Hi all,
I like to know if I’m pronouncing distinctively with respect to the following words. Please take note that the following list doesn’t abide the order of words in recorded message for I don’t want my sound to be made out from the written words. It is jumbled. I’d rather prefer identifying from the sound itself.
lag leg
had head
bat bed
bad bet
tack tech
Hello Bulone,
I think that your idea of pronounciation excercise with minimal pairs is really great. It helps intermediate to advanced EFL/ESL speakers brush up their pronounciation.
If you may, I’d like to help by transcripting your pronounciation into IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) and compare them to the transcription in the dictionary. I will also try my best to pronounce the IPA transcription, from the dictionary, of each words that you are trying to say. The dictionary I am using to transcribe your recording is “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of English” (fifth edition).
Okay, here we go :
My transcription of your pronounciation is probably inaccurate since you did not pronounced the words in the order that you wrote in your post. I tried to transcript the words in the order that you pronounced them, not the way you wrote them in your post. It is quite the entertainment to guess but might leave both the corrector and the corectee confused in terms of feedback. So please say the words in the order that you write next time.
As for the analysis, I believe that we should wait for Jamie (K) or Alan. I believe that Jamie (K) and Alan are both elligible to analyse our pronounciation since they are both native speakers of English.
Looking forward to hear more from you about this.
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Hi Bulone,
I’ll pronounce them in the order they are on the screen:
lag leg
had head
bat bed
bad bet
tack tech
Then, so that they aren’t just noises, I’ve put them in short sentences:
He didn’t want to lag behind although his leg was aching
Although she had a bad ache in her head, she still did her homework.
We put the bat down on the bed.
He felt bad because he didn’t have enough money to place a bet
I know this isn’t a tech question but I don’t know how to tack this on the wall.
Alan
You’re on the right track, Bulone, but the main problem is that you are pronouncing the [æ] vowel as if it were always long. You will notice from Alan’s recording that the vowels in “tack” and “tech” are about the same length, and only the tongue position varies.
Before a voiced consonant like [g], we lengthen the vowel, and we don’t lengthen it before a voiceless consonant like [k]. So the vowel in “tag” would be long [tæ:g], but in “tack” it would be short [tæk]. Because you pronounced the vowel so long in “tack”, I thought you were saying “tag” and mispronouncing the final [g]. I only knew you were saying “tack” because I looked at the list.
Thank you guys. I’ll post my response soon as I don’t have much time to do it right now. And again thanks so much.
Hi Alan, youscream,
Your pronunciation is so much better than the accent CD I’m listening. I could hear the distinction quite clearly. The only problem I need to deal with is, the problem on my side. Oh boy, I can’t remember how many time my tongue got twisted from mimicking. lol
And thanks Jamie for thorough explanation.
Always a pleasure to help a fellow learner, Bulone. I
know how you feel on the twisted tongue. I have been trying to pronounce “hello” in Russian since the morning, and still could not get it right. LOL.
My graditute also goes to Alan and Jamie (K) for both of your prompt reply.
Hi all,
Here’s my attempt. Tell me what you think 
Boy, this gotta be the hardest set of sounds I ever come across. I can hear the distinction but don’t think I’m getting the sound right.
And to Jamie, I particularly like to extend my thanks to you for mentioning voiced and voiceless consonants. I didn’t know anything about it until you brought this up. As it arouse my interest, I went out to find more on this on internet and found really useful material such as of connected speech. This will definitely help me to improve my pronunciation skill. Thanks for that.
Hi Bulone,
I thought that you made a pretty good fist of reading those words.
Alan
Thanks Alan for your kind encouragement.
Excellent work , Bulone! Couldn’t 've done it better myself!