Overwhelmingly

HaraKiriBlade · #1 08-Jun-2005, 05:19

Pronouncing 'Overwhelming' isn't very hard. It just becomes very difficult to me when 'ly' is attached to it.
Here I attached a recording of my own voice. This time I didn't have to sacrifice much on sound quality because it's only about 6 seconds worth of audio.

You'll probably notice I put a lot of labour to pronounce the particular word, and that the fluency of reading gets disrupted. I feel stress every time I read this word.

It may not be the matter of getting used to saying it. I'm probably pronouncing it the wrong way, maybe putting accent on wrong syllable or something.

I'd very much like to hear how you pronounce it, but you probably wouldn't have time for such. Suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Steven D · #2 08-Jun-2005, 19:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaraKiriBlade

Pronouncing 'Overwhelming' isn't very hard. It just becomes very difficult to me when 'ly' is attached to it.
Here I attached a recording of my own voice. This time I didn't have to sacrifice much on sound quality because it's only about 6 seconds worth of audio.

You'll probably notice I put a lot of labour to pronounce the particular word, and that the fluency of reading gets disrupted. I feel stress every time I read this word.

It may not be the matter of getting used to saying it. I'm probably pronouncing it the wrong way, maybe putting accent on wrong syllable or something.

I'd very much like to hear how you pronounce it, but you probably wouldn't have time for such. Suggestions would be very much appreciated.

The word "overwhelmingly" sounds just fine to me. It's the word "biased" that you should pay attention to. You're stressing the last vowel sound. It shouldn't be stressed. It's a schwa sound.

You can hear how "bias" is pronounced here: http://www.answers.com/topic/bias?hl=bias

HaraKiriBlade · #3 08-Jun-2005, 20:59

Thank you X for correcting 'biased'.

As for the word 'overwhelmingly', I may sound fine... the problem is I have to labour it to say it right. You know what I mean? I have to grimace and clench my fist to get it right... and I usually have to give it a pause before reading the next word, as I find it difficult to read / speak with fluent transition when 'overwhelmingly' is followed by other words. I don't think any pronounciation in English should be that... labouring.

As a native speaker, or someone who speaks native-level English, do you find it more difficult to pronounce the word 'overwhelmingly' compared to other words? or do you find no difficulty at all?

Steven D · #4 09-Jun-2005, 02:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaraKiriBlade

Thank you X for correcting 'biased'.

As for the word 'overwhelmingly', I may sound fine... the problem is I have to labour it to say it right. You know what I mean? I have to grimace and clench my fist to get it right... and I usually have to give it a pause before reading the next word, as I find it difficult to read / speak with fluent transition when 'overwhelmingly' is followed by other words. I don't think any pronounciation in English should be that... labouring.

As a native speaker, or someone who speaks native-level English, do you find it more difficult to pronounce the word 'overwhelmingly' compared to other words? or do you find no difficulty at all?

Yes, I know what you mean.

No, I don't have any trouble pronouncing "overwhelmingly". However, "particularly" doesn't come out as smooth as I might like it to sometimes.

I think most, if not all, native speakers of English might know of one or two words that they find to be tongue twisters to some degree.

As for "overwhelmingly":

Have you heard of "backchaining"? Try pronouncing it backwards syllable by syllable very slowly. Try it a little faster after a while. After you've practiced it that way, try pronouncing it normally. See if that helps.

Keep in mind you'll have to work it up to speed. Making your mouth and tongue move to produce this word is difficult. I'd imagine this combination of sounds doesn't exist in your first language.

Anyway, give that a shot, and see how it goes.

Backchaining can be used for individual words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. I've steered clear of the linguistics words. See the definition below. I've used this successfully to help students though pronunciation difficulties. Of course, continued practice is required after the lesson.

http://www.languagefunfarm.com/useful/glossary/B.htm

gogu · #5 10-Jun-2005, 04:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaraKiriBlade

I have to grimace and clench my fist to get it right... ?

I have listened to your reading and it's fine, guy. And i guess that you came from someplace in Asia, cause your deep accent shows that.

Steven D · #6 10-Jun-2005, 07:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by gogu

I have listened to your reading and it's fine, guy. And i guess that you came from someplace in Asia, cause your deep accent shows that.

You are wrong to say he has a "deep accent".

His pronunciation sounds good, and it sounds North American.

His accent does not show that he is from Asia in any way that might be obvious at all.

Quote:

And i guess that you came from someplace in Asia,

I listened to the recording. I do not think that it's at all easy to guess that he's from someplace in Asia.

HaraKiriBlade · #7 10-Jun-2005, 20:04

He probably meant my voice tone. Or maybe I just couldn't fool him. I don't know.

As for the backchaning, how do I do it? for 'Overwhelmingly', do I go like, 'ly, ming, whel, er, ov'? One problem I have is that I don't know how to define syllables in words. I never had to worry about it til now. Maybe you can give me some examples. Thanks again X.

Steven D · #8 10-Jun-2005, 23:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaraKiriBlade

He probably meant my voice tone. Or maybe I just couldn't fool him. I don't know.

As for the backchaning, how do I do it? for 'Overwhelmingly', do I go like, 'ly, ming, whel, er, ov'? One problem I have is that I don't know how to define syllables in words. I never had to worry about it til now. Maybe you can give me some examples. Thanks again X.

1. Okay, maybe he meant the tone of your voice. Your overall pronunciation, however, is very good. And, as I said, it sounds North American to me.

2. Yes, that's the idea. For "overwhelmingly" it's: ly - ing - whelm - ver - o

3. Here are some rules for syllables: http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics.rules.html

Each vowel sound in a word is a syllable.