Getting Started

Greetings everyone! You can download the course syllabus and selected readings at:

http://www.novateller.com/ETSU.html

As we go into our first week of class, we will begin at the beginning, with speech sounds.

Consider that words are sounds, not combinations of letters such as you are viewing now. These markings on the computer screen are representations of words.

In case you doubt this, consider the following etymology of "word" from the online etymology dictionary:

word 

O.E. word "speech, talk, utterance, word," from P.Gmc. *wurdan (cf. O.S., O.Fris. word, Du. woord, O.H.G., Ger. wort, O.N. orð, Goth. waurd), from PIE*were- "speak, say"

As we prepare for conversational discourse analysis, we will need to develop our sense of the sounds, rather than the letters, that constitute words. To this end, you will need to be familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet. Here are links to an I.P.A. chart and an I.P.A. typing tool you may find useful for your transcriptions:

http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

http://ipa.typeit.org/

If you have not done so already, please read the chapter titled "Social Work" from John Locke's Why We Don't Talk To Each Other Anymore. Download in 2 parts here:

http://www.novateller.com/ETSU.html

See you soon!