By Vowels, American English

Hi,there are several different ways to classify vowels (also tense vs lax, for example). What I call vowel length is what is considered in linguistics, I think. It's the difference you hear in General American English between the vowel in GOT and the vowel in GOD, which is the same but in...

Let's remember that English is greater than any one country, and put blindfolded patriotism aside. The issue is good communication.I maintain that mainstream American English is a lax (see footnote) peculiarity. That does not mean that we shouldn't enjoy it. I certainly do. There is not much...

Is was wondering if there is any difference between 'better' and 'bed or...' in American English. At least previously I thought that the vowel preceding the letter 'd' is longer in 'bed or', since it is followed by a voiced consonant in any English dialect. After these replies to the original...

I've had some limited success with Scottish and Irish accents just from watching movies, really. Granted, I'll often start in one and end up in the other XD . Oh, guess my own dialectal background would be good *ahem*. I'm from the American west coast--grew up in the crap-hole state Nevada and...

Well, you are supposed to write about the *new* trends in Canadian English. Not the history of CE. I think that the Canadian Shift would probably be your best bet--it is a very recent innovation, and thus is one of the few features of CE that could be considered new. It also has many...

Well, I'm learning American English, so I don't really know much about British English. But I guess the difference between /ai/ (bite) and /ae/ (bat) is more or less the same.I circled the areas where I think "General American" vowels are. /ai/ goes from a sound in a certain area to a sound in...

Hi David,here you can find some stuff about American English. Vowels, consonants, lots of stuff...http://evaeaston.com/pr/home.htmlOn that website there's also a link to this page, where the states are pronounced.http://evaeaston.com/pr/states.htmlIf you need to know how to pronounce a word in...

Inserting an "r" sound between some word-final and word-initial vowel sounds, such as in law and order so that it comes as lawr and(schwa+n) order, is known as intrusive 'r'. It's used by some RP speakers. It is not so common in American English.

CalifJim wrote: You realize, I'm sure, that the g in final ng is silent. It is only a marker to change the usual sound of 'n' to a velar nasal sound instead. It's farther back than your Italian gn but in the same general family of sounds. I know, it thought it was like the N in "anche"...

Kooyeen wrote:For example, she says that n's after t's are not pronounced in American English ...Hi Kooyeen,To be precise, she says: T is silent after N with lax vowels. As you know well, she uses lots of pages on techniques to "reduce" sounds, to make them flow smoothly... And it is crucial...