ancor90
Member
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2011
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Germany
- Current Location
- Germany
Hello.
I'm currently trying to improve my English pronunciation. Curiously, I don't have any problems with the usual sounds native Germans are known to have problems with, i.e. pronouncing /θ/ as /s/, /ð/ as /z/, or mixing up /v/ and /w/. This, I think, is not a problem in my case. Instead, I tend to have difficulties with the correct pronunciation and identification of some vowels. In order to get rid of this problem, I'm learning IPA.
My plan was this:
1) learn to identify individual (IPA) vowels in isolation
2) learn to identify IPA vowels in words
3) listen to a native English speaker who speaks the "target accent" you want to learn (in my case American English) and remember the pronunciation.
My problem is that I seem to fail already at step 1.
I can distinguish all vowel sounds when heard in isolation. However, when I instruct my computer to randomly play a sound file of one IPA vowel, I tend to have trouble identifying them.
Here are some I have trouble with:
i) /ɒ/ vs /ɔ/ -- the latter sounds lower in frequency; but if I don't know which one is played, it is hard to really tell them apart.
ii) /ɪ/ vs /e/ (which is really weird, because both sounds occur in my native German, and I think I pronounce them correctly, but in isolation they sound so similar, and I don't even know why)
iii) /ʌ/ -- this sound is a real mystery to me. Because I *think* I'm doing it correctly; however, every recording of that sound I can find sounds not only different from my own version of it, but they also sound different from each other.
/ʌ/ on wiktionary.org: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Open-mid_back_unrounded_vowel.ogg
/ʌ/ from a different source: paulmeier.com/ipa/vowels.html (you have to click on the vowel to hear it)
To me, those two examples sound very different. Which is correct? If native speakers cannot even decide on how to pronounce it, what good is transcribing a word which supposedly has this sound in it?
So, can anybody give me any advice on my problem in general, and the how to correctly identify and pronounce said vowels?
Thanks in advance.
I'm currently trying to improve my English pronunciation. Curiously, I don't have any problems with the usual sounds native Germans are known to have problems with, i.e. pronouncing /θ/ as /s/, /ð/ as /z/, or mixing up /v/ and /w/. This, I think, is not a problem in my case. Instead, I tend to have difficulties with the correct pronunciation and identification of some vowels. In order to get rid of this problem, I'm learning IPA.
My plan was this:
1) learn to identify individual (IPA) vowels in isolation
2) learn to identify IPA vowels in words
3) listen to a native English speaker who speaks the "target accent" you want to learn (in my case American English) and remember the pronunciation.
My problem is that I seem to fail already at step 1.
I can distinguish all vowel sounds when heard in isolation. However, when I instruct my computer to randomly play a sound file of one IPA vowel, I tend to have trouble identifying them.
Here are some I have trouble with:
i) /ɒ/ vs /ɔ/ -- the latter sounds lower in frequency; but if I don't know which one is played, it is hard to really tell them apart.
ii) /ɪ/ vs /e/ (which is really weird, because both sounds occur in my native German, and I think I pronounce them correctly, but in isolation they sound so similar, and I don't even know why)
iii) /ʌ/ -- this sound is a real mystery to me. Because I *think* I'm doing it correctly; however, every recording of that sound I can find sounds not only different from my own version of it, but they also sound different from each other.
/ʌ/ on wiktionary.org: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Open-mid_back_unrounded_vowel.ogg
/ʌ/ from a different source: paulmeier.com/ipa/vowels.html (you have to click on the vowel to hear it)
To me, those two examples sound very different. Which is correct? If native speakers cannot even decide on how to pronounce it, what good is transcribing a word which supposedly has this sound in it?
So, can anybody give me any advice on my problem in general, and the how to correctly identify and pronounce said vowels?
Thanks in advance.