In this American English Pronunciation

video, we’re going to go over a few

general concepts concerning the sounds

of American English.

Before you study the Sounds of

American English specifically, let’s go

over a few general concepts.

First, voiced vs. unvoiced sounds. A

voiced sound is a sound that uses the

voice, uh. An unvoiced sound is a sound

that only uses air, hh. Uh, hh. Every

vowel and diphthong in American

English is voiced; we engage the vocal

cords to make a sound: aa, ur, oy.

Consonants can either be voiced or

unvoiced. There is a set of

consonants—paired consonants—

where both sounds in each pair have

the same mouth position. What makes

them different is one is voiced and one

is unvoiced. For example, pp and bb.

Can you tell which one is voiced?

Which has the vocal sound in it, uh? It’s

the B consonant, bb. Pp, bb.

The rest of the consonants are not

paired. They have a unique mouth

position. Out of these consonants, only

one is unvoiced, the H consonant. Hh.

The rest are all voiced, for example,

mm, ww, ll.

Second, let’s talk about nasal sounds. A

sound is nasal when the soft palate is

lowered, allowing air to pass through

the nasal passages. Some languages

have nasal vowels. English has none.

English has just three nasal consonants:

nn, mm, and ng. If your native

language has a lot of nasal vowels, you’ll

have to be careful when speaking

English.

When you’re working on the nasal

consonants, I encourage you not to

worry about lowering the soft palate.

I’ve been working with students many

years and I’ve never found someone

unable to do this. It happens naturally.

The main concern is making sure the

rest of the sounds in American English

don’t have a nasal quality, have a closed

soft palate.

You’ll notice in my videos, that I use symbols

of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

This system was developed to write the

sounds of spoken languages. In

American English, certain sounds are

spelled lots of different ways. So having

one symbol to represent one sound is

very helpful. I suggest using the

International Phonetic Alphabet any

time you’re studying the pronunciation

of a foreign language. In this set of

videos, you’ll get acquainted with the

symbols of the sounds of American

English.

Finally, a note on stress. The stress of a

syllable affects everything about the

syllable, including the sounds. Most of

the length in syllables comes from the

vowel and diphthongs, so as you learn

these, you’ll learn how to make them

sound both stressed and unstressed.

It’s important to get used to the idea of

making some syllables longer and

clearer, and other syllables shorter and

less clear. This concept is one of the

foundations of American English.

Now you’re ready to dive in and study

the Sounds of American English.

{{}}

在这个美式英语发音

视频中，我们将讨论一些

有关

美式英语发音的一般概念。

在你专门研究美式英语的声音之前

，让我们回顾

一些一般概念。

首先，浊音与清音。

浊音是使用

语音的声音，呃。 清音是

只使用空气的声音，hh。 嗯，嗯。

美式英语中的每个元音和双元音

都是浊音； 我们用

声带发出声音：aa、ur、oy。

辅音可以是浊音也可以是

清音。 有一组

辅音——配对辅音——

每对中的两个声音

都有相同的嘴位。 使

它们不同的是一种是有声的，一种

是无声的。 例如，pp 和 bb。

你能分辨出哪个是配音的吗？

哪个里面有人声，嗯？

是B辅音，bb。 pp，bb。

其余辅音不成

对。 他们有一个独特的嘴巴

位置。 在这些辅音中，只有

一个是清音的，即 H 辅音。 嗯。

其余的都是浊音，例如

mm、ww、ll。

其次，我们来谈谈鼻音。

当软腭

降低时，声音是鼻音，让空气

通过鼻腔。 有些语言

有鼻元音。 英语没有。

英语只有三个鼻辅音：

nn、mm 和 ng。 如果你的

母语有很多鼻元音，你

在说英语时必须小心

。

当你练习鼻

辅音时，我鼓励你不要

担心降低软腭。

我和学生一起工作了很多

年，我从来没有发现有人

无法做到这一点。 它自然发生。

主要问题是确保

美式英语中的其他声音

没有鼻音，有封闭的

软腭。

你会在我的视频中注意到，我使用

了国际音标符号。

该系统是为编写口语的声音而开发的

。 在

美式英语中，某些声音有

很多不同的拼写方式。 所以用

一个符号来代表一种声音是

非常有帮助的。 我建议

您在学习

外语发音时使用国际音标。 在这组

视频中，您将熟悉

美式英语的发音符号

。

最后，关于压力的说明。

音节的重音会影响音节的所有内容

，包括声音。

音节的大部分长度来自

元音和双元音，因此当您学习

这些时，您将学习如何使它们

听起来既重读又不重读。

重要的是要习惯

让一些音节更长、

更清晰，而另一些音节更短、

更不清晰的想法。 这个概念是

美式英语的基础之一。

现在您已准备好深入研究

美式英语之声。