LEXICAL SETS WITH SENTENCES A Dialect Analysis Tool CHARACTER: _____________________________________ DIALECT: _________________________________________ The Standard Lexical Sets for English introduced by John C. Wells in Accents of English are in wide usage. Wells defined each lexical set on the basis of the pronunciation of words in two reference accents, which he calls RP and GenAm. • RP refers to Received Pronunciation, the traditionally prestigious accent in England. • GenAm refers to a conservative accent of the General American type which has resisted the horse-hoarse and cot–caught mergers. Wells classifies words of the English language into 24 lexical sets on the basis of the pronunciation of the vowel of their stressed syllable in the two reference accents. Each lexical set is named after a representative keyword. The Standard Lexical Sets of Wells are widely used to discuss the phonological and phonetic systems of different accents of English in a clear and concise manner. Although based solely on RP and GenAm, the Standard Lexical Sets have proven useful in describing many other accents of English. This is true because, in many dialects, the words in all or most of the sets are pronounced with similar or identical stressed vowels. Wells himself uses the Lexical Sets most prominently to give "tables of lexical incidence" for all the various accents he discusses in his work. For example, here is the table of lexical incidence he gives for Newfoundland English:[8] In a 2010 blog post, Wells wrote: "I sometimes think that a century from now my lexical sets will be the one thing I shall be remembered for. Yet I dreamt them up over a weekend, frustrated with the incoherent mess of symbols used in such contemporary publications as Weinreich's "Is a structural dialectology possible?" He also wrote that he claimed no copyright in the Standard Lexical Sets, and that everyone was "free to make whatever use of them they wish". Source: Wikipedia Lexical sets allow us to assess the ways in which the vowels of each lexical set compare between GenAm, RP and other languages, accents and dialects. Additionally, lexical set key words (KIT or DRESS, for example) provide linguists with an efficient way to talk with each other about vowel sets that share common derivations. The key word for each lexical set also provides us with visual and auditory cues that help us to remember those vowel sets. Consider this form a worksheet for you to use for any language, accent or dialect. You may use “Pronunication Notes” to develop and record your “scoring” symbols and other tips to help you recall your sound, and add links to sound samples in “Additional Notes” section, as an example. But personalize it – this was created for you to make your own. Have fun!
SET
SAMPLE WORDS
KIT
ship, rib, dim, milk, slither, myth, pretty, build, women, busy step, ebb, hem, shelf, effort, threat, bread, ready, any, friend tap, cab, ham, scalp, arrow, plaid
DRESS TRAP LOT STRUT FOOT BATH CLOTH NURSE FLEECE FACE PALM
stop, rob, Tom, solve, profit, honest, swan, waffle, knowledge cup, rub, hum, pulse, butter, done, monk, touch, blood put, full, cuckoo, good, woman, could staff, path, brass, clasp, blast, ask, after, master, basket off, cough, froth, cross, soft, often, Australia usurp, curb, turn, burnt, shirt, firm, myrrh, assert, verb creep, seed, seem, see, needle, these, shriek, ceiling, be, reap tape, babe, name, change, taper, April, gauge, crepe, wait calm, bra, hurrah, Brahms, spa, Shah,
PRONUNCIATION NOTES
SAMPLE SENTENCE Guilty Miss Dixie Wynn simply pinned her kit list in the inn. Melba remembered how well she felt when she hemmed her red dress. Angry, mad dancers in half-masks trapped the fast tango band. They stopped a lot of nonsense at a college in Watford. The up-and-coming monk loved summer custard in the country. The bullying woman couldn’t cook the good cuckoo. He laughed as he danced to the bath past his aunt in pajamas. The cough cost the office a strong loss. The curly girl’s first words emerged in church early on Thursday. Slim women seem silly feasting in the east wing of the Wheeler building David Mason failed to make the grade in Macon. Brahms’ father calmly sipped a lager in the
ADDITIONAL NOTES
THOUGHT GOAT GOOSE PRICE CHOICE MOUTH START NORTH FORCE
CURE
NEAR
cantata, bravado taught, naughty, ought, taut, applaud, autumn, gawk soap, road, note, robe, hole, so, noble, brooch loop, mood, boom, boost, move, tomb, group, dupe, cube tribe, time, Friday, indict, isle, hi-fi, type, eider boy, noise, void, coin, poison, buoy, employ, hoist out, loud, noun, count, flour, crowd, dowry, bough far, bazaar, sharp, card, farm, snarl, party, heart for, war, distort, orb, form, porpoise, orbit, normal ore, boar, floor, four, deport, afford, borne, portent moor, poor, dour, your, allure, gourd, tourist, assurance, mural, centurion, curious, during, Europe beer, here, bier, pier, weir, fear, fierce, weird,
plaza spa. Paul applauded all the author’s naughty thoughts. Joan’s beau owned the only gauche brooch I know Hugh soon moves his few balloons to a new blue room. It’s high time to fight for my private island. Freud’s boiled, choice oysters annoyed the boys! Spoiled! A crowd was shouting loudly down in the town by the fountain. Alarmingly large card parties started in the garden parlor. Four ordinary horses stormed the Port of Normandy. Laura adored the four war-torn Georgia stores. An enormous tornado tore up the store this morning. The greyer lawyer prepared to fire the lower, cured player.
SQUARE LETTER U TREATMENT Merged Lexical Sets “Landmark” Lexical Sets R TH th L S T Fricatives B, C, D, K, P W Word endings PLACEMENT PITCH MELODY RHYTHM TEXTURE PHYSICAL
beard care, air, bear, heir, their, there prayer, scarce beggar, martyr, visor duel, during, lure, news, The lurid, tuneful duke nude, assume, student, knew that deuces tune, lurid, suit, induced nuisance suits. Are Bath and Trap merged? Lot and Cloth? Any others? Which are the most important Lexical Sets for this dialect? Rhotic, non rhotic, tapped or trilled How is voiced TH pronounced (that, those, these) How is unvoiced th pronounced (think, thin, thistle) How is the L pronounced (dark, light) Is the final s a z, or pure s sound (does, is, as) Glottalized or not How are fricatives treated: f, v, TH, th, s, z, s< (shore), z< (azure), h Is there aspiration after these consonants? Is the w pronounced w or v Is the n of –ing endings dropped? Is the -ed of past tense endings given emphasis (wor-keh-ed). Where in the head, mouth, throat, chest, or belly does this dialect live, predominately? Is the speaker a soprano, tenor, alto, baritone or bass? Does the speaker use a wide or narrow range of the scale? Does he or she speak in a minor or major key? Does the speaker’s rhythm sound like a drum? A violin? A hammer? A flute? Is the voice silky, smoky, textured or smooth? What is the mouth opening – wide or narrow? How is the tension across the brow, at the jaw, around the mouth and in the throat? What physical gestures seem
CUES
organic to this dialect? How close/loose are arms/legs to the body? What is your kinetic cue for this dialect? What is your “touchstone speech” for this dialect?
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Continue to “Comma Gets a Cure” on the next page!
WHAT DO YOU HEAR? Time spent on Paul Meier’s IDEA site will lead you to many native speakers and other accent and dialect aids: http://www.dialectsarchive.com/ One standard passage read by the speakers there is “Comma Gets a Cure,” nonsense text containing all the lexical set words. As you listen to “Comma” read by speakers of the dialect you are seeking to acquire, pay attention to the specific sets as you have described them, above. Score this passage as you would your script in the target dialect. Well, here's a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in North Square near the Duke Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking. Even so, on her first morning, she felt stressed. She ate a bowl of porridge, checked herself in the mirror and washed her face in a hurry. Then she put on a plain yellow dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work. When she got there, there was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah an official letter from the vet. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would only expect to see it in a dog or a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the beautiful bird. Before long, that itchy goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The goose’s owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, “Comma, Comma,” which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah had a different idea. First, she tried gently stroking the goose's lower back with her palm, then singing a tune to her. Finally, she administered ether. Her efforts were not futile. In no time, the goose began to tire, so Sarah was able to hold onto Comma and give her a relaxing bath. Once Sarah had managed to bathe the goose, she wiped her off with a cloth and laid her on her right side. Then Sarah confirmed the vet’s diagnosis. Almost immediately, she remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of medicine. Sarah warned that this course of treatment might be expensive—either five or six times the cost of penicillin. I can’t imagine paying so much, but Mrs. Harrison—a millionaire lawyer—thought it was a fair price for a cure. Comma Gets a Cure and derivative works may be used freely for any purpose without special permission provided the present sentence and the following copyright notification accompany the passage in print, if reproduced in print, and in audio format in the case of a sound recording: Copyright 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved.
