Sunday 9 August 2015

Long time no blog...

I haven't stopped steno, but it has been a long time between blog posts - sorry!

The biggest steno news is that I have been using steno for real (voluntary) work! I have been producing captions for AXSChat.org :-). It has been wonderful to be using steno for something so real - real people, real deadlines! Each video is uploaded on a Tuesday morning (Adelaide time) and then a Twitter chat takes place in the early hours on Wednesday. Ideally, I will be captioning these videos by the end of each Tuesday to enable people who rely on captions to have access to the video before the Twitter chat. I have only managed that once so far - I am still significantly slower using steno than qwerty, so I compromised by captioning in steno for the first four hours and then using qwerty to finish off in time. When I did the whole thing in steno, it took me an entire week (working around my children - I only have Mondays and Tuesdays to myself until my youngest starts school next year).

Unfortunately, I had to skip captioning last week's video due to appointments on the Tuesday followed by a heavy cold that made it very difficult to catch up again. Then yesterday, I was over the worst of my cold (although still with no voice!) and we went roller-skating as a family. Right at the very end, I fell awkwardly and broke my ankle :-(. First broken bone I've ever had - it's curing me of my childhood jealousy for people with casts and crutches! I'm flat on my back in bed - the four hops required to reach our ensuite are very difficult - so I won't manage captioning this week, but hopefully I'll be up and about before too long.

At least it's given me plenty of free time to update my blog!

xo Ros

Thursday 2 July 2015

Homophones

I feel like I'm getting an education in linguistics here! Good ol' Wikipedia :-). I've discovered a lot more about Australian English over the last little while.

Firstly, that unpronounced 'r' in words like 'car' makes Australian English non-rhotic. That means that we have a number of homonyms created by various mergers:
Panda-pander merger (e.g. cheetah/cheater, coda/coder, custody/custardy, ion/iron)
Father-farther merger (e.g. alms/arms, calmer/karma, spa/spar)
Pawn-porn merger (e.g. auk/orc, awe/or, caulk/cork, draw/drawer, gnaw/nor)
Caught-court merger (e.g. awe/oar, flaw/floor, haw/whore, saw/soar/sore)
Calve-carve merger (e.g. aunt/aren't, calve/carve)
Paw-poor merger (e.g. maw/moor, yaw/your/you're)
Batted-battered merger (e.g. busted/bustard, charted/chartered, humid/humoured, satin/Saturn)

The more I look into this, the more apparent it is to me that there needs to be a significant spelling component of any phonetic shorthand system. There are too many homophonous pairs (and many higher order groups!). I suspect that the system that the Phoenix authors have developed is quite adaptable on the whole to Australian English pronunciation - just occasional words with differing emphasis or pronunciation might need adjusting.

While on the homophone topic, here are two other homophone lists from Wikipedia that I may refer to later: English dialect-independent, and English dialect-dependent (not all apply, of course!).

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Australian Pronunciation Differences List

I haven't had my machine out for a while because I've been concentrating on working through the Phoenix Fast Track to Realtime book with a focus on finding outlines that don't work for Australian English pronunciation. Below there's a list of words that I've found so far. Instead of daily updates, I will keep adding on to this post for a while.


fertile 
/ˈfɜtaɪl/ (say 'fertuyl), Originally US /-təl/ (say -tuhl)
  cretin (pg 16) /ˈkrɛtn/ (say 'kretn)

  Sharon (pg 16) /ʃæˈrɒn/ (say sha'ron)

  barren (pg 16) /ˈbærən/ (say 'baruhn)

  annex (pg 16) verb (t) /ˈænɛks/ (say 'aneks), /əˈnɛks/ (sayuh'neks) I had only heard the first pronunciation.

kaput (page 21) /kæˈpʊt/ (say ka'poot), /kə-/ (say kuh-)

was (page 24) /wɒz/ (say woz), weak form /wəz/ (say wuhz)

clerk (page 27) /klak/ (say klahk), orChiefly US /klɜk/ (sayklerk)

squirrel1 (page 27) /ˈskwɪrəl/ (say 'skwiruhl)

thorough (page 27) /ˈθʌrə/ (say 'thuruh)

hurricane (page 28) /ˈhʌrəkən/ (say 'huruhkuhn), /-keɪn/ (say -kayn)

during (page 28) /ˈdjurɪŋ/ (say 'dyoohring)

plural (page 29) /ˈplurəl/ (say 'ploohruhl)

sure (page 29) /ʃɔ/ (say shaw)
juror (page 37) /ˈdʒʊərə/ (say 'joouhruh), /ˈdʒurə/ (say'joohruh)

butcher1 (page 38) /ˈbʊtʃə/ (say 'boochuh)

quarter (page 38) /ˈkwɔtə/ (say 'kwawtuh)

molten (page 39) /ˈmoʊltn/ (say 'mohltn)

agile (page 41) /ˈædʒaɪl/ (say 'ajuyl)
fragile (page 41) /ˈfrædʒaɪl/ (say 'frajuyl), Originally US /-dʒəl/ (say -juhl)
fertile (page 41) /ˈfɜtaɪl/ (say 'fertuyl), Originally US /-təl/ (say -tuhl)
futile (page 41) /ˈfjutaɪl/ (say 'fyoohtuyl), Originally US /-təl/ (say -tuhl)

(The '-ile' ending is usually pronounced 'uyl' (aɪl) in Australian English - one major exception being the -mobile ending in words such as 'automobile', which is pronounced 'muhbeel' (məbil).)

schedule (page 42) /ˈʃɛdʒul/ (say 'shejoohl), /ˈskɛdʒul/ (say'skejoohl)


missile (page 43) /ˈmɪsaɪl/ (say 'misuyl), Originally US /-səl/ (say -suhl)
diesel (page 44) /ˈdizəl/ (say 'deezuhl)
capsule (page 44) /ˈkæpsjul/ (say 'kapsyoohl), /ˈkæpʃul/ (say'kapshoohl), /-ʃəl/ (say -shuhl)
nougat (page 46) /ˈnuga/ (say 'noohgah)
stirrup (page 49) /ˈstɪrəp/ (say 'stiruhp)
syrup (page 49) /ˈsɪrəp/ (say 'siruhp)
ampere (page 49) /ˈæmpɛə/ (say 'ampair)

financier (page 50) /fəˈnænsiə/ (say fuh'nanseeuh), /faɪ-/ (say fuy-)

virile (page 50) /ˈvɪraɪl/ (say 'viruyl), Originally US /-rəl/ (say -ruhl)

towards (page 53) /təˈwɔdz/ (say tuh'wawdz), /tɔdz/ (saytawdz)

voir dire (page 53) /vwa ˈdɪə/ (say vwah 'dear)

whorl (page 53) /wɜl/ (say werl)

constructive (page 57) /kənˈstrʌktɪv/ (say kuhn'struktiv) (emphasis on second syllable)

wharves (page 59) /wɔvz/ (say wawvz)

hover (page 59) /ˈhɒvə/ (say 'hovuh)

lever (page 59) /ˈlivə/ (say 'leevuh)

plover (page 59) /ˈplʌvə/ (say 'pluvuh)

adjusting (page 60) /əˈdʒʌstɪŋ/ (say uh'justing) (emphasis on second syllable)

disgust (page 61) /dəsˈgʌst/ (say duhs'gust) (emphasis on second syllable)

combust (page 61) /kəmˈbʌst/ (say kuhm'bust) (emphasis on second syllable)
For the 'or' section: In Australian pronunciation, the 'r' part is often not sounded (I'm only giving a few examples):

abhor (page 52) /əbˈhɔ/ (say uhb'haw)

adore (page 52) /əˈdɔ/ (say uh'daw)

albacore (page 52) /ˈælbəkɔ/ (say 'albuhkaw)

ashore (page 52) /əˈʃɔ/ (say uh'shaw)

chore (page 52) /tʃɔ/ (say chaw)

Norway1 (page 52) nɔweɪ/ (say 'nawway)
I wonder whether it might be a good idea to put AU stroking options in? It would make more homonyms to differentiate, but these are actually homonyms for us, and it might be difficult to pick 'aw' from 'or' in unfamiliar words? For example, these are all homonyms in Australia: torque/talk, caulk/cork, sore/saw, lore/law, tort/taut, etc. We do, however, pronounce the 'r' medially when it is immediately followed by a vowel sound:

boring1 (page 52) bɔrɪŋ/ (say 'bawring)

caloric (page 52) /kəˈlɒrɪk/ (say kuh'lorik), /keɪ-/ (say kay-)
  camphoric (page 52) /kæmˈfɒrɪk/ (say kam'forik)
oral (page 52) /ˈɒrəl/ (say 'oruhl)

gastric (page 62) /ˈgæstrɪk/ (say 'gastrik)

consortium (page 66) /kənˈsɔtiəm/ (say kuhn'sawteeuhm), /-ʃiəm/ (say -sheeuhm)
English1 (page 66) /ˈɪŋglɪʃ/ (say 'ingglish)

financial (page 66) /faɪˈnænʃəl/ (say fuy'nanshuhl), /fə-/ (say fuh-)

gaseous (page 66) gæsiəs/ (say 'gaseeuhs), /ˈgeɪ-/ (say 'gay-)

glacier (page 66) /ˈgleɪsiə/ (say 'glayseeuh), /ˈglæsiə/ (say'glaseeuh)

Neither I nor the Macquarie knew about 'a Hoosier' (page 67)! I have Googled and am now wiser :-).


stalag (page 69) stælæg/ (say 'stalag)

vermouth (page 71) /ˈvɜməθ/ (say 'vermuhth), /vəˈmuθ/ (sayvuh'moohth)

what (page 73) /wɒt/ (say wot)
A question from page 76: I read SHAOE/SHR*EUPBG/-Z as "she shrinks" instead of "she slinks". Is there a way to differentiate the 'shr-' and 'sl-' outlines?

On page 36, 'put', 'pull', 'full', and 'bull' were stroked with a short U (PUT, PUL, TPUL, PWUL), but on page 64 the same sound (ʊ) in 'push' and 'bush' can be stroked U or AOU, and the long vowel (AOU) is used for 'ambushed' on page 65. I think I'd like to write them all with the short vowel.
(i.e. ʌ as in 'putt' and ʊ as in 'put' both stroked as U, whereas u as in 'rule' and ju as in 'humour' are both stroked as AOU)


hovel (page 79) /ˈhɒvəl/ (say 'hovuhl)

offal (page 80) /ˈɒfəl/ (say 'ofuhl)

I've just come upon the 'air' sound on page 81. I think this might provide another significant difference with Australian English. For the three examples given, we have three different pronunciations:

fair /fɛə/ (say fair)

peril /ˈpɛrəl/ (say 'peruhl)

parrot /ˈpærət/ (say 'paruht)


Here is the pronunciation key from the Macquarie dictionary, with my attempts at steno outlines alongside.

Pronunciation Key

Vowels  
SymbolPronunciationExampleSteno
ias in 'peat'pit(P)AOE(T)
ʊas in 'put'pʊt(P)U(T)
ɪas in 'pit'pɪt(P)EU(T)
uas in 'pool'pul(P)AO(L) or (R)AOU(L)
ɛas in 'pet'pɛt(P)E(T)
ɜas in 'pert'pɜt(P)UR(T)
æas in 'pat'pæt(P)A(T)
əas in 'apart'ə'patU(/PART)
aas in 'part'pat(P)AR(T)
ɒas in 'pot'pɒt(P)O(T)
ʌas in 'putt'pʌt(P)U(T)
ɔas in 'port'pɔt(P)OR(T) or (P)AU or (W)AR
æ̃as in French 'vin'væ̃U?
yas in French 'rue'ryAOU?
ɒ̃as in 'bon voyage'bɒ̃ vwaˈjaʒO?
Diphthongs
SymbolPronunciationExampleSteno
as in 'buy'baɪ(B)AOEU
as in 'bay'beɪ(B)AEU
ɔɪas in 'boy'bɔɪ(B)OEU
as in 'how'haʊ(H)OU
as in 'hoe'hoʊ(H)OE
ɪəas in 'here'hɪə(H)AOER
ɛəas in 'hair'hɛə(H)AEUR
ʊəas in 'tour'tʊə(T)AOUR