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The sound of English to non-speakers | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5626 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 9 of 20 02 June 2009 at 12:25am | IP Logged | ||
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In my experience everyone in the civilised world can probably recognise English even if they can't speak it. The unique sounds give it away, plus some familiar words like "Okay" and random words which people might know.
I remember being a child and hearing English without understanding it. What stood out are the many sounds that we didn't have in my own language and that are a bit charactaristic of English. - The hard pronounciation of "J" (like a "D" is added in front of it.) - The characteristic pronounciation of "O" - The "ch" sound" - The "R" which is neither rolling nor guttural. - The "TH" sound. - Pronounciation of "A" as "ey" At the top of my head I can't think of any other European language or an Asian language that I recognise that has more than one of these "strange" sounds. Combined toghether they definitely identify English even if you don't know it. Edited by cordelia0507 on 02 June 2009 at 12:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6697 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 20 02 June 2009 at 1:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Although I'm not sure which "o" sound you mean (nor the IPA of it), I think I have heard most of the sounds in Swedish dialects - some Finland-Swedish varieties have /dj/ and /ch/(tj) (DJur, TJärlek), "diphtong" /o/ and /ey/ are present in my Gotlandic accent, the /r/ is slightly retroflexed before (at least) n, l, s, t, d...
OK, I agree that TH (either voiced or unvoiced) isn't present in Swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Achmann Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5444 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 11 of 20 03 June 2009 at 2:22am | IP Logged | ||
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This what I got told. To a person who does not speak a word of English we apperntly sound like we are hissing a lot. If you notice C and S crop up a hell of lot in out language same as SH which can be hissing sounds too. This come however from a New Zealand Maori who lernt Maori as his first tongue. I can't speak from a European perspective. Also he did say the "th" and the lack of sharp sounds in our language. (I think from memory maori has a lot of "angry" sounding sylables).
It makeS SenSe the S Sound though being prodimient. JuSt look at a paragraph of English. It iS not even thought of really. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Satoshi Diglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5611 days ago 215 posts - 224 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 12 of 20 03 June 2009 at 3:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, as a kid I really didn't recognize the 'th' sound until I was older (around 13). It was all "t" and "d" for me. I would say "What do you tink is dat over dere?". Then I heard about it and started to look around for it until I noticed it.
Now I can distinguish it, though not perfectly. I still can't tell the difference between voiced and unvoiced "th" except on pretty thick accents, in which one is close to "v" and the other to "f" (or am I wrong?) Edited by Satoshi on 03 June 2009 at 3:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| GuardianJY Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5473 days ago 74 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Swedish, French | Message 13 of 20 03 June 2009 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with English being a "hissing" language. I really never looked at it that way. Would that make German a series of hacks due to all the "k" and hard "ch" sounds? French...maybe a series of (j) sounds and (wau) sounds?
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| Britomartis Groupie United States Joined 5597 days ago 67 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 14 of 20 05 June 2009 at 8:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I am a native English speaker, and I often wonder what I would think of English if my brain didn't immediately make sense of it. Oddly enough, I can manage to do that for brief moments, and I was surprised. English can be a very melodic language. Though technically not a tonal language, certain syllables in words tend to have a higher or lower pitch. This reminds me of a scene from the old movie, "My Fair Lady," in which a professor attempts to teach a young woman to speak proper English. The professor uses a xylophone to demonstrate how the pitch changes in the phrase "How kind of you to let me come."
It was this aspect that struck me the most. I don't know how big a role this plays in other languages, but it certainly is important in English. English definitely sounds like a Germanic language to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Achmann Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5444 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 15 of 20 05 June 2009 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
I remember something like that being said once aswell. We put stress on the words to indicate more importants to that word in the statement then others. I don't know if this is true only of English. Wikipedia has something on it. It makes sense to me. Does it happen German or Spanish or something. The stressing of a word? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6697 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 20 05 June 2009 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
I think it's quite common for people to have problems with those sounds, and that some learners think of them as v and f respectively, despite that they are in fact pronounced totally different (basically: tongue between the teeth for both th:s, as opposed to the upper teeth biting the lower lip for f/v) - except for certain non-standard accents. Listen a lot, read about phonetics, have a look at IPA, listen again, watch native speakers, practice... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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