After studying the /ʌ/ phoneme in my previous post Uh... But... What?, this post will help you to create distinction between that sound and the /ɑ/ phoneme. The /ɑ/ phoneme is produced in the back of the mouth and by opening the mouth wide with the tongue down. It's the "ah" sound doctors ask you to make before they stick that uncomfortable wooden paddle on your tongue to have a look-see inside.

The /ʌ/ sound, on the other hand, is a lazy, relaxed grunt-like sound produced in the center of the mouth with the mouth only partially open. I call it the caveman sound because I believe it could be the first sound man ever made. It will also likely be the last. By the way, it's basically the same as the English schwa sound /ə/, the difference being that /ʌ/ is stressed and /ə/ is unstressed.

Below is a list of words with these sounds. Some of these are near minimal pairs as they differ in more than one way. But most are true minimal pairs. The last one with "z" is the first syllable of some guy's last name.

Many speech language pathologists (SLPs) and accent reduction specialists will try to tell you that learning the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) isn't important. They do this for one reason only - to sell their services more easily. These accent reduction "experts" know that most people don't want to learn what seem like esoteric symbols, and that English learners just want to reduce their accent to be more easily understood.

When I was hired by an accent modification company based in New York, I was specifically told not to use the term "phoneme," because it was considered too technical. A phoneme is just a term for the smallest unit of speech in a language. Each phoneme has a specific symbol that represents that sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Any respectable accent reduction coach will not only know the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), at least as it pertains to the English language, but will also end up teaching the phonemes of English anyway. There's really no way around it because, let's face it, written English is a mess.

There are some rules for knowing how to pronounce a given word in English, but they are few and the ones that do exist have many exceptions. English also doesn't use accents or any diacritic symbols to help the reader pronounce words easily. All of this leads to the necessity of using phonetics to make English pronunciation clearer to the learner. And, by the way, the same phonetic symbols serve for any language - not just English.

Of course, native speakers don't require learning phonetic symbols to learn English. But since it's their first language, there's no risk of confusing the sounds with another language. When learning a foreign language, we are often taught using the written word. While it is not necessary, nor perhaps even recommended to learn English this way, it is nevertheless important to most people to know how to read English as well as speak it. If you peruse any university foreign language program, a course teaching the phonetics of the language will most certainly be listed as part of the curriculum. 

My last point regarding this topic of learning English phonetics is this: How hard is it really to learn a dozen or so phonetic symbols if it means clearing up many questions about English pronunciation? After all, you have already come this far with your English skills. Additionally, you've probably studied a great deal to be good at your profession. That was likely much more difficult.

So join me for a 12-week accent modification course and I'll make the experience as painless as possible. Who knows? You may even find learn English phonetics enjoyable.