Stop Sounds Overview – American English Pronunciation — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:06Hello there!
2. 0:07This is the "Sounds American" channel.
3. 0:11In this video, we're going to review the stop consonant sounds.
4. 0:16Before we start, let's talk about what the consonant sounds are.
5. 0:20Here's a definition from Sounds American:
6. 0:23A consonant sound is a speech sound
7. 0:26in which the air stream is at least partially blocked
8. 0:29when leaving your mouth.
9. 0:32For example, look at how the air is blocked by the tip of your tongue
10. 0:36and flows around it when you make the /l/ sound,
11. 0:40as in the word "let."
12. 0:43Now, onto the stops sounds.
13. 0:46This is the second largest group of consonant sounds in American English.
14. 0:51Why are they called the stop sounds?
15. 0:54Because when you pronounce them,
16. 0:55the air stream is first stopped - or blocked - in your mouth
17. 0:59and then released with a puff.
18. 1:02For example, the /p/ sound as in the word "pie" is a stop consonant.
19. 1:14Types of Stop Sounds
20. 1:17In this introduction to the stop consonants we'll cover the basics.
21. 1:21In our future videos,
22. 1:23we'll talk about each stop sound in detail
23. 1:26and provide practice exercises.
24. 1:30There are six distinct stop sounds in American English.
25. 1:36They differ by how and where you stop the air in your mouth.
26. 1:42You can stop the air with your lips
27. 1:45and make the /p/ or /b/ sounds,
28. 1:50like in the words "pie" and "buy."
29. 1:57You can also stop the air with the tip of your tongue at the alveolar ridge.
30. 2:02If you do so, you'll make the /t/ or /d/ sounds,
31. 2:09like in the words "ten" and "den."
32. 2:15And finally,
33. 2:16you can stop the air with the back of your tongue in your throat
34. 2:20and make the /k/ or /g/ sounds,
35. 2:26like in the words "kite" and "guy."
36. 2:31As you may have noticed, we like charts.
37. 2:34Here's one for the stops sounds.
38. 2:38See how all the stops are grouped in pairs?
39. 2:41Once again,
40. 2:42Once again, they are grouped by how and where you stop the air in your mouth.
41. 2:58Voicing
42. 3:00The sounds in the right-hand column are pronounced with your voice.
43. 3:05These are the voiced stop sounds.
44. 3:08Listen:
45. 3:09/b/
46. 3:10/d/
47. 3:12/g/
48. 3:14The sounds in the left-hand column are pronounced without adding your voice.
49. 3:19They are called the voiceless stop sounds.
50. 3:22Listen:
51. 3:23/p/
52. 3:24/t/
53. 3:25/k/
54. 3:28Don't confuse the voiced and voiceless sounds,
55. 3:31as voicing may change the meaning of words.
56. 3:35Compare:
57. 3:51You may also have noticed that the voiceless stop sounds are pronounced with a stronger puff of air.
58. 3:57And that leads us to our next topic:
59. 4:01Aspiration or Making a Puff of Air
60. 4:05Stop sounds exist in every language in the world.
61. 4:09What makes American pronunciation of these sounds so special?
62. 4:13It's ASPIRATION.
63. 4:16Aspiration is actually a big deal in American English.
64. 4:21Depending on the position of a stop sound in a word,
65. 4:24you either make a puff of air or you don't.
66. 4:28Don't worry,
67. 4:29there's a rule which is easy to remember.
68. 4:32Here it goes:
69. 4:34If a stop sound starts a word or a stressed syllable
70. 4:38it's pronounced with a puff of air.
71. 4:41For example,
72. 4:49At the end of most words (and syllables)
73. 4:52stop sounds are pronounced without a puff of air.
74. 4:56For example,
75. 5:03This is called the "Final Stop" rule.
76. 5:06The final stop rule's most often used in conversational speech.
77. 5:11Please, note, that if you make a puff of air, you’ll be understood,
78. 5:14but you won't be speaking with an American accent.
79. 5:19Compare:
80. 5:27Many non-native English speakers believe that Americans drop
81. 5:31or swallow the stop sounds at the end of words.
82. 5:35That's not quite right.
83. 5:37The final stops are always pronounced,
84. 5:39just without a puff of air.
85. 5:43By the way,
86. 5:45if you're keen on the terminology,
87. 5:47stop sounds pronounced with the puff of air are called "aspirated stops."
88. 5:52Stops pronounced without the puff,
89. 5:54are called "unaspirated stops."
90. 5:58These are essentially positional variants of the same sounds.
91. 6:04Vowel Length Rule
92. 6:07Ok,
93. 6:08in conversation,
94. 6:10the final stops consonants are typically unaspirated.
95. 6:14But how can you tell a difference between words ending with voiced
96. 6:18or voiceless stops if they're not made with a puff of air?
97. 6:22Here are a few pairs of words that differ by their final stop sounds only:
98. 6:41Can you hear the difference?
99. 6:44Correct,
100. 6:45all the final stops are not aspirated
101. 6:47and thus they sound very similar, if not the same.
102. 6:51But still,
103. 6:52you can, probably, tell they're different.
104. 6:55How?
105. 6:57Note that the vowel sounds are the same in each pair.
106. 7:00However,
107. 7:01the vowels in the words on the left are shorter than their counterparts on the right.
108. 7:08Check them out again.
109. 7:28This is called the "Vowel Length" rule.
110. 7:31Useful, isn't it?
111. 7:37Positional Variations
112. 7:40As you can see,
113. 7:41there are many ways to pronounce the stop sounds.
114. 7:45This is especially true for the /t/ sound.
115. 7:49Did know there are two other ways to pronounce the American English /t/,
116. 7:53which differs from British pronunciation?
117. 7:56Let's start with the flap 'T' sound,
118. 7:59which is found in the word "water."
119. 8:03When the /t/ occurs between voiced sounds,
120. 8:06it sounds more like a quick /d/:
121. 8:11This positional variation is called a "flap 'T'."
122. 8:15Why does this happen?
123. 8:17Because it's easier to continue voicing
124. 8:20and turn your voiceless /t/
125. 8:22into a fast voiced /d/ sound.
126. 8:27Listen to some examples:
127. 8:37Here's another positional variation of the /t/ sound.
128. 8:41Listen:
129. 8:46When the /t/ is used before an unstressed syllable with the /n/ sound,
130. 8:51it's pronounced without a puff of air,
131. 8:53and with a quick stop made in your throat.
132. 8:57This positional variation is called a "glottal 'T'."
133. 9:02For example:
134. 9:12Still with us?
135. 9:13Remember, there's a pause button if you need it!
136. 9:16There's just one more item left in this topic.
137. 9:21Now listen attentively to these words:
138. 9:30Did you hear the /t/ or /d/ sounds pronounced?
139. 9:35You're right, they were dropped.
140. 9:39When the /t/ or /d/ sounds follow the nasal consonant /n/,
141. 9:44they may be dropped.
142. 9:49You don't necessarily need to follow this rule,
143. 9:52this is a conversational way of speaking that will come to you naturally with practice.
144. 10:00Now, let's recap what you've learned in this video:
145. 10:03There are six stop sounds in American English.
146. 10:06Half of them are voiced and the other half are voiceless.
147. 10:09It's important that you make a puff of air when pronouncing the stop sounds.
148. 10:13Unless you want to sound like an American.
149. 10:15In that case, you should make the final stops without a puff of air.
150. 10:18If you do that,
151. 10:19your final voiceless and voiced stops will sound almost the same.
152. 10:23So you'll need to make the vowels longer before the voiced stops and shorter before the voiceless stops.
153. 10:28Add some voice to your voiceless /t/
154. 10:30when it's between voiced sounds.
155. 10:32It's called a "flap 'T'."
156. 10:34Pronounce the /t/ in your throat if it's before a weak syllable with the /n/ sound.
157. 10:39It's called a "glottal 'T'."
158. 10:41And occasionally drop the /t/ after the /n/.
159. 10:43You may also drop the /d/ after the /n/ for that matter.
160. 10:50Some of these topics are about pronunciation in conversational speech.
161. 10:54They are not critical if all you want is to speak some English.
162. 10:59They are, however, very important if you want to speak English like an American.
163. 11:06At this point, we usually provide words for practice.
164. 11:10And we'll definitely do that in our next videos
165. 11:13when we talk about each stop consonant in detail.
166. 11:17But before you go,
167. 11:18let's complete a quick quiz over what we've learned.
168. 11:23Look at these words.
169. 11:24Can you recall the rules that apply to the sounds represented by the highlighted letters?
170. 11:47Now you're done!
171. 11:51Let us know if you like this video.
172. 11:53Don't forget to share it with your pets, friends and relatives!
173. 11:58Stay tuned and don't forget to subscribe!