Innovative Linguistics idea: there are no silent letters
We’ve talked about the concept of silent letters in English for so long, but have we really considered the possibility that there are none?
An idea worth exploring is that, in the long term, we might assign the pronunciation of a word to the word itself, rather than to each of its individual letters.
But wait, you might ask, how do we determine the pronunciation of novel words like “wug”?
Well, I think that from the pronunciation of various complete words stored in our minds, we can generalize and form rules about what each letter typically sounds like. These rules serve as convenient tools for learning new vocabulary. However, when these representative rules—formed in our brains—are violated, such as with the supposedly “silent” in words like though, we are surprised.
Another possible phenomenon is that we assign specific pronunciations to combinations of letters. An example could be , which is often realized as /t/ in words like Ptolemy or pterodactyl.
One way to test this hypothesis could be to create novel words like pterospondee and observe whether the hypothesis holds true.
Although one might argue that it’s contradictory to rely on individual letters to learn the pronunciation of new words, I think there’s a fundamental difference between how we store the pronunciation of certain words in our minds (as a whole, leading to the idea of no silent letters) and how we apply general rules to individual letters.
Phonology Guide: Plosives
Plosives are ideal for the purpose of introducing anyone to phonology and the IPA, for they are easy to articulate, easy to understand, and easy to transcribe.
The following powerpoint can serve as a guide/introduction to plosives.
My experience at the NZ Lingusitics Conference
This was my first time going to a linguistics conference and I had loads of fun. Being the only high school student among university students and professors was certainly intimidating, but everyone was kind and I managed to learn a lot about both subject and people’s day- to -day lives.
The conference consisted of multiple talks throughout the whole day on a wide variety of topics, and I found every single one of them interesting. I was amazed by the range of topics covered, from serious ,large -scale PhD theses to fun applications ,such as a tool that provides feedback on how accurately you pronounces Japanese vowels and how to improve your enunciating .
One talk I especially enjoyed was about PhoNZErdle, a variation of the game Wordle, where instead of guessing letters, player guess a five-phoneme word using New Zealand English phonemes transcribed in the IPA. This certainly adds a new layer complexity to a game that was starting to feel stale, and in the process I got to enhance my phonological skills.
The Conference even has its own dinner: we all went to the city centre to socialize and have fun. I was lucky enough to be seated next to some professors, and we talked about linguistics and their lives in academia. My main takeaway was that linguistics can be found everywhere and connected to almost every subject——there were so many engineers in the conference which I hadn’t expected.
New Zealand English
As a global language, English exhibits significant variations across the world. This blog post focuses specifically on New Zealand English, which has been greatly influenced by traditionally various British dialects, and more recently, by American English. As a result ,the phonology of New Zealand English shares similarities with Australian English, and at times,even South African English.
It is important to note that many features previously covered in studies and sources like Wikipedia are becoming outdated as New Zealand English continues to evolve, given the continual integration of Maori culture into the country and the influence of American English due to the internet. For instance, many children in Auckland are starting to develop rhotic vowels and the adaptation of Maori loanwords now exhibit much less variation to the original Maori realisations. N.B. A lot of these observations are unsourced and simply come from personal experience and actually speaking New Zealand English.
Non-Pulmonic Consonants
Non-pulmonic consonants are perhaps some of the most intriguing phonemes discovered. It’s as if they add another dimension to pulmonic consonants, particularly ejectives and implosives. Clicks, in particular, are strikingly different from any other consonants, standing out with their unique flavor.
The Syllable
Everyone has heard of the syllable, but few can properly define this concept, which is universally taught in English classes. The syllable is one of the most fascinating concepts in linguistics, as it is closely interlinked with various other linguistic concepts. More specific details about the syllable can be found in the presentation below.
Different types of consonants
I have recently made a presentation detailing briefly the different types of consonants that should be a great tool to learn what they are.
Linguistics Quizzes
University Challenge has always been one of my favorite quiz shows ,and I thought it would be fun to compile a list of linguistics-themed quiz questions in the style of that show .
How to Play
• Divide the participants into two teams, ideally.
• Begin by asking a starter question worth 10 points. This is answered individually, and the first person to buzz in gets to respond.
• If the starter question is answered correctly, the player’s team earns 10 points and gets the opportunity to answer 3 bonus questions.
• If the starter question is answered incorrectly, no points are awarded, and if it’s answered before the quizmaster has finished reading the whole question, 5 points will be deducted.
• If a team answers the starter question incorrectly, the opposing team has a chance to respond.
• Bonus questions are a team effort and are worth 5 points each. No points are deducted for incorrect answers.
• If neither team answers the starter question correctly, no bonus questions are awarded, and a new starter question is asked.
• The team with the most points after all the questions have been asked wins.
The quiz itself
Note: the questions are those that are attached to bullet points and the answers are directly below the questions, and are not bullet
Click the buttons to download the quizzes!