Quote:
Originally Posted by BobK  I'm sorry Lenka - I'm not sure what you mean; they're both nasal. If you mean the sounds produced by "n" and "ng" in standard English pronunciation, I didn't mean that the "g" is progressively being dropped - just that the dropping happens sometimes.
To produce "n", you put the tongue hard up against the ridge of the teeth and release the consonant through the nose.
To produce "ng", you either make a closure as for a "k" and release the consonant through the nose ('sing') [and in some cases release the "k" audibly as well ('sink')]; or you make a closure as for a "g" and release the consonant through the nose and then release the "g" audibly as well ('finger')]. I imagine you have no trouble with this last one, because you're making the /g/ anyway, and that forces you to make the closure for the nasal in the right place. |
Thank you for such a "detailed" description!
I tried to pronounce it and I think I managed to pronounce it quite well (however, I can't say I am not a native speaker and you would perhaps say it doesn't sound too English :)). However, I have a little cold and maybe it helps me to pronounce the "ng" (without "g") quite well.
Of course, it's natural to pronounce the word finger - it makes me pronounce it well. But if the "g" isn't read - such as in "working", than it may make me some problems.
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Originally Posted by BobK Yes it is. Also, if you think about how the words were derived, "-less" in those two words isn't a suffix meaning 'without'; that explains the stress (from a philological point of view). But from a language learner's point of view, the difference in stress is the thing to remember; if you remember Mike's rule (unstressed -> schwa) you'll be OK (except, of course, that you have to learn what's stressed; nobody said this language learning is easy  )
b |
Hmm... Stress is quite important... I always try to learn it with the meaning of new words and I hope I don't have too big problems with it.
By the way, in the word "nevertheless", what is the prefix/root etc.? Is it a word with three stems?
Is there a difference between a stem and a root?