It Is All about Phonetics

I am lucky enough to have realized this before the start of my second year and so I chose my subjects accordingly. I not only opted for my programme’s obligatory and optional courses along with some extras such as Latin, but I also decided to consult the head of the Phonetics Department as to which courses from their own programme to choose to make my studies as worthwhile as possible. At the start of my winter term I decided to try my luck (and skills, hopefully) with Czech-run general phonetics courses such as Speech Acoustics, Physiological Phonetics or Methods of Phonetic Research. This upcoming term I am continuing with Acoustics, along with Comparative Phonetics, Basics of Prosody and Pragmatic Aspects of Speech, taught in English. Of course, I should not forget to mention that I still enjoy all my literature subjects, of which Modern American Drama is currently my favourite.

I am also very proud to say that I have already managed to secure the supervisor and even the topic of my bachelor’s thesis. It logically follows that I will be writing about English phonetics from a very pragmatic point of view. My topic is as follows: “Comparing the effect of segmental and prosodic manipulations on speaker’s accentedness and comprehensibility.” I can already hear the complaints that the word “accentedness” is not even a real word; well, my dear readers, you are mistaken. In case you would like to find out more about these seemingly synonymous concepts, I recommend reading Pronunciation Fundamentals by Dr Derwing and Dr Munro.

This term, though only in its beginning, is already turning out to be the hardest yet both conceptually and in terms of the sheer amount of reading to do. However, I am quite determined to stay on top of my work and to continue pursuing linguistics.