Good, we've looked at the front and central vowels so far, and now we want to talk about
the back vowels, and then we will have covered all of the pure vowels.
That's not bad, actually.
Good, so what do you remember?
You don't, of course.
Here's the first one.
That one you're thinking, I know more or less what that looks like, but it doesn't necessarily
represent the letter A. It represents so many different sounds.
So this is not the letter A. This is the sound, ah.
Ah, everybody open your mouth and make ah.
Good, you can see it's all the way back and all the way down.
And now try ah, ah.
Good, can you feel the difference?
And not only hear it.
I'm getting some nodding.
That's a good sign, okay, good.
Just because when we were talking about ah before, I was hearing lots of things about
oh, it's further back.
Definitely further back than the E, but not as far back as the ah.
Okay, so ah, you will come across in bond, in conversation, in who has an ah in the name?
Yeah?
Janos, very good one.
Janos, good.
Good, so we have an ah in there.
Moving up a little bit in your mouth and moving into the so-called rounded vowels,
we will find this one.
This one's a little tricky.
It's sort of like the ah with a wuh on the end of it, ah.
Can you hear it?
Ah, ah.
This word you'll come across in jaw or lawyer, in dawn, in cough.
Everybody try the ah.
Ah.
Okay, can you think of anything that has any German words that have the ah in them?
Lots of them, right?
Ah is not as common in standard American English, but more so in many varieties of American
English, and certainly in Great Britain, so in RP, in Australian English.
All of the other varieties have more ah in them than the ah, or than the American, standard
American variety does.
You will notice there are words where I'm more likely to say ah, even though the standard
American English calls for the ah.
I'll give you some examples when we get there, but I won't talk about it too much until then.
Good, you will also have noticed that's part of where the wuh kind of feeling comes from
at the end of ah.
The rips, lips are more rounded there, so ah, ah.
You can see the lips rounding as you're pronouncing it.
Remember to do that yourself when you're trying it, and you'll get a chance, don't
worry.
Good.
Moving further up in the mouth, we now have the ah sound.
Ah.
This is the one you find in the middle of look, or should, or woman, to be distinguished
from women.
That's the ah.
Again, we're still rounded up here, so the tension, the tense American vowels tend to
be at the top of the mouth.
This one looks just like what you think it probably should sound like, or sounds just
like you think it should when you look at it.
This is ooh, ooh, ooh, as in fool, or food, or cartoon, something like that.
Okay, questions about the vowels at the moment?
No?
Okay.
We're going to try another one of those distinction exercises like we just did.
So, which one do you hear?
Cob.
Good.
Again, this is a typical issue for non-native speakers of English when they're trying to
understand the difference between words.
Cub, cob, uh, and ah often get mixed up.
If you're carefully watching me, you can see the difference in how open my mouth is between
cub and cob, but often you don't actually get to watch your speaker's mouth.
So, how about in hob?
First or second?
Yeah?
Hob.
Now she didn't hear it, yeah.
That was the second one, hob, hub, hob, good.
That's an easy mistake to make like I've said, good.
How about scuff?
Yes?
You heard the first one, correct.
Scuff, scuff.
And here I have to concentrate sometimes, so I'm not doing that ah sound that I was
talking about before, being a Philadelphian.
Good.
Hug.
Yes?
You heard the first one.
That one seems to be easier to recognize.
Snub?
Yes?
First one as well.
Good.
Snub?
Snob?
How about duck?
Yeah, I got fewer hands that time.
Yes?
Duck.
Yeah.
That's the second one.
Duck?
Duck.
Do you hear it now?
Good.
Okay.
How about rob?
Rob.
Yep.
Yeah?
That was the second one.
Rub?
Rob?
Stuck?
Ooh, that was mean of me.
Yes?
Stuck.
I have to repeat it.
Yes.
That was the second one.
I have to.
That was a little hard for me.
Stuck?
Stuck.
So, now you've got it, I hope.
So.
Suds.
Yes?
The first one.
That was the ugh sound.
Suds.
Sods.
Suds.
Good.
And mock.
Mock.
Yeah.
That was the second one.
Mock.
Muck.
Mock.
Good.
Again, trying to concentrate.
Make sure I'm not getting any rounding in there.
Good.
Of course, these are not the only distinctions that cause lots of learner's problems.
So, let's see if you can figure out what's going on in the difference between, and here
we are, putting it in sentences.
She shut it, and she shot it.
Which vowels are being used there, or are causing trouble.
I can give you another example.
Don't rub it.
Or don't rub it.
You hear the difference?
So that's the ugh and the ah again, the ones that we actually just looked at.
So.
And because I can never, I actually had a colleague actually said this.
I can never resist including this sentence in there.
My hubby is my hobby.
So.
I asked her about her hobbies, and she said, my hubby is my hobby.
You all know what a hubby is?
Short way of saying husband.
Okay.
Good.
How about this one?
I'll do the first one, and maybe I'll have somebody else read the next sentence.
The bat can hear, but not see.
Sort of underlines the sounds that I'm interested in.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's not the ah, it's the ugh, but the ah was correct.
Good.
So you want to try reading us the second sentence?
Yeah.
Good.
Okay.
We've heard luck already, I think in contrast with luck.
So different sound.
Good.
And we have a sailboat must have a mast, otherwise it's not a sailboat, right?
Good.
And then there's the ah and the ugh.
That's that stressed schwa.
Actually in that very first sentence, the but is more like an unstressed schwa.
But I'll talk about that more when we get to stress and rhythm, that's the word I was
looking for.
Good.
How about this one?
Do I read the first one again?
Anne is on the phone.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Good.
We've got the ah and the ah there.
So you want to try the next sentence?
Okay.
She's got the ah.
She's been listening to British speakers probably more.
That's fine too.
Good.
And we have one more here.
Somebody else want to try it?
Yeah.
Good.
Okay.
That was more American ah.
Good.
Right.
We have the ah and the ah there.
So again, it's the ah.
I think, yes, the next one has that sound.
Okay.
So here we're listening to the ugh, the schwa again, and the ah.
So the more rounded, about the same height though.
I had done it before dawn.
So you think there's got to be a wuh in there somewhere.
In fact, the wuh isn't really there.
It's part of the ah.
So it's a little tricky.
Somebody else want to try the second sentence?
Yeah.
Good.
We caught it before the cut.
Well done.
Okay.
And this is a little weird, but it was an attempt to get the sounds together in the sentence.
Yes?
Good.
Okay.
So we have the dirty cuff made her cough.
Okay.
We've got one last contrast that comes up fairly regularly with students who can't quite
hear the distinction, or can't really produce the distinction, even though these are pretty
far apart.
So.
Somebody want to try that sentence for me?
Or shall I try it?
Yes.
Right.
Good.
So what sounds are we listening to there?
Or distinguishing?
Yep.
Yeah.
It's not wuh, because that would be buk, but the wuh, right?
That one sounds weird.
Looks like the wuh, but it's a little different.
So this one, we've got them in reverse order.
So we've got take a good look.
That's the wuh again for good luck.
So.
And one more?
Somebody want to try it?
Yes?
She took the shirt with the tuck.
Good.
Well done.
Good.
And there again, we have it.
We have the schwa, the uuh, contrasted with the uuh, which is a little higher.
Not much, but mostly rounded is the main distinction.
So something to think about there.
You look at those.
And it's not always represented by a double O, even though that's where you're seeing
it right now.
So something to think about.
OK.
There's one last thing I want to mention about vowels, and that is how long they are.
We were talking about how long, how the distinction between the e and the ih, one of them being
the tension in your face and the other one being the length with which they're pronounced.
But sometimes that happens even with the same vowel sound.
So let's try this one.
Here I have the same vowel, same exact sound in four different words.
Try it yourself.
What's the difference between them?
What do you notice?
Say them aloud, altogether if necessary, or on your own.
What do you notice?
Or I can do it once, ban, bad, back, bat.
Did you hear it?
Yeah?
That's exactly right.
So the a inside the ban and the bad is slightly longer than the a inside the back and the
bat.
I stretched it out a little bit, but I was trying to be more specific there.
So you've got it, exactly.
So what do you notice about those sounds?
Is there a pattern or is it just, you know, right, vowel pronunciation or pronunciation
will also differ according to the context.
So in fact, it's the voiced consonant that causes the vowel sound to get longer rather
than vice versa, which is the way it sounded, the way she even said it.
But I think you got it right.
It's just the relationship slightly different.
So that vowel, that, excuse me, that voiced sound will cause the vowel preceding it.
So the one in front of it to sound a little bit longer than if it's an unvoiced sound
as in k or t.
Okay.
So I'm going to get you to think about that some more.