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"Perfect Pronunciation" | ||
Tags: Greek | Pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 121 of 131 11 January 2012 at 1:28am | IP Logged | |||||
But who is well-enough conversant with all accents to identify what constitutes a mixed-up or inconsistent accent? If I meet a South American who speaks good English (and I'm thinking even up to the level of people who attended International Schools as children here), often it's impossible for me to tell whether they're a Spanish-speaker with an American-influenced accent, or an American with a Spanish-influenced accent. In the UK, most of our image of American accents is New York and California, because New York is the home of music and a lot of TV series, and California is where Hollywood is. When The Wire started, no-one over here knew what a Baltimore accent sounded like. Any time something's set in Chicago, it sounds weird to us. And then there's Fargo... So I take other people's surprise at me being not being a native speaker in the same spirit. I wouldn't know a Kansas accent if I heard one, or a Nebraska accent, or a Maine accent, but I would certainly identify the speaker as a native English speaker. That leaves a whole spectrum of possible native accents that don't actually exist that I would assume was a some-state-or-other accent. Like Solfrid, I do find it quite baffling to be called Mexican when I pronounce the S/Z distinction though.... Edited by Cainntear on 11 January 2012 at 1:29am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5227 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 122 of 131 11 January 2012 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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While I'm not entirely sure you meant by 'mixed accent', I'll assume it is 'an accent that has traits of different native accents but is self-consistent'. I do this in English -- my accent is made of bits and pieces but unless I'm trying to mimic / playing with different accents I always pronounce any given word the same way.
The result is I've been asked a lot of times where in England or the USA I had been born, although it's pretty clear to me that my pronunciation is not perfect and my accent has mixed features that should immediately give me away as non-native or 'mixed' native at best (someone who kept moving to different places during his childhood), just like the s/c/z distinction should have given Solfrid Cristin or Cainntear away as non-Mexicans. I would guess most native speakers are really familiar with just a few other native accents if at all, so any strange (but good enough) accent can and does come across to them as native albeit from a distant region. I am more or less good at languages and quite familiar with Cuban, Mexican or Argentinian accents, but if I heard a Peruvian, a Colombian and a Bolivian speaker, I'm not sure if I'd be able to tell their accents apart, let alone tell which is which. Why? Because I've heard some speakers from those places but I'm not familiar enough with those accents. Others may have the same problem with Mexicans and the like. Nihil sub sole novum :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 123 of 131 11 January 2012 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Some people have said on this forum that you can't -- or are unlikely to? -- sound native unless you sound like you come from a specific region. That might be true to a degree -- you can't sound both American and British -- but I'd be careful not to overuse that principle.
After all, many people travel to different places throughout their lives and continue to sound native. Surely, sounding native has more to do with consistency and phonetic integrity than the listener being able to pinpoint where a particular set of phonemes belongs to. Edited by Arekkusu on 11 January 2012 at 10:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 124 of 131 11 January 2012 at 10:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
You've said it better than I managed to. Thank you. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 125 of 131 11 January 2012 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree. I am a native Norwegian, but I do not speak the dialect of any particular place in Norway. I just speak a neutral, but conservative Norwegian which can be found mostly in the Eastern Region. It does not make me any less a native. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 126 of 131 12 January 2012 at 12:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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At least during a brief conversation. I've been taken for being Irish (and Canadian) in Ireland, and American in Germany. And here in my Swedish home town, people still ask me when I moved here (I've been living in the same neighbourhood all my life for chrissake...).
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| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5227 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 127 of 131 12 January 2012 at 12:37am | IP Logged | |||||
I beg to differ and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. I've been asked countless times where I am from... in my own hometown. With the exception of a few foreigners, nobody ever doubted I'm a native, though. Edited by mrwarper on 12 January 2012 at 12:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4750 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 128 of 131 12 January 2012 at 6:24am | IP Logged | |||||
Is it okay for me to pronounce OSLO as OOSHLOO (sorry for using English respelling here)? :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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