Today’s phonetic symbol and sound is / ɑː /. The colon in this and four other phonetic symbols (/ i: / /u:/ / ɜ: / / ͻ: /) is sometimes written as two small triangles pointing at each other. However, it is absolutely fine and acceptable to simply use colons, as I will do in this blog.
It is a long vowel, and can be found in words such as far, start, heart and blah:
Far = / fɑː /
Start = / stɑːt /
Heart = = / hɑːt /
Blah = / blɑː /
Notice that in the spelling of the first three words we see the letter ‘r’. However, in SSBE the /r/ sound is not pronounced in the middle of words when it is followed by a consonant (with the exception of y, such as in 'sorry'). The same rule applies to many other British accents. However, I will talk further about the letter ‘r’ in my first blog after this pronunciation series, rather than going deeper into it now.
To pronounce the / ɑː / vowel, your jaw drops and you make a sound near the front of your mouth. You can also think of what you say at the doctor when they ask you to say ‘ah’. Having said that, perhaps you say something different in your own language! So another way is for your mouth to make the same shape as when you’re in awe of something:
(Image taken from English Pronunciation – Long Vowel - /ɑː/ - 'father’, ‘start’ & ‘hard’ - YouTube)
So now we’ve come this /fɑː/, how do you feel about learning phonetics? Does it make your /hɑːt/ sing, or is it just /blɑː/? I’d love to hear from you! And as always, let me know if you have any comments or questions.
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