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British accent - Michael E. Andrews

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12 messages over 2 pages: 1
LaughingChimp
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 Message 9 of 12
18 February 2013 at 11:55am | IP Logged 
beano wrote:
Accent is not the same as pronunciation.


What is the difference then?
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beano
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 Message 10 of 12
19 February 2013 at 12:41am | IP Logged 
Accent is more than pure pronunciation. It is the lilt and cadence to your voice as you speak. I know I can
pronounce German words correctly in order to be easily understood by natives but they are delivered in a
style fashioned by my Scottish accent. Native speakers know I'm from a different country as soon as I open
my mouth. I've heard countless foreigners speak near-perfect English, zero problems in understanding them
as they voice the words correctly, but always wrapped by their own particular accent.

Bad pronunciation is just a case of getting the basic sounds wrong.
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LaughingChimp
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Czech Republic
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 Message 11 of 12
19 February 2013 at 5:05pm | IP Logged 
What do you mean by "basic sounds" then? If they can recognize your Scottish accent, it means that you pronounce some of the sounds the Scottish way.

It seems to me that what you call "accent" is pronunciation that is just slightly off, so that the words are still clearly recognizable, while what you call "bad pronunciation" is pronunciation so wrong that some words sound like different words.
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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 12 of 12
19 February 2013 at 6:51pm | IP Logged 
I think of "basic sounds" as the Spanish R, the English voiced TH and unvoiced TH, the Mandarin x, sh, q, j, ch and zh, the French R, the German ΓΌ and so on. If you nail the "basic sounds" you're able to pronounce words more or less correctly. Now, is this "enough" to sound like someone from Madrid/London/Beijing/Paris/Berlin? No - unless you've also worked on your accent, and that's not necessarily "unlearning" your native, but rather adding a set of skills in order to sound like someone from Madrid, London, Beijing, Paris, Berlin (hint: focus on the melody of the language).


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