Speech Tip for You: Why Does English have 2 or 3 Words for the Same Thing
FOR MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2020 Speech Tip via Word Press
Speech Tip for You: Why Does English have 2 or 3 Words for the Same Thing
Have you noticed that English often has two or three words for the same thing?. These different words allow us to express ideas with different degrees of formality. For example “help” is an English root, “aid” comes from French, “assist” is from Latin.
The adage says: If you know the “why”, you know the “how.” In this case a little knowledge of history will help you choose the best word for you and for the circumstance.
English started out as a kind of German which added to the form of Celtic languagea spoken on the island England. Then came another set of invaders in the 9th century who spoke another Germanic offshoot, Old Norse. Intermarriage meant the people came to speak a modified or changed Old English.
After the Norse came the French. The Normans, who were descended from the Vikings, conquered England and ruled for several centuries. That meant English picked up 10,000 new words.
Then starting in the 16th century, there was a movement to develop English as a vehicle for complex and sophisticated writing. Notably, at that time, it became popular to pick words from Latin to give the language more prestige and to make it more high class.
At this time English acquired such words as crucified, fundamental, definition, and conclusion.
From then on, English had thousands of new words competing with native English words for the same things. One result was multiple words which allowed people to express ideas with different degrees of formality.
Thus, “kingly” is English, “royal” is French, “regal” is Latin.
“Begin” is English, “commence” is French.
“Want” is English, “desire” is French.
This double vocabulary is especially common for culinary/food vocabulary.
For example, we kill a “cow” or a “pig” (English). From that we cook “beef” or “pork” (French).
Why the two words for food? It’s from division of labor in Norman England. That is, English-speaking laborers did the slaughtering or killing for the wealthier French speakers.
Here is something important for we people in the 21st century. Latin came to be designated by scientists, people of medicine, and the law to be the basis for each profession’s or discipline’s new vocabulary. Thus the new terms or word were made from Latin words or syllables for prefixes, suffixes and root words.
For more detail, go to blog.published Aug. 6, 2020 in the www.ClearTalkMastery.com website
And here’s our speech tutorial for the word “procedure” , which has a prefix, suffix and root or stem from Latin. This Speech tip #66 for Clear Talk Mastery on You Tube is also on YouTube with 80 other little speech tutorials.
-Website Speech Tip 08/10/2020 copyright 2020 Clear Talk Mastery, Inc
Feeling stuck? Are you bothered by some speech sounds which are not accurate American English?
SPEECH TIP for Saturday, August 01, 2020
Feeling Stuck? Are you bothered or annoyed by some speech sounds which are not accurate American English?
Of all the things you can do now to make those sounds accurate, what should you concentrate on?
The answer is muscles and coordination of muscles.
These are the mouth muscles of tongue, lips and jaw along with the action in the throat at the vocal folds for “voice”.
Let’s talk about the lowly “n” sound. Why this speech sound? Because this is a high error speech sound. And because the humble “n” is the consonant that is the highest frequently occurring consonant in English words.
Think about this? Do you get the accurate “n” sound every single time?
Perhaps you notice that sometimes-listeners are not sure whether you said “thirty” or” thirteen.” or “fifty” or “fifteen”?
The road to success in these words is to make the “y” written letter pronounced as the English long vowel ‘e” sound (like in “see”). Make that long “e” vowel sound slow and loud enough for the listener to hear easily.
The biggest secret is to make the “n” sound slow and loud. Do this: push the tip of your tongue up to the roof or top of your mouth, just behind the front teeth. Get your brain to send the instruction to the vocal folds to be loud and make an enduring or lengthy voice for this ”n” sound.
To circle back to where we started. Do you feel stuck with speech errors you don’t like? Then dDo direct practice of those sounds in words. Direct practice is like homework.
And now do you understand what to do to get rid of your feeling stuck?
You’ve got to do practice. You’ve got to coordinate the muscles in your mouth—your tongue, lips and jaw — with your muscles at the vocal folds – and your lung muscles to get the air flow for speaking.
You know this—“It is not practice makes perfect but perfect practice makes perfect.”
And you know this—it takes a lot of practice—perhaps up to 1000 or up to 10,000 times of practice to learn a new pattern or to change a habit. Just do it. Do the work.
If you are interested in finding out more on this specific topic , go to our Blog #177 in the Blog section or page on our website, www.ClearTalkMastery.com/
Meanwhile, here’s our Clear Talk #23 speech tutorial for the “n” speech sound for the word “environmental.” . It is also on YouTube with 80 other little speech tutorials.
Youtube Clear Talk Mastery tutorial for “n” here. https://youtu.be/O2INjqtXTEYhttps://youtu.be/O2INjqtXTEY
Copyright Clear Talk Mastery , Inc. 2020
What is the secret to fixing the problem of consonants at the ends of words which are hard to hear?
Speech tip on website for Sunday, July 26, 2020
What is the secret to fixing the problem of consonants at the ends of words which are hard to hear?
3 secrets
- Make the muscles in the mouth you need for those sounds stiff and hard.
- Pronounce quick consonants quickly and slow consonants slowly.
- Make the sounds loud. To make speech sounds loud, make the muscles for the voice stiff or hard and strong. These are in the throat attached to the vocal folds. These are also muscles in the chest to push air out. Command from your mind and brain for loud.
For more detail on making your speech muscles strong for English speech, click on this link: blog link http://www.cleartalkmastery.com/blog/2020/07/25/of-all-the-things-you-can-do-to-get-clear-english-what-are-the-most-important/
Lip muscles are used for “b, “ p,” “m”. So below we have the Clear Talk speech tutor video #37” for “b”… and “ch” and “long vowel ‘e’”… in ‘beach”
copyright Clear Talk Mastery, Inc 2020
Speech Tutor Video #2 How to pronounce American English Short Vowels “a” and “e” as in “Bad” and “Bed”
In this video Dr. Antonia Johnson shows how to pronounce the American English short vowel A and short vowel E.
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