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Natural Accent Talent: The magic of Urdu? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| snovymgodom Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5725 days ago 136 posts - 149 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian | Message 9 of 33 08 June 2009 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It is true that if one's native language has a wide array of diverse phonemes, this can assist the learner in pronouncing the phonemes of the target language if many of the phonemes are shared. That said, Urdu is not exceptional in this regard. As others have pointed out, there are many phonemes that are either not distinguished or completely absent in Urdu. While an Urdu speaker may have an easier time than others when learning the accents of other languages on the Indian subcontinent that use retroflex consonants, Urdu will not by itself put one at an advantage when learning, say, Icelandic, which has interdental fricatives, front rounded vowels and devoiced nasals, none of which are present in Urdu.
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| Russianbear Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6775 days ago 358 posts - 422 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, Ukrainian Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 33 08 June 2009 at 9:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I wonder where these theories about one's language having all the sounds come from. I once heard an Arabic speaker say Arabic had all the sounds of all the languages. Russian has over 15 palatalized consonants, and -according to Wikipedia- Urdu has only a handful of those, if any at all. It does seem like Urdu is a good match for English in terms of vowels, but an Urdu speaker would not have an easy time with Russian, I think. Edited by Russianbear on 08 June 2009 at 9:05pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5782 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 11 of 33 08 June 2009 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
It seems quite a natural though perhaps ignorant attitude to me. I could even well imagine English speakers who have never studied languages thinking that. Your native language is 'normal speach'. Its just how people naturally talk. Of course you can create all the sounds there are! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pakiboy Newbie United States Joined 5655 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English | Message 12 of 33 08 June 2009 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To the repliers...
Thanks for the reply. If you actually notice... Spanish "rr" is missing in Urdu? are u kidding me... Urdu itself is pronounced with a "rr" Urrrrdu... As far as the sounds... th oh and others are concerned.. I guess some of ur completely ignorant or I don't know what ... th: tha meaning was ... oh: woh meaning they. I have studied and listened to French and I couldn't find a single sound thats missing in Urdu. Anyways... I didn't review my post and I meant to say that Urdu has "almost all the 'sounds' available in any other language spoken in the world." and this is from BBC Language Service. Check out this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/guide/urdu/history.shtm l 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pakiboy Newbie United States Joined 5655 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English | Message 13 of 33 08 June 2009 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
Are you kidding me!!! Urdu has no aveolar sounds... wow! that just exemplifies your ignorance. Please learn a language or at least its pronunciation before speaking rather than relying on Wikipedia. Urdu alphabets: "dal", "te", "lam" and "re" are all equivalents of English T D L and R. So please research before you assert ur comments. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6203 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 14 of 33 08 June 2009 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Would it be possible for you to list the consonant phonemes in Urdu, or find a website that gives them accurately? Otherwise, we'll have to continue relying on Wikipedia (I've searched the internet and Jstor, but since I don't know Urdu I don't know what websites are right and what are wrong). I noticed, for instance, that the descriptions I've found say that Urdu lacks the phonemes /h/, the glottal stop, and the velar nasal, three common phonemes in English, and that it doesn't distinguish between the alveolar tap and the trill (i.e. the two "r"s in Spanish). Please correct me (gently :) ) if I'm wrong. Another thing that comes in to play in accents are allophones. I've heard that Portuguese and French have the exact same phonemes (that's probably an exaggeration and I'm sure it depends on the dialect, but still, they're quite similar), but Portuguese speakers normally have accents in French and vice versa. This is because although they have the same phonemes, these phonemes do not necessarily have the same allophones, or realizations according to position. Therefore, French speakers have somewhat of an advantage when learning Portuguese and vice versa, just as Urdu speakers have advantages learning other languages, but this doesn't preclude French speakers having thick accents when speaking Portuguese or Urdu speakers having accents in English (unless they just have a gift, like you). 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5809 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 15 of 33 08 June 2009 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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ɸ, ɬ, ɮ, ç, ʎ, ɰ, ʁ, ʀ, ɧ, y, ø, ɤ....
All the IPA symbols above represents sounds not present in Urdu, and the list could be much longer. Edited by MäcØSŸ on 08 June 2009 at 10:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6140 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 16 of 33 08 June 2009 at 10:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
No, they're not. Hindi/Urdu has RETROFLEX and DENTAL t's and d's, both of which come in aspirated and unaspirated varieties. English t and d are alveolar and are either unaspirated (in "stop" for instance) or half-aspirated i.e. not as aspirated as Hindi/Urdu. Although the Arabic "ain" is written, it isn't pronounced in Urdu; at least not correctly. I studied Urdu with a speaker of Arabic, who was constantly asked to pronounce the "ain" so our tutors could practice. From a second-language learner of Urdu who makes his living using, translating and (occasionally) teaching the language. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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