[ʌ] ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’
he ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’ vowel sound. This is a very relaxed vowel sound. You can see, uh, the jaw drops but the rest of the mouth remains very neutral, uh, uh. The tongue is also very relaxed. The back presses down just a little bit, and the tip is forward, lightly touching behind the bottom front teeth. Uh, butter. Here we see the ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’ sound on the right compared with the mouth at rest on the left.
Here we see the inside parts of the mouth drawn in. As with all other vowels, the soft palate is raised in this vowel. But more importantly, note the position of the tongue. It is forward and relaxed, and slightly pressed down in the back. The ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’ sound. Sample words: mother, sudden, lucky, ton. Sample sentence: I love my younger brother, but sometimes he bugs me. Now you’ll see this sentence up close and in slow motion, both straight on and from an angle, so you can really study how the mouth moves when making this sound.
I, the jaw drops to make the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong. Tongue comes up to make the L and comes through the teeth, love and the jaw drops. This is the ‘uh as in ‘butter’ sound. Bottom lip comes up for the V, and the lips come together for the M, my. Younger, another ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’, but it’s very fast. We’re already now into the R, younger. Brother, another uh vowel sound. The tongue comes through the teeth for the TH. Er, brother. But, another uh vowel sound. Teeth come together for the S, sometimes, uh, another ‘butter’ sound. -Times, he bugs – lips come together for the B and again, the ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’ sound. The tongue comes up in the back to make the G. Me, with the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ vowel sound.
Again from an angle. The jaw drops for the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong, I love, the tongue forms the L, jaw drops for the ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’. Bottom lip up to the teeth to make the V sound, my. The tongue moves up to make the Y consonant sound: younger. There’s the R consonant sound. Brother, a quick ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’. Tongue through the teeth to make the TH. Lips together for the B. But, another quick ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’. The teeth together to make the S, sometimes, a quick ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’, -times, with the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong. Lips together to make the M. He bugs, with the ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’ sound. You can see the tongue moved up in the back to make that G sound. Me, with the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ vowel and the corners of the lips pulled back. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
International Phonetic Alphabet symbol: [ʌ]
This sound occurs in just a handful of other languages. For a list, see Wikipedia’s page.
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