I'm a french native speaker and I never realized the sound "eu" made your diaphragm move ! You have a very good pronunciation, also your explanations show you have given it a lot of thought and thus can explain it I think better than the natives can. I could never !

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thank you so much! I really appreciate this feedback 🫶

@milantehrandubai

Ай бұрын

Same, agreed 100%!!!

@charlesg5085

Ай бұрын

Based on your stuck up attitude you are probably French Canadian.

@masterofx32

26 күн бұрын

Same in German, many languages and also French try to avoid the glottal stop in most cases, German does the opposite - the glottal stop is a natural part of the pronunciation. Many foreign speakers pronounce everything correctly except the glottal stop, which sounds very strange. However, I never saw this being taught in schools. Also true in the opposite direction - none of my English teachers ever mentioned that one important thing for not sounding German is to never do the glottal stop. Also in pronunciation notation is the glottal stop often omitted.

@yousef2508

25 күн бұрын

@@royaventurera Are you Persian?

Damn, I'm French and watched a lot of your short videos, I've always thought you were a french native faking the American accent! Congrats

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Wow what a compliment! Thank you so much 🫶🫶

@milantehrandubai

Ай бұрын

You can tell she's native US and not french tho...

@elliotarundella7581

26 күн бұрын

@@milantehrandubai did you even read the comment

@AubzCelli

21 күн бұрын

Derpy ​@@milantehrandubai

@4536647674

13 күн бұрын

​@@elliotarundella7581 Did you even understand his reply though?

Not only do you have excellent French pronunciation, your English with the French accent is absolutely beautiful.

@royaventurera

21 күн бұрын

Thank you sm ☺️

@MK-hh1vo

5 күн бұрын

Why is English with a French accent applauded, but French with an English accent is frowned upon?

I’m a native French-speaker from Switzerland and also a certified french language teacher (FLE). You’re French is absolutely mind-blowing ! Your prononciation is close to perfect (99% native like). Can’t wait to show your video to my students, so inspirational !

I’ll probably get lambasted for admitting this but I’m on a 500+ day streak on Duolingo and am realizing now how limited it is, particularly with phonetics and phonemes. Thanks for being one of the “next” steps in my concerted effort to learn French!

@4536647674

13 күн бұрын

Duo is very good as a supplement..you still need to do your own practice/research though

@nickblooruk

7 күн бұрын

Firstly, congratulations on the streak. It means that for over 500 days, you have done some French study. And doing study everyday is key. The problem is you're not getting enough French. You will get vastly more French watching a 15 minute French podcast, than 15 minutes Duolingo study. (15 minutes = 2000 words more or less). The problem is that you will probably not understand someone talking in French for 15 minutes unless it's at your level (this can be extremely discouraging). I would recommend - Continue Duolingo (as it will help with motivation). Then 15 to 30 minutes of French comprehensible input (google and youtube search this term) every day. Slowly, you will begin to hear the patterns in the language and understand more and more. It is estimated by 1000 hours (1500 hours) you will be fairly fluent. (not native). Bear in mind, this will take 3 years at 1 hour per day. However, as your French improves, you will become more comfortable with more difficult input (eg Netflix series etc) and can easily replace your English tv watching with French. Lastly, if I am going to watch a show in English anyway (not part of my French study), I often watch it in French and put on English subtitles. I don't include this in my study time, but I am still getting input.

@SL-lz9jr

5 күн бұрын

I learned Spanish traditionally in high school and college but stopped maintaining proficiency so I joined Babbel as a way to recall from memory. Because somewhere back there in my brain I do remember some things in Spanish. However, I can definitely tell you these language apps will never be able to replace traditional learning. Once I have time to take it more seriously, I plan to purchase a Spanish Textbook and workbook to augment my self study. Some day I'll pay for a tutor as well or take a community college course. Luckily I live really near a community college campus. But yeah... These language apps won't magically make us fluent. They fail to teach real grammar and syntax and so many other elements of language learning

Oh moi aussi je pensais que vous exageriez un petit peu le français mais que vous l'étiez complètement, avec un anglais top qualité, mais en fait c'est l'inverse!!!??? 😮 Bravo belle dame! Vous êtes au top! Ça fait plaisir de voir que vous vous intéressez à notre jolie culture. Bonne continuation à vous.😘 Nadia.

If you can say "l'association des serruriers de Rueil-Malmaison" three times in succession, you've truly arrived.

@naomiewest3712

25 күн бұрын

I just tried now. I haven’t arrived

@roe_k

24 күн бұрын

kessé ça rueil-malmaison?

@cryme5

20 күн бұрын

​@@roe_kUn patelin d’Ile-de-France

@shinyshinythings

2 күн бұрын

I love the word serrurier, it’s one of those I can’t help rolling around in my mouth whenever I see it.

I've studied phonetics, and here is my tip for "u": try saying eeeeee and as you're saying it, round/ purse your lips. In phonetics, French u is considered the "rounded" version of "i," and eu is the rounded version of e.

@sledgehog1

Ай бұрын

Exactly. Looking at a vowel chart they are the rounded/unrounded equivalents.

@julianbrelsford

27 күн бұрын

this works! It became easier for me to pronounce this correctly when I learned Haitian Creole, which generally does not differentiate between the French "i" (eeeee) and the French "u"

@ThibauddeLaMarnierre

13 күн бұрын

J’ai aussi étudié la phonétique, la phonologie et l’orthoépie, et je suis de votre avis.

@ThibauddeLaMarnierre

13 күн бұрын

Le a de pâte et le un de brun sont en train de disparaître du français hexagonal.

@ThibauddeLaMarnierre

13 күн бұрын

Le R, en revanche, ne fait pas de différence qu’il soit apical ou uvulaire, et il tend à s’ amuïr en hexagonal.

I’m a native french speaker from Canada and I get ask all the time how to pronounce this and that by anglophones and most of the time my answer is “it’s just something you know because you know”. You’re right, when you grow up speaking a language it is sometimes harder to really explain it to others.

Please put some more of these educational videos. Much appreciate your courses...😊

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the feedback! I’m definitely working on making more of them. Please let me know if you have any specific requests 😊

You're 100% right about native speakers and there's also the ability to deliver a message, pass it down to learners, which is not something native speakers necessarily have (actually they rarely do unless they're teachers). Of course that applies to native speakers from all english-speaking countries as well. I've heard so many inaccuracies before but have always decided to politely stay silent in order to... not offend the native speaker.

Hopefully it will help everyone who needs help. For those who try to learn and speak French do not forget that you don't have to sound perfect or to speak perfect French. Accents are not a bad thing. Mistakes are not a big deal. I am French and I do not care AT ALL if foreigners have an accent or make mistakes or misuse a word or don't know everything about my language. It is absolutely fine. Most French will actually be suprised by your level. We do not expect you to speak like a native speaker. So just breathe and feel free to be you. Most French speakers do not even master their own language.

@royaventurera

21 күн бұрын

Yes! This is absolutely a great reminder too and applies to all languages 🫶

This is very helpful. I've been mostly using Duo Lingo along with a few podcasts but hearing some of the explanations and seeing the visuals was beneficial. I had figured out the r sound but looking forward to using the tips on the L sound. I feel like vowels and vowel combinations are difficult to get right so I'd definitely welcome more vowel tips. I'd love to see e, è, é differences.

Your English/American descriptions of how to move your mouth for French is so incredibly helpful! (And btw you still smile a lot even with the French shape of your mouth! You’re so cute!)

Wow! I’ve worked for two French firms and spent a good deal of time in France. Girl you can do a French accent that is amazingly real! Great job teaching pronunciation which is critical to having French folks understand you.

OMG, I've needed this video for so long! I'm a native English speaker from the Seattle area and have been studying French on and off for almost twenty years now (since 9th grade) and I KNOW my pronunciation is terrible (your short video on speaking French in France for the first time... this is me, lol), but I just never had any of these lessons on how to actually make the sounds. Please make more of these! Also, I love all your videos! I just stumbled on your channel today and binge watched everything!

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thank you sooo much! I’m glad to hear how helpful this is and that you like my channel. Sounds like we have a lot in common too😊

Honestly the best explanation of french phonetic.

@royaventurera

21 күн бұрын

Thank you! That means a lot 🫶

I agree - learning pronunciation from a non native speaker makes a lot of sense. Your tip about the shape of the mouth is great. I had not thought of it before, but you are so correct. Even trying to speak English with a closed mouth makes the sounds so different.

Yes, please, please make more of these videos! I'm a 40 year old adult trying to learn, and your video helped so much! This might sound weird, but I'm also from Western Washington, and it's encouraging and comforting coming from someone fluent in our neck of the woods...our accent, culture, humor, etc.

@EssEll9791

Ай бұрын

Ayo! Ditto, or pretty damn close. 44ish/french/oregon Good luck! Enchanté

@royaventurera

21 күн бұрын

So glad to hear it’s helpful! PNW French speakers united 🤝

@betsywoolbright8059

2 күн бұрын

37. East side WA/ northcentral ID.

My favorite part about learning French in college were these sounds. My prof would point to them on the wall with a stick and the whole class would be making these noises in unison and it was amazing! As an American with a passion for the French language I feel like I have just found a friend! I am a little rusty but I'm still good enough I am back to practicing and I subscribed to you! I used to teach these sounds to kids too!

I didn't have any specific interest in learning French but I love your videos! I watched the whole thing! So fascinating!! ❤

These are difficult letters for English speakers. I am a native Dutch speaker and we have all the exact same sounds you taught in French in Dutch as well (except the nasal ones). What is most difficult for Dutch speakers in French is s/ss/ch sounds. For example, trying not to pronouce national like nachonal.

@hazelnutbix5261

Күн бұрын

Same, I am a native Dutch speaker but have lived for many years in the UK. It's the pursing of the lips that is the most helpful to not sound Dutch or English.

That is fantastic Roya. Extremely helpful. French pronunciation is so difficult to get right. Here is a summary (hope you don’t mind) (Use smaller mouth than English) ======================= U - Monkey sound + ew - (so gross) Nasal - eg Pa(IN) - Basketball buzzer R - (hawk up a loogie) Exaggerated practice L - Tongue further back than English (top tongue middle roof) LL - Y sound

You are so angelic, Roua! Angelic face, voice and good will. This was excellent! Such talent! You do have THE best pronunciation, as close as I have ever heard to native in an American. Yes please, do an entire series! Save French ears! 😅 Thank you for sharing your gifts!

Great video, Roya! Just wanted to share a tip I learned to better pronounce the French U. It's to place your lips as though you're going to pronounce OU, as in soup. When your lips are in this position, try saying the English letter E. The French U sound automatically comes out without any effort. I learned French as a kid and have never struggled with this sound, but my Anglophone wife became able to say the French U using this tip.

Hi Roya, would you do a video recounting your journey towards becoming fluent in French (and passing the DELF B2 test). When did you start studying French, how long did that take you, did you take group or individual classes, what tools did you use, how many hours did you spend per day studying and what helped you master each area of the language (reading, writing, listening comprehension). And how did you master “everyday French” vs textbook French.

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion! I’d be happy to go through my process. I’m wondering what elements to include that would be most helpful for people - I’m happy to tell the full story but I’ll need to think on it a bit

These are veryyy good tips. The mouth shape tip is something I began to do after a few years without realizing it was helping pronunciation. I did feel like my mouth shape was changing tho in comparison to speaking English. One tip for the U sounds is to make sure you keep your top molars touching your tongue while the middle of your mouth stays open (obviously)

It’s not “what age have you,” but “how many years do you have?” For example you would say “J’ai vingt six ans.” If translated literally is “I have 26 years.” Same if you say you need something it is “I have need of…” not simply “I need.” I don’t know, I find it beautiful.

Also another suggestion: a video on how to improve intonation when speaking french? Even a quick 60 second short would be amazing, tysm ❤

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Great idea!

@emile_fa

Ай бұрын

FYI, her intonation is sometimes slightly off, though much better than most non natives. (Her vowels are perfect). A good idea in any language is to listen to nursery rhymes, which do give babies a sense of rhythm, and to listen to a lot of native speakers and potentially shadow speak. The rhythm in French is much more regular, one syllable = one beat most of the time, you could almost try speaking with a metronome The last syllable gets stressed unless you want to stress the word

I never even realized I was changing my mouth shape when I change languages. Cool.

I absolutely love pronunication. Nuns are lovely people.

This was so helpful! Not just in speaking but understanding French. I am going to Paris in Sept and have been struggling to learn basics

@bernadettedevereaux8694

Ай бұрын

I found a French teacher at a gathering place for immigrants trying to learn English. My Parisian teacher was formally educated as a physician before deciding to teach French. She was so stern that I dreaded going to weekly lessons. I was going to Paris only for a two week vacation. The most useful things I learned were to greet everyone before requesting information or service. Always say, “Bon jour, madam," (or afternoon or evening as appropriate). Then say "Je voudrais" (I would like) then point to what you want. Make sure you say, "Merci." after you get what you wanted. And learn how to ask, "Where is…" If your stay is longer keep watching these videos.

This was so incredibly helpful! Thank you!

Excellent guide. Thanks!

English is my second language and I agree with you. Many natives I’ve met don’t even know the phonetic rules. My pronunciation is not perfect but very close.

This is really helpful!! Thank you for sharing!

Merci Beaucoup! You are so so helpful! I just had a French lesson today and I mentioned to my tutor that I adore your accent. Plus some of your postings are so so funny. I am a fan!

You are brilliant. This is incredibly helpful.

This was so helpful, thank you! I would love to see more content like this!

Je découvre cette vidéo et je me prends à répéter les mots après toi Roya 😅 BTW, the word "écureuil" and squirrel are quite similar (in pronunciation), it's a good example showing both languages share tons of words. French people do have difficulties to write "accueil" (reception, greeting, welcome...) probably because of the way "écureuil" is written, as the end of both words are pronunced the exact same way. I've seen tons of times "acceuil" 😅 which would normally be pronunced "asseuil"... I'm quite admiring with people learning French. Keep on your efforts, guys👏

Excellent tips and explanations! Merci beaucoup!

Great tips, very helpful. I was familiar with most of these except for LL, and have been really struggling to pronounce “accueille”. It was a major tongue twister because I was trying to make an L sound in it. Maintenant, je peux accueillir l’écureuil!

This helped me a lot. I am just starting to learn French. But practicing speaking helps a lot with my mouth more closed as you said. I will be revisiting this video frequently.

Well done! Thank you for making this content. 💕

You are amazing. I’m trying to learn European Portuguese and you seem to speak the language so effortlessly.

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

You’re so sweet! It may sound effortless but I promise it was many years and classes and travels in the making! You’ll get there 🫶

Great advice. I agree that it’s better to learn from someone who is not a native speaker.

Thanks. This was very helpful!

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

So glad ❤

I am very happy to have found your video. I was born in Montreal, QC but raised in Ontario. I am in my sixties and am now living in Quebec. Your tips on how to shape your mouth is one of the most valuable tools needed for pronunciation.

@quernalt

Ай бұрын

I like the Quebecois accent

Very very informative and well taught. You’re really detailed love it

I was in French immersion as a kid and so I learned young if not as a toddler, and so I don't really remember consciously learning pronunciation. I'm years out of practice and my French is far from fluent, but my pronunciation is still pretty good, and it was interesting to watch this because there are a lot of things I just did without thinking that you pointed out. Like with L's. At first I was like "why is this on the list?? what's the difference?" and then I tried it and realized... oh, I DO put my tongue further back when saying a French L. I thought it was just kind of cool to notice.

I’ve been learning French off an on for about 2 years, but haven’t had much help in trying to learn it 😅 other than my Pimsler cd’s I would listen to in my car, which has actually helped me a lot! My pronunciation actually isn’t bad! But I’m dying to really learn more, to one day become fluent in the language 🫶🏻 Please make more videos!!!

This is super helpful! Thank you!

Perfect timing I just restarted my French learning journey :)

I've just started learning French. This is very helpful, thank you

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Happy to hear that!

Excellent. I always stress to friends learning other languages, to focus on the mouth shape. Such a good presentation. Merci

Fantastic tutorial!!

Super helpful, thank you!

Fantastic !! Not normally discussed and so important!!😅

Super helpful! I am studying Romanian, Spanish (Spain), and Italian and I’d never considered my American mouth shape in making the sounds necessary for other languages. I found myself shrinking the openness of my mouth with certain Spanish words (as well as a sort of smashing of certain consonants…hard to describe as well as you did). I intend to learn French as well and found your tips very useful. Merci!

I hope you will post more videos🥳 I live in Germany and last week I visited France for the first time and I loved it, so I have to learn French. I already speak Spanish and Portuguese, so it shouldn't be too difficult:)

This was very very helpful. I have saved it and will listen to it again (and again).

I just found your channel a few days ago and I've really been enjoying it. Thank you so much for the work that you do! While I did learn French in school over the course of several years, off and on, I did wind up moving to Germany when I was 12 and went to German schools until I left when I was 17. So in the meantime I did become pretty fluent. But what I want to really highlight here is your emphasis on the size of your mouth's motions, and of course where the sounds are coming from within your face (i.e. as far as I recall, German doesn't have any nasal sounds). Beyond the obvious differences between American English and german, such as are sitting in the middle of the tongue versus ours sitting at the back of the throat, they're quite a few other differences in how you have to use your mouth or other parts of your face really, to make the correct sounds. It wasn't until I traveled back to Germany with my husband that he pointed out that my pitch went down at least 1/2 or maybe even 1.5 octaves lower when I was speaking German.

This was *so* helpful! Please do more.

you explained the "L" sound so well! i love your videos :)

💙 Lovely! Thank you. Yes, the mouth formation. Yes, the slow speech, of early practice; with Yes, when no one around. & Yes, to practice with real French people. In my observing of names, when hearing & learning unknown sounding ones, I need to study their mouths & try to understand just how they pronounce it. Then, try to reproduce those same sounds myself. This video has helped me to understand some basic mouth formations, & the thoughts behind them, to use when beginning to speak French. 💗

Really helpful. Thank you.

Thanks for the video Roya! For "u" I normally use give the example of "tu". It's less complex than "huit" which glides into am i sound, and of course it's one of the most common conversational words. But you really nailed it with the idea of using the monkey sound and the yucky sound ! Great to see the intro on mouth shape, too. It's so critical and yet often not really taught. A great example to contrast the languages is the hesitation sounds "ahhm" vs "euh" which perfectly exemplify the baseline mouth shape.

I really loved this. When you pronounce squirrel (ecureuil} I think of it as ekyaroeil because you introduce a y between the e and the r. And having practiced L'oeil, I find it helps. Also in Hebrew, we uses a ch gutteral back of the throat sound as in L'Chaim! it helps me. Sometimes I may know something and apply another experience, rather than assume I am totally unfamiliar with what you are driving at. In the beginning your explanation of open and closed mouth was just wonderful. Chapeau bas.

Please post more videos like this. I love your content so much!

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thank you!! And will do. Let me know if you have any specific requests 🥰

That's very good. Merci beaucoup.

This video is sooo helpful!! Please make more videos on this

love this video - thank you

I have very little nack for language learning. It must be by practice. Duolingo supports me in that way. And then you were on my youtube Shorts timeline. Your stories are funny and now I see that you do more than give insights into French customs and habits. Your pronunciation video is helpful. Je travaille dur pour pouvoir un jour parler un vrai français.

Hi, native French speaker here! Well done for learning French and for the good tips for English speakers! During the part on nasal sounds, did you make the distinction between "in" and "un"? I think you did (when you said "brun"?). It would be useful to specify that only certain regional accents (at least in France) make the distinction between these two sounds, mostly in the South. Many people pronounce "brun" and "brin" the exact same way. Did you mention "en/an" in the part on nasal sounds? I don't think I heard it. I think the nasal sounds would deserve a full video! You could also specify that the "eu" sound also has an open version like in "heure" or "bonheur". Same for the letter O or é and è. There's so much to say! Regardless, well done for the video. I'm sure it will be useful to many. On another note, I speak English with a quite American accent and I never realised that the letter L was pronounced differently in French and American English. I tried to say library and librairie like you were and you're right, I do make a distinction! I guess it just came naturally.

Excellent video!

I'm not a native French speaker but I've been learning for a while and a lot of these I've been doing unconsciously. It's nice to see what I'm doing and to know I'm doing it right!

About the /l/ sound I believe what the lady describes is a palatalized /l/ as opposed to the velarized /l/ in American English, which is also pretty common linguistically. In fact you can make /t/ /d/ /p/ /b/ /m/ /n/ all with similar tongue shape to the so called French /l/ easily

Thanks for the great video! My voice teacher always told me that when I sing in French, I should have a "kissy" face. She said that it alone corrects a lot of pronunciation problems - and it works like magic! I was hoping that you would talk about the é and è sounds. I remember struggling with words like les vs. lait, or mes vs. mais.

Great video! A precision, though... the "eu" sound in "heureux" is not the same as the one in "feuille". In french, we have two "eu" sounds, one is more closed (the one you are showing, I believe) and one is more open (closer to the shwa, maybe). "Feuille" is more open. Voilà, une petite précision de la part d'une Française native 😉

Wow thanks for this video, very interesting even as a french native :) I really thought you were french in your shorts given how good is your "r". And just in case you'd like to improve a little more, I think your "u" "eu" etc sounds are a little too "open" to sound 100% perfect but this already so good. Like it's so difficult to pick up accents and you did a bery good job so far!

GIRL you were on my fyp so many times BUT BC OF THIS VIDEO IM SUBSCRIBING THANK YOU!

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thank you!! And let me know if there are any videos you’d like me to make in particular, I’m happy to help!

Thank you so much for this video it was so useful! Could you maybe do one on the french subjunctive? Like just a quick overview of what it is and specifically *when* to use it?

Thank you very much, I love your shorts they are painfully correct about America but funny! Awesome!

Hi Roya! Loved the video. Can you post a video on your experiences living in Europe? ❤️

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Sure! Anything in particular you want to know about?

Wow ! This a great brief summary on French prononciation! I’m curious about your learning process! Did you go to language schools or online tutors ?

Quickest shortcut for "U" : do a simple whistle, then keep the same mouth shape and make a vocal sound. It should come out like a French "U". If it doesn't sound quite right, listen to native speakers and try to tweak the position ever so slightly. I'm a native speaker and I can very quickly switch back and forth between whistling and saying "U", the mouth shape is virtually the same for me. By simple whistle, I mean the kind where you round your lips and force the air through your front teeth.

Great job Roya....👍

One of my favorites was flat tire - pneu gonfle and the word for pneumatic - pneumatic

You are also amazing speaking French and Spanish.

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thank you 🥰

I'm from the south of France and here we make a difference in the pronounciation of in as in brin and un as in brun. Otherwise your video is wonderful.

Great video

Wow these tips are amazing! I'm gonna be practicing my R's around the house like crazy lol

As a native French speaker I didn't realize all the efforts needed to pronounce all these sounds. And when I was teaching my children to pronounce correctly some words that they mispronounced I was only using one technique, which consists on repeating the word correctly myself and then ask them to make a new try. But maybe with your techniques, things would have taken less time and efforts. I remember my older son struggling with the word "dehors" that he was mispronouncing "deur". It took us almost months to get him pronounce the correct way. 😅

Merci ❤

Very good video

Amazing lesson! I am particularly struggling with 'eu' and this made it easier. I was wondering if you could cover the 'œ' in 'sœur' in a future vid. This has proved impossible for me to get right ;(

@camillesolange182

Ай бұрын

Soeur se prononce comme le "eu" de "feuille".

@peetjames4655

Ай бұрын

@@camillesolange182 Thanks for the tip! I will practice 🙂

your videos are so interesting :)

@royaventurera

Ай бұрын

Thank you! So glad you think so 🥰

I really love your videos, and we (I'm Hungarian) have similar sounds to U (it's 'ü' for us) and EU (we write it 'ö') and I never realized how hard it can be to others.

2:53 I noticed that, when you said "Hello. My name is Roya", you pronounced your name almost as if it were "Vroya". Since the Jonas Brothers released their song "Burnin' Up" (2008), in which the word "goin'" in the chorus is sung as if it were "govin'", I've noticed a small number of native speakers of English who bring their lips together for initial R and medial W sounds (as in "going", which can be pronounced a bit like "go-wing") in such a way that the passage of air between them is a voiced fricative, sounding a lot like the labio-dental one that we write as "V" in English (IPA [v]). (If I remember right, Avril Lavigne pronounces initial R in the same way when singing one of her songs. I wish I could remember the word and the song. It may be "really" as "vreally".) When I heard the same sound at the beginning of your name in this video, I thought "Aha! Here is a chance to _see_ whether the mouth-position that I think I _hear_ by these V-inserters really is being made." I went back and watched your lips closely-and indeed such a position would make a fricative. (The same sound and position are absent when you pronounce your name in a French way, seconds later.) I wonder whether you have anything to say about this curious new pronunciation of English by native speakers. It seems to be almost entirely the domain of people over twenty and under forty. Obviously it depends on mouth position. I think almost nobody is learning this pronunciation in toddlerhood; it seems that people are acquiring it in late adolescence or later. I wonder whether it depends on the social pressure to smile, which I think people feel more (even if only subconsciously) once they're well into adolescence: making normal English [w] and [r] sounds is not very smiley; but pulling the corners of the mouth out to try to look smiley while pronouncing [w] and [r] lends itself to making that bilabial fricative. What do you think? PS. This is the first instructional video from you that I'm watching; I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of it, after pausing for this comment. I've already enjoyed several of your funny videos since yesterday and sent friends links to them. :)

@smadaf

18 күн бұрын

It also occurs in "really" at the 50-second mark in kzread.info/dash/bejne/mI2N17ennqzgebw.html

@pawel198812

15 күн бұрын

It is a common pronunciation of the R-sound in some southern English accents (cf the comedian James Acaster,). It also occurs in Finnish (spelled v) and in many Dutch accents (usually spelled w, so it contrasts with normal fricative v).

@smadaf

15 күн бұрын

@@pawel198812 , I'd never heard of James Acaster until now. I've just watched a few minutes of his stand-up comedy and enjoyed it. Thank you. I think his V-ish pronunciation of initial R is a bit different from what I described in Roya's speech here. The lips are doing the same thing, making a bilabial fricative; but what's happening inside the mouth is different. Inside her mouth, Roya is making a 'normal' English R (alveolar or retroflex approximant), whereas James Acaster inside his mouth is making the unusual R heard in some older English accents (that of Terry Jones, e.g.) and often heard as [w] (think of "Thwow him to the floow" in _Life of Brian,_ for "Throw him to the floor")-the voiced labiodental approximant, [ʋ]. This is the interesting thing about many pronunciations of the initial R sound: the lips can do one thing while the inside of the mouth can do another thing, and there are various options for the lips and various options for the inside. I recently heard in a KZread video a Scottish woman saying one of her usual Scottish R sounds (an alveolar or retroflex approximant, no trill) but shaping her lips so that, again, they made a fricative together-in the word "really". How often this happens in the word "really" suggests to me that emotion plays a role: the speaker is excited about something and emphasizes a sentence with the word "really"; the excitement may also be causing a smile, which affects the position of the lips; and the excitement may be causing an unusually great force of exhalation-so that the flow of air between the lips in that position becomes noticeable as a fricative.

@pawel198812

15 күн бұрын

@@smadaf You're right. Your explanation makes much more sense. I think this might be something similar to co-articulation which might be transcribed as [ɹʷ]. In some reconstructions of Old English phonetics, wr-clusers are pronounced [rʷ] or [ɾw]. Maybe it evolved from there? Or maybe it's a feature borrowed from Celtic languages?

@smadaf

15 күн бұрын

@@pawel198812 , of course my experience is limited. But, because all the bilabial-fricative R and [w] pronunciations that I'm talking about in Canadians and Americans come from people who fit all these criteria-(A) they are at least in their teens; (B) they are singing, smiling, and/or excited; and (C) they often make those sounds _without_ the bilabial fricative-, I tend to think that it's a situational accident (similar to mispronouncing a sound when one is drunk or has food in one's mouth, even though ordinarily one pronounces it fine), not something learned in childhood as part of a social accent. The other things that you describe, however, seem to me to be likely to be parts of naturally developed social accents. A sound can arise by both routes in different speakers. Around London, for example, there are many speakers who turn "that thorn" into "vat forn", and this is part of a social accent acquired very early in life. On the other hand, there are a few people who grow up with American accents yet make the same change ([v] and [f] for TH)-and it seems that _they_ acquired this anomalous pronunciation not by properly mimicking what they heard around them, but by some fault in their hearing or their ability to see what others are doing with their mouths or their ability to put their tongues in the right places to make the "th" sound. I once knew a Canadian who turned TH into [v] and [f]: hearing other features of his speech, and watching his face when he talked, one could see that he was doing his best, with some kind of faulty equipment (in mouth, brain, and/or hearing), to sound like a typical Canadian, but just failing in various ways-including the use of his teeth against his lip, instead of his tongue against his alveolar ridge, to make TH. One point against my thesis that the fricative pronunciation of R and [w] is not socially acquired-a point against it, but certainly not fatal to it-is the limited age-range of the speakers, who in my experience are all in their teens, twenties, and thirties. On the one hand, we may say that this accident just depends on things that are likelier to happen in a certain age-range than at other times in life (just as people are probably likelier to break their arms as children than in their forties)-in this case, talking excitedly, being a popular singer, and/or feeling social pressure to smile all the time while talking. On the other hand, if one or more of those factors becomes widespread enough, it may change the speech of so many of those speakers, and so often, that their changed speech becomes the new model for young children to emulate subconsciously when they are naturally acquiring their own accents. If we had a culture in which all the adults always sucked on cough-drops, for example, it would change the model for children-in such a way that they might end up sounding as if they had cough-drops in their mouths even when the didn't have cough-drops in their mouths. If enough excited, smiling young adults start saying "really" as "vreally" often enough (just because of their excitement and their smiling), they may end up raising kids who _always_ say "vreally", even when neither excited nor smiling. Those kids might even be surprised, when learning to spell, to find no "v" in "really". (I remember the first time I wrote the word "drink": I spelled it "djrink", because of how I pronounced it then, at age six or seven.) I wish I knew as much as you do about the pronunciation and spelling of languages other than English. Have you studied them formally or just picked this knowledge up in life because of your private interest?

As a French speaker, I feel that ecureuil (squirrel) is one of the tougher words to pronounce correctly in English!

@letoucan12

Ай бұрын

Also, I feel like you lose even more of the "smile" when speaking French Canadian