Learning Journal #4

In pages 58-96, Crystal writes about describing consonants and vowels.  This was something that was hugely important when learning the devanagari script.  In Hindi, it is critical to be able to pronounce the differences between dental, retroflex, palatal, and nasal sounds. A slight nasalization means the difference between "is" and "are," for example.  I have to make sure I keep these details in mind as I move forward with Hindi.  Even when I am making a point to be aware of these pronunciation differences, I sometimes have difficulty producing the differences myself.  Here, Crystal's discussion of the fis phenomenon is very relevant.  Psycholinguists observed that a child might mispronounce a word, but still be capable of indicating the correct pronunciation when hearing someone else say it.  I sometimes find myself in this situation, though other times the difference between the correct and incorrect pronunciation seems so minute that I cannot even perceive it.  This week I am meeting with my language partner and will continue using my Hindi workbook from India as well as the new CDs. 
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