The first thing I did was identify the five orthographic monophthong vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and the two orthographic diphthongs,/ay/ and /aw/. The second thing I did was identify environments: cV cVc, Vc, nV, nVn, Vn, VV, V'c, cVV, VVc, VVn, nVV, based solely on the orthographic representation. Unlike in English, orthographic representation in Visayan is a fairly good representation of the language's sounds. I then identified the minimum lines I needed to cover all these environments (that occur in this script) for as many vowels as occur in them.
Buhi sa kanunay
Ug di ko hikalimtan
Bisag giyam-iran, bisan pa'g gitamay
Molambo ug molipang
Kay ang gumang matuod di mamatay
Tuhoi intawn ako
Bisa'g ibanlas sa luha
Didto sa kalangitan
Ako kang paabuton
I also highlighted the trouble spots I anticipated. It's worth noting that - and ' both represent glottal stops in Visayan orthography.
What I found was that the vowels were all about environment. Listen to the clip above. That is every /a/ in the archetype laid end to end, cut as best I could to just the /a/ sounds. How many consonants can you still hear? Word final /a/ and /o/ all have glottal stops following them. The marked glottal stops in pa'g and bisa'g are only marked because they occur within a syllable instead of at the end of it. Vowels on either side of and especially between nasals all but disappear into said nasals. The /u/ in kanunay is all but indistinguishable.
In English, the sound of a word is dominated by the vowels. Get the vowels right, and most English speakers brains will fill in the consonants, regardless of which ones you actually say. In Visayan, there isn't a lot of bleed over, so you still have to say the right vowel, but the consonant's place of articulation is what dominates the rhythm.
The thing I had to practice most was cutting off the airflow to my vowels. English vowels tend to be prolonged, only cutting off when they hit an obstruent. Visayan vowels cut off, except for the diphthongs and coda /i/. English also tends to blend vowels. In Visayan, each vowel is distinct, no matter how many of them are in a row. I found that practicing this laying down helped me cut off the airflow, then I moved to doing it sitting up while I still had the correct sound and sensation in my head.
I practiced saying o-i-in, ho-i-in, ho-i-in-tawn, tu-ho-i-in-tawn for an hour before I could get it out at speed with each vowel distinct.
pa'g is still difficult, but that's more a matter of the consonants. I can get the vowel right; it's getting the /g/ in before the following gitamay.
Overall, the vowels in Visayan are fairly low energy as well. Highest energy goes to /s/ followed by the nasals, then either the vowels or initial voiced consonants. The vowels are strongest as diphthongs, followed by the multi-vowel sequences.
Another thing that helped me was using Praat to take a look at exactly what it was I was trying to say.
The final vowel trick I worked with was practicing the sung version. This is a set of song lyrics. Singing tends to disguise or erase accent markers, and I have a lot more control over what I'm doing, especially with the vowels. Also, the vowels are generally elongated and easier to work with individually.
The next thing I need to work on is definitely consonants and linking.
