141: We "recently" changed our t sound lesson

Updates to the alternative t sound patterns.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 141st episode.

I was recently working with a student from India on his alternative t sounds. To review, the alternative t sounds are the quick d sound, the glottal stop, and the omitted t sound. I've talked about them quite a bit in past podcasts, but this show is still pretty advanced.

Anyway, I corrected this student on the word recently, telling him that the t sound should be pronounced with a glottal stop. The glottal stop is that sound in the middle of the word uh-oh, uh-oh. It is created when we briefly close our vocal cords deep in our throat.

This student is very familiar with the t sound patterns and, when I told him that the word recently is pronounced with a glottal stop, he replied, "But the t is following an n, so it should be ignored, shouldn't it?"

He was right; I had told him that the pattern for dropping the t sound is when it follows an n sound and precedes a vowel sound, r sound (including schwa+r) or an l sound. The word recently (which I just said with a regular t sound) definitely fits that pattern. If I say it without the t sound, it would be pronounced as recen(t)ly. That doesn't sound overly strange, but it doesn't seem as common as saying it with a glottal stop. With a glottal stop, it is pronounced recently, recently.

Then, within a few days, the glottal stop came up in our EnglishAssembly.com forums. Pat asked about the "weird silence" in the words mountain, button, Clinton, and curtains. Pat was hearing was the glottal stop. Two of the words in question, mountain and Clinton, don't follow the pattern that was shown for the glottal stop in the Pronuncian.com lesson.

Obviously, it was time to revisit the lesson and add not one, but two new options for the glottal stop.

Before I get into the updates to the alternative t sounds (also called t sound allophones), let me remind you that whenever the t sound begins a stressed or secondarily-stressed syllable, it will remain a t sound, no matter what sounds come before or after it.

So, let's begin by talking about the word recently. The updated lesson says that if the /t/ follows an n sound and precedes an l sound that is not a syllabic l, the t sound will be pronounced as a glottal stop. Wow, that is complicated. With that explanation, we need to revisit the idea of a syllabic l. A syllabic l is an l sound that creates a syllable; this means the syllable does not also include a vowel sound.

Let's compare the words gentle (g-e-n-t-l-e) and gently (g-e-n-t-l-y).

The final syllable of the word gentle is just an l sound (l sound). Yes, there is an e in the spelling, but it is not pronounced in any way, gen-tle, gentle. In the word gentle, because the /t/ is between an n sound and a syllabic l, the t sound can be omitted. We get the word gentle in fast speech.

The final syllable of the word gently is an l sound and a long e (l sound+long e) (gent-le). Since I have a vowel sound in the final syllable, the l sound is not syllabic. So now we have a /t/ that follows an n sound and precedes an l sound that is not syllabic, so the t sound is pronounced as a glottal stop. Other examples include the words urgently, constantly, and pointless.

That gets us through one of the two glottal stop updates.

Let's move on to Pat's words, mountain and Clinton. Now we have a /t/ between an n sound and a syllabic n. Basically, when we say the words with a glottal stop, the sound moves from the n sound to the glottal stop back to the n sound. It's interesting that during all three sounds, my tongue does not need to move. That's right, my tongue stays in place right through the glottal stop. It can do this because the glottal stop doesn't actually have anything to do with my tongue; it's controlled by my vocal cords briefly closing deep in my throat.

Try it; say the word mountain, mountain, and Clinton, Clinton.

Yes, I will admit that this is all really confusing. The best way to learn it is usually by seeing the diagrams, which you can see on the free Pronuncian lesson, which I will link to from this episode's transcripts page. You can also get additional listen and repeat exercises by becoming a Pronuncian subscriber. Subscribers have full access to all of Pronuncian's lessons, quizzes, and videos. And you get to feel good about yourself for helping support this show and keeping us going on our regular publishing schedule.

To get to the free lesson to help you understand this topic, go to www.pronuncian.com/podcast, click on Episode 141 and you will see this episode's transcripts and related lessons. To join Pronuncian and also get access to the exercises, just go to www.pronuncian.com/join. Pronuncian is spelled p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n.

Are you ready to practice? Here are some words with glottal stops based on today's additions to the alternative t sound lesson. Please repeat after me:

recently
urgently
constantly
pointless

mountain
Clinton
continent
acquaintance
maintenance

Don't forget that you can practice hearing the details of English by listening to an audio book. You can get a free audio book by signing up for a free 14-day trial of Audible.com. Use our special web address: www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian as a way to help us support this show and to get your free audio book to keep. If you cancel your subscription with Audible before 14 days, you are charged nothing, but you get to keep your free book.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

140: The 'oo' spelling of the words 'foot' and 'soon'

The oo sound is more common, but the other u sound is possible.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 140th episode.

I talked a bit about the other u sound in our last podcast about the word sure. The other u sounds like (other u) and is the vowel sound in the word put. Can you hear it? (Other u), put.

The other u is tricky because it doesn't have any vowel spelling of its own. It can obviously be spelled u, as in the word put, but it can also be spelled oo as in the word foot. Can you hear the rhyme between put and foot, put, foot.

The more common pronunciation for the oo spelling is the oo sound, as in the word soon. The word shoot (s-h-o-o-t) is also pronounced with the oo sound. Notice that the word shoot does not rhyme with the word foot, shoot, foot.

Let's talk a little bit about how these two sounds are different. The oo sound is usually easier to start with because it is a more common sound. Listen to the sound: (oo sound). The major characteristic of this sound is that my lips are brought into a small circle. In addition, the back of the tongue raised to a high position and sides of the tongue touch the top teeth at the back of the mouth. Listen to the sound again: (oo sound).

The other u sound, (other u), has relaxed lips. The inside of the mouth is similar to the oo sound. My tongue relaxes a little more and the back of the tongue drops some, but those details are really minor compared with the drastically different shape of my lips. Most of my students learn to create a perfect other u sound simply by staring with the oo sound, and then relaxing the lips.

Listen to both sounds, I'll say the oo sound first, then the other u sound (oo sound, other u, oo sound, other u).

So, let's get back to the oo spelling for these sounds. Between these two pronunciations (other u) and (oo sound), the oo sound is much more common.

I'm going to say a word spelled oo, and I want you to try to tell if it's the oo sound or the other u sound. Ready?

tooth
cook
good
food
school

Those were:

tooth, oo sound
cook, other u
good, other u
food, oo sound
school, oo sound

How did you do? Pretty good?

Here's a little more practice. I'm going to say the five most frequently used words spelled oo for each pronunciation. I am going to say the words pronounced with the oo sound first:

school
too
room
food
choose

And here are the top five other u words:

good
book
look
foot
cook

If you would like to see more high-frequency words, I've added an exercise to the lessons for those sounds to help you out. The lessons are free to everyone, and have all the common spellings for each sound of English as well as common non-phonetic words. The exercises provide additional practice for each sound. Only people who subscribe to Pronuncian.com have access to the exercises. That's how we pay our bills and are able to keep creating more content like these free podcasts, so please consider joining. Go to www.pronuncian.com/join.

If you just want to look at the free lessons, we link to those from each of our podcast transcripts pages. Go to www.pronuncian.com/podcast to find this episode's transcripts and related lessons.

You can also practice hearing the details of English by listening to an audio book. You can get a free audio book by signing up for a free 14-day trial of Audible.com. Use our special web address: www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian as a way to help us support this show and to get your free audio book to keep. If you cancel your subscription with Audible before 14 days, you are charged nothing, but you get to keep your free book.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

139: Pronunciation of 'sure'

It begins with an sh sound, but after that, it gets a little complicated.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 139th episode.

Today I'm going to talk about the pronunciation of the word sure and I'm going to include some symbols from the International Phonetic Dictionary in the transcripts for this show. You can see the symbols I'm talking about and read along with what I'm saying by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast and clicking on Episode 139. Pronuncian is spelled p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n. That web address again is www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

The first oddity of the pronunciation of the word sure is the beginning sh sound. The only other common word that I could find that begins with an sh sound spelled with an s instead of sh is the word sugar. If something occurs only once or twice, or even a few times, I consider it to be a non-phonetic word.

A non-phonetic word is a word that is not pronounced the way we would expect by its spelling. Since most words that begin with the letter s (obviously excluding sh) begin with an s sound, words that begin with the letter s that are pronounced with a different sound are non-phonetic.

The full transcription in the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary shows the sh sound (sh sound), then the other u (u sound), then a small, raised schwa (schwa), then the r sound (r sound) /ʃʊər/. The raised letters in the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary mean that the sound can optionally be inserted.

So I can say sure without the added schwa, or sure with the added schwa.

That is actually rather complicated. But I don't want you to worry about it too much. Here's why: that transcription is showing the pronunciation of that word in its fullest pronunciation. That is the pronunciation you would use if you were stressing the word in a sentence.

LPD shows a secondary American pronunciation of simply an sh sound followed by their symbol for schwa+r /ʃɝː/. This would be pronounced as sure. While I don't have any way of counting which pronunciation is more common, I am going to make a guess that it is the quicker, reduced form that you are more likely to hear on a regular basis. I believe it's part of the informality of the word sure that makes the reduced form more common (sure).

As an example, think of how we use sure as a casual way of saying yes.

Would you like to come along?
Sure, I'll be ready in a minute.

Can you email me that file?
Sure, I'll get it to you by this afternoon.

Can I get you another glass of water?
Sure.

An even more informal answer is to add the word thing, as in sure thing.

Could I get another glass of water?
Sure thing!

We can also have a stressed sure, which acts to emphasize the idea of yes. We could say:

Would you like to come along?
Sure, I'll be ready in a minute.

Can I get you another glass of water?
Sure.

Next we have the informal for sure, which, when said quickly becomes for sure. The phrase for sure means that you are certain about something.

The question, Are you for sure gonna (going to) take the class? is asking, in a more informal way, Are you certain that you will take the class?

We can also have the sentence:

I know for sure that Alex is coming.

Or in the negative:

I can't say for sure that Alex is coming.

In the case of a stressed for sure, the certainty is again being emphasized:

Are you for sure gonna (going to) take the class?
I know for sure that Alex is coming.

In a negative for sure uncertainty is being stressed:
I can't say for sure that Alex is coming.

We also have the phrase to make sure, meaning to be certain that something will happen.

Make sure to spell check the proposal.
Make sure you're ready by 7:00.
Please make sure to pack some snacks for the kids.

As you can probably guess, if to make sure is stressed, the level of certainty required is being emphasized:

Make sure to spell check the proposal.
Make sure you're ready by 7:00.
Please make sure to pack some snacks for the kids.

So the word sure, when stressed, uses the other u (other u), the vowel of the word put. When sure is unstressed or said quickly, it is pronounced sure. Fluent speakers can choose which pronunciation is appropriate based on context. If you use a good pronunciation dictionary, it's important to check secondary pronunciations as well as primary pronunciations, and then listen for both when you get a chance to listen to a native speaker.

Non-phonetic words like sure are often a surprise for non-native speakers and ESL students. Many of my students don't trust that they are correctly hearing words pronounced in unexpected ways, and so they continue to incorrectly pronounce words by relying too much on the spelling. For this reason, all of our Pronuncian sound lessons include non-phonetic words for each sound . For instance, in our current sh sound lesson, the words ocean and issue are included along with sure and sugar.

I don't just talk about the free audiobook you can get from Audible.com every week because they are my sponsor. The pronunciation of my students really does improve when they listen very carefully to native speakers. Audiobooks really are a great way to do that while hearing lots of good vocabulary and many repetitions of the words we use most frequently. Don't put it off again. Go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian and download a free audiobook by signing up for a free 14-day trial. You can cancel the trial and keep the book. Then, if possible, go to your local library and pick up a copy of the physical book to read along with as you listen to the audiobook. You will learn things!

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

138: Pronunciation of 'often'

/t/ or no /t/, and what about the 'o'?

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 138th episode.

I was recently asked if the word often, spelled o-f-t-e-n, has a t sound or not. This is a word I hear pronounced both ways, often (no t sound), and often (with a t sound). The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary's 1993 preference poll says that 78% of Americans prefer the no t option.

Based on that, you can choose which pronunciation you prefer and neither option is wrong, but the no t option is quite a bit more common.

If that was all I said in this episode, it would be pretty short, so I decided to add a bit more information and talk about the pronunciation of the letter o at the beginning of the word.

If you do not distinguish between the short o sound (short o) and the aw sound (aw sound), you can use which ever sound you like. Yes, I am referring to the cot-caught merger. If you want to know more about this, I will refer you to episode 67, which is all about the aw sound.

For now I'm going to assume that, like most Americans, you use two different sounds. If this is true, the aw sound is the pronunciation most often used: often.

The letter o frequently causes this kind of confusion. Which sound do we use? Luckily, there is a pattern here. If the letter o is followed by the f sound, it is usually pronounced as the aw sound. Note, however, that this is only true when the o falls on a stressed syllable, otherwise schwa is the more common pronunciation.

Here are some examples of the letter o pronounced as the aw sound. In these examples, the letter o falls on a stressed syllable and is followed by an f sound:

off
office
offer
coffee
soft
loft

The only exception I found to the above pattern is the word profit, which is pronounced with a short o sound instead. Listen closely: profit, not *profit.

To read the transcripts for this podcast, along with all of our other podcasts, go to www.pronuncian.com/podcast. I will also link to our free web lessons that reinforce these ideas from this show's transcripts page.

Don't forget, you can also practice pronunciation by listening to an audio book while seeing the text in a physical book. Yes, half of learning about good pronunciation is through careful listening practice. You can get a free audio book by signing up for a free 2-week trial of Audible.com. You get to keep your audio book even if you cancel your subscription before the trial is complete. Just go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

137: 'ct' spelling plus -ed and -s ending

Difficult consonant combinations explained.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 137th episode.

English allows a large number of consonant sounds to occur next to each other that other languages don't allow. Not surprisingly, this causes problems. One set of sounds that seems particularly difficult is the k sound followed by the t sound, as in the word act. By the way, the word act does have the most common spelling for the k sound followed by the t sound, c plus t. Other examples are the words expect and product.

This sound combination causes even more problems when an ending, such as the -ed ending or -s ending is added to the k sound plus t sound.

One reason this sound combination is so difficult is because both sounds are stops. By stops, I mean that both sounds are created by using the vocal tract to first stop the air, and then aspirate, or release it.

To create the k sound (k sound), the back of my tongue lifts until it touches the soft palate. The soft palate is that soft, mushy area at top of the back of the mouth. Make the k sound with me to feel where it's located (k sound, k sound).

The t sound touches the tip of the tongue to the tooth ridge. The tooth ridge is that hard bump right behind your top front teeth. Make the t sound with me to feel where this sound is located (t sound, t sound).

So to make the k sound followed by the t sound, the tongue needs to move very quickly, first rising in the back of the mouth to stop the air, then releasing it as the tip of the tongue rises. It allows us to create (k sound+t sound, k sound+t sound).

We're going to practice some verbs that end in the k sound plus the t sound. Repeat after me:

act
expect
proJECT
impact
affect

To make it a little more difficult, we're now going to add the -ed ending to those words to notice how the t sound changes a little bit. Listen to the word acted, acted. The aspiration, or puff of air, that occurs at the end of the t sound of acted is so small that you may hear it as a d sound, acted. If I didn't lessen the aspiration and instead created the sound identically to how I create the t sound at the beginning of a word, I would be pronouncing it as !acted. Can you hear the difference?

I'll say them both again. The first example will be the way Americans normally produce this sound when it occurs mid-word, and the second example is with a fully aspirated t sound. The second example is the way you will not normally hear it pronounced.

First: acted
Second: !acted

I'll say them both again.

acted
!acted

Let's practice saying the normal, less aspirated, mid-word t sound. I'm going to take the same five verbs we practiced before, and this time I'll add the -ed ending. Repeat after me:

acted
expected
projected
impacted
affected

Now let's switch and add an -s ending to the verbs to demonstrate something that might be unexpected. When I say the word acts, I don't actually say the t sound, acts. This is the normal American pronunciation of this combination. Listen to it again: acts. If I were to force that t sound back into the word, it would be pronounced as !acts. Can you hear the difference? I'll say them both again, first with a normally dropped t sound, then with the more unusual pronunciation that includes the t sound.

First: acts
Second: !acts

I'll say them again.

acts
!acts

This will probably sound more normal to you if I use the word in a sentence:

My cat acts like a kitten.

One more time:

My cat acts like a kitten.

This dropping of the t sound when it occurs between two other consonant sounds is normal, and it's not just the k sound plus t sound plus s sound that causes this. Any time the t sound is between two consonants, it is likely dropped. Let me emphasize that this doesn't have anything to do with speaking formally or not, it's commonly pronounced this way, no matter what the audience of the speaker is.

The error that I often hear is non-native speakers dropping the k sound instead of the t sound in words like acts. Sorry, but that is not the correct pronunciation. If you say !ats instead of acts, you could cause a miscommunication to occur. So don't do that.

Here are our five verbs from before, this time with an -s ending:

acts
expects
projects
impacts
affects

If you'd like more practice with this combination of sounds, we've created a new exercise on Pronuncian.com with the most frequently-used words in American English. Sorry, but only Pronuncian subscribers have access to our exercises. You see, we rely on your subscriptions to be able to pay our bills, and those include everything that keeps this podcast freely coming to you. So, if you can, help support this show by going to www.pronuncian.com/join. In return, you get full access to all of Pronuncian's exercises, quizzes, and videos.

You can also help support us by going to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian and signing up for a free 2-week Audible.com trial. You get a free audiobook to keep, and, if you cancel before your 2 weeks is up, it doesn't cost you anything at all!

Finally, I want to mention our free stuff on Pronuncian. You can read the transcripts for this podcast, as well as all of our past shows, by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast. I link to any relevant free lessons from each show's podcast page to help you learn as much as possible, yes, for free. So check it out. That was www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

135: m sound/n sound/ng sound

The sounds that come out your nose!

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 135th episode.

Today's show is about nasal sounds. Nasal sounds are those sounds that you surprisingly need to use your nose to create. To show you what I mean, let's do a quick little experiment with the three nasal sounds of English: the m sound, n sound, and ng sound. We'll start with the m sound because it's the easiest. To create the m sound, the lips must be closed: (m sound). Now, I want you to create that sound while holding your nose shut with your fingers. You can't really just imagine this action in your head, you have to actually do it. So hold your nose shut and say the m sound.

Could you do it? If you could, you aren't creating the sound correctly. This is because the air must pass out through our nose for all three nasal sounds.

Let's try the n sound next. To create the n sound, my tongue is pressed against the middle of my tooth ridge. My tooth ridge is that bump right behind my top front teeth. I completely block the air from pushing past my tongue, and so the air must come out my nose: (n sound). Again, you cannot create that sound if your nose is plugged.

The n sound can really be a troublesome sound for native speakers of Cantonese and Japanese, but for different reasons.

If you are a native Cantonese speaker, you must be very careful that you are forcing air out your nose. Otherwise, you tend to create an English l sound by mistake. Think about how similar these sounds are for a bit. The l sound also presses the tip of the tongue to the tooth ridge. This substitution can cause a lot of miscommunication because, unless your listener has a lot of interaction with Cantonese speakers, we just aren't expecting it, and so we don't naturally transfer it into what you meant to say.

If you are a native Japanese speaker, you want to be careful that you're not using the m sound for both the n sound and m sound. This is also an uncommon substitution, and may cause confusion for your listener.

Finally, we have the ng sound, the final sound in the word sing (ng sound). This sound uses a vocal tract movement similar to a k sound and g sound. Say the k sound: (k sound). Notice how the back of your tongue lifts and touches your soft palate. Your soft palate is the soft, squishy area at the top, back of your mouth.

Now, lift your tongue like you're making a k sound, but don't release it from your soft palate. If you allow air to come out your nose, you will create an ng sound: (ng sound).

In English, the ng sound cannot occur in the beginning of a word. This is why native speakers of English get so confused when we see a name that begins with the letters ng-. This happens a lot with Vietnamese names. If your name begins with the letters ng, you can play with native English speaking friends and teach us the correct way to pronounce your name.

Let's do some practice with the three nasal sounds of English. These are just the short lists. If you want a longer list, you can subscribe to the Pronuncian website and find that extra practice at the bottom of the m sound, n sound, or ng sound lessons. As always, I'll link to those lessons from this episode's transcripts, which you can find at www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

First, let's practice a few m sound/ng sound minimal pairs:

brim, bring
rim, ring
swim, swing

Now a few n sound/ng sound minimal pairs:

thin, thing
ton, tongue
kin, king

Now a few m sound/n sound minimal pairs:

numb, none
same, sane
warm, warn

And finally a few m sound/n sound/ng sound minimal sets:

rum, run, rung
some, sun/son, sung
whim, win, wing

As I said, you can get more practice like this on the Pronuncian minimal sets nasal exercise which is linked to from the spelling and pronunciation lessons for these sounds.

Let me quickly remind you again that you can also get a free audiobook from Audible.com by visiting www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

134: consonant-y-consonant

The letter "y" in the middle of a word.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 134th episode.

I'm going to stick with vowels spellings one more week and talk about a letter I really haven't talked about very much: the letter y. Specifically, I'm going to talk about the letter y when it is between two consonants. The letter y at the beginning of a word is generally pronounced as a y sound alone (as in the word yes) or as the beginning y sound of the two-sound vowel, long u sound (as in the word youth). If the letter y occurs at the end of a word, it is often pronounced as a long i (as in the word my) or a long e (as in the word any).

Today, however, I want to talk about y when it is in the middle of a word and is between two consonants. Luckily, there are only two different common pronunciations for this spelling: short i and long i. The short i pronunciation seems to be about twice as common as the long i. Let's get into some of the details.

The short i sound is pronounced (short i); it is the vowel sound in the word sit. The short i is a rather relaxed sound, and is one of the two common sounds for an unstressed vowel (listen to podcast episode 126 for more details on short i as an unstressed vowel sound). My tongue is rounded upward for this sound, but not so much that I create a long e sound (long e). Listen to a comparison of the short i and long e; I'll say the short i sound first: (short i, long e, short i, long e).

Some examples of the letter y pronounced as a short i include the words system, typical, and bicycle.

The long i is pronounced (long i). It is a two-sound vowel. The tongue is neutral at the beginning of the sound, and then moves upward into a sound similar to a y sound. If I say the sound very slowly, hopefully you can hear both parts of the sound (long i) . The long i is the vowel sound in the word bike (b sound, long i, k sound). Some examples of the letter y pronounced as a long i include the words type, cycle, and analyze.

To help you predict the pronunciation of the letter y, I looked through the 5000 most frequently used words according to A Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary American English. This spelling really isn't very common; there are only 28 words within the top 5000 words that have a letter y in the middle of a word between two consonants. Actually, there were more than that, but I didn't count compound words like anywhere or myself where the y is the final letter of the first word.

So, of the 28 words I found, 20 of them are pronounced with a short i, and only eight are are pronounced with a long i. Basically, that means that two of every three words spelled consonant-y-consonant are pronounced with a short i.

Some loose patterns that might help you predict the long i pronunciation include: first, the letter after the second consonant is the letter e. This works for the words type, style, and analyze. Also, the prefix hypo-, as in the word hypothesis is pronounced as a long i, and so is the spelling dyn- as in the word dynamic.

Outside of those few patterns, consonant-y-consonant tends to be a short i pronunciation.

Before we do a quick practice of sounds for this spelling, I want to let you know about a few different things. First, we've put together a Vowels eBooklet that includes all of the spelling and pronunciation patterns for the vowels and r-controlled vowels of American English. Along with all 24 lessons, you also get the complete audio for the lessons in MP3 format. This is meant to help you really understand the crazy spelling patterns of English vowels while hearing the examples for each spelling.

Also, separate from the Vowel eBooklet, there is a new exercise posted to Pronuncian that lists all of the consonant-y-consonant words in the top 5000 most frequent words, and includes audio of them for you to listen to and practice. Access to all of Pronuncian's exercises is one of the benefits that subscribers get for helping to support this show financially. You can find the exercises for today's episode as links from the short i and long i spelling and pronunciation lessons, which I will link to from this show's transcripts page. As always, you can find the free transcripts at www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

Now, let's practice some high-frequency words spelled consonant-y-consonant. Listen for the difference in pronunciation between the short i (short i), and the long i (long i). I'll say words that are pronounced with a short i first, and I'll leave time for you to repeat after me:

system
analyst
rhythm
symbol
bicycle

Now for some words pronounced long i:

type
style
cycle
analyze
dynamic

As I say in every episode, listening to an audio book while seeing the text in a physical book can really help you notice both common spelling patterns as well as the exceptions. You can get a free audio book by signing up for a free 2-week trial of Audible.com. You get to keep your audio book even if you cancel your subscription before the trial is complete. Just go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

133: t/d, p/b, and k/g at the beginning of a word

Puff practice! Stop sounds at the beginning of words.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 133rd episode.

Today I'm going to revisit stop sounds at the beginning of words. This topic seems so simple, yet it is hugely important when it comes to being understood.

First, let's review the concepts of stop sounds, and of voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds.

Stops are created when we stop the air before letting it out our mouth, and then release it quickly and without friction. English has six consonant stops: the t sound (t sound), d sound (d sound), p sound (p sound), b sound (b sound), k sound (k sound) and g sound (g sound).

The other very important point about stop sounds is that they occur in voiced and unvoiced pairs. At a broad level of description, a voiced sound uses our vocal cords during the sound's creation, and an unvoiced sound does not. To understand this better, place a few fingers against the front of your neck and say the d sound (d sound). You should feel a vibration against your fingers. Now say the t sound (t sound). Be careful to not add a vowel sound to the t sound. Don't say "tuh," just (t sound). Say them both again so you can feel the difference between the voiced and unvoiced sound: (d sound, t sound).

A voiced and unvoiced pair uses the same movement of the vocal tract to form both sounds of the pair. For instance, my tongue moves to the same place for the t sound and the d sound (t sound, d sound). Similarly, the lips have the same movement during the p sound and the b sound (p sound, b sound). This makes them a pair.

When we have a stop sound at the beginning of a word there is a difference between the voiced and unvoiced sounds that is actually more important than the voicing or not. This very important difference is how much of a puff of air is released with the sound. This puff is called the aspiration.

In English, we produce a much greater puff with the release of an unvoiced stop than with a voiced stop. This causes trouble for speakers coming from languages where this isn't true such as French, Spanish, and Dutch.

The first clue that you might not be aspirating your unvoiced stops enough is that people sometimes misunderstand you when you say words that begin with the t sound, p sound, or k sound. This seems to especially happen with the p sound.

The way to check if you are aspirating enough is by putting your fingers right in front of your mouth, very close to your lips. When you say the unvoiced sounds you should feel a pretty big difference in the puff of air that hits your finger. For example, say the words to and do. You should feel much more air hit your fingers at the beginning of the word to: to, do; to, do.

Let's practice some minimal sets between unvoiced and voiced stop sounds at the beginning of words. There are very few minimal sets that include a word for every one of the six English stop sounds, so I'm going to say sets that include two of the three pairs. I'll say the unvoiced stop first, then the voiced counterpart, then another unvoiced stop, and then its counterpart. After I say all four words, I'll leave time for you to repeat after me.

If you are unsure if you are pronouncing these sounds correctly or not, keep your fingers in front of your lips. You want to feel a much greater puff of air at the beginning of the first word and third word than at the beginning of the second word and the fourth word.

Ready?

tie, die, pie, buy
ton, done, pun, bun
tuck, duck, puck, buck
tear, dare, pear, bear
post, boast, coast, ghost
polled, bold, cold, gold
tote, dote, coat, goat

All of these minimal sets, and more, are in a new exercise we put up with the Introduction to Stops lesson on Pronuncian. While all of our lessons are free to everyone, only members and subscribers get access to the exercises. The financial support we receive from members is what allows us to keep creating free content like the lessons and these podcasts. Go to www.pronuncian.com/join for details.

Meanwhile, I have linked to the free Introduction to Stops lesson from this show's transcripts. You can find that by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast. Pronuncian is spelled p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n.

Let me remind you again that listening to an audio book while seeing the text in a physical book can really help you notice pronunciation details that are hard to catch in regular conversation. You can get a free audio book by signing up for a free 2-week trial of Audible.com. You get to keep your book even if you cancel your subscription before the trial is complete. Just go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. It's a great way to learn!

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

132: ea spelling: long e or short e

Which pronunciation is the most common for this spelling?

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 132nd episode.

This week I went back to my copy of A Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary American English to see which words spelled ea are pronounced with a long e and which are pronounced with a short e.

The long e sounds like (long e); it's the vowel sound in the word keep. My tongue is held very high in my mouth during this sound: (long e).

The short e (short e) is not just a long e held for less time. The shape of the tongue is actually different. To create the short e sound, my tongue much lower in my mouth, and is only slightly rounded upward. Listen to the short e sound: (short e). It's the sound in the word bed.

An example of a word spelled ea and pronounced with a long e sound is the word team, t-e-a-m. An example of a word spelled ea that is pronounced with a short e sound is head, h-e-a-d.

I was hoping my frequency dictionary would show me a very straightforward pattern with few exceptions. Unfortunately, I found a list of words much more complicated than I was expecting.

There are 116 words in the top 2000 most frequently used words that include the ea spelling. 68 of those words, or 59%, are pronounced with a long e sound. So, if you want the very simple answer, long e is the better guess for the pronunciation of the ea spelling in an unfamiliar word. If you don't want to get confused with the messy, complicated details, stop listening here.

The problem, you see, is that the remaining 41% of the words are not all pronounced with the short e sound. Instead, the remaining words are broken into a number of different categories. Thankfully, the largest category is the short e sound, with 22 words.

So the good news is that a total of 78% of the words spelled ea are pronounced with either a long e or a short e.

But what about the rest of them?

First we have the eight words that are spelled ear and pronounced as schwa+r. Remember, schwa+r really just sounds like an r sound. So the word earth, for instance, is essentially a two-sound word, (schwa+r) and (unvoiced th), earth.

But, we don't just get to assume that all words spelled ear are pronounced as schwa+r because 15 of our words in the original long e list are also spelled ear. This includes words like clear, near, and appearance. So, if you were to guess at the pronunciation of a word spelled ear, the long e plus an r sound is the better guess.

The next largest chunk of pronunciations for the ea spelling is breaking it up into two separate vowel sounds in two separate syllables. This includes the words area, idea, and create. In the top 2000 words, only seven words follow this pattern. So it isn't very common, but you might still want to be aware of it.

After all of this, we still have the 11 words that don't follow any of the four patterns I highlighted so far. If a pronunciation for a certain spelling occurs less than five percent of the time, I consider those pronunciations to be exceptions, and those words must be learned individually. Among these words, heart and wear, despite their ear spelling are pronounced with neither a long e or schwa+r, great and break are pronounced with a long a, and beautiful and beauty are a part of the long u pronunciation.

This is all very difficult to comprehend from just listening to a podcast, and so I created two exercises on Pronuncian to help you. These exercises include audio for all the words in the top 1000 most frequently used words, including the different pronunciations I just talked about. Only Pronuncian subscribers have access to the exercises, but everyone can visit the free lessons for long e and short e, which include all the common spelling patterns for those sounds. I'll link to those lessons from this episode's transcript which you can find by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

For now, let's do a little practice. I'm going to say the top five words in the categories of long e, short e, schwa+r, and other pronunciations. I'll leave time for you to repeat after me.

long e
year
leave
mean
each
hear

short e
already
health
death
dead
ready

schwa+r
learn
early
research (noun)
early
earth

It was not a mistake that I said early twice. It's listed in the frequency dictionary first as an adjective, then as an adverb. That's why I include the part of speech in which each word is listed in the exercises. Since the frequency dictionary does not include the word's pronunciation, this also helps to know the pronunciation of words that have different pronunciations based on the part of speech. This includes words like research as a noun, and research as a verb.

Moving on, we have the top five words that aren't in any of the three categories above:

great
area
idea
create
heart

Listening to an audio book while seeing the text in a physical book can really help you notice both common spelling patterns as well as the exceptions. You can get a free audio book by signing up for a free 2-week trial of Audible.com. You get to keep your book even if you cancel your subscription before the trial is complete. Just go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. It's a great way to learn!

Also, don't forget, becoming a Pronuncian member gives you access to all of Pronuncian's exercises, quizzes, and videos, plus provides us with the necessary financial support to keep creating free content like the lessons and these podcasts. Go to www.pronuncian.com/join for details.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

131: The word "new" in place names

Syllable stress patterns in open compound nouns.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 131st episode.

I don't talk about how to pronounce place names very often. People take the pronunciation of places very personally, and place names often vary quite a bit between the people who live there and people who don't live there. Generally, individuals who don't live there use a more phonetic pronunciation. By the term phonetic I mean that it is pronounced as we would expect due to the spelling.

However, there is one interesting, and kind of surprising fact about place name pronunciation when the word new is included in a two-word place name, such as the names New York or New Mexico.

These place names can be considered open compound nouns. Compound nouns are words that combine two or more words, this includes words like footprint, newspaper, credit card, and bus pass. In that list credit card, and bus pass are called open compounds because there is a space between the words. This makes them more difficult to classify as compound nouns and tends to cause more trouble for non-native speakers to stress correctly.

Most compound nouns, whether they are open or closed, are stressed on the first word. This means that the stressed syllable of the first word is said with the most emphasis of all of the syllables the compound contains.

Even though names that include the word new can be considered open compound nouns, they aren't stressed like normal compound nouns. Instead, open compound nouns that include the word new tend to be stressed on the second word.

There are quite a few place names beginning with the word new: New York, New Hampshire, New England, New Orleans, New Mexico, New Dehli, New Guinea, New Brunswick and New Zealand are just some of the more well-known places that include the word New.

The strange aspect of this pattern is that it is only common when the compound name is an open compound. Once the words are joined, the word becomes a closed compound noun, and no space remains. In closed compound nouns containing the word new, the word new takes the stress. Some examples of this include: Newark, Newport, Newfoundland, Newhaven, and Newcastle.

To help you solidify the main pattern of compound nouns, there is a new lesson on Pronuncian regarding open and closed compound nouns. I'll link to it from the transcripts for this show, which you can find at www.pronuncian.com/transcripts. If you are a Pronuncian subscriber, there is also a new exercise highlighting the most frequently used closed compound nouns of American English. You can find that exercise at the bottom of the free lesson.

As always, we certainly appreciate all of you who have subscribed to Pronuncian, since that allows us to keep producing lots of free material to share openly with anyone who would like to learn.

Listening to a wide variety of English speakers is a great way to gain an intuitive understanding of the stress patterns of English, and a way that I encourage all of my students to practice listening is to listen to an audiobook. You can download a free audiobook, to keep, by signing up for a free 2-week trial of audible.com. Just go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. After you download your book, you can cancel your subscription and keep your book.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

130: 2-syllable word stress

How accurate are the 2-syllable word stress patterns?

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 130th episode.

Today's podcast has some numbers and statistics along with the lesson, so I would recommend reading the transcripts while listening to the show. You can find the transcripts, for free, by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

Today we're going to talk about 2-syllable words, and some interesting facts about 2-syllable words derived from my frequency dictionary. I don't think I've talked about frequency dictionaries on this podcast before. A frequency dictionary uses a giant corpus to tell us which words are used most often.

So, what's a corpus?

In the linguistic sense, a corpus is a very large body of texts from a bunch of different sources. This allows linguists to study which words are being used, how they're being used, and what other words are used with them.

My favorite frequency dictionary is Mark Davies and Dee Gardner's A Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary American English. I like this dictionary because it focuses on American English and uses a corpus of formal and informal written text and spoken dialog. Plus, I like that it's really easy to use.

Now, you won't find phonetic transcriptions in this dictionary; it doesn't tell us how to pronounce a word. And it doesn't provide definitions, so it doesn't tell us the meaning of a word. It does tell us other words that are often used near a word, the part of speech the word is being used in, and most important to me, how frequently we use the word.

I found an interesting chart on the OxfordDictionaries website about word frequency. They calculated, based on a corpus, that the 10 most frequently used words make up 25% of the overall words we use in English. This is incredible because it means that one in four words we use are comprised of the same 10 words! Now, let me get a little specific and tell you that this includes conjugations of a word as a single word. So, for instance, the words have, has, and had all count as the same word, the base word have.

OxfordDictionaries says 50% of all of the words we use are made up of only 100 different words, and 75% of all the words we use are included in only the top 1000 words.

This week I decided to dive into my frequency dictionary to see how relevant the 2-syllable word stress patterns actually are in the words we use most often. I was very surprised at the accuracy I found, and I got so excited about it that I decided to create 4 new exercises for the 2-syllable word stress lesson.

Let's review the pattern. The 2-syllable word stress pattern states that 2-syllable nouns, adverbs, and adjectives are usually stressed on the first syllable and 2-syllable verbs are usually stressed on the second syllable.

I counted all of the 2-syllable nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs in the top 500 most frequently used words.

Within the 50 nouns on the list, 88% are indeed stressed on the first syllable. That's pretty good.

Within the 12 adjectives, all of them are stressed on the first syllable. Wow.

Within the 23 adverbs, however, only 62% are actually stressed on the first syllable, so that pattern is not followed so closely.

And finally, of the 19 2-syllable verbs in the top 500 words, 84% are stressed on the second syllable. Again, that's pretty accurate for an English pronunciation pattern.

So, if we do a little math, of the 104 total 2-syllable nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs in 500 most frequently used words of American English, almost 84% follow the 2-syllable word stress pattern.

Like I said, I took these findings and created 4 new Pronuncian exercises from them. On Pronuncian, exercises are the additional material that's only available to our subscribers and members. This is the only way we can afford to keep so much material, including these podcasts free to everyone. So, if you want the whole lists, along with their audio and including the words that do not follow the pattern, you'll have to join Pronuncian.

Since I love my podcast listeners so much, though, I'm going to do a listen-and-repeat activity with the most frequently used 5 words that do follow the pattern in each category.

I'll start with nouns, which we expect to be stressed on the first syllable:

people
woman
country
problem
student

Here are the adjectives:

other
different
little
only
public

Adverbs:

also
only
very
even
never

And here are the verbs, which we expect to be stressed on the second syllable:

become
begin
believe
provide
include

I'll link to the free 2-syllable word stress lesson on this topic in this week's transcripts, and the links to the new exercises are at the bottom of that lesson.

I always encourage learners to listen to lots of genres and speakers of English to help notice and review the skills learned on these podcasts. A perfect place to find great speech is to listen to an audiobook. You can download a free audiobook, to keep, by signing up for a free 2-week trial of audible.com by going to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. After you download your book, you can cancel your subscription and keep your book. Trust me, one book will last you a long time if you really use it to evaluate speech.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

129: Portuguese speakers special, part 2

Troublesome consonant sounds for Portuguese speakers.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 129th episode.

Episode 127 covered the vowel sound issues faced by native Portuguese speakers. Now lets get into some issues with consonant sounds.

Here is a warning: I'm about to give you a lot of information all at once. If this is the first time you're hearing all of this, you'll want to go back and listen to related podcasts, or it will just be too much to fully understand. Also, for complicated episodes like this one, reading the transcripts while listening is a good idea. You can find transcripts and links to the free Pronuncian lessons associated with this episode at www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

Here we go.

Native Portuguese speakers tend to have a fair amount of trouble with discontinuous consonants. Discontinuous consonants are all the sounds that require the air to be stopped at some point before leaving the vocal tract. In English, we have 8 discontinuous consonants: 6 are stops and 2 are affricates.

Let's start with the stops.

All the stop sounds occur in voiced and unvoiced pairs, meaning that the overall shape of the vocal tract is the same for the voiced and the unvoiced sound. The b sound, d sound, and g sound, are voiced, while the p sound, t sound, and k sound are unvoiced. The voiced sounds require our vocals cords to vibrate, and the unvoiced sounds do not. Another equally important difference between voiced and unvoiced stops is aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air that comes out when the stop is released.

Consonant Issue 1: Not fully aspirating unvoiced stop sounds at the beginning of words

When an unvoiced stop occurs at the beginning of a word, it is given a large amount of aspiration (a large puff of air). The aspiration of unvoiced stops and the lack of aspiration of voiced stops is actually just as important as voicing or not for the purposes of understandability. You can feel the amount of aspiration by putting a few fingers in front of your mouth when you create the sound. You should notice a rather dramatic difference in the amount of puff. Say these sounds after me:

p sound/b sound: (p sound, b sound)
t sound/d sound: (t sound, d sound)
k sound/g sound (k sound, g sound)

Could you feel a difference?

Let's practice some minimal pairs of words that begin with unvoiced and voiced stops. I'm going to use the same examples that are on the Introduction to Stops lesson on Pronuncian.com. Repeat these words after me, and make sure you have greater aspiration for the unvoiced stop:

p sound/b sound: pig, big
t sound/d sound: time, dime
k sound/g sound: cold, gold

Consonant Issue 2: not stopping the air during affricates

Just a bit ago I said that we have 8 discontinuous consonants, and that 6 are stops and 2 are affricates. The two affricates are the ch sound (ch sound ) and the j sound (j sound).

An affricate is like a stop because all the air is briefly stopped from leaving the vocal tract, but when an affricate is released, it is released with friction. To put it another way, there is more sound during the release of an affricate than there is during the release of a stop. The final part of the ch sound (ch sound ) is basically an sh sound (sh sound). The final part of the j sound (j sound), is like a zh sound (zh sound).

The problem Portuguese speakers have with affricates is not in how the air is released, but that the air is never stopped to begin with. If the air is not stopped, native English speakers will hear only the sh sound or zh sound. This is a bigger problem with the ch sound because there are more minimal pairs between the ch sound and sh sound. Here are just a few of those minimal pairs (I'll say the word with the ch sound

chew, shoe
chair, share
witch (which), wish

There is only one common minimal pair between the j sound and the zh sound, but it is noteworthy. That minimal pair is virgin and version, so don't think that the j sound isn't also important.

Consonant Issue 3: Pronouncing the th sounds as the t sound and d sound

I just told you about a problem that can occur when the ch sound and j sound are not stopped at the beginning. The next problem is adding a stop when there shouldn't be one. American English has two th sounds: a voiced th (voiced th), as in the word them, and an unvoiced th (unvoiced th) as in the word think. Native Portuguese speakers (along with a huge number of other non-native English speakers) substitute a t sound for an unvoiced th sound and a d sound for a voiced th sound.

If you have trouble smoothly transitioning to and from the th sounds, try to create the sounds by placing the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth and blowing air into the back of your teeth rather than putting your tongue between your front teeth. When your tongue is between your front teeth it is so far forward that many people have trouble moving quickly enough between sounds. That causes speakers to substitute a different sound that is easier to say. Again, for the voiced and unvoiced th sounds, that is usually the d sound and t sound.

Let's practice some minimal pairs between these sounds. I'll start with the unvoiced th and t sound. I'll say the unvoiced th sound first, and I'll leave time for you to repeat after me:

bath, bat
both, boat
three, tree

And here are some minimal pairs between the voiced th sound and the d sound. I'll say the voiced th sound first, and again, I'll leave time for you to repeat after me.

their, dare
then, den
breathe, breed

Consonant Issue 4: Pronouncing the z sound as an s sound

Another pair of voiced/unvoiced consonant sounds that cause problems for native Portuguese speakers is saying the s sound when the correct sound would be a z sound. Much of this may be due to the fact that the z sound is so often spelled with an s.

In fact, all of the following high-frequency words end in a z sound, not an an s sound (please repeat after me):

is
his
as
because
these
those
always
lose

Consonant Issue 5: Tapping the r sound

When I say that Portuguese speakers tap the r sound, I mean that there is a tendency to very quickly touch the tip of the tongue to the tooth ridge during the r sound. It sounds a bit like this: (tapped r). The technical name for this sound is an alveolar tap, and we actually do have this sound in American English, except that in American English it has nothing to do with an r sound. We use the alveolar tap like a quick, voiced t sound, such as in the word item, and the middle of the word water.

The r sound in American English, however, does not sound like this. Instead, we use a smooth, untapped sound (r sound). The place that it seems Portuguese speakers are most likely to tap their r sound is when it follows the unvoiced th sound. Listen to and repeat the following words after me, and be careful to not tap your r sound:

three
through
throw
thread
threat
thrill
throat
throttle

So those are the top five consonant pronunciation errors for native Portuguese speakers. If you missed the episode about vowel sounds, I covered those errors just a few weeks ago in episode 127.

If you have questions about anything I mentioned here, you can post them on our new forums located at www.englishassembly.com. I'd love to have more interaction on the forums from native Portuguese speakers since I know so many of you download these podcasts and use the Pronuncian materials. Please, join the conversations!

As I say every week, listening practice is incredibly important for improving your own pronunciation. Therefore, I'm going to remind you that you can download a free Audible.com audiobook by using our special promotion code www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. You just need to sign up for a free two week trial, pick your book, download it, and then you can immediately cancel your subscription if you want. You get to keep your book and listen to it as many times as you want.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

128: The pronunciations of i-consonant-e

i-consonant-e in 1-, 2-, and 3-syllable words for English as a Second Language Learners.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 128th episode.

In podcast episode 126, which was the second part of the unstressed syllables podcasts, I mentioned that an unstressed letter e is often pronounced as a quick short i sound. Today I want to focus a little more on the letter i by highlighting the i-consonant-e spelling pattern while taking syllable stress patterns into account. This is a rather complex podcast, and is meant for an advanced level student. At a minimum, you will want to watch podcast episode 49, which is the video introducing the long i and short i sounds.

Also, since there are a lot of topics covered in this episode, you may want to follow along with the transcripts, which you can find by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

I know I've said this many times before, but some of you might be new to this podcast, so I'll say it again. Long vowels are not just short vowels that take more time. "Long" and "short" are just names of sounds. Long vowels and short vowels are sometimes similar in spelling, but they are not pronounced the same.

To review, the short i sounds like (short i), and is the vowel sound of the word sit. My tongue is mid-high in my mouth, and more relaxed than the long e, which sounds like (long e).

A general spelling rule for short vowel sounds is that they occur when the vowel letter is between two consonants and there is no silent e at the end of the word. I call this the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern. The words kit, rip, bit, fin, and quit are all pronounced with a short i due to the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern.

Long vowels all sound like their letter name, so the long i sounds like the letter (long i); it's the vowel sound in the word bike. The long i is a two-sound vowel. Two-sound vowels include a sound similar to a w sound or y sound in their pronunciation. The long i ends in a sound similar to a y sound (long i).

The long i begins with the tip of the tongue in a neutral position in the mouth. The back of the tongue is low and touches the back teeth. Then the body of the tongue moves upward until it's near the tooth ridge, similar to the position of a y sound. The sound is pronounced (long i).

One of the standard spelling rules for long vowel sounds is that they have a "silent e" at the end of a word. I call this the vowel-consonant-e spelling pattern. I can add an e to the five examples I gave for short vowels, and their pronunciation changes to a long i sound. This gives us the words kite, ripe, bite, fine, and quite.

However, the vowel-consonant-e pattern depends on one additional characteristic. All the examples I just gave you were single-syllable words. If I have a multi-syllable word, the consonant-vowel-e spelling pattern relies on occurring on a stressed syllable. Let's listen to some two-syllable words that are stressed on the second syllable and are pronounced with a long i:

arrive
decide
advice
describe

What happens if the syllable is not stressed? Hopefully you remember that unstressed syllables are often pronounced with a reduced vowel sound. This is true even if the spelling is vowel-consonant-e.

Here some two-syllable words that have the i-consonant-e spelling on an unstressed syllable, causing the vowel sound to be reduced to (short i). Listen closely:

service
active
practice
office

If we move on to three-syllable words, things get trickier because we introduce the possibility of secondarily-stressed syllable. A secondary stress occurs two syllables away from a main stress. This is easier to understand with an example. Listen to the word recognize; I'm saying the word spelled r-e-c-o-g-n-i-z-e. The first syllable of recognize is stressed, it sounds like rec. The syllable after that is reduced to schwa, and it sounds like og. The third syllable has a secondary stress. It's not said as loudly as the first syllable, but the vowel sound is not reduced and remains pronounced as a long i, just like we expect by the -ize spelling: recongize.

In fact, almost all words that end in -ize are going to be pronounced with a long i because that suffix causes those words to be stressed three syllables from the end of the word. This causes the final syllable to be given a secondary stress. Here are more examples of the pattern:

digitize
civilize
criticize
apologize

Now, if we look at the -ive suffix, we see a different stress pattern: words that end in -ive are stressed one syllable before the suffix. This means that the final syllable is likely to be reduced because it's next to a stressed syllable. This give us the (-ive) pronunciation--using a short i--in the following words:

creative
effective
expensive
compulsive

Let's quickly compare some words from the first list with words from the second:

digitize, creative
civilize, effective
criticize, expensive
apologize, compulsive

You can see how quickly the different patterns of English layer on top of one another. Initially, spelling is important, but syllable stress also plays a crucial role. There are patterns for syllable stress based on suffixes, but they can take a while to learn. Obviously, once you become aware of which features to give the most attention to while listening, the more quickly you can learn to correct your own speech.

It's because I know how important listening practice is for improving your own pronunciation that I am continuing to tell you that you can download a free Audible.com audiobook by using our special promotion code www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. You just need to sign up for a free two week trial, pick your book, download it, and then you can immediately cancel your subscription if you want. You get to keep your book to listen to again and again, and again if you want.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

127: Portuguese speakers special, part 1

The English vowel sounds that cause problems for Portuguese speakers.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 127th episode.

Hello Portuguese speakers! Many of you have asked me for a special episode, and here is part 1: vowels. I'm breaking this show up into parts because episodes that talk about specific language issues cover so many different concepts, it's just too much for one show. So part 1 will cover 5 vowels issues, and part 2 will cover 5 consonants issues. Since I still can't get into a huge amount of detail, I'll also link to the free Pronuncian lessons for each issue. That way you can learn more if you want to.

Here we go.

Issue 1: Pronouncing the short i as a long e

This is a problem not just for native Portuguese speakers, but for for almost all non-native English speakers. You know you have this problem if you are scared to talk to native speakers about going to the beach or to ask them for a sheet of paper. Your listeners may over-correct, and never really be sure which sound you're intending to say.

The short i is the vowel sound in the word sit, (short i), sit. The long e is the vowel sound in the word keep, (long e), keep. The tongue needs to be dropped a bit lower in the mouth to produce the short i sound. Learning to relax the tongue a little will also help. Listen to the difference, I'll say the short i, then the long e (short i - long e, short i - long e) sit, keep.

To practice, repeat these minimal pairs after me (I'll say the word with the short i sound first):

dip, deep
grin, green
lick, leak

Issue 2: Incorrectly pronouncing the short a sound

The short a sounds like (short a), and is the vowel sound in the word cat. Portuguese speakers have two different sounds commonly used in place of the short a, the short e or the short o.

It takes a lot of effort to say the short a. The tongue is pushed forward, into your bottom front teeth (short a). If you are accidentally substituting the short e (short e), which is the sound in the word bed, your tongue is too relaxed and isn't pushed forward enough. Listen to the difference, I'll say the short a, then the short e (short a - short e, short a - short e), cat, bed.

To practice, repeat these short a/short e minimal pairs after me (I'll say the word with the short a sound first):

had, head
sand, send
pan, pen

If you're accidentally substituting a short o (short o), the vowel sound of the word top, your tongue is also not forward enough. In addition, the center of your tongue is too low. Listen to the difference, I'll say the short a, then the short o (short a - short o, short a - short o) cat, top.

Let's practice. Repeat these short a/short o minimal pairs after me (I'll say the word with the short a sound first):

black, block
hat, hot
tap, top

Issue 3: Pronouncing the long a as a short e sound

Remember, the long a is not a short a that takes more time; long a is only a name. The long a sounds like (long a), and is the vowel sound in the word cake. The long a is a two-sound vowel. It begins with the tongue neutral in the center of the mouth. Then the tongue rises to a sound similar to a y sound. This means that the tongue is moved close to the hard palate and the back of the tooth ridge.

Remember, the short e is a neutral and relaxed sound created with the tongue slightly raised in the middle; it's the vowel sound of the word bed, (short e), bed. The short e is actually very similar to the beginning of the long a. So the problem occurs when the second part of the long a is not produced. Listen to the difference, I'll say the long a, then the short e (long a - short e, long a - short e) cake, bed.

Repeat these long a/short e minimal pairs after me (I'll say the word with the long a sound first):

pain, pen
age, edge
taste, test

Issue 4: Not fully pronouncing the long o sound

You've heard it before, and I'm saying it again: the long o is not a short o that takes more time; it's only a name. The long o sounds like (long o), and is the vowel sound in the word home. The long o is another two-sound vowel. It begins with the tongue low in the mouth, then transitions into a sound very similar to a w sound. This means that the tongue rises in the back at the same time as the lips are made into a slight circle. The second part of the long o sound is very important, and not completing it will cause miscommunication. Listen to the sound again (long o), home.

I'm going to compare the long o with the short u, since the short u is the most neutral vowel sound. Comparing it with the short u will help you hear both parts of the long o. I'll say the word with the long o sound first:

coat, cut
known, none
robe, rub

Issue 5: Not reducing vowel sounds

Our last two podcasts were about vowel sounds being reduced to schwa or the short i sound. I gave lots of examples of words that sound very different when unstressed syllables are not reduced. This included the words advocate, company, electric, and election.

Here are three more words that should have a reduced vowel sound on the unstressed syllable. Repeat these words after me:

abandon
recognize
promote

I want to add to the idea of reduced vowels and include schwa+r as well. Remember, any vowel+r spelling can be pronounced as schwa+r when it occurs on an unstressed syllable. This means that the word doctor is not pronounced doctOR, and forget isn't pronounced fORget and dollar isn't pronounced dollAR. Those words are doctor, forget, and dollar.

I'll say those words again, and you can repeat after me:

doctor
forget
dollar

That was a lot of information! So I hope you'll forgive me for making you wait for part 2, which will be published after our next podcast. As I mentioned at the beginning of this show, I'll link to the Pronuncian lessons that correspond to all of these issues along with this show's transcripts. Podcast transcripts can be found by going to www.pronuncian.com/podcast. If you want additional listening and pronunciation practice, consider supporting this show and becoming a Pronuncian subscriber. Subscribers get full site access, including all of our listening exercises and quizzes, plus the TrueVoice feature which allows you to record yourself and compare with a native speaker.

Another fun way to repeat native speakers is to listen to and repeat parts of an audiobook. You can get a free audiobook by signing up for a 14-day Audible.com trial. Just go to www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. They have a huge selection of books, and even if you cancel your subscription before the 14 days is up, you get to keep your free audiobook.

With that, I will end today's show. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

126: Unstressed syllables, part 2

Short i as an unstressed vowel sound for English as a Second Language Learners.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 126th episode.

In episode 125 I talked about schwa as an unstressed vowel sound, and I told you that it sounds very similar to a short u. The short u sounds like (short u), and is the vowel sound in the word sun.

Short u and schwa sound so similar that a number of dictionaries show them both as an upside down letter e. Dictionaries that show them differently use an upside-down v for the short u.

The major concept of our last episode was the dramatic changes of a vowel sound when it falls on an unstressed syllable. Our examples compared the letters a and o in both a stressed and an unstressed position. For instance, if the word proposal were given a strong vowel sound on all of its syllables, it would be pronounced as *proposal. Listen again:

(using schwa) proposal, (using strong vowels) *proposal

Today I'm going to expand subject of unstressed syllables to tell about when the letter e is pronounced as a short i sound. The short i sounds like (short i), and is the vowel sound in the word sit (short i) sit.

The letter e being pronounced as a short i can be demonstrated very quickly by listening to the -ed ending. When the -ed ending follows a t sound or a d sound, the -ed is pronounced as a short i sound followed by a d sound. Not surprisingly, the -ed ending is never stressed.

Listen to the short i sound (short i) in the -ed ending of the following words:

added
funded
listed
consulted

Now let's expand to a more difficult topic: when a word begins with an unstressed syllable and the letter e.

This is most noticeable in words that non-native speakers accidentally begin with a long e sound, even though the syllable is unstressed. Here are a few examples. I'm going to pronounce them correctly right now, then compare them a bit later:

electric
economy
effective
election

Pronouncing all those words with a beginning sound of long e will not cause miscommunication. I would be able to understand you if you did that. However, it will affect your rhythm of spoken English, and rhythm is something every non-native speaker who wants to sound highly fluent should pay attention to.

Now I'm going to say those examples again, and this time I'm going to say them both ways, first correctly, with a beginning short i sound, then less correctly by using the long e. Remember, the short i sounds like (short i) and the long e sounds like (long e):

electric, *electric
economy, *economy
effective, *effective
election, *election

Hopefully you could hear the difference between those examples. If you couldn't, you should practice some short i/long e minimal pairs to increase your ability to recognize specific sounds.

Now, let's practice some words that also begin with a reduced vowel sound, but instead of an accidental long e pronunciation, non-native speakers are more likely to have an accidental short e pronunciation. First, I'll just say them correctly.

example
escape
enforce
embarrass

I'm going to say them again, this time first using the correct short i pronunciation, then using the less correct short e pronunciation. These may be a bit harder for you to hear the difference between:

example, example
escape, escape
enforce, enforce
embarrass, embarrass

By the way, dictionaries will show a short i symbol (not schwa) when the letter e is reduced to a short i on an unstressed syllable.

This all means that when you're pronouncing a multi-syllable word, knowing which syllable is stressed is a very large part of understanding which vowel sounds that word includes. Pronuncian's sound lessons all include common spelling patterns for each sound . It is important to realize that those spelling patterns are true for stressed syllables (or single syllable words). Syllables adjacent to the stressed syllables are often pronounced with a reduced vowel sound. So far, we've talked about schwa and short i. The spellings a, o and u are often reduced to schwa, and the spellings e and i are often reduced to a quick short i sound. Of course, there are exceptions, but I'm not going to get into those now. For now, I want you to remember the pattern that a syllable next to a stressed syllable is usually given a reduced vowel sound.

I'm going to say all eight words I used as examples again. Listen for the beginning short i sound. I'll say them correctly, and I'll leave time for you to repeat after me.

electric
economy
effective
election

example
escape
enforce
embarrass

A great way to practice hearing the rhythm of English and to practice unstressed vowel sounds is to listen to and repeat a native speaker. An entertaining way of doing that is to listen to and repeat an audiobook. You can get a free audiobook by signing up for a free 14-day trial of Audible.com through Pronuncian.com. Just go to www.pronuncian.com/audible for more details. Don't worry, even if you cancel your subscription before the 14 days is up, the free audiobook you chose is yours to keep forever!

As always, transcripts for this show are available on our website. Just go to www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

125: Unstressed syllables, part 1

Schwa: the most important weak vowel sound.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 125th episode.

It's been a while since I've talked about schwa, and since it's been an active topic in the English Assembly forums lately, it seems like a good time to revisit it in a podcast.

Let's review: what is schwa, and how do we pronounce it?

At its simplest, schwa is a weak, unstressed vowel sound. It most frequently occurs adjacent to stressed syllables, and its pronunciation is very, very close to that of a short u sound. The short u is the vowel sound in the word sun (short u).

If that were all there was to say about unstressed vowel sounds, schwa would be very easy to understand. But, we're talking about English, and so nobody should be surprised when I say that it's actually not that simple.

First, let me say that schwa isn't the only sound we use in an unstressed vowel sound position. The short i (short i) is also sometimes weak, and also commonly occurs adjacent to a stressed syllable. I'm going to talk more about that in our next episode.

Next, let's get confusion about dictionary transcriptions out of the way. Schwa is transcribed in pretty much every dictionary as an upside-down letter e. This, at least is consistent. However, some dictionaries will also use the schwa symbol for the short u sound. If your dictionary does this, you should understand that schwa and short u are very nearly identical in pronunciation; you can assume that whenever you see an upside-down e, you will use the vowel sound of the word sun, (short u). Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and OxfordDictionaries.com both use this transcription system.

On the other hand, the online version of the Cambridge Dictionary of American English uses separate symbols for schwa and short u. So if you look at that dictionary, you will see the upside-down v in the transcription of the word sun. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary also uses separate symbols, and while it says that schwa must always be weak, short u is given as an example of a strong vowel. I think this distinction is important, and that is one of the reasons that the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary is my favorite dictionary, but it only exists in print form.

An understanding of schwa as a weak vowel is so important for two reasons:

• it allows non-native speakers to better predict the pronunciation of a word from its spelling

• the rhythm of English relies on unstressed syllables as much as stressed syllables

Over-pronouncing unstressed syllables leads to choppy speech and it can fatigue your listeners because they'll be forced to adjust what they're hearing to what they expected to hear.

Let's look at some words in which the letters a and o fall on unstressed syllables and are reduced to schwa. We're listening to the letters a and o because the change from their common pronunciations is the most predictable and the most dramatic.

If I say these words with a strong and stressed vowel sounds instead of an unstressed vowel sound, it becomes very difficult to distinguish which syllable is stressed. As listeners, we rely on syllable stress for comprehension; it is a major clue as to which word we are hearing.

Listen to the following sentence, which I'll say without using schwa:

The company's manager advocated abandoning the potential proposal and provided assistance finding alternatives.

Here it is again:

The company's manager advocated abandoning the potential proposal and provided assistance finding alternatives.

If the words of that sentence are said individually and incorrectly, they are not so hard to understand. It is when they are all strung together that we lose comprehension.

Here were words with a reduced letter o (reduced vowels are underlined):

advocate, which I pronounced *advocate (advocate, *advocate)
potential, which I pronounced *potential (potential, *potential)
provide, which I pronounced *provide (provide, *provide)

Here were words with a reduced letter a (reduced vowels are underlined):

company, which I pronounced *company (company, *company)
manager, which I pronounced *manager (manager, *manager)
assistance, which I pronounced *assistance (assistance, *assistance)
alternatives, which I pronounced *alternatives (alternatives, *alternatives)

And the following words have both a reduced o and a reduced a (reduced vowels are underlined):

abandoning, which I pronounced *abandoning (abandoning, *abandoning)
proposal, which I pronounced *proposal (proposal, *proposal)

To make those all more clear, I've underlined the reduced syllables in the transcripts.

Here is that whole incorrect sentence again:

The company's manager advocated abandoning the potential proposal and provided assistance finding alternatives.

And here it is said fluently and correctly:

The company's manager advocated abandoning the potential proposal and provided assistance finding alternatives.

I hope this helps make it clear that schwa is important, not just for having less of an accent, but so your listeners can better understand you.

A great way to practice hearing the rhythm of English as schwa is to listen to and repeat a native speaker. A more entertaining way of doing that is to listen to an audiobook. You can get a free audiobook by signing up for a free 14-day trial of Audible.com through Pronuncian.com. Just go to www.pronuncian.com/audible for more details. Don't worry, even if you cancel your subscription before the 14 days is up, the free audiobook you chose is yours to keep forever!

As always, transcripts for this show are available on our website. Just go to www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

And one last thing, don't forget about our English Assembly forums. There are lots of interesting conversations going on there. It is free to join in and ask questions or offer your own insights and answers. It all works together to keep these free podcasts coming to you. So please, join our learning community.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

124: French words in English

How the French language affects English pronunciation.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 124th episode.

English, with all its flexibility, allows new words enter the language all the time. In fact, English seems to invite new words, while other languages attempt to close their linguistic doors to keep their language pure. That purity has merit, since that is what allows the patterns of the language to stay predictable.

English is also predictable, if you understand the huge number of patterns the language has. Among these patterns are all the different spellings for a single sound, as well as all of the possible pronunciations for a single spelling. Yes, all of that does make it quite confusing to learn.

The history of a certain word, known as its etymology, can help predict an English pronunciation pattern. I've talked about this a bit before, and I'll expand on it today.

Words that entered the English language from French before the 17th century usually fit within modern spelling and pronunciation patterns. Words newer than that, however, have often retained something of their original French pronunciations, and often their French spellings as well.

For instance, words spelled a-consonant-e are are usually pronounced with a long a and a silent e. This includes words like cake, made, and face.

The word cafe, sometimes still spelled with the accent over the letter e, does not follow that pattern at all. The word cafe not only does not have a silent e, but the final syllable is stressed and is pronounced with a long a sound, cafe. While the word cafe does not follow the common a-consonant-e pattern, it does follow the pattern that words relatively new to English tend to retain more of their original pronunciation and spelling. If you know that pattern, you don't expect it to be pronounced *cafe. The words chiche and entree, also sometimes spelled with the accent over the e follow the same pattern.

The word niche, spelled n-i-c-h-e, does not follow the pattern of the -ch being pronounced as a ch sound (ch sound). It does follow the pattern that words which are spelled ch and are newly borrowed from French will be pronounced with an sh sound (sh sound). Along with the word niche, chamapign and chef follow the pattern.

Then we have the silent t of the word ballet b-a-l-l-e-t. This word doesn't necessarily look out of place when you see it written on the page, but its pronunciation often surprises learners. In addition to the silent t of the following words, notice the varied vowel pronunciations as well:

ballet (the kind of dance)
depot (like a train station)
bouquet (as in a bunch of flowers)
filet (as in the meat of a fish or cow)

We also have short French phrases that we've adopted and use alongside our older English words. Faux pas is an example, and so is a la carte and deja vu. Rendezvous (meaning to meet up) is a single word in English, but is two words in French.

This is only some of the many words we've recently borrowed from French; I don't want you to think the words I've shown you here are all of them. There are many, many more, and they don't come only from French. We've recently taken words from many other languages of the world, adapted them slightly for English, and created new and less-used spelling and pronunciation patterns.

As a little practice, I'm going to say all of the words from this episode again so you can repeat them after me. If you're not familiar with the word I'm saying, I'd recommend reading the transcript at the same time. Maybe you'll get a little vocabulary practice at the same time. You can find the transcripts by going to: www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

Ready? Repeat after me:

cafe
cliche
entree

niche
champaign
chef

ballet
bouquet
filet
depot

faux pas
a la carte
deja vu
rendezvous

Audio books are a great way to get to hear a wide range of words in English, and you can back up and listen again if you think you heard something you didn't expect. It is a great way of learning! Of course, you can get a free Audible audio book by signing up for a free 14-day trial. Even if you cancel your subscription before the 14 days is up, you get to keep your audio book forever. Go to www.pronuncian.com/audible for more information.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

123: A Merry, Marry, Mary Christmas

A tri-sound merger explained for the Holidays.

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 123rd episode.

(Song excerpt) That was very end of The Bird and the Bee's rendition of Carol of the Bells. While the context of the song tells us that they were singing Merry Christmas (merry spelled m-e-r-r-y), without that context, I would not know for certain if they were saying merry, m-e-r-r-y, marry, m-a-r-r-y, or Mary, M-a-r-y. This is a perfect time of year to talk about the merry-marry-mary merger.

I'm one of the 57% of Americans who pronounce the words merry, marry, and Mary the same. When two sounds that were, at one time, pronounced differently, start being pronounced the same, we say a merger has occurred.

Probably the most well-known American English pronunciation merger is the cot-caught merger, where the words cot, c-o-t, and caught, c-a-u-g-h-t, are pronounced the same. Since only about 40% of Americans have merged these sounds, we still treat them as separate sounds on Pronuncian.

As I said earlier, about 57% of Americans pronounce merry, marry, and Mary the same, using the same r-controlled vowel. On Pronuncian, we call this sound the air sound, and we use the IPA symbol of the combination of the short e symbol plus the r sound symbol. We call it the air sound because, while it is pronounced more like a short e followed by an r sound, it is often spelled like a long a.

There is so much that can be confusing about the air sound and the merry-marry-Mary merger that it's difficult to even know where to start. First, this merger is most widespread in rhotic accents. Rhotic means that the r sound is pronounced when it occurs before a consonant sound. Standard American English is rhotic, while many accents of the East Coast, including Boston and New York, are non-rhotic. Received Pronunciation of England is also a very well-known non-rhotic accent. So, the first part of the complication is that it is mostly just the rhotic accents that have merged the sounds.

Another confusing aspect of this merger is that many individuals have merged two of the three sounds, but not all three. For instance, if I use the linguistics department map created by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a reference, almost 57% of Americans merge all three sounds, 16% merge M-a-r-y and m-a-r-r-y, and 9% merge M-a-r-y and m-e-r-r-y. Only 1% merge m-e-r-r-y and m-a-r-r-y with each other but not with M-a-r-y. After all of that, we still have the 17% of individuals who pronounce all three differently. Not surprisingly, most of those people are on the East Coast and in areas with non-rhotic accents.

Finally, the dictionaries seem to be just as varied as individual speakers. It isn't hard to find one dictionary that has merged two of the three sounds some of the time but not all of the time, and a different dictionary that has merged a different two of the three. The second edition of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary at least shows merry, marry, and Mary merged in their American English pronunciation.

As learners, you have choices to make. Do you want to learn the sounds in a merged form, or separately? It really is a personal choice, just as choosing to learn an American accent, or a British accent, or any other of the many choices you have is personal. My goal is to make you more aware of your options!

If you want to hear Walter Matthau say, "Merry Christmas," I'd recommend choosing Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas as your free audiobook with your 14-day Audible trial. I've talked before about the fact that Dr. Seuss is an American cultural icon, and being familiar with his very popular children's books is well worth your time. You get to keep the audiobook even if you cancel your subscription before your free trial is over. Go to www.pronuncian.com/audible for more information.

I want to send a special thanks to our English Assembly forums users Vadie and Anton who both linked to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee linguistics maps I referred to. I'll also include a link to the maps of the merry, marry, Mary merger along with the transcripts for this show. All of our transcripts can be found at www.pronuncian.com/podcast.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Happy Holidays everyone, and thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

119: The bunched r sound

Which of these two techniques for the r sound works best for you?

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 119th episode.

The American English r sound, whether it is part of an r-controlled vowel or is being used as a consonant, is one of the most difficult sounds for non-native speakers to master. American English is known for having rhotic vowel sounds. A rhotic vowel is a vowel that is followed by an r sound. This characteristic is one of the major differences between Standard American English and the Received Pronunciation of Britain.

I like using the Cambridge Online Dictionary when I want to compare American and British pronunciation of words. For instance, here is the audio sample for the words bird and storm from their website. I'll play the British pronunciation first, then the American.

bird (British, American)
storm (British, American)

If you're practicing American pronunciation, every pronunciation textbook will tell you that a rhotic vowel is expected. Something that many student textbooks don't mention is that there is more than one way to produce the r sound that makes the vowel rhotic.

Wait a second. What?

Yes, there is more than one way to create an r sound.

The more commonly taught method is to curl the tip of the tongue upward, toward the back of the tooth ridge. With this technique, the back of the tongue kept low. In his book, A Course in Phonetics, Peter Ladefoged says that 60% of Americans use this technique.

A secondary technique that Americans use involves lifting the center tongue, especially along the sides. The sides of the tongue press against the top teeth toward the back of the mouth. The tip of the tongue is down, away from the bottom teeth. Ladefoged says that only about 35% of Americans use this technique.

I am going to guess that it's because fewer Americans use the bunched-tongue technique that few American teachers instruct their students to try it this way. However, this technique really seems easier for non-native speakers to learn to do. Sounds that we can feel the production of are often easier to learn, and I think the fact that we clearly feel the sides of our tongue press against our top back teeth makes this technique easier.

In February 2010, Dr. Wells wrote about the bunched tongue position for the r sound in his blog. He adds the detail that the back of the tongue is concave. This means that the center of the tongue, though raised, is still lower than the sides. This is an important detail that I wish Ladefoged had included in his text, but I don't see it there.

The important point is that Dr. Wells agrees that there are at least two ways of creating the sound, and we can't hear the difference between them.

So, you can create the r sound, including the r sound attached to r-controlled vowels, by curling the tip of your tongue up and back, or by lifting the center of your tongue and allowing the sides of your tongue to curl upward and touch your top back teeth.

Let's practice. I'm going to say 8 different words. These words all include an r sound as part of an r-controlled vowel. I'm going to wait longer than I normally do between words so you have time to experiment with different tongue positions. Even if you're in a public place listening to this and can't really speak aloud, I still want you to move your tongue around as you listen. Point the tip up, and bring it down and try it bunched up toward the back. Later, when you are alone, you can practice aloud. For now, it's okay to just feel the muscle movement.

Ready?

bird
work
card
heart
horse
short
scared
chairs

How was that?

Today I want to blend a tip for practicing pronunciation with a plug to our sponsor, Audible.com. A great way to practice pronunciation is to mimic a native speaker as closely as possible. Try to copy the speaker's sound production, intonation patterns, and speed, including pauses. When you start to give so much attention to the details, I guarantee that you will learn something about English. Or, at the very least, you'll find you have more questions.

You can choose from thousands of different native speakers to emulate (emulate means to try to copy), in the Audible.com audio bookstore. Every book has a sample that you can listen to, so you can tell if the reader has the characteristics you're looking for.

For listen-and-repeat practice, short children's books work well. You could choose a book like Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go. Dr. Seuss is a cultural icon in American children's literature, and a name I recommend for you to become familiar with.

To get your free audiobook (while supporting this show), sign up for a free 14-day Audible trial at www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian.

That's www.audiblepodcast.com/pronuncian. Choose a Dr. Seuss book, or any other book in their huge library.

You can find transcripts for this podcast episode, and all of our episodes, at www.pronuncian.com/podcast. Pronuncian is spelled p-r-o-n-u-n-c-i-a-n. I'll link to the new Pronuncian lesson for the r sound, so you can get more details on this topic. I'll also link to the John Wells's Phonetic Blog so you can see what he has to say about the bunched r.

One last thing to mention: in case you did not listen to this podcast through iTunes, I would like to let you know that you can subscribe to this podcast, for free, through the iTunes store. There's a link on Pronuncian's podcast page.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.

118: The prefix re-

long e, short i, short e, and schwa: all pronunciations of re-

Transcript

Hi again, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 118th episode.

I know I've talked a lot about suffixes during these podcasts, but I've spent little time on prefixes. When I'm teaching, I often spend time telling students to stop using the long e sound (long e) in the prefix re-. However, I recently learned that there are times when the long e is appropriate.

Before I begin, I consider this an advanced topic, since we need to understand a lot of individual sounds and pronunciation concepts to really be able to understand this episode. If you're new to this podcast, you may want to begin with some earlier episodes to prepare for this one.

Let's begin.

When you learned the re- prefix, your teacher almost certainly pronounced it with a long e (re). That is how it's pronounced in isolation, when it isn't attached to a word. Then, like most things that were new to you, your teacher stressed it. However, you probably were never told you that you can't assume that words beginning in r+e should actually be pronounced (re).

I'm going to try to make this complicated topic the least burdensome as possible for you. Here's the quick summary: the re- prefix can be pronounced with the long e, short i, short e, or schwa. Sometimes you have options, sometimes it's more straightforward.

Let's not forget how to pronounce the long e, short i, short e, and schwa. During the long e sound, the front of the tongue is very close to the back of the tooth ridge. Our tongue is higher in our mouth during this sound than any other vowel sound. The long e sounds like (long e).

The short i is produced with the front of the tongue a little lower than the long e. It sounds like (short i).

To produce the short e, the front of the tongue is lowered a bit more than the short i. It sounds like (short e).

In American English, schwa is usually pronounced similar to a short u sound (short u). To produce the short u, the tongue is lowered once again. The body of the tongue is relaxed, and set low in the mouth. It sounds like (short u).

So, I can compare the four sounds by starting with my tongue high, then lowering it, then lowering it some more, and lowering it yet again. Long e, short i, short e, and short u for schwa (long e, short i, short e, short u)

Repeat those sounds after me:

(long e, short i, short e, short u)

The information I'm going to share today is coming from the John Wells's Phonetic Blog. It's one of my very favorite blogs, and one that I have learned immense amounts of information from. It's not very ESL student friendly, though. It's meant more for teachers and linguists. If you feel up for a challenge, check it out. Again, it's called the John Wells's Phonetic Blog, and I'll link to it from this episode's transcripts.

If you check out Dr. Wells's original post, I want you to be aware that I'm also using the second edition of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary IPA transcriptons for my examples today, since those match the IPA system we use on Pronuncian.

Since Dr. Wells is also the the author of the Longman Pronunciation DIctionary, I think I'm safe combining his transcription systems for clarity in this podcast.

Dr. Wells lists four major patterns for the pronunciation of the re- prefix.

First, the re- prefix is pronounced with a long e sound when the re- means again. These are the words in which we can easily identify the root word.

For instance, it is obvious that to reprint something means to print it again. Likewise, rewrite means to write again, and to reread something means to read it again. I said all of those re- words using the long e sound (long e).

Listen closely for the long e (long e) sound, and repeat these words after me:

reprint
rewrite
reread

The second pattern Dr. Wells gives is for words with a more vague meaning of the re- prefix.

Let's use the words relate and regret as examples. The word relate does not mean to late again. Nor are you gretting again if you regret something. This abstraction is the clue that we will not use the long e pronunciation during the re- prefix.

What sounds do we use?

Dr. Wells says we can use a short i or schwa in these kinds of words, and it doesn't matter which one we choose. So our re- prefix will be pronounced as (r+short i), (r+schwa). I tend to use the short i pronunciation.

Listen, and repeat these words after me:

remember
regret
relate

Now on to the third and fourth patterns. These involve our friend, syllable stress. If the re- prefix is stressed and has a vague meaning, we will use a short e sound (short e). An example is the word relative. The first syllable of the word relative is stressed, and it is pronounced as (re-) with a short e sound (re). Examples that Dr. Wells provides include:

relative recognize
reference

The same short e sound is used if the prefix has a secondary stress. This is common when the syllable two syllables away has the main stress of the word. For instance, the word recommend. The third syllable is stressed, recommend, so we can expect a secondary stress on the first syllable, recommend. Other examples that follow this pattern include:

recognition
represent
reservation

Dr. Wells then goes on to list words that do not follow the patterns above, but I'm going to leave those out today. This episode is already complicated enough.

If you want to learn more about the sounds I talked about today or find the link to the John Wells's Phonetic Blog, visit our podcast transcripts page at www.pronuncian.com/podcast. Of course, this topic is also open for discussion on our forums, which you can find at www.pronuncian.com/forums.

That's all for today everyone. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication. SLA is where the world comes to learn.

Thanks for listening.

Bye-bye.