Chapter 3. Cat? Caught? Cut? CD 3 Track 5 录音下载
After laying our foundation with intonation and liaisons, here we finally begin to refine your pronunciation! We are now going to work on the differences between [], [], and [], as well as [ō], [ā], and [ē]. Let's start out with the [] sound.
The [] Sound Although not a common sound, [] is very distinctive to the ear and is typically American. In the practice paragraph in Exercise 3-2 this sound occurs five times. As its phonetic symbol indicates, [] is a combination of [] + [ε]. To pronounce it, drop your jaw down as if you were going to say []; then from that position, try to say [ε]. The final sound is not two separate vowels, but rather the end result of the combination. It is very close to the sound that a goat makes: ma-a-a- a! Y Try it a few times now: [] f [] If you find yourself getting too nasal with [], pinch your nose as you say it. If [kt] turns into [kεt], you need to pull the sound out of your nose and down into your throat.
Note As you look for the [] sound you might think that words like down or sound have an [] in them. For this diphthong, try [] + oh, or [o]. This way, down would be written [don]. Because it is a combined sound, however, it's not included in the Cat? category. (See Pronunciation Point 4 on page ix).
The [] Sound The [] sound occurs a little more frequently; you will find ten such sounds in the exercise. To pronounce [], relax your tongue and drop your jaw as far down as it will go. As a matter of fact, put your hand under your chin and say [m], [p], [t], [s]. Your hand should be pushed down by your jaw as it opens. Remember, it's the sound that you make when the doctor wants to see your throat, so open it up and drp your jaw.
The Schwa [] Sound Last is the schwa [], the most common sound in American English. When you work on Exercise 3-2, depending on how fast you speak, how smoothly you make liaisons, how strong your intonation is, and how much you relax your sounds, you will find from 50 to 75 schwas. Spelling doesn't help identify it, because it can appear as any one of the vowels, or a combination of them. It is a neutral vowel sound, uh. It is usually in an unstressed syllable, though it can be stressed as well. Whenever you find a vowel that can be crossed out and its absence wouldn't change the pronunciation of the word, you have probably found a schwa: photography [ph'togr'phy] (the two apostrophes show the location of the neutral vowel sounds).
Because it is so common, however, the wrong pronunciation of this one little sound can leave your speech strongly accented, even if you Americanized everything else.
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