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In D. Abercrombie, D.B. Fry, P.A.D. MacCarthy, N.C. Scott and J.L.M.

Trim (eds), 1964,


In Honour of Daniel Jones, London: Longman, pp. 73-84.
Reset by Pronunciation Science, www.pronsci.com.

Articulatory settings
Beatrice Honikman (1964)
In the study of spoken language, especially in that branch dealing with
pronunciation generally and articulation particularly, it would seem that though in
our analyses of numerous languages we have described in great or lesser detail the
formation of their individual sounds (as well as intonation, rhythm, stress and other
phonetic features), yet there is an elusive aspect of articulation which, up to the
present, if not totally neglected, has not received the attention it merits. I refer to
what is here termed the articulatory setting of a language.
By articulatory setting is meant the disposition of the parts of the speech
mechanism and their composite action, i.e. the just placing of the individual parts,
severally and jointly, for articulation according to the phonetic substance1 of the
language concerned. To put this another way, it is the overall arrangement and
manoeuvring of the speech organs necessary for the facile accomplishment of
natural2 utterance. Broadly, it is the fundamental groundwork which pervades and,
to an extent, determines the phonetic character and specific timbre of a language. It
is immanent in all that the organs do.
Articulatory setting does not imply simply the particular articulations of the
individual speech sounds3 of a language, but is rather the nexus of these isolated
facts and their assemblage, based on their common, rather than their
distinguishing, components. The isolated articulations are mutually related parts of
the whole utterance; they are clues, as it were, to the articulatory plan of the whole;
the conception of articulatory setting seeks to incorporate the clues or to see them

as incorporated in the whole. Thus an articulatory setting is the gross oral posture
and mechanics, both external and internal, requisite as a framework for the
comfortable, economic and fluent merging and integrating of the isolated sounds
into that harmonious, cognizable whole which constitutes the established
pronunciation of a language.
If we are sufficiently expert acoustically and in articulation or endowed with a
sufficiently acute linguistic and phonetic sense or insight, we might divine the
articulatory setting of a foreign language from the actions required of the speech
mechanism. Natural mimics and the gifted do just this; they adopt the articulatory
pattern almost unconsciously. Those less gifted can fall into the pattern but must
work at it consciously at first, and for this they need help and training. It was in an
effort to aid those struggling to improve their pronunciation of a foreign language
that it became clear that the field of articulatory settings might well be explored.
Though there is nothing in this article that is not implied in the many good
publications on phonetics, the reader will appreciate the necessity for reintroducing
here certain details with which he is already familiar.
It is because the student is inclined to interpret the articulations analysed in
textbooks, not as events in a moving continuum but as a manifold of detached
articulations, that he so often fails to co-ordinate them satisfactorily. To counteract
this tendency and to enable him more effectively to correlate these apparently
isolated clues and weld them into a consistent whole, some observations concerning
the articulatory settings of various languages are given below.
All languages do not have identical articulatory settings: whereas one language may
resemble another in this respect, others may differ considerably. Where two
languages are disparate in articulatory setting, it is not possible completely to
master the pronunciation of one whilst maintaining the articulatory setting of the
other.
In this connection, it is enlightening to observe the characteristic movements and
lineaments about the lips and jaws of different peoples4 during utterance of their own
language.
The cinema or television screen provides a good opportunity for objectively
studying these particulars.
Watching the speakers in, say, French, Russian and English films, it is interesting to
note (a) the difference between these in look about the mouth and jaw, and (b) the
similarity of lipjaw look of the individual speakers in any one of them.

Comparing individual speakers in French films, one notices the considerable


mobility of the lips which, much of the time, seem to round very energetically5. This
contrasts markedly with Russian, in which the lips appear to be mostly closely
spread, well stretched into an almost horizontal line and only intermittently
rounded. And, between these two lip-settings, English, in which on the whole the
lips neither round vigorously nor spread very much but mostly remain rather
neutral slightly and loosely apart, slightly cornered and with only moderate
mobility a sort of compromise between French and Russian.
Furthermore, in French utterance the tongue setting and rather frequent lowering
of the jaw allows the tongue to be visible, whereas in English, the jaw-movement is
so slight and the internal setting such, that the tongue is hardly ever visible during
utterance.
This brings me to a remark made by foreign students from many countries who
have studied English at home: when asked for their impressions on first hearing
English as spoken in England, one of their replies is invariably either, The English
dont move their mouths when they speak, or, You dont open your mouths when
you speak.
These lay remarks are not empty of significance; they are revealing and worthy of
more than just passing notice: on closer consideration, one realizes that implicit in
them is the observation that the external articulatory setting of English is unexpected
and different from their own.
This noticeable lack or, rather, near-lack of activity of almost closed jaws together
with relatively unvigorous lip-rounding are essential features of good, unaffected6,
everyday English utterance: they are part and parcel of the articulatory setting
requisite for normal English, just as the vigorous lip-rounding of French and
German, the close-spread lips of Russian, the slack lips and loosely apart jaws of
Indian languages are essentials of the external articulatory settings for those
languages.
So far reference has been sketchily made mainly to the external setting, but
intimately bound up with this, and to a considerable extent governing it, is the
internal articulatory setting, i.e. the overall positioning of the internal mobile organs
of the mouth for natural utterance.
Here again languages differ, the setting depending upon the phonetic substance of
the language. The articulating organs require to be so placed that all the actions
required of them are easy and comfortable and able smoothly to link and merge
with their neighbours. The distribution of sounds in ones own language can, to
some extent, be ascertained by concentrating on the feel of the oral cavity during

utterance. For instance, one becomes aware in speaking English of the constant
rapping of the tongue-tip against the alveolar ridge and intermittent closing and
opening and other slight motions of the lips; whereas this is not the case in French,
where the tongue- tip is hardly palpable and certainly less active than the blade and
front and the constantly moving (rounding and spreading) lips. In both these
languages, as in utterance generally, the sides of the tongue are almost impalpable.
The internal articulatory setting of a language is determined, to a great extent, by
the most frequently occurring sounds and sound combinations in that language.
Since it is the articulation for consonants that interrupts or impedes the free flow of
the air stream through the mouth, the setting required for the most frequent
consonants has an important bearing on the articulatory setting as a whole no
less important than that required for the most frequent vowels.7
Of the internal oral organs, the tongue, with its wide range of mobility and
therefore considerable capacity for altering the shape of the resonance chamber of
the mouth, is of paramount importance.
As has been mentioned, during utterance the sides of the tongue, and in some
languages, e.g. French, even the apex, are not easily felt. This is probably due to the
fact that no pressure is exerted by them or because they are lightly tethered or
relatively inert compared with some more active and more tense or more stable
organ which dominates the articulation and so masks the more passive parts of the
articulator. Nevertheless, these less palpable parts are important to the positioning
of the tongue as a whole.
Among the consonants of English, cardinal alveolar articulation occurs, in general,
considerably more frequently than any other; for this reason, the anchorage
described below, i.e. that required for the cardinal alveolar sounds [t, d, n, , s, z]8,
should be regarded as the basis of the internal articulatory setting of English
utterance.
THE TONGUE-SETTING FOR ENGLISH
Almost throughout English, the tongue is tethered laterally to the roof of the mouth
by allowing the sides to rest along the inner surface of the upper lateral gums and
teeth; the lateral rims of the tongue very seldom entirely leave this part of the roof
of the mouth, whereas the tip constantly (or some other part of the dorsum,
occasionally) moves up and down, periodically touching the central part of the roof,
but generally not for very long at a time, before it comes away. Thus, one might
regard the tethered part in this case, the lateral contact as the anchorage, and
the untethered part as the free or operative part of the tongue-setting.

By anchoring the tongue we, naturally, lessen its freedom of movement. Therefore
it is important to note the extent of the anchorage, for this prescribes the range of
play of the free part as well as of the tongue as a whole. The forward limit(s) of
tethering might well serve as points of reference in describing the anchorage.
Thus, the alveolar consonants of English [t, d, n, , s, z] and generally [l] require
lateral anchorage as far forward as the upper posterior pre-molars (but never
beyond the anterior pre-molars).9 These teeth on either side of the roof of the
mouth serve, as it were, as forward mooring-posts for the tongue, allowing the
transverse part of the dorsum between them to operate as a hinge which enables
the tip and blade to swing comfortably up and down, towards, to, and away from the
alveolar ridge, but preventing the blade and tip from ranging much further forward
without strain.10 This anterior lateral contact is released for a following further back
consonant or open or back vowel, and very slightly extended forward for dental
sounds.11
Since this anchorage is not tensely held, but is rather a pliable cushioning of the
tongue-rim, adjustments to it such as lowering, retracting, and advancing are
comfortably and smoothly made when required, as for some vowels and the less
frequent lingual consonants. For example: for the sounds [, , t, d, n, l] there is a
minute advancing of the lateral contact and a concomitant reaching or sliding
forward of the tip and blade, enabling the apical-rim of the tongue without effort to
reach as far as, but not beyond the upper front teeth, the under-surface of the
tongue resting lightly upon the cutting edges of the lower teeth; except in the rare
cases of great emphasis, the tip is not exposed beyond the upper teeth. For the
sounds [r, tr, dr] there is a release of the foremost part of the lateral contact; for [l] a
release of the mid and/or back part but generally not of the fore-part of the lateral
anchorage.
With regard to the free part of the tongue: for the most frequent English consonants
[t, n], as well as for [d, l, , s, z, , t, d, , ] the tip is the effective articulator12: the tip
is somewhat narrowed and tapered by lateral contraction. In [t, d, n, l, ] the tapered
tip works energetically up and down as it touches, exerts some pressure on, and
comes down away from the rim of the alveolar ridge to or towards the floor of the
mouth, thus allowing some other part of the tongue to come comfortably into play
for a following vowel or for a following consonant not requiring tip or blade
articulation. The upper surface of the tongue just behind the tip, except in clear [l]
lies concave to the roof; if the jaw were lowered during the stop of these sounds, the
underside of the tongue would be clearly visible and seen to be held concave to the
roof.

THE TONGUE-SETTING FOR FRENCH


In French the tongue-setting is in many respects very different from that of English.
For the greater part of French utterance, the tongue (a) remains broad, i.e. the tip is
untapered, there being no lateral contraction; (b) it is anchored medianly, albeit
lightly, to the floor of the mouth by the tip tethering to the lower front teeth, either
cushioned against their inner surface or held so that the underside of the tip rests
upon their cutting edges; thus the under-surface of the tongue is not exposed even
when the jaw is lowered, but part of the dorsum the blade (or tip and blade) is
frequently visible during utterance. Adjustment of this anchorage, by very slightly
withdrawing the tip along the floor of the mouth, allows the back of the tongue
comfortably to assume the positions required for back vowels and for the back
consonants [k, g] and the frequent uvular [] (c) the body of the tongue is generally
held convex to the roof of the mouth; it flattens down, however, as the jaw lowers for
the frequent vowel [a] and the back part becomes convex for [k, g, ] and back
vowels; (d) of the free, i.e. untethered, part of the tongue, the blade (or tip and blade)
and the front are the dominant articulators the blade and tip in [t, d, n, l], the
blade in [s, z, , ]13; the front in all front vowels and the consonants [, j, ] and to
some extent in [l] also. In [t, d, n], though the tip and blade completely contact the
upper front teeth (and fore-part of the ridge), it is the blade rather than the tip that
exerts the pressure. For [s, z, , ], while the blade slightly recedes to articulate with
the alveolar ridge, the tip lowers to the base of the lower teeth; (e) the sides of the
tongue are in contact with the upper gums or teeth for much of French utterance;
this lateral contact is not as constant as in English, however, probably due to the
fact that in French the open vowel [a] occurs very frequently, more frequently
relatively than do the most open vowels in English, and so requires more frequent
lowering of the jaw and, consequently, more frequent release of the lateral contact.
In the frequent consonants [t, d, n] the lateral contact extends as far forward as the
upper canines, thus bringing the entire tongue-rim completely into contact with
the upper arcade of teeth.14
A tongue-setting different from both French and English is required for Turkish and
Iranian, where dental consonants are frequent but are articulated with the tongue
well tapered and the pointed tip the predominating articulator.
Again, the frequent retroflex consonants in the languages of India and Pakistan are
produced with the tongue curled back in such a way that the edge of the rim of the
tip approximates or touches the hind part of the alveolar ridge or fore-part of the
palate; the open setting of the jaws enables this tongue-setting to be made
comfortably.

In Russian, while bladedental consonants are not infrequent, the profusion of


palatalized sounds would seem to require, for ease of articulation, well-spread lips
as an accompaniment to the necessary tongue-setting (front high and spread;
body convex to the palate).
In describing articulatory settings, some reference should also be made to (a) the
muscular tension of the tongue, lips, cheeks, jaw and pharynx; (b) the pressure exerted
by the articulator upon its opposite number in those sounds with median closure;
(c) the general positioning of the jaw, as these aspects of articulation have some
bearing on the general articulatory setting and languages may differ in these
features too.
TENSION
Thus in English, the lateral tongue contraction, mentioned above, gives to those
unaccustomed to this setting the impression that the tongue is somewhat tensed,
but the Englishman is not aware of any tension and feels the tongue to be relaxed.
In French, there is no lateral tension of the lingual muscles but strong thrust is felt
to be given to the convexed dorsum especially in articulating the front vowels.
French people with whom this has been discussed say it feels as if they were
pushing the words forward out of the mouth; no doubt, the strong rounding of the
lips together with the exertion drawing-in of the cheeks contributes to this
effect, the contraction of the buccinator muscles (which is reflected in the external
setting too) giving a sense of inner rounding, i.e. rounding within the oral cavity. In
English on the other hand, there is no sense of tension or contraction of the inside
of the cheeks except perhaps when we greatly emphasize an exclamation such as
Oo!
With regard to the pharynx, this is generally relaxed in French and English,15 there
being no contraction of the pharyngeal muscle, whereas in Arabic, and frequently in
German (especially in men), pharyngeal contraction is usual.
PRESSURE
In consonants with median closure16 the pressure exerted by the articulator upon its
opposite number is firm in English (perhaps somewhat less firm in aspirated than in
unaspirated consonants) and firmer still in emphasis; weakening of the contact
produces what is considered slipshod speech; in American English, however, the
tendency is to weaken the contact in intervocalic alveolar plosives so that a tapped
consonant results. English, German, Italian, Polish and many other languages

resemble English in pressure of contact; Danish, on the other hand, appears to be


following in the direction of Spanish, where plosive contact has gradually weakened
over the ages to such an extent that, except after nasal consonants, the contact has
altogether disappeared, with the result that weak (homorganic) fricatives and even
frictionless continuants have resulted and now replace the plosives in these two
languages. In many of the languages of India and Pakistan bilabial contact is
generally very weak, the lips only just touch but do not press together. This, no
doubt, is due to the jaw setting (see below).
THE JAWS
In natural colloquial English the jaws are, for the most part, held loosely together
but not clenched no tension is felt; the most frequent vowels appear to be [] and
[] which do not require the jaws to be parted. There is from time to time some
lowering of the jaw, but relatively infrequent and slight, so that the aperture
between the upper and lower teeth is generally never wide at most about a
fingers width, as required for the diphthongs [a, a], less for []. Thus it appears
that the greater part of English articulation takes place behind (loosely) closed jaws.
It is this feature of English, no doubt, which helps to give foreigners the impression
that we do not move or open our mouths when we speak.
In French utterance the jaws, though mostly fairly close, open more often and
perhaps more widely than in English, owing to the relatively greater frequency of
the most open vowel [a] which is more open than the open English vowels.
The jaw-setting for the languages of India and Pakistan is distinctive: the jaws are
held rather inert and loosely apart, so that the aperture between upper and lower
teeth is relatively wide and the oral cavity enlarged; this position is appropriate to
the frequently occurring retroflex consonants, enabling them to be produced more
comfortably than if the jaws were held closer; this setting accounts, too, for the lack
of pressure in bilabial stops, and for the characteristic timbre of Indian languages.
This distinctive timbre is very noticeable in the English spoken by Indians.
APPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
Though superficial observations on several languages are included in this article,
only English and French have been investigated in any detail; the main differences
in set of the organs for utterance of these two languages are summarized below for
comparison.

English

French

Jaws

Loosely closed (not clenched)

Slightly open

Lips

Neutral; moderately active

Rounded; vigorously active in


spreading and rounding

State of oral cavity

Relaxed

Cheeks contracted

Main consonant
articulation

Tipalveolar

Bladedental

Anchorage

To roof laterally

To floor centrally

Tip

Tapered

Untapered

Body

Slightly concave to roof

Convex to roof

Underside

Concave to roof

Neutral

Tongue:

Perhaps it would not be out of place here to describe an instance or two of the use to
which the articulatory setting approach has been put in the teaching of spoken
language.
The first opportunity to apply the technique occurred in the course of some private
sessions with advanced French students preparing for their finals as teachers of
English. They had a considerable knowledge of English phonetics and had achieved
a certain proficiency in spoken English, then had come to a standstill. It appeared to
me that while speaking English the set of their features was in some elusive way
not quite consistent with the English pattern and that English qualities could not
possibly eventuate from such setting. To check that they were doing all they should,
I, thinking aloud, attempted to express in layman terms what my mouth felt like
during utterance of English; as I did so, I noticed them making adjustments here and
there to their settings. Whilst I described much of what has been included in the
foregoing analysis, they were encouraged to watch closely as I spoke at normal pace,
noting the almost motionless jaws and lips and the fact that the tongue is hidden
and does not protrude beyond the teeth.
Exercises were devised to taper and concave the tongue, to anchor it correctly,
placing it just so, to feel the tip against the rim of the alveolar ridge (many foreign
students, misinterpreting the textbooks, are apt to place it too far forward),
practising the minute movements required to link sounds such as [] or [] with [s]
and [z] fluently, stilling the lips, a small adjustment here, another there, patient
drills and donkey-work, constant reminders to relax the organs. We had been

working in this way for about half a dozen sessions, when, one day, while reading
aloud, a student suddenly exclaimed, Ive got it!, and continued with the passage.
The difference was dramatic, and of the two of us, I was the more surprised: she
really did sound English and knew it, also her features took on an English look. To
both of us it was very satisfying. Of course it needed further perseverance to
establish the setting; instructions for obtaining the articulatory setting required
were finally reduced to the following formula: taper and concave the tongue, draw
it as a whole back into the mouth so that the pointed tip presses against the edge of
the alveolar ridge; close the jaws, dont clench them; still the lips; swallow to relax;
now to limber up, repeat [t, d, n, l].
This technique with, of course, a different formula, has also been used in teaching
French to English students. The formula is devised to assist in positioning the
organs preparatory to articulation.
Once the description of the setting had been given and the formula devised, it was
found that a blanket term was required to cover all the details included in a formula;
for want of a better, the term gear has been used quite successfully, students, at this
stage, finding the expressions English gear, French gear, etc., readily intelligible.
At the beginning of a practical class I would say, Are you in English gear? and as
soon as I hear them dropping back to a foreign accent, I might remark, Youre out
of gear, and it is rewarding to see how well they react and get back into gear again.
I have found that insistence on the articulatory setting as a starting- point does
away with the need to practise new articulations by the method of exaggerating
them. For example, the [] and [] of English the bugbear of many foreign
students are found to be less difficult to make and incorporate when the setting is
explained and mastered. So, too, the production of dental consonants, uvular [] and
the rounded front vowels of French and German, usually difficult for English people
to make and, once accomplished, to co-ordinate and catenate with others, has been
facilitated by this method.
In the past, we have dissected the whole into its parts by analysing and describing
the individual features; then the student attempts to put them together but the
synthesis falls short of the original and is halting. I would therefore say, establish
the setting first, then the details of articulation.
From one point of view we may look upon utterance of a particular language as the
sum total or synthesis of its constituent parts, i.e. grammar, idiom, articulations and
their distribution, intonation, stress, rhythm, tempo, but it is, from another
viewpoint, more than its parts. While it is dependent upon them, it is not
exhaustively analysable into them. All the constituent parts are interrelated and
interdependent, if you change a part you change its relations. Some thing which

links all these parts is necessary for their integration. The link, so far as articulation
goes, is the articulatory setting, external and internal.
I am aware that I have touched only the fringe of the subject of articulatory settings.
From what has been set down here, it will be readily appreciated that the concept of
articulatory settings is applicable not only to the study of pronunciation per se, but,
in addition, has an important contribution to make in the analysis of language at the
phonological level. It is much to be wished that others will undertake further
investigation of articulatory settings; the results of their researches will add not only
to our methods of teaching and learning the spoken word, but also to our
comprehension of the past and future development of particular languages.
NOTES
1 By phonetic substance of a language is meant the assortment of sounds that
compose it and their distribution in the context of natural utterance; distribution
of sounds includes their periodicity, i.e. their recurrence or relative frequency of
occurrence; their arrangement, i.e. their order of sequence; their assembly, i.e.
their patterns of sequence in context. An analysis of the substance (noting what
does not occur as well as what does) will give one an idea of the status of a language,
and this would serve as a clue to the articulatory setting.
2 By natural is here meant consonant with the character of the language;
instinctively felt and recognized by the native to be right; unexaggerated.
3 These have been meticulously investigated and described in their excellent
publications by Daniel Jones, Lilias Armstrong and other phoneticians.
4 I do not refer here to typical facial features in the genetic sense.
5 German lip-action is very similar to French.
6 The English described in this article is to be taken as that spoken by natives of
England, except when otherwise specified. Over-rounding of the lips is sometimes
adopted by English speakers as an affectation, under the impression that it makes
English clearer, but it is not usual and, in fact, looks unnatural. English spoken with
considerable movement of the lower jaw is sometimes used in entertainment as a
humorous turn on the music-hall stage. It is not natural English and looks funny
to, and so elicits laughter from, an English audience.
7 Once the main setting is established, adjustments for the lesser used sounds can be
comfortably made.

8 Of these [t, n] and, next, [s] are perhaps the most prevalent.
9 Direct observation, as well as palatography, shows this clearly.
10 Watching the tongue repeat quite naturally [t, d, n, l] a number of times in
succession, without an intervening vowel, will show the action of the tongue.
11 Nearly all lingual sounds have a certain amount of lateral contact; the only ones
that show none are open or far back vowels, far back consonants and, occasionally,
clear [l].
12 In [s, z, t, d] the tip plus blade constitute the main articulator; some speakers
produce their [, ] with the blade as the effective articulator, the tip being held
somewhat lower.
13 Except in those who use the variety of [l, , ] with tip raised.
14 Cf. English, where only in the relatively rare cases of dental stoppage is the entire
tongue-rim in contact with all the upper teeth.
15 There are individuals who speak with contracted pharynx, but this is not usual.
16 Plosives, affricates, nasals, laterals.

Adapted from the obituary by Jack Windsor Lewis in The Phonetician No. 83, 2001 pp
23-24 - http://www.yek.me.uk/honikman.html
Beatrice Honikman (1905-1997)
Beatrice Honikman, known familiarly as Trixie, was born in South Africa at Cape
Town on the 28th of September 1905 and died there in 1997. She graduated at her
native city in 1926 and followed up her BA with an MA in the field of the phonetics
of African languages. Then in 1928 she made her way to University College London
to study in Daniel Joness Department of Phonetics, also spending some time at the
University of Hamburg. Thereafter she returned to her home university where she
held first an assistantship and then a full lectureship in phonetics. But she had
conceived a great affection for London where she returned obtaining by the late
thirties a post at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies
under J. R. Firth.
Jones had a high opinion of her, awarding her the unusual accolade of thanking her
for helpful suggestions etc in the acknowledgements of no less than three of his
books, and having her edit for publication a manuscript left behind at her sudden
death at the end of 1937 by Joness much venerated close colleague Lilias Armstrong
which came out in 1940 as The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu. She published
very little on her own account but is certainly remembered for her seminal article
on Articulatory Settings which appeared in 1964 in In Honour of Daniel Jones edited
by D. Abercrombie and others.
The last stage of her career was spent from 1955 to 1971 at the University of Leeds
Department of Phonetics. She had wide linguistic and phonetic interests and long
maintained her fascination with African languages. She was outstanding for her
whipcrack productions of African click sounds that seemed to make any other
teachers puny by comparison.
She got on very well with colleagues and students alike all of whom respected her
dedication and liveliness. She had a good sense of humour and was a fantastic
mimic. She was very interested in music and ballet and especially in mime. She was
no homemaker, preferring to live in small hotels or hostels, and she never married
but this is not to say that she wasnt a perfectly sociable person. She eventually used
to spend her winters in Cape Town and her summers in her beloved London. One of
her closest friends particularly remembers an outing on her 90th birthday she made
with great vigour to show her the newly reconstructed Shakespeares Globe theatre
on the South Bank. She is remembered with affection by all who knew her.

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