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How do I pronounce those words in American Accent?

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Latest post Mon, Oct 26 2009 11:40 PM by raindoctor. 7 replies.
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Lincoln Punch  +  555577 Sat, 16 Aug 08 06:48 PM
Regularly

Particularly

Order

Murder

Those bold r sounds are really hard to pronounce. How do you pronounce those words in American English?
Lincoln Punch
Joined on Mon, Jul 21 2008
New Member 04
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Anonymous, 1 yr 97 days ago
Hi, I'm an American from the northwest part of the country (Washington state).  Our accents by American standards are supposed to be the 'blandest.'  That is, easiest to understand and closest to speaking phonetically American spelling.

So I'll try to do this as close as possible to the way we pronounce it.

Ray gyoo lair lee = regularly  (the 'lar' is pronounced like lair, as in the hideout or haunt)

Par tik kyoo lair lee = particularly (again, this 'larly' sounds like the one in regularly)
 
O - ur dur = order (ooh, this is a tough one to explain. If you already know how to pronounce the 'er' sound, like the 'der' in Order, then the 'r' before the 'O' makes the same 'er'  sound.  So it ends up sounding like this:  Oherder.  A word that makes that 'r' sound in 'order' is the word 'oar' like the one used to row of a boat.  So, it's pronounced exactly like 'oarder.') (I hope that isn't too confusing...)

M- er der = murder (like in 'order', the 'r' makes the 'er' sound and the 'u' in Murder is completely ignored, you don't pronounce it at all.  So keeping the 'er' sound in mind, Murder is pronounced Merder.)


I'm not an English major or anything, so these obviously aren't true phonetic spellings.  But they are exactly how Americans in this part of the country pronounce those words, and actually (because we're West Coast) how much of the American media sounds.

So I hope this helps.  I have studied a few other languages and chatted with a lot of non-native speakers and the 'r' sound is something they always talk about being difficult!  I suppose all of this just depends on what language/languages we learn to speak first.

-lycanos



Related discussions
Anonymous, 1 yr 95 days ago
Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation, lycanos! It helped a lot.

In my native language there's no such sound as 'r'. I think that's why it's so difficult.
Anonymous, 163 days ago
To pronounce these words with an American accent, your tongue should never touch the tip of our mouth when doing the "r."  (I'm from Pennsylvania in the Northeast by the way).


Regularly = r-egg-yool-err-lee


Particularly = parr-TIHK-yool-err-lee


Order = or-derr


Murder = merr-derr


That's the most important thing about the American "r" that makes it distinctive from other English "r" sounds.  Your tongue doesn't touch the roof of your mouth, and really doesn't touch anything.

Anonymous, 27 days ago
I'm from Chicago, so obviously I say things a little differently than the first person. 

Regularly - regyerhly or, in slow-motion, reg-yu-eraly (the u is pronounced like in the word zoo) the a is like the u in "up" and you almost don't even hear it when you say the work quickly, which is why I put an h, which is just an extremely fast a (like the u in up), and not actually an h. I know it seems kind of lazy not to say both l's, but it's like the work comfortable (comfterbole).

Particularly -particyerhly same thing as above

Order - oe-er-der (oe sounds like the o in pOle)

Murder- merder

It's really hard to explain how exactly to say the r sound, but you should look it up, and listen to it a lot. Use dictionary.com, and listen to the pronunciations.

Anonymous, 27 days ago
This should help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_chart_for_English_dialects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet
CalifJim  +  952949 Sun, 25 Oct 09 11:58 PM
Lincoln Punch
“How do you pronounce those words in American English?”
There are basically six "R-colored vowels" in American English, represented by the sequence:


Sharp thorns tear poor deer's fur.        

  (tear in the sense of rip)


You can look up these six words and listen at www.m-w.com if you want to hear them.

(Use thorn, deer, not thorns, deer's, of course.)


You may want to memorize the sequence (or another of your own invention) as your personal reference and guide to those six sounds.


The sound in murder matches the one in fur.

The one in order matches the one in thorns.

The ones in regularly and particularly both match tear or fur, depending how fast you're talking.


CJ
CalifJim
Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004
California
Veteran Member 22,385
"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche
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raindoctor  +  953996 Mon, 26 Oct 09 11:40 PM
Interesting question. Whenever you see a couple of r's in any word in AmE, check whether you can dissimilate one of them; and this dissimilation depends upon whether it is a start of a word or whether it is unstressed, etc.


Order: you dont hear first r; same with quarter.


For more, check here
raindoctor
Joined on Sun, Apr 26 2009
Junior Member 67
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