Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation
Trading accents
0 Hey folks, 02 br
00 I'm new to this forum. My point of leaving a posting here is that I'd like to learn different U.S. accents since I'm a non-native speaker (some more info about myself below). So, I guess I'm looking for a native speaker of one of the following regions that has an accent typical to that area that I can learn from over, let's say, the phone or Skype. 02 br
02 br
00 Accents I want to learn: 02 br
00 Boston, Massachusetts area, white middle class; no particular neighborhood 02 br
00 Any of the Southern states with the exception of FL or TX (FL isn't very pronounced in my opinion and TX doesn't appeal to me; I've never even worn cowboy boots lol). 02 br
02 br
00 What do I have to offer? 02 br
00 Unfortunately and being a poor college student I can't offer monetary compensation; I can, however, offer returning the favor - I do speak high German fluently accent-free in Germany (Hannover area), but I sound funny over here in the states. 02 br
02 br
00 About myself: 02 br
00 Alright, some info about me as a person. I came to the U.S. at age 16 (~4 years ago) and lived 1 year in Idaho and 3 years in Minnesota where I currently reside. I was born in Hannover, Germany and speak both English and German fluently and quite accurately. Through a lot of absorbing, I have improved my accent greatly over the past few years and have even gotten to the 02 br
00 point where random people stop asking me where I'm from when I go to Walmart. However, people can still tell that I'm not from the states, let alone Minnesota. 02 br
02 br
00 Why do I want to learn an Eastern and Southern accent? I think it'd be cool to be able to switch at will; people in the midwest may not think I'm from any of those states, but might mistake me for somebody from the East or South. I enjoy learning languages and have had the pleasure to devote more than 16.5 years to studying foreign languages (exluding German, obviously), including Chinese, French, Latin, English, and Spanish. I'm also currently studying sociolinguistics and language itself in Minnesota. 02 br
02 br
00 Anybody interested in this experiment? 0-
00 I'm new to this forum. My point of leaving a posting here is that I'd like to learn different U.S. accents since I'm a non-native speaker (some more info about myself below). So, I guess I'm looking for a native speaker of one of the following regions that has an accent typical to that area that I can learn from over, let's say, the phone or Skype. 02 br
02 br
00 Accents I want to learn: 02 br
00 Boston, Massachusetts area, white middle class; no particular neighborhood 02 br
00 Any of the Southern states with the exception of FL or TX (FL isn't very pronounced in my opinion and TX doesn't appeal to me; I've never even worn cowboy boots lol). 02 br
02 br
00 What do I have to offer? 02 br
00 Unfortunately and being a poor college student I can't offer monetary compensation; I can, however, offer returning the favor - I do speak high German fluently accent-free in Germany (Hannover area), but I sound funny over here in the states. 02 br
02 br
00 About myself: 02 br
00 Alright, some info about me as a person. I came to the U.S. at age 16 (~4 years ago) and lived 1 year in Idaho and 3 years in Minnesota where I currently reside. I was born in Hannover, Germany and speak both English and German fluently and quite accurately. Through a lot of absorbing, I have improved my accent greatly over the past few years and have even gotten to the 02 br
00 point where random people stop asking me where I'm from when I go to Walmart. However, people can still tell that I'm not from the states, let alone Minnesota. 02 br
02 br
00 Why do I want to learn an Eastern and Southern accent? I think it'd be cool to be able to switch at will; people in the midwest may not think I'm from any of those states, but might mistake me for somebody from the East or South. I enjoy learning languages and have had the pleasure to devote more than 16.5 years to studying foreign languages (exluding German, obviously), including Chinese, French, Latin, English, and Spanish. I'm also currently studying sociolinguistics and language itself in Minnesota. 02 br
02 br
00 Anybody interested in this experiment? 0-
Top answer
0 Lesson 1: Basic Pronunciation 02 br 00 The following will make you sound Southern to non-Southerners: 02 br 02 br 00 Pin pen merger: Pronounce "pin" and "pen" both as pin [ pIn ] . 02 br 00 Pronounce /aU/ as [ eU ] : down -> dayoon 02 br 00 Pronounce /aI/ as [ a ] except before voiceless consonants (p,t,k,f,theta,s). 02 br 00 Distinguish /ær/, /ɛr/, and /er/ in "marry" "merry" and "Mary" 02 br 00 Before "l" make all vowels lax: thus feel->fill fail->fell 02 br 00 Many nouns are stressed on the first syllable that would be stressed on the second syllable in other accents.
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0 Lesson 1: Basic Pronunciation 02 br
00 The following will make you sound Southern to non-Southerners: 02 br
02 br
00 Pin pen merger: Pronounce "pin" and "pen" both as pin [ pIn ] . Any /E/ followed by an /n/ should be sounded as /In/ 02 br
00 No yod dropping: therefore " 02 br
00 No wine-whine merger: Pronounce words such as "whine" "white" whales" wi
00 The following will make you sound Southern to non-Southerners: 02 br
02 br
00 Pin pen merger: Pronounce "pin" and "pen" both as pin [ pIn ] . Any /E/ followed by an /n/ should be sounded as /In/ 02 br
00 No yod dropping: therefore " 02 br
00 No wine-whine merger: Pronounce words such as "whine" "white" whales" wi
00
0 So, the above should make you sound pretty darn Southern. Can you understand IPA and SAMPA? Try out some of the pronunciations and listen to how you sound. 0-
00
0 Hey Marvin, 02 br
00 Thanks, but I can't read IPA or SAMPA. I attempted to make some of the sounds you suggested, but I'm not sure if I actually made the right sound. Some I could understand such as "caught -> cot" but the others pretty much left me hanging. Do you have Skype by any chance? 0-
00 Thanks, but I can't read IPA or SAMPA. I attempted to make some of the sounds you suggested, but I'm not sure if I actually made the right sound. Some I could understand such as "caught -> cot" but the others pretty much left me hanging. Do you have Skype by any chance? 0-
00
0 >> "caught -> cot" 02 <<
02 br
00 Actually that's not what I meant. I didn't mean to pronounce "caught" as "cot", but rather to merge them both to kah:waw:t. Most Southerners actually don't have the merger, but by pronouncing them both as above, you'll sound more Southern. 0-
02 br
00 Actually that's not what I meant. I didn't mean to pronounce "caught" as "cot", but rather to merge them both to kah:waw:t. Most Southerners actually don't have the merger, but by pronouncing them both as above, you'll sound more Southern. 0-
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