Pronunciation Course

This course teaches you the vowels and consonants of Standard American English. There are two modifiers here: “Standard” and “American.” American English exhibits many regional dialects, and the one taught in this course is a Midwestern dialect that is devoid of any regional coloring. In other words, unlike any other dialects, Americans cannot tell where a person is from if the person speaks with the Midwestern dialect.  For this reason, the dialect is viewed as standard and used in the news media and universities.  

This course teaches American English in that it differs from British English in several ways. First, it is called a rhotic accent since, unlike British English, it pronounces an “r” that comes after a vowel in a syllable. The vowel followed by an r is called an r-colored vowel. Secondly, American English does not have the round back vowels that occur in British English, reducing the total number of vowel phonemes. Third, Americans pronounce some words differently due to a systematic vowel shift. Fourth, American English differs from British English in their allophones. Fifth, American vowels are not classified into long and short vowels since vowel length is viewed as a prosodic feature, that is, stressed vowels are long and unstressed vowels are short. Instead, American vowels are classified into tense and lax vowels.    

In this course, you will learn the vowels and consonants of American English using the IPA symbols, based on the vowel chart and the consonant chart of American English. To be effective, each lesson covers a pair of phonemes that occur in adjacent places in the mouth, which can make it difficult for you to distinguish between them. To train your ear, this course provides an abundant number of minimal pairs of words that are based on similar sounding phonemes. When your ear can hear the difference, your mouth can make the difference. To help you practice all the target sounds, this course provides example words and sentences that have the target phoneme sounds. 

This course has 34 Lectures. The following is a brief description of the lectures. Detailed lecture content follows.

	Title	Length(min:sec)
1-1	Pronunciation, the foundation	7:16
1-2	Characteristics of American English	5:48
2-1	Intro to vowels: American vowels	21:31
2-2	Vowel Diagram	11:22
2-3	Front high vowels: /i/ vs /ɪ/	15:43
2-4	Front mid-low vs front low vowels: /ɛ/ vs /æ/	10:02
2-5	Back high vowels: /u/ vs /ʊ/	12:34
2-6	Back low vowels: /ɔ/ and /ɑ/	17:56
2-7	Middle center vowels: /ʌ/ vs /ə/	19:02
2-8	Diphthongs: /eɪ/, /aɪ/ & /ɔɪ/	16:45
2-9	Diphthongs /aʊ/ and /oʊ/	16:16
3-1	Introduction to Consonants	12:58
3-2	Manner of articulation	15:09
3-3	Voicing	21:34
3-4-1	Plosives (Stops)	16:49
3-4-2	Bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/	15:24
3-5	Alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/	17:42
3-6	Velar plosives /k/ and /g/	10:17
3-7	Labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/	15:45
3-8	Interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/	13:28
3-9	Alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/	11;53
3-10	Palatal fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/	13:48
3-11	Glottal fricative /h/	9:14
3-12	Affricates /ʧ/ and /ʤ/	12:42
3-13	Nasals, /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/	18:29
3-14	Lateral liquid /l/	13:15
3-15	Retroflex Liquid /r/	21:45
3-16	/l/, /r/ minimal pairs	11:06
3-17	Labial glide /w/	11:37
3-18	Palatal glide /j/	13:23
4-1	Introduction to Connected Speech	11:47
4-2	Intrusion and Catenation	11:07
4-3	Gemination	12:35
4-4	Elision	19:13
4-5	Assimilation	12:31
	Total narration time	8 hours and 5 minutes

Part I. Introduction to Pronunciation

Pronunciation, the foundation

Characteristics of American English

Part II: Vowels

American vowels

Vowel definition

American elementary school classification

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Rhotic R

American vowels vs British vowels

15 vowel phonemes of standard American English

Monophthongs

Diphthongs

Vowel Diagram

Tongue height

Advancement

Vowel diagram

Tenseness

Similar sounding vowel pairs

Front high vowels: /i/ vs /ɪ/

/i/ words

/ɪ/ words

/i/ vs /ɪ/ minimal pairs

/i/ vs /ɪ/ in sentences

Front low vowels: /ɛ/ vs /æ/

/ɛ/ words

/æ/ words

/æ/ vs /ɛ/ minimal pairs

/æ/ vs /ɛ/ in sentences

Back high vowels: /u/ vs /ʊ/

/u/ words

/ʊ/ words

/u/ vs /ʊ/ minimal pairs

/u/ vs /ʊ/ in sentences

/ju/ sound

/ju/ words

Yod dropping

Back low vowels: /ɔ/ and /ɑ/

The cot–caught merger

Homophones due to /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ merger

Pronunciation of /ɔ/

/ɔr/ words

/ɑ/ words

R-colored /ar/ words

/ɑr, /ɔr/ minimal pairs

/ar/, /ər/ minimal pairs

/ɔr/, /ər/ minimal pairs

/ɔr/ vs /ər/ vs /ar/ comparison sentences

Middle center vowels: /ʌ/ vs /ə/

/ʌ/ words

Schwa for de-emphasis

Multisyllabic words

Function words

/ər/ words

/ʌ/, /ər/ minimal pairs

Diphthongs: /eɪ/, /aɪ/ & /ɔɪ/

/eɪ/

/eɪ/ words 

/ɛ/, /eɪ/ minimal pairs

/aɪ/

/aɪ/ words

/aɪər/ words

/ɔɪ/

/ɔɪ/ words

/eɪ/, /aɪ/ & /ɔɪ/ sentences

Diphthongs: /aʊ/ and /oʊ/

/aʊ/

/aʊ/ words

/aʊər/ words

/aʊ/ sentences

/oʊ/

/oʊ/ words

/oʊ/ homophones

/oʊ/ sentences

/oʊ/, /aʊ/ minimal pairs

/oʊ/, /ɔr/ minimal pairs

 

Part III: Consonants

Introduction to Consonants

Vocal tract

The tongue

The IPA chart for English consonants

Place of articulation

Bilabial

Labiodental

Interdental

Alveolar

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Manner of articulation

Obstruents

Plosives (stops)

Fricatives

Affricates

Sonorants

Nasals

Liquids

Glides

Voicing

Voicing for grammar

From noun to verb

From adjective to verb

From singular to plural

Voice assimilation

Voicing of -s or -es

Voicing of -ed

Consonant dropping in consonant clusters

Pre-fortis clipping

Minimal pairs for pre-fortis clipping

Plosives (Stops)

Phonemes vs allophones

Glottal stopping for /t/, [ʔ]

Alveolar flapping for /t/, [ɾ]

Allophones of plosives

Aspirated

Unaspirated

Held

Devoicing of voiced plosives

Bilabial plosives: /p/ and /b/     

Aspirated p, [pʰ]

Unaspirated p, [p]

Unreleased p, [p̚]

Complementary distribution vs free variation  

Silent p, b words 

/p/, /b/ minimal pairs

/p/, /b/ sentences

Alveolar plosives: /t/ and /d/

/t/, /d/ minimal pairs

/t/, /d/ minimal pairs for pre-fortis clipping

Allophones of /t/

Flap T

Homophones due to flap T

After stressed vowel and before unstressed vowel

Before syllabic L

After an r-colored vowel

Silent T

Glottal stop /ʔ/

Before syllabic N

Velar plosives: /k/ and /g/

/k/, /g/ minimal pairs

/k/, /g/ sentences

 

Fricatives

Labiodental fricatives: /f/ and /v/

/f/, /v/ minimal pairs

/f/, /v/ sentences

/f/, /p/ minimal pairs

/f/, /p/ sentences

/b/, /v/ minimal pairs

/b/, /v/ sentences

Interdental fricatives: /θ/ and /ð/

/θ/, /ð/ words

/f/, /θ/ minimal pairs

/t/, /θ/ minimal pairs

/t/, /θ/ sentences

/d/, /ð/ minimal pairs

/d/, /ð/ sentences

Alveolar fricatives: /s/ and /z/

/s/, /z/ minimal pairs

/s/ and /z/ as grammar particle sounds

/s/, /θ/ minimal pairs

/ð/, /z/ minimal pairs

/s/, /z/, /θ/, and /ð/ sentences

Palatal fricatives: /ʃ/ and /ʒ/

Words with /ʃ/

Words with /ʒ/

French origin words

Word endings with -SION, -SUAL, -SURE

From /z/ to /ʒ/

/ʃ/ and /ʒ/ minimal pairs

/ʃ/ and /Ʒ/ sentences

/s/, /ʃ/ minimal pairs

/z/, /ʒ/ minimal pairs

Glottal fricative: /h/

Silent H words

/h/, ∅ minimal pairs

/f/, /h/ minimal pairs

/h/ dropping in connected speech

 The ‘h’ pronouns

The ‘have’ verb

Affricates: /ʧ/ and /ʤ/

/ʧ/, /ʤ/ minimal pairs

/ʧ/, /ʤ/ sentences

/ʒ/, /ʤ/ minimal pairs

/ʃ/, tʃ/ minimal pairs

/ʤ/, /z/ minimal pairs

Nasals: /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/

Syllabic consonants

Bilabial nasal: /m/

Syllabic /əm/

Alveolar nasal: /n/

Syllabic /ən/

Velar nasal /ŋ/

Syllabic /əŋ/

/m/, /n/ minimal pairs

/n/, /ŋ/ minimal pairs

/m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ sentences

Liquids: /l/ and /r/

Lateral liquid /l/

Light L

Light L words

L Blend words

Light L sentences

Dark L

Dark L words

Dark L sentences

Retroflex Liquid /r/

Prevocalic R

Prevocalic R words

R bland words

Vocalic R

Vocalic R words

Vocalic R sentences

Intervocalic R

“A” before “R”

“E” before “R”

Mary–marry–merry merger

“I” before “R”

Mirror–nearer merger

“O” before “R”

“U” before “R”

/l/, /r/ minimal pairs

Challenging words with L and R

/lr/ combination words

/rl/ combination words

Glides: /w/ and /j/

Labial glide /w/

Semivowels vs their vowel counterparts, /u/ and /i/

Words with /w/

/w/, ∅ minimal pairs

/v/, /w/ minimal pairs

/w/ sentences

Palatal glide /j/

‘Y’ as a vowel

‘Y’ as consonant

Words with /j/

Words with yod- dropping

Posh English vs working-class English

/j/ - ∅ minimal pairs

/w/, /j/ minimal pairs

/j/, /dʒ/ minimal pairs

/j/ sentences

 

 

Part IV: Connected Speech

Introduction to Connected Speech

Syllable-timed rhythm vs stress-timed rhythm

Thought groups

Predictable patterns of sound change

Five methods of connected speech

Intrusion

/j/ intrusion

/w/ intrusion

Catenation

Catenation after H dropping

“My seat” vs “mice eat”

Gemination

Continuous consonants

“I scream” vs “ice cream”

Stops

“Red eye” vs “red dye”

Affricates

Elision

Elision in function words

H-dropping

Contraction

Pronunciation of contracted words

Negative contractions

Inferring elided sounds

CAN vs CAN’T

Syllable elision

Elision in consonant clusters

-nt, -nd ending in word boundary

Assimilation

Assimilation of voice

Alveolar consonant assimilations

/t/ to /p/ or /k/

/d/ to /b/ or /g/

/n/ to /m/ or /ŋ/

Nasal, lateral plosives

Palatalization

/t/+/j/=/ʧ/

/d/+/j/=/ʤ/

/s/+/j/=/ʃ/

/z/+/j/=/ʒ/

Course Enrollment

Enrollment fee for this course is $19.99. Once enrolled, you will land on a Google Classroom where you can find all the audios and videos for the course. You will also be able to access an enrolled-student-only website where you can find audio lectures with written texts. You will have lifetime access for this course.