Read this out loud:
Doze people are wordy of rest. With there you to try climbing a long lather to the top of doze trees just as day did! Den day did it again we’d more vigour dan before. Udders have tried and failed. Even dough day were wounded, day managed to sued dare wounds just by the thought of dare accomplishment.
This is what it should look like:
Those people are worthy of rest. We’d dare you to try climbing a long ladder to the top of those trees just as they did! Then they did it again with more vigour than before. Others have tried and failed. Even though they were wounded, they managed to soothe their wounds just by the thought of their accomplishment.
Now let’s make sure your pronunciation is right.
Communication breakdown can happen if a sound segment is pronounced incorrectly. Sometimes it takes just one sound segment to change a word from what you intended to another real word, in that same language. When two words differ by just one sound segment, you have a minimal pair. So, Minimal pairs are words that have all sounds but one that are identical. Below is a list of some minimal pairs where the differing sounds are /ð/ and /d/. They are contrastive.
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minimal pairs |
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d |
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spelling |
pronunciation |
spelling |
pronunciation |
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breathing lather other soothe than then there/their/they’re they those though with worthy |
/ˈbriː.ðɪŋ/ /ˈlæð.ər/ /ˈʌð.ər/ /suːð/ /ðæn/ /ðen/ /ðeər/ /ðeɪ/ /ðəʊz/ /ðəʊ/ /wɪð/ /ˈwɜː.ði/ |
breeding ladder udder sued dan den dare day doze dough/doe we’d wordy |
/ˈbriː.dɪŋ/ /ˈlæd.ər/ /ˈʌd.ər/ /suːd/ /dæn/ /den/ /deər/ /deɪ/ /dəʊz/ /dəʊ/ /wɪd/ /ˈwɜː.di/ |
These same sounds may not be contrastive in other languages. For example, if you are not a native speaker of English, these sounds in your native language may be variations of the same sound to your mind (i.e. allophones). If this is the case, over the years your mind has decided to not take much notice that these segments are phonetically different. Now we have to train your mind to notice the differences, help you to produce two distinct sounds, and use the correct one.
What are the differences between them? How can you make these sounds?
The two qualitative features that are different between /ð/ and /d/ are the position of your tongue (i.e. place of articulation) and the type of restriction the air flow has (i.e. manner of articulation). As for similarities, these consonants are both voiced.
To make the /ð/ sound, put your tongue behind your front teeth, mostly upper front teeth, and force air through. You could also put your tongue between your upper and lower teeth.
This picture illustrates the position of your tongue.*
When you force air through, make sure your vocal cords are vibrating. How do you do that? Easy. Put your fingers on your Adam’s apple, or larynx (the area at the front of your neck), and make a continuous ‘s’ sound as in ‘snake’—you should not feel any vibration. This is called voiceless. Now, do the same, but this time make a continuous ‘z’ sound as in ‘zoo’—you should feel vibrations. This is called voiced. The /ð/ sound needs to be voiced; otherwise you would be producing another sound: /θ/ as in ‘thing’. In linguistics /ð/ is called a voiced dental fricative—voiced for the vibration, dental for the place of articulation, and fricative because it is a continuous sound.
To make the sound /d/ sound, put your tongue just above the back of your upper teeth towards the roof of your mouth, where the flesh begins. This place of articulation is called the alveolar ridge.
Then as you force air though, release as a small explosion, not a continuous sound like /ð/. This sound should also be voiced. If your vocal cords do not vibrate, it is another sound: /t/. To check your voicing, repeat the procedure described above with your fingers. In linguistics /d/ is called a voiced alveolar stop–voiced for the vibration, alveolar because of the place of articulation, and stop because it is a short non-continuous sound. Use the picture for further guidance.†
Now practice. Take a minimal pair from the table above and say both of the words one after the other until you can feel and hear that they are different. Do this with all the pairs, and look up the meaning of the words you do not know. This will further convince you of the need to pronounce them properly.
Would you like some coaching on the difference between /θ/ and /t/ as in ‘thing’ and ‘sing’? Or any other sounds?
Request a free 20-second takeaway. Please contact me. I will post one for you.
*J. Marks, English Pronunciation in Use (Elementary), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007, p.38
† Marks, p.32