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How does English-accented French sound? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| 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 9 of 35 20 June 2011 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
Unfortunately it's the mechanics of the language. English has a very wide variety of native accents, and we're exposed to loads of them every day through TV. As a Scottish boy growing up in the 80s, I regularly watched Scottish, English, Australian and American TV, and I learned to understand it. That variety includes a lot of very distinct features: In BBC English, most T's are pronounced the same -- top, butter, can't In Scotland and many parts of England, many Ts are pronounced as a glottal stop. (eg buʔer,can'ʔ, whereas top retains it's alveolar quality. In parts of America, the double T in butter is reduced to a weak flap (almost approximating an R). The T in top stays hard, and the T in can't is (I think) somewhere in between. And then there's vowels. Us Scottish folk speak with more monophthongs than most, whereas English people have the most diphthongs. And vowel length varies greatly across the English world. So the English language predisposes its speakers to being forgiving of deviations in pronunciation. Most languages that support such a variety of pronunciations are so heavily dialectised that pronunciation isn't the only barrier to mutual comprehension. Most major languages have been heavily standardised, and any variety has been lost (Portuguese may have variety, but that's because it's got two standards). So English is in a very unique situation in that regard. Now, as for an English accent in French -- it's not really about good or bad, it can become a barrier to comprehension. As English has many diphthongs, it can be difficult for the learner to pronounce the clear monophthongs of French. To the English ear, a diphthong is one sound, but to a French ear, it's two. This means that you're effectively adding extra syllables into French words, and as the brain recognises words in part by the number of syllables, it's no surprise that it stops you being understood. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| unityandoutside Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6015 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin, Mandarin | Message 10 of 35 21 June 2011 at 5:48am | IP Logged | |||||
I pronounce the t at the end of can't as a glottal stop. I also pronounce all word final t's as a glottal stop - for example at the end of "that," "street," or "start." All the Americans I've met do this. However, these t's all go back to being pronounced dentally if the next word in the phrase starts with a vowel. 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 11 of 35 21 June 2011 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
When you learn a sport, don't you want to move like the pros? When you try to sing, don't you want to sing like a superstar? When you cook, don't you wish you cooked like a chef? So why, when you learn a language, would it be rude to suggest you try to speak like a native? On the contrary, it would be rude to learn a language and NOT try to sound like the natives. Why would you want to insist on imposing your inadequate pronunciation on speakers of another language when you are speaking their language? 5 persons have 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 12 of 35 21 June 2011 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To answer the OP's question, a faint English accent can be cute, but a thicker one isn't particularly attractive. It sounds like the speaker has a hot potato in his mouth.
I think the biggest culprits are the retroflex R and L, and the English stress system that makes vowel distinctions disappear. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| megazver Triglot Newbie Lithuania Joined 5995 days ago 34 posts - 52 votes Speaks: Lithuanian, Russian*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Polish | Message 13 of 35 21 June 2011 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, English-accented Russian sounds like you have a mouthful of potato mash. A big mouthful. We're talking bulging cheeks big. It's hilarious. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| megazver Triglot Newbie Lithuania Joined 5995 days ago 34 posts - 52 votes Speaks: Lithuanian, Russian*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Polish | Message 14 of 35 21 June 2011 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
Probably not, but no one has been stupid enough to mention it to me. :) Edited by megazver on 21 June 2011 at 5:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lootrock Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5753 days ago 18 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Mandarin, Arabic (Egyptian), Russian | Message 15 of 35 24 June 2011 at 7:48am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would say my french accent is pretty good. Believe me, it took a while to get there. Apart from actual accent, I notice now even the way I move my head when saying certain things is french and the fact that for some reason in french when you say certain things your voice gets very low(for men and women), with that said, I think alot of french people find the English accent cute if it isnt grating. I personally hate the English-french accent, it sounds like English to me and sometimes I cant even understand it, but I think that reaction is somewhat normal of having a dislike of your native accent in a foreign language. And as will always be a problem for most, its those damned R's!
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 16 of 35 24 June 2011 at 8:21am | IP Logged | |||||
To me it was not a problem at all. Most students of French I met managed to pronounce this sound. Only a few failed. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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