Hello, today there is a lot of background noise probably going to happen on this video.
It's two hours to the Australian Grand Prix and I've just literally jumped on my computer
and bought a general admission ticket.
This is a big event for Australia and I thought I would just take a quick moment to present
you with some of the key words around the Australian Grand Prix and to show you some
pronunciation tricks for the Australian accent and today I'm going to focus more on General
Australian because in all honesty it's a car race, so we might as well get a little bit
of the "inner bogan" out!
Ready?
Firstly, let's talk about the suburb where the race is occurs.
So we have the Albert Park Circuit.
Now, I would often say Albert, with a /t/ 't" but given that it's race day let's drop
the /t/ like most Australians would and have a listen.
We instead say /‘ælbʔ/ Park and in this instance you will hear a case of the glottal
stop.
Australian English has the feature of often deleting "t"s at the end of the words.
But we don't just delete the "t" and leave silence like this: /‘ælbə/ Park.
Instead we creak our voice.
And that sound you hear is the glottal stop which is falling in place of the "t."
So, let's have a go together- "Albert Park."
This is a really good opportunity to show you how explosive the Australian /t/ and /s/
sound are when they are combined.
So on the track I will no doubt see the "pits."
Have a listen to that final sound on the word "pit," the plural with the "t" and the "s"
makes /ts/.
This word is a really good example of how to ensure you get voice in the middle of words
that contain the /dʒ/ sound.
The cars will be revving up their engines.
And /dʒ/ needs to have voice.
So make sure you are saying /ɛndʒən/ not /ɛntʃən/.
I can hear the engines right now, it's so invigorating!
This word is perfect example of how we lengthen vowels for English.
So we have the word "Car."
A word you no doubt use each day but just watch the degree to which my jaw descends
on the word.
"Car."
My jaw's almost inline with my Adam's apple.
So instead of /kʌ/, if the vowel is too short the jaw doesn't go far enough.
We need /ka:/.
Today, the cars are certainly going to rev their engines and I think that any other Ozzie
who's driving near the track is also revving along too, especially the Ozzie males!
One of my favourite moments in the lead up to the Grand Prix is the Fly over and in this
word you've got a really good chance to practice voicing on /v/ in the middle of the word so
just check that your voice is on.
So, this is when the jets zoom past and there's no silent, subtle thing about it.
No one misses it.
One of my favourite things with the event.
When I was a little younger I had a secret ambition to become a grid girl.
So, here's a great example of using plural with voicing.
For the word "grid girls" if you want to talk about the grid girls on Monday at work, make
sure you put /z/ in the voice at the end of the word.
One final word, obviously in all competitive sports there's only one champion and I just
want to point out that the sound is pronounced with a /tʃ/ so it's a very short, quick sound
/tʃ/, high air pressure.
So make sure you really explode that sound and don't lengthen it or we'll get a word
that sounds like this: Shampion (with/ʃ/) which is in error.
We need Champion.
It's short.
It's fast- just like the champion who will win today.
Obviously these words or most of them are not words you might use for your daily life
so if you're struggling to get through and pronounce any words for your daily life please
call me.
I can do an accent assessment and assist you with some of the core sounds for Australian English.
I'll leave you with some highlights from a wonderful day.
I just got home from attending the Grand Prix and I've got some video to share.
I really hope you've enjoyed this vlog.
Make sure you head to the Grand Prix if you're Melbourne based.
We're only going to have it until 2023 so we need to "lap it up" literally!