RoPeCast

123. Phonetically challenged

Carry is back in the studio with some more insights on phonetics. Today she and Roger focus on pronunciation problems typical for learners from a certain area and what teachers can do about those.

Be aware, while the episode takes reference to Germany and the Saarland foremost, many of the problems mentioned are relevant for speakers of other native languages, too. Our Russian listeners for example might also be affected by what is referenced with the German term "Auslautverhärtung", that is the de-voicing of word final consonants (think: мороз vs. морозный).

Listen in and try it out! And don't forget to hold your larynx while doing so.

English vowel chart
Illustrating the vowels for the British standard "Received Pronunciation".

German vowel chart
Compare it to the German vowels system as shown here. Notice some of the vowels mentioned here are not natively German and occur in loanwords etc.

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