This issue of my newsletter will cover the trilled /r/ and stopped final /t/, as well as offering highlights from my website, and updates on my most recent coaching activities.

Trilling the /r/

When I'm teaching Spanish, Russian, Eastern European, Arabic and other dialects, about one in three clients I work with has trouble trilling (or rolling) an /r/, as in the Spanish word "burro."  I've usually managed to teach them relatively easily, but found an excellent approach to this skill by linguist Karen Chung on VASTAVOX, the list-server of the Voice and Speech Trainer's Association (of which I am a card-carrying member).  In it, Karen responds to a member who's having trouble learning the trilled /r/.  I've reprinted it below, and if it fails you, follow the link below to LINGUIST, where you'll find additional tips:

> I've read every tip I could find on producing an alveolar trill (Spanish rr) and I still can't do it.  The uvular trill comes naturally but when I try to follow the advice for an apical (or tongue-tip) trill all I get is a disgusting sound not unlike "sh" or some kind of whistle...

Cup or curl up the tongue a bit, and *relax* the center and front part of the tongue. If you get /S/ ('sh'), your tongue is probably too stiff and too high up. Try backing up the tongue tip a bit.

> Can anyone please describe for me how the tongue should be positioned?  E.g. is the tongue tip supposed to touch the alveolar (gum) ridge?

I start the trill without touching the alveolar ridge, but you can also start it with a /t/ or /d/-like position. The tongue tip *will* flap against the alveolar ridge repeatedly during the trill.

> Where?

The exact spot can vary; it can be more front or more back. The more back version might be a little easier to produce when just learning.

> If you stopped the trill and touched the ridge, what consonant would it sound like?

Assuming you're not doing anything else special with your vocal tract (like nasalize), if you suddenly stopped the trill when away from the alveolar ridge, it would more or less be an American-sounding /r/, with more friction though; if you stopped the trill when the tongue was touching the alveolar ridge, it would be an unreleased final /t/.

>  Should the tip be "pointing straight up" or in an angle?

There may be some variation in how 'pointed up' the tongue tip is; the tongue may at times be relatively flat, with a bit of cupping. If you point it up too much, the trill is harder (for me) to produce. The tongue must in any case be *relaxed*, or it will be too stiff to go into free vibration.  Some of my phonetics students achieved this kind of relaxation of the center
and front of the tongue (subsequently producing a trill) by almost 'leaning' the back of the tongue against the soft palate or uvula. Of course you can't get too close or you'll cut off the airstream!

> What about the sides of the tongue -- should they touch the inner sides of the upper teeth?

They may bump into the upper teeth, but don't have to.

>  How high in the mouth should the center of the tongue be? ...

It should be lowered a good bit.

Here's a collection of ideas on how to produce an alveolar trill, posted some time ago over LINGUIST:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/12/12-57.html

Keep trying! I learned it through conscious practice as a kid. Chinese students sometimes learn trills by adding a /d/ at the beginning (there is a Chinese folk song that uses a /d/-initiated trill):  drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

Karen Steffen Chung, Phonetics instructor,  National Taiwan University
http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/   http://www.topica.com/lists/phonetics/

Thanks, Karen.

Incidentally, one client who learned the trilled /r/ was actually studying with me to learn a Neutral American accent (he grew up in Tennessee, and wanted to sound more neutral when he made presentations at work).  His wife, however, is from Venezuela, and he learned the trilled /r/ to use when speaking to she and her family.

Stopped final /t/

One of the sounds that Americans use a great deal (and when not used, helps pin-point non-native American English speakers) is the stopped (or held) final /t/.  This is a spelled /t/ that appears with no other consonant sound at the end of a word, like "sit."  If you've learned English as a second language, you may be tempted to explode that final /t/:  to make an exploded or popped /t/ sound, you put your tongue tip up to your gum ridge (the bony ridge around the front of your mouth), build up some air pressure behind your tongue, and explode the tip away.  Most Americans, however, will leave the tip against the gum ridge without releasing the air (hence the name stopped or held /t/).  Try this sound in words like:  get, got, wrote, flat, set, sought, that, kit and sweat.

If you really want to emphasize what you're saying, you may want to pop the final /t/ ("Give me that!")  Otherwise, most Americans will keep the tongue up and the air unreleased.  Some actors feel they should pop these final /t/ sounds in order to be using "good speech," but they're actually doing more work than they need to, and end up sounding affected.

You should pop the /t/ when it appears at the ends of  a word with certain other consonants:  "ct, lt, pt, ft, st" and sometimes "nt" -- "pact, wilt, apt, heft, fist" and "tint."

Americans also stop the /t/ before an /n/ sound, in words like "button" and "written."  The /n/ in this case is called "syllabic", because it occupies the whole second syllable without a vowel sound in front of it.  You may notice American children who pop the /t/ and say a vowel before the /n/ as in "but-ton", because they haven't learned to stop the /t/ yet.

Website news

Since I've been working with a lot of models lately who are making the transition into acting, I've added a page to my site specifically for Models Who Act.  If you're making the transition from modeling to acting, I can help you learn to use your voice as a vital tool for self-expression.  Click on the link for more details, and to see the endorsement from a client which she swears is both hip and complementary.

As a result of some helpful advice from English linguist Derek Rogers I've made some changes to the Vowel Chart.  Click on the link to see if you can spot them.

Shows A-plenty

I recently coached my first production of A Streetcar Named Desire at Ventura's Rubicon Theatre Company, which runs through May 25th, and stars the excellent Linda Purl as Blanche DuBois.  I worked with the cast of Perra Palas at the Antaeus Company on Turkish accents for their upcoming reading, and began work at South Coast Repertory on the Canadian accents in The Drawer Boy.  I also started working last week with the cast of Ojai's Theatre 150 for their production of Athol Fugard's Siswe Bansi is Dead, using South African accents.

A also coached a young New York actress in a Puerto Rican dialect for a contract role on a soap opera, and another New Yorker in a Brasilian dialect for a film project.  I'm teaching an actor how to sound like Jeffrey Dahmer for a one-man show and am helping a supermodel learn to express herself using her voice, so she can make the transition into acting.  And my French student Nicolas Pajon succeeded in making himself clearly understood in his industry showcase scene for the Gloria Gifford Conservatory.

Please let me know if you'd like more information on learning any dialect or a Neutral American accent.

Best wishes to all--

Joel
The Dialect Coach