Sounds That You Can/Can't Pronounce Easily

[----]

Well I managed to train myself to do an alveolar trill but I don't even know how I would go about doing a uvular trill. In fact no one I know can do it o:

[finlay]

It's the same sort of non-simultaneity, incidentally, that makes 'mints' and 'mince' homophones for many english speakers.

Is it this too when both of those words have a glottal stop between the /n/ and the /s/?

The reason I think the IPA is inadequate for this purpose is related. It's probably not a glottal stop per se because the tongue is still up by the alveolar ridge or the teeth. Or something... whatever, I can't look into your mouth and tell you for you.

[Jipí]

Well I managed to train myself to do an alveolar trill but I don't even know how I would go about doing a uvular trill. In fact no one I know can do it o:

Well, you could try k → x → χ → ʁ (this is what German mostly has for /r/) → ʀ. If your throat starts to hurt, you're Doing It Wrong.

[Astraios]

The reason I think the IPA is inadequate for this purpose is related. It's probably not a glottal stop per se because the tongue is still up by the alveolar ridge or the teeth. Or something... whatever, I can't look into your mouth and tell you for you.

It feels like I'm saying [mɪ̃ʔs], with a glottal something. There's definitely no actual contact for the /n/, too.


EDIT: I can do that trill. I feel special.

[tezcatlip0ca]

I'm now doing fricative velaric egressives.

[Avjunza]

Implosives, uvulars apart from the fricative, palatal plosives and fricatives still turn out post-alveolar sometimes, voiced velar fricative and velar approximants, and thats it.

[sirdanilot]

Suddenly, I got it: some kind of retroflex ejective that does not sound fricativised, but more like a plopping sound.

I don't think this is a speech sound anywhere. Here is a recording of it.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tz5u1p

[bulbaquil]

Okay, it turns out I can pronounce a pharyngeal fricative. Which is good, because there is one in my current project.

[Jashan]

Unlike most non-Dutch, apparently, I can easily pronounce <ui> and <ij>. I can roll my R's, and I can do the uvular trill-thing which is the French <r>.

I cannot, however, pronounce whatever the hell that little sound is that is written in Russian as Ы

[finlay]

[ɨ]

[Nortaneous]

Did some pronunciation tests of my conlangs today. I can pronounce all of [r̥ r ʀ], keep [ç x xʷ χ] distinguishable, and get contrastive creaky voice mostly right, so I can pretty much pronounce Arve except for the weird diphthongs. And those will probably be centering diphthongs in all but the most formal/conservative registers, so whatever.

[Chuma]

I'm having some difficulties with weird clusters including "th", such as in "other things". Annoying.

[Jipí]

I find [ɹθ] and [ɹð] difficult as well. Thus I usually drop the rhotic in those environments. It's easier with 'bunched R', but I've never got the hang of that.

[Chuma]

I'm not rhotic in general, so my example would be [ðəθ]. Maybe I'm supposed to be reducing this somehow that I don't get.

[Nortaneous]

oh, that reminds me: I can't do [r] or [ɾ] after [ɬ].

[Astraios]

I'm having some difficulties with weird clusters including "th", such as in "other things". Annoying.

For me it sounds something like [''ɐðθɪ̃:z]*.


*I forget how to write /ð/ as an approximant.

[Skomakar'n]

I can pronounce most <r>'s pretty well. My idiolect has two of them to begin with, although I'm not sure if the non-[r] one is [R] or [G] or something else.

I have no problems with French ones most of the time, either. Je ne regrette rien.

[Chuma]

oh, that reminds me: I can't do [r] or [ɾ] after [ɬ].

Wouldn't the L usually be elided?

[Jashan]

Sometimes I have problems with the [Ts] combination (such as paths); I tend to elide it to [pa:z].

I love the [sts] combination (lists), which I actually do pronounce as [sts] with no elision.

[sirdanilot]

Unlike most non-Dutch, apparently, I can easily pronounce <ui> and <ij>. I can roll my R's, and I can do the uvular trill-thing which is the French <r>.

If you have a recording (can be done in a couple of mins with a laptop with built-in recorder), I can not only grade your <ui> and <ij>, but also locate you exactly on the map of Holland where you'd come from if you were native !

[Jipí]

She lived in Belgium.

[Simmalti]

I don't really hear the difference between [ʋ] and [β]

[Jashan]

Unlike most non-Dutch, apparently, I can easily pronounce <ui> and <ij>. I can roll my R's, and I can do the uvular trill-thing which is the French <r>.

If you have a recording (can be done in a couple of mins with a laptop with built-in recorder), I can not only grade your <ui> and <ij>, but also locate you exactly on the map of Holland where you'd come from if you were native !

I'll give it a try sometime this weekend. Although I imagine my accent is a bit weird now that I've been speaking English exclusively for 6 months.

[finlay]

Unlike most non-Dutch, apparently, I can easily pronounce <ui> and <ij>. I can roll my R's, and I can do the uvular trill-thing which is the French <r>.

If you have a recording (can be done in a couple of mins with a laptop with built-in recorder), I can not only grade your <ui> and <ij>, but also locate you exactly on the map of Holland where you'd come from if you were native !

Heh, so tempted to give my rendering of what my impression of these sounds were (after two months in Wassenaar a year and a half ago, so probably disgustingly posh)...

[sirdanilot]

She lived in Belgium.

Oh, but Flemish <ei, ij> and <ui> aren't diphtongues, meaning they are probably easier to master.