Re: What's the different between /tS/ as one phoneme and as two?

From: Mxsmanic (mxsmanic_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 07/21/04 

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 08:05:01 +0200

Brian M. Scott writes:

> From a very early age I've been conscious of how I speak.
> Given that, it's just a matter of practice and constant
> attention until the new patterns are set -- not much
> different, in fact, from acquiring a decent approximation to
> a native accent in a foreign language.

Then logically it should also be possible to acquire a native accent in
a foreign language. If not, explain the qualitative difference between
the two that makes one possible but the other impossible.

> I certainly retain
> some traces of my original accent, especially under stress,
> but only traces; the thing as a whole is gone.

Time should fix this, if you are motivated to change it.

> This (re-)setting of patterns is what Peter is talking about
> when he writes of '(new) speech-habits becom[ing] molded
> into their vocal tracts'; it's a matter of re-training
> muscle memory, just as it is in acquiring a foreign
> language.

"Muscle memory"? The same muscles are used in every language.

> The habits -- muscle memory -- for German, for
> instance, are very different from those for English; if I'm
> reading a German passage aloud and come to an English word
> or name, it comes out with a German accent unless I stop and
> readjust.

That's psychological, not physiological.

Why is it that so many people can sing in a foreign language without any
accent at all? 

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