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Is Jesus a Savior, deceiver, a gatherer, or a stripper of bark?
Articulatory phonetics. That’s the study of speech sounds and how we make them. I’ve been learning to move my tongue and jaw and other moveable mouth parts in ways I never even knew existed! For 8 weeks now, I’ve been trying to feel all those “speech muscles” at work so I can tell where they are and try to control them. You should sit in on one of my classes! You would witness us making all kinds of funny sounds (and funny faces)! Why is this stuff so important, anyway? Actually, this can be really important stuff. In the Cakchiquel language of Guatemala, there are four words that sound exactly the same except for the way you pronounce the beginning “k” sound. Written phonetically (as closely as I can with a regular keyboard), the four words are: 1. [k’olonel] : a gatherer 2. [qolonel] : Savior 3. [kholonel]: a deceiver4. [qxolonnel] : a stripper of bark The difference between the [k] (#1&3) and the [q] (#2&4) is how far back in your mouth you make the “k” sound. [k] is the “k” sound you make when you say the word “cop.” [q] is the “k” sound you make when you imitate a crow, “caw.” (The crow sound is farther back in your mouth. Can you feel it?) As if that’s not complicated enough, the “k” sounds in #1, 3, and 4 are made with some extra air puffing out, each of them in a slightly different way. (Just trust me on this! Eight weeks ago, I had no idea there were so many ways and combos of making sounds!) If I were living with the Cakchiquels of Guatemala, I would really, really, really, really want to learn to make that “k” sound the right way. Otherwise, I might run into the very serious danger of teaching them that Jesus is a deceiver. This is eternal stuff here!!! So you can see why it’s very, very important to get these sounds right! I want them to know that Jesus is our Savior, so I need to get that sound just exactly right. Have you ever had a missionary ask you to pray for his or her language learning progress? I hope the story about the Cakchiquel language helps us all understand how important it is to learn the language well and be able to say it correctly. I recently received a newsletter from former classmates of mine, Jesse and Karie. They are missionaries in Papua New Guinea. I noticed one of Karie’s prayer needs was for her language learning. Will you take a moment right now and pray for her about this? ~Alison September 16, 2004
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