Basic words list classified by vowel sounds -- is there any?

Question

One of the toughest vowel sounds for me to pronounce is that of the word "early" (I don't know the precise name of it). Bird, earth, birth, and so on.

I started to make a list of basic words which include this vowel sound. I'm willing to sift my dictionary to the bottom, so to speak, if I need, but I guess there must be such a list already... hopefully...!

Please help me, if you have some information.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

I've never seen such a list, Feathers, sorry. Guess you'd better keep sifting.

Here are a few: alert, avert, berserk, blur, blurt, burn, burst, burl, churn, circle, curt, curse, curds, colonel, curl, concern, discern, dessert, dirk, earn, erstwhile, exert, fern, fertile, girl, gird, hurt, hearse, hurtle, heard, insert, inert, jerk, kernel, lurk, learn, myrtle, myrrh, nurse, overt, occur, perk, perverse, purse, perquisite, purl, pearl, pert, quirk, return, reverse, recur, refer, skirt, shirt, spurt, squirt, stern, stir, tern, turn, turtle, thermometer, urn, vertical, version, verse, verb, word, work, worse, Xerxes, yurt, and zircon.

CalifJim · Answer

Feathers,

I'm a little puzzled by your post. You say that the "er" sound is difficult for you to pronounce.
Then you ask for a list of words that contain this sound.
Did you think that having that list of words would improve your pronunciation?

See post . It might help.

Confused,
CJ

Feathers · Answer

Mister MicawberHere are a few: alert, avert, berserk, blur, blurt, burn, burst, burl, churn, circle, curt, curse, curds, colonel, curl, concern, discern, dessert, dirk, earn, erstwhile, exert, fern, fertile, girl, gird, hurt, hearse, hurtle, heard, insert, inert, jerk, kernel, lurk, learn, myrtle, myrrh, nurse, overt, occur, perk, perverse, purse, perquisite, purl, pearl, pert, quirk, return, reverse, recur, refer, skirt, shirt, spurt, squirt, stern, stir, tern, turn, turtle, thermometer, urn, vertical, version, verse, verb, word, work, worse, Xerxes, yurt, and zircon.

Perfect...!

Oh...! You are so kind! I cannot thank you enough, MM!

CalifJim

Feathers,

I'm a little puzzled by your post. You say that the "er" sound is difficult for you to pronounce.
Then you ask for a list of words that contain this sound.
Did you think that having that list of words would improve your pronunciation?

If only you knew, CJ.... how I'm struggling with English vowels! I was not joking ...almost... when I said I started to sift one of my dictionaries. The oldest and smallest one, though.

I can understand how to pronounce, how to differenciate this particular vowel sound from others, but I've come to feel what I really need now is physical training of my facial/tongue muscles : to make them react at, for example, heard and hard, differently!

Thank you for the link: I'll check it out now

Feathers · Answer

CalifJim er, ir, and ur followed by a consonant or at the end of a word are all pronounced the same.

term, bird, turn, her, sir, fur
verb, shirt, hurt, verse, dirge, curve

ear followed by a consonant (but not at the end of a word) is also pronounced the same as those above.

learn, heard, search, rehearse, pearl

Except: beard (as if beerd), heart (as if hart), hearth ( as if harth)

our followed by a consonant has the same pronunciation in only a few words.

journal, journalist, adjourn, adjournment, tourney, tournament, courtesy, courteous

CJ

This is thorough... ! It helps me a lot. Thank you.

What I need now is -- practice. Let's adjourn to another forum...

CalifJim · Answer

Good! I'm glad it helped.

You know, if you get one of those electronic dictionaries, I'm pretty sure you can write a program to extract all the words with the characteristics I described. At least that's what I've heard. I haven't tried it myself.
As for pronunciation, there are a few dictionaries on-line that you might try, for example, www.m-w.com. They have an audio feature, so you can listen to the pronunciations. Note, however, that you need to use a dictionary that pronounces the words in the variety of English that you are learning. The m-w site is for American English, so don't use that if you are learning British English pronunciation!

CJ

Aperisic · Answer

FeathersOne of the toughest vowel sounds for me to pronounce is that of the word "early" (I don't know the precise name of it). Bird, earth, birth, and so on.

Keep your tongue flat and relaxed.
Close your mouth
Start pronouncing the sound m (as m in mother) without opening the mouth, like when you imitate the motor sound mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Do not open your mouth
Put your hand on your throat and try to feel vibrations there
Now try to make short mmmmmm pause mmmm pause mmm pause mm pause m pause m pause all shorter and shorter
That vibrating cut in your throat when you pronounce short m sound with your mouth closed is one part of the sound "er"

Now shape your tongue into a tube
Keeping the tongue into a tube as much as possible try to touch the top of your palate (the top of the roof of the mouth) with the top of your shaped tongue
Open slightly a mouth
Let the air pass through so you hear a soft hiss, the sound should be created deeper in your mouth
Now go back, relax the tongue, create a tube, touch the top of the palate, and create a hiss several times until you feel comfortable

Once you are there try instead of hiss to produce the same vibrations that you felt when you where producing mmmmm
Now keeping your tongue in form of a tube at the top of your palate make the throat vibrations as short as you can
Repeat this as much as you like

getting to it

Now open your mouth and say aaaa as in apple
While you are pronouncing aaaaaa quickly shape your tongue touch the top of the palate and make a short throat vibrations
Switch back to aaaaaa or eee as in empty

Feathers · Answer

Hello CJ!

Thank you for the tip, but I'd rather learn MM's list and your general principles and exceptions by heart

, for the present. And, yes, I happen to be learning American English. I also visit this site every now and then,
[link]http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/[/link]
... and do the physical training.

Feathers · Answer

Hello Aperisic,

Thank you, but, to tell the truth, it's hard for me to understand the last part of your instruction.

As for me, I try to form my tongue, somehow appropriately, so as to make use of the pharynx as a resonating cavity... and try to make the sound not only muffled but also resonant. (Is my way wrong?)

Aperisic · Answer

FeathersHello Aperisic,

Thank you, but, to tell the truth, it's hard for me to understand the last part of your instruction.

As for me, I try to form my tongue, somehow appropriately, so as to make use of the pharynx as a resonating cavity... and try to make the sound not only muffled but also resonant. (Is my way wrong?)

No, it is OK.

The most difficult part is this

though your tongue is touching the top of the palate (being slightly squeezed in a tube to close the air running from the left and right of the tongue), the sound is produced in the throat/pharynx by a short vibration (like when you produce mmmmmmm with closed mouth). But "er" is not this sound it is getting to this sound what makes "er".

That is why you need long aaaaaaaaaa then an attempt to produce that final "er" sound then aaaaaaaaa or (eeeeee) again.

The most similar sound is produced by a seal (ocean mammal).

The sound is very resonant.

Buy a good English CD course. Almost every starts with excellent exercises to learn every sound in English separately. You hear them, you can record yourself, you can listen yourself and compare to a given sample, the computer is calculating how precise you were… You can't wish more…

Aperisic · Answer

I think Aperisic is simply trying to say that the sound is voiced. as well as deep in sound - resonant.EndFragment>

Basic words list classified by vowel sounds -- is there any?

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