Speak Easily Accent Reduction Introduction How to Change your Accent© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM COURSE CONTENTS Speak Easily Accent Reduction Course INTRODUCTION How to Change your Accent How the Process Works Intemal and External Anatomy What a Vowel? What is a Consonant? Whats Stress? What is RP? Section One HOW TO SOUND REALLY BRITISH 1 - MUSCLE TRAINING. Default Posture and Hesitation Sound ‘Neutral Long Where isnot Pronounced Extra Practice Material for Neutral Long "Neutral Short, the ‘Schwa Weak Forms Most Common ‘Schwa! Words Mouth Yoga Exercises Section Two HOW TO SOUND REALLY BRITISH 2~ RHYTHM AND TUNE How do you Stress Something Level One ~ Syllable Stress Level Two - Sentence Stress Linking Words Together Stress in Word Groups Extra Notes on Tonal Languages Level Three - Key Word Stress Level Four ~ Conversation Patterns ~ including Question intonation Section Three VOWELS The RP Vowel System How to Make the RP Vowel Shapes and the Long/Strong Vowels, The Speak Easily Vonel Sta Diagram ‘Spelling Patters forthe Long/Strong Vowels How Consonants Affect Vowel Length Extra Practice for the Long/Strong Vowels ‘Separating the Long/Strong and Soft/Short pairs ‘The Diphthongs Extra Practice Material for Easly Confused Vowels. Major Speling Patterns Section Four CONSONANTS ‘The RP Consonants Practice Sentences The Friction Consonants, TH, Sand Z, H, SH etc, Vand F The Lip Consonants, especially separating V and W The Vowel-Like Consonants, Rand L ‘The Plosive Consonants, T and D, K,G, P and 8 The Nasal Consonants, M, N and NG OlPage 2003 B 15 16 v7 19 20 2 25 36 38 48 46 47 49 32 37 58 39 B 35 95 a0 102 uy aan 128 134© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 HOW TO CHANGE YOUR ACCENT Become your own accent coach To change your accent you ideally need an accent coach sitting on your shoulder every waking moment to listen and correct you every time you speak! This is not affordable, nor particularly desirable... But you do need this constant, knowledgeable and accurate attention to how you are speaking. And you can still have it~ if you become your own accent coach, Our course is designed to train you to become your own accent coach, so that, over the coming months, you can continually correct yourself with your precise, new knowledge, until your accent becomes what you want it to be. It won't happen purely as a result of these classes, unfortunately. | wish | could make that so. It is you who has control over your muscles every time you speak, 50 it is you who needs to reprogram your brain to new patterns. So we will train you to change your own accent with regular practice, close attention and the courage to try things out. © We will give you THEORY to read and absorb, so you become aware of all the detail and subtleties of our human speech and accent. ‘© We will give you CONTROLLED EXERCISES to read out loud and practice on. This is how you train your brain to identify the different sounds and your muscles to easily reproduce them, ‘© And we will give you IMPROVISED PRACTICE in class and tips to use the knowledge you have when speaking outside of class. None of what we give you will have any effect if you don't set aside a little time every day to practice the material, and pay constant attention to your accent every time you speak. The Programme There are four sections in the programme. ‘© Movement - What the muscles do to shape the sounds. We start by giving you muscle training exercises to get your face and tongue moving in @ new groove. «Rhythm and Tune - We study how you can phrase and stress like an RP speaker — using tune, loudness and linking to emphasise and shape your meaning, This will make your meaning much clearer to the listener. © Vowels — We will look in more detail at the 20 (yes 20!) vowel sounds and how to make them clearly different. Well focus on your problem sounds and on how the sounds relate to what is written, Spelling is not at all obvious in English. Our 20 vowel sounds are represented by only 5 alphabetical letters! © Consonants - We will look at the 24 consonant sounds in RP English and focus on those that are causing you problems. 1[Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 HOW THE PROCESS WORKS Or ‘it'll get worse before it gets better. Above all be patient and set yourself reasonable expectations! You are trying to re-train your brain and your muscles and break habits of speech that you've had since you were a tiny child, This is like someone taking something you do instinctively (like drive a car, lor make a cup of tea in your own kitchen) and moving everything around. Your muscles will continue to make the movements they expect to make — even though they are now wrong, Your brain is efficient and makes short cuts for actions you repeat often, especially when they're complex. And that is particularly true of speech. So to create new habits, we have to make a mess of what the brain has already mastered and then try to lay in the new way. This means it really can initially feel worse (it won't actually be worse) as you become very aware of all the mistakes you make, ‘And frustrated by the times your old habit is quicker than your new one. First we have to teach you what the differences are; the theory. Then you have to make the new sounds ~ which may initially be quite hard. Then you will be able to make the sounds when you really concentrate, probably when you're reading, but not naturally or easily. To move from this into being able to correct your accent naturally whenever you speak English, you must repeat, repeat, repeat the different sounds and combinations until they become second nature. Atrick to help you develop patience... The Levels of Competence © 1 UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE Before you start you are UNCONSCIOUSLY INCOMPETENT. You speak without thinking, using your habitual movements and sounds. © 2. CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE ‘Once you begin to study, you will be CONSCIOUSLY INCOMPETENT. You will still have your accent issues but now will notice the mistakes you make and know what they are. © 3. CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE The third stage will develop as you practice and become better at making and linking the new movements and sounds together. This stage is to be CONSCIOUSLY COMPETENT. This means you can speak with an accurate accent when you're really focused on it; perhaps whilst reading, but not yet whilst chatting, * 4, UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE The last stage is what you are aiming for. This is when you have practiced the work enough to build muscle memory and instinctive use of the accent. Now you can make accurate sounds when you are not thinking about the accent - the RP English accent has become second nature. This is when you are UNCONSCIOUSLY COMPETENT and is the ultimate goal. This course will take you from Level 1 — to Levels 2 and 3. it may take you many months to achieve Level 4, It is important not to become frustrated in sections 2 and 3. And it's important not to stop your training when you're at level 2 - you could forget everything you've learned! 2|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 INTERNAL PARTS OF THE MOUTH USED FOR SPEECH These are the internal parts of the mouth which are used for making speech sounds, The different vowels are created by changing the shape of the entire oral cavity (mouth space). The consonants are all blockages in the mouth created by the different ‘articulators’, or speech ‘organs. For example a/b / is made just with the lips and a // made with the tip of the tongue touching the tooth ridge. 4 EXERCISE - explore the inside of your mouth Explore the inside of your mouth with the tip of your tongue. Also try looking inside your mouth with a mirror. Yawn and notice how the soft palate lifts up. Examine the difference between the teeth undersides, back of the teeth, gum ridge behind the teeth and the hard palate. The more aware you are of all these areas, the easier itis to control the sounds you make. THE VOCAL TRACT AND ARTICULATORS. NASAL CAVITY HARD PALATE TOOTH RIDGE ORAL CAVITY ree “_ 3) Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 EXTERNAL MUSCLES OF THE FACE USED FOR SPEECH We also need to gain control over certain muscles in the face; those which are involved in our facial ‘expressions and speech. Your habitual use of these muscles will be different to that of a native RP speaker. They are likely to hold a particular tension, your habitual facial expression. This Default Setting of the face muscles affects every sound you say. Exercising the muscles to have a tension pattern more like a native RP speaker will help you sound English as soon as possible. Some muscles you may hold more tightly, so you need exercises to loosen and lengthen them. Muscles you hold too tight might be those between the top lip and the eyes, and the muscles of the jaw (the Temporalis and the Masseter). Other muscles may be less tense and need strengthening exercises, such as those that round the lips forward (the Obicularis Oris and the Buccinator) and muscles in the tongue. Our Mouth Yoga later in this chapter will give you simple, effective exercises to achieve permanent change in the way you hold and use these muscles. And this will allow you to adopt RP Default Setting and begin to sound much more British. It won't stop you speaking in your own accent/language, but added flexibility in the speech system may in fact improve your elocution in your native language too. A great side benefit! 4|PageMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 WHAT ARE VOWELS? Vowel Sounds are voice coming through an open space in the mouth. Voice is vibration made in the throat, in the larynx. Make the sound you would make if someone dropped a brick on your foot probably something like ‘ow!’ or ‘ai’, that’s a vowel. Vowels make up the centre of a syllable ~ for ‘example the middle of the word ‘head’ Breath is made to vibrate in the throat and then this stream of frequencies (voice) is directed through the mouth, The shape of the open mouth dictates which frequencies are highlighted. We recognise the various sounds produced as vowels. Therefore, to change the sound of a vowel, you have to alter the space inside the mouth into particular shapes. Differences between vowel sounds are very subtle, so you need to do this very precisely. 3-D Shape Think of the mouth as a simple 3-D space. The top of the space is the roof of the mouth, the back wall is the throat, the sides are the teeth and cheeks, the front wall is the lips and face, the bottom of the space is formed by the tongue and jaw. We can easily transform the shape of the space by moving these moveable elements. ‘As the mouth space has three dimensions, it can be extended in those three dimensions by moving those ‘walls. It can be made taller, wider or longer. These directions are known as Vertical (taller), Horizontal (wider) and Sagittal (longer). Take a look at the graphic representations below. Normally we see images of the inside of the mouth as @ 2 dimensional image ~ but instead let's imagine it as a 3 dimensional cube. 3D Moy SPACE UTH, ‘ Vertical a: car Horizontal i: see Sagittal u: you 5|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 The lips, cheek, tongue, face, jaw and throat move to extend the mouth space in three directions. This creates 3 different shapes, which in turn releases 3 different vowel sounds. There are six different shapes/tensions in RP English which produce 6 different groups of vowels. There are the three main tensions illustrated above - Vertical (up and down), Horizontal (side to side) and Sagittal (back to front). There are two ‘combination’ directions Vertical Sagittal and Horizontal \Verticel illustrated below. And the sixth tension is rather a /ack of tension, no tension or movement in any direction ~ and that produces the Neutral family of vowels. Vertical Sagittal 9: your Horizontal Vertical a2 cat Neutral 3: nurse Vowel Movement Families ‘At Speak Easily, we group the RP vowel sounds together if they have similar movements, shapes or tensions as described above. We colour code them in Movement Families to make it easier for you to remember them. Each Movement Family will have a Strong version of the vowel (those shown above), a Soft version of the vowel (where the muscles are more relaxed), and one or more Diphthongs. These are vowels which start with one movement but then transform into another. In all there are 20 different vowel sounds in RP English, but only six Movement Families- so this system makes it much easier to remember the sounds and to get your muscles to make the different shapes. The complete list of vowels can be seen on the next page - with an example sentence for each ‘one. We will examine the vowels in detail throughout the course, Vowel Length ‘Another useful way of sub-dividing the vowels is by how long they are. There are the vowels which put all the energy (or stress) on the vowel itself, These tend to be very long and ere often known as Long vowels. Most of the Strong vowels are also Long. There are also those which are always followed by a strongly stressed consonant which cuts the vowel short. These are often known as Stopped or Short vowels. All the Soft vowels are also Short/Stopped. And again, there are the Diphthongs. The length of vowels is very important and will be covered in detail in the Vowel section of the course. However, vowel length is also very unstable, it alters depending on the position in the sentence or ‘what consonant follows the vowel. So in general, we organise vowels by Movement as it is the more consistent factor. Detailed work on each Vowel is in Section Three. 6|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 WHAT ARE CONSONANTS? ‘A consonant is a ‘noise’ - formed in the mouth by some kind of blockage. This noise can be made with voice or with air, in different parts of the mouth, and in different ways. Below is a rough overview of the whole consonant system - all 24 sounds. You won't need to work on all these sounds. However, it helps to understand what makes the consonant sounds different from each other so you can fine- tune those you do need to work on. Detailed work on each sound is in Seetion Four There are 3 important ways of identifying consonants. 1. How they are made 2. Where they are made 3. Are they made with voice or air ~ (Whispered/Unvoiced or Voiced) ‘The 24 consonants of RP English need to be accurate and different from other similar sounds. And they need to be spoken even at the ends of words. ‘The Different Kinds of Consonant - Organised by ‘How they are made’ Plosives = Complete block and explosive release There are six sounds which are made by making a complete block in the mouth which is released suddenly with a puff/explosion of voice or air. These sounds are known as Plosives. You don't need to remember technical terms like this, but it's important to get the exact place, and the two-part, block/release movement right for these sounds, All six plosives are shown with their most common spellings below. It also states where they are made and whether they are made with voice or air. Plosive-t Plosive-p Plosive-k tongue tio on toothridge tips - with air back of tongue - with air (behind upper teeth) - with air P pan, appear, rapid k kind, baker, dark tc take, butter, mating shape last « cry, income ed jumped, rushed ck rock, wrecked @ equal, queen ch stomach, chemist Plosive-d Plosive-b Plosive-g tongue tip on toothridge lips - with voice back of tongue - with voice (behind upper teeth)- with voice b _ ball, ribbon, baby 9 gold, figure, jigate d- day, sudden, riding robe bag red gh ghost gu guardian 7|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Frictions (or fricatives) = Soft block with air or voice ‘buzzed’ through the contact point There are eight frictions in pairs (plus /h/ below) of voiced and unvoiced sounds. Frictions are made by buzzing voice or air through a soft blockage made with combinations of the tongue, teeth or lips. Friction ~s tongue tip on Friction - © tongue tip on bottom Friction - f upper teeth on lower Friction - f tongue blade - with air toothridge behind of upper teeth - with | lip - with air upperteeth - with air | air sh shoe, cushion f feet, offer brush s _sea,basic ask | th thin, nothing leaf bus, across: both s _ sugar, mission ph photograph © scent, cease nephew sc schedule face luscious gh laugh, cough © special, ocean ti nation ch machine Friction =z Friction - 8 Friction -v Friction -3 tongue tip on tongue tip on bottom | upperteeth on lower | tongue blade - with toothridge behind of upper teeth - with lip - with voice voice upper teeth- with voice | voice v vase, over s measure, vision z — z00, lay th this, other leave gaze with ge rouge {) ot camouflage Ss _ easy, roses was Friction /h/- made in throat with air This sound needs to be made softly in the throat (neck) ~ not at the back of the mouth. Itis a very soft sound in RP English and is more a matter of timing. Leave a gap for it, but don't force a strong sound = it's just a bit of heavy breathing, Affricates ~ Mixture of Plosive and Friction For these sounds you need to make a strong plosive block and then release it with friction. The strong plosive block is made where the tongue would be for the friction sounds f (ship) or 3 (rouge). Friction -h ‘Affricate - ‘Affricate - & vocal folds - with air with air with voice h hat, perhaps, how ch chin richer, watch j January, major, eject wh who, whole t nature, feature 9 ain fragile, ginger dg edge, bridge, judge 8|Page® MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 The other consonant sounds are all voiced. That is they are made with the voice, not just whispered with air. There are two groups left, those that come down the nose, and those that are only partial blocks or squeezes and seem a little like vowels. Nasals ~ Complete block, but voice ‘hummed’ down nose There are three of these sounds with blockage positions identical to /d/, /m/, and /a/. There is a difference at the back of the mouth however which allows the sound to come down the nose. Nasal-=m : Nasal=n Nasal- 9) lips tongue tip back of tongue m meal summer,tame | now, any, down ng singing, song, wrong mb comb, limb kn knew, knit nn monkey, inquest engaged gn gnaw, gnat Vowel-like ~ partial block or squeeze which still allows voice to come through These vowels squeeze the mouth space (at lips or with the tongue) in such a way as to alter the sound of the voice so it no longer sounds like a vowel ~ but there is still a vowel-like quality to the sounds. like - w Vowel-like -j Vows tongue blade squeezed | lips squeezed forwards like /i/ w west, owing y you, yacht away yoghurt wh what, whale why u language queen, equal Vowel-like =r tongue blade curled up and back rain, hurry thorough wr wrote, wren th rhythm, rhyme Vowel-like = Light | tongue tip - back of tongue relaxed t leave, lid, silly Vowel-like - Dark + tongue tip - back of tongue raised l all feel, elbow 91Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009. WHAT IS STRESS? What is Stress? Stress is how we focus the listener's attention on the important parts of our speech. It also is an important identifying feature in different words. English has a very important stress system which needs to be at the heart of your accent study as itis affects every other sound. What is Intonation? intonation is the ‘music’ of the accent, how the tune goes up and down. If you listen to people speaking a language but itis too quiet to hear the exact words they are saying, itis usually still possible to know which language itis. This will partly be because of specific sounds, but mostly because of the rhythm and tune - the ‘music’ of the accent or the intonation. In English, the intonation combines with stress to identify words and add layers of meaning, For simplicity well refer to both Stress and intonation together as simply Stress. In English the Stress and Intonation define meaning in up to four different levels. People often refer to the subtlety and multi-layered quality of British communication. This can be a good thing or a bad thing some American comedians joke that it can take weeks to realise you've been insulted by a British person! So if you want to be sure to communicate what you really mean, you need to master the Four Levels of Stress. The Four Levels of Stress ‘We can divide the RP Stress System into 4 levels. These are all present at the same time. Level 2. Syllable Stress - identify longer words by stressing one syllable and weakening the rest. Level 2 Sentence Stress - the rhythm of the phrase, important words highlighted, weak ones hidden Level 3 Key Word Stress - really important words are given extra stress and tune, This adds another layer of meaning and indicates your opinion. In writing we often italicise to indicate this. ion Stress - the tune is used to give additional information about the communication. eg, “I've finished speaking’, “| don't expect an answer to my question’, “I'm really shocked by that", "I'm in the middle of a list’. The first two levels are fairly inflexible. You need to get them right or your accent sounds strong and you may not be understood. The second two levels depend on your meaning and are much more flexible. You need to master these so you don't mean something you don't intend, and your message has maximum impact. Detailed work to practice each of the Levels of Stress is in Section Two. 10] Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 What is RP English and why do we teach this accent? Most foreign speakers want to speak a neutral or standard kind of English. We have several names for standard, non-regional English. It is often referred to as RP, which stands for Received Pronunciation. The name Received Pronunciation suggests an accent that is acquired rather than regional It is also sometimes called BBC English, as the BBC initially adopted this accent for its clarity and non-regionality, Historically RP came from the royal court. The term actually refers to being ‘received’ (allowed to visit) by the royals, As the court was based in London, RP has a lot in common with the speech of the south east of the country. The accent further developed in the private schools of the 19" century. People increasingly felt obliged to adopt the accent in order to be successful in society, Prestige is still attached to this accent, and people usually assume speakers have a high level of education. It can therefore be referred to as Oxford English after Oxford University. Nowadays sharp divisions in class are going, and the accent is widely spoken. When people lighten their regional accents, they always lighten it in the direction of RP, so itis felt to be standard English. All English dictionaries and TEFL materials use RP as the standard. There is now a whole range of RP, from the very posh accents of the royal family, down to a more neutral sounding modern version. ‘The modern version of RP is therefore the most appropriate accent to lear, the most widely understood, and what most people ask for when they ask for neutral. It also has the benefit of producing very clear, well-balanced and articulate speech. | will refer to it as RP or Standard English. So enjoy the course! Each section will have © Pre-reading at home to introduce the basic theory ‘+ Practical Study in class with your teacher © Homework Drills to repeat the sounds until they become easy and the muscles are trained + Homework Memorising tasks to help overcome the difficulties of English spelling There is an abundance of practice material for you to use over the coming months. We will definitely not cover every page of this book during your lessons - but hope that this material will keep you going for months. ‘Above all - keep trying and practicing! Motivate yourself and keep repeating the exercises. In my experience it takes about three months for people to ‘click’ and ‘get it’. And those who make big improvements are those who regularly practice and put the work in. Good luck. 11|PageSECTION ONE How to Sound Really British — Part 1 ey Muscle Training© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Aims for Section 1 The aims of this section are to begin to soften and strengthen the muscles of your mouth and face so they can adjust to an RP English accent. We will learn to: 1, Adopt the RP Default Setting during your speech so your speech muscles move in the pattern of a native speaker. 2. Aim the voice to the area, and in the direction of flow that a native speakers would do. 3. Learn Mouth Yoga exercises to help unlock any habitual tensions which could stop you doing this, These exercises also help the clarity and quality of your speech, 4, Understand the RP Neutral Vowels ~ long and short. 5. Learn where not to say‘ 6. Position the Tengue Tip accurately for the most common consonants. 12|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 HOW TO SOUND REALLY BRITISH To sound like a native RP English speaker, you need to train your muscles. RP English depends very strongly on clear mouth shapes for the vowels and a very active and accurate tip of the tongue. Two things can help you immediately sound more British ~ and give you lots of detailed improvement instantly. 1. Adopt the Default Setting (facial position) of a native speaker 2. Aim the Voice to the same area and in the same Direction of Flow as a native speaker. Weill look at these two elements separately below, but they support each other. In fact every element of an accent is linked and interdependent. Particular details, like individual vowels and consonants, help to create a particular Default Setting and encourage a particular Aim and Flow. But also, when you change the general Setting and Aim — this can in turn improve individual details. The Default Setting To speak RP English accurately, your face needs to move in the way a native speaker's face would naturally move. And it needs to rest between movernents where a native speaker's face would naturally rest. This rest position we call the Default Setting. It is where a speaker's face and mouth are at their most relaxed. The muscles spring back to this position after speech, like a jumper springing back into shape after being washed, When we stop to think or hesitate, we tend to make a little vowel sound that fils the gap. This is the Thinking Sound — itis often written as eh, er, um, erm etc, This sound is made with the muscles in the Default Setting These two related things ~ the Default Setting and the Thinking Sound - affect every movement of the muscles and every sound in the speech. Itis crucial to change these to the RP versions if you are truly going to speak with a perfect RP English accent. 44 EXERCISE - Check your Default Setting and Thinking Sound in your own language. Video yourself (or use a mirror) whilst speaking about something from your past (your first pet. your first teacher, where you grew up). Speak quickly in your native language. Repeat the exercise speeking in English. You will probably use your native Thinking Sound and you will be able to see your natural Default Posture, ‘You will also probably notice that your Default Posture and Thinking Sound are the same when you're speaking English as they are when you're speaking your original language. English has a very different shape to other languages — so you can see that a muscle adaptation has to take place ‘What is RP Default Setting? ‘Compare your movements with a native RP Speaker - your teacher, and/or BBC news readers, British actors or politicians - and you will probably notice that your accent has a more Horizontal tension than RP. Standard British English has a lot of space in a Vertical dimension, with a very low, relaxed jaw and lots of space in the mouth. The lips also round forwards, creating expansion in a front to back direction. This third dimension is called Sagittal. 13|PageMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 RP Default Posture is therefore both Vertical and Sagittal. It has a long face and a low jaw, with lips that are narrow and easily round forwards to create a tube. To copy it you need to relax all the muscles of the face, the cheeks and jaw muscles in particular. Allow the jaw to hang with space between the teeth at the front and back of the mouth, Any Horizontal (sideways, smiling) tension in the mouth needs to relax to bring your lips in towards the centre from where they can easily round into a tube. Checklist: Relax your cheeks and let them hang Relax your jaw muscles and let your lower jaw hang heavily with a slight gap in the teeth Soften any smile muscles and let the lips relax into a narrower shape Let the tongue relax lower back and further down in the mouth in a ‘fat rabbit’ shape Keep a little bit of a ‘yawn’ at the back of the mouth ~ RP needs the soft palate to be high Aim and Flow This is a harder concept to grasp. But if you think of the voice as a liquid (rather than an air) pouring out of the body, you will realise that it can be directed in different directions and can fill up different areas. If you look again at the image on page 3 of the Introduction you can track this through the internal spaces of the mouth Think of the vibrating air (voice) coming from the vocal folds and heading up the throat, into the back of the mouth, over the top of the tongue and forwards out of the mouth. Really see that it has a direction and a flow. Also that this flow could head directly for a bone or a wall. If the flow of the voice heads directly for a bone ~ it will vibrate this area and this vibration will amplify the sound. This is called Resonance. So for example ifthe voice-flow is directed into the nasal cavity — then there will a lot of extra amplification here, which will have a particular quality which we think of as ‘nasal’ RP Aim and Flow RP speech flows silkily out of the mouth in a forwards direction. The area the sound is aimed into is the mask of the face — around the eyes and cheeks in particular. Megaphone Technique If your native Aim and Flow don't come forwards out of the mouth ~ then it can be useful to make a mini-megaphone (out of a piece of A4 white paper) and use this to direct the sound out of the mouth. If you speak (try counting in English) into the megaphone you will hear the voice amplify if you manage to get it flowing into the cone. Once you are sure the voice is flowing forwards in this way you can try taking the megaphone away but keeping the flow of the voice the same. Try to replicate this feeling of sound flowing out of your mouth when you speak. Changing Default Setting, Aim and Flow can be tricky to do on your own ~ in class with your teacher they will be able to guide you into understanding these very useful techniques. 14|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 HOW TO DO THE NEUTRAL VOWELS ‘The Default Setting/Hesitation Sound for RP gives us two vowel sounds; the Neutral Vowels. One is the most common vowel sound in English, the Short Neutral or ‘schwa' sound (the, actor, about). The other is the Long Neutral vowel as in bird, word, turn, her. See Video Examples On your webpage. How to do Long Neutral - exactly! 2 Touch the tip of the tongue to the little hollow below the front bottom teeth. You will feel your teeth, a ridge of gum, below, then a smooth bit, then some wrinkled skin. Touch the tongue tip to the smooth bit This is HOME - POSITION 1 for the tongue. it should be here for all vowel sounds and for Default Posture. This may feel very different to your normal tongue position, ‘and your tongue may pull up or back when you make vowels. ‘ry adopting this as the new rest position for the tongue tip ‘and keeping it there all day. It will help the jaw relax. downwards in a parallel position (see image on right), with space between the teeth at the front and the back. With the tongue tip in this position, allow the tongue to relax in the mouth, It should be in a softly humped shape — like that of a fat rabbit. If the tongue stays tense - try auto-suggestion ~ mentally repeat My tongue is very heavy. My tongue is very heavy.’ to your tongue. Notice how the tongue relaxes and sits down in the mouth. You may feel lots of salival Without tensing or changing anything allow the throat to make a vowel sound. Relax any tension in the lips, cheeks and tongue and don't let anything tense up during the sound. Everything hangs heavily t can feel quite ‘stupid’. This is, correct. ‘Say the sound a few times and look at this symbol: Sei es This is the Phonetic Symbol for this sound, regardless of the different possible spellings it may have, English spelling is very unpredictable and we will study it as, part of the course. if you can learn the phonetic symbols for the sounds we make, you can look up pronunciation of words ina dictionary NB: Once you start speaking the words on the right, don't pronounce the 'r's in the spelling if they are after a vowel, but not before one (see next page). Listen to yourself very carefully to hear if your tongue habitually tenses to make an'r’ sound. 15|Page Jf you Tonaue ikea fot rabbit promis, Vf Practice Words/Sentence ‘were, person, serve, her first, gir. bird, thirsty turn, surface, nurse, Thursday word world work worse Itwas the nurse's thirtieth birthday and she was thirsty. When it was her turn, a certain person served her. She turned away looking hurt. The person serving her was her first boyfriend.MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 WHERE ‘R’ IS NOT PRONOUNCED nee Unpronounced 'r represents the following vowels: In RP English spellings the letter is never pronounced L Its ont ut fore a vow alga vores Sn Yo eee = Neutral Long 3: were, nurse, bird, her ‘Therefore, in the following words, only the '’s marked in VerticalLong a: car, hard, artist bold are said, The others in italics are used to represent -Saglong 9: 9 your, court ‘vowel sounds. Seite ae eee Neutral Short 9 actor, father, particular rab teaire-rl error Inder Meter: Horizontal Diphthong 18 here, near, fierce NB. In irish, Scottish and American English accents, the’ ‘s Sagittal Diphthong ve pure, tour, bluer pronounced after vowels ~ one of the major differences Horiz-Vert Soft Diph efi, where, bear between these accents and RP English ‘audio 001 In the following words, no 'r sound is pronounced at all because in all cases the ‘rin the spelling comes after a ‘vowel sound, but not before one, These words all happen to be the Long Neutral vowel. worker earlier version murder further fur nurse surgeon stem learner tun girt In the following words, the ‘rin bold is pronounced. As a syllable has been added so it is now in front of @ vowel. murderer surgery furry stirring purring berry ‘Ther is not pronounced in these words, even though there is @ vowel after it in the spelling, The final eis actually part of the vowel in the centre of the word. As this ‘e' isn’t pronounced, the 'r isn't really in front of 2 vowel. there here bare where allure core Practice - Practice words with silent ''- using the Neutral vowels: Long Neutral: birds, burning, certain, church, circle, desert (y), determine, early, earth, first, heard, her, learn, observe, per, person, return, serve, sir, surface, terms, third, tur, verb, were, word, work, world Short Neutral: after, centre, colour, consider, comer, covered, desert (nj, discovered, doctor, dollars, energy, entered, exercise, factors, father, figure, fingers, forward, government, however, information, letter, measure, ‘members, modern, northern, number, paper, particular, picture, power, soldiers, sugar, together, under, understand, water Linking ‘r’ audio 002 ‘There is one occasion when the 'r’ comes back. We often link our words together to speed up the pronunciation (we'll look at this more in Lessons 3 and 4). if we link a word like ‘there’ with one like is’, we effectively say “thereis’ as ifs one word. The 'r of ‘there’ is therefore in front of a vowel again ~ so we say it. ‘Try making one word out of the following pairs with a linking /r/ there are where is her aunt car-alarm far away fair enough Where is heraunt? ‘Will we hear our car alarm so faraway? Fair enough, but there are other places where it's much nicerin the winter. 16| PageMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2008 EXTRA PRACTICE MATERIALS — NEUTRAL LONG a: Neutral-Long Sentences audio 003, It was the first rehearsal so the thirty girls were nervous, ‘+ He certainly served me with neither courtesy nor urgency. 's Bernard's purpose for further learning is to observe the earth's surface. * I'm concerned the earlier version of the work was worse. ©The murderer cursed and yearned for the court to adjourn. © His third birthday is on Thursday the first. These words are the worst in the world, but they are worth the work. ©The expert earned his worth as the research got worse and worse. © [heard Colonel Worthing flirted fervently with the Ear's girtfriend. ‘©The stern nurse works on Thursdays and returns to Birmingham after work. Story 1 audio 004 It was certainly the same person in the church and Bernard couldn't determine if they had heard him approach earlier and returned, or what their purpose was. He was personally responsible for the church and moved forward to observe and learn more. Above him the circle of bells rang for the third time, it was three am and the person was working in the dirt and quietly muttering words to himself. Could he be the murderer? Story 2 audio 005 Birmingham University has a new term of research into recurring burps. A team of surgeons and nurses are observing thirty workers at the university in the purposely built surgery. One girl burps when she's thirsty, and others are allergic to earth, birds, fur and even work. Those are the worse burpers and their burps can be heard in the centre of Birmingham, or further afield. The term's work will only scratch the surface of the research, but the workers fervently hope to be the first to determine if burpers can learn to defer their burps. ; 17|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 Conversation audio 006 It's my turn to be served. Theard the server say | was frst I'm certain | was earlier than you. Ive been here for thirty minutes. The service here gets worse and worse. That girl is worthless. Personally | won't return, Certainly not. My girlfriend prefers the university bar in Furrier’s Lane in term time anyway. Near the church? No, further on; near the turning to Berkhamstead, Examples of Neutral Long taken from the 1000 most common words in English audio 007 birds burnings sertain certainly church circle concemed determine earlier early earth firm, first further 18|Page git heard her lean nurse observe per person personal purpose research return serve service surface term third thirty turn university verb were word work workers worse worth© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 @ NEUTRAL SHORT - THE ‘SCHWA’ Most (but not all) of the unstressed syllables in longer words will be the Short Neutral vowel. It's exactly the same as the Long Neutral vowel, except that instead of a long sound, you make the shortest, tiniest sound possible. The short neutral vowel is the most common vowel in English. It is often referred to as the ‘Schwa’ and its symbol is / 2. Because it is such a tiny sound it can never be stressed. It is always in the unstressed syllable(s) of a longer word - e.g, acto’, about, together (short neutral in grey). It can be in a single syllable word only if the whole word is unstressed in the sentence ~e.g. cup of tea, on the way, lots of fun. The short neutral can be spelt with almost any letter of the alphabet — quite often it replaces a spelling that would normally indicate a stronger vowel. In the case of single syllable words, there can be a stronger version of the word ~ e.g. of / v/ and of / av/ Most Common Spellings er —_ perhaps exercise moth @ _ themselves suddenly open about machine probably Africo human control. observe economic freedom u——support upon industry measure famous autumn or forget opportunity doctor col ar particular similar forward ate* accurate separste “only for adjectives — not verbs. audio 008 impression understand woman oblige suppose particular measure mother doctor famous colour figure waiter person about another actor sitter battered server together centre often paper travel perhaps again among division instant Find the Short Neutral/Schwa in the following sentences audio 009 My fashionable mother measured the woman and suggested particular colours to go together, to flatter the figure of her famous customer. ‘About a hundred years ago, a woman travelled among the famous islanders, observing the pattern of entertainment and recording it with photography. Probably the best answer for the children’s centre, is for the cover doctors to complete the information for the government, before they are obliged to, tomorrow. 19|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2003 Weak and Strong Forms All these words have a strong form, which would be used if they are important/stressed in the sentence. Mostly, however, they are not stressed in the sentence. When they are in weak positions, the vowel will weaken and become a Short Neutral/Schwa. Practice the phrases and notice the difference between the peaks and the valleys. Strong Forms of the Words aoa does daz some sam am em for fo: than den an en from from that Ox and end had = hed the Oi: area: has = hez them Sem a we have hev there dea att her hs: to tu: but bat must mast us AZ can ken of Dv was = WDZ could kud shall feel were W3: do du: should fud your ja: Weak Forms of the Words - the vowels are reduced to Short Neutral/the Schwa Remember stress Nouns over Verbs ~ and Verbs over Pronouns audio 010 Give him a hand They are really good lean do it That's a good boy We are so lucky It can really hurt What a mess Are you sure? Where can we get one? Is ta bird ora plane? When are they here? Paul can really sing Foramhile Where are you going? Maybe we can go as well lam a good walker H's as good as new He could see it When | am an old woman mas fast as you are We could go as well lam annoyed Tim is as kind as Paul ‘There could be a problem If .am ready, I'l go He's bright asa button When could we see it? Where am | siting? We'te-as cheap as Tescos Could it be love? Ihave an idea See you at three Why do they do that? ‘There's an apple on the table Let's meet at the gate How do you do? What an awful thing to happen lan’s at my mum's already Where do we go next? Thereiis an answer It's live at five pm Do you know him? Just for.an hour or two We're at home this Christmas, I don't care, do you? Some bread and butter It’s strange but true Why does he do that? Hsin black and white It’s ok, but not brilliant Where does it come from? Boys and girs, be quiet! But why not? He does a lovely tomato sauce Now and again it's nice. Its all but done now Does he really need to come? Use flourand water Yes, but not today What does it all mean? 20|PageGood for nothing He wes out for six runs She was abroad for 20 years He's gone fora walk Let me hold her fora while It came from Africa You can get it from Harrods Toke it from me Get some from the fridge The big present's from me We had started There had been a bad storm Where had he been? What had really happened Ifonly | had done it better He has had two already Paul has made a big mistake Where has it gone? Has it only been three weeks? ‘There has been alot of rain He should have done it Where have you been? We have a lot to do ‘There have been a lot better Thave a strong feeling Imet her yesterday Her answer was no That's her last chance Paul is her third husband He's her only assistant We must do it today I must get there before three ‘What must he think of us? Paul must be really tired She must talk to him directly 21|Page Acup of tea Its a work of art The Princess of Wales ‘The work of a moment I'd like moge of that one We shall be late You shall go to the ball | shall be sick Shall | do it myself? Where shall we go for Xmas? He should be fine ‘Where should I put it I should give up smoking He shouldn't be so loud ‘What should we bring? Have some more There's some beer in the fridge He has some children, | think How can | get some? There're some bad people too More than that Less than ten pounds Easier than taking it again Further than you think | Tike Jim more than lan I know that you do He thought that it was right We're sure that he's guilty Its there that we lost it It's the snow that's the worry Itsin the way Hike the yellow one Is that the best you can do? Where's the back door? ‘The shoes are by the wardrobe > MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Late them all Let them eat cake Give them a chance She loves them a lot How can we help them? Where there's a will {s there any way to tell? Why isn't there an answer? There isn't any need for that What is there to do there? Goto bed | want to be a millionaire He went to town to buy milk Paul is to be married tomorrow I said no to him at frst They told us all to go Give us a kiss! The two of us are going Leave us alone Meet us in the town centre twas snowing ‘There was only one left Was that his answer? Simon was very late A child was born We were very cold Hf were you, | wouldn't They were pretty awful There were only six left The children were naughty Take your time Is he your only child? It’s your own fault This is your last warning Where is your father® MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Most Common Words with ‘Schwa’ Itis important to start recognising patterns in the spelling that reveal where the /o/ replaces what looks like a stronger vowel. One of the most common mistakes in pronouncing English is pronouncing a strong vowel, following the spelling, instead of the tiny Short Neutral Schwa. The following list, drawn from the 1000 most common words in English, should help. The grey letters are always pronounced /a/. | also list the stronger vowel you are likely to be tempted to say. ‘er Don'tsay/3:/! Often used for. Comparatives = bigger People = mother Position words = over Verbs = cover perhaps superman mothe ‘mann stronger remember northein hovselt excise teach flow bett together westem: personify understand sist. weath: biog! wheth: centered international farm should bright= ev moden ensigy work: fw long) ord: pattern propety lead answ smal: tate covered rumerat soldier wint tat form discovered goverment fath charact further rath southem Underline broth: comet ner easton difference memb: ap: ove other fingers pow: reithe uns remembeis fing letter eth: wonder cent rum afer howew ‘e’—Don'tsay fe / ! Often used for- Adjectives = silent Plurals = postmen Verbs = believe Nouns = settlement ‘At beginnings of words like ‘before’ - the ‘e' can be pronounced / 1 /. Either this or /a/ are acceptable. before apparently settlement’ sentence ferent. «happen hundred behind elements treatment audience silent seven Viotet belong eprsent elements existence student eleven quit below necessary experiment influence recent children beside suddenly equipment experience moment. gentlemen decision statement difference current even degree movement evidence present (n)—_‘sten present W) Violence president written received garden report broken resent open return postmen 2|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 ‘a Don't say /zi/! Often used for Countries = America England Adjectives = final Adverbs = finaly bout michine | charicter | England total Aiics | oceon sbove Japinese — Scothind —fisc:l Austio hums cording avaible rebind anim Austral | wom:n count probby — Finknd signal Amerie: importent cross mong Silbles | NewZeabind nation: Inds stomoch ofr mount parograph nowt Niger women ogain ‘pear fompiny | husbnd persons Canado ste gaint pproech ‘sind evil | substnees 90 sround gencrcly | thousnd = financist aul -gteed stack finally traditions! Jl shed tend financially fil oa allow salable | totally e steng woy ‘o! Don't say /v/ Often used for Prefires = contain today provide Nouns = administration Adverbs = finally Atbeginning | At beginning | In mid | pend | common operation completely | observe | met -ion freedom petiod action orgenisaton contain | obtained — | democratic addtional | reason iron dministatio population committee | produce | consonant dictionary | season ——persn " production Conditions | productive | economic international | cotton second sociation question eomsider | provide | personal functomary | method milion | attention region cnvinued | Solution | oppesite intentional | symbols union ‘| condton religion compare today, bottom: income —_—‘| direction section ccncemed | toward education situation central nation | eommunsy ‘ul Don't say / s/! At beginning In middle | Atend Atend -ure Atend -ous | surprise | | support suggest industry | autumn measure future religious | suppose upon instruments | equal nature picture serious supply July | difficult figure pressure ‘obvious | August temperature architecture | famous | grecovs ‘or Don't say /a:/ ‘ar’ Don't say / ‘ate’, ain’ Don’t say /e1/! At beginnin de | Ate aries lite privste | immediately Cais “separite | litersture correct pony doctor ean certanly accurate forget opportunity acto ae eae forgive factory factor oy forever information | ambassedo col lab 23|PageMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 These words have a ‘schwa! in one form, r others where the ~ate ending adapts. It’s strong for the Verb and weak (a ‘schwa' ~ Short Neutral) for the Adjective or the Noun. The stress stays the same - it's the pronunciation of the last syllable that changes. audio 011 ‘Adj/Noun, vate = ot separate moderate elaborate graduate duplicate advocate approximate articulate associate deliberate animate intimate appropriate 24|Page Verb ate = cit separate moderate elaborate graduate duplicate advocate approximate articulate associate deliberate animate intimate appropriate the stress stays on the same syllable though the ending changes The eggs may separate so do them separately. The scores are moderated so success may be moderate. He elaborated on his theory with elaborate examples. The graduate had only just graduated and was very young, Can you duplicate these, we need 7 duplicates of each. My advocate advocated that | plead guilty We've approximated the results and we're approximately 6 weeks out She's very articulate and was able to articulate her argument well. | only associate with other associates of the company. He deliberated on whether her lateness had been deliberate. We work by animating inanimate objects. She intimated that she'd like to get intimate with him. He appropriated the moment to say that wouldn't be appropriate.MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 MOUTH YOGA 1 Exercises for Maximum Vertical Space in the Mouth These first exercises are to help prepare the jaw and back of tongue for the RP Default Posture and Neutral Vowels. ‘They are a kind of Yoga for the Mouth - and as such you do need to; = do repetitions and practice daily ~ at least at the beginning - work the stretches just to the point of discomfort to lengthen the fibres and reduce tension = exercise the muscles to the point of muscle ‘burn’ to create extra strength Yawning Yawns are great internal stretches and will release tensions throughout the vocal tract. Try to do real ‘yawns, but if you run out of ‘yawn’, just continue to fake the movement ~it will still stretch the muscles. We will do three types of yawn to open out the jaw. . Yawn One - Normal Yawn with the mouth wide open at the front. Let the mouth be enormous. Note how the jaw opens in a hinge-like way, rather like the Duck drawing on the right. Repeat 5-10 times Yawn Two - Opening at the Back There are two techniques. 1 Yawn with your lips strongly pushed forwards in a tube shape - feel how the teeth are pushed apart at the back. 2 Yawn with your front teeth slightly touching, This is almost impossible, but again notice how the back teeth are pushed slightly apart. This jaw opening at the back is like the Pelican drawing on the right. Repeat each 5-10 times 25|PageMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 Yawn Three - Parallel Jaw This time yawn with your lips gently touching. This { will allow your back teeth and front teeth to both je ‘open a small amount. Try to keep the front and back ‘openings equal ~ so the jaw bone is descending in a parallel way like the Penguin picture right. | This lowered, parallel jaw is very similar to the low ey jaw setting needed for RP English. | | i] Repeat 5-10 times. Then try to leave the jaw in the dropped position and make the Neutral vowel Back of Tongue Exercises There are several really good exercises to help you stretch out the back of your tongue. Exercise One - Lapping Lap like a cat with the tongue far out of the mouth. Then try lapping and yawning at the same time. You should feel a stretch at the back of the mouth between the tongue and the yawn. Exercise Two - Tongue Push Outs This sequence will really unlock tension in the back of your tongue. Preparation is always the same. Grin and open your mouth so your teeth are as wide apart at the back as possible, Then tuck your tongue tip down behind your bottom teeth. Then press the body of the tongue out of the mouth, avoiding contact with the top teeth. The pressure comes from the back of the tongue. 1 D0 10 Push Outs 2 D010 more Push Outs whilst yawning at the same time 3. __ Hold the Push Out position for 30 tiny pulses and then straight away keep the tongue fully pushed out and move the back of the tongue to cleanly sayk kkg 9 9.0.0 1. Then say the word king three times cleanly. Exercise Three - Tongue Torture This can be done with any text - or even just counting, You push the tongue fully out of the mouth ~ keeping the mouth wide open and avoiding contact between the tongue and the lips or teeth, Other important points to note: Keep the back of the neck long Keep moving the mouth/face as if trying to say the words incredibly clearly Keep pressing the tongue out fully. Try saying the rhyme on the right 4 times ~ the first three times you hold the tongue out as above without resting! Then, also without stopping, carry on for the fourth time, allowing the tongue back into a normal position. Notice how different your voice sounds. audio 012 26| Page Bea, baa, black sheep Have you any wool? Yes, Sit. Yes, Sir. Three bags full One for the Master, and one for the Dame, And one for the little boy Who lives down the lane.MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 MOUTH YOGA 2 Exercises for Lip Strength and Energy Like the other two Articulation Workouts, these exercises are designed to build strength and flexibility in the muscle groups needed to easily speak English. This particular set helps you develop the strength and control needed in the lips and face. ‘The RP ‘Face Posture’ has a lot of vertical space in the mouth, created by a low tongue and a low, relaxed jaw position. It also has a narrower feel than most other languages. if your language has a more closed jaw and more Horizontal Setting, you will need to develop more tone in the lip muscles to easily maintain and spring back to the narrow, almost hollow-cheeked, RP Neutral Posture. You'll also need a lot more strength in the lips and cheek muscles, to be easily able to form the Sagittal and Vertical Sagittal vowels and the W. As before: = do repetitions and practice daily ~ at least at the beginning = work the stretches just to the point of discomfort to lengthen the fibres and reduce tension = exercise the muscles to the point of muscle ‘burn’ to create extra strength Anatomy of the Lips/Face Let's remind ourselves of the muscles you'll be working with, To get the round shape of the English Sagittal vowels - you need to strongly contract and push forwards the Obicularis Oris muscle (the one that circles the mouth) whilst pushing forward the Buccinator muscles to the sides of the face, thus hollowing the cheeks. What shape should it be? C e Ifyou keep your teeth together and push your lips forward, they are likely to move forwards in a horizontal oval shape. Ob For RP English this doesn’t work. We need the teeth to remain slightly apart, and for the mouth to narrow in, so that for the Strong Sagittal vowel (u: - food), the shape is completely, round, like a cat's bottom! The gap should actually be about the size of your little finger. For the Vertical Sagittal Vowel (9: - your), the jaw is even lower, so the shape of the mouth is actually taller than it is wide, an upright oval. If you insert your thumb with the nail to one side, this gives you the right kind of size. You need to lower your jaw (at the back) and press your cheeks in strongly to make this shape. This is a bit like a fish mouth 27|PageMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Bone Props To get the above shapes, you need to do the exercises below with the teeth apart. Use a mirror to check that you always have a finger-tip gap between your front teeth, To keep this space whilst practicing, some people like to use a bone-prop. These are little plastic 1 ¥2 ‘cm objects (on a string to stop you swallowing them) that you gently rest between your top teeth. They are expensive ~ about £15 - which is ridiculous for a tiny bit of plastic. So, if you are careful to tie a string to it to avoid swallowing, you should be able to create your own out of a wine cork or a plastic rawl plug. | have even used a piece of cut carrot in the past ~ which has the advantage of being edible. Just cut another bit once your first bit has been eaten The size will vary ~ experiment - but the width of your thumb knuckle is 2 good place to start for the height. The shape should be thin in the middle, with grooves top and bottom to rest your teeth on. Don't bite down on the bone-prop hard —just use it to lightly keep your teeth apart whilst you work. Don't swallow it! Warm-up Exercises ‘These exercises will really get the blood flowing and the muscles working hard. You can do them till there's a healthy muscle burn, just like a gym workout. Grin and Pout Grin to the side as manically as possible. Then rapidly pout - making your mouth as like a cat's bottom as possible. Then grin, then pout, then grin, then pout ~ moving as quickly as you can from one shape to the other. Repeat 10-20 times Blow through your lips to relax them - like a horse. Bbrbbborbrb. Blow kisses Blow kisses ~ again with the lips as tightly rounded forward as possible. Keep the lips squeezed throughout the whole exercises. Blow 100 kisses! Blow through your lips to relax them - like a horse. Bbrbbbbrbrb. Do Fish Kisses Press your lips forward and out at the same time — so the insides of your lips are showing, ‘Squeeze the inside edge of your lips towards each other. Do 100 of these little squeezes - like a fish blowing bubbles, The muscles will probably burn! Blow through your lips to relax them - like a horse, Bbrbbbbrorb... 28|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 W-Strengthening Exercises Strengthening the /w/ sound is important for many speakers, but it has the side benefit of helping all the Sagittal vowels too, as a /w/ is in many ways a squeezed u: vowel. Blow your lips out, as above, to relax them after each exercise. W-Catapult Pout tightly. Imagine you are trying to squeeze a pea to death between your lips, Make a sound where the pea would be and then release /w/ /w/. Feel the elasticity of the lips as they spring apart, flinging the /w/ out - like they are a catapult. Now try adding vowels afterwards, keeping the /w/ as muscular as possible way way way way wee wee wee wee wow wow wow wow You will, you will, you will. Keep the muscular /W/ and insert it into the above phrase — repeat, ‘you will, you will you will” as strongly as possible. Then begin to speed up, faster and faster... Tongue Twisters ‘These tongue twisters have been around forever in British Drama schools to help our actors achieve stronger lip energy. Again keep the /w/s really muscular and speed up as you gain confidence, audio 013, Wild winds and wet weather ‘One wan weary white woman wildly weeping (wan (won) means pale) Which is the witch that wished the wicked wish? Extreme Speech This last exercise is similar to ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ from before. It is about holding an extreme position and then speaking with some energy through it. You need to focus on both trying to speak very clearly, and holding the extreme position as strongly as possible. Even though these two objectives are contradictory. Hold your lips in a tight, round pout just like you've been doing so far. Keep it there and repeat this rhyme. Where the sounds are in bold text, squeeze the lips even harder. Read the rhyme three times - land then on the fourth occasion, relax the lips but notice how they retain the muscle memory of the exercise and are quicker to move for the bold sounds. They should also feel happier to remain in a narrower Neutral position. audio 014 What a to-do to die today A rattatattoo at two At a minute or two to two ‘And the dragon will come A thing distinctly hard to say When they beat the drum And harder still to do At a minute or two to two today For they'll beat a tattoo at two today ‘At a minute or two to two You can repeat this exercise, holding the lips in the shape of the Vertical Sagittal (tall tunnel) vowel. 29|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 MOUTH YOGA 3 Exercises for Tongue Tip Accuracy and Strength - TH and T/D/S/Z These exercises are designed to make your Tongue Tip stronger and quicker in making the consonant movements needed for RP. ‘As RP English has a very low, relaxed jaw, the tongue and lips in particular need to work much harder to cross a bigger space in the mouth to make the blockages necessary for the consonants. In particular the tongue tip needs to rapidly and accurately move between the three following positions. The Tongue Tip Positions Position One - HOME This is the 'Home' position forall vowel sounds. The tongue tip is touching the gum dawn below the bottom teeth. Don't ask native speakers if they do this ~ they may deny it! In linked speech we may not return to this position for every vowel, and every speaker has different habits. But for non-natives, use of this position will help you relax your tongue root and jaw and develop extra strength in your tongue tip. It will also stop the tongue pulling back ‘on vowel sounds. Position Two The tongue tip is very pointed and touching the ridge of gum (like a shelf) behind the top teeth This is where the most common consonants in English ~s,z,t, dn and Lare made, Be careful that you don't touch the back of the teeth. This may be ‘where you make these consonants, but they will have a different sound quality and affect the vowels differently if you make them here, Be very accurate with these sounds. Position Three ‘The tongue tip touches the underside of the top teeth - visible from the outside. This is where the other most common sound ~ TH with voice / 8 / {is made. Also the slightly rarer TH with air / @ /. There are several exercises that will help you strengthen, speed up, and movement of your tongue tip between the above positions. 30|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 Exercise One ~'L’s Outside The Mouth. 1. Point your tongue into the sharpest point possible and touch the area between your upper lip and your nose. 2. Then move the tongue tip directly down to try and touch your chin. Try to do this without moving your jaw at all, and also without assisting the tongue with the lower lip or teeth. It can be quite hard to get the tongue to lift independently but keep trying. Now make ant sound whilst doing this movement. Say ‘la la, la with the tongue tip still touching outside, Then speed this up (still no help from lips or jaw) to faster rhythms. 4. Finally allow the tongue back inside the mouth and move from Position 2 to Position 1 as you say again ~ ‘ta, la, la. It should feel much easier and freer. Exercise Two - the Three Step This sequence exercises the major movements that the tongue tip makes throughout speech 1. First touch Position 3, then Position 2, then Position 1. Ensure that the jaw is relaxed and heavy and not ‘helping’ every time. 2. Now do the same thing, but with sound-making - 6 z 9: then @ s 3: Exercise Three - the TH Flick 1. Bend the tongue back inside the mouth until you touch a point along the top of the mouth. Then flick it forwards to balance on the underside of the top teeth and make a soft friction sound. The TH with air (thin). 2. Then flick immediately to the point back inside the mouth. Speed this up till you're flicking back and forth. Keep a mirror handy to check your tongue is visible under your teeth every single time. 3. Then do the same exercise with TH with voice (then). Do this tll it's easy.. Exercise Four - the TH Tango 1. This needs to be a very quick pull backwards from the TH position (tongue tip on underside of top teeth) to the S position (tongue tip on gum ridge just behind the top teeth - not touching the teeth). As both these positions may be odd for you, practice them separately first. Then make a TH sound and pull back without stopping the flow of air into the S position - so you get THS. Then with the voiced version - THZ 2. Once you can do this easily - try doing the same movement within the following words. ‘Sometimes there may be a vowel between the sounds, sometimes they may be in different words, but you need to pull back sharply each time. TH with air + S cloths, births, this, Leith’s, breaths, faiths, both say, earthspace, south circular, toothsome THwith voice +Z these, those, smoothes, breathes, there's, clothes, bathes, mouthes Exercise Five - the Top-Teeth Two-Step 1. This is to separate TH from F. Make an F with your top teeth on your bottom lip, Switch to a TH with air - with your tongue underneath your top teeth. Now jump as quickly as possible between the two, FTH FTH F TH etc. 2. Then ty the following sentence: The faithless youth was the fifth thoughtful thief in his father's thieving family. B1|Page® MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Texts to help you practice the placement of the tongue for TH, TD, SZ, Nand L Check to make sure that your tongue is on the teeth (visible) for TH and on the tongue ridge for T, D, 5, Z,N and L. For the other sounds, the tongue tip should return to Position 1, Home, Use a mirror to check that your tongue is visible on the TH sounds. But not touching the teeth (even the back of them) for the other sounds. The Leith police dismisseth us, audio 015 They thought we sought to stay; The Leith police dismisseth us, They thought we'd stay all day. The Leith police dismisseth us, We both sighed sighs apiece; ‘And the sighs that we sighed, as we said goodbye, Were the size of the Leith police. What a to-do to die today audio 014 ‘At a minute or two to two A thing distinctly hard to say ‘And harder stil to do For they'll beat a tattoo at two today A rattatattoo at two ‘And the dragon will come when they beat the drum Ata minute or two to two today Ata minute or two to two The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Robert Browning audio 015 Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats, And bit the babies in the cradles, ‘And ate the cheeses out of the vats, ‘And licked the soup from the cook’s own ladles. Split open the kegs of salted sprats, Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats, ‘And even spoiled the women’s chats By drowning their speaking With shrieking and squeaking In fifty different sharps and flats More practice material for TH, D and T, Sand Z is in Section 4 - Consonants. 32|PageSECTION TWO How to Sound Really British — Part 2 Rhythm and Tune —Ee© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2003 Aims for Section 2 Rhythm and Tune The aim of this next section is to build your sensitivity to the rhythm and tune of English. Rhythm and tune are important to the sound of any accent. But they are particularly important in English as we use them to indicate layers of meaning and subtlety. We also use very precise length of vowel sounds to differentiate words. If you smooth all the rhythm and tune out of English, or put it in the wrong place, we won't understand a thing, To really communicate what you are thinking in English, you need to be a master of rhythm and tune. 33|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 HOW DO YOU STRESS SOMETHING? Stress is achieved by adding extra energy to a syllable. In RP English, ifa syllable is stressed it will be Louder in volume, the vowel will be of Longer length, and the tune will usually be higher. Therefore; Stress = Louder Longer Higher © stressed RP English also weakens syllables. You need to consciously un-stress syllables too. Unstressed syllables do the opposite. They become quieter, quicker in duration, and lower in tune, Therefore Unstressed = Quieter Quicker Lower Q unstressed 4 Exercise Try making the following patterns — you can use a number of physical devices to help you. 1. Stretch an elastic band. When you see the symbol for stress, pull the elastic band tight. Let the voice follow the elastic band and become more energised ~ higher, louder and longer - at this moment. 2, Use a pen to tap a glass to make a ringing sound. This tapping action will again make you add more energy to the syllables you tap on. Make sure the tune goes up and the extra energy adds loudness and length. 3. Make a hand gesture or use a Long length of ribbon. Think of the patterns made by rhythmic gymnasts with their long ribbons. To make the ribbon fy in the air takes a big hand gesture. Do this impulse on the stressed syllables and let your voice follow ~ again higher, louder and longer. Try the stress patterns below, using different long vowel and consonant combinations, such as - BA Loo NEE koB NAF 00 00 00 Oo 0 00 000 000 000 O00 O00 O00 000, 000 000 Q000 O000 O00 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 Oc000 (0000 00000 00000 00000 00000 ‘0000 00000 00000 00000 00000 ‘00000 00000 00000 Notice how the vowels change slightly on the unstressed syllables. They become weaker, quicker and alittle less definite and more Neutral. 34|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 ‘These stress patterns could be in single words, word groups, or even phrases. Try and make the same music pattern on the following words. Just try it for now; we'll look at the rules later. audio 017 00 decide 0 enter 000 another O00 beautiful 000 understand 000 educated ‘0000 experience 0000 international 0000 mid-afternoon 0000 on-negotiable 00000 enthusiasm 00000 biological 0000 consideration 00000 under-represent 00 Hyde Park Qo side street 000 three hundred Ovo credit card 000 Old Kent Road Oo00 marzipan cake 0000 extractor fan 0000 Bed & Breakfast 0000 The BBC 0000 bottle opener ‘00000 a tax inspector 00000 Queen Elizabeth 00000 Victoria Station (00000 early afternoon 00 it’s wrong Oo stop it! 000 it’s awful O00 end of it 000 on the floor 000 think about it 0000 It’s gofto be 0000 if you say so 0000 he fell asleep Q0000 that's lovely one 00000 I know that you do 00000 for an hour or two 00000 Where am | sitting? 00000 give them both a hand Make sure the tune is going up on the stresses and staying flat for the weak syllables. You may have a natural habit of putting in an extra stress. 35|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 LEVEL ONE - SYLLABLE STRESS Words of more than one syllable will highlight one syllable and slightly hide the other(s). If the stressed syllable is in the wrong place we can't understand the word, Over-pronouncing the unstressed syllables will give you a strong accent and make your speech less clear. Each word of more than one syllable has a dominant syllable that is louder, longer and higher than the other syllables. It is as important to hide the unstressed syllables as to highlight the stressed one. You must not get this stress wrong or the word is unrecognisable. You may already use Word Stress in your own language, but itis likely that you pronounce all syllables clearly in an un-weakened way, and then add stress to the strong syllable. This will make the unstressed syllables too strong in English. Remember to weaken the unstressed syllables by making them quieter, quicker and lower. tomorrow domani demain .@mOe© oO Where is the Stress going to be? 2" to last Ifyou get the stress wrong it can completely change the meaning. Listen to one of the first two sentences and chose the appropriate answer. Do you like history? No, | prefer Geography. Do you like his story? Not really, he tells it all the time. What's wrong with the desert? It's too dry. What's wrong with the dessert? It's too sweet. What about Europe? It's a really interesting continent. What about your rope? It's not strong enough. Is that elementary? No, it's very advanced, Is that a lemon tree? No, it's an orange tree. Do you like my greenhouse? Yes, it must be great for growing tomatoes Do you like my green house? Well, it's an odd colour to paint a house... What does "eligible" mean? It means qualified. What does "illegible" mean? It means difficult to read. 36|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Words with Shifting Stress audio 018 There are some words that have stress in one position when they're a verb and in another when they're a noun or adjective. The stress here is on the first syllable for the noun or adjective, and the second for the verb, Noun/Adj first insult record progress present conduct contrast conflict discharge suspect rebel perfect, desert research produce incline object contract concert convert addict compact decrease increase contest permit subject project frequent reject survey absent 37|Page Verb second insult record progress present conduct contrast conflict discharge suspect rebel perfect desert research produce incline object contract concert convert addict compact decrease increase contest permit subject project frequent reject, survey absent It's an insult you'd be insulted by that. The singer recorded his first record. We've made such good progress we're ready to progress to level 2 I presented him with a wonderful present. They're conducting a study into the team’s conduct. It contrasts with the main colour, which is a contrast with the sides. I've heard conflicting reports about the conflict. He had an honourable discharge when discharged from the army. ‘We suspect that the suspect mugged six people, The rebels are rebelling against the government. The chef is trying to perfect the perfect dessert. The soldier deserted the army and fled to the desert We're researching how much research is actually useful. The city farm produces such great produce. I'm tired so I'm inclined to avoid the steepest incline. If you objectify a woman you turn her into an object. He's contracted to be here every day, it's in his contract. We made a concerted effort to get to the concert. The new converts try to convert people the most. An addict is addicted to something, ‘A woman's compact is full of compacted powder. If we decrease the numbers we should see a decrease on the graph. ‘And if we increase them we should see an increase. He's contesting the results of the contest. Will you permit me to look at your permit? My subject can be subjected to cancellation at short notice. The project is to project a small rocket into space. The suspect frequently frequents this area. We accept even those rejects rejected by everyone else, He surveyed the landscape to complete his survey. She absented herself again, she was often absent.© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 LEVEL TWO - SENTENCE STRESS All the important meaning words in a sentence (nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.) are stressed or have a stressed syllable. These stresses form the rhythm of English, rather than each syllable forming a rhythm (as in French and Korean for example). The stresses highlight the meaning words with sharp peaks of sound. Without these peaks we can't easily identify the sense of the sentence. ‘Some languages, like French, have an even rhythm between all the syllables of a sentence. Each syllable gets approximately the same amount of time and stress. in English the rhythm is based on the stressed syllables - the meaning words. These strong syllables stay the same distance apart forming the rhythm. Anything in between them may have to speed up, slow down or link together to keep the rhythm equal. This is what makes some non-natives speakers of English feel we are ‘eating our words’, or, ‘saying everything at the same time’. From our point of view, we weaken and hide what we don't think is important, and highlight what we do. We listen for ‘peaks'~ clear strong syllables that give us the meaning and especially new information. ‘Some languages have a rhythm based on the syllables, Compare French rhythm with English below; soleil brille dans le ci el Le soleil brille dans le ciel 3 QL@Z@EOLOnOr@: The sun is shining newsky The sun is shining in the sky 0O 2 OxO Look how little the ‘ning in the’bit has to be to fit into the rhythm, ‘And if we add a stressed word right next to another stress: The big sun. is_shininpinvesky The big sun is shining in the sky AO TO 5028) Look at the huge gap you need to leave between big and sum to keep the rhythm. You need to leave the gap and eat the ‘ning in the’ part to keep those important 'peak's clear. 38|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 ‘The Rules Which Words to Stress - The Telegram We can use the idea of the telegram to develop an instinct for which words to stress in English. There are rules for Sentence Stress (described below), but instinct is more useful when you're actually speaking. In Britain, in the days of telegrams, people had to pay for a message word by word. This ‘means that they would leave unimportant words out. For example: “t've got the day off from work, do you fancy a picnic in the park?” A telegram might read: "Got day off work, fancy picnic in park?” Oreven “Day off work, picnic park?” It depends how many words you want to pay for; which depends on how quickly you are speaking. In the above example, you can see that: the strongest words are the nouns ‘small words like pronouns (|, you), articles (the, 2), prepositions (in) and auxiliary verbs (have, do) are weak ‘© main verbs are somewhere in the middle - they might be speeded over, or they might be stressed (got, fancy) First stress the Nouns over the Verbs audio 019 The sun isin the sky | gave Harriet the extra ticket There's nothing in the fridae We are actors not technicians ‘Where's the answer to my question? There's a reason for the explosion Then stress Verbs over Pronouns: It's shining there | gave it to her Hooked in it Weill think about it You haven't answered me. It must be that. In all cases ~ stress the New Information that can’t be guessed Stressed Words Unstressed Words - weakened Nouns Articles ~ a the Adjectives Conjunctions - and, but ‘Adverbs Prepositions at, to, in Main verbs - not auxiliary bits, not always Pronouns ~ he, she, my, our Question words - where, what, why, how ‘Auxiliary verbs ~ he was going Negatives - that isn't the answer Modal auxiliaries — | could do it tomorrow The particle in a phrasal verb - sit down, you can go in NB: Level Three ~ Key Word Stress can sometimes give even stronger tress to one of the words on the unstressed list - if it has extra meaning in the context. Welll practice this later. For example: Those are my shoes, (not Pauls) instead of _-—-_‘Those are my shoes. 39|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Linking Linking is incredibly important. We really don't speak word by word, but make little linked connected. groups of sound, If you separate all the words out you will sound staccato, and this can sound angry or aggressive. Also, you will over-pronounce those bits we need to be weak, and this will make your ‘meaning difficult to understand. Remember ‘ning in the’ .shining in the sky)? The only way to make this fit into the rhythm is to link it all together. + Exercise. Try to write down the following sound phrases: The answers in phonetics are: ‘nauratu: —fere rane'verlebl —_ndr'sardrdwr _,feetrnde'ba:re dzhevhede —‘mijende'le © ‘dgpmnju:ndifar- deu'mat Orin normal writing: nauretoo fure_ —runavailebul —ndisydidwi_chatinthebara dzhavhade _meejunthela_ndify _joinjoo? domy The phrase is in fact written backwards ~ if | re-order it, the meaning is revealed: devimar ndifar_——_‘dgornju: ? ‘mijendolle —_dzhevhede ‘ffeetinde’ba:re_ndr‘satdidwa rane'verlebl fore ‘nauratu: Don't mind if | join you? Me and the lads had a chat in the bar and decided we're unavailable for an hour or two. The words are linked together into sound units. With both these sentences you can actually link them Up into one long stream of sound. How to Link? This does begin to happen naturally once you try to run the words together — but to give you a head start welll ook at what linking actually is. You can link with the following combinations: Vowel to Consonant Consonant to Vowel Consonant to Consonant Vowel to Vowel 40| Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2008 Vowel to Consonant and Consonant to Vowel are easy. You just link them up into the same word. This can help you pronounce consonants at the ends of words, if you are able to link them to words beginning with @ vowel. Examples from the above: mindif 1 hada achatin the bar Consonant to Consonant can sometimes happen and sometimes not. If i's the same consonant, then ‘we usually only say one of them if we're speaking quickly. There isa slight ‘hover’ on the sound. It's ‘not identical to when there is only one consonant there. Compare: anddecided itssimply —_with this wellsiked Andy sided it simply within well /could It's so easy to say one consonant instead of two that we can move or change consonants to bring them into the same position. This happens a lot with /d/, /t/, n/ and TH sounds. As the TH is quite hard to make, Ds Ts and Ns in front of it usually move onto the teeth and combine with the TH. and then = althen odd that = ofthat at the = a'the get this = gelthis Nasal vowels often switch places too: don't mind = domind tenpence = tempence Consonant connections usually happen automatically ~ though you may need to practice the TH one. Vowel to Vowel connections are a little more complicated, although you should begin to use them ‘automatically once you start. There are three different ways of doing it. All use a little consonant, one of the vowel-like consonants to make the connection smooth. 1. Linking ’r. We've already looked at this. Basically if an ‘r which is usually not pronounced is. before a vowel, we put it back. there are where is her aunt caralarm faraway fair enough 2. Linking from a Sagittal ending Vowel (including Diphthongs that end Sagittal). As the lips round for Sagittal, the nearest consonant is a Av/. Therefore a tiny /w/ is introduced to help link the words together. go" away now and again you" aren't do“ anything how"*awful sa" old 3. Linking from a Horizontal ending Vowel. The nearest consonant to horizontal ending vowels is a /i/(as in you). So a soft version of this is added to make it easier to say the words. thelanswer see! into sayit boyand git tie it up theyaren't 4. With Vertical, Vertical Sagittal and Neutral vowels that don’t have an ‘t’ in the spelling an /r/ sound is often added anyway. This may seem odd, but we don't really hear it, it's just there to smooth the linking of the two vowels. Madonna‘ is india ink papaland mama lay/and order gnaw/at it 41|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 Listen to the full text of the grumpy salesman, overheard in a bar. 1. First see if you can find all the places you can link. 2. Then see if you find natural places to break it into phrases. Remember there is usually one ‘strong stress per sound phrase. This is often at the beginning. audio 020 "Are you on your own? Don't mind if | join you, do you? Me and the lads had a chat in the bar and decided we're unavailable for an hour or two. Even if our awful bloody bosses want us to go on and on with the meeting. It's all very well our own managers going on all night. But for us, if it goes on beyond half past ten it’s unfair. We're only paid for an eight hour day as itis! They're just wasting time in there. It's so annoying It is as if they only want to talk about things one at atime. And there's only about one sandwich each and no beer at all! Do you need a drink at all? Oh, ok. I'l leave you alone then. Sorry. I'll see if that lady over there needs a drink” NB: If you do every single possible link in the above text, you may sound a little drunk... Keep linking clear of Key Words, even put a little pause in front of these, and you will sound fluid and clear rather than inebriated! 42|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY.COM 2009 STRESS IN WORD GROUPS English often groups words together in phrases of two or more words, These can be made up of nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs. The stress patterns of these have strict rules and if you get them wrong, people won't understand you. There are a number of different combinations, but the most important ones are as follows: descriptive phrases noun phrases verb phrases name/number phrases 1. Descriptive Phrases These are fairly straight forward - one word describing a noun. The stress falls on the word being described, which will be last. This is true both with adjectives, numbers and colours. For example: a blue car my three daughters an empty room the furthest door the second floor avicious circle the simple answer my red dress 2. Noun Phrases These are a strong feature of English. Itis where we have taken two (or more) words to create a third different object. These are usually combinations of nouns and are sometimes called compound nouns. However, they can be made with adjectives too. ‘The difference is that two ideas have joined together permanently to create an image. As such we treat it as one word in the sound, even though in writing it could be one word, two words, or joined by a hyphen. When pronouncing it, we have just one stress for the whole phrase which falls on the strong syllable of the first word. With the word toothbrush, we don't see a tooth first and then a hair brush, we see the object ‘the toothbrush’ straight away. Itis one thing. handbag love-letter birthday card bank account These noun phrases have developed over time. They are ways of speeding up communication. Quite often they replace a phrase - a bulb of light becomes a lightbulb, the break of day becomes daybreak, a brush for teeth becomes toothbrush. They can also develop in patterns. For example the word ‘player’ started off being attached to records. Now whenever itis reattached to something (CD, DVD, Blu-ray, i-) the stress fall in the same pattern as for record player. record player CD player DVD player Blu-ray player i-player If the stress falls on the wrong word in the noun phrase, we do not get the ‘image’ of the object described, but rather are distracted by the second word. For example ‘daybreak’ means dawn, but if ‘we hear ‘daybreak’ we are distracted by the word break and start trying to think of what is broken. Similariy with ‘teardrop’ (what is dropped?), ‘boiling point’ (pointing where?) and ‘hot dog’ (no dogs involved), We also may confuse it with other similar descriptive phrases. For example: Paul is developing the photos in the dark room This is a really dark room The bluebird loves coming to the garden There's a blue bird in the garden This hot dog is really tasty. This hot dog needs some water. The president lives in the White House The White House is a white house 43|Page® MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 When there is more than two words the stress falls on the penultimate (second to last) word. For ‘example’ theatre box office credit card account holder _fruit chocolate nut bar These long noun phrases are particularly common in jargon such as medical or financial terms. Sentences Try these sentences which contain both descriptive phrases and noun phrases. The directions of the main vowels in the underlined phrases are marked for Movement ~ but you need to work out the length of the vowels — is it Strong/Long, Strong/Shor, or Soft/Short? Practice the stress first. Then focus on getting the movements right. Then get the stress, movements and vowel length correct all at the same time. This process is called Layering Up and is how you begin to master several different elements together. The diphthongs are unmarked. audio 021 The back packer had a bad back ‘+ Agreen house isn’t green but made out of glass panels. + The front door opens right into the front room, + My fed boots are too big to fit in my suitcase. * I picked up our free tickets at the box office, + I love hotdogs covered in bumt onions and yellow mustard. * My blood pressure is too high to do bungy jumps. + My fist floor flat has a back garden with a lovely lilac tree. + The doorbell rang at 2.am and the cautious woman grabbed a candlestick for protection. © Silver mines produce silver ore* which can be used for silver jewellery. + There's a.penknife in the inside pocket of the picnic basket * Doyou have your back door key in your handbag to lock the back door? + Now the streetlights have gone | can't find my black car in the carpark. The film star had blue legs and goose bumps", she was only wearing a fig leaf and a bia wi. The angry man slapped the bookcase as he couldn't find the best seller he wanted. «I played football at secondary school but | was a bad defender and an even worse goalkeeper «The understudy did word searches in the newspaper as she waited for her big chance at a star att in the spotlight. ‘© The policeman took the machine gun off the football fan and said ‘it’s just a little game’ © My favourite birthday card has a big picture of a beer bottle and an empty glass on it. ‘+ The stressed photographer kept a passport photo of his nasty editor on a dartboard in his dark room, © My bank manager is a miserable man because | never use my credit card and never make interest payments. The executive director did card tricks to impress his bored colleagues. ©The company letter head must be somewhere on the hard drive thought the worried secretary, ore = metal deposits in rocks *+goose bumps = little bumps on the skin when it’s very cold 4a|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2008 3. Verb phrases There are also lots of verb phrases in English where an additional word is added to a verb stem to make a more specific meaning. These usually have a ‘movement’ type verb followed by a preposition indicating direction. As these prepositions (to, at, in, away etc.) contain the most specific information, they take the stress. For example: to.go in to get off to fall asleep to fall over to answer back to take part to run away to pick up 4, Names, Acronyms and Numbers Last of the four major groups are the names. Normally in place names, locations and people's names, the stress falls on the second (or last) word. For example: Queen Elizabeth Elizabeth Arden Arden Forest Forest Road Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace Road Buckingham Palace Road Station The exception is a Street name. For some reason the stress falls here on the name element: Regent Street Victoria Street Buckingham Palace Street With acronyms the same rule about the stress falling on the last word applies. For example: The BBC PAYE RSPCC vaT aT PhD Hev B&B Numbers too end on the last bit. 122 4,300,251 three hundred twenty-one a million Keeping an eye on the stress, try the following speech*, Work out where the stress falls on the underlined word groups. audio 022 | took the 12.51 to Victoria Station. | left the tube train at Sloane Square and started walking. | was an excited young girl on my first solo trip. | was only eighteen and I'd finally run away. At last 'd escaped my home town. | was on the famous King's Road when | saw the cardboard sign in the window pane ‘Cocktail Waitress Wanted’. | carried on for about five minutes and then just turned around. | just walked in off the street and asked for a job. The manager, Jane Mills, told me | could start right away and handed me a bottle opener and a note-pad. Then after only about an hour or so, she came running over. She said her youngest son was in Guy's Hospital. He'd been knocked down by a motorbike near the A44 crossing Cromwel ‘Street, She said she'd looked round and wanted to know if | could run the wine-bar on my own? | said, ‘ve only just joined up, | only came in an hour ago’ It wasn't later than eight ‘clock, well before the rush hour. But you know. | got on with it. | did the whole service and then | closed up. The waiting-staff were lovely considering I'd only just arrived. They told me ‘there's really no need for you to hang on here. Just lock the cash register, turn the front door key, hit the light switches and go home’. But | didn’t. | hung around, There was something about that Monday evening that made me wait. And towards daybreak she returned with you. ‘apologies to David Hare on whose brillant pay ‘Skylight ths is very loosely based 45|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 EXTRA NOTES ON TONAL LANGUAGES East Asian Languages are structured very differently to English and other Indo-European languages. The main elements that cause speakers difficulty when switching between the two linguistic systems are; The character based writing system of China versus the phonetic/alphabetic script of the Latin languages. Even if in some languages (like Vietnamese) this has since been replaced by a Latin alphabet writing, the effect on the sound patterns remain the same. Words tend to be mono-syllabic. And words are felt as separate things. In English words are written separately, but they are pronounced in smooth, fluid, connected groups of words. The tonal system of East Asia versusstress and intonation in English. In China and similar languages, a change in the pitch of the voice indicates a change in meaning. A different tune isa different word. In English, even more strongly than in many other Indo-European languages, a change in the tune indicates stress or emphasis. We use stress to identify different words, and also to create ‘peaks’ in the sounds. To highlight particular words and let you know the most important/relevant word in @ group. For East Asian speakers, mastering the two linked elements above, will really help you begin to come towards an English sound, and express yourself within the English sound system. ‘The most important skills to develop are to; 1.__Link up words into phrases that you say in a smooth flow of sound. This means learning how to link vowels to vowels, vowels to consonants and consonants to consonants, 2. To identify the Levels of stress — in the word (syllable), in the sentence (peaks of meaning) and in the key words (extra stress) that give extra indication about the speaker's intention (Once these are identified the stress needs to be marked with a higher tune, as well as a louder noise. You also need to ‘weaken’ the unstressed elements and give them a lower tune The best advice for this is to use the markings of the stress patterns of your own language. For example in Mandarin there are four tonal variations: a we — wT MA MA. MA MA. These are very similar to the major tune moveents in English — we just use them to indicate something different. So when you look at the stress system in the following pages, try to add the up ‘and down marker to the stressed and unstressed syllables, Create the patterns for the following words. tomorrow indicate Japanese apple See ate 46| PageSECTION THREE The Detail VowelsMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 20093 Aims for Section 3 English RP has 20 vowel sounds. There are difficulties in making this many distinct vowel sounds — most languages have fewer. There are also difficulties caused by our spelling. As we only have 5 vowel letters to indicate the 20 vowel sounds, spelling is often confusing, You need to be accurate as many words are only identified by a difference in the vowel. You need to be accurate in: 1. The exact shape of the vowel ‘Whether the shape of the vowel is strong and tense, or soft and relaxed 3. Whether the vowel is consistent or changes half way through into a different sound (@ diphthong) 4, Whether the vowel is cut off (stopped) by a consonant ~ usually known as short vowels or able to be Long. 5. The exact length of the vowel depending on what comes after it~ voiced or whispered consonants. This sounds like a scary amount of detail. But as you become sensitive to these differences and able to copy them, you will begin to automatically remember the sounds of words more accurately. Once your ear is open to the subtleties, the process begins to become more subconscious. 51] PageWhy is Vowel Differentiation so Important? MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 GETTING THE VOWEL SOUNDS RIGHT Look at the chart below. The only difference between the words (with the exception of the last consonant for some of the diphthongs at the bottom) is the vowel. This means that if you don’t clearly differentiate the 20 different vowel sounds of English, by shape, length and type - you are quite simply saying another word. This can really confuse your listener! And the time it takes them to mentally check what you mean reduces the impact of your speech. We have already looked at Strong/Long Vowels in Section 1. In this section we'll look at Short Vowels and Diphthongs and commonly confused pairs. There is also lots of extra practice material for all 20 vowel sounds. z hurt heart hoot heat o we hat é hut 8 : hit 2 hot . het a height or ne hate eu Bs how a hear = hair ne hewer s2|Page furl fool feel fall full fill, fell file foil fail foal foul fear fair fewer pert part pest port pat putt put pit pot pet pout pier pair pure stirred starred steed stored stud stood stead stayed stowed steer stare stewer marred mooed mead moered mad mud mid mod Med made mode mere mare moor bird barred booed bead bored bad bud bid bed bide boyed bayed bowed (een bowed (eursieo) beer bare booer© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 The Complete RP Vowel System These sentences are constructed from the 500 most common words in the English language to familiarise you with the most common examples of each vowel. Note the phonetic symbol / e/ after the vowel name which is used to identify the soundof the vowel. regardless of the various spellings it uses. audio 023, NEUTRAL VOWELS ~ LONG and SHORT NEUTRAL /9/ I discovered a famous actor hidden under the covers of the second bedroom of a particularly puritan bishop. NEUTRAL/3:/ The frst person on the surface ofthe world heard the bids and eared to work the earth from birth, STRONG VOWELS - USUALLY LONG VERTICAL /-0:/ The last lass asked for an example ofthe answers as the tasks are hard and they are fr from a str mark SAGITTAL //ut/ Too few rues fr school fod and the usual loose soupy stew is produced in June fr new groups to consume, NomzonrAi/ if Each weekhe has seen thre deep green machines leaving the fds asthe people sleep freely beneath the trees. Verr-sas />:/ Ofcourse we ae alnays short of marm water inthe moring as the bored northem walkers order more and more ‘STRONG VOWEL - USUALLY SHORT TERT vonz /e2]/ The sad animal cared the fat family man on its bad back as he happily travelled back to his land, map in hand, SOFT VOWELS - ALWAYS SHORT/STOPPED verricat /A/ My mothers fun-loving young cousin won a fund of money runing in the country on Monday. SAGITTAL /U/ The good-looking woman stood looking atthe wooden hooks she couldn't or wouldn't pu in her bedroom, HORIZONTAL // The king sits in his bg busy ship as six quick pretty women begin to bring fish to im inthe middle of the river VERT.sAG /0/ The dog often hopped of the hot rock and crossed the common to watch the strong swens because he wanted to scoff the lt. \vert-Mowi2 /6/ The pres left together as his many fiends leant against the end of his empty bed and read his best letters to remember him. DIPHTHONGS NEUTRAL /2U/ Its s0 cold, only those close to home don't go, though most notice the old slow road is showing no snow, and is open not closed ‘venr-HoRiz / 2U/ Now they've found around about a thousand pounds out in the grounds of cur mountain house south of town \VERT-SAG /01/ The boys pointed joyfully atthe choice of toys raising their voices in a joyful boisterous noise VERTICAL /AX/ I try to flyas ale of white five, @ mile high and fve miles wide, lights up the sky behind the right side of my tiny ‘sland enr-Honie / €1/ May say whata great waste of paper takes place as they daily change the pages that contain names, ages, tables and dates. HORIZONTAL /10/_Itwas a weird idea for a fierce bearded deer to clearly appear near the pir ths year ‘Vent-Honiz /88/ Where there are scarce and rave bears is fairto share the pears to care for ther wear and tor. SAGITTAL / 49/ During the curious tour the rescuer was sure the security vacuum would endure around the valuable jewel 53|PageMORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 HOW TO MAKE THE RP VOWEL SHAPES How to do Vertical Vowels Relax the jaw and put the tongue tip in HOME position. Keep it here — don't let it pull backwards for this vowel. Relax the tongue and jaw as for Neutral, ‘Then flatten the mid-front of the tongue down towards the bottom of the mouth to create a vertical space. It's 1a if you have put a hot potato on top of the middle of the tongue and are trying to get it out of the way. Make a vowel sound in the centre of the mouth, as you lower the jaw and press down the tongue. a: a: a: Emphasise the vowel The teeth should be open at the front andat the back of the mouth. Its important to open the jaw with equal space at front and back, (parallel), not like a Duck just at the front. if you do this, the sound willbe like Horizontal, Vertical (cat), with the tongue further forwards. Again you often need to ignore ‘sin the spelling, How to do Horizontal Vowels This is the highest frequency sound made very far forward in the mouth, with a very narrow gap between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. Keep the tongue tip down by the bottom teeth as you ‘squeeze the middle of the tongue up and forwards. The tension is sideways and the tongue widens towards the side teeth. Make a sound: Emphasise the vowel The lips can spread to the sides (like a smile). But be careful not to do this too much. RP is Sagittal and Vertical, so we mostly make this sound with the tongue, Ifyou do too much with the lips, you'll lose RP Default Posture, Avoid putting the tongue tip up for this sound. To get the tight squeeze you need for RP, it’s easier to use the wider mid-section of the tongue. 54|Page Let's look at how to accurately make the other 5 RP Vowel Movements and the Strong/Long Vowels. Practice Words/Sentence are, part, hard, large, start, mark, car, star, farm, target, far, dark, The faim is dark and it's far too hard to park the car by starlight as it’s so large. The carzalarm will start if we barge into part of a barn. J oy =? . Practice Words/Sentence see, been, three, need, keep, between, tree, deep, green, sleep, free, street, wheel, each, sea, real, ease, eat, leave, reach, heat, lead, east, teach, leaf, He seems keen to sleep. It's been weeks since we've seen him in the street. It's easy for his teachers to be mean.How to do Sagittal Vowels 1 You need to make a long, narrow tube shape in the mouth, The lips round forwards to make a little finger sized round gap. It is important that the mouth is round, like a cat's bottom (), not fla. Try putting your little finger in your mouth to give the right shape. Squeeze the Obicularis Oris muscle around the lips. Imagine a tunnel from the lips to the back of the mouth. The sound is right at the back of this tunnel. What is. actually happening is that the tongue is moving back ‘and up, but it can be easier to imagine the sound itself is at the back. Make a long sound: UU U: Emphasise the vowel If you find it hard to get the lips right, try putting a finger softly between the lips ~ move it away and let the lips follow it into a round forward shape, this should be about right, Alternatively try pushing the lips through a circle made by your fingers. How to do Vertical-Sagittal Vowels 1. You are trying to make a tall tunnel this time. This is a really strong movement as you need to both push the lips and face forwards to create the tunnel and press the tongue down and open the jaw to make it tall. 2. Start by making a Vertical vowel - Vertical Space. ‘to open up the 3, Then move the lips forwards strongly. The cheeks will hollow. You are looking for a gap about the size of thumb with the nail to one side, taller than itis wide, between your lips. Make a long vowel at the bback of the mouth. You may need to feel the back of the tongue moving backwards too. 9: 0 Of Emphasise the vowel 4, This shape is really strong. A native RP speaker will already be moving into it on the preceding consonant. And they will come out of it during the following ones. If you try to move into it during the actual vowel sound, we will hear the movement. If ‘we hear a movement, we will think the vowel is a diphthong - so this sound often confuses with the Neutral Dishthong_ /au/ (go, slow, only). Make sure this vowel sound is a pure, unmoving sound, 55|Page MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 2 & Practice Words/Sentence use, music, usual, produce, blue, true, rule, unit, June, too, school, food, moon, loose, to, do, two, who W's true that Blues Music is not usually produced to rules, so let’s keep it loose and groovy and not lose our true music too soon. Practice Words/Sentence for, or, form, more, before, door, story, north, horse, short, order, morning, force, record, floor, all call also, small, always, fall, bal, altogether Ordinarily we slept altogether on the floor before the door and by morning we were bored of the floorboards and short of temper. We small ones, always had to fall in with the forceful orders of all the tall boarders.© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2008 How to do Horizontal-Vertical Strong 1 This is a very open sound right at the front of the mouth, You need to make sure your mouth is wide open, and that the sound is very forwards, right under your nose. Try making a long Horizontal vowel /&:/ to find the feeling of avery forward sound. You could also try using the /e/ vowel from your own language. These vowels are often very forwards (though not in RP. Now try making a long Vertical vowel and feeling how ‘open the mouth is. For a proper Vertical vowel the jaw is ‘open in a parallel way. For ‘orizontal-Vertical you can ‘open it like a Duck — with all the space at the front. Keeping the sound right at the front, and opening your mouth wide at the front in every direction (as if biting an apple) make a short sound: et ep wk You will notice there is a consonant after the vowel. This is because this is the only one of the Strong vowels which is always Stopped by a consonant. It doesn’t exist without a consonant after it. The length of Horizontal Vertical Strong / w/ varies. Mostly itis short and cut off quick by the following consonant, However, with a voiced consonant after it, ina single syllable word, it can be long. The main problem with this sound is usually confusion with the Vertical Vowels ~ either long (cart a: or short cut This will be because the Vertical vowels are not in the centre of the mouth, with parallel jaw) and the Horizontal Vertical vowels are not at the front of the mouth with Duck-shape jaw. Audio for the Long/Strong Vowel sentences above: audio 024 56|Page A I- Practice Words/Sentence and, as, have, can, has, back, hand, land, animal, carry, femily, happen, travel, map, fact, perhaps, that, at, had, an, than, man, add, act, stand, begen, black, am, pattern, plan, Linguage The sad animal carried the fat family man on its bad back, as he happily travelled back to his land, map in hand.© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 THE SPEAK EASILY VOWEL STAR DIAGRAM The 6 basic vowel shapes of RP English are plotted on the chart below. Neutral represents the mouth at rest — in the particular Default Posture of RP English. Then there are the 3 major and 2 combination shapes: Vertical Sagittal Horizontal _Vertical-Sagittal Horizontal-Vertical ittal-Horizontal would be represented by the French vowel ‘tu’ but itis not present in RP English. ‘The front of the mouth is to the left. The back of the mouth is to the right. And the high point of the tongue in the mouth is represented by where the symbol is positioned. The dots after the vowel symbol represent length. Strong vowels are mostly Long — but beware, as this can change depending on the word and the position. u i: Horizontal Sagittal Neutral Q° Outer Circle = Strong Strong muscular movements to make the F \Vertical/Horizontal shape Vertical/Sagittal Ke o™ Vertical la: 57| Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2003 SPELLINGS FOR THE STRONG VOWELS English is only spelled phonetically about 50% of the time. Although letters do represent sounds, the same letters can be used to represent several different sounds. This means you can't rely on the spelling to tell you how to say the word. In fact the spelling could be really misleading. However, there are patterns which are worth learning. When we teach our children to read, we tend to use a mixture of techniques. We get them to memorise words like they are pictures. These are called ‘sight words”. And we teach them to recognise the phonetic indications from the spelling. It makes sense to give you the same two techniques. Therefore we will first look at the ‘normal’ spellings for vowels ~ where you can use the spelling phonetically to a certain extent. And then we will give you exercises to memorise the exceptions and unusual examples. audio 004 Neutral 35 er a ur 2 ‘not pronounced aftera vowel ‘were, person, serve, her first, gir bird, thirsty turn, surface, nurse, wor ear our word, world, ‘work, worse earth, heard, search, journey, colonel 58|Page Vertical a: awn ‘not pronounced ‘fier a vowel hard, large, far, dark, a ae ask, after, bath, pass, dance, can't example, plant, half, calm, palm, heart, laugh, aunt Sagittal Horizontal u: i: Conventional Spellings 00 mm eee om u mm e 2% ° ww». food, loose, see, three, soon, keep, be, scene, these use, music, complete, blue, each, mean, leave, sea, lose, move, More Unusual Spellings ew ie ou i y new, few, piece, believe, field through, you, group, police, casino, machine beauty, juice, nuisance dirty, city, azy people, key, Vert-Sag —_Horiz-Vert 3: 2 or our am a ~ al m6 not always has to be pronounced followed bya afteravowel consonant more, story, —_ add, add, morning, adds fall, always, and, thet, small, pattern, wa, war ou, 0a au, aw water, warm, toward saw, draw, law cause, daughter, talk© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 How Consonants Affect Vowel Length ‘The Difference between Voiced and Whispered/Unvoiced Consonants There are eight pairs of consonants which have both voiced and whispered/unvoiced versions. Whispered t title cracked P puppy ‘church Voiced d dared g giggle b blubber 6 judge Whispered | 5 sister ship f fiith © thin Voiced | lary 3 measure v vivid 6 then These are very easily confused and can cause problems in separating different words, €.g: audio 025 robe leat lied fleece back ruche light fleas bag rouge rope leave rich ridge earth earthen To make it easier to hear the difference there is more than just the presence of voice in the sound. Also the length of the vowel is affected. it is much shorter after the Whispered/Unvoiced sounds. With the Voiced Consonants, part of the energy used to make these sounds is used up at the throat, vibrating the vocal folds. In English we don't add extra energy to compensate, so the contact in the mouth is quite soft. As the voice continues right through from the vowel to the soft consonant, the vowel is full length. ‘The Whispered/Unvoiced consonants, made with air, carry the full breath energy used for the sound into the contact point in the mouth. This makes the connection stronger and with more air pressure and hiss. The vibration of the vowel is cut off short by this strong, hissy’ consonant. The vowel sounds are therefore much quicker when followed by one of these consonants, Therefore the length of a vowel changes depending what consonant comes after it. In the case of the Diphthongs, Long Sagittal (food/boot), Long Horizontal (leave, leaf) and Horizontal Vertical ‘Strong (badge, batch), it changes enough that we may hear a different word. It is therefore a crucial area to practice, To recap! ‘Open Vowels or followed by a Voiced Consonant = full length vowel Vowels followed by Whispered/Unvoiced Consonant = speeded-up vowel Try these examples with the Long Horizontal Vowel to compare the difference. Make sure its still the Strong vowel and doesn’t confuse with the Short/Soft Horizontal /t / on the right. The order is Strong/Long, Strong/Quick, Soft/Short, audio 026 leave leaf lift eased east is greed greet grit stream street strict need neat nit bees beast busy team teach itch achieve chief chin reason recent risk please police plinth believe belief lift knees niece nit either ether wither fleas fleece flint 59|Page© MORWENNA ROWE - SPEAK-EASILY 2009 EXTRA PRACTICE MATERIALS FOR THE LONG/STRONG VOWELS Exaggerate To begin with — really exaggerate the movements for the vowel sounds. You should practice at 80- 90% of the maximum you are able to do for each movement (but with a relaxed jaw at all times). This will strengthen all the muscles. Afterwards you will naturally relax the movement to about 50-60% of ‘your maximum, and this will be a good natural way of speaking, But if you start at this level, your muscles won't develop extra strength and you'll relax back to the way you already speak. @: Vertical Long/Strong Sentences audio 027 ‘© Margaret and Marjory rather bargained on out-lasting their father. ‘©The last class asked for an example of the answers as the tasks were hard, © The parliament clerk snarled at the marchers demanding answers, as they passed his department with large painted cards, + The partners argued over Margueritas all afternoon, partly ruining the calm, balmy peace of the palm bar. © The smarmy master of art marched into class and laughed at his charming partner's disastrous art. + Carl started to bar the starving artists from partying in his large garden as his Aunt was rather past it ©The Farmers Market in Parson's Green is largely out-classed by the local gardeners. ©The car can't be Mark's, he's partly staff, and they aren't allowed to park on the grass. + We cast Tara Palmer in the starring part as she's clearly the classiest dancer in the class. + Alarge part of the flavour of Cara's savoury tarts is parsley and cardamom, Vertical Long audio 028 after cant fer hard party angwer car farm heart passed are chance farmers large past arms charge fast last plant army chart father laughed rather art class France march sharp ask dance garden mark staff asked ork lass market stars aunt department grass park start ‘branches example half part 60| Page