Seth Diglot Changed to RedKingsDream Senior Member United States Joined 7227 days ago 240 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Persian
| Message 41 of 297 29 May 2005 at 3:50pm | IP Logged |
The English /r/ phoneme is retroflex, not palatal.
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Viktoria Newbie United States Joined 7135 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes
| Message 42 of 297 29 May 2005 at 4:40pm | IP Logged |
Seth wrote:
The English /r/ phoneme is retroflex, not palatal. |
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I know what you mean by palatal, but what do you mean by retroflex?
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Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7318 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin
| Message 43 of 297 29 May 2005 at 7:34pm | IP Logged |
A retroflex sound is produced with the tongue curled behind alveolar ridge. While this is the stardard way of producing an /r/ (should be an upside-down r in the IPA) according to the "Received Pronunciation" scheme (British English), in North American English, many people produce the sound by bunching up the tongue at the back without curling it at all. This is how I produce this sound; there is no retroflex /r/ in my English.
Edited by Malcolm on 29 May 2005 at 7:35pm
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laxxy Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7122 days ago 172 posts - 177 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian*, English Studies: Japanese
| Message 44 of 297 29 May 2005 at 10:25pm | IP Logged |
For me French is most beautiful.
Southern US accent is also nice, especially in female speech :)
Italian/Italian accent and most British english varieties all sound a bit arrogant to me.
As for US accents: After about 7 yrs in the US, I can readily distinguish Southern and Texan; as for the others -- I am usually just able to tell that a person does not come from Midwest.
Edited by laxxy on 26 June 2005 at 8:10am
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jradetzky Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom geocities.com/jradet Joined 7210 days ago 521 posts - 485 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1
| Message 45 of 297 30 May 2005 at 12:53am | IP Logged |
laxxy wrote:
Italian/Italian accent and most British english varieties all sound a bit arrogant to me.
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Yes indeed, that's why I like British English so much!
Edited by jradetzky on 30 May 2005 at 12:54am
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Viktoria Newbie United States Joined 7135 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes
| Message 46 of 297 01 June 2005 at 12:32am | IP Logged |
It's the arrogant British-ness that makes the children sound so charming and ornery! Australian kids just sound cute -- there's a little different sound there down under.
Italian kids around here have perfect English accents, but their parents accents make them sound emphatic about everything. Don't know if I'd say arrogant, really. Maybe all the gesturing they do just makes it seem so.
Edited by Viktoria on 01 June 2005 at 12:32am
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hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7155 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese
| Message 47 of 297 01 June 2005 at 3:27am | IP Logged |
Viktoria wrote:
Italian kids around here have perfect English accents, but their parents accents make them sound emphatic about everything. Don't know if I'd say arrogant, really. Maybe all the gesturing they do just makes it seem so. |
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Yes, we gesture a lot when speaking! Are there many Italians living near you?
Edited by administrator on 01 June 2005 at 11:44am
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Magnum Bilingual Triglot Retired Moderator Pro Member United States Joined 7120 days ago 359 posts - 353 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian*, French Studies: German Personal Language Map
| Message 48 of 297 01 June 2005 at 3:05pm | IP Logged |
When I was in highschool in the USA, there was a girl who came as an exchange student for one year from England. She spoke very proper English, with a heavy English accent. I fell in love with her voice. While it is the same language as mine, it is completely different.
I should have married her, just to hear her voice.
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