Week 14

This week, which is also a final week of this project, I was trying to integrate all the previously studied elements of the deliberate practice of my archetype. It includes:

• focus on vowels
• focus on consonants
• pronunciations of compound words
• pronunciation of English borrowings
• prominence
• word stress
• thought groups division
• linking and blending
• intonation

All these elements contribute to the overall fluency and accuracy of my own recording of the archetype.

Overall, I believe that deconstructing and reconstructing this speech made me understand not only the system of the German language, but also the way different elements contribute to this organization.

I believe that this project was very beneficial for me from the educational and informative point of view. It made me think how students usually feel when they attempt to imitate native English speakers and how much time and effort they spend on this. This project also made me experience a tiny bit of frustration, when I was not able to hear or reproduce the word even from the tenth attempt, and it made me very proud, when the final recording was completed. Moreover, it was also an enjoyable task. I was glad that I had a chance to refresh my German language knowledge, because I was afraid I had lost it all already. As the things turned out, my German is still good enough, and this project is a soothing evidence of that.

In the course of this project except from the archetype and my own recordings I used Sounds of speech website. This resource has been of great help to me to understand the individual consonant and vowel sounds in German, as well as to compare them with the English IPA.

Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin's (2010) course book had also been my constant reference in this project. It not only provided clear guidelines on what to practice on, but also included suggestions for teaching certain phonetic and phonological features.

I discovered Vocaroo website as one of the most convenient online audio recorders.

Even after 14 weeks of my deliberate practice I still feel that the production of my /r/ does not sound very natural. Some other individual sounds also need some more polishing.

However, I think I have a pretty good grasp of the intonation patterns in German, as well as speech prominence. My overall fluency of speech definitely improved. Accuracy, however, is something that would require a longer period of time to develop.

Here is my final recording.

References

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J. M. (2010). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Week 13

This week I continued working on the second half of the archetype's intonation patterns.
The observations about falling and rising intonations from the previous week were still true for this week as well.
One more interesting feature of German is that very often the sentences end with the detachable verb prefixes or verbs in the past tense. It makes the falling intonation extremely sharp and clear, especially when the prefix or the verb is short. In my archetype I didn’t have any questions, but from my language classes I remember that some of the questions in German also have falling intonation, which makes German speaker sound as if he is sad.

Here is the second part of the archetype transcript with the intonation patterns, thought groups, and linking and blending marked.

Also, die ↗/ Ingrid Noll kommt‿jetzt‿ja bald ↗./ Da überlege ↗ ich‿auch, ob‿ich da hingehe, ↘/ und‿dann kommt noch‿einer ↗, / den Namen kann‿ich mir nicht merken ↘, / ↗ Sergio … / irgendwie so‿ein ↗ Spanier, / das‿ ↗ hörte sich‿auch sehr‿interessant‿an ↘./

Auch in‿einer kleinen Fachwerkstadt ↗/ wie Oberursel ↗/ steigen‿immer mehr Kunden ↗ / auf‿elektronische Bücher‿um ↘ / – der Grund für‿den deutschsprachigen Buchhandel, ↗/ ein‿eigenes E‿Book-Lesegeräther‿auszu‿bringen. ↘ / Die Zahlen ↗/ zeigen den‿Erfolg ↘./

Dass der Reader ↗/ des Buchhandels ↗/ Tolino / in‿eineinhalb ↘ Jahren bereits ↗ / den Kindle von‿Amazon ↗/ über‿rundet hat: ↘ / Das heißt, / er hat‿einen Marktanteil zurzeit von 45 Prozent ↗ / und Kindle hat nur 39 Prozent. ↘/

Das Lesegerät ↗ / gibt’‿s‿auch bei ↗ Martina‿Bollinger‿im Laden. ↘ / Kunden können E‿Books direkt ↗ /  über‿ihre ↗ Homepage her‿unterladen. ↘ / Gegen die ↗ Konkurrenz aus dem‿Internet ↗/ fühlt sie‿sich so ↘/ ↗ gut gewappnet. ↘/

Here is my recording from this week.

Week 12

This week I've started working on the intonation patterns in my archetype. Some findings of this week were surprising for me.

German intonation pattern is slightly different form the English one. The sentence onset usually has a rising tone, which is kept stable almost during the whole sentence, and at the end of the sentence the tone drops down. The monologue of Martina Bollinger (main actor) is a little different from the speech of the narrator. Her parts have a lot more rising intonation even at the end of the sentence. It can be explained by the fact that it is a free spontaneous speech, which makes her think of the structures on the fly. Such spontaneous production makes the ends of the sentences less obvious.

Here is the first part of the archetype transcript with the intonation patterns, thought groups, and linking and blending marked.

Mit‿Autos ↗/ für Bücher‿werben ↗/ ↗ ist‿eher ungewöhnlich↘. Martina‿Bollinger nutzt den Kleinwagen ↗/ als Büchertisch ↘. / Vier Wochen kostenlos fahren ↗ / kann man gewinnen ↘./
So‿hoffen wir ↗ /, dass wir ↗ viele‿Bücher verkaufen ↘./ Und wenn sich der‿ein‿oder‿andere ↘ für‿’nen Mini‿interessiert ↗,/ kann‿er ↗ zu‿dem Händler hingehen ↘,/ so‿dass es‿’ne ↗ Win-Win-Situation / ist ↘./

In‿ihrem Buchladen ↗ / legt sie großen ↗ Wert auf Beratung ↘./ Viele ↗, / die vorbeikommen, ↗/ sind Stammkunden ↘./ Sie‿hat‿ihre ↗ Kinderbuch‿abteilung gerade vergrößert ↘, / beschäftigt ↘/ ↗ sieben Mitarbeiter ↘./ Doch ohne Online-Shop ↗ / geht auch ↗ bei‿ihr nichts mehr. ↘/ Kunden ↗/ können ↗ Bücher über‿ihre Home‿page ↗ bestellen / und ↗ kostenlos liefern lassen ↘./ Sie muss das machen ↗,/ um‿mit ↗ dem‿Online-Handel mithalten zu‿können ↘./
Wenn‿ich das nicht mache ↗, / macht’‿s‿ ↗ jemand‿anders, /und ↘/ den‿Umsatz ↘,/ den brauche ich‿einfach noch, um bestehen zu‿können ↘./ Das‿ist ganz ↗/ ehrlich gesagt ↗ / (also ich) ↘ / … mir behagt das nicht ↗ so sehr, ↗/ weil‿ich natürlich lieber die Kunden im Laden habe ↗,/ weil‿ich‿es liebe ↗,/ die ↗ Kunden im Laden zu‿haben ↘,/ um‿ ↗ mitdenen zu‿kommunizieren. ↘ / Aber ↗/ ich komm’ leider nicht dran vorbei ↘./
Ver‿anstaltungen ↗ / mit Kaffee ↗/ und selbst gebackenem Kuchen. ↘ / ↗ Martina‿Bollinger muss‿sich‿immer wiede‿was Neues einfallen lassen, ↘ / ↗ deswegen ↘ / ↗ kommen ihre Kunden. ↘ / Und sie lockt sie auch mit ↗ bekannten Schriftstellern, / die aus‿ihren ↗ Büchern lesen ↘./

Here is my recording from this week.

Week 11

This is the continuation of the linking and blending with the second half of the archetype.

Also, die / Ingrid Noll kommt‿jetzt‿ja bald./ Da überlege ich‿auch, ob‿ich da hingehe, / und‿dann kommt noch‿einer, / den Namen kann‿ich mir nicht merken, / Sergio … / irgendwie so‿ein Spanier, / das‿hörte sich‿auch sehr‿interessant‿an./

Auch in‿einer kleinen Fachwerkstadt / wie Oberursel / steigen‿immer mehr Kunden / auf‿elektronische Bücher‿um / – der Grund für‿den deutschsprachigen Buchhandel, / ein‿eigenes E‿Book-Lesegeräther‿auszu‿bringen. / Die Zahlen / zeigen den‿Erfolg./

Dass der Reader / des Buchhandels / Tolino / in‿eineinhalb Jahren bereits / den Kindle von‿Amazon / über‿rundet hat: / Das heißt, / er hat‿einen Marktanteil zurzeit von 45 Prozent / und Kindle hat nur 39 Prozent./

Das Lesegerät / gibt’‿s‿auch bei Martina‿Bollinger‿im Laden. / Kunden können E‿Books direkt /  über‿ihre Homepage her‿unterladen. / Gegen die Konkurrenz aus dem‿Internet / fühlt sie‿sich so / gut gewappnet./

The linking and blending followed patterns similar to what I discovered last week. These processes were mostly following the English guidelines. That is, linking occurred when two similar sounds were close together, and when consonant and vowel were together. I did find linking and some sort of assimilation when two vowels were close together. I felt that the sounds in such clusters were a little shorter than if it were a stand alone sound.

Here is my recording of the second part of the archetype.

Next week I will start working on the intonation patterns.

Week 10

This week I decided to return back on track where I've been during the spring break. My goal for Week 10 was to explore linking and blending.

Here is the first half of my archetype transcript with the thought groups and linking and blending identified:

Mit‿Autos / für Bücher‿werben / ist‿eher ungewöhnlich. Martina‿Bollinger nutzt den Kleinwagen / als Büchertisch. / Vier Wochen kostenlos fahren / kann man gewinnen./
So‿hoffen wir /, dass wir viele‿Bücher verkaufen./ Und wenn sich der‿ein‿oder‿andere für‿’nen Mini‿interessiert,/ kann‿er zu‿dem Händler hingehen,/ so‿dass es‿’ne Win-Win-Situation / ist./
In‿ihrem Buchladen / legt sie großen Wert auf Beratung./ Viele, / die vorbeikommen,/ sind Stammkunden./ Sie‿hat‿ihre Kinderbuch‿abteilung gerade vergrößert, / beschäftigt / sieben Mitarbeiter./ Doch ohne Online-Shop / geht auch bei‿ihr nichts mehr./ Kunden / können Bücher über‿ihre Home‿page bestellen / und kostenlos liefern lassen./ Sie muss das machen,/ um‿mit dem‿Online-Handel mithalten zu‿können./
Wenn‿ich das nicht mache, / macht’‿s‿jemand‿anders, /und / den‿Umsatz,/ den brauche ich‿einfach noch, um bestehen zu‿können./ Das‿ist ganz / ehrlich gesagt / (also ich) / … mir behagt das nicht so sehr,/ weil‿ich natürlich lieber die Kunden im Laden habe,/ weil‿ich‿es liebe,/ die Kunden im Laden zu‿haben,/ um‿mitdenen zu‿kommunizieren. / Aber / ich komm’ leider nicht dran vorbei./
Ver‿anstaltungen / mit Kaffee / und selbst gebackenem Kuchen. / Martina‿Bollinger muss‿sich‿immer wiede‿was Neues einfallen lassen, / deswegen / kommen ihre Kunden. / Und sie lockt sie auch mit bekannten Schriftstellern, / die aus‿ihren Büchern lesen./

Linking and blending was probably the most difficult part for me so far. This phonological feature in German definitely deserves special attention. The German word-formation is what differentiates it from other Germanic languages, like English or Swedish, for example. Some long blended words formed by adding stems can sound like separate words, but on the other hand, some separate words may sound like a one word. It brings back the memories when I was confused with the German words spelling and pronunciation: whether it is a one word or two. 

The additional blending is happening when there is an article with preposition or an article with conjunction standing next to each other. In this case they are linked in one word in pronunciation. Usually articles would link words together in German both in terms of grammar as well as in terms of the pronunciation. They usually constitute the main part of my challenge. The speaker (Martiina Bollinger) is incredibly fast! In her case, the articles and function words are very hard to hear. In the narrator's part, the linking occurs not as often and within shorter thought groups.

I identified the thought groups first just to make it easier for me to see where linking and blending would rarely be possible. The instances of linking and blending in German were mostly following the English guidelines. That is, it occurred when two similar sounds were close together, and when consonant and vowel were together. 

I was trying to hear if linking or some sort of assimilation was happening when two vowels were close together. I haven't found any instances of it in this part (or maybe I just haven't trained my ear enough to hear them), but I will continue working on the second part next week. I might find something there.

Here is my recording from this week.