Aspirated h in French

The letter h is silent in French. In Old French and Middle French, it was a glottal fricative. Though the glottal fricative is not a sound of French, it has two forms: aspirated and not aspirated. When it is aspirated, contraction and liaison do not occur.

The phrase nos héros means our heroes. Because the h is aspirated, liaison does not occur. The result is that nos is pronounced /no/. In the phrase le hibou (the owl), contraction does not occur. This is because the word hibou has an aspirated h.

However, the word hélicoptère (helicopter) does not have an aspirated h. In the phrase nos hélicoptères (our helicopters), liaison occurs. The word nos is pronounced /noz/. Contraction also occurs. The phrase l'hélicoptère means the helicopter.

The following are a few French words with an aspirated h:

hache (axe)

hamster (hamster)

hamburger (hamburger)

hareng (herring)

haricot (bean)

harpe (harp)

héron (heron)

hiérarchie (hierarchy)

homard (lobster)

huit (eight)

As in other Romance languages such as Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, the letter h is silent in French. However, a number of French words have an aspirated h. In such words, contraction and liaison do not occur. 

Differences in Pronunciation of Spanish and Portuguese

Spanish and Portuguese are Romance languages with many similarities. However, they often differ significantly in pronunciation. To illustrate, we can look at ten words in Spanish and Portuguese. The Spanish words are transcribed with the accent of Mexico City and the Portuguese words with the accent of Sao Paulo:

arte (art) [artɛ] [art͡ʃi]

carro (car) [karo} [kahu]

de (of) [dɛ] [d͡ʒi]

mundo (world) [mundo] [mũdu]

nada (nothing) [naða] [nadɐ]

parque (park) [parkɛ] [parki]

rosa (rose) [rosa} [ho:zɐ]

sal (salt) [sal] [sau]

vaca (cow) [baka] [vakɐ]

verde (green) [bɛrðɛ] [vɛrd͡ʒi]

The words share the same spelling but are pronounced differently. In arte (art), the final vowel is different. This is also the case with carro (car) and mundo (world).

The word de (of) begins with a plosive in Spanish but with an affricate in Portuguese. Differences can be observed with the word verde (green). It begins with a plosive in Spanish but with a fricative in Portuguese. In Spanish the second syllable begins with a fricative but with a plosive in Portuguese.

The word rosa (rose) begins with an alveolar trill. In the Portuguese of Sao Paulo, however, it begins with a glottal fricative. The first vowel is longer in Portuguese than in Spanish and the final vowel is higher in Portuguese than in Spanish.

Portuguese has nasal vowels. This is illustrated in the word mundo (world). It has a nasal vowel in Portuguese, but it does not in Spanish.

Though Spanish and Portuguese are related languages with many similar words, they have very different pronunciation. Portuguese has nasal vowels, but Spanish does not. Spanish has a voiced interdental fricative, but Brazilian Portuguese does not. The list illustrates many of the differences in pronunciation between Spanish and Portuguese.

Differences Between English of Northern England and Southern England

The English of England has many varieties. In both the north and the south, there are many types of English. However, there are features which distinguish the English of northern England and southern England.

One of the most noticeable differences is the trap-bath split. However, in many parts of southwestern England, the trap-bath split does not apply. For speakers who have the trap-bath split, the vowel of trap is a low front vowel and the vowel of bath is a low back vowel. The trap-bath split is common in the southeast, but it is not common in the north. Most northerners use the same vowel to pronounce the words trap and bath.

Another difference is the foot-strut split. It does not exist in the English of northern England. In the north, the words cut and put are pronounced with the same vowel. The words look and luck are pronounced the same. In the south, however, cut and put have different vowels. The vowel of cut is a mid central vowel.

In northern England, the vowel of cat is a low central vowel, but in the south it is a low front vowel.  For many northern speakers, the vowel of words such as cart  and palm is not a back vowel, but a long low central vowel. In such cases, the difference in vowel quality is quantitative and not qualitative as it is in the south.

Words such as place and road are often pronounced with monophthongs in the north. The vowel quality varies in the north. In the south, however, they are pronounced as diphthongs.

The unstressed word-final vowel in words such as funny and happy is usually pronounced with a lax vowel in the north. The tense vowel [i] is used in the Liverpool area, however. In the south, the tense vowel is common.

Unlike in the south, most of the north does not maintain a clear distinction between the lateral of lake and the lateral of bell. The area of Newcastle is an exception because it maintains the distinction. In the south, the lateral of lake is not velarized, but the lateral of bell is.

Though the English spoken in England varies greatly, there are a number of features that distinguish the English of the north from that of the south. With the exception of the southwest, the south maintains the trap-bath split. All of the south maintains the foot-strut split. Many words with diphthongs in the south are pronounced with monophthongs in the north. The south maintains two types of laterals, one that is not velarized and one that is. In the north, however, most speakers only use the velarized lateral.

Word-Initial Palatalization in Brazilian Portuguese

Palatalization varies in Brazilian Portuguese. In northeastern Brazil, words such as dia (day) and tio (uncle) are never palatalized. With certain speakers, palatalization only occurs in particular environments. One environment in which palatalization is common is before /i/ and with unstressed word-final vowels, which are raised to /i/, such as in parte (part). However, some Brazilians also have palatalization word-initially.

In Brazilian Portuguese, many speakers have word-initial palatalization in the following words:

depois (after)

deserto (desert)

despedida (farewell)

dezembro (December)

dezoito (eighteen)

teatro (theatre)

teoria (theory)

tesauro (thesaurus)

tesoura (scissors)

tesouro (treasure)

The reason palatalization occurs in the illustrated words is that the unstressed vowel is raised to /i/. This creates the necessary environment for palatalization. In the word teoria (theory) some speakers pronounce the word [t͡ʃiuria]. In this case the first two vowels are raised.

Vowel raising is less extensive in Brazil than in Portugal. However, in certain parts of Brazil such as Rio de Janeiro, vowel raising is common in all positions of the word. The result is that many speakers raise vowels in the first syllable and this creates word-initial palatalization.

Four Types of English Intonation

English has four basic types of intonation. They are rising, falling, rising-falling and falling-rising. Let us look at examples of each.

In yes-no questions, rising intonation is common. For example, Can you play the piano? is a question with rising intonation.

However, in wh-questions, falling intonation is common. This type of intonation is used in the question Where are you from?

Another type of intonation is rising-falling. It is common with lists of information. In the sentence I bought apples, bananas and oranges, the intonation rises at the beginning of the sentence and falls when the speakers says the noun oranges.

The last type of intonation is falling-rising. It is often used when the speaker is not sure of what he/she is saying. This is the case with the question It's not true, is it? The use of rising intonation at the end implies uncertainty. However, if the speaker uses falling intonation from start to finish, then he/she is merely confirming information.

The four basic types of intonation in English are rising, falling, rising-falling and falling-rising. Intonation is important because it can convey differences in meaning. The most common types are rising and falling.

Words For Not in Norwegian

The word not is ikke in Danish and inte in Swedish. In Norwegian, however, it can be translated in more than one way. The reason is that Norwegian has many dialects.

In the capital city of Oslo, located in the southeast, not is ikke. It is the word that is usually taught to learners of Norwegian. However, in Bergen, the second largest city in Norwegian, not is ikkje. The word ikkje is common in southwestern Norway.

The city of Trondheim is located in central Norway. In Trondheim, the word not is itj. Unlike ikke and ikkje, it does not end with a vowel sound.

In parts of southeastern Norway located close to the Swedish border, not is ente. It is very similar to the Swedish word inte. The form ente is less common than ikke, ikkje and itj.

Norwegian is a language of many dialects. Even basic words such as not have different forms. This is not the case in Danish and Swedish, two very similar languages.