Pronunciation Glossary

These are some of the words used to talk about pronunciation. You will find them in the instructions for your Pronunciation Power program.

Air flow
The flow or passage of air out of the mouth.

Aspiration
A small "explosion" of air when you make a sound.

Auditory
Hearing (not seeing).

Clusters (blended sounds)
Two or more sounds put together to make a single sound.

Curl
A position of the tongue where the tongue is shaped in a curve, not flat.

Flatten
A position of the tongue where the tongue is flat not round.

Glide / Slide
Move the tongue as you say the sound.

Hard palate
Hard part of the roof of the mouth.

Intonation
Change in pitch of a sentence, up and down.

Lengthen sound
Make the duration of the sound longer.

Lips spread
Lips are open slightly and pulled back.

Lower
Bottom of mouth.

Pitch
Amount of height or depth of a sound.

Pressed lips
Top and bottom lips touching.

Protruded lips
Rounded lips, pushed out.

Roof
Top part of your mouth, inside.

Round lips
Make a circle with lips.

Shorten sound
Make the duration of the sound shorter.

Soft palate
Soft part of the roof of the mouth.

Tap
Touch quickly.

Tooth ridge
The hard area directly behind your top front teeth.

Top of mouth / Roof of mouth
Area of tooth ridge, hard palate and soft palate.

Unvoiced (voiceless)
The vocal cords do not vibrate.

Upper
Top of mouth.

Visual
Seeing (not hearing).

Voiced
The sound is made by vibrating the vocal cords (voice box). To test whether you are making the sound voiced, put your fingers on your voice box. With a voiced sound you should feel a vibration. All vowels are voiced.

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