Pronunciation of /ŋ/ and "of".

1) In words ending with "ng" (e.g. evening, verb+ing) "ng" is pronounced as /ŋ/, but I can't make this sound, so can it be pronounced as /n/? Is it a mistake to pronounce /g/ in the end of such words?

2) How do you pronounce the word "of"?

TIA :-D

TheNewOne said:

1) In words ending with "ng" (e.g. evening, verb+ing) "ng" is pronounced as /ŋ/, but I can't make this sound, so can it be pronounced as /n/? Is it a mistake to pronounce /g/ in the end of such words?

2) How do you pronounce the word "of"?

TIA :-D

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1)According to Wiktionary, that sounds exists in Russian too!

Velar nasal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

функция [ˈfuŋkt͡sɨjə]

In fact it exists in a lot of languages, it's just that a lot of people don't realize it (IMO).

2) "of" is always /əv/ or /ə/ (depending on the word it precedes) when unstressed and /ʌv/ or /ɑv/ when stressed.

The problem may be not pronouncing the sound /g/. In Russian /ŋ/ is always followed by /g/ or /k/, as in my language. It was difficult for me too.

thatone
I know that this sound exists in Asian languages, but I never thought that [ˈfuŋkt͡sɨjə] had this sound (I thought that it was just /n/), so it turns out that I can make this sound? :shock: :lol: I thought that /ŋ/ was more nasal than [ˈfuŋkt͡sɨjə].
Does "of" always have /v/ in the end? Can it be /əf/?

birdeen's call
How did you improve your /ŋ/?

TheNewOne said:

thatone
I know that this sound exists in Asian languages, but I never thought that [ˈfuŋkt͡sɨjə] had this sound (I thought that it was just /n/), so it turns out that I can make this sound? :shock: :lol: I thought that /ŋ/ was more nasal than [ˈfuŋkt͡sɨjə].

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/ŋ/ and /n/ are both nasal. The difference is in the placement of your tongue.

When you pronounce /ŋ/, you touch your soft palate with the back of your tongue-- (more or less) the same place that you touch when you pronounce /g/. (That's why they are both velar consonants.)

When you pronounce /n/ , you touch your alveolar ridge with the tip of your tongue.

birdeen's call
How did you improve your /ŋ/?

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My problem was that I often pronounced the /g/ sound after /ŋ/, even when it shouldn't be there. I practiced by uttering ŋŋŋŋŋŋŋŋ and trying not to do the plosive at the end.

TheNewOne said:

Does "of" always have /v/ in the end? Can it be /əf/?

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It's always with a /v/.

birdeen's call

My problem was that I often pronounced the /g/ sound after /ŋ/, even when it shouldn't be there. I practiced by uttering ŋŋŋŋŋŋŋŋ and trying not to do the plosive at the end.

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I don't have this "g" problem, I think I just pronounce /ŋ/ not so nasal as it should be, I guess it's closer to /n/. BTW in the word "king" pronounced by a native speaker I hear the slight "g" sound.
Why do people replace "g" with ' ? Like comin' instead of coming.
thatone
Thanks!

TheNewOne said:

BTW in the word "king" pronounced by a native speaker I hear the slight "g" sound.

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A /g/ is pronounced and heard in some dialects, but not in Standard English. You may think you hear it, but it isn't there,

thatone said:

It's always with a /v/.

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'Of' does indeed always end with a /v/ sound. However, when followed by an unvoiced consonant, the /v/ may become slightly devoiced, bringing it closer to /f/. Try to listen for this in 'of course', 'a pinch of salt'.

fivejedjon said:

'Of' does indeed always end with a /v/ sound. However, when followed by an unvoiced consonant, the /v/ may become slightly devoiced, bringing it closer to /f/. Try to listen for this in 'of course', 'a pinch of salt'.

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But isn't that a feature of /v/ in general though? Like in /hæftə/.
Plus in "a pinch of salt" of can be reduced to /ə/.

thatone said:

But isn't that a feature of /v/ in general though? Like in /hæftə/. Yes. I just wanted to make it clear that 'of' is not always pronounced with a clearly voiced /v/.
Plus in "a pinch of salt" of can be reduced to /ə/. Yes, indeed.

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5

thatone said:

Plus in "a pinch of salt" of can be reduced to /ə/.

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And in other cases, too.

Do you have any audio which describes the difference between ŋ and n? I want to listen to ŋ sound.

Hi, Over the top.

Try International Phonetic Alphabet

For particular words, try here: Free online Dictionary of English Pronunciation - How to Pronounce English words

fivejedjon said:

'Of' does indeed always end with a /v/ sound. However, when followed by an unvoiced consonant, the /v/ may become slightly devoiced, bringing it closer to /f/. Try to listen for this in 'of course', 'a pinch of salt'.

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:up: Don't go mad though! There's a difference between 'of course' and 'off course' (apart from the fact that in the first the first vowel is usually a schwa).

b

It's okay to pronounce the /g/ at the end, but not required.

konungursvia said:

It's okay to pronounce the /g/ at the end, but not required.

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I would agree that it is not a serious slip - it does not impede communication - but I think that it is as much a 'mistake' as pronouncing mischievous as if it were spelt mischievious. The standard English pronunciation of words ending in -ng is /ŋ/, not /ŋg/.

I remember one of the first things we were asked in this course with native English teachers was to write down what word we thought they uttered. It was 'of' in isolation (pronounced /əv/, /ov/) repeated a couple of times.
Personally, I thought they were constipated and just couldn't spit out what they actually wanted to say. Then I looked at other students' faces and I thought *they* were constipated, too. I don't think any of us got it right at the time. ;-)

Hi,
Indeed, I believe you shouldn't worry about it, because the stream of sounds makes you produce that sound quite naturally. Try saying the words sing or ring several times without any pause, and you'll notice it's almost impossible to put a distinction between the /n/ ang /g/ sounds.

(It's a bit awkward for the poor tongue to move from an alveolar position to a semi-velar one; why the bother when there's a shortcut! ;-))


***not a teacher***