Page 18 - DENG401_Advance Communication Skills

Unit 1: Simple Rule for Pronunciation & Intonation

of the tongue stretches up towards the back of the roof of the mouth and soft palate area. So the Notes
tongue goes from being raised in the front, touching the front part of the roof of the mouth, to
pulling up and stretching towards the back of the roof of the mouth. The tip of the tongue still
remains forward in the 'oo' as in 'boo' vowel, jjuu, here behind the bottom front teeth, or
slightly lower, in the soft tissue. Yyuu, few. Here you can see both sounds of the 'ew' as in 'few'
diphthong. You can see that though in the first sound the lips are rounded, in the second sound
they are much more rounded and closed.
Consonants

[ ] ... 'd' as in 'dime' & [ ] ... 't' as in 'time'

The T and D consonant sounds. These two sounds are paired together because they take the same
mouth position. Tt is unvoiced, meaning, only air passes through the mouth. And dd is voiced,
meaning, uh, uh, dd, you make a noise with the vocal cords. These consonants are stop consonants,
which means there are two parts. First, a stop of the airflow, and second, a release. The airflow
is stopped by the tongue position. The tongue will come up and the front part will touch the roof
of the mouth just behind the top teeth. It will then pull down to release the air. The teeth are
together, tt, and as the air come out, when the tongue releases, they part, tt, dd. Let's take for
example the word 'pat'. Pat: the first part, the tongue has moved up into position, cutting off the
flow of air. Pa-tt. And the second part, the tongue releases, and the air comes through the closed
teeth. A note about the teeth position for the D. As I said, the teeth are together, tt, and part when
the air is released. This must happen for a release of the T. But the D can actually be made
without the teeth coming all the way together: dad, dad. You can see there the teeth are not
closing all the way, but you're getting a D sound by the tongue coming up into position and
pulling away.

[ ] ... 'v' as in 'van' & [ ] ... 'f' as in 'fan'

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