scholars equipped with specialist know ledge to assess its credentials. Several philologists have expressed to me a contrary view, and are puzzled because biologists seemingly give silent assent to Darlington's thesis. Otherwise, I should be reluctant to give utterance to misgivings that I myself share with some of my biological colleagues. The word language, in the title of the publication cited, is unduly comprehensive. The topic of Dar lington's memoir is indeed the distribution of two sounds, both familiar to an Englishman, to a Welsh man, or to an Icelander, though neither of them occurs in spoken French, Swedish, Dutch, or Ger man. They are the so-called voiceless dental fricative, represented in English orthography by TH as in thin and wreath, and the voiced dental fricative, also rep resented in English by TH as in then and writhe. Darlington compares the geographical distribution of speech communities in which these sounds are current with the geographical distribution of the triple allelomorph A-O-B. From this comparison, he draws categorical conclusions concerning the role of genetic differences with regard to the phonetic peculiarities of speech communities. Since the pub lication of Darlington's memoir, the issue has emer ged again in a contribution entitled Blood Groups, Ethnology and Language in Wales and the Western Countries, by Mourant and Watkin (1952), of whom the latter takes all responsibility for what is relevant to Darlington's theme. In his original memoir, Darlington (1947) uses TH indiscriminately for the two sounds respectively represented by p and S in Icelandic and by 0 arid 8 in the International Phonetic Script. Welsh orthography provides individually for each by com bination: TH for the voiceless fricative in thin and DD for the voiced fricative in then. For typographi cal convenience, I shall here use TH as in Welsh and DH for Welsh DD. A fair statement of the conclu sions drawn by Darlington from mapping the wes tern world in terms of the distribution referred to above is as follows: