About Speaking American

English is often named the most influential language, and one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Estimates indicate that there are 115 countries where English is spoken - either as the primary language, as an official minority language, or as an unofficial language of business and trade. And English is the language most frequently spoken as a second language. In fact, there are more than a billion people worldwide who are currently in the process of learning English. It s no wonder, then, that English is spoken in so many different ways and with so many different accents!

American English sounds different than "ritish English or Australian or #amaican English. It has characteristic stress patterns, rhythms, and speech sounds, and unique idioms, $argon and slang. %uestions and statements are differentiated in American English by changes in pitch, and there are some word pairs that ha&e the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings - like contract, the noun, and contract, the &erb' I signed the contract( )hen water is fro*en, it contracts.

+earning to speak American English well is especially difficult when it s been learned from a te,tbook or from another non-nati&e speaker who hasn t acquired the fluency and accent of a nati&e speaker. -ince that s frequently the case, it s not surprising that many speakers of English find that -- although they ha&e a good knowledge of &ocabulary and understanding of English grammar -- they re not as well understood by listeners as they would like to be. )e all speak with the intent of communicating a message, and when someone s unintelligible, it can lea&e both the speaker and the listener frustrated - at not being understood, or at not being able to understand!

In my work as a "usiness .ommunication and -peech specialist, I work to help nonnati&e speakers impro&e their English speaking skills. -ome speakers are more easily understood when they slow their speech rate, while others work hard to impro&e their speech music -- their intonation and rhythm patterns. )e work diligently using drill to train the lips, tongue, and $aw to easily produce the &owels and consonants -- not an easy task, but well worth the outcome! /he most satisfying part of my day is when someone

tells me how much more confident they feel as a result of their dedicated efforts to impro&e their communication skills!

Speaking American English Well Makes Cents!

Salaries increase when non-native speakers speak English well!

If you re a non-nati&e speaker of English, you may be aware of the challenges that result from speaking English with an accent. 0aybe you re annoyed by the number of times you re asked to repeat what you &e said. 0aybe you notice that some people understand you while others don t. 1r maybe you re feeling that your accent has been a professional liability - costing you $obs and career ad&ancement. All of these are great reasons for wanting to impro&e the way you speak English! "ut if these aren t enough to con&ince you that you want to in&est some of yourself in impro&ing your speech patterns, e,amining some of the recent statistics and research may con&ince you. /he 2334 A.- .ensus 5ata indicates that about 167 of working-age adults in the 8nited -tates are foreign-born. /hough the number &aries from state to state.-- from 947 in .alifornia, to 27 in )est :irginia, demographics show that immigrants account for the greatest increase both in the 8- population and in the workplace since ))1! "ut challenges come with these e&er-increasing numbers of foreign born adults competing for $obs in an e&er-tightening $ob market! And disheartening are the numerous reports describing notable salary inequities between immigrants and their American counterparts. /he reasons for these inequities remain to be determined. "ut a 2335 study by 0assI;., a non-partisan research and educational institute in 0assachusetts, may be significant. In that study, there were notable salary differences between 0assachusetts immigrants and nati&e-born Americans similarly employed. )hen the researches del&ed into the causes for those differences, they found that English proficiency was the <di&iding line, separating those who succeed from those who struggle in the labor market.< And in addition, the study re&ealed that <on a&erage, an immigrant college graduate who speaks English well earns about =23,333 more than an immigrant college graduate who only speaks English.< Although we can t conclusi&ely generali*e the results from this discrete study in 0assachusetts to the situation in other states, we can at the least consider it plausible that the results hold true. And it s not only salaries that impro&e with better speech skills. .areer ad&ancement is another benefit of ha&ing great communication skills. >a&ing worked with many foreign-born, mid-le&el corporate professionals, it s not once that I &e heard remarks like, <If I spoke better English I d ha&e been made manager.<

Wondering how well you speak? ake this sel!assessment!

Sounding American

1. I m asked to repeat myself atleast once a day. 2. ?eople often ha&e difficulty understanding me o&er the phone. 9. I don t know why some people understand me and others don t. @. I speak my nati&e language &ery quickly. 5. I feel self-conscious about the way I pronounce certain words. 4. I ha&e difficulty hearing the difference between similar sounding words - like can and can t or wine and &ine. 6. I ha&e trouble e,pressing my thoughts in English. A. I prefer to show someone how to do things rather than to ha&e to tell them. B. I feel uncomfortable in social situations because of the way I speak. 13. If it weren t for the way I speak English, I d ha&e been promoted at work long ago!

Want to improve how you speak? ry these tips!

"istening and "earning to Speak American English

If you do reali*e that the way you speak English is getting in the way either of your professional success or of your ease in social interactions, you may want to consider a program that can help you reduce your accent. "e aware that, contrary to what is sometimes ad&ertised, changing the way you speak isn t a quick fi,! -ince many of us speak throughout our days e&ery day of our li&es, reinforcing the same patterns that we re used to, it takes conscientious and committed hard work to change those patterns. "ut, with your dedicated efforts, and with e,perienced guidance from a professional who understands speech production, the results are well worth the efforts, both in terms of impro&ing the way you speak and in terms of the great boost in self-confidence you ll get! -ince all of our mouths - our tongue, lips, $aw, teeth and e&en the &elum at the back of our throats -- work slightly differently, and people with different accents tend to ha&e different error patterns, there s no one si*e fits all for training the American accent. "ut the following tips can be used at least to get you started on your way to speaking American English like an American! 1. -low down when you speak. /his may sound easy, but those of us who speak quickly know that it s not as easy as some may think! /o get started, use the following short sentences to practice, being sure to put a pause between each word. Co home. I got it. >e said no. /ry it. I don t like it. -he was happy today. I hope you can stay. )e were going outside. Another trick --and this really works well! -- for slowing your speech rate is by prolonging the &owel sounds. -o when you practice these words, slowly stretch out the &owel sounds Da, e, i, o, uE' >i! >ello!

/onite ?a$amas E&eryone 2. +isten attenti&ely to the sounds of American English! -ince this is an e,ercise to help you hear American English better, you ll need to ignore the meaning and intent of the message. /urn on the radio or listen to a speaker on the /: or on your computer Dbe sure that the speaker is a nati&e American!E and focus only on the different speech sounds, the pauses, word stress patterns and phrasing. After listening for atleast 13 minutes, you might want to try to play with imitating a word or a phrase the way you $ust heard it said. >a&e fun e,ploring the sounds of American English. 9. .hoose one speech sound that is hard for you to pronounce. )rite a list of words that ha&e that sound, and read that list, slowly and carefully, so that your articulators -- the parts of your mouth that need to learn where to go to make the sound--become used to this new pattern. 1nce you re able to say these words easily, put them into short sentences, and then longer sentences. Feep practicing these, atleast twice a day!, and you ll start to find your awareness of the sound increasing and that you re e&en starting to use the sound when you talk. @. )hen you hear a nati&e American say a simple phrase that you re not familiar with or that you re aware of saying differently, see if you can immediately imitate what they said -- using the same &ocal inflectionGtone of &oice, and the e,act words. Hepeat it se&eral times to yourself Dand aloud if possible!E and become more comfortable with the phrase. .an you find a place in your own con&ersation to use the phrase yourselfI 5. /urn on the news and listen to the news commentator s &oice. "e sure to focus only on their &oice, and ignore the news report -- for this e,ercise, you ll want to stay entirely focused on the rate and rhythm of American speech. /ry humming along with their &oice, inflecting your &oice up and down, &arying your loudness as they do, and pausing along with them. 5o this with other newscasters too, so that you de&elop a sense of the musicality of American speech. 1nce you re feeling comfortable with the &ariations in pitch, rate, and rhythm of the &oices, try using afew simple words rather than a hum while you do the same e,ercise. Jou might $ust say <see you< or hello hello o&er and o&er, but with &ariation in intonation patterns. After a while, do you notice that you &e de&eloped more of a feel for American speech patterns than you had beforeI 4. Hemember...learning to speak English well takes commitment and practice. "e patient, and you ll find that your efforts pay off!

#ridging the Cultural $ivide

he American style o! communication!
All cultures ha&e unique customs around communication, and these customs, when not recogni*ed as such, can lead to misunderstandings, communication breakdown and

relationship snafus. Ci&en the multicultural society that we are today, it behoo&es us all to recogni*e how our own communicati&e style is influenced by the culture we grew up in, and that others styles will similarly reflect their cultures. )ith that awareness, we ll be able to bridge cultural differences and ha&e an opportunity to de&elop personal relationships with people whose communication style are quite unlike ours. +ike attracts like, rightI /rue, but that s limiting. )ith each of us reaching to be bigger than oursel&es, we can use insight to cross the great cultural di&ide! ;ow if I was saying this to you while you and I were standing together in con&ersation, you might respond to me quickly, with, )hat d ya meanI I don t think I know what yer talkin about! )ell, atleast that might be what you d say to me if you were an American, and comfortable with the characteristically open, casual and direct style that is associated with our culture. 1n the other hand, if you were #apanese, you might be standing near me, nodding your head to show that you were attending to what I was saying -- not that you were necessarily agreeing with my comments -- and thinking to yourself, I ll listen to learn more. Jour lack of questioning or comments to what I had said might lead me to think that you re a bit stiff, maybe e&en dull, and not really into the topic. 1n the other hand, if I recogni*ed that your nod and quiet reflected the formality and reticence that is characteristically #apanese, I would be understanding of your response, rather than questioning or turned off by it. Awareness enables understanding. .ultural differences are determined across a number of &ariables. Among these are' a focus on forming fast friends &s. culti&ating relationships, the directGindirectness of a culture, comfort with confrontation &s. need for sa&ing face, short- &s. long-term focus, degree of formality, use of symbolic gestures, concept of time, indi&idualist or collecti&ist orientation, and egalitarian or hierarchical bias. /here are many more &ariables, and all of these play out in ways not always -- and more likely, not often -apparent. In America it s considered rude if you don t look at the person you re speaking with. In /rinidad it s considered rude if you look at someone older than you who you are speaking with. In America we stand up to show respect( in Forea, people sit to show respect. In America, we respect punctuality( in -pain, time is open-ended, and a meeting that doesn t happen today will happen -- sometime! All of these differences can make for sticky situations if cultural awareness is lacking. "y setting aside $udgment and recogni*ing the huge influence that our cultures e,ert-- for the most part below our radar screens -- we ll be better able to bring appreciation for our differences and foster unity through di&ersity.

How to Roll Your "R"s

originated by'#onquille, #ack >errick, /om :iren, Frystle .. Dsee allE Keatured Article Article Edit 5iscuss :iew >istory

+earning to speak -panishI Coing on &acation to -pain or 0e,ico and need to brush up on your pronunciationI /rying to speak Hussian, "a&arian or ItalianI +i&ing in .anada during <Holl up the Him< seasonI 1ne of the ma$or skills you ll ha&e to perfect is the ability to roll your <r<s, known to linguists as the al&eolar trill. It s one e,ample of many trill consonants apparent in a &ariety of world languages. -ound like a challengeI It can be. 0any people ha&e trouble creating the rolling H sound if they ha&e not learned to do so as a child. Also, certain people tend to ha&e trouble rolling their r s. Homanian people tend to ha&e a hard time accomplishing this task, but difficulty has also been found in the -wahili speaking tribes of .ongo and the Aboriginal people of Australia. /he great thing about it is that you can begin anytime and practice anytime, so why not get rolling todayI In a couple of weeks, you ll be on a roll!

edit Steps
1. 1 "isten to a !oreign language radio or an %nternet radio station& and take note o! the pronunciation' It s easier to pick up the proper technique if you re e,posed to it. Ads by Coogle

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Warm up your tongue so it can get used to some o! the positions re)uired !or rolling (r(s' /ry to fold your tongue in half, turn it upside down, flutter it, curl it up and down, and so on. 9. 9 *ela+ your mouth and tongue& and slightly open your lips' Feep your mouth rela,ed. If you purse your lips, your rolled H will come out too forceful. @. @ #end the tip o! your tongue up very slightly ,ust behind your top gums' -pecifically the tip of your tongue should be loose and $ust below the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate' the al&eolar ridge. /he part of your mouth that contains the tooth sockets is the right place to be.
o

5epending on the specific language, your tongue may be slightly touching your al&eolar ridge, or not touching.

5. 5 ense your tongue& but leave the tip loose to vibrate' /his sound is known as a trill because it is created with multiple &ibrations. 4. 4 #reathe out& allowing your tongue to vibrate with the passing air' /his should produce somewhat of a <purring< sound.
o o

/he rolling <H< sound is $ust the flutter of a tongue with the passing air, not a special curl or a fold. -ome people find it easier to allow their tongue to &ibrate against their mouth, while others prefer not to. 0ake sure that if you touch your teeth, do so lightly.

6. 6 ry replacing the (r( with a (d( sound i! your (r(s still aren-t rolling' DKor instance, the word <practice< would become <pdactice<.E >owe&er, it won t sound right if you say the word slowly, or if the word begins with an <r<. A. A .ut your mouth in di!!erent positions and pronounce/ LriM Denglish sound' reeE, LreM Des' rayE, LraM Des' rahE, LroM Des' rowE, LruM Des' rewE. /ry to go through musical scales or a simple song singing <rrrrr.< B. B

0se a !oreign language dictionary to practice words containing a rolled letter *' 13. 13 Stick with it' If you re ha&ing a hard time, don t think it s because your mouth $ust wasn t built for it, unless you ha&e any of the physical conditions described in the )arnings below. /here is no genetic reason why a gi&en person cannot roll their <r<s, rather it is a question of practice and de&eloping tongue strength. -o keep at it and e&entually your <r<s will be perrrrrfect!

(#utter1"adder( Method
/he English words butter and ladder, when pronounced with a normal 8- accent, produce the same tongue motion that is used to produce the rolled <H< in -panish. /he following drill was taught to me in high school, but I quickly dismissed it, thinking that I $ust couldn t do it. A few years later, while on an e,tended study abroad trip in 0e,ico, I decided to gi&e it another try. Kor two weeks I worked on this drill and e&entually could roll my Hs. I &e taught this method to students with some success. I &e seen students with spacers, brackets, di&iders, braces, and missing front teeth roll their <Hs< using this method. /he key is not to let students use the e,cuse that they <can t do it.< /hey should be taught to say, <I can t do it yet.< /hey should know that with practice they can do this, despite circumstances that might make it more difficult. 1. 1 Say the word (butter&( then say the word (ladder(' 2. 2 2eel the tongue on the inside o! your mouth (!lip up( during the second syllable& barely touching the gum above and behind the top row o! teeth& almost touching the roo! your mouth' 9. 9 3ow say each word !aster& (#utter& butter& butter& ladder& ladder& ladder(' @. @ Continue saying the words !aster and !aster' If you prefer one of the words, you may use it e,clusi&ely. E&entually you ll produce a sound like' "u<<<<< Dthe <<< representing the trilling motionE, or +a<<<<. /hen try the <HH< in -panish DEH<<<HEE. 5. 5

ry saying& ("os barriles y borregos van a Monterrey en !errocarril'< 4. 4 Spanish tongue twister/ <Erre con erre cigarro. Erre con erre barril. HNpido corren los carros sobre los rieles del ferrocarril<

d* Method
1. 1 ry the d* method which is supposedly the only way "enin was able to (!ake( the trill sound' It is similar to the p5 0ethod. 2. 2 ry saying ($racula( and see i! it helps you roll the * by putting a $ in !ront o! it' /ouch the tip of your tongue to the bottom of your two top front teeth. /hen when say <5racula< and notice the tongue mo&es loosely but quickly from the tips of your teeth to the roof of your mouth. 9. 9 .ractice using the * in word-initial combinations as (dr-(& (tr-(& (br-(& (pr-( - it is much easier to pronounce in those positions' 1nce you can do that, work on dropping the initial consonant.

iger Method
/he key to rolling Hs is creating the proper &ibration. /he &ibration starts at the back of the tongue and mo&es toward the tip of the tongue Dlike a wa&eE. If you can produce the Cerman <acht< or Arabic and Jiddish pharyngeals and basically clear your throat, then you can roll H s. /his seems counter-intuiti&e because rolled H s are pleasing to the ear whereas pharyngeals are harsh. /he &ibration is the key and the same technique is needed to roll H s. Hemember' /he air passing through your laryn, and mouth makes the sound. 1. 1 Start by practicing that clear-your-throat (ckh( sound' /ry to turn it into a <grr<. 5on t be afraid of sounding ridiculous. 5o whate&er it takes to make the roof of your mouth &ibrate. D/his skill also comes in handy when speaking .hewbacca and making a &ariety of animal noises.E ?ractice getting the feel for that &ibration. Jour throat might get a little sore at first. Jou re working out <new< muscles and they ll get stronger with use. 2. 2

.ress the tip o! your tongue against the alveolar ridge behind your teeth' Jour tongue touches the right spot when you finish saying the letter + and the letter ;. -ay + or ; and at the end of the sound keep your tongue firmly in place. /ry to say <girl< and <hurl< without remo&ing the tip of your tongue from your al&eolar ridge. 8se the clear-your-throat &ibration to start the word and try to form the &ibration into a rolled H. Initially, use the <C< sound to kickstart a rolled H. At first, you will sound like a strangled tiger Dgrr, grr, grrE, but you lI start rolling Hs. E&entually you will be able to purrr using purrrfectly rrrrrolled Hrrrrrrrrrrrrr s. 9. 9 .ractice and re!ine' 1nce you can get your H rolling, e,periment with the position of the tip of your tongue. /o mo&e the sound toward the front of your mouth, add the <O< sound in front of your H. ?ractice adding &owel sounds Dah, ee, uh, o, ooE before and after the rolled Hs.

(4ision dream( Method

/his method will help you achie&e your first rolled <H<. It was de&eloped by, and worked successfully on, a nati&e speaker of English who had not successfully rolled a <H< in o&er 23 years of trying. /his method uses the English phrase <&ision dream<. 1. 1 ake a very deep breath' 2. 2 Say (vision( so that the central (5h( sound is very drawn out& lasting 6 to 7 seconds& like this/ vizhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhion. 9. 9 Make a huge crescendo 8increase in volume9 while you-re on the zh sound' It may also help to raise the pitch gradually. @. @ Make the !inal syllable o! (vision( very short& but continue to get louder' "y the time you say the final <n< of <&ision< you should be making the loudest sound you possibly can. 5. 5 Coordinate the rest o! the phrase' /he <ion< of <&ision< should only last a fraction of a second, before you launch into the <dr< of <dream<. /he <dr< of

dream should be the clima, of the phrase. Jou should be putting so much energy into your sound at this point that you may well feel somewhat faint. 4. 4 Switch to the (dr( o! dream and try to rela+ your tongue& especially the tip& making it as !loppy as possible' At the same time blow air out of your mouth as hard and fast as you possibly can. 6. 6 Allow the tip o! your tongue to be thrown !orward by the intensity o! your breath into the back o! your !ront teeth' A. A Allow your tongue to (bounce( back and !orth between the !ront teeth and the gum ridge' B. B :now that you have success!ully rolled your (*(s i! the tongue bounces back and !orth with a sound that !eels a little like (dagadagadagadaga(' /his may not happen the first time you try it -- if so don t be discouraged! 13. 13 Continue trying i! it doesn-t happen the !irst time'
o

If it doesn t happen the first time, try putting your tongue in different places for the final <n< of &ision. Jou could try putting the tongue right against the teeth, against the ridge in the roof of your mouth, or anywhere in between. If you are still ha&ing difficulty, try some of the techniques below for reducing the &olume required to trill your <H<s--these may also help you to trill it the first time.

1nce you ha&e done the roll once, the second step is to achie&e the same effect at lower &olume le&els. 0ost people who don t learn how to roll their <H< during childhood build up tension in the tongue o&er their lifetime Din the same way that people who ha&e desk $obs and don t stretch regularly tend to build up stiffness in the hips and hamstringsE. /he high &olume and energy of this method helps to o&ercome that stiffness. 1nce you ha&e identified the parts of the tongue that need to be fle,ible you can release the tension so that less energy is required. 1. 1

:now that the !irst time you achieve a rolled (*( it may be accompanied by sounds in the back o! your mouth& such as a 2rench 8uvular9 (*( or a velar !ricative as in ;erman (ach(' 5on t worry about this' the unwanted acti&ity will go away naturally as you get more comfortable with the roll. /wo ways to help are to yawn $ust before you start the <H<, and to smile broadly during it. 2. 2 Another e+ercise that is use!ul is to alternate between uvular 82rench1;erman9 * and alveolar 8Spanish1%talian9 *' -tart with the u&ular H and then <blow< it to the front of your tongue with a sudden gust of breath. /hen repeat. 9. 9 Consider the bilabial trill' /his is the <"rrrrrr< sound that people make to indicate that it is cold' it s made by closing the lips lightly and blowing between them so they flap against each other. Alternate the bilabial trill with the al&eolar trill, trying to imagine your tongue flapping against your gum ridge with as much ease and fle,ibility as your lips ha&e when they flap against each other. @. @ ry mentally !ocusing all the energy !rom your breath on and ,ust in !ront o! the alveolar ridge 8right in your upper mouth ,ust behind the !ront teeth9' -imultaneously imagine that the front of your tongue has a natural trilling ability, and that simply dropping it in the breath stream will cause the trilling to be acti&ated without any effort. 5. 5 ry to roll it in other situations' In roughly ascending order of difficulty'
o

o o o o o

tr -- say the word <trip< like a -cotsman. It may be easier to start with <drip< and gradually reduce the &oicing $ust enough until you say <trip< instead. gr -- say <that s CHeat< with a -cottish accent. If this is difficult, try producing the <C< sound further forward than usual, against the hard palate rather than the soft palate. It may also help to imagine that the <C< sound is $ust a relati&ely unimportant prelude to the <H< sound. kr -- <If it s not -cottish, it s FHaaap<. As with <Cr<, it may help to make the <F< sound more forward than usual. br pr -- say <prego< as in Italian for <you re welcome< after a short &owel, as in burrito at the beginning of a word Dthis is the hardest of allE

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edit ips

Hela,, rela,, rela,!!! If you ha&e problems with trilling your H it is likely that you are failing to rela, your tongue sufficiently. /he tongue should be as rela,ed as possible, with $ust enough tension locali*ed in the tip of the tongue to keep the tip touching the al&eolar ridge while the air is flowing through. o Kor e,ample, many nati&e speakers of English tend to tense the root of the tongue when speaking Dthe root is the part of your tongue that you can feel if you put your fingers as far back in your mouth as possible until you are about to gagE. Jou PcannotP roll an H if the root of your tongue is too tense, because it will make contact with the back of your throat and obstruct the airflow. Ads by Coogle

=ow to "earn English

/ips for speaking the language Kind it All >ere! ukfunlife.com A good e,ercise is to do a nice, looong yawn, trying to rela, the tongue as much as possible while keeping the tip of the tongue gently touching the al&eolar ridge. o Another good e,ercise is to roll on a large e,ercise ball so that your head is dropping down from your neck. /his will tend to create more space in the back of your mouth and to rela, the root of your tongue. o A good <&isuali*ation< e,ercise is to imagine that you are a puff of air coming up from the lungs, going o&er the root of the tongue and headed for the tiny gap between the tongue tip and the al&eolar ridge. Another method of preparing your tongue for the rolling of Hs is surprisingly simple' practice repeating the following sounds in rapid succession' tee-dee-&a. 5o this in your spare time, such as while you are dri&ing. In as little as a month, you ll be rolling Hs with ease.
o

/he al&eolar trill is difficult for nati&e English speakers because, with the single e,ception of some -cottish dialects there is no use of the al&eolar trill, or many trills at all, in English. 0any trills, the al&eolar trill being no e,ception, use muscles in the tongue and mouth we, as nati&e English speakers, simply do not use often for speech. It is the fle,ibility in your tongue and your ability to shape your inner mouth that make the trill possible. /he trill is not easy for any language speakers! It is most often the last consonant sound learned by children in trill languages, and most languages that contain trills also contain words describing people who cannot do them. o A famous e,ample is :ladimir Ilyich 8lyano& D+eninE, father of the 1ctober He&olution, founder and leader of the -o&iet 8nion from 1B16 to 1B29. +enin was unable to create the al&eolar trill, which is rather unfortunate when you are the leader of the Hossiyskaya -otsial5emokraticheskaya Habochaya ?artiya Dthe Hussian -ocial 5emocratic )orkers ?artyE. -o, don t feel so bad if you cannot get this easily. /he sound is made because of the "ernoulli s principle, an aspect of physics which defines the mo&ement of fluids and gas o&er different shapes, and one of the principles of flight. In other words, the shape of your tongue will partially resemble an airplane wing, with the e,haled air passing o&er the top of the stiff, shaped lower tongue and &ibrating the tip against the ridge like the flaps on an airplane wing. /he specific trill consonant you need to master depends on the language you are learning. /rills are common in many world languages from those widely spoken to obscure dialects. /rills are present in 5utch, Cerman, -panish, /hai, Hussian, Italian, Armenian, Krench, .roatian, -lo&enian, Karoese, Estonian, Kinnish, ;orwegian, ?olish, /agalog and Arabic, to name $ust a few. In each language different kinds of trills are made with different parts of the mouth. Kor e,ample, in Cerman the rolled H sounds is actually a 8&ular trill, produced at the back of the mouth rather than the front. 8se a mirror! 1ften, it is difficult to tell by feel alone whether your tongue is in the right place.

edit Warnings

.ertain physical conditions inside the mouth can pre&ent you from &ocali*ing the al&eolar trill. /hese include' o /he tongue tied Dankyloglossia inferior, or tight frenulumE condition refers to indi&iduals where the piece of skin inside the mouth located below the tongue Q where the tongue $oins the lower palate Q is too short and the tongue physically cannot reach the top palate for any dental fricati&es. o A cleft palate will also pre&ent an indi&idual from being able to produce trills. /he palate refers to the roof of the mouth. >umans ha&e a hard palate which co&ers a soft palate. 5uring fetal de&elopment some indi&iduals do not fuse the two sides of their hidden soft palate together correctly, causing a cleft in the roof of the mouth that can pre&ent the &ocali*ation of trills.

1ther physical deformities as a result of in$ury can also make this difficult. Kor e,ample, if your &ocal cords are damaged you may ha&e a harder time with trills than some others. -ome people Despecially those from countries where e&eryone can roll their <H<s with easeE may tell you that you could be genetically or physiologically unable to produce an al&eolar trill. 8nless you ha&e one of the conditions listed abo&e, this is absolutely not true. Holling your <H<s is a little like touching your toes' both require fle,ibility and coordination in certain parts of the body which can be lost if not practiced regularly. /he &ast ma$ority of people who can t touch their toes do not suffer from an innate disability' they simply need to regain the suppleness in their hips, hamstrings, etc. -imilarly, those who can t roll their <H<s can gain the ability to do so by increasing the fle,ibility of their tongues. -ome musicians who ha&e trained their embouchure to single-double-triple tongue can find difficulty in attaining the al&eolar trill. /he tongue, as a muscle, can be trained $ust as any other muscle. If you ha&e flutter-tongued a piece of music - you can think of practicing the al&eolar trill in the same way. 0ind o&er muscle!
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