[General] pronunciation

Status
Not open for further replies.

akiane

New member
Joined
Mar 2, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
French
Home Country
France
Current Location
Algeria
hi! I' m recurrently hammered by the question I quote my students " what's the difference between the vowel sound in ban and that in bun? However hard i tried to explain I don"t seem to be convincing. any help will be welcome.:cry:
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
There's a brilliant animated diagram of this somewhere. I'll have a look - but I hope someone else beats me to it...

b
 

mafto

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Slovak
Home Country
Slovak Republic
Current Location
Slovak Republic
Well probably it's no use to explain the sounds by telling them about the tongue position with the 'open-close and front-back' terminology since at first (especially front-back) doesn't come much natural to a learner. But I think you should emphasize that the 'ban' vowel is more opened, it's similar to /e/ but more opened...something between [e] and [a] of some languages. There doesn't seem any [e]-like characteristic to be heard in 'bun' pronounced.
And of course, you should let them hear many example words with those two sounds.
 

akiane

New member
Joined
Mar 2, 2011
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
French
Home Country
France
Current Location
Algeria
:-D
thank you for the brief reply but I doubt if this would be of any help to me. I am eager to konw about the animated diagram you mentioned in your reply. hope you'll find it and let me know about it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top