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Help with Hindi phonetics | ||
Tags: Hindi | Pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Gregy1727 Triglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6327 days ago 98 posts - 117 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Afrikaans | Message 1 of 9 28 March 2011 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am having trouble with a few sounds in Hindi and I'm hoping to ask for advice. I am having trouble with a few categories of sounds:
Aspirated vs. Unaspirated Consonants I have trouble discerning and reproducing the difference between unaspirated and aspirated versions of the sound. Ex: क vs ख, ज vs झ, ब vs भ, and च vs छ, so on. Dental vs Retroflex (and their unaspirated vs aspirated differences) I also have trouble discerning and reproducing the difference between the following dental/retroflex t & d sounds, in both aspirated and unaspirated: ट ठ ड ढ त थ द ध The above 8 syllables are the ones thaat I have the hardest time discerning and replicating. What steps can I take to remedy the situation? Edited by Gregy1727 on 28 March 2011 at 11:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5562 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 2 of 9 30 March 2011 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
Listening to these sounds from native speakers again and again is an obvious solution. But you can try holding a sheet of paper in front of your mouth when you pronounce these sounds. When you make an aspirated sound, you will be able to see the paper blow away from your mouth. (Although you have to make sure that you're not breathing out of your nose at that time.) Or you could just hold your hand in front of your mouth. I am trying to think what else could be done. I'll post here if I come up with something. You can skype me (horshod) if you want to. Edited by horshod on 30 March 2011 at 2:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5803 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 3 of 9 30 March 2011 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't get very far with Hindi, but I learned to pronounce these sounds fairly quickly.
The aspirated/unaspirated distinction I had had demonstrated to me in an English linguistics class with a bit of paper hanging in front of my mouth, as per horshod's suggestion. I personally found it more effective speaking onto my hand and feeling my breath as per horshod's second suggestion (looking at a piece of paper a couple of inches from my face gave me a headache). I would practice sets of alternating aspirated and unaspirated, or several repetitions of an unaspirated consonant followed by several repetitions of the aspirated one, or all the unaspirated followed by all the aspirated. Just lots of practice. In order to pronounce the retroflex consonants right, I took the view that my tongue is merely a muscle, and any muscle can be trained. An important part of muscle training is stretching. My tongue-stretching regime consisted of a sequence of repetitive sounds. I would start with an English T and go t-t-t-t-t-t, but as I did, I would move my tongue forward, bit by bit, onto the teeth, up the teeth to the tip of the teeth, then back down the teeth, along the roof of my mouth until I felt a slight tension. Then I would start going forwards again -- t-t-t-t-t -- back to the start and I'd switch to D (d-d-d-d-d) for a full set, then to N, then L. Over the course of a week or so doing several sets of these exercises a day, I got to the point where my tongue could reach the retroflex sounds on the alveolar ridge no problem. Within 2 or 3 weeks I'd got to the point where I could do retroflex sounds off my soft palette (not a particularly useful skill, admittedly, I was just curious where the limits were!). I fully believe that the only way to learn to discriminate new sounds is to learn to produce them, and learn words with them in. When you hear people say words you know, the brain can start to tie the sound in to the motion you make when producing the sound. So I think speaking is the key to understanding. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| edible2 Newbie United States Joined 4772 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English | Message 4 of 9 07 April 2011 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with Cainntear- the most difficult aspect of learning to speak hindi is training your tongue to be more
flexible. You should really pay attention to the way your tongue strikes the roof of the mouth/teeth and the throat. If after several tries you find yourself unable to pronounce words correctly, it's probably because your mouth is physically incapable of making the nuanced sounds. It's sometimes useful to see how these consonants are written phonetically. For example: क = 'k' vs ख = 'kh' ब = 'b' vs भ = 'bh' .. and so on While I admit the addition of the 'h' sound may or may not help you, I would strongly recommend choosing one sample word which starts with that consonant and practicing it's pronunciation till you get it right. क = the same 'k' as in 'car' or काम = work, and pronounced 'kaam' ख = 'kh' as in खराब Google's translator has a great (if somewhat robotic-sounding) read-out feature which you can use. Or if all else fails, hunt down a native (shouldn't be too hard I imagine) and listen to the consonants repeatedly. And if (s)he's a good enough friend, (this may sound weird) ask him/her to explain how the tongue feels in the mouth. Trust me, it works. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5562 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 5 of 9 08 April 2011 at 1:51am | IP Logged | ||
The 'k' in 'car' is actually aspirated. So it is effectively 'ख'. The only place the 'k' sound is not aspirated in English is probably when it comes at the end of a syllable as in 'black'. I cannot think of an English word where the unaspirated 'k' sound be followed by a vowel. And that is probably the reason why it seems so difficult to figure out the difference between the aspirated and unaspirated sounds... (Although, this does not hold good in India. In Indian English, p/k/c/t/ch are never aspirated the way they are, in American or British English. That's probably one of the reasons why Indian English sounds funny to the American/British ears.) Also, the first letter in ख़राब is actually a completely different sound represented by the letter 'خ' in the Arabic script. It has the sound of 'ch' in the German word 'Loch'. In correct Hindi this sound is written with a dot 'nuqtah' below 'ख' as 'ख़'. Edited by horshod on 08 April 2011 at 2:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cntrational Triglot Groupie India Joined 4919 days ago 49 posts - 66 votes Speaks: Hindi, Telugu, English* Studies: French | Message 6 of 9 09 April 2011 at 7:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Remember that aspiration in voiceless consonants and "aspiration" in voiced consonants aren't the same -- voiced consonants use "breathy voice", which means your glottis is looser, allowing more air through. It's similar to whispering. Voiced consonants cannot be aspirated, it's impossible due to what aspiration is.
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| gambi Newbie New Zealand Joined 4901 days ago 37 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English Studies: Indonesian, Burmese | Message 7 of 9 10 April 2011 at 6:00am | IP Logged | ||
Actually, in English unaspirated consonants do exist but only when they directly follow another consonant as part of a consonant cluster. For example, The 'k' in 'skin' is unaspirated The 'ch' in 'stew' is unaspirated (When pronounced as in British or Australian English) The 't' in 'Steve' is unaspirated The 'p' in 'speak' is unaspirated However, the aspirated forms of their voiced counterparts, ie. 'gh', 'jh', 'dh' and 'bh' simply do not exist in English. Also, in my opinion the reason that Indian/South Asian accent sounds quite unique or even 'funny' to most Americans/Brits is not because the consonants are unaspirated. In other languages like Spanish and French, the voiceless consonants are also almost always unaspirated. I think it's the retroflex consonants and the intonation is what makes the Indian accent sound so unique to Westerners. Edited by gambi on 10 April 2011 at 6:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5562 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish | Message 8 of 9 10 April 2011 at 6:57am | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, I think you're probably right. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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