English Phonetics Diary #7

    For my final phonetics diary entry I watched another video from the mmmEnglish YouTube channel, which became my favorite place for content on English phonetics. I loved the video I watched for my fifth post so much that I decided to go back. This video is titled "These Pronunciation Mistakes REDUCE your English Level!" and talked about common pronunciation mistakes that ESL speakers make. Mispronouncing words might make it seem like your level of grammar is not as good as it actually is, which is why it's so important to pay attention to it. In this final post I wanted to summarize the video and reflect on what I learned from it.  

    The video went over a couple areas that non-native speakers often have issues with, but it actually started with a disclaimer that I found very important. It is unlikely that someone has trouble with all these aspects of pronunciation at once, as they're often tightly connected to one's native language, but it is good to be mindful of them and learn from all of the examples as much as we can. One's native language can act as a filter that does not recognize mistakes in a different language. Additionally, our mouths are used to pronouncing the words and types of sounds from our native tongue, which can cause trouble when trying to emulate a different language. We need quite a lot of training for our apparatus to become relaxed and accustomed to the shapes and actions it needs to perform in order to voice a different language accurately. I thought these anecdotes were very important to mention as they perfectly led into the discussion on the problem areas in pronunciation. 

    The first problem area discussed in the video was the 'final consonant', which can manifest itself in many different forms. The first example was the final /s/. The presenter mentioned that this is a common mistake for many students from Asian countries, who are not always accustomed to final consonants. This is an important grammatically area as it distinguishes the plural form and verbs in third person singular. It's important to train our mouths to voice that final /s/ in order to not only obtain accurate pronunciation, but also grammatical correctness. An additional example of the word 'months' (/mʌnθs/) was presented, which not only has the final /s/, but also the equally difficult 'th' sound. The presenter gave a tip that the pronunciation of the word can be reduced to /mʌnθs/, which native speakers often do, but the final /s/ is still important to voice. The other example of problems with final consonants is the area of '-ed' verbs. These are also important grammatically, because they differentiate the present from past tense and are often equally as difficult to pronounce for some. The final example was connected to numbers. Many often have trouble differentiating the pronunciation between thirteen and thirty or fourteen and forty. The difficulty lies in the ending consonant sound in the '-teen' words. In order to achieve accurate pronunciation we need to be mindful of our mouth movements. In the word 'fifteen' the tip of your tongue should be touching the ridge behind one's top teeth, while in 'fifty' the tip of the tongue is down low. The final consonant can often be tricky to voice, but it is important to be mindful of it as it is often tightly connected to grammatical correctness. 

    The final consonant was not the only difficult pronunciation area discussed in the video. The presenter also spoke about the extra '-e', which manifests itself by adding 'e' after a final consonant. This is an error that can be common for Italian students. Even though they do not have a problem with pronouncing final consonants, they have a tendency to add the 'e' at the end because of their native tongue. Some words and their pronunciation could become misleading because of this phenomenon. For example, words like 'speak' (/spiːk/) and 'wait' (/weɪt/) can completely change meaning when we add the sound 'e' at the end - they can sound like the words 'speaker' (/ˈspiːkə(r)/) and 'waiter' (/ˈweɪtə(r)/), which means we changed verbs into nouns, completely unrelated ones at that. This is another example of how clear and accurate pronunciation is extremely important and how it can completely erase issues with miscommunication. The last problem area discussed in the video was the final /i/. Words like 'community' (/kəˈmjuːnəti/), 'opportunity' (/ˌɒpə(r)ˈtjuːnəti/), 'ability', 'reality' or 'responsibility' have a lot of syllables, but the main problem is actually the stress pattern. The final vowel has to be voiced, but it is not a stressed syllable. It can affect the rhythm and flow of your sentence, if that vowel is not voiced. Sometimes it is not just about accurately pronouncing the words so that the receiver understands them, but rather how mispronouncing them can make one's speech feel clunky or unnatural. Proper voicing of sounds can have a big impact on the clarity and fluidity of one's speech, which is why it's an important area to work on, when trying to achieve native-like level of speech.

    I loved learning about difficult pronunciation areas and how they can make one's speech seem less professional or grammatically accurate. It's always great to hear different aspects of the issue backed up by many examples. I would highly recommend everyone interested in phonetics to check out this video, as well as the other videos on this channel. I was able to expand my knowledge of phonetics and revise a lot of familiar areas thanks to this resource, which is why I think it could be useful for any student in our class.