"We're almost there," you think to yourself. The sound of the boat motor is taking its toll on your sanity. Your backside is sore from sitting on a narrow plank in the wooden canoe. You are on your way to meet a tribal group which speaks only their native tongue. As you pull up to the bank at the village, you see a crowd of the people standing there, jabbering away. They laugh at you when you slip on the muddy banks and nearly plunge into the water. Some of the sounds they are making are unfamiliar to your ear. How can you mimic them, much less, put the sounds into writing? Our alphabet has no way to represent many sounds in other languages. Even something very common, like a rolled "r" sound in the Spanish word "perro", has no English equivalent. Once you need to write down a word with clicking sound in it or some strange guttural sound, our alphabet goes out the window. What also complicates the issue is the many ways we can spell the same sound. Boat, though, owe, snow, toe, sew. Wouldn't it be nice if we had an alphabet to truly spell every word exactly as it sounds? That's why linguists developed a phonetic alphabet. Each symbol represents only one sound.
I made up the story earlier to illustrate the need for understanding phonetics in tribal missions. Last week we began Phonetics class. So far it has intrigued me. As a child, I learned to make new sounds and form new words, but somewhere along the way I stopped thinking about it. When I realize the way my mouth and entire speech apparatus position themselves to make different sounds, it makes me laugh. All these years I have been making these sounds without giving much thought to how. Starting with English, we have been learning to write words phonetically. Here is the phonetic tidbit for the day: the only difference between "s" and "z" is that "s" is voiceless, while "z" is voiced. To discover this for yourself, hold your Adam's apple and say, "sssssssss," then switch to, "zzzzzzz." C'mon, do it! You should feel your throat vibrating for "z", but not for "s". You may not find this all as fascinating as I do, but hopefully you can see its value. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement!
2 Comments
robyn
11/2/2010 03:17:46 am
I'm thinking you should have spent some time with a homeschool family teaching reading to their child for the first time. Lydia is learning Phonics so that in a few months I can help her unlearn it as we teach what are called the "rule breakers". Nick still spells everything phonetically, so his spelling stinks for our English language, but I always know what he's trying to say.
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Cherith
12/6/2010 08:28:13 am
I'm having some trouble holding my "Adam's apple." to do your test. :)
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AuthorWe are normal people who believe that God would have us serve Him in Brazil. We are saddened by the existence of people who do not have access to the gospel due to their location and language. We want to live among such a people group and plant a church among them, shepherding the believers as they grow to maturity. Archives
November 2019
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