Geoff Lindsey: putting the fun in phonetics

I’ve been greatly enjoying videos by Geoff Lindsey, an accent coach from the UK who also gives courses at University College London. His YouTube channel has about 20 videos to date, mostly around 5 or 10 minutes long, on a wide range of topics to do with pronunciation and phonetics.

‘Most folks are amazed when they see the inner life of speech,’ Lindsey says in a fascinating, Stranger Things–themed primer on the human vocal organs that provides a snapshot of what happens anatomically when we speak:

Here he reveals what superhero names can tell us about stress patterns in English compounds – why, for example, we say Superman but Invisible Woman:

Lindsey’s older videos are shorter and more explicitly instructive (e.g., how to pronounce a certain sound), while the newer ones – the channel resumed this year after a hiatus – are generally longer, more exploratory, and perhaps aimed at a broader audience.

A recent one looked at ejective consonants in English, especially the ejective [k’] that sometimes occurs at the end of a word:

The videos are fun, engaging, and authoritative, and are put together with creative use of clips from films, internet video, and other sources. Try one or two and see if you don’t want to watch them all and subscribe for more.

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