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CharmYou Posted 13 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Do you pronounce "Awe" and "All" the same?

Do you pronounce "Awe" and "All" the same?
I am just wondering if there are natives pronouncing them the same, because I have difficulty pronouncing the L sound (I can only pronounce an 'aw' sound instead).
  

Top answer

Hi, No, they are not homophones . l/ The phonetic transcriptions above show that ALL is pronounced with an l-sound, which is typically a dark 'l'. g.

— Dokterjokkebrok

  • Hi, No, they are not homophones .
  • l/ The phonetic transcriptions above show that ALL is pronounced with an l-sound, which is typically a dark 'l'.
  • g.
  • 'all' is much more emphatic compared to its counterpart light/clear 'l' as can be found in BrE 'light'.
  • AWE does not have a consonant at all and just requires pronouncing either the 'ohhh' or 'ahh' sound, depending on whether you prefer the BrE or AmE pronunciation.
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9 Answers
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Hi,

No, they are not homophones.

AWE BrE /??/ AmE /??/

ALL BrE /??l/ AmE /??l/

The phonetic transcriptions above show that ALL is pronounced with an l-sound, which is typically a dark 'l'. Dark L as in e.g. 'all' is much more emphatic compared to its counterpart light/clear 'l' as can be found in BrE 'light'. AWE does not have a consonant at al
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Well, the vowel in both words is a THOUGHT vowel. The /l/ is velarized, whether the tongue tip touches the alevolar ridge or not. If it the tip is held against the alveolar ridge, with velarization, it is dark l: [?]. In the same configuration, you can produce the dark l kind of sound, without the tip held against the alveolar ridge: in the narrow transcription, [??]. If "all" and "awe" sound simi
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CharmYouI am just wondering if there are natives pronouncing them the same, because I have difficulty pronouncing the L sound (I can only pronounce an 'aw' sound instead).
There are always going to be native speakers who perhaps do not clearly distinguish between 'all' and 'awe' in their speech. However, it is not recommendable to just leave out l's because yo
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They are not pronounced the same.

You are not alone, however. It is quite common for English learners to have trouble with the "L" sound and the "R" sound. In particular, speakers whose native languages are Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), or Korean, tend to have trouble with "L."

The “L” sound is produced by placing the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge (the gum ridge be
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Thanks for your help.

I am Chinese but I can pronounce the 'r' sound perfectly. However, when it comes to the 'l' sound, I can't. And I even can't hear the 'l' sound, I hear it 'aw'! Every time a person says 'I'll' , I take it "eye-awe".

Yes, to be honest, I googled the 'l' sound, and I found there are really some native speakers pronouncing a vowel in place of the 'l' sound (wh
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CharmYou I just thought it would be okay to pronounce an 'aw' in place of 'l'....
Emotion: shake

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I think you have been warned before about double-posting, CharmYou: http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/Default/bzznkg/post.htm

In future, both posts may be deleted.
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Mister MicawberI think you have been warned before about double-posting, CharmYou
I'm terribly sorry about that. I have been practicing the dark L sound for several months but I am still not able to hear it. Let alone to pronounce it! I posted this one on 19, August, which has been almost three months so far, and I had totally forgot it when I was posting the
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