Where's this ae accent from?

Question

Need help/comments on wherefrom the speaker in this clip might come from??Your browser does not properly support audio yet.Listen: [ogg] or [mp3](No idea if this attachment works?)

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

Hi,
I fixed the clip. You should put the link between

tags (but without spaces inside the tag)

I don't know where he might come from (but definitely either the US or Canada if he's a native speaker). He just seemed to be like a random American guy, but then I listened closely to what he was saying, and I noticed a couple of "werid" things in the last part:

He says "oppor-choonity"
He aspirates a final T in "great run"
He seems to use a different vowel in "got started", in "got", probably too rounded.

That's my impression, but remember I'm not a native speaker.

Mosca · Answer

Hey thank, cool you helped out with the clip. Hm, also he doesn't seem to cap the t's. Perhaps CalifJim or someone will comment on it.

CalifJim · Answer

My guess is that one of the following is true.

1) He's not from the U.S., but he learned English very, very early in life.
2) He's from the U.S., but has picked up a tiny bit of the accent of his immigrant parents.
3) He's from the U.S., but has a distinctive, idiosyncratic way of pronouncing certain sounds and of phrasing his words.

He doesn't have any of the major American accents (Southern, Bostonian, etc.). If the slight deviations from standard American pronunciation are from an ethnic group, that group is not Hispanic, but it just may be Asian. Or is that a Scandinavian sort of pattern that I hear? (The lengthening of the m in time is an example.) Hmm. Don't know.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks, very interesting analysis. I'm trying to listen for the lengthening of the m in time, but cannot hear it (I'm Scandinavinan so perhaps that might be why

) but will try to look for sources to compare. Any further details would be of interest.

I guess the idiosyncracies are rather subtle though. I payed attention to the t's being almost fully pronounced, at one place in "I had a grea*t* run" it might be for emphasis though.

Thx

Where's this ae accent from?

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