Speech Modification American Accent Training
  • Home
  • Our Training
    • What is Accent Modification?
    • Accent Training for Health Care Professionals
    • About
  • Corporate Accent Training
  • Free Screening
  • Free Practice
    • Online Practice Free Trial
    • Blog
  • Online Practice
    • Online Practice
    • Assessment
  • Courses
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Videos

Practice makes Perfect

How to Pronounce American English Vowels

12/28/2015

0 Comments

 
The way you pronounce vowels in American English is influenced by the vowel system in your native language. The Speech Modification Accent Reduction Technique, or SMART, has labels for the American vowels for ease of understanding, but we also use the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols or IPA, in order for you to see which vowels are the same in your native language and in American English, and which are different. Many languages have the following vowels:  Vowel ee, /i/, vowel ay, /e/, vowel ah, /a/, vowel oo, /u/ and vowel o, /o/.  Less common in other languages are vowel ɪ, /ɪ/, vowel eh, /ɛ/, vowel A, /æ/, vowel U, /ʊ/, vowel schwa /ə, ʌ/ and vowel er /ɹ/.  These are more commonly mispronounced in English because they are not present in the vowel inventory of your native language.

Even if you do not have error patterns on some of the vowels, you likely would benefit from practice on them.  Why is this?  Because even the vowels common in other languages are pronounced differently in American English.  While many other languages simple say one sound for these vowels, the American style is to use more than one sound, and to have a change in pitch.  This requires holding vowel sounds a little bit longer.

So, how do American vowels sound?  In general, we use two sounds for each vowel, and two pitches, high to low.  So, vowel ee does not sound just like /i/, but rather ee-uh, starting with the /i/ and sliding to /ʌ/.  Start with a higher pitch and slide to a lower pitch.  Ee-uh.  Easy!  Well, not so easy if you aren’t used to it.  But using SMART practice, you can shift your habitual patterns and start to make American vowels in common words and phrases. Let’s try the vowels which are most common in languages other than English.  Remember we are talking about vowel sounds, not written letters.

Vowel ee sounds like /i/-/ʌ/ 
eat, each, see, me
Vowel ay sounds like /e/-/ʌ/.
eight, gave, way, they
Vowel ah sounds like /a/-/ʌ/. 
on, not, stop, job
Vowel o sounds like /o/-/ʌ/.  
go, no, don't, over
Vowel oo sounds like /u/-/ʌ/.
do, new, you, food
Picture
Try practicing these words by themselves, and then in short phrases.  Remember to lengthen your vowel and slide from the high to the low pitch. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Check out Speech Modification on YouTube

    On Sale

    On Sale

    Trial Lesson

    Shop

    Categories

    All
    2020 New Year's SMART Goals Challenge
    30 Day Accent Challenge
    5 By 5 Live Challenge
    Amharic
    Arabic
    Business
    Cantonese
    Catalan
    Czech
    Dutch
    Engineering
    Farsi
    French
    German
    Greek
    Hebrew
    Hungarian
    Indian English
    Indonesian
    Intonation
    Japanese
    Korean
    Linking
    Malaysian
    Mandarin
    Polish
    Portugese
    Programming
    Pronunciation
    Quick Fix Practice
    R
    Romanian
    Russian
    Serbian
    Spanish
    Swedish
    Tagalog
    Tech Words
    Th
    Thai
    Turkish
    Urdu
    V
    Vietnamese
    Vowel I
    Vowels
    W
    Word Of The Week
    Yoruba


    Get A Free Screening
    Want some feedback on your speech?  We offer a free screening.

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015



    Have Questions?
    Get A Free Consultation

    We offer a free 30-minute phone consultation. Schedule yours now.
    Schedule My Free Consultation
    x
    Like this?  Get A Free Trial of our Online Courses.
    Picture
Flag Counter
Privacy Policy
Copyright 2020 Christine Dunbar, All Rights Reserved
Terms and Conditions of Use