It's A Glottal Thing

Today I have an extremely small anecdote to share, but the linguist in me found it rather amusing. Let me take you back to a few days ago...

I had just sat down with my boyfriend on these unique benches in the local airport. They're an odd shape, almost a horizontal cross-section of a boat with a dorsal fin in the middle for back support. My boyfriend had already taken out his laptop and I was in the process of mimicking his motions, as we had an hour to kill.

In the midst of sorting through my rather large tote (brought to be used as a beach tote for towels at our destination) I hear a rather odd noise. Of course, airports are a mecca of odd noises, even a small one like this. Several languages and dialects are being spoken, plates and cups are clanging on the tables, there's pitter-pattering of small and large feet alike... so this shouldn't have been out of what I'd normally expect, especially as I've heard similar utterances before.

All I heard was " Now I thought I told you before..." What caught my attention was the extreme glottal stop usage of the man's dialogue. Or perhaps his accent made it sound harsher and more apparent in speech. I can't quite tell, but he was somewhere from the United Kingdom. Despite hearing British/ Welsh/Irish people talking before, I had never heard this much glottal-age in such a short sentence. (For those who might not be aware of what a glottal stop is, it is the 'noise' you make when saying things like 'uh-oh' or 'button', it's more prominent in British English. It's that quick "stop" you make in the middle of uh-oh. I'll post a video below to help.)  I'll attempt to transcribe it, but forgive me as it's been a year since I've transcribed anything, and vowels aren't my strong-suit. This is what it sounded like to me:

Aj  θɔʔ  aj  toʔd  ju  bifɔʔ

All I know is, I swear I heard that darn glottal stop at least 3 times. I even thought he pronounced it at the end of both 'I's too, but I left that out as it's most likely my mind on sensory overload. Either way, my inner linguist is fairly satisfied right now, despite leaving the Basque country, a linguistic paradise, for the time being. Does anyone find it amusing to hear less-common American English (or your native dialect) IPA sounds? What's your favorite IPA sound?

*Note: I'm not disrespecting British people at all, so i hope it doesn't sound like that! It's just amusing to hear accents. :)

Here's a link to the promised video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uS4YZ_a3_ig     I think he does a decent job at explaining how the noise is made and giving examples.

What'd Ya Say? Wednesdays: Music and Speech Therapy

I recently came across the article "Musical Strategies" that was archived from the magazine Advance. It was published in November 2012 and written by Louise Patrick, PhD , detailing the incorporation of music into children's speech therapy programs. 

Despite the ever-growing reductions in education funding taking out extra programs like music and art, there is a greater need for children to receive therapy within the school system. Without a doubt, this includes speech therapy. But how can SLPs keep children entertained while learning and expanding their speech abilities? One idea, brought up by Dr. Parker, is the possibility of bringing music into it; after all, children love music.

She brings up a good point that children don't necessarily need to know the lyrics; they just need to have a basis of sounds which they can mimic to practice sounds found in language. One such example was that of animal noises. They have different contour patterns and inflections that children can use as a foundation for when they start building morphemes and utterances. So, they don't actually need to learn the words, rather the shapes of the sounds that form the words, which can be facilitated through musical lyrics. But, she also notes that we can use "snippets" from songs to help provide them a repetitive pattern to echo back and build on. This is especially helpful for special needs speech therapy clients.

Another idea is to use songs that pay tribute to a particular sound or phoneme that you want to emphasize. For instance, she mentions using the song Miss Mary Mack, as it includes something physical (clapping) and focuses on "m". Focusing on a phonological aspect and adding other motor or cognitive tasks can help a child flourish and maintain their attention on the activity more. And of course the music just adds more fun!

I think one of the best parts of this job is the ability to be creative with therapy plans. Adding music is an innovative idea that can help speech therapists in their quest of helping others find their voice. This can prove especially helpful with groups of kids, as they all can sing together and support one another. Plus, who doesn't love music and some silly dancing or lyrics! Speech therapists should try to find a way to incorporate this into their program, whether it be at schools or even medical facilities! Just look up "music therapy" images on Google, and you'll find a plethora of hospital and elderly patients utilizing music therapy (whether speech-related or not).

If you'd like more information about her ideas for music and it's role in speech therapy, then check out the article right here.