A quick study in the pronunciation of the contraction 'we will'. 'We' has the ee as in she vowel. However, when we contract it, we rarely pronounce the sharp ee sound. We will, if we want, for emphasis: 'We'll do it tomorrow!' But most of the time it takes on a different vowel sound. And that is, the 'uh' as in 'pull', or the 'ih' as in 'sit'. And they are pretty much interchangable. Uh as in pull: 'W[uh]'ll do it when we feel like it': w[uh]'ll, w[uh]'ll. you see the sides of the mouth come in just a little bit and then this part of the mouth comes out just a little bit: 'W[uh]'ll do it soon.' ... 'W[uh]'ll do it tomorrow.' Now, as I said, that is interchangeable, that uh, with an ih as in sit: 'W[ih]'ll do it soon.' ... 'W[ih]'ll do it tomorrow.' Those were the ih, ih. Either one of those is correct in normal conversation. As I said if you want to emphasize, then you can use the ee as in she: 'We'll do it!'
On a related note, the word will is pronounced with this ih as in sit. But it can also be exchanged for the uh as in pull: I will do it soon, I w[uh]ll do it soon. The first one with with an ih and the second one was with an uh. And now in conversation, when one is speaking quickly, these two sounds don't have a lot of distinction and either one is fine in the pronunciation of the word 'will'.
If you want more information on the photos in this video, which have parts of the mouth drawn in, see this video on the parts of the mouth. How to make this sound:
The audio is now available for download thanks to user Slava from Cherkessk, Russia: Download mp3 Video Text:
The 'aa' as in 'bat' vowel sound. To make this sound, the tongue stretches up in the back, aa, towards the soft palate and roof of the mouth, aa. The front of the tongue stretches forward and presses here behind the bottom front teeth, aa. And the tongue sort of flattens wide, aa, aa. Because the tongue is raising and then coming forward, you can see a lot of tongue, aa. This is different from the 'ah' as in 'father' vowel, for example, ah, where the tongue is pressing down and you see more dark space in the mouth. Ah, aa. You can also note the corners of the mouth are pulling back a little, aa, exposing some of those top teeth, aa.
Here is the 'aa' as in 'bat' vowel sound on the right compared with the mouth at rest on the left. Here the inside parts of the mouth are drawn in. Notice that, as with all vowels, the soft palate is raised. But more importantly, note the difference in tongue position. In the 'aa' as in 'bat' vowel, the tongue is raised and pulled up in the back, towards the throat and soft palate. However the front of the tongue is still touching behind the front bottom teeth. Sample words: habit, apple, blast, that. Sample sentence: The master gardener now, sadly, has a bad back. Now you'll see this sentence up close and in slow motion, both straight on and from an angle, so you can really study how the mouth moves when making this sound.
The, tongue comes through the teeth for the TH. Lips together for the M, and here is the 'aa' as in 'bat', ma-, you can see the top lip a little raised. Rr, the R sound, the master gardener, the 'ah' as in 'father' mixed in with the R. Gardener. Tongue up to make the N. Now, with the 'ow' as in 'now' diphthong. Sadly, teeth together to make the S. And here is another 'aa' as in 'bat' sound. Sa-, the jaw drops, you can see the top teeth, the lips is a little pulled up for it. Tongue up for the D, and down, 'ee' as in 'she', sadly. Has, another 'aa' as in 'bat', you can see the tongue is spread very wide in the back. A bad, lips together for the B, another 'aa' as in 'bat'. You can see again the top lip is pulled a little bit. Back. Again, the 'aa' as in 'bat' sound. Here from an angle:
The, tongue tip through the teeth for the TH. Master, lips together for the M. Here is the 'aa' as in 'bat', see the tongue is raised more in the back. Master, the R consonant shape. Gardener, 'ah' as in 'father' mixed with the R consonant sound. Tongue tip up for the D and the N. Now, tongue comes down from the N into the 'ow' as in 'now' diphthong. Sadly, teeth together for the S. And here is another 'aa' as in 'bat' sound. The tongue tip down by the bottom teeth, raised in the back. Tongue tip up for the L. Sadly, pulled wide for the 'ee' as in 'she'. Has, another 'aa' as in 'bat' sound. A, the schwa, bad, lips together for the B, the 'aa' as in 'bat', you can see the tongue is really stretched from forward to back. Back, again, the stretched tongue raised in the back. Then it raises more in the back and touches there to make the kk consonant sound. That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
Tomado de http://www.rachelsenglish.com/vowel_aa_bat
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been completed. An example of this would be 'hot potato'. The (t) in 'hot' is dropped as the lips prepare for the (p) sound for 'potato' (Bloomer et, 2005).
Assimilation can be synchronic being an active process in a language at a given point in time or diachronic being a historical sound change.
A related process is coarticulation where one segment influences another to produce an allophonic variation, such as vowels acquiring the feature nasal before nasal consonants when the velum opens prematurely or /b/ becoming labialised as in "boot". This article will describe both processes under the term, assimilation.
To speak English fluently, it’s necessary to link words together. Linking or liaison means to connect the last consonant sound in one word to the first sound of the next word. There are two situations in which we regularly use linking. Firstly, when a word begins with a vowel sound, it’s often pronounced as if it began with the final consonant sound of the previous word, e.g.:
Word
Pronunciation
Don’t ask
Don’ task
Lot of
Lo’ tof
Come in
Comin
We’ve eaten
We’veaten
It’s open
It sopen
Let’s eat
Let seat
Source: Edited from the english@work e-newsletter by 938LIVE. Subscribe to the english@work newsletter.
Homorganic consonants (from homo- "same" and organ "(speech) organ") is a phonetics term for consonant sounds which are articulated in the same position or place of articulation in the mouth, such as [m], [p], [b] (pronounced with both lips), or [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [l] (pronounced by touching the tip of the tongue to the upper gums). Consonants which are not articulated in the same place are called heterorganic.
after l: faculty (but not immediately post-tonic: alter → al[tʰ]er, not *al[ɾ]er)
Homophonous pairs
In many accents, such words as riding and writing continue to be distinguished by the preceding vowel: though the consonant distinction is neutralized, the underlying voice distinction continues to select the allophone of the /aɪ/phoneme preceding it. Thus for many North Americans, riding is [ɹaɪɾɪŋ][citation needed] while writing is [ɹɐɪɾɪŋ].[citation needed] Vowel duration may also be different, with a longer vowel before tap realisations of /d/ than before tap realisations of /t/. At the phonetic level, the contrast between /t/ and /d/ may be maintained by these non-local cues, though as the cues are quite subtle, they may not be acquired/perceived by others. A merger of /t, d/ can then be said to have occurred.[citation needed] The cluster [nt] can also be flapped/tapped; the IPA symbol for a nasal tap is [ɾ̃]. As a result, in quick speech, words like winner and winter can become homophonous. Flapping/tapping does not occur for most speakers in words like 'carpenter' and 'ninety', which instead surface with [d].[2] A similar process also occurs in other languages, such as Western Apache (and other Southern Athabaskan languages). In Western Apache, intervocalic /t/ similarly is realized as [ɾ] in intervocalic position. This process occurs even over word boundaries. However, tapping is blocked when /t/ is the initial consonant of a stem (in other words tapping occurs only when /t/ is stem-internal or in a prefix). Unlike English, tapping is not affected by suprasegmentals (in other words stress or tone).
Sara Smith, a Pasadena resident, went shopping. She is thirty, and has lived at thirty thirty-seven North Foothill Street since nineteen ninety-two. Sara has been married to John for seven years. They have two children; Bob is five years old and Nancy is three. Sara owns a nineteen ninety-five four-door blue Toyota. At nine a.m., Sara got into her car and drove to Barget, a department store a mile away.
Barget was having a holiday sale. Sara bought a four-slice toaster for twenty-nine ninety-five plus tax. The regular price was thirty-five ninety-five. She paid by check. On her way home, Sara stopped at MilkPlus to buy a gallon of nonfat milk. The milk was three dollars fifty cents. Sara got fifty cents back in change.
Sara arrived home at ten a.m. John and the kids were still sleeping. She woke them up and then made a hot and nutritious breakfast for everyone.
A seventy-nine-year-old man was slightly injured on Saturday while waiting in his brand new convertible in a drive-through lane at Burger Prince restaurant. Herman Sherman of Northville suffered a mild burn about nine p.m. when a young female employee accidentally spilled a cup of coffee into his lap. Sherman said the coffee was hot but not scalding.
He refused medical aid, saying the only problem was the stain on his slacks, but it would wash out. He was given a fresh refill. Before Sherman drove off, the restaurant manager, John Johnson, gave him two free gift certificates--one for an extra-large coffee and one for the restaurant's newest sandwich, the McRap.
The employee, who was a new hire, was let go later that evening. She was quite upset. She said she would probably sue Burger Prince for letting her go. She said it was the man's fault for ordering something that she might be able to spill.
