The Perception and Production of General British /ɪə/, /eə/ and /ʊə/ by Slovene Speakers of English

Kladnik, Gregor (author), Komar, Smiljana (mentor)

In this thesis, we asked ourselves how well Slovene speakers of English perform at perceiving the General British centring diphthongs /ɪə/, /eə/ and /ʊə/, whether and how often they reproduce them, and if so, to what extent of precision. These three phonemes have been chosen because they are expected to present difficulty in perception and production, because Standard Slovene does not feature similar phonemes (or combinations of phonemes), because they are being increasingly monophthongized in General British English, and because they do not appear in General American English. We have conducted two tests, one for perception and one for production, on first-year students of English. We have discovered that both perception and production of centring diphthongs is problematic, the latter more so than the former, with the majority of participants preferring a pronunciation closer to General American English rather than General British English. Those who reproduce centring diphthongs consistently exhibit more precision in pronunciation than those those who reproduce them sporadically. Finally, there is a slight, but varied, correlation between strong performers in perception and strong performers in production.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Centring diphthongs, General British, perception, production.
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2021
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-132297
• COBISS.SI-ID: 81901315
• Publication date in RUL: 21.10.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Percepcija in produkcija standardnih britanskih /ɪə/, /eə/ in /ʊə/ pri slovenskih govorcih angleščine

Abstract

V tej nalogi se sprašujemo, kako se slovenski govorci angleščine odrežejo pri percepciji standardnih britanskih (General British) centričnih diftongov /ɪə/, /eə/ in /ʊə/, če in kako pogosto jih reproducirajo, in če jih, s kakšno natančnostjo. Te tri foneme smo izbrali, ker se pričakuje, da bodo predstavljali težave pri percepciji in produkciji, saj knjižna slovenščina podobnih fonemov ne vključuje (niti ne v kombinaciji fonemov), ker se v standardni britanski angleščini vse bolj pogosto monoftongizirajo in ker se ne pojavljajo v standardni ameriški angleščini (General American). Izvedli smo dva testa, enega za percepcijo in enega za produkcijo, na študentih Anglistike, ki obiskujejo prvi letnik. Ugotovili smo, da percepcija in produkcija centričnih diftongov predstavljata težave, pri čemer jih produkcija predstavlja več, saj se večina udeležencev nagiba k izgovorjavi, ki je bližja standardni ameriški angleščini kot standardni britanski angleščini. Ti, ki konsistentno reproducirajo centrične diftonge, so bolj natančni v izgovorjavi, kot ti, ki jih reproducirajo občasno. Ugotovili smo, da se kaže delna, a razgibna, korelacija med uspešnimi udeleženci pri percepciji in uspešnimi udeleženci pri produkciji.

• Keywords: Centrični diftongi, standardna britanska angleščina, percepcija, produkcija.