top of page
Screen Shot 2023-08-09 at 3.02.05 AM.png

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 BATH/TRAP/PALM           [ ã ]

This vowel is realized as a front, unrounded open vowel with nasalization. LOT, CLOTH, and THOUGHT words can also merge into this category.

00:00 / 00:10

PRACTICE: bath, trap, clasp, cat, have, capital

Words like STRUT                  [ ʊ ]

This vowel is realized as a near close, near back vowel with very slight lip rounding.

00:00 / 00:10

PRACTICE: strut, cup, mother, budge, love, study

  1. Fun in the sun.

  2. Percussionists love the drums.

  3. An unlovable fussbudget.

Words like GOOSE           [ ʉ ]

This vowel as realized as a close, central vowel with some lip rounding. 

00:00 / 00:05

PRACTICE: goose, two, school, youth, lose, cool

  1. Who knew?

  2. Who do you think you are?

  3. An interview at the movie studio.

Words like MOUTH       [ ɛʊ ]

This vowel is realized as a diphthong which glides from a front, mid open vowel to a near close, near back vowel. Think about taking the lips from retraction to slight rounding.

00:00 / 00:11

PRACTICE: mouth, about, cow, house, loud, town

  1. Get out of town!

  2. They found out about us!

  3. She founded the Scouting movement.

Words like PRICE         [ ɑ̽ɪ ]    

This vowel is realized as a mid-centralized open back vowel that glides to a near front vowel for the second vowel in the diphthong. 

00:00 / 00:09

PRACTICE: price, height, mine, child, kind, tight

  1. The spice of life.

  2. The Siamese cat had five lives left, not nine.

  3. We invited an exciting playwright to speak.

consonants

Rhoticity, or the /r/ sound

To target to the Dublin /r/, think about lifting the whole tongue up towards the soft palate. 

PRACTICE WORDS:

 rules, Ralph, running, reach, rope, rage, wrong; 

bring, approximately, growth, trying, drives, strong; 

around, arranged, corrupt, derived, surround, terrain; 

near, square, start, north, force, letter; 

cure, tour, moral, hurry, merry, Mary, marry; 

fir, dirt, bird, fern, heard, search, nurse, fur, hurt 

-ING Endings

 -ING endings are often reduced to an [ n ]

00:00 / 00:06

Other Consonant Considerations

  1. Multiple realizations of /t/ depending on the position

  • initial [t] [t͉] [tʰ]  TOO

  • medial [ t͉ ] [d] [ʔ] [h] [ɾ] WATER

  • final [ʔ] [h] [ t̺ ] WAIT WHAT

2. Alveolar lateral approximant for most /L/ sounds (sometimes velarization occurs)

bottom of page