Pronunciation and Physiognomy

Imagine the scene: you are sitting on the tube anti on guts someone you instinctively feel Is American, To make sure you ask them the time, fend is light, but how did you know?

A. The writer Arthur Hue’s tier onto remarked that friends of his, whom he met thirty years after they emigrated to the United States, had acquired an “American physiognomy”, i.e. a broadened jaw, an appearance which is also prevalent In the indigenous population. An anthropologist friend of his attributed this to the increased use of the jaw musculature In American enunciation. This “change of countenance” in immigrants had already been observed by the historian M. Fishberg in 1910. To paraphrase the philosopher Emerson, certain national, social and religious groups, such as ageing actors, long-term convicts and celibate priests, to give just a few examples, de­velop a distinguishing “look”, which is not easily defined, but readily recognised, Their way of life affects their facial expression and physical features, giving the mistaken impression that these traits are of hereditary or racial” origin. All the factors mentioned above con­tribute, as well as heredity, lint the question of appearance being affected by pronunciation, as in the ease of American immigrants (including those from other English speaking coun­tries) over the course of many years, is of great interest and culls fur further study into the science of voice production. This can only benefit those working in the field of speech ther­apy, elocution and the pronunciation of foreign languages, and help the student from a purely physiological point of view, Naturally, the numerous psychological and socio-linguistic factors that inhibit most adult learners of foreign languages from acquiring a “good” pronunciation constitute a completely different and no less important Issue that requires separate investigation.

B. The pronunciation of the various forms of English around the world today is affected by the voice being “plated” in different parts of the mouth, We use DUI-speech organs in cer­tain ways to produce specific sounds, and these muscles have to practice to learn new pho­nemes, Non-Americans should look In the mirror while repeating “I really never heard of poor reward for valor with full use of the USA retroflex hi phoneme, and note what happens to their jawbones after three or four repetitions. Imagine the effect of these move­ments on the jaw muscles after twenty years! This phoneme is one of the most noticeable features of US English and one that non-A merit and is always exaggerate when mimicking the accent, Likewise, standard British REL is often parodied, and its whine of superiority mocked to the point of turning the end of one’s nose up as much as possible. Not only does this enhance the “performance”, but also begs the question of whether this look is the origin of the expression “stuck up”?

Is it time to halt the rising tide of plastic packaging?

A. Concern over plastic packaging has produced a squall of conflicting initiatives from retailers, manufacturers, and local authorities. It’s a squall that dies down and then blows harder from one month to the next. ‘It is being left to the individual conscience and supermarkets playing the market,’ says Tim Lang, a professor specializing in food polio’. ‘It’s a mess.’ Dick Scarle of the Packaging Federation points out that societies without sophisticated packaging lose all their food before it reaches consumers and that in the UK, waste in supply chains is about 3 per cent. In India, it is more than 50 per cent. The difference comes later: the British throw out 30 percent of the food they buy – an environmental cost in terms of emissions equivalent to a fifth of the cars on their roads. Packagers agree that cardboard, metals, and glass all have their good points, but there’s nothing quite like plastic. With more than 20 families of polymers to choose from and then sometimes blend, packaging designers and manufacturers have a limitless variety of qualities to play with.

B. One store commissioned a study to find precise data on which had a less environmental impact: selling apples loose or ready-wrapped. Helene Roberts, head of packaging, explains that in fact, they found apples in fours on a tray covered by plastic film needed 27 per cent less packaging in transportation than those sold loose. Steve Kelsey, a packaging designer, finds die debate frustrating. He argues that the hunger to do something quickly is diverting effort away from more complicated questions about how you truly alter supply chains. Rather than further reducing the weight of a plastic bottle, more thought should be given to how packaging can be recycled.