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.
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.
PRACTICE: strut, cup, mother, budge, love, study
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Fun in the sun.
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Percussionists love the drums.
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An unlovable fussbudget.
Words like GOOSE [ ʉ ]
This vowel as realized as a close, central vowel with some lip rounding.
PRACTICE: goose, two, school, youth, lose, cool
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Who knew?
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Who do you think you are?
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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.
PRACTICE: mouth, about, cow, house, loud, town
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Get out of town!
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They found out about us!
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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.
PRACTICE: price, height, mine, child, kind, tight
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The spice of life.
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The Siamese cat had five lives left, not nine.
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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 ]
Other Consonant Considerations
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Multiple realizations of /t/ depending on the position
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initial [t] [t͉] [tʰ] TOO
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medial [ t͉ ] [d] [ʔ] [h] [ɾ] WATER
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final [ʔ] [h] [ t̺ ] WAIT WHAT
2. Alveolar lateral approximant for most /L/ sounds (sometimes velarization occurs)