Every language in the world has its own individual pronunciation. Learn how to pronounce some interesting consonants from around the world from ejective consonants to approximants ...
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There are many sounds out in the wide world that sound very strange to English speaking ears. However, they are quite common, and after some practice, no harder to get your mouth around than the difficult English sounds of th as in thick (IPA θ), and th as in then (IPA ð). IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet.
Ejective consonants Fans of the film Avatar will have already heard these sounds in the fictional language of Na'vi. The defining characteristic for these consonants is that they sound very strong and dramatic, as if they are being spat out. Before you open your lips to say the sound, tighten the back of your throat bringing the glottis upwards. Ejective consonants often make a following vowel sound creaky. These sounds can be found in Quechua, Georgian, Amharic and Hausa. They are often indicated by writing an apostrophe after the letter: t' or k'. |
Implosive consonants
These sounds can be found in Vietnamese, Khmer, Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa and Hausa. Imagine being about to say a b sound, but just before you open your lips you make the movement to swallow (ie. lower your glottis or adam's apple). When you do open your mouth some air will flow in before being pushed out and this makes the consonant implosive.
English people say this naturally when they expressively imitate the sound of drinking water by saying glug glug glug. The first g in the word glug is an implosive g (IPA ɠ) and sounds different from the g in goat. Implosive consonants are often indicated by attaching a hook to the letter: ɓ or ɗ.
Breathing out your L's
Welsh is famous for its ll sound, a breathy voiceless l (IPA ɬ). All you need to do is place your tongue in position ready to pronounce an l sound and breathe out without moving a muscle. Just as you do with an s or an f sound. Now practice with the words song, fong then llong. Now if you add voice to that sound you can pronounce the Mongolian l (IPA ɮ). Practice by warming up with the sounds zong, vong then ɮong. Xhosa and Zulu both have these sounds as well (hl = ɬ, dl = ɮ).
Not really a j at all ...
Many languages have what is often described as a j sound but is really produced quite differently and can sound "softer". Hungarian, Albanian, Greek, Turkish, Czech, Slovak, Macedonian and Romanian all have this sound often described as a gy sound or a dy sound, IPA ɟ. This sound is a stop like g, but the tip of the tongue is place behind the bottom teeth, and the back of the tongue is raised up against the top of the palate (further forward than for a g, but not as far as the ridge behind the teeth). For example, Czech dělám (I do) is pronounced ɟelam, Turkish IPA güneş (sun) is pronounced IPA ɟyneʃ.
There is also an unvoiced version of this sound (IPA c) that is a stop like k, but the tip of the tongue is place behind the bottom teeth, and the back of the tongue is raised up against the top of the palate (further forward than for a k, but not as far as the ridge behind the teeth). For example, Czech čeština (Czech language) is pronounced IPA tʃeʃcɪna, Hungarian tyúk (hen) is pronounced IPA cu:k.
Almost but not quite ...
Approximants are consonants that are almost but not quite fully completed. For example, the English r is an approximant (IPA ɹ), the tip of the tongue doesn't trill or tap on the ridge behind your front teeth, but it's in position to almost do so ... but it's held back as you make the sound.
A very common sound around the world is an approximant v sound (IPA ʋ). Start making the sound for an English v but do not let the bottom lip make full contact with the top teeth. Then breathe out and you will hear a weak v sound, reminiscent of a w. This is sound of v in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil and many other languages. It is also the sound for w in Hawaiian and Dutch. The name for Hawai'i is pronounced haʋaiʔi.
Now try this "almost there approach" with a b. Almost close the lips together but just allow the air to push through as you breath out. It should sound close to a v sound. This is the sound of a Spanish b or v between vowels (IPA β) as in uva (uβa) or cubo (kuβo). If you try this with a p you get an almost f sound that is found in Japanese (ɸ) for the sound of syllable fu (ɸɯ) as in fuhai (ɸɯhai) or in Maori for the sound of wh as in whakapapa (ɸakapapa).
Now for a really hard one! Danish has an approximant d sound that many English hear as an l. Place the tip of your tongue behind the bottom teeth and almost say a th as in then (ð), but not quite ... So the word med is pronounced as með (here an approximant ð) but often mistakenly heard as mel!
How many letters in this word?
How many letters would you say are in this Dutch word for ice, ijs? Three? Actually there are two letters, ij and s. The combination of i and j are considered to be one letter pronounced as ɛi. When it is written in capital letters it is IJs, which is unusual! In Belgium, however, this letter is usually described as two letters.
Croatian considers the combinations lj, nj, dž to be one letter, Czech considers ch to be one letter, traditional Spanish (until 1994) considered ch and ll to be one letter, Welsh also considers ll as a separate letter to l.
Catalan has an unusual letter ŀl which is a long l (ll is the sound ly). The capital is ĿL. This ŀl must take up only two typing spaces rather than three (ŀl versus l·l, ĿL versus L·L).
