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posture

Oral posture refers to a dialect or accent's "home base" in terms of articulatory settings - specifically the jaw, the lips, the tongue, the cheeks, and the velum (soft palate). 

JAW: Slightly open and not super active in movement

LIPS: Fairly relaxed with a tendency to slight round the lips on vowels such as in the word THOUGHT and STRUT.

TONGUE: The tongue is fairly active, arching towards the soft palate for /r/ sounds, moving from front to back vowels on diphthongs, and the blade/tip of the tongue is active for intial, medial, and final /t/ sounds

 

In this video, notice the fairly neutral position of the lips, until the speaker rounds the lips just slightly for the word TALK.

Oral Posture Quick Tip: The Hesitation Sound

A clue to a speaker's oral posture can be their thinking or hesitation sounds, something every speaker has. 

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[ ɛ̽ ]

The audio clip provides different examples of the Dublin hesitation sound. For the most part, it is realized as a front, mid open, mid centralized vowel. Think about keeping the jaw fairly closed and the lips relaxed.

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