Our catch phrase is on its way.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

Many of my Jingles clients use glottal stops excessively. Not only does the overuse of the glottal stop make it evident that one is not a native speaker of English, but it can actually damage a person’s throat.

The excessive use of glottal stops occurs preponderantly in segments where a linking w or a linking y is what native speakers of English employ – but where many non-native speakers employ different, non-nativelike gestures instead.

For example, in the segment “neither crude oil nor wood chips”, many of my clients insert a glottal stop instead of a w at the beginning of the word “wood”: “neither crude oil nor ‘ood chips”.

Another example is the inability to employ a linker y – as in the expression for two years, when the client says “for two ‘ears” instead.

The key to helping my clients gain the ability to forego glottal stops and instead employ either w or y is to develop their “primary synergy” (S1) – which for English is located in the region of the navel. Once a client has brought kerm S1 to a level of 3.4 out of a possible 3.5 maximum score, then kee is able to send sufficient S1 to literally force kerm glottis to open. This makes it possible for both the secondary synergy (S2) y gesture and the tertiary synergy (S3) w gesture to supplant any glottal stop speech motor skills employment techniques that might otherwise be (erroneously) employed. Thus, for example “The wolf was wounded two years ago.” is no longer (incorrectly) pronounced as “The ‘olf was ‘ounded two ‘ears ago, but rather as “The wolf was wounded two years ago.”

The result is pronunciation more in keeping with nativelike English – which makes it much easier for native speakers of England-based English (from North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England, and the Falkland Islands) to understand what a properly Jingles-trained non-native English speaker is saying.

Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.