Tools & Tips

ASPIRATION

In accent work, aspiration refers to bursts of air that are released after a stop plosive. The degree of aspiration depends on our native accents, as well as the position of stop plosives within a word.

In RP, we tend to use increased aspiration primarily on unvoiced stop plosives: /p/, /t/ and /k/, particularly at the beginning of a syllable. However, if preceded by a fricative, such as /f/ or /s/, aspiration on the following unvoiced stop plosive will be decreased.

For example:

RP speakers use increased aspiration in the following words – part, tight, cake

RP speakers use less aspiration in the following words – spikey, start, skirt

MONOPHTHONGS AND DIPHTHONGS

A monophthong is a single vowel sound, or phthong. It may be long or short. In RP, some examples of long monophthongs include the words FLEECE, GOOSE and BATH, while the words KIT, STRUT and LOT are examples of short monophthongs.

Diphthongs, on the other hand, refer to vowels containing two phthongs. In RP, the words PRICE, FACE and MOUTH are all examples of diphthongs. The first phthong in RP diphthongs are marginally longer than the second, resulting in their categorisation as single syllables.

When listening to an RP speaker, see if you can note the starting and finishing points of words that fit into the PRICE, FACE and MOUTH lexical sets (to name just a few).

Now try these words in your own accent. Do you realise the capitalised words above as monophthongs or diphthongs?

IDENTIFYING RHOTICITY

Getting curious about your own accent? Try answering the following question…

Do you pronounce all of the /r/ sounds in the following sentence when there is an <r> in the spelling?

“Harry’s car is really awkward to drive.”

So, is your accent rhotic, like so called “general American”? Or is it non-rhotic, like “modern RP”?

Watch the video below to find out more.

EXPLORING THE VOWEL CHART

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) sets out instructions on how to generate sounds within the vocal tract. The vowel chart informs us of the following: whether we are using the front, middle or back of the tongue; the degree to which we are lifting or lowering this portion of the tongue; and whether we include lip rounding or not.

This exercise requires much in the way of experimentation and exploration. Bringing attention to the precise movements of the tongue (particularly the back of the tongue) takes time. It can take months before we are truly able to isolate the portion of the tongue that affects particular sound changes.

If you have the time each morning, spend 2 minutes exploring the isolations required to lift and lower the tongue at the front* (toward the postalveolar/hard palate area) and the back (towards the soft palate).

*The front of the tongue is the part just behind the tongue tip and blade

ANATOMY AND ORAL POSTURE

Whether you’re keen on discovering the anatomical processes that occur within the vocal tract, or you couldn’t wait to leave biology at the door after having left school, regular rehearsal of vocal tract isolations are a great way to get a sense of the minute changes to the lips, tongue, lower jaw (mandible) and soft palate that will go a long way to getting you to your desired target with more specificity.

The most visible of these are the mandible and the lips. See if you can become aware of speakers of the accent you are seeking to shift towards. (Perhaps its best to stick to observations of speakers online in order to avoid staring in public.) Ask yourself: how far apart are their lips and teeth (controlled by the lower jaw – mandible) when in ‘resting position’ (i.e. when not talking)?; are the lip corners protruded or retracted (relative to yours)?

The more you become aware of features such as these, inside and outside the mouth, the more you will become aware of the ‘oral posture’ of your target accent. While there will always be a range of answers to these questions depending on the speaker (even within the same accent), you’ll be heading in the right direction.