Improve "L" pronounciation

Raj   Tue May 25, 2010 1:48 pm GMT
English is my first language and I am born and bought up in London. I think I have a kind of working class Estuary accent with a silght Indian twang on certain words/letters particularly the letter L when I pronounce it fully.

To illustrate:

- When I am speaking normally in a non formal capacity I usually pronounce "well" as "weww".

- When I pronounce the L properly it comes out with a slightly Indian accent it also sounds like the MCL accent that alot of teenagers speak (think Ali G) nowadays. I am in my late 20s so I do not speak with this accent.

When I say another word after the L sound ie "well I " the L pronounciation is not so obvious. How can I change this pronounciation?

Cheers
Another Guest   Tue May 25, 2010 7:38 pm GMT
After saying "well" and "weww" and trying to pay attention to where my tongue and lips are, it seems that for "l", my tongue it up against my top teeth and my lips are slightly open along a line. With "w", my tongue is further back, and my lips are making a circle. I think that with "l", most of the modulation comes from the tongue, while with "w", most of the modulation comes from the lips. So one thing that you can do is pay attention to where you lips and tongue are see if they're in the same place standard speakers place them. Another thing to look out for is whether you're adding a vowel after the "l" sound. Sometimes people pronounce "well" as "we-luh".

Also, a few corrections: "I was born", not "I am born", "brought up", not "bought up", and "pronunciation", not "pronounciation".