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Hello!
大家好!
This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question about syllable dropping in American English pronunciation.
本周《名师答疑》，我们回答关于美式英语中略读音节的问题。
Hi, VOA Learning English, I’m Herbert from Germany.
你好，美国之音英语学习栏目，我是来自德国的赫伯特。
Throughout my whole life speaking English, I did not realize that some vowels in words are “swallowed,” like in the words “vegetable,” “family” and “difference.”
我说英语这么长时间，一直没有意识到单词中的一些元音会被“吞掉”，比如vegetable、family、difference等。
Could you give a lecture on this topic?
你们能就这个话题讲一下吗？”
Thanks a lot, Herbert.
非常感谢，赫伯特。
Hi Herbert, this is an interesting question!
嗨，赫伯特，这是一个有趣的问题！
Or is it interesting?
还是应该读作interesting？
Now you have us thinking!
这下你让我们开始思考这个问题了！
We do not “swallow” the vowels.
我们不会说“吞掉”元音。
That would be a little strange, but it creates a great image!
这个说法有点奇怪，但确实很形象！
So, why does it happen in English?
那么，为什么这种现象会发生在英语中呢？
First, let’s talk about syllables and vowels.
首先，我们来谈谈音节和元音。
A syllable is part of a word that contains one vowel sound.
音节是包含一个元音的发音单位。
For example, “cat” is a one-syllable word that contains one vowel sound.
例如，cat是包含一个元音的单音节单词。
And “swallow”, with two vowel sounds, has two syllables -swa(l) and -low.
swallow有两个元音，因此有两个音节: -swa(l)和-low。
Every word in English has one stressed syllable.
英语中的每个单词都有一个重读音节。
This is called word stress.
这就是单词重音。
The stressed syllable is longer, louder and clearer than the other syllables.
重读的音节比其他音节更长、更响亮、更清晰。
The unstressed syllables then become shorter, softer, and less clear.
非重读的音节就会变得更短、更柔和、更不清晰。
Now, let’s look at the word “family” with its three vowels of a, i and y.
现在，我们来看看单词family，它有a、i和y这三个元音。
The stress is on the first syllable -fam.
重音在第一个音节-fam。
Over time the vowel i relaxes so much that we dropped the whole syllable and turned it into -fam-ly.
渐渐地，元音i变得非常轻，以至于我们略去了这一整个音节，直接读作-fam-ly。
We say some of these words so often that we skip over the less important, unstressed vowels.
有些单词经常会说到，于是就会跳过不太重要的、不重读的元音。
As you said, “vegetable” becomes veg-ta-ble and “difference” becomes di-ff(e-)ren(t)s.
就像你说的，vegetable变成了veg-ta-ble（略读ge），difference变成了di-ff(e-)ren(t)s。
Let’s look at a few more examples of words that lose unstressed vowels.
让我们再看几个略读了非重读元音的单词。
“Business” is pronounced with two syllables, biz-ness, instead of three.
Business发出了两个音节biz-ness，而不是三个音节。
The i vowel sound is dropped.
i元音被略掉了。
You do not want to pronounce it bi-zi-ness.
你不会把它读成bi-zi-ness。
That is another three-syllable word “busyness.”
这是另一个三音节单词busyness的读法。
“Evening” is pronounced with two syllables instead of three: - ev-ning not e-ven-ing.
evening发音为两个音节，而不是三个音节: -ev-ning而不是e-ven-ing。
And lastly, we have “Wednesday,” the third day of the work week as wenz-day not wed-nes-day.
最后，我们读Wednesday，也就是工作日的第三天，读作wenz-day而不是wed-nes-day。
You can speak fast like a native speaker of American English by dropping syllables.
通过略读音节，可以像美式英语母语者一样把语速变快。
But remember to center more on the stressed vowel, rather than the dropping of the unstressed one.
但记住，要更多地注意重读的元音，而不是略掉非重读的元音。
In this exercise, I will pronounce all the syllables first, then drop the unstressed vowel.
在下面这个练习中，我会先读出所有的音节，然后略读非重读元音。
Family (3) Family (2)
3音节，2音节
Difference (3) Difference (2)
3音节，2音节
Vegetable (4) Vegetable (3)
3音节，2音节
Please let us know if these explanations and examples have helped you, Herbert!
请让我们知道这些解释和例子是否对你有帮助，赫伯特！
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
以上就是本期《名师答疑》。
I’m Faith Pirlo.
我是费思·皮尔洛。
