This program covers the Structural Vowels, the vowels that have a shape or structure that you see and feel. In this system they are assigned a number corresponding to the size of their lip shape. #5--AH is one of the largest, #1--OO is the smallest, so a #51 is AH/OO or OW. #21 is OH, #3--AW is the midway position, #4 is O as in "odd", #6 is A as in "add", #6Y is I, #3Y is OI. Giving good lip shapes to these vowels not only provides good pronunciation, but helps create a voice box or megaphone behind the lips. This is how actors project their voices to the back row of a theatre, without shouting, with no apparent effort. And good Structural Action will enable your voice to "carry" effortlessly in a public speaking environment . . . Or when you want to be heard over the background noise on a busy street, or in a noisy restaurant. In an increasingly noisy world, being able to project your voice is a real advantage. All these major vowels, both tonal and structural, are color-coded in yellow.
The short, grunt-like neutral vowels we call Neutral-1, 2, 3, and 4: N1！oo, N2！ih, N3！eh, N4！uh, are often interchangeable. The important thing is to keep them very short, treat them very different from the major vowels. On this program you will learn that one way to do this is to focus vocal energy on the surrounding consonants. Play the consonants on either side of the neutral vowel and treat the vowel like it is the shortest distance between two consonants. Another technique, and this is specifically for foreign or regional accent reduction, is to color one neutral vowel with another. For example, pronouncing "took" as "tuck" and "tuck" as "took" resists the tendency to slip into speaking a larger vowel. And that leaves the less troublesome Neutral Diphthongs: ND1！oor, ND2！ear, ND3！air, ND4！our.
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