Fòram na Gàidhlig

Halò.

I need help with pronunciation.

I read on Akerbeltz's site that for sounds like a Slender D, you need to use the blade of your tongue instead of the tip. However, when I do try to use the blade of my tongue it sometimes seems as if I'm making the incorrect sound and/or that it's impossible to get the sound out. Also, I'm having trouble with the devoiced parts as well. Again, it seems as if I'm making the incorrect sounds and/or that it's impossible to get the correct sound out without getting a vibration.

I'm just wondering if anybody can provide more information on the positioning of the tongue and such. Or am I actually making the correct sounds and don't know it?

Try this: just make sure the tip of your tongue points down, you can exaggerate this initially by touching the tip of your bottom teeth. That should make the /d?/ appear in the right place.

In terms of the voicing, are you sure your /d?/ is voiced, not the vowel that almost invariable comes after? Anyay, try saying it with /?/ before it i.e. /?d?/ that should prevent voicing and then take it from there?

Let me know if you're still stuck!

akerbeltz wrote:Try this: just make sure the tip of your tongue points down, you can exaggerate this initially by touching the tip of your bottom teeth. That should make the /d?/ appear in the right place.

In terms of the voicing, are you sure your /d?/ is voiced, not the vowel that almost invariable comes after? Anyay, try saying it with /?/ before it i.e. /?d?/ that should prevent voicing and then take it from there?

Let me know if you're still stuck!

Tapadh leibh! That helps a bit.

The /d?/ sounds very close to the /t?/, no? From what I can tell, the /t?/ sounds a bit higher than the /d?/. Is that a correct way of looking at it?

About the voicing, now that I listen closely to my pronunciation of it, I think that it is the vowel that I'm voicing and not the /d?/. Which is correct pronunciation, right? They run so close together that it sounds like I'm voicing the /d?/ sometimes.

Yes, /d?/ and /t?/ are very close. However, they are articulated virtually in the same place, the main difference is aspiration of /t?/.

In terms of voicing running into /d?/... there's that grey are between moving out of a voiceless sound into a voiced sound but you shouldn't start out with voicing. Start with an English pair like see and zee or tee and dee to get a feel for where the vowel voicing sets in to the voiceless ones and then try the Gaelic again and see if it broadly matches.

akerbeltz wrote:Yes, /d?/ and /t?/ are very close. However, they are articulated virtually in the same place, the main difference is aspiration of /t?/.

In terms of voicing running into /d?/... there's that grey are between moving out of a voiceless sound into a voiced sound but you shouldn't start out with voicing. Start with an English pair like see and zee or tee and dee to get a feel for where the vowel voicing sets in to the voiceless ones and then try the Gaelic again and see if it broadly matches.

Yeah, OK. I think I get it now. Mòran taing!

I also tried the voicing with /d?/ again, and from what I can tell, it does broadly match. I think I got it now. I suppose though that practice makes perfect.