Saturday 19 May 2012

weakform words and A. J. Ellis


I'm skimming Alexander J. Ellis's On Early English Pronunciation, part IV, for what the author calls clear and obscure forms of words (what we would nowadays term strongforms and weakforms and of which Ellis lists 46).

He discusses the phenomenon in a section entitled "Unemphatic Words" (p. 1166). Emphasis is described as "a prominence given to one or more words in a clause, varying with the mood and intention of the speaker [...] emphasis is "free"" (p. 1158). The choice of either the clear or the obscure form is "assumed pretty much at the pleasure of the speaker" (p. 1166).

I found a nice sentence by which Ellis tries to demonstrate the differences between the strong- and weakform usages of to, two, and too:

I gave two things to two men, and he gave two, too, to two, too.

In Ellis's transcription:

ɘˈi geev tuu thi:qz tɐtuu men, ɐnHii geev tuutuu: tɐtuutuu:

Almost like the German feeble joke which runs like this:
An Englishman wants to buy a train ticket at a German railway station. So he goes to the ticket counter and says: "Two to Toulouse!" To which the German railway official replies: "Täterätä!"

Here are Ellis's 46 clear form and obscure form words:



weak forms
(1874), p. 1166f.
1.       
and
ɐnd, ɐn, n, nh
2.       
the
dhi, dhy, dhȷ, dh, dhe, dhɐ, dhə
3.       
I
change is not ‘received’
4.       
you
ȷu, ȷu, ȷɐ
5.       
he
Hi, Hi, i, i
6.       
she
shi, shi, sh”i
7.       
it
no chanɡe
8.       
we
wi, wi
9.       
they
dhe, dhe
10.   
have
Hɐv, ɐv, v
11.   
will
wɐl, wl, l
12.   
shall
shl, shlh
13.   
one
change is not ‘received’
14.   
to
tu, tu, tɐ
15.   
be
bi, bi, bɐ
16.   
there
dhɐ
17.   
a
e, ah, ɐ
18.   
my
mi (always in myself, my lord)
19.   
his
iz
20.   
our
no chanɡe
21.   
your
ȷɐ, ȷɐr
22.   
her
ɐ, ɐr
23.   
their
dhɐ
24.   
of
əv, ɐv, ɐ
25.   
would
w’d
26.   
should
sh’d, shd
27.   
or
ʌ, ʌr, ɐ, ɐr
28.   
for
fʌ, fʌr, fɐ, fɐr
29.   
that
dhɐt, dh’t
30.   
on
no chanɡe
31.   
do
du, du, dɐ
32.   
which
whtsh, witsh
33.   
who
Hu, Hu, u
34.   
by
no chanɡe, /bə/ marked ‘careless’
35.   
them
dhym, dhɐm
36.   
me
mi, mi, mɐ
37.   
were
wu, wɐr
38.   
with
wi
39.   
into
intu, intɐ
40.   
can
k’n, kn
41.   
cannot
no chanɡe
42.   
from
frɐm
43.   
as
ɐz, z
44.   
us
ɐs
45.   
sir
46.   
madam
mæm, mem, mim, məm, mɐm, m’m, m


The words are presented in the order of frequency of occurrence as determined by David Nasmith in his book The Practical Linguist [...] Learning to Speak, Read and Write the English Language, (Oxford 1871).

Linking up with Jack Windsor Lewis's blog no. 403 and the comments therein on the weakform variants of and, it might be of interest that Ellis also mentions the preferred use of /ən/ before consonants:









Postscriptum:
See also Jack Windsor Lewis's blog no. 404.

2 comments:

  1. I'm very happy to see this ref·rence to A J Ellis's awareness of what Sweet called 'gradation' in English. The opening sentence of my Blog 399 credited Ellis with being the first phonetician to draw attention to the English weakform system but I cdnt remember in which of the five large volumes I'd come across his account of what I'd forgotten he called 'clear' and 'obscure' word forms — so I cdnt give chapter and verse. That work is notorious for not having the index he might've supplied it with if he'd lived a bit longer. Thanks to Kraut for making up for my deficiency.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here's an almost-joke that is made even more corny because it relies on the listener ignoring the existence of weak forms:

    How do you get two whales in a mini?

    Go straight down the M4!

    GROAN...

    ReplyDelete