MY name is Samantha Jagroo

s-Voiceless, alveolar,fricative
ə-
o-
m-voiced,bilabial,nasal
e-
n-voiced,alveolar,nasal
θ-voiceless,dental,fricative
ə-
d3-voiced,palatal,affricative
ə-
g-voiced,velar,stop
r-voiced,alveolar,liquid
u-

On a regualar day people who are common to the english language would pronounce my name the way it is spelled Sa-man-tha, however I did notice that chinese people would pronounce the "man" as "men and the "a" as an "i", so it would then be simentha. Based on what I have learned about phonetics I would conclude that this occurs due to properties of speech as sound. Referring back to chapter 4 and the activity between the trachea and the larynx. The way a chinese person would pronounce a word compared to an english or french speaker will all sound differently. Familiarity with pronouncing words and letters from the english alphabet will be much tougher for a Asian person whom is not acquainted with the way something of the english language should be said.


Most of all I have problems pronouncing people names that I am not use to on an everyday basis. For example Indian,African and Punjabi names are really hard for me to pronounce. The name Anurada (if spelled correctly) is an example; I would pronounce this as spelt, An-u-ra-da but an indian person would make their tongue role on the "r". Another example would be words in biology class, I can never figure it out unless coached sometimes the way it is spelt is totally different from the way it is pronounced. An approach I believe to figuring out the correct pronunciation would be to figure out the place and manner of articulation, the way it is pronounced knowing weather it is a nasal and a stop or a palatal and a dental; would help to someone whom is new to a language or trying to expand their knowledge.