Curt Ford

Squeeze zones, and more

Here I’ll be posting thoughts on teaching and improving listening skills, as well as audio clips for the “daily squeeze” feature: little examples to savor the blends and blurs of quick, natural speech. Be sure to click through the previews below to hear the examples.

Daily Squeeze: “Well, y’ain’t in the woods…”

“Well, y’aint in the woods now are you son?,” he asked. [wɛ́l jẽ́ʔn̩ǝwʊ́dz nǽʊ áɹjǝ sʌ́n hiǽst] I don’t hear a distinct, intrusive [w] in “now are,” as is often heard in sequences like “to eat,” perhaps because this speaker doesn’t have much lip-rounding at the end of “now.” Note that this speaker was born …

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Daily Squeeze: “I’m going to”

“I’m going to” (to express future or an intention, not motion!) can sound like [áɪmgǝnǝ], [áɪŋgǝnǝ], [áɪŋǝnǝ], [áɪŋnǝ], [ámǝnǝ], [ámnǝ], [ámǝ], all heard in North America. A few examples: I’m going to [ŋǝnǝ] do this, and then… I’m going to [áɪŋgǝnǝ] be there… I’m going to [ámǝnǝ] be there, don’t worry. Yeah, I’m going to …

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Day of? or Dave?

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to Barcelona to the International House ELT conference. While I was there I had an opportunity to talk with Richard Cauldwell, who was giving a plenary talk on training teachers to deal with authentic recordings. He mentioned a page on American Voices that described how …

Day of? or Dave? Read More »