Having a good base is essential for the structural integrity of a good allophonome.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

The key to sounding good when reading aloud is practice, practice, practice. However, the underpinning for good target language pronunciation is to have a well-defined target language allophonome. Otherwise, one's phonemes will be "all over the place", constantly being affected by the ambiance of high volume, non-standard, undeveloped Englsh pronunciations we encounter on a daily basis.

In the case of English, our primary synergy (S1) has to be supported by the abdomen in the area around the navel. This will make it possible to produce the strong s and z gestures that characterize England-based English.

The abdominal surging gestures (s,z,h, y, uW, uR, uWR), as secondary synergy (S2) gestures, provide the bulk of the framework necessary for the vowels of English to exhibit their nativelike timbres. They also enable the possibility for themselves -- and all other gestures -- to weave into the fabric of a completely nativelike, dialect specific English-as-target-language allophonome.

But I remind you that there are 2 additional families of S2 gestures:

1) The medial S2 gestures u, l, ul, iy, uW, Ey, oy, ay, au, ou;

and

2) The tongue tip gestures TH (voiced), th (voiceless), t, D, ch, j, N, L.

All 3 families of the S2 gestures of English weave themselves into one another, as well as into the fabric of S3 gestures to form England-based English dialects. Furthermore, employing smaller but nonetheless robust threading, the resultant weave percolates upward, with progressively subtle filaments-- into dialects specific to England, the United States, Canada, the Falkland Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and certain areas of South Africa.

Indeed, all of the 50 or so segmental and suprasegmental gestures that characterize English will be enabled if S1 is developed sufficiently. Supported by S1, the latticework created by the (S2) gestures enables S1 to support the S2 gestures -- which, in turn -- connect S1 to the remaining synergy levels of English: the tertiary gestures (S3) -- all of the segmental gestures not mentioned here (as well as the bulk of the suprasegmental gestures of English) -- and the quaternary gestures (S4) (those that form the veneering for the various dialects of England-based English).

This symphony of players, coordinated by the competency of the speaker and/or learner of the target language (with our focus in this blog being nativelike England-based English), will be orchestrated in the performances that follow attainment of the speaker's ability to employ the task dynamics kee has developed.

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

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