standard british pronunciation

[fobos3]

Hello,
I'm 18 and currently learning the standard british pronunciation. When we began learning English at school our teacher sad that the English pronunciation is equal to the Bulgarian pronunciation. 'For example the pronunciation of the a sound in car is the same as the a sound in <insert appropriate Bulgarian word here>' she sad.

I've discovered this to be incorrect of course and begun learning the standard british pronunciation. I've found videos about each sound on the BBC learning English site. I watched very carefully the position of the mouse of the speaker and with a mirror imitated it. The problem is that my native language pronunciation changes. For example we say 't' with the tongue between the teeth and I cached myself saying it as an English speaker. Is this normal?

Actually this is not a problem since I'm planning to adopt English as my 1st language and I'm doing quite well with the pronunciation but it worries me. Bulgarian is a language similar to Russian, if that helps.

Best Regards

[Stilo]

Originally Posted by fobos3

Hello,
I'm 18 and currently learning the standard british pronunciation. When we began learning English at school our teacher sad = said that the English pronunciation is equal to the Bulgarian pronunciation. 'For example the pronunciation of the a sound in car is the same as the a sound in <insert appropriate Bulgarian word here>' she sad. = said

I've discovered this to be incorrect of course and begun learning the standard british pronunciation. I've found videos about each sound on the BBC learning English site. I watched very carefully the position of the mouse = mouth of the speaker and with a mirror imitated it. The problem is that my native language pronunciation changes. For example we say 't' with the tongue between the teeth and I cached myself saying it as an English speaker. Is this normal?
Actually this is not a problem since I'm planning to adopt English as my 1st language and I'm doing quite well with the pronunciation but it worries me. Bulgarian is a language similar to Russian, if that helps.

Best Regards

Hi Fobos. It is difficult to comment on pronunciation but you do appear to be doing well enough on your own with the help of the BBC site. Your written English is fine I have just amended the two words. I know it is only a small change but hope it helps

Regards Stilo

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Stilo

Hi Fobos. It is difficult to comment on pronunciation but you do appear to be doing well enough on your own with the help of the BBC site. Your written English is fine I have just amended the two words. I know it is only a small change but hope it helps

Regards Stilo

Didn't you notice 'cached'? If Fobos was a computer programmer, s/he could have "cached" something [="stored it in cache memory" - although I'm not sure how one might put oneself into cache memory ] I think s/he probably caught him/herself...

b

[Cristina de Felipe]

Using a mirror is very useful for consonants but not for vocal sounds as what really counts for that is where you place your tongue inside your mouth and lips do not play any big role when pronouncing vowels.

Besides it's not the same to produce a single sound than producing it in a word or in a sentence as the other sounds next to it will affect it, in English and any other language. Learning pronunciation by yourself is almost impossible, that's what everyone needs more help with, by being in the country and listening to the language in a natural way, practising with natives and even being corrected by teachers as many natives do not know a thing about phonetics.

[Stilo]

Originally Posted by BobK

Didn't you notice 'cached'? If Fobos was a computer programmer, s/he could have "cached" something [="stored it in cache memory" - although I'm not sure how one might put oneself into cache memory ] I think s/he probably caught him/herself...

b

Sorry BobK Guess I missed that one! Must have been distracted by the rain. What a horrible wet dull day in the South East!.
Regards


Stilo

[fobos3]

Originally Posted by Cristina de Felipe

Using a mirror is very useful for consonants but not for vocal sounds as what really counts for that is where you place your tongue inside your mouth and lips do not play any big role when pronouncing vowels.

Besides it's not the same to produce a single sound than producing it in a word or in a sentence as the other sounds next to it will affect it, in English and any other language. Learning pronunciation by yourself is almost impossible, that's what everyone needs more help with, by being in the country and listening to the language in a natural way, practising with natives and even being corrected by teachers as many natives do not know a thing about phonetics.

I disagree about the vowels. Bulgarian is a member of the Slavic group of languages and therefore the sounds in Bulgarian are completely different than the sounds in English. Of course the position of the tongue is important but the form the lips make is also important. My language is more of the lazy type. We don't move our mouth allot when we speak.

Besides I've bought 'Cambridge Advanced Dictionary' on a CD and it has pronunciation of each word, which I can hear, repeat, record and listen back. I'm very careful about the changes that occur in the pronunciation.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by fobos3

...

Besides I've bought 'Cambridge Advanced Dictionary' on a CD and it has pronunciation of each word, which I can hear, repeat, record and listen back. I'm very careful about the changes that occur in the pronunciation.

: That's a good approach. But don't dismiss Cristina completely; a dictionary on CD will tell you how to pronounce a word - but only hearing spoken examples can tell you when not to pronounce it: for example, a dictionary will tell you -
"do" -> /du:/
"you" -> /ju:/
"know" -> /nəʊ/

But only speech will tell you that "do you know" is often pronounced either /də jə nəʊ/ or /djə nəʊ/ (or even, informally, /ʤə nəʊ/). And a mirror can help with some consonants but not others. I have a Bulgarian student whose /l/ is extremely slavonic!

Incidentally, there is a word "allot" (allot - Definitions from Dictionary.com ), but what you meant was "a lot"

b

[Cristina de Felipe]

Originally Posted by fobos3

I disagree about the vowels. Bulgarian is a member of the Slavic group of languages and therefore the sounds in Bulgarian are completely different than the sounds in English. Of course the position of the tongue is important but the form the lips make is also important. My language is more of the lazy type. We don't move our mouth allot when we speak.

I was speaking about English vocal sounds: focusing on the lips when pronouncing a (as in cat), e (as in get) or i (as in think) won't help you so much as the position is very similiar.

Still you say you don't move your mouth a lot when speaking you own language, which proves my point: the way you place your lips is not always the most relevant feature to learn to pronounce all sounds. But no doubt it will help you a lot with most English consonants.