Search results for 'tag:Phonetics tag:Accents' matching tags 'Phonetics' and 'Accents'

Re: Easy as Pie, Almost!

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:30:12 GMT

Frequently listen to English spoken by native speakers and repeat them.
Watch English movies, listen to music, audio clips, BBC news and presentations.
Control your rate of speech to get the correct intonation and rhythm of English.
Use your dictionary.Familiarize yourself with the phonetic symbols used for different words in the dictionary and look up the correct pronunciation.This method helps in neutralizing an accent tremendously.
Make a list of commonly used words that are difficult to pronounce.
Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.
Read English newspaper regularly.
Work on how to pronounce the vowel and consonant sounds.Mostly vowel sounds play vital role for accent variation.
Hence pronounce the vowels clearly.
Practice English sincerely. Don't feel shy to speak English as a beginner.

Re: How to pronounce Pacino, Scorsese and Sean

Jackson6612 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:21:44 GMT

Anonymous
Actually guys Italian like Spanish spells its' words phonetically. Scorsaysee is more or less and American Italian invention its' not how the word should be pronounced.

Scor -se -se is actually the true prounciation of this LATIN word. In latin the e is never pronouced like the english long e but only as the short vowel e as eh - like egg or exit.
EE in italian is used by the letter i in which gives the long e vowel sound we know in English, ie Pacino - Pa Chee no.

The ScorSAYsee in Scorsese is most likely due to a missinterpretation of the Italian accent that colours certain vowel sounds.

But in Italian, Scorsese would sound like Scor SE se. Raising the tone of your voice and elongating the sound eh so that it sounds almost like a drawl (not an american drawl but a lazy e). Thank how an Italian would pronounce Luigi.

Whatever the correct phonetic sound of Scorsese it is NOT pronounced ScorSAYsee

Thankk you, anon.

Question 1: Doesn't English also spell its words phonetically?

Question 2: Which of the following sentences is correct? If both are correct, then what is the difference in meaning?
1: Doesn't English also spell its words phonetically?
2: Doesn't English also pronounce its words phonetically?

Question 3: I believe Italian and Spanish are based on Latin. English, too, does borrow some of its words from Latin but it's a Germanic language. Am I correct?

Re: How to pronounce Pacino, Scorsese and Sean

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:54:18 GMT

Actually guys Italian like Spanish spells its' words phonetically. Scorsaysee is more or less and American Italian invention its' not how the word should be pronounced.

Scor -se -se is actually the true prounciation of this LATIN word. In latin the e is never pronouced like the english long e but only as the short vowel e as eh - like egg or exit.
EE in italian is used by the letter i in which gives the long e vowel sound we know in English, ie Pacino - Pa Chee no.

The ScorSAYsee in Scorsese is most likely due to a missinterpretation of the Italian accent that colours certain vowel sounds.

But in Italian, Scorsese would sound like Scor SE se. Raising the tone of your voice and elongating the sound eh so that it sounds almost like a drawl (not an american drawl but a lazy e). Thank how an Italian would pronounce Luigi.

Whatever the correct phonetic sound of Scorsese it is NOT pronounced ScorSAYsee

Re: How do I pronounce those words in American Accent?

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:23:21 GMT

Hi, I'm an American from the northwest part of the country (Washington state). Our accents by American standards are supposed to be the 'blandest.' That is, easiest to understand and closest to speaking phonetically American spelling.

So I'll try to do this as close as possible to the way we pronounce it.

Ray gyoo lair lee = regularly (the 'lar' is pronounced like lair, as in the hideout or haunt)

Par tik kyoo lair lee = particularly (again, this 'larly' sounds like the one in regularly)

O - ur dur = order (ooh, this is a tough one to explain. If you already know how to pronounce the 'er' sound, like the 'der' in Order, then the 'r' before the 'O' makes the same 'er' sound. So it ends up sounding like this: Oherder. A word that makes that 'r' sound in 'order' is the word 'oar' like the one used to row of a boat. So, it's pronounced exactly like 'oarder.') (I hope that isn't too confusing...)

M- er der = murder (like in 'order', the 'r' makes the 'er' sound and the 'u' in Murder is completely ignored, you don't pronounce it at all. So keeping the 'er' sound in mind, Murder is pronounced Merder.)

I'm not an English major or anything, so these obviously aren't true phonetic spellings. But they are exactly how Americans in this part of the country pronounce those words, and actually (because we're West Coast) how much of the American media sounds.

So I hope this helps. I have studied a few other languages and chatted with a lot of non-native speakers and the 'r' sound is something they always talk about being difficult! I suppose all of this just depends on what language/languages we learn to speak first.

-lycanos

NARNIA

Christanford — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:10:53 GMT

I would really love to have Edmund's accent and was wondering if anyone could state some features of that accent for me.
Here's an interview of the actor, Skandar Keynes:

And for some reason my browser cannot display some of the phonetic symbols. Does anyone know if I have to download anything to read them?
Thanks in advance.

Re: Accent Atlas!! Fantastic site!

Mosca — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:48:06 GMT

for me the phonetic transcription of my countrymen's speech - which indeed is very charactheristic and spot on .. really emphasises what I need to work on.

Re: Transcription of sentence (Scouse accent)

Kooyeen — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:48:17 GMT

Hi,
I think it is very difficult to give an accurate phonetic transcription of a song. Also, using "plain" IPA is not enough in most cases, and I have never seen anyone here using complicated transcriptions... so I don't know who would be able to help you (Marvin would probably have, though... I wonder where that guy went)

Anyway, I am an expert at mishearing lyrics! I have yet to understand how native speakers understand songs...

I'(ve) had my shove/show/sure, I'm crying buckets of love

If that made you laugh, well, that was not really funny. I think the other posts influenced my ears, so I don't think I misheard it as much as I usually do. Only God knows what I could have heard otherwise, LOL

Re: How to get rid of accent?

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:35:11 GMT

Well Im not linguist but its really hard, nearly impossible to completely get rid of a foreign accent. The reason is because your brain is hard-wired to speak in your native tongue. When you are very young and you develope the capacity for speech your brain forges permanent neuro pathways for that specific language. These pathways "solidify" at a very young age and remain permanent for your life. Even if you move to a different country at a young age and learn to speak a different language you will still have slight phonetic remants of your old language. Take for example someone born in Japan who learns Japanese and s/he does not learn how to say "L" (Japanese language I believe is bereft of the "L" sound). That person moves to the the States and learns fluent engish but will still have trouble making the "L" sound. Instead of saying "really" they would say "rearry". I learned this when a friend of mine tried to teach me Russian; some sounds I just dont have the ability to make. Now actors can do it because they are consciously aware of what sounds they are making...do you really want to always be consciously be aware of what sounds you are making?? You sound pretty American but you would sound like a mentally handicapped American. I say be proud of your accent most people appreciate them, except for hicks ; )

Re: listen to this awful American accent... and why?

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:16:38 GMT

He talks with a mixture of southern, muttled brazilian, and what sounds like russian or dutch. Here is some examples: he says brah zeel like rhymes with eel. The american would say bruh zil like pill. Talk is drawn out and sounds like tahk, which is northern accent. A "standard" american accent so to speak would pronounce a soft L like tawk (rythmes with hawk), and this sounds like a eastern coast/Boston/New England accent. "Citizen" is said with a southern enunciation, the 'I' in the south sounds like "ee aa" . "Vegetables" also sounds southern like "vaay aa" instead of "veh". Its hard to type out what it sounds like...haha. But "aay aa" would sound like if you put a hard "a" next to a soft "a" (Dont know what your native language is but a hard "a' is when you just say the word "a" in english and a soft "a' is when you use its phonetic sound like "apple"). The 'i' in 'interested' sounds like his hispanic accent poking through...he says "eeenterested" or 'engterested". "Guys" is said with a southern accent like "gaaahys' instead of standard "g iii s" with a hard "i". He also slightly trills (places the tip of tongue on the roof of his mouth and pauses it there will making the "r" sound) his R's. But the trill is not as pronounced as a hispanic would do it...its more of a slight pause which makes it sound like a European sound. "Lived" sounds Dutch more like "leved" than lived. I think the biggest mistake ppl make when they do accents is to pay more attention to the words they are saying than the placement of their tongue or the position of their lips. The way he says "brother" is indistinct. It sounds like muttled brazilian that sounds slightly like Eastern European....he says "brah ther" instead of "bruh ther" with a more open mouth instead of a relaxed lower jaw. Ummm.....dont know if that clears anything up or not.

British vs American English in their accent

Belly — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:19:42 GMT

In words which have the phonetic sound / ae/ , I hear the real differences between American and British Accent.

If in British they spell that phonetic sound similar to /a/, American would do with a sound like /e/, isn't it?

Some words such as slang, man etc. I wonder why they use the /ae/ sound for this? Do they mean, you can use whatever /a/ or /e/ when spelling the words?

Today I took one of the exam implemented in American English, I spoke the word: slang with an /a/ to the examiner, he didn't understand at all. When I said: "synonym is: vernacular language", he asked me:" Isn't it slang /e/ ?" . So confused!