English Pronunciation for Icelanders

20
2 CONSONANTS
2 1
2.1 PLOSIVES (STOPS)
2.1.1 Plosives at the beginning of words
There are 6 plosives in English, 3 fortis-lenis pairs, pb td kg,
as heard at the beginning of these words:
pan ban - ten den - come gum
Initial plosives are pronounced very much the same in
Icelandic and English, so you shouldn't have much trouble.
Repeat the following words in pairs after me and see if you
can hear any difference betwen the English and Icelandic
versions of the initial plosives:
1 2 3 4
pen - penni ten - tennur came - keimur cost - kostur
ben - Benni door - dyr guess - gestur gas - gas
You should have heard a clear difference in column 3. Here are
some more words like those in column 3:
kine - kæn ken - kenna Cato - keyra kiss - kyssa
guy - gæta get - geta gay - geit give - ginna
Now repeat the English words alone, remembering not to use
Icelandic c h as in kenna or ∆& as in geit:
kine ken Cato kiss guy get gay give
2 2
2.1.2 Plosives at the end of words
At the end of words, you may have more trouble in making a
difference between fortis and lenis pairs, because this
distinction is not made at the end of Icelandic words.
Listen and repeat (cf. Roach: Tape Unit 4, exercise 2)
(Remember that vowels are clipped before fortis consonants (see
Wells: Pronunciation Dictionary on clipping (p.136):
meit meid (mate made) k0ud k0ut (code coat)