Front Vowel Lowering in Northern Irish Accents
The front vowels in Northern Irish accents tend to lower, having a cascading effect on the one that typically occurs below. When one vowel moves,... Read more
Intonation for Classic RP & Standard British
Jim Johnson covers four major intonation elements of classic Received Pronunciation (RP) or Standard British: These are not appropriate for con... Read more
Nasalizing Vowels and Dropping Nasal Consonants
When a vowel is followed by a nasal consonant, it's very common to nasalize the vowel and then completely drop the nasal consonant. We don't alway... Read more
Nasalizing Vowels
There are three nasal consonants that are common for English speakers, but often we carry over that nasality into vowels, especially the vowels th... Read more
Introduction to Accents 6: Prioritizing Learning Accents
What accent should you learn when it's not immediately demanded by a project? Coach Jim Johnson leads you through a list of which accents and di... Read more
Introduction to Accents 5: Helpful Hints
Often there are little shortcuts or tricks that help you to jumpstart learning an accent. Here, Jim Johnson leads you through a number of possible ... Read more
Ash Gets a Bad Rap: æ
The [æ] sound - called the "ash" or the "trap" lexical set - is often problematic... [æ] tends to be much maligned... but that's because it tend... Read more
Monotone Speech
Jim Johnson makes a few suggestions on monotone speech and a few techniques for speaking with more variation: Being louder, opening up the resona... Read more
Intro to the Soft Palate
Jim guides you through the basics of what the Soft Palate (or Velum) is: The Soft Palate/Velum is the back part of the roof of the mouth and serv... Read more
Showing Length with IPA Transcriptions
Here's a quick overview of how to show the length of a sound using the IPA: I also get into what tends to make a vowel longer and what tends to m... Read more
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