linguistic geekery

[falcongrrl]

We here in the Southern United States are known for our fondness for dipthongs, and apparently as a native Southerner, I am no exception to the rule.

(For those of you who aren't language geeks, a dipthong is a vowel that is technically made up of two sounds, although many people still only perceive one sound.)

The long A sound in American English is a dipthong. Technically it is pronounced eh (think Spanish /e/)-ee. Eh-ee. Try it.

The long I sound is made up of ah-ee.

The long O sound is (roughly) uh-ooo.

The long U sound is ee-ooo.

Except on my fridge.



I'm referring to the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, which is a cool idea and a toy I'd recommend.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000096QNK/103-8469791-0835069?v=glance&s=imaginarium&me=A1PA6795UKMFR9&vi=pictures&img=14#more-pictures

However, it has one major design flaw that I've noticed.

No dipthongs, you're thinking. Well, that would be easy. No, it's more complex. Dipthongs sometimes.

See the little 'note' on the left next to the speaker? If you press that, the toy sings the alphabet. Correctly, in American English. Dipthongs and all.

But the main part of the toy is the top center part, where you are to put a letter in the slot and press it down. It will tell you the letter and the sound.

(eg. Dee says duh! Dee says duh! Every letter makes a sound...Dee says duh! Duh!)

Only this part of the toy does not use dipthongs.

First of all, to me this seems a fairly serious omission in a device that purports to teach phonics.

Second of all...if they can code it to make a dipthong sound once, why not twice? Why does it work in one situation but not the other? Lazy engineers? ;-)

Soo...when you put in the letter /I/, for example, it says: Ah.

(eg. Ah says Ah! And Ah says Ih! Every letter makes a sound. Ah says Ahh! and Ihh!)

But /I/ says ah-eee. And that's its name, too. Just not on my fridge, it's not.

Also, we're missing the /O/. Uh-ooo. This fact in and of itself would normally mean that we lost it, but I know other parents who are missing theirs as well. I'm beginning to wonder if the thing even comes with an /O/.

Okay, it is offical. I have no life. :-D

That's Lahhh-eeef. ;-)

A+

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, the letter-to-sound correspondance hasn't really worked properly for, oh, fifteen hundred years or so. We've got about 44 sounds, which don't fit very sensibly into 26 letters even if everything were done coherently.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

*yays for linguistic comments*

Yep. Don't get me started on that "Every letter makes a sound." Technically true, perhaps...but just wrong. :-)

I think with the consonant blends and the vowel combos we should have all 44 sounds represented, if not always logically and/or consistently. But sounds like you know more about it than I do. :-D Which is a good thing.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

At least we're not in a language where some letters specifically do not make a sound, for one reason or another.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

*nods* Or they aren't strictly letters in the way we understand them. Chinese seems like it would be incredibly hard to learn to me, both because of the pronunciation and the difficulty in remembering and writing all of the characters.

(I actually had Chinese roommates in college, and they'd always giggle at my attempts. Apparently whenever I try to speak Chinese I end up saying something awful. Though now that I think about it, that happens in English at times too. ;-) )

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Tone languages are notoriously dangerous. I remember one anthropologist in Cameroon talking about a tone language in which the interrogative particle (turning a sentence into a question) was just a tone different from a very rude word for 'vulva'. He had to ask a lot of questions, of course...

[amade.livejournal.com]

Well, to be COMPLETE pedantic about it -

a dipthong is any sound where the mouth/tongue start in one position and moves to another before the completion of the sound. Like "toy."

I don't think, however, that the little ones are probably ready to make such distinctions. And as they are regional, in most cases, then they'd have to put out a Southern Leap Frog, A Northern Leap Frog, a Cunuck Leap Frog... ;)

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

*nods* You're right; I wrote a poor definition.