Re: American R training

Uzytkownik "SherLok Merfy" <brewhaha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> napisal w wiadomosci news:1dd5c894-35b6-498f-99d0-29750701c249@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On May 10, 3:59 am, "Ricardo" <k...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am fascinated with the sound and melody of American English. I have
learned it for years now quite successfully as many times the Americans I
spoke with could not believe that I am not a native AmE speaker :)
However, I know best of all that I still need a lot of practice so as
not to lose it and contrary develop my phonetic skills. As for AmE "r"
sound, I can do it very successfully but on certain occasions,
especially when I feel kinda tired, I have a feeling that it does not
sound the best or I have to put much more effort to produce the sound
properly. I probably need a set of exercises that would strengthen
certain muscle groups and improve their coordination at points.
1. I have read a lot on that from various resources (books, Internet,
etc).
They explain quite well the idea of the tongue tension and the way to
induce
it. And now comes my doubt. Some sources claim that AmE "r" is a
vowel so
the tongue must NOT touch anything in the mouth and that's kind of
convincing to me. However, some say that the edges of your tongue
should
press the side teeth?!
Do not believe that. It comes from proximity of your tongue with the
roof of your mouth. I count only two vowels that will conjugate with
it, though English spelling sujests otherwise. One is very similar to
the short or soft oh (aw). Another is much like a schwa of the awR's
own, and it tends to intercede between the awR and any other of the
ten vowels.
You could try pronouncing "ahr, ehr, ihr, awr, uhr...Ayr, Eer, Ire,
Ohr, Uur. In "Ayr", you might hav trouble making the whole thing into
a continuous glide, like I do in Canada. They do not do that so much
in Louisiana, where "Air" sounds more like "Ayer".
This makes me really confused as I cannot objectively
assess what I am doing pronouncing the "r". I have a feeling that my
tongue maybe very slightly touches the side teeth, if at all and
definitely does not press hard on them. At least that's what I can
feel...
2. Another problem is rounding your lips gently as they recommend.
Should I
tend to do it no matter where the "r" sound appears in speech? It
seems to me that it is kind of important specifically if you want to
pronounce the
final "r" in a word or sentence. What's your opinion on that.
Britons tend to drop final aRs. The sound does not project from lips.
It is a semi-vowel, because it does not appear on its own, and yet it
easily conjugates with stop-consonants and begins words.
3. Finally, I wonder if there is any difference between AmE and
BrE "r"
sound as in the word "great" or "brown"?
Very little.
_______
http://ecn.ab.ca/~brewhaha/Saffron_Karaoke_Duet.wmv
Fifth version was posted in November, and I think the Alto part sounds
more like a baseline, while the baseline sounds more like a Tenor, and
the Tenor is my melody, so it should be the Alto part, if I follow
tradition.
Still, I think it works, so I posted it.

Thanks a lot! It was most interesting to read your analysis. Also many thanks for the training set of R-like tongue twisters :) After a while of practice I could feel my tongue got tired. So that's probably the way to go and no more touching/pressing side teeth. Very good!
All the best,
--
Ricardo
P.S. The above link of yours does not work...


.

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