Sorry mate, I'm not have a go at you.handdrummer wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 3:59 pmI hear many Thais pronouncing cold as code, old as ode, etc. To pronounce L you have to be able to touch the inside of your upper teeth, which requires curling the tip of your tongue backwards. Hard to do with a short tongue. Admittedly, I've not measured and Thai tongues.HHTel wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 9:57 amYou sure about that? Thais have no problem producing the letter L. In fact they replace the letter R with L very often. The reason they have difficulty with R is because there is no equivalent sound in Thai. Their R is a rrrrollling R quite unlike the pronunciation we use.like a shorter Asian tongue that makes pronouncing the letter L difficult.
They also have problems with 'th' and 'sh' for the same reason. In the west the French have difficulty with 'th' as it doesn't appear in their vocabulary in the same way.
The fact is that all people are physically capable of producing all language sounds but will find it harder if that sound does not appear in their own language.
We find it strange to start a word with 'ng' but with practice it's no problem.
I have just sat here and said "L" several times and my tongue never touches the inside of my upper teeth, it touches about 1cm away from my teeth, although I can both it both ways.