This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Basically then...
First paragraph correct.
Yes, in English we do just use ny, and on;y in words borrowed from Spanish, but they are so much a part of my life, I just thought I'd add them. (You'd be surprised at the Hispanic population in my part of Oregon.) But think of X and Q. I suppose I could say Q is related to C or K, but, well, I've only started this in the past six months, and it isn't well researched. If you or any other surfer know of a free source for THE International Phonetic Alphabet, I'd appreciate it.
Y is actually the sound in-between ee and another vowel. So in oh-ee, you shorten the ee sound a bit.
There are two distinct sounds, oo and ew. oo has a long U sound, and ew is in mew like a cat but not sew. But then, when my mom says them, I can hear a very distinct difference, but when I do, I can't hear any. AND all these sounds vary from state to state in the U.S., and in England it's worse, and then there's Canada, Australia, etc.! So it's hard to give a letter combination a particular sound that never varies.
Say TSH as t'-sh' fast, with the apostrophe as a tiny neutral letter. Same with DZH. Y :)
vote up1vote down

Replies

my dad has oneMy dad uses Phonemes at work and told me of a site that has the complete listof 72 phonemes.
When he gives it to me, ill pass it on.
Again, I am canadian, and still have a bit of my french/native accent from when i used to live up north so i do pronunce some words rather strangly. That and one grandparent is scottish and the other austrian, and then have wierd ways of saying words that I have picked up.
But when i say tsh it has a sharp ending, whereas the sh doesnt give u that.
If i try to say church by saying 'tshurch' it does work, i see ur point, but u still dont get the hard sound that ch gives you.
Perhaps its more horrible accent which i hate!!!I hope to stay in touch with this, thanks for your help~Silver
vote up1vote down
Oh, don't say that! I love accents! My mom can imitate a lot of accents-Southern USA, British, Aussie, etc. ;)
You almost have to consider sh as one letter, and say them like sTh, but I have an odd accent myself, so maybe it's just me. People are always saying I have "such a sweet accent", but my parents and brother don't have it. Also our family has shreds of Southern USA in our speech. I think I've picked up a lot of bits and pieces from my mom's imitations, too. Y :)
vote up1vote down