This paper was published as part of the Festschrift in honour of Professor Arabski’s
anniversary. Since Professor Arabski is one of the most important figures in both the
history of our Institute and my own academic career, I consider it as the best possible
contribution to this volume. The paper describes the typical realisations of English nasal consonants by Poles, illustrating the scale of negative transfer from L1 into the interlanguage of the learners

Porzuczek, Andrzej

English

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             Title: English Nasal Consonants in the Pronunciation of Polish Learners   Author: Andrzej Porzuczek   Citation style: Porzuczek Andrzej. (2013). English Nasal Consonants in the Pronunciation of Polish Learners. W: D. Gabryś-Barker, J. Mydla (red.),  "English studies at the University of Silesia: forty years on". (S. 121-128). Katowice : Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Andrzej PorzuczekEnglish Nasal Consonants in the Pronunciation of Polish LearnersThis paper was published as part of the Festschrift in honour of Professor Arabski’s anniversary. Since Professor Arabski is one of the most important figures in both the history of our Institute and my own academic career, I consider it as the best possible contribution to this volume.The paper describes the typical realisations of English nasal consonants by Poles, illus‑trating the scale of negative transfer from L1 into the interlanguage of the learners.Most English dictionaries as well as popular handbooks of English phonetics for Polish learners, e.g. Bałutowa (1974), Jassem (1971), Reszkiewicz (1984), Arabski (1987), Sobkowiak (2001) traditionally distinguish three nasal consonants. Two of them, i.e. the bilabial and the alveolar are usually neglected in pronunciation courses for Poles as they are regarded similar enough to their Polish counterparts both in perception and articulation, including their positional allophones. The velar nasal, conversely, is considered one of the most serious problems in learning English pro‑nunciation, even though the differences between Polish and English consonantal systems might seem slightly exaggerated. After all, in both languages the status of the velar nasal is not obviously phonemic. The appearance of the sound is rather a result of positional flexibility of the alveolar nasal.1 The sound regularly appears if /n/ is followed by a velar plosive, sometimes even across morpheme boundaries, where the assimilation is optional (e.g. in western and southern Polish dziewczynka, konkurencja or English “conclude” “inconvenient”). Besides, in Polish the velar nasal also appears as partial realization of nasal vowels represented by <ą> and <ę> in spelling. Still, probably all examples in the two languages (except certain French borrowings) display an indication of a velar plosive in their spelling. The restricted distribution of the velar nasal and the fact that it is not as such represented in spell‑ing, which mustn’t be ignored in phonological considerations, are clearly arguments against the phonemic status of the consonant in question. Moreover, the wider dis‑1 Alveolar consonants generally tend to alter their place of articulation more often than oth‑ers (cf. Cruttenden 2001: 285).122 Andrzej Porzuczektribution of the sound in English is only a result of the fortis/lenis contrast, which is absent from Polish. In both languages /k/ and /g/ are still pronounced after the nasal except for the word final lenis consonant /g/, which is elided in standard English pronunciation. We could quite safely claim that in Polish the same process might take place if  /g/ ever occurred at the end of a Polish word. The fact that it does not has further consequences as no suffix, derivational or inflectional, except those for adjective grading causes /g/ to reappear. In effect, /N/ can also be found in the word final position, before non ‑velar consonants or even vowels, which is impossible in Polish.2Generally, in both languages, [nasal]+[plosive] clusters tend to be homorganic and word finally the lenis plosive, especially if peripheral, disappears (e.g. “sing” or “climb”). The alveolar cluster is reduced to /n/ before consonants, as in “hand‑some,” “handkerchief,” “handbag,” and “hand ‑me ‑downs,” again with possible shift to bilabial or velar articulation. Non ‑homorganic [nasal]+[plosive] clusters, unless they are morphologically motivated, i.e. with a morpheme boundary between the two sounds, are extremely scarce and there are no Polish words with an alveolar nasal followed by a bilabial plosive (cf. Sobkowiak, 2001: 275). Table 1 below shows examples of the other combinations.Table 1. Non ‑homorganic nasal ‑plosive clusters in English and PolishNasal‑plosive clusters English Polish/mt/, /md/ dreamt, dumdum, tomtit, humdinger tamten, komtur, mdlić, mdły/mk/, /mg/ gymkhana, slumgullion gromki, podomka, mgła, mglić/np/, /nb/ tenpins, panpipes, input, inborn  ‑ ‑ ‑The analysis of these non ‑homorganic clusters also suggests that the bilabial nasal /m/ is more stable, less susceptible to assimilations in both languages. As was mentioned earlier, many speakers say /’tempInz/, /’pΘmpaIps/ or even /’Imbɔ:n/ but probably not */’d℘nd℘m/ or */drent/. Likewise, in Polish one does not say */’tantEn/ or */’grɔŋci/ whereas the underlying alveolar nasal, at least within the syllable coda, does become velar before /k/ or /g/ and — in this case already at the word formation stage — bilabial before /p/ or /b/, as in the distribution of the Lati‑nate prefix “co(n) ‑” in both languages, e.g. English “context,” “computer” or Polish kontekst, komputer.Apart from the tendency to homogenise the place of articulation, there is another kind of assimilation, which operates in Polish, leading to negative transfer in English pronunciation. Namely, if a nasal phoneme, either the alveolar consonant or the coda of a falling diphthong (traditionally referred to as nasal vowel) appears 2 Biedrzycki (1978: 75) gives examples where /k/ or /g/ are not pronounced in rapid Polish speech.123English Nasal Consonants…before a fricative consonant, also across a morpheme boundary, it is realized as a nasal semivowel, either /w)/ or / j)/. The rule does not apply to /m/, which is not vocalised. A number of examples are presented in Table 2.Table 2. Realisations of nasal phonemes between vowels and fricative consonants1. 2. 3. 4. 5.ENG /nC/ POL /Vw)C/ POL /Vj)C/ ENG /VmC/ POL /VmC/chance, lines szansa, pański drums, limes damskisense, brains benzyna, mięso, żeński, gęś stems, aims zemstaleans inżynier, świński seems, dreams Jerozolimskiebronze, coins wąż, sponsor koński, siąść proms, dorms łakomstwocartoons, ruins kunszt duński rooms rumsztyksins, since, sings rynsztok młyński rims gzymsWord final nasal vocoids are gradually disappearing from Polish. As Gussmann (2007: 271) writes, “The tendency towards denasalization is very strong in collo‑quial speech to the extent that the forms with the nasal diphthong sound artificial and stilted. This happens despite the fact that morphological homophony is cre‑ated.” He also observes that the other nasal diphthong, /ɔῶ)/, the one represented by <ą>, is never denasalised “even though no homophony would arise in this case” Gussmann (2007: 271). It must be mentioned though, that the final nasal semi‑vowel is pronounced as bilabial nasal /m/ by many Polish speakers, even before fricatives.All in all, the Polish word final nasal semivowel /ɔῶ)/ can be used in the pro‑nunciation of English words such as “song,” “long” or “strong” but more consist‑ent interference is connected with words such as those presented in Table 2. Polish learners usually pronounce English words in column 1, those with alveolar or velar nasals, with nasal vocoids indicated in columns 2 and 3, while the bilabial nasal /m/ is pronounced with occlusion in Polglish pronunciation as well. It seems that /m/ is only sensitive to /f/ or /v/, before which it can become labiodental in both languages, e.g. in Polish  komfort or  nimfa and the corresponding English words “comfort” or “nymph” (cf. Cruttenden 2001:281).The fact that these differences between Polish and English occur at the sub‑phonemic level, where they are more difficult for learners to observe, makes them even more difficult to grasp than the pronunciation of speech sounds which do not appear in Polish at all. The two differences described above usually result in vocalization of /n/ and /N/ before fricatives and either the failure to delete /g/ after /N/ or deleting it before the place of articulation of the nasal has been changed. This is illustrated by the results of an empirical study presented in the second part of the paper.124 Andrzej PorzuczekThe purpose of the study was to find out instances of L1 interference in the reali‑sation of nasal phonemes in various contexts. The problems in focus included the presence of plosion following the articulation of  [nasal]+[lenis plosive] clusters, the place of articulation of nasal consonants in those contexts and vocalisation of nasals before fricatives.The subjects were asked to read a passage in English (see Appendix). The places in focus are shown in bold type. The recordings were compared with the pronuncia‑tion of British secondary school students in Cambridge (Grabe, Post and Nolan, 2001). Table 3 below shows the scale of interference in Polish students of English at the beginning and after seven months of phonetic training at a teacher training college.Table 3. The realization of English nasal phonemes by English and Polish speakers. Polish learners’ realisations untypical of native pronunciation in bold face1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.ENG once handme… cleaning 2x prince wedding bells evening ofJE ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋgJI ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋLH ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋMF ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋER ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋHB ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋLP ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋMA ?ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋMC ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋPT ns ndm ŋ ns ŋb ŋSM ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋTG ns nm ŋ ns ŋb ŋTotalns—12nm—11, ndm—1 ŋ—12 ns—12 ŋb—12ŋ—11ŋg—1POL Oct once hand me… cleaning 2x prince wedding bells evening ofAJ ῶs ndm ŋk ῶz ῶz ŋb ŋgAK ns ntm ŋ ns ῶs ŋb ŋgAO ῶz ndm ŋk ῶs ῶs ŋkb k ?AS ῶs ndm ŋ ῶs ῶs ŋb? ŋgDK ῶz ndm ŋk ῶs ῶs ŋb k ?JK ns ntm ŋk ns ῶs ŋkb k ?125English Nasal Consonants…1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.LK ῶs ndm ŋk ῶs ῶs ŋgb k ?MB ῶz nm i:I ῶs ῶs ŋb k ?MG ῶs ndm ŋk ns ῶz ŋgb ŋgPS ῶs ndm ŋk ῶs ῶs ŋgb g ?PWA ῶz ndm ŋ ῶz ῶz ŋb ŋ ?PWO ῶs ndNm ŋk ῶs ῶs ŋb ŋgRM ῶs ndm ŋk ῶs ῶs ŋb ŋgTotal ns—2ῶs—7ῶz—4nm—1ndNm—1ndm—8ntm—3ŋ—3ŋk—9I—1ns—3 ns—0ῶs—8 ῶs 10ῶz—2 ῶz—3ŋb—8ŋg—3ŋk—2ŋ—0ŋg—6k ?—5, g ?ŋ ?—1POL May once hand me… cleaning 2x prince wedding bells evening ofAJ ῶs ndm ŋk ῶz nz ŋb g ?AK ῶz ntm ŋ ns ῶs ŋb ŋgAO ῶz nm ŋ ῶs ῶs ŋb g ?AS ῶs nm ŋ ns ῶs ŋb ŋDK ῶs nm ŋk ns ῶs ŋb ŋJK ῶs nm ŋg ns ns ŋb g ?LK ῶs ndm ŋk ns ns ŋb k ?MB ῶz nm ŋ ῶz ῶz ŋb ŋMG ῶs nm ŋk ῶs ῶz ŋb ŋPS ῶs nm ŋ ns ῶs ŋgb ŋPWA ῶz nm ŋ ῶz ῶz ŋb ŋPWO ῶs nm ŋk ῶs ῶs ŋb ŋgRM ῶs nm ŋg nz nz ŋb ŋb (no of)Total ns—0ῶs—9ῶz—4nm—10nd—2nt—1ŋ—6ŋk—5ŋg—2ns—6 ns—2ῶs—3 ῶs—6ῶz—3 ῶz—3nz—1 nz—2ŋb—12ŋgb—1ŋ—6g ?—3, ŋg—2,k ?—1, ŋb—1?The pronunciation of English speakers appears really consistent in the tested phrases. Only one person in twelve pronounced “evening of ” with weak velar plo‑sion before “of ” and another one said “hand ‑me ‑downs” with alveolar plosion before “me.” All English subjects said “once” and “prince” with alveolar closure before /s/. Moreover, a significant proportion of the few cases of Polish subjects’ cont. table 3126 Andrzej Porzuczek‘correct’ pronunciation of the two words remained doubtful even after the relevant spectrograms had been analysed, whereas there was only one case among the Eng‑lish speakers that might be considered problematic.Generally, the pronunciation of Polish students shows a lot of variety in the tested material, especially in the articulation of the velar nasal. Among 13 subjects, only three pronounced the word final consonant in “cleaning” without an exploded /k/, while one person left the syllable open, with the front half ‑close vowel /I/. The velar nasal proved easier before the bilabial stop in “wedding bells,” where 8 stu‑dents pronounced it ‘correctly’. The remaining 5 exploded either /g/ (3 cases) or /k/ (2 cases). The prevocalic context for the velar nasal in “evening of ” was particularly difficult. The most typical pronunciation there was that with the velar plosive /g/ (6 cases). Five students made a pause between the two words, which resulted in devoicing the plosive at the end of “evening,” and one other student retained voic‑ing in it. Just one person pronounced only the velar nasal before the vowel, but still made a pause/glottal stop in that place.After seven months, the pronunciation of Polish students changed, but some still retained their native articulatory habits. Their development is illustrated in Table 4 below.Table 4. The realisation of English nasal phonemes by Polish speakers  before and after pronunciation practiceTested fragment POL (13)Oct 2006POL (13)May 2007 ENG (12)once / ῶ)C / 11 13 02x prince / ῶ )C /11.5(23/2)7.5(15/2)0hand me…  /d/ 11 3 1cleaning  /k/or /g/ 9 7 0wedding bells /k/or /g/ 5 1 0evening of  /k/or /g/ 12 7 1plosion after / ŋ /(total)26 (67%) 15 (38%) 1The results suggest that the habit of vocalising nasals before fricatives is very strong in Polish learners. The improvement in the word “prince” might be connected with the high vowel before /n/, where it is easier to make a closure. In “once,” with a low vowel, the students generally failed to produce such a closure. As for the velar nasal, the number of plosive realisations was reduced from 67% to 38%, which is a considerable reduction, but it must be emphasised that the tendency was not so obvious in intervocalic and especially in the word final positions. It is also interest‑ing that there were no responses with the alveolar nasal /n/ in the final position, which can be heard quite often in the pronunciation of Polish learners.127English Nasal Consonants…The results are certainly simplified as the impression on the hearer differs depending on the intensity of the undesirable plosion or the degree of nasalisation of the vowels in “once” and “prince,” which is too complex to analyse here. What seems to have been proved by the study is that of the two typical problems with the pronunciation of English nasal sounds it is vocalization, the more difficult one that is usually overlooked or neglected in teaching pronunciation. The pronuncia‑tion of the velar nasal, on the other hand, can be improved more in the course of practice, but its difficulty level varies depending on the context. Special attention should be paid to word final and intervocalic positions. There was more improve‑ment in the latter, often regarded more difficult. Such a change is also particularly desirable since the popular Polish pronunciation of “evening of ” with two plosions (velar and glottal) seriously affects the fluency of speech.Finally, it appears that the aspects of English pronunciation discussed here are not vital for communication, but teaching them might improve the students’ lis‑tening comprehension skills as well as make their articulation of foreign sound sequences easier, more comfortable and also less ‘marked’ in the ears of their inter‑locutors.AppendixThe reading passage (tested elements in bold):Once upon a time there was a girl called Cinderella. But everyone called her Cinders. Cin‑ders lived with her mother and two stepsisters called Lily and Rosa. Lily and Rosa were very unfriendly and they were lazy girls. They spent all their time buying new clothes and going to parties. Poor Cinders had to wear all their old hand ‑me ‑downs! And she had to do the cleaning!One day, a royal messenger came to announce a ball. The ball would be held at the Royal Palace, in honour of the Queen’s only son, Prince William. Lily and Rosa thought this was divine. Prince William was gorgeous, and he was looking for a bride! They dreamed of wedding bells!When the evening of the ball arrived, Cinders had to help her sisters get ready. They were in a bad mood.ReferencesArabski, J. (1987): Wymowa amerykańska. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.Bałutowa, B. (1974): Wymowa angielska dla wszystkich. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.Biedrzycki, L.(1978): Fonologia angielskich i polskich rezonantów. Warszawa: PWN.Cruttenden, A. (2001): Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. 6th ed. London: Edward Ar‑nold.Grabe, E., Post, B. and k, F. (2001): The IViE Corpus. Department of Linguistics, University of Cambridge. http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/IViE128 Andrzej PorzuczekGussmann, E. (2007): The Phonology of Polish. Oxford University Press.Jassem, W. (1971): Podręcznik wymowy angielskiej. 5th ed. Warszawa: PWN.Reszkiewicz, A. (1984): Correct Your English Pronunciation. Warszawa: PWN.Sobkowiak, W. (2001): English Phonetics for Poles. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.SourcePorzuczek, A. (2009):  “English nasal consonants in the pronunciation of Polish learners.” In: Wysocka, M. (ed.): On Language  Structure, Acquisition  and Teaching. Studies in Honour of Janusz Arabski on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 183—190.

English nasal consonants in the pronunciation of Polish learners

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English nasal consonants in the pronunciation of Polish learners

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