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  • In this American English pronunciation video, were going to go over the pronunciation

  • of the wordlittle’.

  • Because of the Flap T and the Dark L, the pronunciation of the wordlittleis

  • pretty tough. Thanks so much to those who suggested that I make a video on this topic.

  • Yesterday, Tom and I had a long discussion about this word. With each do something differently

  • with our tongues when we pronounce it, and we both agree, it’s incredibly hard to describe.

  • The thing that makes this word so hard is the Flap-schwa-Dark L ending. Other words

  • that end with this sound combination: battle, bottle, hospital, title, capital, total, metal,

  • subtle, ladle, middle, model, pedal, noodle, cuddle, paddle. A lot of words!

  • So, we both decided, this is a really hard topic to teach. Youre going to see some

  • up close, slow motion footage of the mouth, and I’m going to do my best to describe

  • what’s happening.

  • Inlittleand all of the words I listed, this is an unstressed, ending syllable. So

  • the syllable li- is stressed, andttle is unstressed. That means it will be flatter

  • and lower in pitch than the stressed syllable. Little, –ttle, li-, –ttle. Little,

  • DA-da, little.

  • We start with the L consonant. This is a Light L because it starts the syllable. That means

  • it’s different from the second L, which is at the end of the second syllable,

  • a Dark L.

  • The Light L can be made two different ways. First, it can be made with the tip of the

  • tongue at the roof of the mouth, ll, like this. Li-. Or, it can be made with the tongue

  • tip coming through the teeth. Ll, like this, li-. In this case, it looks like the TH, but

  • the tongue is not relaxed, letting the air vibrate it like it does for the TH. For this

  • L, the tongue is a little stiff, ll, ll. Youll see this L in the slow motion clip at the

  • end of the video.

  • The vowel in this stressed syllable is the IH as in SIT vowel. A lot of people want to

  • go towards EE, lee, lee-ttle, but we want IH, littlerelax everything to get a more

  • accurate vowel sound. Ih, li-. The tip of the tongue touches the back of the bottom

  • front teeth, and the front part arches up towards the roof of the mouth, li, ih. Notice

  • how the pitch of my voice goes down. Li-. This is the shape of a stressed syllable.

  • Now we get to the tough part, the unstressed, second syllable. We have the Flap T followed

  • by the schwa/Dark L sound. Normally for the Flap T, the tongue bounces against the roof

  • of the mouth and right back down. Uh-duh, uh-duh. If this sounds like the R, that’s

  • because it is the same sound as the R in your native language.

  • But the tongue does something a LITTLE different in this word, little. Tom describes making

  • the Flap T inlittlelike this: The tongue does a little release, then goes right

  • back to the roof of the mouth for the Dark L. So the tongue doesn’t really do a full

  • bounce for the flap, just a little release.

  • I pronounce this a little differently. I don’t release the tip of my tongue, I leave it right

  • where it is at the roof of the mouth, li-ttle, uhl. Instead, I release the back part of the

  • tongue, pulling it back like we do for the Dark L, while leaving the tip where it is.

  • Usually I make the dark sound of the Dark L with the tongue tip down, but in this sound

  • sequence, I leave it up. I think youll find, when you get the hang of it, that it

  • makes the word easier to pronounce. Let’s break it down and practice putting a break

  • between the flap up and the Dark L. Litt-le, litt-le. The back part of the tongue releases

  • down and back a little to make this dark sound, ul. Little, little.

  • Let’s watch this word up close and in slow motion.

  • Here, my tongue comes through my teeth for the beginning L. The tongue tip slides down

  • behind the bottom front teeth, and the teeth part. The front part of the tongue arches

  • up. This is the IH vowel.

  • Watch as the tongue tip goes to the roof of the mouth. Now, of course you can’t see

  • it, but the back part of the pulls away and back to make the dark L sound, uul. And the

  • tongue tip comes back down at the end of the word. Let’s watch again.

  • This word is very common in the phrase ‘a little bit’, where we have the schwa before,

  • and the stressed syllablebitafter. The T at the end ofbitis going to

  • be a Stop T, if the sentence ends there or if the next word begins with a consonant:

  • >> Are you tired? >> A little bit

  • or

  • >> I’m a little bit frustrated.

  • Those were both stop Ts, bit, where we don’t, tt, make the final release, but just cut off

  • the air for an abrupt stop. A little bit.

  • The ‘t’ at the end ofbitwill be a Flap T if it’s not the end of the sentence

  • and the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong. For example:

  • >> Tell me a little bit about that.

  • Bit-a-bout, bit about. Bit-a-, bit-a-, bit-a-. Here it’s a flap, which sounds like the

  • D between vowels in American English, and might sound like the R in your own native

  • language. Bit a-, bit-a, bit-a, bit about.

  • I hope this has given you an idea of how to practice this word. It’s a very common word,

  • so practice it a lot and get comfortable with it. If there’s a word or phrase you’d

  • like help pronouncing, please put it in the comments below.

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  • lessons and fun stories and photos from my day-to-day life. It’s absolutely free. Please

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  • below.

  • Also, I’m very pleased to tell you that my book is available for purchase. If you

  • liked this video, there’s a lot more to learn about American English pronunciation,

  • and my book will help you step by step. You can get it by clicking here, or in the description

  • below.

  • That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

In this American English pronunciation video, were going to go over the pronunciation

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LITTLEの発音の仕方 - アメリカ英語 (How to Pronounce LITTLE - American English)

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    Sue.w に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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