Lesson 5: Consonants & Vowel Length | English Phonetics for Academic Presentations

Welcome to Lesson 5 of a 5-part training series on phonetics for academic presentations. This series covers advanced speaking skills for multilingual presenters sharing their findings on a global stage.

In this video, we discuss voiced vs. voiceless consonants & how they impact vowel length. We will practice using minimal pairs to understand how to shorten or lengthen vowels according to consonants.

Phonetics studies indicate that listeners of various language backgrounds more accurately identify words with a relatively long vowel sound before voiced versus voiceless consonants (Bent, Bradlow & Smith, 2008).

For presenters, this means that lengthening your vowels before voiced consonants can make a difference in how intelligible – or understandable – you are to your audience. Watch this video to practice with me!

References:

Bent, Tessa, Ann R. Bradlow, & Bruce L. Smith (2008). Production and perception of temporal patterns in native and non-native speech. Phonetica 65, 131-147.

Zsiga, Elizabeth C. (2013). The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Wiley-Blackwell.