"Emily.. I have zis broblem and I try zbeak Engliz but zis difficult... yaani, i understand what you zbeak but i cannot zbeak you.. ziz my broblem"
I have a language partner/friend from Egypt who speaks exactly like this! He finds it difficult to pronounce "th" and "p / b" sounds in English and he speaks with a strong "R" sound like the Spanish and rolled "R" is almost impossible for him and he speaks with a heavy accent. I find it really amusing! He wants me to help him improve his pronunciation but I couldn't do much to make him repeat some words. Is it so hard for you Egyptians/Arabic speakers to pronounce these sounds correctly? I don't mean to disrespect anyone.
This is a product of the Egyptian dialect. Arabic has the TH sound, but the Egyptian dialect merges it with the Z sound.
I like to provide images to show where the sound is produced. This helps the learner figure out the mechanics of making the sound.
Sllooom
Other north African Arabic native speaker don't have problem with these sounds.
Hi Emily,
Well, if the new sound is completely unfamiliar to the learner, then he or she ends up substituting or confusing the sounds. It's no surprise that th comes out like s/z/t/d/f, for example. In my own case, until I got the Czech ř sound right, I was using ž (zh) or a rolled r instead... and being misunderstood. :/
If you want to help your friend's pronunciation, you'll need to get into the mechanics of making the sound properly, and work from things he already knows. For example, start with the f sound, and tell your friend to stick his tongue out. Demand to see his tongue! There's your th.
Once he starts making the right sounds, he'll also be able to hear the difference when other speakers say these same sounds.
Informally, if a language companion makes an error in pronunciation I only say something if it is so bad that I actually hear it as a different word... or can't understand it... or if it matches a stereotype.
If I choose to try to correct it, I start by trying to find out if they can even hear the difference. For example, a language companion recently said (something I heard as) "slip" when she meant to say "sleep." I began by quizzing her ,by saying "sleep" and "slip" in a random order and asking her if she could tell me which one I had said. It was quite hard for her.
I've found the University of Iowa "Sounds of Speech" website to be helpful for me in learning Spanish, and they have a portion of it for English:
