In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over the pronunciation
of the word ‘little’.
Because of the Flap T and the Dark L, the pronunciation of the word ‘little’ is
pretty tough. Thanks so much to those who suggested that I make a video on this topic.
Yesterday, Tom and I had a long discussion about this word. With each do something differently
with our tongues when we pronounce it, and we both agree, it’s incredibly hard to describe.
The thing that makes this word so hard is the Flap-schwa-Dark L ending. Other words
that end with this sound combination: battle, bottle, hospital, title, capital, total, metal,
subtle, ladle, middle, model, pedal, noodle, cuddle, paddle. A lot of words!
So, we both decided, this is a really hard topic to teach. You’re going to see some
up close, slow motion footage of the mouth, and I’m going to do my best to describe
what’s happening.
In ‘little’ and all of the words I listed, this is an unstressed, ending syllable. So
the syllable li- is stressed, and –ttle is unstressed. That means it will be flatter
and lower in pitch than the stressed syllable. Li–ttle, –ttle, li-, –ttle. Little,
DA-da, little.
We start with the L consonant. This is a Light L because it starts the syllable. That means
it’s different from the second L, which is at the end of the second syllable,
a Dark L.
The Light L can be made two different ways. First, it can be made with the tip of the
tongue at the roof of the mouth, ll, like this. Li-. Or, it can be made with the tongue
tip coming through the teeth. Ll, like this, li-. In this case, it looks like the TH, but
the tongue is not relaxed, letting the air vibrate it like it does for the TH. For this
L, the tongue is a little stiff, ll, ll. You’ll see this L in the slow motion clip at the
end of the video.
The vowel in this stressed syllable is the IH as in SIT vowel. A lot of people want to
go towards EE, lee, lee-ttle, but we want IH, little – relax everything to get a more
accurate vowel sound. Ih, li-. The tip of the tongue touches the back of the bottom
front teeth, and the front part arches up towards the roof of the mouth, li, ih. Notice
how the pitch of my voice goes down. Li-. This is the shape of a stressed syllable.
Now we get to the tough part, the unstressed, second syllable. We have the Flap T followed
by the schwa/Dark L sound. Normally for the Flap T, the tongue bounces against the roof
of the mouth and right back down. Uh-duh, uh-duh. If this sounds like the R, that’s
because it is the same sound as the R in your native language.
But the tongue does something a LITTLE different in this word, little. Tom describes making
the Flap T in ‘little’ like this: The tongue does a little release, then goes right
back to the roof of the mouth for the Dark L. So the tongue doesn’t really do a full
bounce for the flap, just a little release.
I pronounce this a little differently. I don’t release the tip of my tongue, I leave it right
where it is at the roof of the mouth, li-ttle, uhl. Instead, I release the back part of the
tongue, pulling it back like we do for the Dark L, while leaving the tip where it is.
Usually I make the dark sound of the Dark L with the tongue tip down, but in this sound
sequence, I leave it up. I think you’ll find, when you get the hang of it, that it
makes the word easier to pronounce. Let’s break it down and practice putting a break
between the flap up and the Dark L. Litt-le, litt-le. The back part of the tongue releases
down and back a little to make this dark sound, ul. Little, little.
Let’s watch this word up close and in slow motion.
Here, my tongue comes through my teeth for the beginning L. The tongue tip slides down
behind the bottom front teeth, and the teeth part. The front part of the tongue arches
up. This is the IH vowel.
Watch as the tongue tip goes to the roof of the mouth. Now, of course you can’t see
it, but the back part of the pulls away and back to make the dark L sound, uul. And the
tongue tip comes back down at the end of the word. Let’s watch again.
This word is very common in the phrase ‘a little bit’, where we have the schwa before,
and the stressed syllable ‘bit’ after. The T at the end of ‘bit’ is going to
be a Stop T, if the sentence ends there or if the next word begins with a consonant:
>> Are you tired? >> A little bit
or
>> I’m a little bit frustrated.
Those were both stop Ts, bit, where we don’t, tt, make the final release, but just cut off
the air for an abrupt stop. A little bit.
The ‘t’ at the end of ‘bit’ will be a Flap T if it’s not the end of the sentence
and the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong. For example:
>> Tell me a little bit about that.
Bit-a-bout, bit about. Bit-a-, bit-a-, bit-a-. Here it’s a flap, which sounds like the
D between vowels in American English, and might sound like the R in your own native
language. Bit a-, bit-a, bit-a, bit about.
I hope this has given you an idea of how to practice this word. It’s a very common word,
so practice it a lot and get comfortable with it. If there’s a word or phrase you’d
like help pronouncing, please put it in the comments below.
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That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.