标准美语发音的13个秘诀 CD 3 Track 24

 

Exercise 4-12: Finding American T Sounds CD 3 Track 24 

Once again, go over the following familiar paragraph. First, find all the T's that are pronounced D (there are nine to thirteen here).Second, find all the held Ts (thereare seven). The first one of each is marked for you. Pause the CD to do this and don't forget to check your answers with the Answer Key, beginning on page 193, when you finish.

Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accen(t) Training. There's a lo(t) to learn, but d I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation¹ pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound good/Well, what do you think? Do I?

Voiced Consonants³ and Reduced Vowels⁵

The strong intonation in AmericanEnglish creates certain tendencies in your spoken language. Here are four consistent conditions that are a result of intonation's tense peaks and relaxed

valleys:

1. Reduced vowels 

You were introduced to reduced vowels in Chapter 1. They appear in the valleys that are formed by the strong peaks of intonation. The more you reduce the words in the valleys, the smoother and more natural your speech willsound. A characteristic of reduced vowels is that your throat muscles should be very relaxed. This will allow the unstressed vowels to reduce toward the schwa. Neutral vowels take less energy and muscularity to produce than tense vowels. For example, the word unbelievable should only have one hard vowel⁴: [ənbəlēvəbəl].

2. Voiced consonants 

The mouth muscles are relaxed tocreate a voiced sound like [z] or [d]. For unvoiced consonants, such as [s] or [t], they are sharp and tense. Relaxing your muscles willsimultaneously reduce your vowels and voice yourconsonants. Think of voiced consonants as reduced consonants. Both reduced consonants and reduced vowels are unconsciously preferred by a native speaker of American English. This explains why T sofrequently becomes D and S becomes Z: Get it is to ... [gedidizdə].

3. Like sound with like sound 

It's not easy to change horses midstream, so when you havea voiced consonant²; let the consonant that follows it be voiced as well. In the verb used [yuzd], for example, the S is really a Z, so it is followed by D. The phrase used to [yus tu], on the other hand, has a real S, so it is followed by T. Vowels are, by definition, voiced. So when one is followed by a common, reducible word, it will change that word's first sound— like the preposition to, which will change to [də]. 

The only way to get it is to practice all of the time. 

[They only wei•də•geddidiz•də•practice all of the time.]

Again, this will take time. In the beginning, work on recognizing these patterns when you hear them. When you are confident that you understandthe structure beneath these sounds and you can intuit where they belong, you can start to try them out. It's not advisable to memorize one reduced word and stick it into an otherwise overpronounced sentence. It would sound strange.

4. R'lææææææææææx 

You've probably noticed that the preceding three conditions, as well as other areas that we've covered, such as liaisons⁶ and the schwa, have one thing in common—the idea that it's physically⁷ easier this way. This is one of the most remarkable⁸ characteristics of American English. You need to relax your mouth and throat muscles (except for [æ], [ä],and other tense vowels), and let the sounds flow smoothly⁹ out. Ifyou find yourself tensing up, pursing your lips, or tightening your throat, you are going to strangle and lose the sound you are pursuing. Relax, relax, relax.

1 intonation   

n.语调，声调；发声

参考例句：

• The teacher checks for pronunciation and intonation.老师在检查发音和语调。
• Questions are spoken with a rising intonation.疑问句是以升调说出来的。

2 consonant   

n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的

参考例句：

• The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
• These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。

3 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

5 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

6 liaisons   

n.联络( liaison的名词复数 )；联络人；（尤指一方或双方已婚的）私通；组织单位间的交流与合作

参考例句：

• She embarked on a series of sexual liaisons with society figures. 她开始接二连三地与社会名流有染。 来自辞典例句
• One of Wentworth's favorite movies is Dangerous Liaisons. went最喜欢的电影之一是《危险关系》。 来自互联网

7 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

8 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

9 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。