Little English Sounds - is it a good title?

Little English Sounds / The EnglishSounds - is it a good title?

I have written and am going to publish a book of short verses (in my language) with illustrations where all English sounds are presented as kids (with a transcription sign for each kid). Literally the title of the book could be translated from my language as "(English) Sounds-Manikins" :-D (I think it sounds unnatural) or "Little Kids-(English?) Sounds" or just "Little (English?) Sounds" (the latter seems to me the best variant). In my language the title does not include the word English.

Which of the three variants do you like best? Could you suggest some other titles for this particular type of book?

Sorry for off the topic.
I'd like to look at your book. I'm interested.

Is this for a children's book?

Could you do something with https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/child's+play.html

Boris Tatarenko said:

Sorry for off the topic.
I'd like to look at your book. I'm interested.

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It's going to be published soon (hopefully), but I don't think there'll be an electronic copy of it online (unless some pirates copy and publish it for downloads as they often do). Still, you can have the information about this book if you go to my website. So you'd better write me a personal message for extra information.

SoothingDave said:

Is this for a children's book?

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Yes, and it's ONLY about little children- English sounds (their images and verses about them, nothing else). The problem with the title is that it should include an explanation that the main characters of the book are little children whose names coincide with the names of ALL English sounds (46).

Tdol said:

Could you do something with https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/child's+play.html

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I think not - my book is about 46 children (English sounds), so the title has to be about them, too. Something like "46 little kids" (but this is not too good, because it doesn't include the words "English" and "sounds", so it's not clear who these kids are.

I think you are going to find it quite difficult to get the ideas of 46, children, sounds and English into one snappy title, especially if you want to get across the idea that the names of the children are the English sounds.

Why not try to think of a moderately snappy title with a more explanatory subtitle. My offer below is not a serious suggestion, but an idea of the type of thing I mean:

....................We sound English
46 children's names show the 46 English phonemes - in verse.

By the way, I see that you propose 46 sounds. That sounds to me a little high for most varieties of English. Which dialect/variety are you using as basis?

I am not using any special dialects, just Standard English. The problem is that the English themselves seem to have different opinions as to the number of sounds (phonemes). I am using two charts.
One of them was created by Oxford University Press (New English File). It presents 44 phonemes:
https://elt.oup.com/student/englishfile/intermediate/c_pronunciation/?cc=global&selLanguage=en

The other chart is by the British Council, but it does not include the diphthong [ʊə], so there are only 43 phonemes.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart

Being a Ruissian teacher of English I think it reasonable to consider the opinion of Russian linguists about English phonemes, too. Some of them (and not only Russians, by the way - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triphthong) think that that there are also so called thriphthongs - [aɪə] and [aʊə]. I could do without these extra sounds, but I decided to include them in the list, too, because I like the idea of thriphthongs. This is how I got 46 sounds. And how many English sounds are there in your opinion?

5jj said:

I think you are going to find it quite difficult to get the ideas of 46, children, sounds and English into one snappy title, especially if you want to get across the idea that the names of the children are the English sounds.

Why not try to think of a moderately snappy title with a more explanatory subtitle. My offer below is not a serious suggestion, but an idea of the type of thing I mean:

....................We sound English
46 children's names show the 46 English phonemes - in verse.

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Thank you, but I very much want to use the closest to the original in my language translation of the "snappy" part of the title (it's a good idea to use an explanatory title, I'll do it by all means, but I still want to have a short, snappy title including the idea of "little kids-sounds"). What about "Little English Sounds"? It would suit me, but I am not sure if it sounds OK when a native speaker reads such a title on a children's book.
:?:

englishhobby said:

I am not using any special dialects, just Standard English.

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There is no such thing as a universal Standard English pronunciation. In some dialects of AmE, there is no difference between the vowels of lot and thought, which are two different phonemes for other speakers of AmE and most speakers of BrE. For some speakers of AmE, there is no difference between what most speakers on BrE consider to be two distinct phonemes, /ʌ/ and /ə . I suspect that you have included some from different varieties that may no co-exist in another variety.

One of them was created by Oxford University Press (New English File). It presents 44 phonemes [...] The other chart is by the British Council, but it does not include the diphthong [ʊə], so there are only 43 phonemes.

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43 to 44, not including triphthongs, is what I would expect for standard varieties of Southern British English. I have 43-45 - I tend to use/ʊə/ and /hw/ ([ʍ ]), but only in careful speech.

Being a Russian teacher of English I think it reasonable to consider the opinion of Russian linguists about English phonemes, too. Some of them think that that there are also so called triphthongs - [aɪə] and [aʊə].

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If you are including triphthongs, should you not also include /ɔɪə/?

Sorry for boosting the post, but my question in the title of this thread hasn't been answered:
Little English Sounds - is it a good title?


:?:

5jj said:

If you are including triphthongs, should you not also include /ɔɪə/?

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I don't know. Perhaps not. (Because I hadn't heard about it before I found that link about thriphthongs, or maybe because I just don't like it. ;-) )

5jj said:

For some speakers of AmE, there is no difference between what most speakers on BrE consider to be two distinct phonemes, /ʌ/ and /ə . I suspect that you have included some from different varieties that may no co-exist in another variety.

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I am interested in British English at the moment. I still think there is a certain standard for "universal" (British) English, the set of sounds most usually taught by ESL teachers. I am thinking of starting a new thread about it. :-?

As regards this thread, could you tell me if the title "Little English Sounds" sounds natural or strange.:?:

It sounds strange to me.

This is, once again, away from the original question, but I think it is relevant to your book.

englishhobby said:

I am interested in British English at the moment. I still think there is a certain standard for "universal" (British) English, the set of sounds most usually taught by ESL teachers.

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I 'disagreed' with this.

I do not agree that there is a 'universal British (with or without the brackets) English'.

For a number of reasons, few of which have much to do with any principles of language teaching/learning, most course materials produced by British publishers - and they are predominant in many parts of the world where English is learnt -base their phonological transcription and recorded material largely on a variety of English spoken by moderately well educated people from southern England. In one respect this is fine - this variety is widely used and accepted. However, it is actually a minority dialect within the United Kingdom and Ireland. It's not only North Americans, Australians and New Zealanders, and native speakers from India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh and other countries which have their own varieties of English, who don't speak in this way, but also people from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and many parts of England.

Still, if one variety has to be chosen as a 'standard model' for teaching British English, that variety is as good as any, and more widely heard on TV and the radio than many others. If you wish to use that variety, fine. You will be in step with many writers of EFL materials. However, you should know that that variety has 44 phonemes for many people and 43 for those who don't use /[FONT=&quot]ʊə[/FONT][FONT=&quot]/. These phonemes are listed in many course[/FONT] books, the Cambridge EPD, the lists you mentioned and here.

In the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary and the Oxford ALD, the lists have 46 symbols, because they include the [FONT=&quot]non-phonemic[/FONT] /i/ and /u/.They are listed separately as non-phonemic symbols in the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (as is syllabic /l/)[FONT=&quot][/FONT].

englishhobby said:

Sorry for busting the post, but my question in the title of this thread hasn't been answered:
Little English Sounds - is it a good title?
:?:

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Rover_KE said:

It sounds strange to me.

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I've just got an idea about the title which I myself like, but I need your approval (or disapproval) badly.
In the introduction to the book there'll be information for children about the sounds in this book - they all have the same surname - Englishsound. What if I give my book the title "The EnglishSounds" (with further explanation that it's a book in verse for kids about 44 (46) English phonemes?

I like that better, but how about English Sounds or EngishSounds?

MikeNewYork said:

I like that better, but how about English Sounds or EngishSounds?

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OK, I like "EnglishSounds" :-D

And I decided to leave the 44 basic sounds, not 46, thanks to this discussion.

Thank you very much!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner! Good luck with your book!