PHONETICS

PHONETICS 

When you speak a foreign language, your pronunciation is not a factor of
fluency…unless...you speak so poorly no one can understand you. But your pronunciation is
the first thing native speakers notice; in spite of dialectical differences, they are all agreed on
what is acceptable speech. When you speak their language, is your speech
acceptable? This should be possible – after all, we all possess the same kind
of vocal “hardware” (mouth, tongue, teeth, lips, nose, etc.), and can produce
the same sounds. So, “I can’t make that sound” is not really the case. Yes
you can! And why would you not want to?
Becoming aware of what your mouth is doing in the pronunciation of words is the first step
toward becoming a better speaker of another language as you learn it. As you pronounce each
of the following words in the right column, pay attention to how the initial consonant of each
word is being produced.
PHONETICS is the linguistic discipline which addresses the recognition, production and
recording of the different speech sounds. Questions like “How and where are those sounds
produced?”, “Are there different categories of sounds that share certain features?”, and “How
can they all be written?”…these questions come to mind.
Focus on what happens to the air when you produce (and hold) the initial consonant of each
of these words.
There are about 700 speech sounds in the world. When you were born, you were able to
produce any of them, but since you only needed a few, your mouth locked onto those sounds
it needed to make you sound like everyone else around you. Even though you are still able to
produce those hundreds of other speech sounds, you are no longer working with a “clean
slate.” This is where phonetics training comes in along with the practice necessary to result in
good pronunciation.
VOICED sounds occur when the vocal folds in the larynx (i.e. the GLOTTIS) are close
together and vibrating. VOICELESS sounds occur when the vocal folds are apart and are
stationary.
Practice turning the voicing on and off without stopping the flow of air.