People from many languages tend to use too much energy on final consonants. This can Cause extra puffs of air or even extra vowel sounds to attach to the ends of words. Follow the directions on the tape for stopping the consonants properly on the following drills.

[LANGUAGE NOTE: Pay particular attention to this section if your first language is ITALIAN, GREEK, or KOREAN. There's also some tendency to explode too hard with some speakers of other East Asian languages.]

L8/S1: VOICELESS FINAL CONSONANTS

 

ON THE TAPE	Not On The Tape
SAFE -- A SAFE PLACE	half -- half priced
TOOTH -- TOOTH DECAY	fifth -- fifth generation
ICE -- ICE CREAM	promise -- promise me
PUBLISH -- PUBLISH THE BOOK	parish -- parish priest
SIP -- SIP THE DRINK	tip -- tip that waitress
SIT -- SIT THERE	top -- top drawer
SICK -- THE SICK CHILD	rock -- rock pile

L8/S2: VOICED FINAL CONSONANTS

 

HAVE -- HAVE TIME	prove -- prove that
JAZZ -- JAZZ SINGER	praise -- praise the Lord
CAB -- CAB DRIVER	ebb -- ebb tide
SIDE -- SIDE STREET	road -- road work
DRAG -- DRAG THE FURNITURE	lag -- lag behind

Add now try avoiding any extra air puffs or vowel sounds after the final consonants inside these additional sentences from some of the earlier consonant drills.

-- I feel safe when I leave and my relief shows up.
-- Not having enough love can cause great grief.
-- This is as good as it gets.
-- This happened because his rose garden was beautiful.
-- Stop the cab!
-- Can the cop nab the criminal?
-- The baby can't sleep in that crib.
-- The hotel let me keep the rose.
-- Don't kick the dog.
-- He was struck on the back by a plastic bag.
-- The pig picked up a jug of water.
-- Crack open the keg.
-- Let the seed sit on the ground.
-- You need a hat on your head on hot days.
-- Get outside and walk around a bit.
-- He had to avoid getting hit in the head.

I. ACTING WITH AN ACCENT (Learning Dialects & Accents)

26 one-hour tapes with manuals for actors wanting to learn any of the following accents and dialects:

 

Standard British	American Southern	Spanish
Cockney	New York City	Italian
Northern British	Boston	French
Irish	Upper Class New England	German
Scottish	Down East New England	Russian
Australian	Chicago & Detroit	Yiddish
	Mid-West Farm Belt	Polish
West Indian &	Four Texas Dialects	Norwegian &
Black African		Swedish
Arabic
Farsi (Persian)	American Accents for English Actors

II. SPEAKING WITHOUT AN ACCENT (Reducing Regional Dialects)

8 one-hour tapes and manuals for speakers wanting to reduce any of the following American Regionalisms:

- New York City (also N. Jersey & Long Island)
-American Southern (including Mountain Southern and Texas)
-Pennsylvania and S. Jersey (also Delmarva -- De, DC, and MD)
-Boston (and all of Eastern New England)
-Chicago - Detroit - Buffalo (and Great Lakes Regions)
-American Black Dialects (urban and rural)
-Mid-West Farm Belt Dialects (non-Southern varieties)
-AND a special tape for learning ELEVATED AMERICAN DICTION

III. THE SOUND & STYLE OF AMERICAN ENGLISH (Reducing Foreign Accents)

3 ninety-minute cassettes with manuals for speakers of English as a Second Language wishing to reduce their foreign accents.

OTHER CASSETTES by

DAVID ALAN STERN, Ph.D.