Eu Portuguese Tricky "R & L" Consonants
quero [kɛ.&u], para [pa.&ɐ], viro [vi.&u], hora [ɔ.&ɐ], cara [ka.&ɐ], dinheiro [di.ɲɐi.&u], miradouro [mi.&ɐ.do.&u], raro [ʀa.&u]
Alveolar Tap Drills
Part 1: Awareness
The first step in this process is developing an awareness of the Alveolar Tap sound. This means discovering where it occurs in the mouth as well as the manner of articulation.
Let’s start by taking the English consonants /d/ /t/ and /n/. Take your tongue and make each of these sounds and note where you put the tip of your tongue (it’s the alveolar ridge). The Alveolar R sound is made at this exact spot, too (hence the term Alveolar Tap).
There is one major difference between the /d/ and /l/ sounds and the Alveolar R sound: length.
For /d/ /l/ and /n/, there is a certain amount of time required to make the sound. If you create a /d/ /l/ or /n/ movement in less than that time, you are effectively making an Alveolar Tap.
In other words, making the /d/ /t/ or /l/ sounds really fast and you will create a tap sound.
To show you, repeat after me in the audio below. Eventually, your tongue will be moving so fast that the consonant will evolve into an alveolar tap /&/.
Part 2: Strength & Endurance
You will probably not be able to move your tongue this fast for now, but you can build your speed with practice. To help, I’ve created the following two drills.
The audio files below represent one “set” each. Complete 5 sets per training session and at least one set per day (ideally morning and night). The more you push yourself to burnout, the faster your tongue muscles and neural connections will build.
- Make the sound /&a/
- Repeat the sound over and over again
- Gradually build the speed until you are unable to go any faster
- Repeat five times
- Start by saying the sound “&a” once per beat
- Double the speed for two measures
- Double the speed again for two measures
- Return to the original speed
- Do this five times continuously without dropping the beat
- Once you can do this easily, increase the tempo slightly
After a session of doing these drills, your mouth will feel fatigued. This is how you know you did enough work. Any fatigue you feel today will translate to new ability tomorrow.
Once you build the speed on your tap in isolation, your next task is to practice combining the tap with other consonants. Remember, you can refer back to this drill set whenever you like.
roda [ʁo.dɐ], ferro [fe.ʁu], raíz [ʁɐ.iʃ], raquete [ʁɐ.ke.tɨ], roleta [ʁu.ɫe.tɐ], rua [ʁu.ɐ], rio [ʁi.u], reto [ʁe.tu]
Uvular Awareness Drills
Step 1: Find the "Uvula"
The first step to mastering a new motor movement is to develop a physical awareness of it. The two things you want to focus on are location and movement in your mouth.
On this page, you will use a series of drills to learn how to make uvular consonant sounds. Study the visual diagrams and do the exercises. By the end of this section, you should know what a uvular consonant sounds and feels like.
The uvula is the dangly thingy at the back of your mouth (no need to get technical here). You articulate these 'r' sounds at the Uvula. You make these sounds by raising the back-most part of the tongue UP to the uvula to restrict air flow.
Even though the sound is "uvular," your tongue is actually the only active agent. Your goal is to build an awareness of the back-most part of your tongue and learn how to adjust it so that it comes in contact with the uvula.
Building awareness of the uvular consonant can be tricky. Again, we don't use this in English so it will be new for you. Below I give you some examples of uvular sounds and walk you through the process of how to make it. It will take you some time, but you'll eventually get it.
Step 2: Find the "Velum"
Since the uvular sounds aren't apart of English language, let's first try to find the next closest thing. This is the velum (also called the soft palette). You create the uvular sound by raising the back of your tongue to the uvula. In the same way, you create the velar sound by raising the back of your tongue to the velum.
Looking at the two diagrams below, you see that the velum is above the uvula. Since the back of the tongue is already nearby, it doesn't need to move much to approach the velum or uvula.
In the audio file below I repeat the two velar/k/. To create this sound, you first raise the back of the tongue up to the velum and block air to build up pressure. Then you lower your tongue and release the pressure in a burst of air. Try to follow along with me in the audio below:
- Do exactly as I do to articulate the /k/ sound. Your goal is to pinpoint the single muscle feeling that creates this sound.
- Do not move on until you think you have a good physical sense of where the velum is.
- Do not move on until you think you have a good physical sense of what it feels like to move the back of the tongue.
Step 3: Change Direction
Before moving on, we must review three key points from the last step:
- Velar consonants are created by raising the back of the tongue to the velum
- Uvular consonants are created by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula
- The uvula is located directly below the velum
Therefore: The only difference between a velar consonant and an uvular consonant is the direction in which you move the back of your tongue.
So, you create the velar consonant with an diagonal-backward motion of the tongue (red arrow). You create the uvular consonant with only a straight-backward motion.
It will probably take you some time to feel out this straight-back motion and find your uvular consonant sweet spot, but at least now you know which general direction you need to go.
In the audio below, I go back and forth between the velar fricative (doesn't exist in English) and the uvular fricative. You can try to repeat if you wish, but don't worry about mimicking so much. I am only including this audio so that you can can hear the difference between a velar and uvular consonant sound.
Step 4: Feel It Out
Now that you have a basic idea of where the uvular is, you have to spend time practicing until you can pinpoint it in your own speech.
In the audio files below, I articulate three different uvular sounds. Listen and try your best to mimic. Do not worry about getting the sound for now, as I will describe each sound in more detail after.
While feeling these sounds out, try the following:
- Keep the front/middle of your tongue (what you can see in a mirror) completely relaxed at the bottom of your mouth.
- Keep the tip of your tongue resting against the back of your lower teeth/gum-line.
- Do NOT pull your tongue back.
- Do NOT do any excess movements with your lips or tongue (make the uvular consonant in a single movement).
Uvular Comparison Drills
The voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ always occurs in combination with other voiced consonants. You may have a tendency to do a voiceless /χ/ in these combos. Listen to the audio and try to mimic as I articulate: vʁa...dʁa...gʁa...bʁa.
Uvular Combo & Speed Drills
I mentioned before that the uvular consonant in European Portuguese is "rhotic." Rhotic refers to the role the sound plays within the flow of a language. Within a language, these sounds will appear in combination with almost every other sound.
Take the English rhotic sound /ɹ/. This is the sound in the word "road." Notice how this sound appears in combination with almost every English consonant. Word examples include "bread, throat, grand, drug, treat, preach, cream."
You will also find in English that syllables often end with this same rhotic sound /ɹ/. Examples include: "par-king, mur-der, hear, fair-y." When this rhotic /ɹ/ sound occurs after a vowel, it often alters the quality of the preceding vowel (compare the sounds of "far" and "fa" in "farther" and "father").
There are two points I am driving at here:
- Since the Uvular Consonant in European Portuguese is also rhotic, it can change words in speech-flow just as the English /ɹ/ does.
- You will have a STRONG tendency to replace the uvular consonant with your own native "R" sound.
Doing this is perhaps the biggest giveaway of whether you have a bad accent. Like I said, the English /ɹ/ sound is completely different from the European Portuguese Uvular Consonant. Yet this is still the most common pronunciation error that English speakers make.
The "Rally" Combo Drill
What I mean by "combo" is that you make the two consonant sounds in super fast succession, almost at the same time. This requires a bit of motor coordination, but after a few tries you'll get it.
- For each combo, separate the two sounds and add any vowel after each to create two syllables (e.g., "fʁ" will turn into "fa...ʁa").
- Alternate slowly between the two syllables and gradually build speed.
- Continue to build speed until it is too fast and you must drop the vowel after the first consonant and fuse the sound into one syllable (i.e., "fa....ʁa" will transform into "fʁa").
- Repeat this final syllable several times before starting the drill again.For each combo, do this drill 5 times in one session, do at least one session per day.
If you do these drills regularly, you will accelerate the development of your uvular consonant combos. Once you are comfortable, you may move on to speed training drills.
The Speed Training Drill
You will sometimes have situations where the they occur in two or more consecutive syllables. Since you are new to it, you still may need preparation time to articulate the sounds. This is why we need to train speed as well.
When you first start with this drill, you will need to do it slowly. After repeating the exercise for a while, you will gradually be able to increase the speed. So make a point to perform this drill at least five times a session, and at least once a day.
I promise it will go a long way in developing the raw motor ability needed to speak European Portuguese!
- Alternate between the two syllables to a steady beat.
- After each measure, double the number of times you say the syllables.
- Double two more times until it is so fast that you have to fuse the sounds.
- Do this drill 5 times in one session, at least one session per day.
mel [mɛɫ], ele [e.ɫɨ], eles [e.ɫɨʃ], dele [de.ɫɨ], aquele [ɐ.ke.ɫɨ], possível [pu.si.vɛɫ], missel [mi.sɛɫ], golo [go.ɫu]
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