Silver Spoon

Being one of the 7 metals of antiquity, silver has long been valued as a precious metal. As currency, a conductor or as decoration, it has been used by humans since prehistoric times.

And you may recall that we use the word ‘silver’ as our reference point for a particular vowel sound. In primary school they called this sound the ‘short i’ (as opposed to the ‘long i’ that you hear in white). But the sound is not always represented by the letter ‘i’ as in business, build and women.

And to make matters worse, you probably don’t have this sound in your first language, so you have to learn it. So, today I have a special treat for you. I asked my dear friend and colleague, pronunciation expert Peggy Tharpe, to give us some tips on how we can master this sound. Here is what she explains:

The first thing we have to be aware of is that in the place of the silver sound, you are using the ‘green’ sound. Say /Ey/ (the vowel sound in ‘green’). Your tongue moves up diagonally from the bottom of your mouth, coming to touch your bottom teeth. The lips and jaw are tensed. Repeat a few times until you can identify where your tongue is.

From this sound, Peggy takes us to what is called the schwa, or as I like to call it, ‘mustard.’ This sound is easy to make … imagine you arrive home from a long day at work, you plop down on the sofa and you say ‘uh.’ This is the mustard sound. Practice this sound a few times. The lips and jaw are totally relaxed and your tongue rests at the bottom of your mouth.

Now we can try the silver sound. Your jaw and lips are relaxed. Your tongue moves up to touch your top teeth. To help your tongue learn this new trick, try standing in front of a mirror and as you say the first syllable of the word ‘silver’ bring your shoulders up towards your ears. This action is what Peggy calls a ‘Body Buddy:’ a large muscle movement that coaches it’s little brother, the tongue muscle.

Peggy describes the tongue as a rebellious teenager who doesn’t listen to its parents … the brain. Intellectually, you can understand the concept, but the tongue itself resists cooperation. But for some reason, the tongue does listen to a bigger sibling. This is why the Body Buddy will help you.

Peggy’s website is chockfull of pronunciation solutions for speakers of many different languages so I guarantee you’ll find the answers you’re looking for:

Every cloud has a silver lining,

Jennifer

Silver vs. Green

By now you must know that I’m a big fan of sound. I married a music promoter. My whole family either sings or plays a musical instrument (we have guitars, ukuleles, harmonicas, a piano, diverse percussion instruments … ) I even have my own radio station!

Perhaps it’s part of my culture … have you ever noticed that anglos can’t stand silence? We even have music for a 10 second elevator trip!

Now, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that you and I hear some of the same sounds differently. For example, to me the word ‘silver’ sounds like /sil-vEr/. To a Spanish speaking ear it sounds like /sEyl-vEr/, the same sound that’s in the word ‘green’. This is completely unintelligible to a native English speaker because the tonic (the vowel sound of the important syllable) isn’t correctly pronounced. It is not a question of accent reduction, but rather accent neutralisation. This involves learning to hear the sounds so that you can reproduce them correctly.

We learn to distinguish between the different sounds our mothers make when we are still in the womb. Those sounds are ingrained in our brain like a statue carved in stone. This makes learning a new sound as an adult so challenging. I remember trying to learn the Catalan ‘ll.’ My tongue did all kinds of weird tricks until it figured out where it was supposed to be.

Reading and writing won’t help you with this. You need to listen and speak. I’ve put together a collection of videos for you to watch that are perfect for your level. Just go to my youtube channel:

There are different playlists according to what you’re looking for. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive notifications of new videos!

To the Silver Tongue,

Jennifer