Dear Fellow Earthlings,
One of my clients is working very hard to develop her "er" gesture. This gesture is
used very commonly in English. For example it is the last vowel in the words
"labor", "soccer", and is the sole vowel in the words "gird" and "search". The greatest
difficulty that the client is having with her "er" is that it is not consistent.
At times she pronounces "er" as most Americans would, raising her tongue slightly at
the end of phonation. At other times she keeps her tongue flat as she finishes phonation,
resulting in an "er" rendition identical to the renditions of most speakers of Australian and
New Zealand English. At still other times, her "er" vibrates slightly from the throat while at
the same time emanating from the end of her tongue, held flat as it would be in one of
her Australian renditions of "er" -- resulting in a very England English "er".
This client is justifiably worried about the way she sounds. After all, she is very meticulous
in her efforts to produce England English with the best elocution she can muster. Therefore,
she and I will have to continue polishing her mostly nativelike English pronunciation application
techniques.
Finally, since she is still in the midst of sharpening her ability to produce her "er" in a
consistently England English manner, she often becomes confused when speaking with
people from the more than 150 countries in the world where English is not spoken natively --
and whose renditions of "er" are never produced in any of the manners produced by people
whose native language is English.
Thankfully, she and I have "The Jingles" to rely on! Where there are Jingles, there is hope!
Steve Walker
Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.