Monday, September 20, 2004, 23:08 GMT
Hello!
I'd like to ask your help and advice on some speech problems.
I live in London, I'm 15 years old, and I've been speaking English all my life but I've only recently noticed these problems because I used to be really shy and didn't talk much. So here are the problems...
1. I have trouble starting sentences with some consonants, especially "h". I don't have trouble pronouncing but once I begin the sentence with the consonant, my speech is halting and I can't breathe properly. Example "Have you eaten your dinner yet" is a very difficult phrase for me to get through (but "are you eating your dinner now" is easy for me b/c it begins with a vowel sound and flows smoothly).
2. I tend to gloss over prepositions, conjunctions, and some other unstressed syllables. Well, everyone does (I mean, who doesn't pronounce "of" like "uv" and "and" like "und"?) but my case is especially severe. People, including real Cockneys, have commented on how the vowel sounds in my prepositions and conjunctions were almost inaudible. I recorded myself and found that what they said was true. Also, I have trouble pronouncing word combinations like "were almost" clearly: my pronunciation sounds like "wralmost".
Now, what I consider my greatest problem...
3. When I have to talk continuously for more than five seconds, I begin to have trouble breathing and this subsequently affects my articulation and forces me to stop talking and take a deep breath. Today in English class, I was beginning to deliver a speech on Oedipus but I had not spoken three sentences when I felt my stomach and lungs beginning to contract. Soon, I had to tighten my eyebrows and spit words out of my mouth with a lot of force. And around twenty seconds later, I don't think my words were articulate enough to be intelligible any more; I think I was only puffing out consonants because I didn't have enough breath to pronounce vowels. After the speech, my throat felt very dry and sore and my cheek muscles were aching.
So, can you please tell me what my problem is (i.e. problem with breathing, articulation, etc.)? I've asked some other people but my problems seem to be very uncommon because everyone only knows about stuttering, improper prounciation, etc. I mean...I can pronounce words correctly and I don't stammer but talking's just very painful for me. Please help me!
Thanks a lot!
I'd like to ask your help and advice on some speech problems.
I live in London, I'm 15 years old, and I've been speaking English all my life but I've only recently noticed these problems because I used to be really shy and didn't talk much. So here are the problems...
1. I have trouble starting sentences with some consonants, especially "h". I don't have trouble pronouncing but once I begin the sentence with the consonant, my speech is halting and I can't breathe properly. Example "Have you eaten your dinner yet" is a very difficult phrase for me to get through (but "are you eating your dinner now" is easy for me b/c it begins with a vowel sound and flows smoothly).
2. I tend to gloss over prepositions, conjunctions, and some other unstressed syllables. Well, everyone does (I mean, who doesn't pronounce "of" like "uv" and "and" like "und"?) but my case is especially severe. People, including real Cockneys, have commented on how the vowel sounds in my prepositions and conjunctions were almost inaudible. I recorded myself and found that what they said was true. Also, I have trouble pronouncing word combinations like "were almost" clearly: my pronunciation sounds like "wralmost".
Now, what I consider my greatest problem...
3. When I have to talk continuously for more than five seconds, I begin to have trouble breathing and this subsequently affects my articulation and forces me to stop talking and take a deep breath. Today in English class, I was beginning to deliver a speech on Oedipus but I had not spoken three sentences when I felt my stomach and lungs beginning to contract. Soon, I had to tighten my eyebrows and spit words out of my mouth with a lot of force. And around twenty seconds later, I don't think my words were articulate enough to be intelligible any more; I think I was only puffing out consonants because I didn't have enough breath to pronounce vowels. After the speech, my throat felt very dry and sore and my cheek muscles were aching.
So, can you please tell me what my problem is (i.e. problem with breathing, articulation, etc.)? I've asked some other people but my problems seem to be very uncommon because everyone only knows about stuttering, improper prounciation, etc. I mean...I can pronounce words correctly and I don't stammer but talking's just very painful for me. Please help me!
Thanks a lot!