Pronouncing ing and ong

[Wildrose]

Please help. I am having trouble pronouncing words that end with ing, as in swing, and ong, as in long. My mother was an English teacher when I was a young child. She taught me to pronounce ing as een and ong as on. For example king would be pronouced keen. I have never been corrected by teachers, but I have been told by others that I am not pronouncing my words correctly. I am now a home schooling mother and I have taught my children to speak the same way I do. However, my sister-in-law, who is also home schooling, has been telling my our children that they are not pronouncing these words correctly, and that we need to emphasize the g. I am not using mid-western slang as far as my knowlege goes, but if I am misspronouncing words I would like to stop and begin teaching my children and myself correctly. I just realized I do this with words ending with ang as well for example slang I pronounce as slane. (The A is long and the g is essentially silent.)
Thank You for your time,
Melissa

[Tdol]

I'm a British speaker, so I cannot comment on all the varieties of American English, but I haven't heard that used by American speakers- I have heard the 'ng' pronounced, or the 'g' dropped, but not the vowel change.

[Wildrose]

So, it would seem that I should be pronouncing the g. Now comes the fun part. Re-training myself to speak. I wonder why I have not had a teacher correct this. Not even in college! Well, thank you again.

[ebb]

Originally Posted by Wildrose

So, it would seem that I should be pronouncing the g. Now comes the fun part. Re-training myself to speak. I wonder why I have not had a teacher correct this. Not even in college! Well, thank you again.

You need the "g" yes... in the US, particularly in the South of the USA, people drop the "g" sound from the "ing" suffix, as in "Are you fixin' to come over?" (Very colloquial and regional), or "He was drivin' his hot rod and revvin' up his mill, just show-boatin' for the babes."

But this is not good English, and I wouldn't try it unless you REALLY know what you're doin'

[rogusx]

You do not actually drop the /g/ and pronounce the ending as /In/ but the combination of n and g produces a different sound, which is a different kind of "n". That is to say, even if no /g/ is pronounced, "sing" and "sin" should be kept separate, since they are kept separate in most dialects of English. The tip of the tongue is lowered when pronouncing the "ng" cluster in "sing" and the last consonant is made by contacting the velum with the back of the tongue. In the "n" in "sin" there is alveolar contact.

[HOTtottie00]

Hi, i have the same problem! I thought it was just me. i can't say words like bong,long,song,wrong,tongue,lung,tongue,song,thong ,kong, and basically all words that end in ong. and also words in ing suck king,sing,ring,ding. it incredibly frustrating and i don't know how to get rid of it. What is it? maybe its some accent? i do not know. help?