A couple of days ago, I was going to update this blog after such a long, long time. But unfortunately, I have been down with a flu these few days. I was a bit worried because of swine flu until the doctor assured me that it’s just a regular one. (Well, the coughing I have been making a number of times could be phonetically transcribed as [ʔh: ʔ:h::] (very tight glottal closure followed by a burst of glottal fricative!)) Anyway, I hope I will be able to come back again in a couple of days time.
By the way, would you like to sing a ballad for pronunciation practice? Here’s my version of “Love Me Tender” for you! Slow ballads are always good to check your own pronunciation with. There will be two major points to bear in mind in singing this song: 1) for /l/ of ‘love’ the contact between the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge should be prolonged just a little — slightly longer than is the normal case, and 2) the vowel of ‘love’ should be a little closer than [ʌ], ie., more like [ə] (because you’re supposed to sing with an American accent).
Love me tender, love me sweet,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so.
Love me tender, love me true,
All my dreams fulfilled.
For my darlin’ I love you,
And I always will.
Love me tender, love me long,
Take me to your heart.
For it’s there that I belong,
And we’ll never part.
Love me tender, love me dear,
Tell me you are mine.
I’ll be yours through all the years,
Till the end of time.
Well...I think I should go back to bed now.
Please have a look at my main blog!
