Check the Rhyme
Because of your native language, you will have a distorted perception of foreign vowel sounds.
But with proper training, you will appreciate your target language vowels just as much as your native language vowels. But it’s not enough to hear vowel sounds in isolation.
You have to hear them within real words and phrases. This is where musical rhyme training can be super useful.
What is a Rhyme, Idahosa?
I always get irritated when people argue with me about which words rhyme with which.
First off buddy, I’m an incredible freestyle rapper – so I know my rhymes!! Second off, rhyming is not a matter of personal taste. There is a clear-cut science to it.
A rhyme is just the repetition of a particular vowel sound.
For example, the words in the columns below all rhyme with one another because they share the same vowel sound.
/æ/– cat, hat, bat, fat, mat, sat
/ʊ/ – hook, took, shook, look, rook, cook
/ʌ/ – luck, buck, muck, shuck, huck, cluck
Notice that the only thing that changes is the first consonant sound. The consonant sound after the vowel is the same for each word.
When two words or phrases differ by only one sound, they are minimal pairs.
Minimal pairs are the most complete types of rhymes. But words that are NOT minimal pairs can still rhyme as long as the emphasis is on the shared vowel sound.
For example, here are two of the sets of rhyming words that do NOT share the same ending consonants.
/æ/ – cat, rap, laugh, pal, hash
/ɪ/ – sit, tin, rip, thick, him
Musical Rhyming & Language Learning
Many genres of lyrical music rely on rhyming due to its aesthetic appeal. The rhyming syllables align with musical stresses, which makes the rhyming words stand out more.
This musical repetition of vowel sounds can be very useful to us language learners trying to appreciate new vowel sounds in our target languages.
This is why I put so much emphasis on rapped lyrics (as opposed to sung lyrics). Since rapping has simple melodies, the rapper has to focus more on rhyming to keep things interesting.
As you’ve learned, awareness for rhythm and vowels are important elements of language learning. Having these two things emphasized with music does a lot to help us feel and notice these sounds.
English Vowel Example
Imagine you are studying English and have a hard time hearing the /eɪ/ diphthong (two vowels combined into one sound).
You discover this verse from the song “Jazzmatazz” by New Orleans rap artist Jay Electronica. In the verse, the artist bases a rhyme scheme around this /eɪ/ syllable:
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If you listen to this a few times on repeat, this /eɪ/ diphthong will start to stand out to you. Next time you hear a native English speaker make the sound, you will identify and link it to these lyrics. Then you’ll start to truly appreciate the sound when you try to understand English speakers.
This can only occur when you pay close attention, and do so repeatedly. The most fun way to do this is through music.
You can achieve this same effect by listening to recordings of native speakers saying rhyming words, but who has time for that?
You’re going to need to have A LOT of repetitions before you appreciate foreign language sounds. So get on Youtube and get started with your favorite target language music now.
Portuguese Vowel Example
Here’s an example of the same phenomenon in Brazilian Portuguese. But this time, with the nasal /ẽĩ/ diphthong. This is a sound that non-native Portuguese speakers often struggle to appreciate:
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You just need to know that the sound exists in the first place. Otherwise, you will automatically perceive the sound as something it’s not – and so never learn it. This is where knowing IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) can come in handy.
Battle Rap Example
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Scripts vs. Sounds
The rhyming words (in bold) do not normally share the same vowel sounds in English. But English is flexible enough to allow me to alter these vowel sounds so that they all match up, while still having each word understood.
It might ruffle the feathers of my 8th grade English teacher since the words don’t rhyme on paper, but he was a bozo – so who cares?
Remember, you can never rely on the script; it’s all about the sound.
What matches up in this stanza is are the vowels /i/ and /ɛ̃/, as you can hear in my repetition of the rhyming words below.
Note how we reconcile the inconsistency in spelling once we use the IPA symbols. When I want to think about speech in any language, I think about it in IPA.
I use IPA because it is consistent and based on the reality of sound.
Every speech sound has only one IPA symbol and every IPA symbol associates to just one sound. That way, there is no ambiguity about whether the vowels of two words match up or not.
IPA can look intimidating with all its strange symbols, but you can quickly learn which symbol goes to which sound.
Below, I select each of the vowels and diphthongs from English and say two words that contain that vowel/diphthong in a recording.
Vowel Awareness Exercise
To end this lesson, we’ll do an exercise in English vowel awareness. For each sound, think of two more words that contain it.
(Note: for multi-syllabic words – the relevant vowels for rhyming are always the vowels of the stressed syllables).
/i/we see | /ɪ/chick rim | /eɪ/hate ray | /ɛ/bed head |
/æ/mad sap | /ʌ/plus cut | /ɚ/fur slur | /ɝ/hair pear |
/u/truth root | /ʊ/good should | /ɔ/saw dog | /ɑ/hot nod |
/oɪ/boy joy | /oʊ/no grow | /aʊ/how bow | /ai/sigh hide |
That wraps up this lesson. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s lesson on Consonants…
Want to master the hearing and pronunciation of all the Elemental Sounds of your target language? By learning the simple techniques for developing awareness and control of your mouth, you are removing the biggest obstacle to your ability to sound more like a native speakerand understand the language in conversation. Click the button below to learn more.
