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CHAPTER 5.
WHAT DOES THE ISLE CORPUS TELL US
ABOUT PRONUNCIATION ERRORS?
Statistics obtained from the error-annotated ISLE corpus allow us to identify the most common sources of English pronunciation errors for native speakers of Italian and German. It is possible to find these statistics in the files: “error-stats-german.txt” and “error-stats-italian.txt”.
The ISLE corpus was intended to be balanced for proficiency, but there is an obvious difference between the language groups. The Italian speakers had an average of 0.54 phone errors per word with a standard deviation of 0.75, while the German speakers had 0.16 phone errors per word with a standard deviation of 0.42. There were 84,630 total phones. The Italian speakers made 13,536 phone-errors, while the German speakers made 4,091 phone-errors. 21,244 of the Germans’ words presented 0 errors, while only 14,884 of the Italian speakers’ words presented 0 errors.
This clear difference is probably due in part to the greater phonological similarities between German and English than between Italian and English. It is also noticeable that the actual types of errors are quite different between the language groups. Different phones are affected. Examples of pronunciation errors at each level, subdivided between German and Italian native speakers are given in Tables 7 and 8. These tables present the phones that account for the highest number of errors.
I will split the analysis of pronunciation errors into two sections. In the first section, I will focus on the Italian speakers’ pronunciation errors, whereas the focus of the second section will be on German speaker’s pronunciation errors. I will provide several transcriptions of phone-level errors and try to justify the errors, concentrating mainly on L1 interference of both Italian and German.
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5.1 Italian speakers1
Table 7. Phones that account for most errors for Italian speakers
In the following sections, I will furnish several examples together with the correct transcription in standard British and then various occurrences of pronunciation errors at a phone level. Each distinct transcription stands for a pronunciation error produced by a different speaker.
5.1.1 /ʊ/ pronounced as /u:/
Examples: book, could, full, wonderful.
BOOK (/bʊk/ ) /bu:k/ /bu:kə/ COULD (/kʊd/) /ku:d/ /ku:ld/ FULL /fʊl/
1 I used Krämer’s book The Phonology of Italian to make the analysis of pronunciation errors made by Italian English language students possible.
correct % of total errors error
/ʊ/ 7 often /u:/
/ɜ:/ 5 often /e/ + /r/
/ə/ 12 often /ɒ/
/ŋ/ 4 often /ŋ/ + /g/
/ɪ/ 12 often /i/
3 /fu:l/ WONDERFUL (/wʌndəfʊl/) /wʌndɜfu:l/ /wʌndɜfu:lə/ /wɒndɜfu:l/ /wɒndɜfu:lə/
In Italian, the pronunciation of the vowel ‘u’ is always /u:/. Many Italian speakers mispronounce the English sound /ʊ/ as /u:/. This pronunciation error in Italian English learners seems to me thus a clear example of interference from the mother tongue. In Italian phonology, the sound /ʊ/ simply does not exist. This English vowel seems to be one of the most difficult sounds for Italian speakers to pronounce. However, I encountered some random mispronunciations involving the vowel /ʊ/ in other words, such as in ‘couple’ (/kʌpəl/) erroneously pronounced as /kʌpʊl/ and in ‘of’ (/ɒv/) incorrectly pronounced as /ʊv/. These errors may be due to general proficiency issues of the Italian learners.
5.1.2 /ɜ:/ pronounced as /e/ + /r/
Examples: advert, dessert, terminal.
ADVERT (/ædvɜ:t/) /ədvert/ DESSERT (/dɪzɜːt/) /dəsert/ /dəsertə/ TERMINAL (/'tɜ:mɪnəl/) /termɪnəl/ /terminɑl/
4 In both an initial and final syllabic position the sound /ɜ:/ is mispronounced several times by the Italian learners as /e/ + /r/. It seems rather obvious that this is caused by L1 interference. In Italian, the sound /ɜ:/ simply does not exist, and ‘er’ is always pronounced as /e/ + /r/.
Furthermore, /ɜ:/ could be explained in terms of ‘markedness’ (Eckman, 1987). /ɜ:/ can be classified as a specific feature of English, namely a marked element, and is thus more difficult to acquire for Italian speakers in that it differs from their native language.
5.1.3 /ə/ pronounced as /ɒ/
Examples: committee, conspiracy, director, photographer, police.
In an initial syllabic position:
COMMITTEE (/kəmɪtɪ/) /cɒmɪti/ /cɒmitə/ /cɒmiti/ /cɒmit/ POLICE (/pəlis/) /pɒlɪs/ /pɒlis/ /pɒlisə/
Two times wrong in the same word:
CONSPIRACY (/kənspɪrəsi/)
/kɒnspɪrʌsi/ /kɒnspɪrəsi/ /kɒnspɪreɪs/
5 /kɒnspirəsi/ /kɒspɪrɑsi/ /kɒspirʌsi/ PHOTOGRAPHER (/fətɒgrəfə/) /fɒtɒgrɑfə/ /fɒtɒgræfə/ /fɒtɒgrʌfə/ /fɒtɒgrəfə/
In a final syllabic position:
DIRECTOR (dɪ'rektə)
/dərektɒr/ /dɪraɪtɒr/
It is possible to observe that /ə/ is pronounced as /ɒ/ in many different words, no matter in which position the English sound /ə/ occurs. However, what all these occurrences have in common is the fact that the mispronunciation of /ə/ happens where it is written as ‘o’. I would therefore attribute this type of error to L1 interference, whereas ‘o’ in Italian can be pronounced as /ɒ/ or /ɔ:/. In fact, I also found some mispronunciations of /ə/ pronounced as /ɔ:/, such as in ‘director’ pronounced as /daɪrectɔ:/ and ‘police’ pronounced as /pɔ:lisə/.
5.1.4 /ŋ/ pronounced as /ŋ/ + /g/
Examples: drinking, long, ringer, singing, strongly.
-ing forms of verbs (all affected):
DRINKING (/drɪŋkɪŋ/)
/drɪŋkɪŋg/ /drɪŋkɪŋgə/ /driŋkiŋg/
6 /driŋkiŋgə/
In a final position of a word:
LONG (/lɒŋ/)
/lɒŋg/ /lɒŋgə/
In the middle of a word:
RINGER (/rɪŋə/) /rɪŋgə/ /riŋgə/ STRONGLY (/strɒŋli/) /strɒŋgli/ /strɒŋgəli/
In the middle and at the end of a word:
SINGING (/sɪŋɪŋ/) /sɪŋgɪŋ/ /sɪŋgɪŋg/ /sɪŋgiŋ/ /siŋgɪŋ/ /siŋgɪŋg/ /siŋgɪŋgə/ /siŋgiŋ/ /siŋgiŋgə/ /siŋgiŋg/
It is possible to notice that Italian speakers very often pronounce the velar nasal /ŋ/ as adding the velar plosive /g/. This type of error occurs in both central and final positions of words. However, words that are most affected by this mispronunciation are all the -ing forms of verbs. Explaining the pronunciation
7 of /ŋ/ as /ŋ/ + /g/ by Italians as interference from their mother tongue, seems evident. In Italian, the velar nasal /ŋ/ occurs only before the voiced velar plosive /g/ or the voiceless velar plosive /k/. This is probably why Italian English learners insert /g/ after the sound /ŋ/ when speaking English. This would also explain why in the word ‘drinking’ no /g/ is added after the first /ŋ/.
Furthermore, it is interesting to observe that after the problem phone /ŋ/ pronounced as /ŋ/ + /g/ very often a schwa is inserted. Schwa insertion is possibly due to the fact that after Italian sounds /ŋ/ + /g/ and /ŋ/ + /k/ a vowel always occurs, such as for example in ‘fango’ or ‘anguria’.
5.1.5 /ɪ/ pronounced as /i/
Examples of single vowel words: bin, this, with.
BIN (/bɪn/) /bin/ /binə/ /biənə/ THIS (/ðɪs/) /dis/ /diz/ /dizə/ /ðis/ /ðisə/ /ðiz/ /ðizə/ WITH (/wɪð/) /wid/ /widə/
8 /wið/
/wivə/
I found a large number of examples of English vowels /ɪ/ pronounced as /i/ by Italian speakers in single vowel words. I believe that all the erroneous pronunciations of /ɪ/ as /i/ are attributable to interference from the other tongue. The only way to pronounce the letter ‘i’ in Italian is /i/, whereas /ɪ/ in Italian does not exist.
When transcribing ‘this’ and ‘with’, I detected another interesting pronunciation error. The voiceless dental fricative /θ/ is foreign to the Italian language. This sound is substituted several times with the dental consonant /d/. This is probably explainable by L1 interference.
Other possibly obvious examples of L1 interference are: profits, results,
television, vanilla. PROFITS (/prɒfɪts/) /prɔfits/ /prɒfits/ /prɒfitsə/ RESULTS (/rɪzʌlts/) /rizʊlts/ /rizʊls/ /rizju:ltə/
It is interesting to observe that not only the letter ‘i’ is affected by the problem of /ɪ/ pronounced as /i/, but as in ‘results’ also the letter ‘e’ is mispronounced. Most likely this error is because the Italian translation of ‘results’ is ‘risultati’.
9 /teləviʒən/ /teləviʒɒn/ /televiʒən/ /televiʒənə/ /televiʒɒn/ VANILLA (/vənɪlə/) /vɑnilə/ /vɑniljə/ /vɑnijə/ /vænilæ/ /vænilə/ /vʌnilʌ/ /vʌniljə/ /vənilæ/ /vənilə/ GOING (/gəʊɪŋ/) /gɒiŋ/ /gəʊiŋ/ /gəʊiŋgə/
I noticed that a lot of erroneously pronounced /ɪ/ as /i/ in all -ing forms of verbs occur in Italian learners.
Even in words in which it is possible to encounter /ɪ/ two times, I found two mispronunciations of /ɪ/ as /i/ within the same word: biscuit and visit.
VISIT (/vɪzɪt/)
/vizɪt/ /vizɪtə/ /vizɪθ/
10 /vizit/ /vizitə/ BISCUIT (/bɪskɪt/) /biskɪt/ /biskɪtə/ /biskit/ /biskwɪt/ /biskwɪtə/ /biskwit/
When transcribing ‘biscuit’, I detected another interesting pronunciation error, which I believe deserves to be mentioned. The pronunciation of the labiovelar approximant /w/ in ‘biscuit’ is probably attributable to L1 interference. Any Italian speaker with no English language proficiency at all would probably pronounce ‘biscuit’ as /biskwit/.
However, this error could also be explained in terms of interlanguage phonology (Corder, 1981). The speakers making this error could have some experience with the French language and therefore opt for a (or nearly) French pronunciation of ‘biscuit’ when trying to pronounce the word in English. This type of error is likely to occur when language learners have experience with different second languages and encounter words that are spelled in the same way in such second languages.
5.1.6 /e/ pronounced as /eɪ/
Examples: against, edge, leather, said.
AGAINST (/əgenst/)
/ʌgeɪns/ /əgeɪnst/
11 /əgeɪnstə/ /əgeɪns/ /egeɪnst/ /egeɪns/ /eɪgeɪns/ EDGE (/edʒ/) /eɪdʒ/ /eɪdʒə/ /eɪʒ/ LEATHER (/leðə/) /leɪdə/ SAID (/sed/) /seɪd/ /seɪdə/ /seɪz/ /seɪ/ /teɪd/
I believe that the erroneous pronunciation of /e/ as /eɪ/ is attributable mainly to language proficiency issues (Gass & Selinker, 2001). If these errors had been due to transfer from the mother tongue, pronunciation errors of ‘against’, ‘leather’, and ‘said’ would probably have looked like this: /əgainst/, /leadə/ or /lɛadə/, and /said/. Furthermore, /ai/ and /ɛa/ are diphthongs that frequently occur in the Italian language, which makes a speculation about L1 interference even more improbable.
12 I would like to mention the fact that I believe Italian speakers make several errors that are attributable to social factors (Richards, 1974). It is possible to find many pronunciation error occurrences in relatively easy or well-known words, while other more difficult words show fewer pronunciation errors. This would justify the existence of highly error-prone words, such as ‘money’, ‘river’, and ‘pub’. It is possible to hear these words mispronounced everywhere, for example on television and on the radio. Apparently, these pronunciation errors become somehow socially “accepted”.
Another very specific pronunciation error that is worth to mention is the schwa insertion by Italian speakers. Words like ‘book’, ‘police’, ‘this’, ‘with’, and ‘singing’ are just some examples in which schwa insertion occurs, but it is possible to find this type of error in almost all the mispronounced English words. Since most Italian words end with a vowel, also this type of error is attributable to L1 interference.
Furthermore, short function words, such as ‘a’, ‘and’, ‘the’, and ‘to’ contribute considerably to the overall share of errors.
When transcribing the mispronounced words of the Italian speakers, it was possible to detect a range of unexpected pronunciation errors. These errors are not attributable to transfer from the language learners’ mother tongue, but to other causes. Some examples are: ‘against’ mispronounced as /əgeɪns/ or ‘said’ mispronounced as /teɪd/. Such errors could be due to concentration, to motivation, or to anxiety factors. Another example is ‘advertisement’ mispronounced as /ʌdversaɪtment/. This is clearly an example of a ‘slip of the tongue’ (Cutler, 1982). These errors show that learners’ language probably also involves psychological, social, and environmental factors (Richards, 1974).
5.2 German speakers2
2 I used Antonsen’s book Elements of German to make the analysis of pronunciation errors made by German English language students possible.
13 The discussion of the pronunciations errors of German speakers will proceed in the same way as in the previous section.
Table 8. Phones that account for most errors for German speakers
5.2.1 /z/ pronounced as /s/
Plurals: days and voices.
DAYS (/deɪz/) /deɪs/ VOICES (/vɔɪsɪz/) /vɔɪsɪs/ /wɔɪsɪs/ /wɔɪsəz/
Verbs in third person: does, has.
DOES (/dʌz/)
/dʌs/
HAS (/hæz/)
correct % of total errors error
/z/ 8 often /s/ /ə/ 22 often /ʊ/ /ʌ/ 10 often /ə/ /v/ 5 often /f/ /w/ 3 often /v/ /θ/, /ð/ 8 often /s/
14 /hæs/
/æs/
Many occurences: his, is.
HIS (/hɪz/) /hɪs/ /hs/ /ɪs/ IS (/ɪz/) /ɪs/ /əs/
I encountered relatively frequent examples of erroneous pronunciations of the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ mispronounced as voiceless alveolar fricative /s/. These errors all occur in a final position of the words, namely in plurals and in verbs in third person. Even if in German voiced alveolar fricatives occur, such as in ‘Suppe’ (/zʊpə/), this phoneme never occurs in a final position. For example, in ‘Abendmahls’ (/a:bəntma:ls/) or ‘Kreuz’ (/krɔɪts/) ‘s’ and ‘z’ will be pronounced as voiceless alveolar fricatives. These errors seem thus to be quite obviously due to transfer from the mother tongue.
5.2.2 /ə/ pronounced as /ʊ/
Examples: potatoes, tomorrow.
POTATOES (/pəteɪtəʊz/)
/pʊteɪdəʊz/ /pʊteɪtəʊz/
TOMORROW (/təmɒrəʊ/)
15 I believe the mispronunciation of /ə/ pronounced as /ʊ/ to be attributable to interlanguage phonology (Corder, 1981). In German, when pronouncing vowels, the lips are rounded more than in English. Because this type of error appears only where the letter ‘o’ occurs, it could be justifiable in this sense. Where German speakers observe the presence of an ‘o’, they start rounding their lips. However, having a relatively elevated level of English, they will not pronounce vowels such as /o/ or /ɔ:/. Yet, when making pronunciation errors they will prefer /ʊ/, which is a rounded vowel as well.
5.2.3 /ʌ/ pronounced as /ə/
Examples: but, just, suspect.
BUT (/bʌt/)
/bət/
JUST (/dʒʌst/)
/dʒəst/ /dʒəs/
SUSPECT (/sʌspekt/) (both in verb and noun)
/səspekt/
In German, the vowel /ʌ/ does not exist. Furthermore, in the German language the letter ‘u’ is rarely pronounced as /ə/. Therefore, German speakers having a good English language level many simply feel that schwa is the closest phoneme to /ʌ/ when they mispronounce it.
5.2.4 /v/ pronounced as /f/
16 HAVE (/hæv/) /hæf/ /hef/ /æf/ LOVE (/lʌv/) /lʌf/ /lɑf/
Both in English and in German labiodental fricatives occur. These consonants can be voiceless /f/ or voiced /v/ in both languages. However, it is possible to find mispronunciations of the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ pronounced as voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ in German English learners. These errors occur all in final positions of words. In German the letter ‘v’ can be pronounced as /v/ or as /f/, but is always voiceless at a final position, such as in ‘naiv’ (/nai:f/). I believe this type of error thus to be attributable to interference from the mother tongue.
5.2.5 /w/ pronounced as /v/
Examples: between, wearing, workforce.
Initial position in a word:
WEARING (/weərɪŋ/)
/veɪrɪŋ/
WORKFORCE (/wɜ:kfɔ:s/)
/vɜ:kfɔ:rs/ /vɜ:rkfɔ:s/
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BETWEEN (/bɪtwi:n/)
/bətvi:n/
I found a large number of erroneous pronunciations of the English velar approximant /w/ pronounced as labiodental fricative /v/. It is possible to find this type of error in distinct positions in the words. In German, /w/ is not phonemic, it allophones the vowel phonemes. In the German language, the letter ‘w’ is pronounced as /v/. For this reason, I would classify this type of error as L1 interference.
5.2.6 /ð/ and /θ/ pronounced as /s/
Examples: they, with, month, three.
THEY (/ðeɪ/) /seɪ/ WITH (/wɪð/) /wɪs/ MONTH (/mʌnθ/) /mʌns/ /mʌnts/ THREE (/θriː/) /sri:/
I encountered relatively frequent erroneous pronunciations of the voiced dental fricative /ð/ and the voiceless dental fricative /θ/. These sounds are foreign to German. It is possible to find dental fricatives only in English loanwords. German speakers substitute /ð/ and /θ/ mainly with the voiceless alveolar
18 fricative /s/. This is probably explainable by phonetic similarity. However, sometimes dental fricatives are also substituted with /z/, /t/, /d/, /f/, and /v/.
5.2.7 Additional observations
It is worth to mention that short function words, such as ‘to’, ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘of’, and ‘with’ also in the German speakers contribute considerably to the general share of pronunciation errors. This could be due to the fact that speakers concentrate more when pronouncing difficult or long words, while they are not so much concentrated when pronouncing short and apparently more easy words.
Also in the German English learners, it was possible to find several unexpected or unpredictable pronunciation errors. These are errors of performance, meaning that they are unsystematic and therefore unpredictable (Corder, 1974). These errors can be due to several different individual factors (Gass & Selinker, 2001). Some examples of such errors are: ‘have’ mispronounced as /æf/, ‘voices’ mispronounced as /wɔɪsɪs/, or ‘just’ mispronounced as /dʒəs/.
