Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy and this is our 119th episode.

The American English R sound, whether it's part of an R-controlled vowel or is being used as a consonant,

is one of the most difficult sounds for non-native speakers to master. American English is known

for having rhotic vowel sounds. A rhodic vowel is a vowel that is followed by an R sound.

This characteristic is one of the major differences between standard American English

and the received pronunciation of Britain.

I like using the Cambridge Online Dictionary when I want to compare American and British pronunciation of words.

For instance, here is the audio sample for the words Bird and Storm from their website.

I'll play the British pronunciation first, then the American.

Bird. Bird.

Bird.

Storm.

Storm.

If you're practicing American pronunciation,

every pronunciation textbook will tell you that erotic vowel is expected.

Something that many student textbooks don't mention is that there is more than one way to produce the R sound that makes the vowel rhodic.

Wait a second. What?

Yes, there is more than one way to create an R sound.

The more commonly taught method is to curl the tip of the tongue upward toward the back of the tooth ridge.

With this technique, the back of the tongue is kept low.

In his book, A Course in Phonetics, Peter Latifogid says that 60% of Americans use this technique.

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