Re: Running out of breath

From: Neeraj Mathur (neemathur_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 03/11/05 

Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 18:52:56 -0000

"Pekka Karjalainen" <pkarjala@mail.student.oulu.finvalid> wrote in message
news:slrnd30fcq.enn.pkarjala@lastu30.oulu.fi...
> My first language is Finnish. I learned English pretty early as L2, but
> didn't pay much attention to speaking it until somewhat later.
>
> I've noticed that I have a tendency to run out of breath mid-sentence more
> often in English than in Finnish when reading aloud. In fact, it hardly
> ever happens when reading Finnish texts. I don't normally read aloud that
> much, but I like to occasionally do so (if people will listen).
>
> Several reasons occur to me. English could be "more breathy" because it
> has more fricatives and aspirated stops. Still, the sentences and their
> subunits you find in a typical text should not be a problem for native
> speakers, so I think my occasional lack of breath comes from trying too
> hard to get the English sounds right - too much emphasis maybe. It also
> could be that I have poorer feeling for where to pause, and try to get too
> much out on one go.
>
> That's not really the issue here. I could practice it more and maybe get
> better. I wanted to ask whether other people ever feel like this.
>
> So, does anyone else find a difference like this between two languages
> they know? If so, what, how, why?

Hello Pekka,

I've found this problem myself when trying to read aloud, for example, a
passage of Plato or Cicero. Less frequently, I have had problems with
German, Spanish, or (very rarely) French. In all cases, the problem
disappeared as time (and my studies) went on. (I am a native speaker of
English and Hindi.)

Based on my experience, I don't think it is likely that this has anything
to do with the inherent properties of any language; I don't think that any
language is 'breathier' than another. Rather, I think it has everything to
do with skill level in the language. As I become more and more familiar with
a language's syntax, I am less likely to find this running out of breath
occurring.

As such, I think it has everything to do with knowing precisely how to
analyze a sentence's syntax and grammar. Remembering that, according to most
modern linguists, phonological rules do have access to syntactic and
morphological data, the correct pacing of a sentence, with appropriate
pauses and stresses in the right places and for the right lengths, can only
be achieved with a deep knowledge of the syntax of the language. I am sure
that I have found sentences in English itself that, because of their
syntactic complexity or oddness, I was unable to pronounce correctly and ran
out of breath with; you will probably find that the same is true of
poorly-formed or overly complex sentences in Finnish.

So, the best way to address this problem is to simply build on your
knowledge of the language - and that through practise, rather than study.
Listen to a lot of native English speakers: don't pay any particular
attention to their way of pacing the sentence (you will try too hard
otherwise), but rather focus on fully understanding their syntax as you hear
it. It is obvious that your written English syntax is quite good; it seems
then that it is the last phases of internalisation that are at issue here.
Formal or conscious study is thus less use to you now than practise and
'passive learning'.

Neeraj Mathur

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