Hi, Alexander!  Awhile ago you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  The nasal sound in "- ing" may be transcribed phonetically   
    AH>  as an "n" with a tail, like a "g".  The idea is that it's   
    AH>  half way beween "-in" and the version where the "g" is   
    AH>  fully enunciated.   
      
    ak>  Have you seen some teaching guide or a picture in the   
    ak>  Internet so I could see how to fold my tongue and where   
    ak>  to put it to pronounce "ing" properly? ;)   
      
      
               Alas, no.  I'll practise on myself in the bathroom mirror....  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  "Glottal stop" tells me not very much.   
      
      
               If your dictionaries are as helpful as mine WRT this subject, I am   
   not surprised.  Okay... you'll need a mirror & one free hand.   
      
      
    1)  Plosive consonants   
      
            Hold your hand in front of your mouth while enunciating /p/ and /b/.   
   You will feel a little puff of air.  If you associate the word "plosive" with   
   "explosive" or "explosion", give yourself a gold star.  Now watch what you're   
   doing with your mouth.  The tongue is in a relaxed position.  The flow of air   
   has been interrupted & then released by the movement of your lips.   
      
      
    2)  Voiced & unvoiced consonants   
      
            So, what's the difference between these two sounds?  If you put your   
   hand on your larynx (voice box, Adam's apple) you will feel no vibration with   
   /p/ although you do with /b/.  When such vibrations are present, the sound is   
   said to be "voiced".  In English we have both a voiced & an unvoiced "th".  I   
   see also that between various dialects & various languages the differences in   
   pronunciation are often as simple as that.  But what I want you to do for the   
   time being is to focus on that vibration... on what your hand is telling you.   
      
      
    3)  Glottal stop   
      
            You can interrupt the flow of air with your lips, as in /p/ and /b/.   
   You can also interrupt it by placing the tip of your tongue behind your upper   
   front teeth, as in /t/.  But there's at least one other way.  If you move the   
   middle part of your tongue to the roof of your mouth you can stop the flow of   
   air from the *cavity between your tongue & your larynx*... AKA the "glottis".   
      
            That is how we pronounce "hard consonants" such as /k/ and /g/.  The   
   release of air is abrupt, as it is with /b/ and /p/.  The puff of air is more   
   subtle with /g/, but you can feel it there too... and you can see your larynx   
   "jump" on release with both /k/ and /g/.   
      
            Now try saying /n/, which is voiced.  The tip of your tongue will be   
   pressing against the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth.  If you   
   press the *middle* of your tongue against your hard palate as though you were   
   saying /g/, but you're voicing the sound as you would with /n/, you'll have a   
   fairly good idea of how /ng/ sounds in standard English or whatever Cambridge   
   University calls it these days.  If you hear the /g/ quite clearly on release   
   (especially at the end of a word) you are hearing a "glottal stop" similar to   
   what our friend from Manchester used.  If the /g/ seems to be entirely absent   
   where you'd expect to hear the suffix "-ing" you may be hearing a southern US   
   dialect... or you may be hearing a bit of sloppiness in everyday speech.  ;-)   
      
      
                                      *****   
      
      
            My apologies for taking so long to finish this reply.  I was waiting   
   for the Muses to offer a few examples, and yesterday they did.   
      
    1)  Newspaper cartoons in which North American telephones say "Ri-i-n-n-ng!"   
   It's merely an approximation, of course... but you can sustain the /ng/ sound   
   indefinitely (i.e. until you need to inhale).  You position your tongue as if   
   you'd intended to say /g/, and then hold it in place while trying to say /n/.   
   The vibration continues as long as there is some air escaping from your nose.   
      
    2)  A few words of a popular song, from the latter part of the 20th century:   
   "Singin' like a sunset".  The /ng/ in the middle is quite clear, but I reckon   
   the writer &/or the performer wants the pronunciation to sound "folksy".  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)