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Some thoughts on accent and pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| tpark Tetraglot Pro Member Canada Joined 7035 days ago 118 posts - 127 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Dutch, French Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 43 06 May 2008 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is the use of pure vowel sounds something that distinguishes European accents? My wife is from the Netherlands, and she has expressed to me that she would like to speak with the local accent when speaking English. I would like to help her, but it's a bit tricky to figure out exactly what to tell her to listen for. Since she's been here a long time, all the basic things (vocabulary, grammar, local idioms) are there, but there are still differences between she speaks and the way the locals speak. I think there are still vowel differences, but I find it difficult to pick out exactly what the differences are on the fly.
She has noted a similar difficulty in telling me what sounds are different when I speak Dutch. She tells me I speak with an English accent, but can't quite pin down the difference. Anyway, I find this whole discussion very interesting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6362 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 34 of 43 06 May 2008 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, what normally gives the Dutch accent away when speaking English, is, strangely enough, the pronounciation of the 's'!
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| LanguageGeek Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6096 days ago 151 posts - 159 votes 4 sounds Speaks: German*, English, Hungarian Studies: French, Russian | Message 35 of 43 06 May 2008 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Some previous posters mentioned the possible drawbacks of a too native like accent. Let me pitch in from my vantage point. I consider my Hungarian pronunciation somewhere in the range of 7-8 on the Professors scale. This is as good as I would like it to be, maybe already a tad bit too much. There are a number of reasons for this:
- Hungarians aren't used to meeting foreigners speaking their language - They might assume I am a native from a Hungarian speaking region outside of Hungary ( of which there are many ) - I will inevitably make mistakes in grammar, style and composition This may lead them to think I am somehow speech-impaired, if not mightly retarded, but otherwise a native speaker.Politeness and prudency would have it that they won't point this out. So in order to avoid all those arkward contingencies I need to be upfront each time I meet a Hungarian and introduce myself as a German. In this case it is better to betray myself by a well groomed German accent, don't you think so? I don't have these scruples when it comes to English. I have been taken for a native speaker in Skypecasts before ( these are voice chat rooms, a little know feature of Skype which is a great learning tool) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6362 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 36 of 43 06 May 2008 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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yeah, English speakers are pretty stupid, so if you make grammatical mistakes you'll fit right in... :))
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| tpark Tetraglot Pro Member Canada Joined 7035 days ago 118 posts - 127 votes Speaks: English*, German, Dutch, French Personal Language Map | Message 37 of 43 08 May 2008 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | ||
In what manner is the Dutch s different from that of the English s? Is it a bit softer sounding? Thanks, --Ted. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6362 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 38 of 43 08 May 2008 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it has a touch of 'sh' in it...
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| tpark Tetraglot Pro Member Canada Joined 7035 days ago 118 posts - 127 votes Speaks: English*, German, Dutch, French Personal Language Map | Message 39 of 43 14 May 2008 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the info. In this case, the "s" sound my wife uses sounds OK to me.
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| Rout Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5701 days ago 326 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish Studies: Hindi | Message 40 of 43 09 April 2009 at 3:24am | IP Logged | ||
'LanguageGeek,' While I can't rate your accent over the computer, it would probably be a bit offensive to most Englishspeakers to hear 'retarded' used as an adjective in this case. The choice of words must be chosen wisely no matter what the accent! ;) - JMR 1 person has voted this message useful |
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