Sounds That You Can/Can't Pronounce Easily

[cybrxkhan]

Nobody's been able to teach me to do the English <th> correctly, period.

Just put the tip of your tongue between your teeth and blow? That should give you a reasonable approximation, at least.

I tried that.

And failed.

Many times.

[finlay]

[l]

Yes, ordinary "light" L, because mine is always either [5] or velarized [l_G], even word-initially.

I find I can do light L if it's alveolar and dark L if it's dental but not really the other way around. I certainly find alveolar dark L very difficult. But in terms of what I have in my own linguistic system, pretty much like you.

[5] and [l_G] are the same, by the way.

[tezcatlip0ca]

I can do literally every phone possible. Except the uvular sibilants and the palatal trills. (I've been trying to do those for four years now, I can actually hear what they should sound like, although I can't produce them...) Velar sibilants are extremely difficult, but I can do them (they are the last phones I learned, after the dental lateral trill).

[Ser]

By the way, what's the usefulness of [5] over [l_G]? Is "dark l" pharyngealized ([l_?\]) in some dialects of English (or maybe it exists in free variation with [l_G])?

I can do literally every phone possible. Except the uvular sibilants and the palatal trills. (I've been trying to do those for four years now, I can actually hear what they should sound like...)

Where/How?

[tezcatlip0ca]

No, just mentally.

[Nortaneous]

Is "dark l" pharyngealized ([l_?\]) in some dialects of English

yes

[bulbaquil]

I mostly simply use [l_G] in my personal transcription for L's that "should" be light.

[Ċeaddawīc]

I don't know what any of you are talking about. My [ð] and [θ] are very different, and are certainly not merging in any respect, although they aren't perfect (/ð/ is usually something approaching [d̪ð] non-word-finally, but just barely, nowhere near a true affricate). You guys are freaks. They're in a semi-active-not-very-common-or-useful-I'm-probably-just-trying-to-preserve-something-derivational morphological pattern where nouns ending in [θ] change the [θ] to [ð] and lengthen the last vowel to change a noun to a verb, e.g. (please excuse my use of <[r]> here),

/riθ/ /rið/ <wreathe> 'to put a wreath on something'
/bæθ/ /bejð/ <bathe> 'to take a bath; to clean oneself'
/ʃiθ/ /ʃið/ <sheathe> 'to put into a sheath; to encase something, usually a weapon, by sliding it into a long, hollow, open-ended cylinder-like thing'

leading to unrealistic examples such as

/pæθ/ /pejð/ <pathe> 'to make a path'
/gɑθ/ /gɵwð/ <gothe> 'to make gothic'

Admittedly, this is far-fetched, but I'm a heartfelt supporter of it.

[Åge Kruger]

I have trouble with pronouncing the right one of /u U/ when speaking Norwegian. I can't really say /u/ correctly, and it gets worse when it's near other round vowels. The fact that a lot of words can be pronounced with either /u/ or /U/ doesn't make it any easier either.

I also still have difficulty distinguishing /a e @/ in unstressed syllables at the end of a word, which is important in Norwegian for distinguishing between definite/indefinite and neuter/feminine.

I'm getting better, though.

[Nortaneous]

Voiced plosives. They either end up unvoiced unaspirated or implosive.

Also, ejectives.

[Cathbad]

I used to not be able to do ejectives, but then I realized it's really easy once I saw that ejectives are what 40% of BrE English speakers do with their k's at the end of phrases (I still find it an extremely annoying thing to do).

I still don't really get Tones, though. Plus I think I have some trouble with differences between different degrees of palatal/velar/postalveolar stops and affricates, but mainly that's because I pronounce my /tS/ so strangely, without any noticeable contact between my tongue and the roof of the mouth. On the other hand I'm able to pronounce the trickier sounds of Arabic (including the "emphatics", the epiglottal, /q/, and the pharyngeal fricative) almost perfectly - my tutors and teachers were always amazed.

[Nortaneous]

Emphatics seem like they should be easy for most English speakers, because most English speakers have [5].

[finlay]

Is "dark l" pharyngealized ([l_?\]) in some dialects of English

yes

is it? mine's always velarised...

[Astraios]

Is "dark l" pharyngealized ([l_?\]) in some dialects of English

yes

is it? mine's always velarised...

I may be observersparadoxing things, but I think I have at least some pharyngealization. I know it has rounding, though.

[Viktor77]

what about thy/thigh? it's a minimal pair!

I don't know, maybe I have /D/. I'm just confused now.

[Silk]

I can pronounce all the sounds of Russian, Arabic, and Kazakh pretty decently, in addition to English. I had to practice the trilled r, the 'ayn, and the front rounded vowels, but I have them pretty much down now. I'm studying German on my own now, and the [C] sound is hard for me - I can pronounce it in isolation, but in words like Sprache I unconsciously want to say [x] or [x_j] rather than [C].

I can pronounce the <c q x> clicks of Zulu/Xhosa in isolation, but it feels unnatural to pronounce them intervocalically, let alone <gc gq gx>. I can pronounce implosives and ejectives pretty well, but they take some effort and if I had to pronounce them rapidly in a language that used them, I would have some trouble. I'm not sure if I am correctly pronouncing [7], either.

[Rui]

I'm studying German on my own now, and the [C] sound is hard for me - I can pronounce it in isolation, but in words like Sprache I unconsciously want to say [x] or [x_j] rather than [C].

I hope you don't say [C] in <Sprache> because there is none Just an [R] and a [x~X]

[meidei]

Among other things, is difficult for me to use unrounded back vowels (like Turkish ı) in context.

[Silk]

I'm studying German on my own now, and the [C] sound is hard for me - I can pronounce it in isolation, but in words like Sprache I unconsciously want to say [x] or [x_j] rather than [C].

I hope you don't say [C] in <Sprache> because there is none Just an [R] and a [x~X]

Whoops, I forgot that the [C] is only after front vowels. I erroneously thought that the final <e> automatically transformed the <ch> into a [C].

[Trailsend]

Linguo-labial trill.

I do it at parties.

To attract mates, you see.

(Still can't manage a uvular trill, though. That usually costs me the date.)

[Neon Fox]

I can do retroflexes and "ll", so I can pronounce many Hindi words and things like "Llewellyn" correctly. I suck at trills and palatals. I have a hell of a time hearing tones, but I can sing so I expect I'd be able to pick those up if I tried enough.

[Yng]

so I can pronounce many Hindi words and things like "Llewellyn" correctly.

Not if you're pronouncing it how you wrote it there.

[Bedelato]

I cannot do breathy or creaky voice to save my life.

[Ċeaddawīc]

Ooh, what bad luck. I'm going to kill you if you don't. I have 14 bombs placed strategically around your house. Pronounce a series of breathy and creaky voiced vowels and consonants or the bombs will go off.

You have 3 hours.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

Did I hear an explosion?

Anyway, the only thing I can think of right now that I have actually tried to pronounce that I don't seen to be able to is [r]... Though most other trills usually aren't problematic...