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 #17 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 15:54 pm Queen's English |
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| Englishuser wrote: | | The person in question intends to live in the United States. It also happens to be the case that American diphthongs are easier for Polish speakers to learn than British English diphthongs. My point is that accents still matter to people i.e. the Briton I referred to thought it would be odd for someone to want to speak with an American accent. |
Is that so. How convenient.
| Englishuser wrote: | | There is no such accent that would sound close to everybody else's accent in English. |
You know what I meant -- the regional variety. Why so supercilious?
| Englishuser wrote: | Actually, quite a few people pronounce 'cough' like /kɔːf/, as it is a standard pronunciation in North America. I would not be surprised if my pronunciation turned out to be more common than the BBC English one. Speaking U-RP or near U-RP is different, but I am very reluctant to call it freaky.
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I'd love to hear it, but you don't even dare give a sample. /kɔːf/ is not a standard American pronunciation. It's /k۸f/. But I can't wait to be presented with a source from your side of the universe.
| Englishuser wrote: | Being a bilingual I have been wondering if there ever was a trace of a Finnish accent in my spoken English.
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If you're a bilingual speaker and UCRP is your English variety, you have already eradicated your accent. Do you think it has operated to your advantage?
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 Ralf
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| #18 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 16:50 pm Queen's English |
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Hi Alan,
I am quoting John Wells because I believe he knows what he is talking about.
EU |
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Englishuser
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| #19 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 16:56 pm Queen's English |
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If I'm going to send you a box of chocolates, EU, I'll need your full (street) address.
Brits, what's going on with Spurs? They have far too much talent to be struggling the way they are.
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| #20 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 16:57 pm Queen's English |
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Hi Ralf,
| Quote: | | I'd love to hear it, but you don't even dare give a sample. |
I could possibly post a phonemic transcription if you are that interested in my speech.
| Quote: | | /kɔːf/ is not a standard American pronunciation. It's /k۸f/. But I can't wait to be presented with a source from your side of the universe. |
There are two standard American pronunciations, one of which I have quoted. You could look it up in the "Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary".
EU |
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| #21 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 17:53 pm Queen's English |
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| Englishuser wrote: | Hi Ralf,
| Quote: | | I'd love to hear it, but you don't even dare give a sample. |
I could possibly post a phonemic transcription if you are that interested in my speech.
| Quote: | | /kɔːf/ is not a standard American pronunciation. It's /k۸f/. But I can't wait to be presented with a source from your side of the universe. |
There are two standard American pronunciations, one of which I have quoted. You could look it up in the "Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary".
EU |
Hi EU,
Are you a book, or are you alive? The problem with you is that you seem to live in a world of transcriptions and dictionary variations. Unfortunately, that's nothing tangible.
An emasculated ox is not much use to the cow, is it?
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| #22 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 18:01 pm Queen's English |
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| prezbucky wrote: | | what's going on with Spurs? They have far too much talent to be struggling the way they are. |
Talent alone doesn't win games. You need passion and a sense of unity and belonging. And who'd want to call White Hart Lane their home 
Are you interested in soccer? Do you favour a team?
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| #23 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 18:07 pm Queen's English |
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Yeah, I started watching soccer a few years ago -- Fox Soccer Channel here in the States.
I've got family friends in Italy, and they cheer for AC Milan, so I suppose that's my team.
My favorite English teams are Spurs, Liverpool and Man U
German: Leverkusen & Dortmund
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| #24 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 18:10 pm Queen's English |
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As for talent, yeah -- maybe just 50% of the equation.
So Spurs must have a blend of bad coaching and bad chemistry/motivation.
It's a shame, because I think they've got one of the top groups of strikers on the planet (in terms of club football).
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| #25 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 19:40 pm Queen's English |
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Hi EU,
I cast no aspersions on John Wells as you are trying to suggest. My point was about your obsession with these obscure accents but you duck and dive, parry and weave most of the remarks and questions put to you and give no answer to why you persist in lauding them (the accents) to the skies. Before you twist what I have just written, let me use the mantra used in the current TV series, Dragons' Den and say: I'm out.
Alan
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| #26 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 20:07 pm Queen's English |
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I think the initial purpose of the thread was to discuss how to improve or change your pronunciation. Then at some point we got stuck talking about how important or "proper" certain accents are.
Maybe we should get back to the question how to you can acquire a certain accent because once you follow some of the suggestions we are making, you can then decide what you want to sound like and what role model you want to choose. As we have established before, in order to develop your own pronunciation you need to be able to distinguish between different accents and sounds. I've noticed that people who are skilled in music (meaning they can either play an instrument or sing very well), can develop their pronunciation better than others. I think this is because their ears are trained to pick up sounds and intonations.
Studying phonetics might help you improve your pronunciation but I don't think it's the main factor. You have to trust into your ability to make out different sounds and imitate them.
I also think that you don't have to try to sound exactly like somebody else. Instead, you can keep a healthy balance between imitating an accent and sounding natural. This is a training process and the more you listen to different native speakers the easier it will be for you to develop 'your own' English accent. If you watch CNN, you will hear different English accents and they all sound interesting to me. Why select some sounds from all those accents and mix them into your own pronunciation? Then people might think you are an Australian who has lived a long time in the US or vice versa.
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| #27 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 20:36 pm Queen's English |
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Hi Torsten,
I agree with everything you said in your post.
People who have never heard you speak English may wonder what you sound like. As far as I can tell, you have not completely adopted an accent from an English speaking country, but you sound perfectly intelligible, educated and genuine.
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| #29 (permalink) Thu Nov 01, 2007 23:22 pm Queen's English |
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OOPS!
hehe
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| #30 (permalink) Sun Nov 04, 2007 18:51 pm Queen's English |
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Hi Ralf,
| Quote: | | /kɔːf/ is not a standard American pronunciation. It's /k۸f/. |
I don't think many speakers of General American have the STRUT vowel in a word like 'cough'. I think the vowel is slightly elongated, more so than in STRUT, so you should have used a length marker. I also think the quality of the vowel is different from what your transcription suggests. Perhaps a speaker of American English could throw more light on this.
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