Discussion Post #4

[Nibras Syed Mahmood]

I believe that the difference between sound and spelling is that spelling is more primarily influenced by cultural factors whereas speech is subject to more internal language related factors such as articulation and airstreams. This distinction is not very significant in our language learning efforts because we are learning ASL but for the purposes of this discussion, I will write from the perspective of my native language, Bengali. The phonology of Bengali is similar to that of our neighboring Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, characterized primarily through a variety of diphthongs and back vowels. Bengali has 29 consonants and 7 vowels as well as 7 others additional “nasalized vowels.”  There are several sounds that exist in Bengali outside the scope of GAE. For example, ‘p’ and ‘b’ are voiceless Bi-labial plosives and voiced Bi-labial plosives respectively within GAE but Bengali adds two other sounds to that including ‘p^h’ and ‘b^h’ respectively. Thus, the word “packet” in GAE would be pronounced as “p^hacket” in the Bengali phonetic inventory. Although I am a native Bengali speaker, there are several aspects of the language that I am interested to explore—stress, intonation, and vowel length. The Bengali language is trochaic meaning that when speaking we primarily stress the first syllable of the word whereas secondary stress is given to all odd numbered syllables after. Intonation or “pitch” is very important as it helps distinguish between identical vowels and diphthongs. Finally, I’m interested to know more about vowel lengths as in Bengali there is no distinction between a “short vowel” and a “long vowel,” unlike other Indo-Aryan languages. In order to better understand some of these comparisons and contrasts along with the ability to better differentiate between segments of listening, I will listen to more Bengali music and poetry as well as some Hindi music under the guidance of my friend from Kolkata (who speaks both Hindi and Bengali), to get a better appreciation for the subtle and unsubtle phonetic differences that make each spoken language so unique.