Silly Words

I have come to the realization that the English language has some really messed up words. Not that it matters too much when I speak, but teaching the American pronunciation is rather difficult yet very entertaining. Words like “sword” and just about any word that begins with the letter “r” are completely rrrrrrrediculous. Maybe it is just being in front of classroom of kids who have lost the ability to make a true “r” sound as we know it, but I even feel slightly absurd repeating the word and catching myself make a weird shape with my mouth to produce the sound. And almost every time it happens everyone including me breaks up in laughter because they can’t make the sound and everyone looks like they’re going through lips stretching exercises. Something that is helping me with this is the fact that in West African English, r’s are rolled; don’t be surprised if I come back and rice sounds more like (roll the “r” in rice, I can’t write the word phonetically-it’s beyond my current skill set).

And yes it is possible to lose the ability to make certain sounds. During the babbling stage for babies, their set of makeable sounds is shaped based on the things that it hears. Ha, it – he or she. The baby then attempts to reproduce those sounds and is reinforced by the huge-faced creatures starring he or she in the eyes grabbing it by the cheeks and giving compliments or repeating a certain word until the cows come home, or the baby itself says the word – whichever happens first. It works kind of like a mouthgaurd. Starts out able to fit any mouth (all sounds), but then is shaped into something that only one person (one phonetical language) can use. Sometimes, depending on the quality (of the teacher), it can be remolded if the need arises (ie braces). But in this instance some of the finer-tuned adjustments can be lost (i.e. particular sounds that aren’t reproduced often).