
pronunciation
For each sound, I’ve included audio examples and practice phrases. Unless otherwise indicated, practice phrases are excerpted from Lexical Sets for Actors by Eric Armstrong under a creative commons license.
vowels
Words like KIT [ i ]
Words that sound like KIT will instead target towards a FLEECE vowel, since there is no KIT equivalent in Mandarin.
PRACTICE WORDS: kit, trip, city, middle, click, limit, different
Words like DRESS [ a ]
The target vowel for this set is an unrounded, front open vowel, one of the vowels found in Mandarin.
PRACTICE WORDS: dress, kept, step, head, stretch, friend
Words like NURSE
The r-coloring in NURSE words is distinct, as it is a sound commonly found in the Beijing dialect of Mandarin
PRACTICE WORDS: nurse, earth, learn, work, early, rehearsal
Words like STRUT [ ɑ ]
The target for this set is an unrounded, open back vowel.
PRACTICE WORDS: strut, love, young, mother, tough, come
Words like GOOSE [ ʊ ]
The target here is a near back, near close vowel. Round the lips slightly around this vowel - you can even protrude the lower lip as well.
PRACTICE WORDS: loop, mood, who, two, youth, lose
Words like FACE [ ɛ ]
The target vowel in the FACE set is similar to the DRESS vowel, a front, open-mid, unrounded bowel
PRACTICE WORDS: face, train, cake, safe, vague, station
Words like GOAT [ o ]
The target for this sound is a single vowel, a rounded, close-mid back vowel.
PRACTICE WORDS: boat, home, grow, though, own, tote
CONSONANTS
TH-STOPPING
Voiced /th/ sounds become like a /d/, articulated by the tip or blade of the tongue making contact behind front teeth.
Unvoiced TH sounds in initial positions of a word
When an unvoiced TH sound is followed by an /r/ sometimes an [ s ] can be inserted instead of an unvoiced dental fricative.
/V/ in the initial position of a word
The realization of the /v/ sound is closer to a labiodental approximant [ ʋ ], the lower lip will not quite make contact with the top teeth.
L in medial and final positions
In medial and final positions when followed by a vowel, [l] can take on the properties of a vowel, generally as [ə] when unstressed or a form of [ʊ] when stressed.
Devoicing of final consonants
VOICED PLOSIVES [b] [d] [g] → [p] [t] [k].
For words that end in a voiced plosive, voicing drops out in the articulation, thus [b] [d] [g] become [p] [t] [k] in syllable endings, respectively. This applies when preceded by either a vowel or consonant.
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kids [kits]
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bags [baks]
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bands [bants]
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lob [lɑp]
When adding an -s to the voiced plosive, the loss of the voices continues to the [s] instead of [z]. Using the above words:
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lobs [lɑps]
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kids [kits]
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bags [baks]
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bands [bants]
PLOSIVES sometimes add [ə]. There are regular instances when the articulated plosive is followed by an additional vowel [ə].
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and maybe [ˈandə ˈmɛbi]
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ask him [ˈaskə him]
FRICATIVES [v] [z] → [f] [s]. Voicing stops and [v] and [z] become [f] and [s], respectively.
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give [gif]
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has [has]
FRICATIVE [θ] → [s]. Voice and voiceless labio-dental fricatives [θ] [ð] both become [s] in
final positions.
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bath [bas]
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teethe [tis]