The Sounds of American English -- General Information to Get Started

In this American English Pronunciation

video, we’re going to go over a few

general concepts concerning the sounds

of American English.

Before you study the Sounds of

American English specifically, let’s go

over a few general concepts.

First, voiced vs. unvoiced sounds. A

voiced sound is a sound that uses the

voice, uh. An unvoiced sound is a sound

that only uses air, hh. Uh, hh. Every

vowel and diphthong in American

English is voiced; we engage the vocal

cords to make a sound: aa, ur, oy.

Consonants can either be voiced or

unvoiced. There is a set of

consonants—paired consonants—

where both sounds in each pair have

the same mouth position. What makes

them different is one is voiced and one

is unvoiced. For example, pp and bb.

Can you tell which one is voiced?

Which has the vocal sound in it, uh? It’s

the B consonant, bb. Pp, bb.

The rest of the consonants are not

paired. They have a unique mouth

position. Out of these consonants, only

one is unvoiced, the H consonant. Hh.

The rest are all voiced, for example,

mm, ww, ll.

Second, let’s talk about nasal sounds. A

sound is nasal when the soft palate is

lowered, allowing air to pass through

the nasal passages. Some languages

have nasal vowels. English has none.

English has just three nasal consonants:

nn, mm, and ng. If your native

language has a lot of nasal vowels, you’ll

have to be careful when speaking

English.

When you’re working on the nasal

consonants, I encourage you not to

worry about lowering the soft palate.

I’ve been working with students many

years and I’ve never found someone

unable to do this. It happens naturally.

The main concern is making sure the

rest of the sounds in American English

don’t have a nasal quality, have a closed

soft palate.

You’ll notice in my videos, that I use symbols

of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

This system was developed to write the

sounds of spoken languages. In

American English, certain sounds are

spelled lots of different ways. So having

one symbol to represent one sound is

very helpful. I suggest using the

International Phonetic Alphabet any

time you’re studying the pronunciation

of a foreign language. In this set of

videos, you’ll get acquainted with the

symbols of the sounds of American

English.

Finally, a note on stress. The stress of a

syllable affects everything about the

syllable, including the sounds. Most of

the length in syllables comes from the

vowel and diphthongs, so as you learn

these, you’ll learn how to make them

sound both stressed and unstressed.

It’s important to get used to the idea of

making some syllables longer and

clearer, and other syllables shorter and

less clear. This concept is one of the

foundations of American English.

Now you’re ready to dive in and study

the Sounds of American English.