Apparently, I don't know how to talk. This diction class will truly be the death of me. Why? Because I, along with everyone in my apartment, say butter wrong. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Today as I was studying Diction I realized that English is really really REALLY dumb. People that speak english are dumb and people who ever want to learn english is dumb. English is just really dumb. I have no other words for it aside from the fact that we all don't know how to speak english. Trust me. You as an english speaker speak about 80% of the language correctly. But 20% of the language that you speak, you speak incorrectly. Take butter for example. Butter has a couple different sounds. The B at the beginning of the word is formed by exploding the air through your mouth (Plosive Articulator). This is a voiced consonant meaning that you need to add your voice to produce the sound. The R at the end of the word is the same way aside from the fact that it is a retroflex articulator. Here is where the issue is. Say the consonant T. Is this voiced? Or unvoiced? T is actually an unvoiced consonant. Now say Butter. Did you notice that you actually said Budder? You are voicing the T! Which turns the T consonant into a D consonant! Why do we do that?! We ALL say budder unless you think about it and then say butter. What a shame! We all can't even speak the language that we have. I just find it so odd and sad. We have this beautiful language that we have each learned but we butcher it all the time. I wish that our language were much easier to understand. I feel so bad for those foreign people who have to learn English. What a hard task!
Diction is going to be the death of me. I have terrible habits that I have to break within the next two weeks. I feel like when I talk, I have to talk with perfect diction. I am always thinking about where my tongue is when I am forming words and I am always thinking about how to make more space in my mouth to form clearer words. Truly, I never knew how much your mouth is moving and working to form words. It's a lot more work then you are giving credit for.
The sad thing about this is that I have to start to focus on how my mouth works when I sing. I have never thought so hard when I sing. There is a lot of things to have to think about when singing. I miss the days that I just sang. There aren't many days left like that any more. Is it sad that I wish that music was simple and easy? Is it sad that I think some of this is like wayyyyy over the top? Am I in the wrong degree? This is all I think about. Did I chose the right path? I love music. LOVE MUSIC! But why then, do I feel like this whole degree is more work then it should be. Am I cramming too much music in one semester and is that why I feel discouraged?
I know that doubts are normal. I know that in the end this is virtually the only thing I truly want to do with my life. So I'll do the work! :) Because I love music :)
But I still think its weird that we all say Butter wrong.
Happy singing!
Courtney Griggs
That is why as adults we need to enunciate better (yet another word that most people say wrong) when we are talking to little people. That way they learn from the beginning that butter has a t sound and not a d sound. :D Have a swell day
ReplyDeleteWell, don't be too hard on us. We never have spoken English--we speak American. I said right words to my kids and they in turn said things like Chee-rows (Cherios) and I said "kype" (to steal) and they said NO! it is kyfe! And I think they still do at ages 34/38/43 We say budder because you aren't supposed to use the "butt" word. . .ha ha ha! I just thought that up myself. I'm too funny for my shorts.
ReplyDeleteYou can do it!! You're awesome and inspiring as you are a wonderful singer regardless of the word butter. I ain't never heard a song with the word butter in it. I'm going to write one, and put it in phonetics [bʌ.tɚ] ;)
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