RP (Received Pronunciation) vs SSB (Standard Southern British) vs GB (General British) As pronunciation teachers, we are often asked about the accent model we use in class. Unfortunately, the accent has 3 widely used names: RP / Modern RP – Received Pronunciation SSB – Standard Southern British GB – General British In practice, they are the same – if you are considering pronunciation courses and you’re not sure which one is right for you – it makes no practical difference whether the course is Modern RP, SSB, or GB. However, the name might indicate the background and approach of the cours ..read more

NEW VIDEO: Voiced Glottal Fricative [ɦ] The phoneme /h/ is normally taught in English as a voiceless glottal fricative, the sound you make when steaming up a mirror. However, in connected speech, when this phoneme appears between two vowel sounds, it can be voiced. This is particularly common in fast speech where the first vowel sound is weak, and the second is strong in words like AHEAD and BEHIND. This week’s new video is all about this sound: This video covers: Voiced glottal fricative [ɦ] pronunciation Example words Comparison with voiceless sound [h] H dropping The full video is fou ..read more

NEW VIDEO: Labiodental Nasal [ɱ] Today’s new lesson is all about a sound that native speakers make without realising – labiodental [ɱ] which often replaces alveolar and bilabial nasals [n,m] in connected speech: This video covers: Voiced labiodental nasal [ɱ] pronunciation. Spellings of [ɱ] and examples. [ɱ] in connected speech. The full video is found here. Related videos in the AXNting library are: Alveolar nasal /n/ Bilabial nasal /m/ The post NEW VIDEO: Voiced Labiodental Nasal [ɱ] appeared first on Pronunciation Studio ..read more

NEW VIDEO: Half Long Today’s new video in the AXNting library is all about half long vowel sounds, which occurs when a normally ‘long’ vowel sound is reduced in length. The process that causes this is normally pre-fortis clipping in English: This video covers: Half-long diacritic:[ˑ] ‘Long’ vowel sounds – monophthongs and diphthongs. Pre-fortis clipping. The full video is found here. The post NEW VIDEO: Half Long appeared first on Pronunciation Studio ..read more

Phonemic vs Phonetic Transcription A question that comes up a lot in pronunciation teaching is about the difference between two ways of transcribing sound: phonemic and phonetic: Slants, Bars, Brackets & Square Brackets, Phonemic transcriptions are normally made with slants //, but some dictionaries use standard brackets ( ) and others use bars | |. Phonetic transcriptions only use square brackets [ ]. The Phonemic Alphabet A phonemic alphabet has a basic principle: 1 symbol = 1 sound. This means that in a word such as PARK, there are 3 phonemes in British English /pɑːk/ and 4 phone ..read more

NEW VIDEO: No Audible Release Today a new video is included in AXNting all about no audible release, which can occur when a plosive consonant sound /p,t,k,b,d,g/ is in the last part of a syllable: This video covers: Unreleased diacritic:[ ̚] Plosive consonant sounds /p,t,k,b,d,g/ released vs unreleased. Aspiration and ejectives. Other videos in the AXNting resource that are related are: Aspiration [ʰ] Ejectives [‘] Plosive consonant sounds /p,t,k,b,d,g/. The full video is found here. The post NEW VIDEO: No Audible Release appeared first on Pronunciation Studio ..read more

NEW VIDEO & QUIZ: Dental Today you can view the new AXNting video on sounds that become dental and take the accompanying quiz to test your knowledge: This video and quiz cover: Dental diacritic: [ ̪] Alveolar sounds /t,d,l,n/ positioning before /θ,ð/ Dentalisation within words and in connected speech.  Comparison with English accents that don’t dentalise alveolar consonant sounds.  Other videos in the AXNting resource that are related are: Voiceless alveolar plosive /t/ Voiced alveolar plosive /d/ Voiced alveolar nasal /n/ Voiced alveolar lateral approximant /l/ The full ..read more

Very Tenables and the surreal world of Spoonerisms. I should start this piece by stating that spoonerisms have nothing whatsoever to do with spoons. So nir. Except of course, that both spoons and spoonerisms are pretty funny. And surreal. I was reminded of them yesterday when I saw this rather sad news: I think it was during the 1996 Curled Wup that somebody I knew quite randomly swapped the first letters of Terry Venables’ name around and it stuck fast (don’t spoonerise that!). I’ve never been able to think of him by his real name again, such is my addiction to silly word play. The ..read more

NEW VIDEO: Devoicing Today you can view the new AXNting video on devoicing: This video covers: Devoicing diacritic: [ ̥]. Approximant consonant sounds /w,r,j,l/ – voiced vs voiceless. Devoicing after voiceless aspirated plosives /p,t,k/. Devoicing (slight) after other voiceless consonant sounds. Other videos in the AXNting resource that are related are: Voiced labio-velar approximant /w/ Voiceled alveolar approximant /r/ Voiced palatal approximant /j/ Voiced lateral approximant /l/ Aspirated consonant sounds [ʰ] The full video is found here. The post NEW VIDEO: Devoicing appeared fir ..read more

The Phonetics Police In the world of written English, everybody knows about the grammar police.  They pick at a piece of writing, not because of its language (the main element) but because of its punctuation. Well, in the world of English pronunciation, there’s a similar group: The Phonetics Police.  Phonetics police officers on duty in London 2023. © /ˈgɛti ˈɪmɪdʒɪz/ They will always find something wrong with a transcription of speech. And they have a pretty easy job. Let’s imagine you are transcribing the word CRETE: Depending on the focus, you might use one of the abov ..read more