Pronunciation feedback

I would appreciate any feedback or advice on my pronunciation, speech intonation, accent correction, etc.

I have been complacent for so long regarding my accent, told by many native speakers they can hardly hear the difference and some didn't even notice, however I want to go the extra mile and improve anything that needs so.

Here is a short 40 seconds clip of me reading an article about Apple computers.
Download apple-macintosh-reading.mp3 from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

Thanks.

1. Yod:

The second syllable of 'computer' contains a yod (or /y/); however, the second syllable of 'popular' doesn't contain a yod. Your 'newest' contains a yod; however, AmE doesn't have a yod after alveolar and dental consonants (l, r, s, z, d, t, n, th, voiced th, ch, dz) I don't hear a yod in the second syllable of "January": even though /n/ is alveolar, there is a yod, since /n/ is not part of that syllable.

2. Macintosh: the last syllable contains a COT vowel; in your version, I hear a monophthong OH.

3. "brand continues to * stay" I hear a sound like "the" before stay.

4. processing: I hear a /z/ in the second syllable.

5. MacOS: /s/ sound is not consistent. I hear both /z/ and /s/.

You got AmE lilt; so, you can pass off as a native speaker. You can work on "where to keep yod; where to drop y"--and this is a systematic phenomenon in AmE.

Thank you very much for the feedback.

1. Correct me if I am wrong but according to OED: computer /kəmˈpjudər/ and popular /ˈpɑpjələr/, they both have a yod /j/ sound.

2. True, I was saying Macintosh with a /ɔ/ rather than with a /ɑ/ (like in hot).

3. I said: "to this day."

4. Ok.

5. Ok.

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About the yod sound /j/, like in yoyo, can I think of it as an /ee-oo/ together?

1. yeah, both contain the /y/ sound.
3. "to this day" is not clear. I hear BEAT vowel in 'this'. Sounds like you attempted to stress the short vowel in 'this', thereby leading to a long vowel. If you wanna stress short vowels, you need to work on the consonant just prior to that consonant: in this case, voiced th. Just release slowly--and this does the trick. Well, accent reduction coaches don't know this trick; however, voice coaches teach it. "this day" sounded to me like "thee stay".

Yod: the sound you hear in words like yet, yacht, yo, etc. I was referring to the /y/ sound. It is also a glide after front vowels followed by any unstressed vowels.

I thought a /y/ sound was a yod sound, if that isn't the case I am afraid I don't know what a /y/ sound is.

What is a /y/ sound? By the way, that symbol is not even used in the IPA (another reason why I am confused).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pizza

I thought a /y/ sound was a yod sound, if that isn't the case I am afraid I don't know what a /y/ sound is.

What is a /y/ sound? By the way, that symbol is not even used in the IPA (another reason why I am confused).

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/j/ in IPA

Quote:

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Originally Posted by raindoctor

1. yeah, both contain the /y/ sound.
3. "to this day" is not clear. I hear BEAT vowel in 'this'. Sounds like you attempted to stress the short vowel in 'this', thereby leading to a long vowel. If you wanna stress short vowels, you need to work on the consonant just prior to that consonant: in this case, voiced th. Just release slowly--and this does the trick. Well, accent reduction coaches don't know this trick; however, voice coaches teach it. "this day" sounded to me like "thee stay".

Yod: the sound you hear in words like yet, yacht, yo, etc. I was referring to the /y/ sound. It is also a glide after front vowels followed by any unstressed vowels.

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Your attempts to help are appreciated, raindoctor - particularly as no-one else has done so in this thread.. However, please note that we use standard English in this forum, so try to avoid writing 'yeah' and 'wanna'. Also, we use either IPA or universally recognised phonemic transcription - /j/ is appropriate in this thread.

Thanks. :-)