Analyzing YOUR Recordings in American English: "Her birthday is in April"

[@iiAbdullah635]

The upper part of the throat is relaxed. How about the lower part of the throat? Is it tensed?

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

It's all about shifting where the tension is and relaxing what shouldn't be tensed. The bottom feels relaxed to me, but if I compare it to trying to raise it to the top, it does feel like there's some sort of tension that I release at the bottom. There's also slight tension at the top when I speak normally, but only to stabilize and hold things more open, especially in open sounds like AH and AW. It's not a tension that restricts the throat

[@iiAbdullah635]

You can call me Abdullah. I dislike it so much, but I've been going by this name for many, many years. Therefore, I don't blame anyone for using it. I was just joking with Taylor. A. is preferable at the moment until I find a good, decent name.

[@NativeEnglishHacks]

I understand that more than you know lol

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

I dont understand what is wrong with the name?

[@eyefat89]

A, very relatable tbh

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

I was listening to the pronunciation of the word "senator" on YouGlish, where I found Obama pronouncing it as "Center" without the /t/ sound. I have an idea why this might be the case: He was trying to transition from the /n/ to the flap /d/ through the shcwa and then finally to /r/, but it seemed difficult at that situation to do such transition from the /n/ to the flap /d/ with the schwa in between. To give you context, the word "Senator" was at the end of a sentence and he made a pause after he pronounced it. The complete sentence is "We worked back when I was a senator." What are your thoughts on that? Also, in the word "after", is the /t/ sound positioned in the same spot when you do the flap /d/ before the /r/?

[@iiAbdullah635]

@user-td3fb4rm5d He definitely didn't say "center." He did pronounce the schwa. His R was off as far as I'm concerned. His flap was kinda harsh. His center of gravity was off. It sounded forward. I re-listened to his speech. It doesn't sound bad anymore. It's weird. He sounds neutral again. I guess that was similar to the "Abduller" and "soft palate situation" The center of gravity is different because of the R and the dark L.

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

@@iiAbdullah635 I listened to it again :) I couldn't hear a schwa, he seems to be transitioning very rapidly and very smoothly between the /n/, the flap /d/ and finally landing on the /r/. Probably, he is not even doing a flap /d/ and might be pulling the tongue to the position of the flap /d/ without flapping and this creates the illusion of the flap /d/ being there. I feel like that for the 'nter' part he is just moving his tongue to the positions of the sounds without touching anything and we are the ones filling the gaps with our brains.

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

@@iiAbdullah635 BTW, are you at a stage where you can produce the different sound qualities (restriction, forwardness, tension, nasality, etc) that Josh talks about, or are you at a stage where your ears became sensitive to detect such qualities? Is it possible to detect such qualities without being able to produce them?

[@iiAbdullah635]

@user-td3fb4rm5d umm, could you rephrase your question?

[@أحمدالدسوقي-ت9س]

​@@iiAbdullah635In other words, have you been able to develop the American mouth posture, or can you only detect deviations from it and understand why those deviations occur?