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  • In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go out hunting for a squirrel

  • and you're going to learn how to say this very difficult word.

  • It's a gorgeous fall day here in Philadelphia.

  • Let's walk around the neighborhood and see if we can find ourselves a squirrel.

  • Look, there's one. That didn't take long.

  • I'm making this video today for Dave.

  • Dave is a big fan of Rachel's English and I'm a big fan of Dave.

  • He's not your typical Rachel's English fan, in that he's American.

  • And, he's not a teacher. So why is he learning how to pronounce American English?

  • Well, Dave had a stroke and it affected the speech center in his brain.

  • So he has what's called 'apraxia'.

  • And that means he can think the word but actually

  • making the word with his mouth doesn't come naturally,

  • he has to think through every position of every sound in every word.

  • I can't imagine the effort that it takes to communicate but he's put in the effort

  • and here's a video of him speaking English after his stroke.

  • >> My name is David and this is not how I sounded four years ago.

  • So Dave told me he has problems with this word and he's not the only one. So let's get down to it.

  • How do we pronounce 'squirrel'?

  • Because this video is for Dave, I'm going to do things a little more slowly,

  • and with a little bit more repetition.

  • I would love for you to tell me if you like this format better.

  • You can put it in the comments below.

  • Let's get started.

  • 'Squirrel' is a two syllable word with stress on the first syllable.

  • So it will go DA-da, long-short, squirrel, squirrel.

  • We begin with the SK consonant cluster. Let's do this slowly. Ss.

  • To make the S the teeth are together.

  • The tip of my tongue is here behind the bottom front teeth.

  • I know some people make it with the tongue tip pointing up,

  • I make it with the tongue tip pointing down. Ss-Kk.

  • Then we have the K consonant.

  • The back part of the tongue will lift and touch the soft palate. That stops the air.

  • I'm going to exaggerate that stop here before the release.

  • Ss-kk. Ss-kk. Ss-kk.

  • So I lift my tongue and then let it go.

  • Now I'm going to do the K with the rounded lip position. Why?

  • Lip positions do not affect the K sound but for the next sound I need to have my lips rounded.

  • Ss-kk. Ss-kk.

  • And now we'll go into that next sound which is the W.

  • Ss-kw, Ss-kw-k-w.

  • So I'm using my vocal cords here.

  • For the first two sounds, S and K, they were unvoiced. It was just air.

  • Ss-kk. Ss-kk. Ss-kw.

  • Now you finally hear my voice.

  • Skw-w-w.

  • To make this sound, my lips are rounding.

  • The tongue tip is down touching behind the bottom front teeth.

  • It hasn't moved for this whole word and the back part of the tongue is lifting.

  • So when it pulls down for the K, it doesn't relax all the way down. It still stays high.

  • Squ-, squ-.

  • Now we have the UR as in HER vowel.

  • Squir- Squir-.

  • So my lips relax a little bit.

  • They are not as round as they are for the W but they're not totally relaxed either.

  • Squ-irr-irr-irr.

  • They flare a little bit and come out from the face just a bit.

  • Squirr-irr. Squirr.

  • The tongue pulls back and up so the tongue tip has been down and front

  • for the whole word and now it's lifting for this vowel.

  • So the middle part of my tongue is touching the roof of my mouth about here,

  • it might not touch the roof of your mouth. Maybe it touches the insides of the teeth.

  • Squirr-irr.

  • But we want to think of a contact point about here so that the tongue is lifting to that.

  • Squirr-irr.

  • That means the tip of the tongue isn't touching anything.

  • Squirr- irrel, -el.

  • Now we have the Dark L. You can see that the lips will relax.

  • Squirrel, -el, -el, -el.

  • What does the tongue do?

  • The tongue comes back down so it's not at the roof of the mouth like it was for the R,

  • and the tip comes forward again.

  • Squirrel, -el, -el. Squirrel.

  • But the back part of the tongue isn't relaxed. We need to make it dark for the Dark L.

  • So to do that, the back part of the tongue pulls back a little bit:

  • -el, -el, -el.

  • It's what gives us that dark sound -el, -el, -el.

  • Squirrel. Squirrel.

  • Because it's a Dark L at the end of a word,

  • you don't need to lift your tongue tip up to the roof of the mouth, which is the position for the L.

  • You can just leave the dark sound, squirrel, and be done with the word.

  • Squirrel, Squirrel.

  • Now let's sound it out slowly together.

  • Ss-qui-rrel. Squirrel.

  • Let's take a look at this word, up close and in slow motion.

  • There you have it. I hope this video has made how to pronounce the word 'squirrel' a little bit easier.

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  • That's it guys and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to go out hunting for a squirrel

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