is for the long e. The lips are still not rounded but they are
not so tense as in long e. The throat and tongue muscles are
more relaxed than they are in the long e.
Drill
| ship | epistle | ridiculous | carriage |
| wind (n) | written | literature | marriage |
| live | opinion | description | village |
| British | impious | describe | pillage |
| prison | develop | advantage | miracle |
The little kitten sits on the window sill.
The pin in the tin is thin.
Which is his? Is it this?
Some contrasting minimal pairs for long e and short i.
Drill
green - grin read - red feel - fill seen - sin
leave - live keen - kin teak - tick teen - tin
There was an old woman who lived under a hill.
And if she's not gone, she lives there still . MOTHER GOOSE
Long a: as in rate
While this sound is being pronounced, there is a change in
tongue position. In the beginning the tongue is in the middle
front position. Then the tongue rises toward a high front
position. This is because the sound is slightly like a
diphthong. Hence there are really two sounds in the long a.
Say a-ee fast with more stress on the first syllable and a
very little stress on the second - and you will get the sound
correctly. Unless you pronounce the, ee you will not get the
proper sound. The long a may be written: a, ar, ai, ay, ei, ae.
Drill
| mate | awake | phase | maintain |
| stay | April | praise (z) | station |
| they | plain | phrase (z) | persuade |
| say | break | ancient | occasion (zh) |
| way | brake | amiable | heinous |
| away | dismay | patience | aged (adj. - a-jid) |
| date | nation | neighbour | aged (v. - ajd) |
| rage | nature | portray | eparate (v) |
| Asia (sh) | reign | yea | appropriate (v) |
My aged (ajid) father, how you have aged (ajd).
Persuade the maid to stay away from the stage.
The painter portrayed nature in a rage.
He praised the saints of Asia.
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
May weighs the mail every day.
Make Your Voice Your Asset
How the Voice Works " Anybody can talk. Then why this book," you'll ask?
Sure, anybody can talk. But that's not all there is to talking. Statistics show that when you talk, you use about five syllables per second; and there are about forty different speech sounds. So, every time you talk, your listener must catch these five_syllables-a-second out of the air, must recognise which forty sounds are in them, must translate . the syllables into words, and finally must translate the words into thoughts. The poor listener must do this without faltering, and must continue to do so as long as you talk.
The Power of Spoken English
And, while you talk, a lot of things can go wrong - and do. If you slur on
speech sounds, or muffle them, or project them weakly, the listener will miss
some of them. If he misses the speech sounds, of course he misses the thought.
And this happens over and over again because we fail to carve words out of
speech sounds. We give shape to words out of speech sounds through proper
breath-control, as well as with our lips, tongue and jaw movements, bringing to
each word an air of distinct clarity. There are four components that make the voice apparatus work: (a) Breathing (b) Phonation (c) Resonation (d) Articulation.
When one or more of these components are not put to use properly, or used defectively, the quality of speech suffers. A negative voice may sound raspy, squeaky, hoarse, weak or shrill. And, a positive voice may sound melodious, warm, modulated and cultured. Can anyone improve voice quality, you may ask? Very emphatically I assure you that you can improve your voice quality. You can better your voice by training and correcting your handicaps in breathing, phonation, resonation and articulation.
Breathing
Most individuals do not consciously link breathing with speaking. Some Yoga instructors say that when you breathe half you live half. Assuming that none of us want to 'live half', let's try to understand the mechanics of proper breathing.
When relaxed, most of us breathe shallow breaths of air which fill only a fraction of our lungs. As you read this page, you are, perhaps inhaling shallow draughts of air; notice how only the top of your chest rises when you inhale. The air you breathe fills only the top portion of your lungs.
Athletes and sportspersons gulp down air in quick succession devouring oxygen at a voracious rate. Have you noticed how their chest and shoulders rise as they inhale vigorously? When this happens, the lower ribs and the muscles just below the ribs get pulled in. This activity actually pinches the lungs and limits the supply of air entering the lungs. And, there are professional singers, speakers, gymnasts, swimmers, and others who are familiar with a breathing technique called 'breathing from the diaphragm.' It means, you focus on the muscle between the lungs and the lower part of your abdominal cavity. Breathing from the diaphragm, enables one to store a much larger capacity of air in the lungs than mere chest-breathing.
Advantages of Breathing from the Diaphragm
You stand to gain by breathing from the diaphragm for the following reasons:
When you breathe from the diaphragm you reduce the pressure on your shoulder area. That reduces neck tension and throat strain which causes weak and unpleasant voice quality.
By breathing from the abdomen you give yourself two air reservoirs (storage tanks) - your stomach and your chest - instead of one.
The shape of the thoracic cavity (the area within your rib cage) means that high-chest breathing takes more energy. The diaphragm's cone shape (it is broader at the base than at the top) allows it to be raised and lowered easily to change volume.
Problems ofloudness, voice quality and the ability to vary rate of speech often can be corrected by shifting breathing from the chest to the diaphragm.
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