God is King and nasal vowels are inscrutable
# Knowing that God is king changes how you think about things. Sometimes it takes a while to percolate through, mind you!
Take my ears' distressing lack of nasal vowel acuity. It's one of those situations where there's not a great deal you can do about it. I mean, I practise. I listen hard (eyes open!). I try to visualise where the vowel sound is, and all that. But you can't make your ears do the trick!
However, knowing God is king makes it all quite exciting, really. Somehow this little snag will be overcome (it's only another snag, after all) and one day I'll realise that on, an, en and in are as different to me as da, ta, la and na.
Meanwhile here is some good news and some bad news on the phonetic front. Do you want the good news first or the bad news?
Good news - I can now tell whether people are saying saint or sang. (That's major good news - those are not just vowels - they are nasal vowels...)
Bad news - I have become somewhat perplexed by the anterior and posterior "a".
Oh boy - it's one step forwards and two steps back. See # above...
Take my ears' distressing lack of nasal vowel acuity. It's one of those situations where there's not a great deal you can do about it. I mean, I practise. I listen hard (eyes open!). I try to visualise where the vowel sound is, and all that. But you can't make your ears do the trick!
However, knowing God is king makes it all quite exciting, really. Somehow this little snag will be overcome (it's only another snag, after all) and one day I'll realise that on, an, en and in are as different to me as da, ta, la and na.
Meanwhile here is some good news and some bad news on the phonetic front. Do you want the good news first or the bad news?
Good news - I can now tell whether people are saying saint or sang. (That's major good news - those are not just vowels - they are nasal vowels...)
Bad news - I have become somewhat perplexed by the anterior and posterior "a".
Oh boy - it's one step forwards and two steps back. See # above...
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