Page 23 - DENG401_Advance Communication Skills

Advanced Communication Skills

Notes 'r' as in 'run'

To make this sound, the tongue will pull back somewhat. It will fatten and raise in the middle,
rr, rr, about here. Because it is raising, the tongue will actually be touching the insides and
bottom of the top teeth, rr, rr, on either side of the mouth, rr, rr. Because the tongue has pulled
back a bit and fattened, the front part of the tongue does come down, but it's not touching
anything inside the mouth, rr, rr, rr. And you can see that the corners of the lips come in,
bringing the lips away from the face, rr, rr. If the R comes at the beginning of a word, like in my
name, Rachel, the lips may take a very tight circle, Rachel. If it comes at the end of a word or a
syllable, it may be more relaxed, like in the word father, father, rr, rr.

[ ] ... 'y' as in 'yes'

The Y is consonant sound. To make this sound, the mid/front part of the tongue raises and
presses against the roof of the mouth about here. The tip of the tongue comes down and lightly
touches behind the bottom front teeth, yy, yy, while the throat closes off to give the Y sound that
yy, yy quality. Here's a photo of the Y consonant sound on the right compared with the mouth
at rest. And here parts of the mouth are drawn in. The soft palate is raised on this sound. The
tongue stretches towards the roof of the mouth. Here it is not shown touching the roof of the
mouth because there is a passage down the middle of the tongue that does not touch the roof of
the mouth. This is where the sound travels. The sides of the top of the tongue do press against the
roof of the mouth.

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