In this American English pronunciation
video, we’re going to learn how to
pronounce the OH as in NO diphthong.
Diphthongs are a combination of two
sounds. They have a starting position
and an ending position.
The jaw drops for the beginning
position, tongue shifts back a little bit.
The lips may start relaxed, or may start
rounding right from the beginning.
After dropping the jaw, immediately
start moving into the ending position:
the lips round, and the back part of the
tongue stretches up. Focus on the
movement of the jaw and the lip rounding.
Let’s see this sound up close and in slow motion.
Jaw drop for the first position, and
rounded lips for the second.
The word ‘slow’. Notice how the lips
are not relaxed in the first position of
this diphthong, with the jaw drop.
They’re flared, which does not affect
the sound, as they prepare to round for
the ending position. Rounded lips.
In a stressed syllable, the OH diphthong
curves up then down. Slow, oh. In an
unstressed syllable, it’s lower and
flatter in pitch, as well as quieter and
quicker, oh. The diphthong is
unstressed in the word ‘okay’, oh. Let’s
take a look at the word ‘okay’.
The jaw drops, but not quite as much as
it did on the stressed syllable of ‘slow’.
The lips begin to round for the
transition into the ending position. The
lips round, but not quite as much as for
the stressed OH in ‘slow’.
Here we compare the first position of
the stressed OH on top with the
unstressed version on the bottom. Less
jaw drop for the unstressed version.
And here, the second position. You can
see that for the stressed OH, on top, the
lips round more than they do in the
unstressed version.
Generally, the unstressed version of a
vowel or diphthong is more relaxed and
often doesn’t take the full mouth
position, in this case, less jaw drop and
less lip rounding. This is because we
don’t take as much time for unstressed
syllables, they’re shorter, so we simplify
the mouth movements.
The OH diphthong, stressed: slow, OH
Unstressed: okay, oh
OH, oh, OH, oh.
Example words. Repeat with me: