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Can you pinpoint my English Accent? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5056 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes  Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 1 of 20 02 August 2014 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I apologize in advance if this topic doesn't belong in this sub-forum or indeed in this forum at all.
English is technically a second language for me, after Bulgarian, although I learned it at a very young age, used it throughout my eduction, and consider it the language I am most comfortable in. However, I have consistently gotten comments that I have anywhere from no accent to a strong accent from native English speakers in my area of the US. I have even been asked where I have learned English by English speakers in the town I have lived in most of my life. I was wondering if some forum members would be interested in guessing where in the US I am from and would tell me honestly if I have a detectable foreign accent while speaking in English. I recorded myself reading a passage from The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (out of copyright!) and posted it here: http://www.recordmp3.org/leoSc.mp3 The paragraph I'm reading is the third one from chapter 2 of the book which can be found here: http://www.classicreader.com/book/1592/2/ Thank you in advance! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6899 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 20 02 August 2014 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker of English, but have been surrounded by the language since the early 1980s.
I can't hear any non-native features at all. I'd be fooled by your accent any day. Well done. Whereabouts in the US? My guess is the north-eastern part, but I'm probably wrong. Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 02 August 2014 at 12:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| apache güero Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4377 days ago 12 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 3 of 20 02 August 2014 at 12:57am | IP Logged | ||
I am a native English speaker from the US. You sound American with a non-descript accent. A few odd pronunciations here and there, which you would expect from someone who moved to the US as a kid. You should be proud of your accent. Edited by apache güero on 02 August 2014 at 12:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5226 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 20 02 August 2014 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, you have a VERY heavy accent. American probably mid-west, Ohio, Michigan. Perhaps if you listened to the Queens Speeches or watched some Monty Python you'd be able to lose it. I suspect you also have a bad habit of misspelling words like tyre & centre.
:) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4655 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 5 of 20 02 August 2014 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
I speak British English so I've almost no idea where in the US you are from, but you sound like a native speaker of English to me. If pushed I'd discount Texas (because you don't sound like anyone from the TV series "Dallas") and I'd discount New York (nothing like anyone I remember from "Taxi"). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5056 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 6 of 20 02 August 2014 at 1:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks everyone for your replies!
@jeff_lindqvist Your guess was right! I live in lower New York State and I have lived in the Bronx, NYC for most of my formative language years. It's surprising it doesn't show too much in my accent! @apache Thanks, I'm not ashamed of my accent, I was just wondering where people were coming from. Out of curiosity, which words do I pronounce oddly? @rdearman Yea, I think you can tell from my spelling of "apologize" ;) @dampingwire I guess my accent isn't that regional since I was raised both in the Bronx, NYC and in the NYC area. Since many of you say I have a nondescript American English accent, could it be that I somehow picked up a more general English accent do to my later acquisition of language, setting me apart from New Yorkers with a stronger regional accent? If anyone else has anything to chime in, I'd appreciate it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5049 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 7 of 20 02 August 2014 at 1:53am | IP Logged | ||
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after you told me your L1 is Bulgarian, I can just maybe convince myself I hear a bit of Slavic influence on the
way you said "newspaper." Hard to tell where you're from with that accent, especially reading from Kafka rather than using your own words. I'd guess somewhere in the Midwest. Then again, I'm from a part of Maryland where the accent can easily be confused with that of parts of the Midwest and West, but our regional vocabulary is quite different. Someone from Michigan might say "I want to get in shape, so I bought a pair of tennis shoes and started going to the drinking fountain instead of having a pop." I'd pronounce that sentence almost the same way, except I'd call it "sneakers," "water fountain," and "soda". Someone from NYC will use the same words I do, but for most of them it would sound really different. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5056 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 8 of 20 02 August 2014 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
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@robarb Thanks for the reply. I chose to read an excerpt because I think most of the comments I get come from my pronunciation rather than specific word choice. I can't imagine using any word other "sneakers", "water fountain", or "soda" for those respective items, but showing off all the regional words I use would make it too easy for you all!
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