Next Sound Up: /v/

So let's continue with the trickiest sounds series!  In past posts we covered /r/ and /th/ up next is /v/. This sound is challenging for many including: Cantonese, Czech, Farsi, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Ilokano, Japanese, Korean, Malayalam, Malaysian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese speakers amongst others. So it clearly is worth looking at.

The /v/ is commonly substituted with /w/or /b/. So lets look at the features of these three sounds and find what they hold in common and what makes them different.

The /v/ is a fricative, the air is released with friction. It is made with the top teeth resting lightly on the bottom lip. The teeth must rest lightly so the air can escape and not be stopped by the teeth.

Substituting /w/ for /v/ is far more common, so we will begin there. /w/ is made with the lips rounded and without any of the articulators touching. There is no obstruction to the air flow at all. If you look in the mirror you can see the difference clearly. Relax your facial muscles rest the teeth on the lip and let the air flow out with friction. The /v/ production in fact is the same as with /f/. The only difference between /f/ and /v/ is that you "voice" the /v/.

Go from /f/ to /w/ to feel the difference in the position and in the manner that the air is released. At first when you see /v/ in a sentence such as: The violin is very fine. You will find less distortion of the word if you substitute /f/ for /v/.

If you are substituting /b/ for /v/, look in the mirror. When you say the sentence "A very violent villain." Are you letting the lips press together and stop the air? Start with the teeth resting on the bottom lip and let the air escape with friction. The difference between /b/ and /v/ is that for /b/ the air is stopped by the lips being pressed together. With /v/ the air is never completely stopped just slightly obstructed causing friction.

Luckily both the /w/ and /b/ substitution is easily seen in a mirror. Making practice a bit easier than with the /r/.

Write down a few sentence that you say in the course of a day and highlight any /v/'s in the sentence. Practice saying it with your "new" pronunciation.

I hope you found this helpful. Please write with any questions or comments, I will be happy to answer!

Lynn founder of Accent Master

That Tricky Th!

I have been reflecting on what topics have been coming up with my accent reduction  clients at Accent Master as of late and it seems as though many are circling back to the sound level. In particular is the /th/,/r/ and s-clusters (such as st,sp,sk). Today I will focus on the /th/(this is not the phonetic symbol, but it is easier to use the letters with the limitations of my keyboard.).

I find the mind and its perception and interpretation of the sounds to be quite impressive and the /th/ sound really highlights the minds flexibility. Here is what happens for most ELL, they hear the sound "th" and the brain categorizes it to a fricative and usually accurately decides if it is the voiced /th/ or the unvoiced /th/ (yes there are two!). It observes this through listening as nothing in English spelling will indicate that it is fricative or whether it is the voiced or the unvoiced version of the sound.

Now since only English and Greek possess this sound your very smart brain says well then, lets use the closest thing in our inventory that we have. For the voiceless /th/ we will use /s/ for the voiced we will use /z/, this substitution is observed amongst Amharic, Arabic, French,Dutch, Czech, German, Korean and Mandarin speakers to name a few.

Others will substitute a /d/ for the voiced /th/ and a /t/ for the voiceless. This still copies the voicing pattern and is quite impressive.

In either case the voicing of /th/ is not the issue. If you are replacing /th/ with /s/ or /z/, then simply move your tongue down a 1/4 of an inch and let it protrude slightly form between the teeth. Do not stop the air, just like with /s/ and /z/ let the air come out with friction (why it is called a fricative) of the air pushing between the teeth and the tongue. So the teeth need to rest only lightly on the tongue. It is important that it touch lightly so you don't end up stopping the air flow.

If you feel that you are substituting /th/ with /d/ or /t/ then you need to change two features. The first is to lower the tongue 1/4 of an inch and let it protrude slightly from between the teeth. With the teeth only resting lightly on the tongue. The second feature is that the /d/ and the /t/ are sounds known as stops. They are called stops because the air is stopped and then released. With the /th/ you want to keep the air flowing out as, I said above with friction. The air needs to continuously flow out.

One reason the /th/ can be tricky is because it takes longer to produce. However /th/ is never reduced. It is always fully produced. Write down a practice sentence and say it in the mirror. Do you see your tongue protruding with each /th/ sound?

Keep up the practice. Remember to try to use the sound in your daily speech. Put a note on your computer or switch your watch to a different hand as a way to remember your goal.

Good luck! Please respond with questions or comments and I will get back to you!

Lynn founder of Accent Master

More on Word Stress and Vowels

The biggest difference between English and most other languages is the timing. In many languages stress is evenly place on each syllable of a word. Except for Chinese where each word is only 1 syllable, but this results in the same rhythm issues when speaking in English. It is hard to know where to stress a mufti-syllabic word when you have no experience with mulch-syllabic words.

English is called a stress timed language. An undescriptive term if there ever was one. It does nothing to help draw a clear picture of how the timing is different.

Other languages that stress specific syllables use accents or they use predictable patterns. For example French always stresses the final syllable.

American English uses what is known as alternating stress pattern. In a word we give primary stress to one syllable. Depending on the word we may have secondary stress, and always one syllable that is unstressed.

Look at the word banana. There are three "a"'s in this word. But only the second "a" gets a full pronunciation. The other two "a"s are reduced to a short quick schwa (uh) sound. The second "a" is longer and gets a full "a" production.

This is how we alternate stress in mulch-syllabic words. When this alternation is either placed on the wrong syllable or not made at all it has a tremendous effect on intelligibility.

Primary stress of a syllable is carried on the vowel. The vowel maybe lengthened, made longer or produced with a pitch change.

Lets look at another example "pajamas" again three "a"'s with 2 being produced as the short schwa or "uh" sound and the middle "a" getting the full pronunciation.

The verb/noun contrast can illustrate this well in this Accent Master video


Keep listening for good examples of spoken English, try to note how they are using alternating stress patterns in their speech. Can you mimic their rhythm? Try to mimic the beat in your first language and see if it feels different from your normal rhythm. This is the "feel" of spoken American English!

Lynn founder of Accent Master

New and Fun quizes and Links!

Well if you haven't been to Accent Master's blog, now is the time to come back! I have added some really fun tests and informational links for ESL learners. I have also added some applications to my
 Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Accent-Master/15962152526?ref=ts

Please let me know if you enjoy these "widgets" and what type of posts you would like to see more of.

Thank you for reading the Accent Master blog!

Free Telephone Screening

Just yesterday I sent out an email offering a free telephone screening and the response was remarkable! Having the opportunity to speak one on one with so many people has been really eye opening.

It is touching and interesting to hear how individuals are affected by their spoken English skills. Their speech skills don't necessarily affect them in an obvious way, but more of a constant, nagging issue.

At first many report that others understand them without too much effort. But as the conversation goes on many reveal that they may not be in line for promotions or that their accent is distracting people from really listening to their message.
The reason it takes awhile for most callers to realize the extent of the affect of their foreign accent on their lives is because, colleagues and friends do not have an issue with it, so their everyday life is fine. However at closer inspection they know that it is holding them back. That their professional skills need to be combined with excellent communication skills if they want to make progress in their careers. Or they realize that when communication pressure is on, their accent get heavier and more difficult to understand. This undermines their confidence and performance.

These things are easy to ignore on a daily basis but cumulatively come with a high price tag.

This insight has made me even more sensitive and driven to meet the needs of my clients and my online community. If you have any suggestions for products or services that you feel the foreign born community may be looking for please let me know how I can help.

Please remember that it is not too late to get your free screening: 718 715-0706

Lynn founder of Accent Master

Survey on Accents!

As a speech therapist, and the owner of Accent Master, watching the VP debates last week I kept thinking where did the g in Palin’s –ing go? Palin dropped everyone of those garsh – darn g’s. I knew I was on to something when Tina Fey drew attention to it in her recent SNL spoof of Palin.

To find out if this was something others had noticed, I surveyed 3,145 people to find out just that. What did they think of Palin’s accent? And not to pick on Sara Palin alone, what did they think of all of the candidates accents, and while I am at it, what do they think of accents overall?

Of the 62% that feel that Governor Palin has an accent the comments include that she “sounds uneducated” and “she sounds harsh”. Barak Obama comes in second with 34% reporting hearing an accent. Comments on Obama’s speech include “east coast educated” “adopted Chicago accent” and “inner city Chicago”. McCain comes in third with 19% of the voters  reporting that he sounds “southern” and that his accent is “more distracting”

According to this survey over 80% feel that accents definitely affect image. The comments imply that this can be good or bad for one’s image. If you have an accent that is in vogue at the time, then you may benefit. Certain regional accent such as a Bronx accents was deemed as “low class” while the southerners could be classified with such diverse comments as “friendly”,” open”, “slow” and “lazy”.

Foreign accents forced you according to the comments, to carry the entire image of your country with you, or at least the listener’s best guess as to which country you are from.
Some felt that foreign accents were interesting and gave them clout for being better traveled. Some respondents felt that if you were clear and could communicate well a slight accent made no difference. One commenter felt that “uniformity in presentation will cross hurdles of being pre-judged.”

In the end we are constantly making judgments about others, though it now is considered in poor taste to pre-judge someone on their appearance or speech, the truth is judging people by outward signs has historically been a way to keep ourselves safe. Obviously you want to keep an open mind, but instinctively we judge.

Lynn founder of Accent Master

What is the Most Common Vowel in English?

The Schwa. This tiny, reduced vowel is most commonly heard in English. And guess what, there is no written symbol for it in the English alphabet. It can be represented by any vowel.

Look at these three words
cabbage.......cotton........sentence

In these 2 syllable words the same vowel is used twice. However, the pronunciation of each vowel is quite different.

That is because one syllable is stressed and one is not. The vowel that is in the stressed syllable receives its "full" pronunciation. It is longer and louder then the vowel in the unstressed syllable. In fact the vowel from the unstressed syllable is reduced to the schwa sound.

So in those examples the schwa sound is represented by an a, o, and an e.

Listen to the podcast as I read the following list of words see if you can hear the schwa.

atlas
palace
illness
purpose
minute
canoe
machine
offend
contains
suggest
support.

This is one of the reasons why spelling in English is so tough. It is hard to know what letter the schwa sound is being represented by. Also as a note it is perfectly acceptable and in fact  standard to reduce the vowel in the unstressed syllable to the schwa. It is not considered sloppy and will make you more intelligible to the native English listener.

Accent Master's software has a great interactive section to help you learn this important aspect of accent reduction. 

Lynn founder of Accent Master