Hi (and welcome to Englishforums Smile), As I know, in modern English the vowel is no more pronounced as... ouch! The vowel must always be pronounced the same, since it's an IPA symbol that describe a sound. IPA symbols don't change, they

Unfortunately students who take IELTS exhibit the same poor speech skills, and that already includes a speaking test (for which I'm an examiner). I gather that pronunciation is one of the criteria for marking and assessment...

Interesting observation in that US English now stands in much the same juxtaposition to English as Roman Latin did to Greek. Except that Latin didn't derive from the speech of greek settlers in Italy - unless you count Aeneas as recounted in

Are you near a large city? Look in the yellow pages of the phone book under "Speech therapy", "Public speaking" ... specialize in these things, working with folks who stutter, or who have speech impediments, or who have a

This supposed "Standard American English accent" sounds like a variation on the now rarely-used term "General American": From the dictionary at www.infoplease.com , which appears to be the *Random House Webster's Unabridged

Yes, but why do American dictionaries choose *my* pronunciation oversomeone from Alabama, or Massachusetts, or Wisconsin? There are glaring anddrastic differences in pronunciation from region to region. Not sure if this helps, but from

It seems pretty clear to me that Richard means that ... would prefer to spell as "aw" rather than as "ah". Why he would want to spell it "aw" passes understanding, since he has also implied that "aw" may be

If I want you to use the vowel of your ... order to accomplish that? What would you suggest I write? Before I made a suggestion, I would want to be persuaded that there was some good reason for you to want me to use a vowel when you don't know

Fonzie, might I convince you to help me raise objections to linguists' blithe and insulting decision to use the word "Philadelphia" to refer to the entire Upper Chesapeake pronunciation region? You think I don't know? I tell them

} ... }>> There's no (E). } }> In yours, maybe. Check Skitt's. } } He's Latvian. Note his (semi-)voiced in "Volks-." Noted. I noted that yesterday. }> No, what you're describing here is a hypercorrection of