CRESS Simple Quick Start
You automatically learn tongue position from CRESS
Say the alphabet vowels…
Basic Vowels In CRESS use Tongue position order: Front to Back, High to Low Order
- i as in pit (front, high)
- e as in pet (front mid-low)
- a as in father (central low)
- u as in put (back high)
- o as in port (back mid-low, ignore the r)
Tongue position is from left side of face (SEE DIAGRAM TODO)
Three OBVIOUS arrows show tongue ADJUSTMENTS in CRESS:
- ^ means raise the tongue
- < means front the tongue
- > means back the tongue
Raised Vowels
Tongue position order: Front to Back High to Low Order
- i^ as in pit, but raised in Pete Pi^t (front, high)
- e as in pet, but raised in paid pe^d (front mid-low)
- a as in father, but raised in put pa^t (central mid)
- u as put but, raised in boot bu^t (back high)
- o as in port, but raised in boat bo^t (back mid-low)
Consonants-Front to Back, most with NOTHING DIFFERENT TO LEARN
- p pin b bin ( lips close at front, no tongue)
- w wet ( lips narrow at front, no tongue)
- t tin d din (tongue tip behind upper teeth)
- s sin z zen (tongue tip on ridge behind upper teeth)
- l lit (tongue top on ridge behind upper teeth, air flow to sides)
- r rip (tongue tip curled back toward middle of roof of mouth, or option further back)
- y yet (tongue center raised to center of roof of mouth)
- k kin g get (BUT NOT GIN) (back of tongue against roof of mouth)
- h him (furthest back down in the voice box)
Some letters are not used: c, j (except advanced shortcut), q, x
Digraphs (two letters for one sound) are never used
sh, ch, th, ph, ai, ae, ea, ee, ei, eo, eu ie eu, oa, oe, oo ou,ua ue ui uo
EXCEPT
- When there are really TWO SPOKEN VOWELS: bye ai, bow au, boy oi
- Or really TWO SPOKEN CONSONANTS: gin dz>in, chin ts>in
Don’t use two letters when only one sound, can be hidden in traditional spelling
th as in ‘thin’ and ‘then’ (different but both tongue tip fronted between teeth)
- t tin but push tongue forward < gives th as in thin, in CRESS t<in = “thin”
- z zen when push tongue tip forward < symbol th as in then, in cress z<en = “then”
sh as in ‘shin’
- s sin but pull tongue back to middle > gives sh as in shin, in CRESS s>in = “shin”
Beware of sounds hidden in traditional spelling
hidden ‘zh’ sound: s, as g in beige, z in azure, s in measure, z as in azure (z sound with tongue tip backed toward center)
- z zen but push tongue back > gives sound in beige, in CRESS z>in = “be^z^”