Introduction About this book The following chapters will guide you to pronounce the sounds of English, Italian, Latin, French, German, and Spanish. This book does not presume to be an exhaustive account of the phonology of these languages. Rather it is intended as a concise reference for singers who need to pronounce these languages in their libretti or song texts. It is especially suited for use as an undergraduate text in diction classes and offers a solid foundation in pronouncing these languages, as well as future use as a standard reference. Rules of pronunciation are important to learn—to know when to pronounce closed e and open nce—because they will expedite your recognizing patte 1e languages. But the rules themselves are not the most important thing to emphasize. It is much ‘more important to hear the speech patterns of each language and articulate them precisely, to learn to hear your own speech and the speech of others, and, finally, to refine your awareness of the delicate movements of your articulators and their effect on your speech sounds and singing tone. Keep in mind that language is dynamic: within a language, even within a single native speaker, there are variations of pronunciation. The pronunciations are sometimes so irregular that even dictionaries disagree on them. The rules should not be considered as for pronunciation in all cases, all the time: they are best considered ‘merely as fools for recognizing recurring patterns in pronunciation. How to use this book Each chapter contains three sections. The first section is an "at-a- glance” chart of sounds. This chart is most helpful as a reminder of a particular pronunciation, or as a comparison of the sounds of one language to the Tanguage, each pronounced [mi laicus is pronoun are easy to see on provide all that you need in order to pronounce the languagi reference best used after you have studied the language. The middle section explains the general tools you need to pronounceIntroduction language. There are concise rules for how to divide a word into lables, how to determine the stressing, and how to handle the special feature “Consecutive Vowels,” you will learn how to sing triphthongs when the composer has given you only one note for all three vowel sounds. ‘The third section is a detailed description of each vowel and con- The International Phonetic Alphabet and Articulating Sounds affected by even the smallest movements of your artculatrs All of the pronunciation rules and tips for pronouncing the various sounds of a language will have little meaning if you cannot produce a desired sound by skillful and subtle adjustments of your articulators, ‘The companion book to this volume, International Phonetic Alphabet {for Singers, will lead you through drills and exercises so that you can acquire the requisite use of your articulators. Those drills will help you learn to skillfully shape isolated sounds, make subtle adjustments, tune your ear and produce sounds with the expanded, refined discrimination you need as a singer. You will find that these skills will aid you considerably in mastering the pronunciation of ‘each different language. (On the next two pages, you will ind charts of the IPA symbols used throughout this text. Notice that there is a chart for vowels andIntroduction another for consonants. These charts not only represent the individual sounds you must distinguish, but also describe a meaningful relationship between the sounds and how they are produced. The impact of this relationship on singing and diction is fully explored inthe Intemational Phonetic Alphabet for Singers, Read through the following excerpts taken from the IPA for Singers to orient you to the chats. Vowels ‘The sound you identify as a vowel sound is the result of the acoustical properties of your vocal tract (mouth, throat, and nose). Each vowel sound has a specific harmonic structure, governed by the position of your lips, jaw, tongue, and velum — articulators that change the size and shape of your vocal tract. ‘A vowel is called pure vowel when its sound can be sustained ‘without movement ofthe articulators or any change in the quality of sound until the airflow ceases. A diphthong is made up of two vowel sounds that have an acoustic result perceived as a single distinguishable unit. In English there are sixteen pure vowel sounds and six diphthongs. iagram, created by Daniel Jones of University College, trates the relationship of vowels to each other. It was developed by taking X-ray images of the position of the tongue when articulating various vowels. (On the diagram, the terms forward, central, and back refer to whether the high point of the tongue is forward, central or back in the mouth. Closed, mid, and open refer to the width of the space between the tongus uth. The closer the tongue to the roof, the more closed the vowel. The more open the space and more the vowel. The terms rounding and [Adjoining vowels on the Vowel Diagram are very similar in their physical production. For example, the two vowels [i] and [1], which to each other, are produced with minimal differences in the position ofthe tongue and jaw. Explore the articulation of the two forward vowels [i] and [1] by 3 A dighthong may include @ pure vowel and a glide, asin ‘The phrase a more rounded sound generally refers tothe sound made when the ip are ‘more rounded. You wil hear the French achwva described (0 mare rund schwa than English for instance.Introduction sustaining an (i) sound and then sliding slowly to [1]. Feel the I and tiny movements of your tongue and jaw. The finally opened enough to becom to successfully lear diction, Do the same exploration from ‘or [ae] to [a]. Then feel the movements of your lips and ja ide on the back vowels from {u] to[u} oF [0] to [0]. Continue to slip around from vowel to vowel to experience the feeling and sounds of the adjoining vowels on the Vowel Diagram, Vowel DiagramIntroduction Consonants ‘A consonant is a speech sound that is formed when the articulators the flow of air through the vocal tract. Consonants are ‘ording to the place of articulation, the manner of articulation, and the voicing ofthe consonant. ‘The place of articulation refers to the place in the vocal tract where the interruption of the air flow occurs. The points of the vocal tract where breath interruption occurs are: the lip, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum, and glottis. For example, the place of articulation. for [p] is atthe lips, because the flow of breath is interrupted at the lips. “The manner of articulation refers to the method of interruption of the breath flow, whether by a complete interruption or by a partial interruption in the flow of air. For example, the manner of articulation, for [p] is that the airflow is stopped completely before being released suddenly. ‘There are six different manners of articulation. 1. Stop-plosive — the air flow is completely prevented from passing through the mouth or the nose and then is released ‘suddenly. The stop-plosive consonants are [p b t d k g]. These ‘consonants are sometimes referred to simply as stop consonants. 2. Fricative — the airflow is partially interrupted, thus producing ‘anoisy sound. The fricative consonants in English are [f v], [0 OL Uf 31 [s 21, and [hl. 3. Nasal — the vocal trac is blocked at some point within the oral cavity, but the dropped velum allows air to travel through the nasal passageway. There are only three nasal consonants in English: [m], [nl], and ng [9]. 4, Lateral — the tongue tip lifts to touch the teeth and alveolar sige and the breath flows past one or both sides of the tongue. ‘There is only one lateral consonant in English: []. 5. Glide — the sound is characterized by a movement of the articulatrs from one position to another. The glides in English are [r] the y sound [j], and [w]. 6. Affricative — the sound is produced by a stop followed by a fricative consonant forming a single sound. The two afficate (oF combination) consonants in English are ck [f] as in cheek and dg [5] as in fudge. ‘The classification of voicing indicates whether the consonant isIntroduction Place of Articulation aes | tongue | Tonge | Tenge | Tones poh | Me | Mind | and | and | and Tipe | i, | Upper | teak | ward | son | Sots ‘wet | ‘rech | Ridge | Palo | Palio hanw] we fame] w fone] we fone] x. [une] v [une] % fume § | Fscatve pif v je ols z|fos |x yh i Stop-Plosive | pb td kg & | Nasal m a 2 a % T | be & : 7 r Glide hw _W i ‘Note: Additional symbols usd in this text are the 2], which represents the tongue ip fipped x and [which represents tilled