Lessons on American accent [Archives:2007/1113/Community]

Abdullah Saleh Ali
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The American R

The American R is like a vowel because it does not touch anywhere in the mouth. In Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Greek and many other languages, the R is a consonant because it touches behind the teeth. The American R is produced deep in the throat. Like the French R and the German R, the American R is in the throat, but unlike those two consonant sounds, it doesn't touch. Let's contrast two similar sounds: [a] and [r]. Hold your hand out in front of you, with your palm up, like you are holding a tray on it. Slightly drop your hand down, and say ah, like you want the doctor to see your throat. Now, curl your fingers up slightly, and say [r]. Your tongue should feel in about the same position as your hand.

ae

Let's start with the [ae] sound. Although it's not a common sound, [ae]] is very distinctive to the ear, and is typically American. As its phonetic symbol indicates, [ae] is a combination of [a] + [e]. . To pronounce it, drop your jaw down as if you were going to say [a]; then from that position, try to say eh. The final sound is not two separate vowels, but rather the end result of the combination. It is very close to the sound that a goat makes: ma-a-a-ah

a

The [a] sound is a more common sound than [ae]; To pronounce [a], relax your tongue and drop your jaw as far down as it will go. As a matter of fact, put your hand under your chin and say [ma], [pa], [ta], [sa]. Your hand should be pushed down by your jaw as it opens. Remember, it's the sound that you make when the doctor wants to see your throat

uh

Last is the schwa, the most common sound in American English. Depending on how fast you speak, how smoothly you make liaisons, how strong your intonation is, how much you relax your sounds. Spelling doesn't help identify it, because it can appear as any one of the vowels, or a combination of them. It is a neutral vowel sound, uh. It is usually in an unstressed syllable, though it can be stressed as well.

Whenever you find a vowel that can be crossed out and its absence wouldn't change the pronunciation of the word, because it is so common, however, the wrong pronunciation of this one little sound can leave your speech strongly accented, even if you Americanize everything else.

Remember, some dictionaries use two different written characters, the upside down e & [^] for the neutral uh sound.

Silent or Neutral?

A schwa is neutral, but it is not silent. By comparison, the silent E at the end of a word is a signal for pronunciation, but it is not pronounced itself: code is [kod]. The E tells you to say an [o]. If you leave the E off, you have cod, [kad]. The schwa, on the other hand, is neutral, but it is an actual sound, uh. For example, you could also write photography as phuh-tah-gruh-fee.

The schwa is a neutral sound, (no distinctive characteristics), but it is the most common sound in the English language. To make the uh sound, put your hand on your diaphragm and push until a grunt escapes. Don't move your jaw, tongue or lips, just allow the sound to flow past your vocal cords. It should sound like uh, not ah.

Once you master the two sounds [ae] and uh, you will have an easier time pronouncing 'can' and 'can't'. In a sentence, the simple positive 'can' sound like [k'n]. The simple negative 'can't' sounds like [kan(t)].

Intention Spelling Pronunciation

Positive I can do it. I k'n do it.

Negative I can't do it. I k?n(t) do it.

Extra Positive I can do it. I k??n do it.

Extra Negative I can't do it . I k?nt do it.

The American T is influenced very strongly by intonation and its position in a word or phrase. It can be a little tricky if you try to base your pronunciation on spelling alone.

There are, however, 4 basic rules: [T is T], [T is D], [T is Silent], [T is Held].

The American T

1/Top of the Staircase [T is T]

If the T is at the beginning of a word (or the top of the staircase), it is a strong, clear T sound.

In the beginning of a word: table, take, tomorrow, teach, ten, turn Thomas tried two times.

With a stressed T and ST, TS, TR, CT, LT and sometimes NT combinations: They control the contents.

In the past tense, D sounds like T, after an unvoiced consonant sound ) f, k, p, s, ch, sh, th (but not T).

picked [pikt], hoped [houpt], raced [rast], watched [wacht], washed [washt]

It took Tim ten times to try the telephone

2 Middle of the Staircase [T is D]

If the T is in the middle of the word, intonation changes the sound to a soft D.

Letter sounds like [ledder].

Water, daughter, bought a, caught a, lot of, got a, later, meeting, better

What a good idea [w'd' gud?i deey']

Put it in a bottle. [pu di di n' b?d'l]

Get a better water heater. [gedda bedder w?der heeder]

Put all the data in the computer. [pudall the dayd' in the k'mpyuder]

Patty ought to write a better letter. [p?dy ?d' ride a bedder ledder]

3/[T is Silent]

T and N are so close in the mouth that the [t] can disappear.

Interview [innerview]

International [innernational]

Advantage [aedvaen'j]

Percentage [percen'j]

If the T is at the end of a word, you almost don't hear it at all.

Put, what, lot, set, hot, sit, shot, brought.

4/ Bottom of the Staircase [T is Held]

With -tain, -tten and some TN combinations, the T is held. The “held T”” is