the battle of the boulevard, presidential-style

If you think tonight's U.S. presidential debate is getting round-the-clock coverage in your neck of the woods, imagine what it's like if the debate is happening nine miles from your home. This debate logo is plastered on billboards all over Nashville, and the minute last Thursday's Palin-Biden debate ended, local news went from daily coverage of the Belmont Debate* to saturation coverage. Heck, I'm surprised Snowbird isn't the moderator.

It also means that Nashville is going to be seen on every news outlet for the entire day, and that's never any fun if you live here. Why? Because most of the time, it's an excuse for columnists, TV hosts and copy writers looking for an easy angle to whip out the most hackneyed tropes about our town being the capital of hillbilly doofusdom. For what it's worth, it doesn't matter to me if it's Fox News or The Daily Show doing it; it still rankles me. Today, when I read that right-wing shill and poor excuse for a country artist John Rich (you may know him from Big and Rich, lucky you if you don't) serenaded John McCain on CBS's Early Show this morning, I audibly sighed. This is exactly the kind of Hee Haw nonsense that Nashville doesn't need.

So rather than opine about the politicians or the debate itself, I'd rather use this space to let you know that Nashville is a great place to live, and is far more sophisticated than any way it's likely to be portrayed today or in the post-debate punditry. It may be the capital of a "red state" (god, I hate that "red state/blue state" taxonomy - did the news outlets hold a Council of Nicea in 1993 or something to regularize which party was red and which was blue? I swear, I remember the party/color correlation varying from network to network until then), sure, but Davidson County itself went for both quasi-native son Al Gore and purported Yankee elitist liberal John Kerry in the most recent presidential elections.

We have an opera and an Opry. We have a bazillion international dining options, a large and still-growing Hispanic population, an internationally acclaimed symphony, the greatest live rock band ever, and snowball-throwing polar bear statues:

get on the dancefloor, it's a timeslot hit

So a few days ago, we were watching our usual dose of Seinfeld reruns, and one of them was the one where Jerry goes onstage before hopelessly unfunny rival comic Kenny Bania, and Bania's act unexpectedly generates a bunch of laughs. When Jerry figures out that Bania's doing well because Jerry has already got the audience laughing, he calls Bania a "timeslot hit."

That got me to wonderin' if future generations will get this joke. I mean, in and of itself the plotline is funny. But the real deliciousness of Jerry's line comes from knowing the meta joke: it's a reference to NBC's practice on its "Must-See Thursdays" of airing sitcoms more lame than Bania's act in the 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM eastern/pacific slots, i.e., in the gaps between huge ratings hits Friends (8 PM), Seinfeld (9 PM) and E.R. (10 PM). No matter how insipid or atrocious or savaged by critics these shows were, they'd always be in the Nielsen top 10 because enough people wouldn't bother to change the channel between shows. Veronica's Closet, The Single Guy, Madman of the People, Union Square... need I go on for anyone who lived through this era?

In the world's best-ever Rolling Stone interview, NewsRadio creator Paul Simms dubbed NBC's approach to Thursday nights "the shit sandwich." I can't find the full text of the interview on the Internet anymore, but I can quote my own quoting of it from this Fegmaniax post of mine from days of yore:

Simms on NBC's "Must See Thursday":
"People are starting to realize Thursday night is
like a big double-decker shit sandwich with three
good pieces of bread, and in between..."

Q: If "NewsRadio" doesn't last, would you turn
your back on sitcoms?
"Yeah, this is the best I can do. Pretend
you're God and you say, 'If you do a show
about a single father who's dating a lot
and has two teenage sons, and it doesn't
have to be funny, and it'll be a huge hit.'
I'd say, 'Fuck you, God.'"

It's all of this that went into Jerry's joke, which made me guffaw when the episode first aired, when I watched it last week, and probably will for years to come. But as NBC's "Must-See Thursday" recedes into the dustbin that's already home to CBS' '70s Monday night comedy juggernaut, the true resonance of the "timeslot hit" line is likely to be as lost on the young'uns as the archness of Alexander Pope is to me. Annotation is no substitute for living memory.

By : tatank,

American English Pronunciation: T or D?

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

Non-English speakers are often puzzled by the American English pronunciation of the letter ’t’. Sometimes it sounds clearly like a /t/ in the word determine), but other times it sounds almost like a /d/.

There are a lot of technical descriptions of this phenomenon, and linguists, phoneticians and language teachers can have lively conversations and debates about how best to describe it. For most learners, however, it helps to know a few simple facts about what happens to the /t/ sound in American English pronunciation.

Let's take a look at two words which sound almost alike when spoken by an American speaker of English.

ladder                      latter

Ladder is an object used for climbing, and latter is used to refer to the second of two previously mentioned items. There spelling and meanings are different, but in American English pronunciation, the two words sound the same.

What is happening here? First, it's important to understand the stress patterns in the words. Both words are stressed on the first syllable. In American English pronunciation, when a stressed syllable occurs before the letter 't', the /t/ sound is pronounced with a sound similar to a /d/. This happens only when the stressed vowel is followed directly by the ’t’. If a consonant comes between the vowel and the 't', the 't' keeps its regular pronunciation. For example, in the word "lasting", the first syllable is stressed, but there is an 's' between the stressed vowel and the 't', so you clearly hear the /t/ sound.

Here are some examples:

words with a /d/ sound	words with a /t/ sound
butter better sitter greater hated	deter fester hasty pasted faster

American Accent Pronunciation and English Spelling

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff.

Many students learning English are puzzled by the connection between English spelling and English pronunciation. They look at words with similar spelling patterns like rough (pronounced like "ruff") and cough (pronounced like "coff") and wonder if they will ever be able to figure out how to pronounce American English words!

Many native speakers, too, complain about the seeming irregularity of English spelling. There have been various movements that have tried to reform English spelling, but to date none have been successful.

What is it about English spelling that makes it appear so confusing? Before answering that question, it is important to understand what the words are representing. In alphabetic languages like English, the letters and letter combinations represent the sounds of the language. Some languages, like French, have standardized these representations so that there appear to be fewer irregularities than we have in English.

However, English spelling gives us not only information about the sounds and pronunciation of the words, but also the history. English has been a remarkably adaptable language, and English speakers have incorporated words and pronunciation from many languages. English words like "phone" or "photo", for example, show us with the "ph" spelling of the /f/ sound that they are words derived from Greek. Other unusual spelling patterns have their roots in the history of English.

So what does this all mean for English language learners? Well, first of all, you don't have to go out and study the history of the English language in depth, but developing a curiosity about English words can really help. English spelling is not as irregular and unusual as many people think it is. Knowing a bit about the history of some English words can help you begin to see the pattern behind American spelling and American English pronunciation.

We use words to tell the stories of our world and lives. Words have their own stories to tell us about the development of our languages.

By : tatank,

English Pronunciation: Some Silly Tips

Author: Mary Gillespie

Article to help English Speaking and English Pronunciation by PronouncePro American English Pronunciation Writing Staff

Do you want to improve your English Pronunciation? Here's some advice you might not have heard before: start acting silly. That's right: silly. It might be just what you need to help yourself reach a new level of pronunciation expertise.

Before looking at some examples of silly American English Pronunciation practice, let's take a look at the reasons why this is actually an effective way to improve English pronunciation. When we are having fun, our muscles are usually more relaxed, and English pronunciation involves working with a lot of little muscles that don't always work as well when we are tense. For example, fun role plays can help people adopt an imaginary English persona, and reduce the anxiety they feel about making mistakes.

So, let's try getting silly.

The Importance of Ear/Vocal Training While Learning English Pronunciation

 Author: Alan M. Perlman, PhD

Language is a system of systems operating simultaneously. English pronunciation involves meaning-differentiating sounds, meaningful sub-word pieces (e.g., prefixes and suffixes), words, phrases, and entire interrelated chains of ideas, as well as the speaker's emotions and attitudes -- all being signaled at the same time.

The goal of the second-language learner must be to produce this complex, simultaneous interaction of systems, moment by moment, and the best way to do that is to hear it all actually happening and then, provided that you have good ear/vocal feedback, you can train your muscles to articulate the right sounds, ever more closely approximating the entire language performance of a native speaker.

Sounds: Systematic repetition training is crucial in identifying the English sounds that differ from those in one's own native language (or identifying those that are simply not in the first-language inventory) and in focusing particular attention on the differences. If, instead of the English pronunciation of certain sounds, the learner substitutes a similar sound from his/her native language, he/she can completely obscure the meaning or confuse the native-speaker listener. Further refinement of an accent consists in learning to hear and reproduce the actual English pronunciation instead of substituting the most similar one from one's native language.

The Important Steps To Improving Your English Pronunciation and English Speaking

 Author: Aaron Kuroiwa

Director of Le Tutor Language School in Phoenix, Arizona

Anyone can improve their English Pronunciation! There are many benefits to improving your English pronunciation including: increased self confidence, improved communication with clients and colleagues, more job opportunities, not having to repeat yourself constantly, and having others gain more trust and confidence in you. You probably know why it is important to develop your American English pronunciation and you may have tried in the past. Maybe you made some progress, maybe you didn’t. No matter what your current level or past experiences, you can make progress. You may never sound exactly like a native, but that is not what English pronunciation lessons are about. You want to be understood so that you can communicate effectively. It is okay to have an accent, it makes you unique, but you do need to pronounce English words properly and you can achieve this goal.

Anyone can improve their English pronunciation if they follow several important steps.

• First you need to have realistic expectations.
• Second, you should set measurable and achievable goals.
• Next, find a proven English pronunciation guide or study program to follow.
• Last, you need hard work and to be consistent in your efforts.