The muscles must be under perfect control so that the mouth (lips and tongue included) may readily assume the position necessary for the emission of the required sound.
The proper use of the lips is the great factor in fluent speech.
It is from inability to use or negligence in using the muscles of the organ of speech that Americans are such indifferent linguists and frequently even incapable of distinct utterance of their own language.
The manner of production of the various sounds is of the first importance in the cultivation of correct pronunciation.
Vowels.—Pronounce the following words: moor; meer; merry; marry; mar; more. The whole compass of the mouth is brought into exercise by these words.
The first sound is produced from the lips. The second comes from a point just inside the mouth. The third sound point is farther back still. The last vowel is uttered from the throat.
If the sound a (long) as in bare, fair, is included, we have a scale of seven sounds produced by a gradual opening of the mouth, the sound point receding note by note from the front of the lips to the back of the throat, thus: moor, meer, merry, Mary, marry, mar, more.
In cultured English centers and in some parts of New England, the long sound of ä, No. 4, appears in such words as dance, France, glass, castle, cast, past, grasp, grant, etc.
In pronouncing the four words—meer merry, marry, mar—the mouth is gradually opened. The four separate “sound points” may be clearly recognized.
Repeat slowly: