http://www.englishforums.com/search/pro.htm?q=tag%3aVowels+tag%3aPronunciation+tag%3aDialectsSearch results for 'tag:Vowels tag:Pronunciation tag:Dialects' matching tags 'Vowels', 'Pronunciation', and 'Dialects'en-USXMOD (Build: 3614.32638)http://www.englishforums.com/English/HasAnyoneTriedHogeCourseEffortless-English/6/zgkjw/Post.htm#915964Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:03:17 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:915964elena_osullivanAJ Hoge's "effortless english" is a waste of money. I made the mistake of buying it for a friend who doesn't speak much English and she doesn't even use it. I don't blame her because it takes a lot of effort to learn with it, and there are much, much better materials available on the internet for free. My friend watched some of his videos wherein he sells his MP3's and she thought she found the magic answer thanks to AJ. He's a good salesman but a very mediocre teacher.http://www.englishforums.com/English/PronouciationOfLetterC/kxpmn/post.htm#908829Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:04:22 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:908829philipYou are witnessing what linguists refer to as 'assimilation', when the pronunciation of a letter is affected by something surrounding it. In this case, /k/ (unvoiced) is the pronunciation we start with, but because the vowel following it is naturally voiced, the /k/ may take on a voiced characteristic, leaving you with the feeling of /g/ (voiced). The dictionary doesn't include this information, as it varies greatly from person to person, even from dialect to dialect.http://www.englishforums.com/English/VowelInModernEnglish/wkkwg/post.htm#721790Fri, 08 May 2009 21:55:30 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:721790ecossaisHi! Thank you for this interesting discussion and for your answer.Your opinion is important for me. First of all, my problem concerns teaching English as a second language. It's very bad that teachers instructing pupils how to pronounce /ʌ/ usually say that you should pronounce /o/ but not rounding your lips But in fact, the /ʌ/ is closer to /a/ in most dialects, not to /o/. Pronunciation of /dæm/ or /θɔːt/ varies in different ways in different regions, but /ʌ/ is not so vague. This is usually /a/ or /ɐ/ in RP, GenAm, AU, NZ (though, it differs from /æ/, /ɑ:/, /ɑ/, /ɒ/ and there's not any merge). You can find in the net the phonetic maps and see the contemporary position of the vowel. During last century linguists have changed...http://www.englishforums.com/English/VowelInModernEnglish/wkkwg/post.htm#720587Thu, 07 May 2009 22:56:46 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:720587ecossaisThe vowel must always be pronounced the same, since it's an IPA symbol that describe a sound. IPA symbols don't change, they are defined that way, and they remain so, so that we can describe some sounds. Hmm... But don't you think this is a little bit eh...old-fashioned? Let's see. In older dictionaries (and in many books in linguistic, too) there weren't made the differences between /ɔ/ and /ɔ:/, /ə/ and /ə:/. But nowadays if you, using broad transcription, describe /ɜ:/ and /ɒ/ as /ə:/ and /ɔ/ your work would seem outdated. I think that not we must adjust to a defined set of IPA symbols but we use it to write phonemes(and phones) of our language properly so we can change one IPA symbol to another, if this set of...http://www.englishforums.com/English/VowelInModernEnglish/wkkwg/post.htm#720496Thu, 07 May 2009 19:48:22 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:720496kooyeenHi (and welcome to Englishforums Smile), As I know, in modern English the vowel is no more pronounced as... ouch! The vowel must always be pronounced the same, since it's an IPA symbol that describe a sound. IPA symbols don't change, they are defined that way, and they remain so, so that we can describe some sounds. What happens is that dictionaries use a set of symbols even if they don't represent the real pronunciation, so you have a kind of "phonemic transcription", and not real "phonetic transcriptions". For example, from a dictionary you can understand that "bug" and "sub" have the same vowel, or that "teacher" and "better" rhyme, but it doesn't tell...http://www.englishforums.com/English/FairHaired/2/gcwgn/Post.htm#514525Fri, 16 May 2008 17:58:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:514525kooyeenHi, the American Pronunciation you found is ok, and Merriam-Webster is the best (in my opinion) to check American pronunciations. The thing is you have to learn how to read phonetic transcriptions in the dictionaries you use, because often every dictionary uses its own conventions. Also, dictionaries don't give perfect and accurate phonetic transcriptions, but they are more like "phonemic transcriptions", if that's the term and I'm not mistaken. I'll give you some examples: RED - IPA from Longman: /r ed/ - Wrong! To be accurate, it should be more like /ɹ ɛd/ or / ɻ ɛd/. Then why isn't it written that way? Because 100% accurate transcriptions are not necessary (but it would be nice if they were given),...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WIsAVowel/4/dvgvj/Post.htm#514189Thu, 15 May 2008 20:59:04 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:514189alienvoord(b) I really don't think that /w/ is a vowel-like sound at all... think of the difference in pronunciation between the word 'shah' and the name 'Shaw'. It's a subtle difference, but they produce different sounds. In my dialect these are identical, but in some dialects they are different vowels. I believe that for some Americans, one is /A/ and one is /Q/ (in SAMPA). The /h/ and the /w/ are functioning like "soft" consonants. In other words, neither of them can be pronounced without attaching a vowel sound to them, hence CON sonants There is no /h/ and /w/ in the words "shah" and "shaw". There are the letters <h> and <w>, but it's a mistake to think that these...http://www.englishforums.com/English/AustralianBritishAmerican-PronunciationDifferences/2/vjhxd/Post.htm#494090Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:27:19 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:494090bldudasHere are my comments. The parentheses indicate that something is not part of General American-like dialects or RP, but is found in certain regional dialects.. CA R -- American R's are always pronounced, British R's are not. In General American vs. RP, yes, (but there are non-rhotic American dialects on the East coast, and rhotic British dialects.) N O -------- British is /əʊ/, American is /oʊ/ Some British dialects have /o/. Some American dialects have /o/. (Some American dialects have /əʊ/.) N O T ------ British is /ɒ/, American is /ɑ/ Actually in about 40% of the country "not" can have /ɒ/ or /ɑ/ used interchangeably. NO T -- British final T's are released, American final T's are not. yeah L AW ----- In...http://www.englishforums.com/English/CuriousAboutComtemporaryAccent/zbhwb/post.htm#425000Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:50:13 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:425000tam sadekAccording to John Wells at University College London: "I do not understand the proposed distinction between Mainstream RP and Contemporary RP (unless the writer thinks, wrongly, that ‘contemporary’ means ‘young’)." You can read more of what he says about it at: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/blog0707a.htm Whereas according to the British Library's Accents and Dialects of the UK website in their section on London RP, the commentary says: "Michelle speaks with an accent most of us would immediately associate with a middle-class background. Many of the vowel sounds she uses have a traditional RP ring, but she also uses a number of pronunciations characteristic of contemporary RP . In other words she uses certain features...http://www.englishforums.com/English/AustralianBritishAmerican-PronunciationDifferences/vjhxd/post.htm#404065Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:44:51 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:404065anonymousHere are my comments. The parentheses indicate that something is not part of General American-like dialects or RP, but is found in certain regional dialects.. CA R ------ American R's are always pronounced, British R's are not. In General American vs. RP, yes, (but there are non-rhotic American dialects on the East coast, and rhotic British dialects.) N O -------- British is /əʊ/, American is /oʊ/ Some British dialects have /o/. Some American dialects have /o/. (Some American dialects have /əʊ/.) N O T ------ British is /ɒ/, American is /ɑ/ Actually in about 40% of the country "not" can have /ɒ/ or /ɑ/ used interchangeably. NO T ------ British final T's are released, American final T's are not. yeah L AW ----- In BrE it's /o/, in AmE...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhatHawtSpanishThanks/vwcqw/post.htm#375121Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:41:54 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:375121marvin a.>> Conservative Received pronunciation used to pronounce r's between words as a flap. << Conservative Received Pronunciation is the dialect that used to be the standard, formal, educated, upper-class dialect in England. In this dialect, r's between vowels are pronounced sort of like in Spanish.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhatHawtSpanishThanks/vwcqw/post.htm#374472Sun, 03 Jun 2007 16:06:18 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:374472marvin a.Hwat for what is the original pronunciation and was the only form used in Middle English. In Modern English, many dialects lost the wine-whine distinction, and began pronouncing words spelled "wh" as simply "w", rather thn "hw". The original, conservative form is still around, and is considered standard in certain areas. In North America, many Southern accents preserve it. Elsewhere in N. America, it has almost completely died out, except in older speakers. However... people often hear others using it, and hear that it sounds old-fashioned and a little bit more correct, and thus add it to their own speech. I remember myself adding it to my speech for awhile. However, I've given up the habit. My grandpa has it, but I can tell that he must...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowDoYaGuysPronounceBeg/vdqmc/post.htm#353767Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:30:03 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:353767marvin a.Well yes back is always /bæk/ in NAE. "Beg" is more variable. Some people have tense-lax neutralization before /g/. According to Wikipedia: "Some examples of neutralization of /ɛ/ to /eɪ/ before /ɡ/ are beg, egg, Greg, keg, leg and peg's coming to rhyme with Craig, Hague, plague and vague." Other dialects keep the vowel in beg distinct from the vowel in vague. I merge /E/ /e/ and /{/ (ash) before /g/, so "beg", "bag", and "vague" all have the same vowel sound: something like . Not everyone here does that however, but almost everyone (here) pronounces "beg" and "bag" with the same vowel. Conservative General American, however, has /bEg/ for beg--the same "e" sound as in "bed". The only dialects that will devoice the /g/ in...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhichPronunciationClarityPopular/4/vddhh/Post.htm#353581Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:23:43 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:353581marvin a.Nope, a complete vowel merger means that you can neither produce nor perceive a difference between two or more vowels in a certain environment or all environments. In my dialect, the vowels and are merged in all environments so I cannot produce nor perceive any difference between them. If someone said the word "father", they could say it as or even and they would both sound the same to me and would be both perfectly acceptable pronunciations of that word. A Shibboleth between the Northern and Midlands dialects is that Northerners pronounce "on" as (or even ), with the same vowel as in "cot" whereas people from the Midland pronounce it as something like , with the same vowel as in "caught". However, for me, since the vowels in...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhichPronunciationClarityPopular/3/vddhh/Post.htm#351852Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:32:25 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:351852marvin a.Hmm. Sorry for the confusion. Now I'm a little confused too. I was saying two different things: 1) The "ay" in play, is pronounced differently in different dialects. Such as a monophthong or something like or other variations. Some dialects (such as my own) pronounce "ay" differently depending on the environment. Thus the "ay" in "play" is slightly different than my "a" in brave". Other dialects are more consistent. I was merely pointing out that there are many acceptable pronunciations of "ay". 2) The other thing that I was saying was that before /r\/, there is no contrast between tense and lax vowels in most definitions of General American and approximate accents.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhichPronunciationClarityPopular/3/vddhh/Post.htm#351804Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:38:54 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:351804marvin a.What I meant by there's no contrast is that there are no minimal pairs (in General American). Tense and lax vowels never contrast: /Er\/ and /er\/ both mean "air". In fact, I can't even *hear* the difference between /Er\/ and /er\/ at all. They sound exactly the same, in the same way that "meat" and "meet" sound the same. In fact, if someone asked me to transcribe what the lady said, I would have writen rather than (although phonemically they're both /er\/). If I wanted to learn how to distinguish them, I would have to train in learning the difference--as they sound the *same* to me. It's a similar thing with the cot-caught-bother-father merger. I actually had to learn how to hear the difference between and and and , as all those...http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhichPronunciationClarityPopular/vddhh/post.htm#350607Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:26:36 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:350607marvin a.In General American, it is pronounced . Certain East Coast dialects do not have the very-vary merger, and still pronounce it with /æ/. Speakers with the Canadian or California vowel shifts will pronounce /E/ as however.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowDoYouPronounceEmoticon/bbbmc/post.htm#331013Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:45:48 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:331013marvin a.>> whereas the General American pronunciation is /I'moudiKa:n/. d = flapped /t/<< Interesting. I would say it with a rather than an alveolar flap. I think it's one of those words in which the /t/ is pronounced as spelt. Perhaps because it is such an uncommon word, or maybe the stress. For example, I would say "atom" as , but "atomic" as . Since I think of the word emoticon to be composed of not "emotion" and "icon", but rather "emote" + "icon", I would be unlikely to flap the t. Also, I most definitely wouldn't use , as the first vowel, if by you mean a lax vowel. I would use , or perhaps , but never a lax . Also, General American doesn't even have the vowel. is used for speakers with the California vowel shift...http://www.englishforums.com/English/IsAmericanEnglishDialectBritish-English/dpnqd/post.htm#328753Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:31:10 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:328753marvin a.>> Isn't it interesting that certain forms of American pronunciation aare older than the British ones? E.g., the short 'a' sound in "glass" and "pass" that the Americans use was the sound used in British English, till they changed it for the preferred long 'AH' sound. << Yes, most varieties North American English preserve many archaic pronunciations that are no longer found in RP. That's one example, the another is the rhotic "r". However there are several innovations found in most varieties of NAE such as the merry-marry-Mary merger (so vary and very sound the same) bother-father merger (same vowel for both), the cot-caught merger, etc that are not found in RP. So, both General American English and RP are both a bit...http://www.englishforums.com/English/IsAmericanEnglishLazyEnglish/6/bhwl/Post.htm#309166Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:57:56 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:309166marvin a.Englishuser wrote: What's interesting is that these changes are led by younger female speakers. Older speakers and male speakers adopt these kind of changes later. Yes, that really is interesting. Why are the changes led by younger female speakers in particular? What about younger male speakers? Englishuser Yes, that is an interesting question. Here's what I could find: http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=43356 "...sound changes that are not stigmatized are led especially by young women who are the 'movers and shakers' in the community, people with energy and enterprise. Such young women, at the same time, are conservative with respect to sound changes or stable linguistic...http://www.englishforums.com/English/PhoneticTranscribing/dllwm/post.htm#307992Thu, 28 Dec 2006 06:18:28 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:307992marvin a.Well, it depends on how you pronounce them. For example, you pronounce "go" as whereas I would say or . I would also use a schwa for "to": instead of saying . Thirdly, I would pronounce brothers as . I would also say rather than for "new". So you see it all depends on how you pronounce these words. Your pronunciation would be different than mine. You have to transcribe it how *you* say it. "Had" would be /hæd/ in most dialects. "Been" would be or if you say it as "bean" or "bin" respectively "Hot" -- depends on which vowel you use. It's very variable in different dialects. I would say it or . Some dialects would say (RP I think) or (NCVS shifted Northern Midwestern). "Summer" I would guess because you don't pronoucne the...http://www.englishforums.com/English/CanadiansAndTheirEnglish/dkqmv/post.htm#307485Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:15:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:307485marvin a.The Western and Central Canadian English dialect does have several differences from conservative General American, although many dialects in the US have some or all of the same features that are found in Western/Central Canadian English. Western/Central Canadian English is actually closer to General American than most dialects spoken in the US are, due to recent vowel shifts. General American used to be the standard for news broadcasts, etc. in Canada, but is now being displaced in favour of a Western/Central accent (not that many people can really tell the difference). Many people in Canada as well as many regions in the US believe that they are "accentless"--meaning they believe that they have no accent of any kind whatsoever. It's...http://www.englishforums.com/English/DefiningAmericanEnglish/2/dkvzc/Post.htm#307472Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:27:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:307472marvin a.So what's your definition of American English (or North American English, as some prefer)? I would probably define it mostly by its phonology. It would be pretty hard to define. Or why not just say, any dialect of English spoken in North America? Is there a standard for American English? Not really. It's defined many different ways, and no one seems to agree. In it's broadest definition it's simply any dialect of North American English that contains no stigmatized features. William Labov defines in his Phonological Atlas of North American English as being Western US, Midland, and Western and Central Canadian English. Wikipedia has a (controversial) article on "General American" which states that "The General American accent...http://www.englishforums.com/English/GolfAndGulf/cxlkp/post.htm#305443Tue, 19 Dec 2006 19:32:53 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:305443marvin a.CalifJim wrote: I have heard gulf pronounced only one way Really? Which way? The Southwesterners that I met tended to pronounce "ul" /@l/ as (e.g. dull=dole). In my dialect the pronunciation of "ul" is more variable, with 'gulf' pronounced as ; 'culture' as ; but 'cult' as (identical to colt) but 'hull' as (same vowel as in hug). I pronounce both golf and gulf as .http://www.englishforums.com/English/HelpWith230/dcjzg/post.htm#304624Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:45:20 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:304624marvin a.No, I don't speak a Southern dialect or Ebonics. I have a Western accent. I'm from the Tsawwassen peninsula. Not everyone merges all of those words here, but everyone pronounces them at least close. Certain areas in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper peninsula of Michigan as well as some speakers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba also have the bag-bang-beg-vague merger--so it exists in other areas too. A common phenomenon throughout the West is to pronounce /E/ before /g/ as , thus making "beg" and "vague" sound the same. Another phenomenon that occurs mostly in the North Central and Northwest is raising ash before /g/ to or something close to it. Interestingly enough, in California, the California vowel shift causes /æ/ to shift to ,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HelpWith230/dcjzg/post.htm#304361Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:27:06 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:304361marvin a.>> hat, bat, bad, bag, ad, add << In some dialects ad, add and or bag would not work. If you're learning North American English, you could use the Inland North pronunciation of for all instances of /æ/. Many dialects pronounce /æ/ as something like or before nasal consonants /n/, /N/ (velar nasal), and /m/, except on some high frequency words such as "can". In my dialect, I realize /æ/ as /e/ before /g/ and /N/, thus "ban" and "bang" do not have the same vowel, whereas "bang", "bag" , "beg" and "vague" do have the same vowel. Some people also realize /EZ/ as , thus "measure" would be pronounced as "maysure".http://www.englishforums.com/English/PronunciationPronunciation/2/cbqbz/Post.htm#302185Sat, 09 Dec 2006 16:34:47 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:302185marvin a.>> Native speakers can make mistakes with pronounciation. Unfortunately with English, the spelling does not always give you a clue to the pronounciation, so if people learn a word from seeing it written, they can make mistakes. << Native speakers can of course occasionally make a performance error, but it's ridiculous to say that they can pronounce a word incorrectly--as who decides on how a word is "supposed" to be pronounced? There are simply different ways of pronouncing words. For example, unlike some people I pronounce "get" as , and I use the same vowel sound for the words "bag", "beg", "vague", and "play". I also use the same vowel in "father", "bother", "cot" and "caught". Are those "incorrect" pronunciations? No,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowToPronounceWordsWithEg/2/dbvvn/Post.htm#302088Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:49:22 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:302088marvin a.>> In my experience egg=ayg is a regional American pronunciation, chiefly rural or Southern, but it may be spreading to other regions. This pronunction is usually used by the same people who say measure=may-zhur. << The pronunciation of egg as is common in several dialects of English. Even many speakers of California English do it. It is also a common phenomenon in the Upper Midwest, as well as certain areas in the prairie provinces. In my particular dialect, I am bag-beg-vague merged, and pronounce them as and ; rather than and . This affects all -ag or -eg words, so peg and peck are not minimal pairs for me. "Bagel" and "Hegel" are the same for me except for the initial consonant. It is not necessarily the same...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowPronounceCoupleWords/djbch/post.htm#301775Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:24:21 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:301775anonymousEnglishuser wrote: Hi, Jaguar. In British English it is Jag-u-ar but I believe that in American English it is Jagwar Don't forget that there is a /j/-sound in there! /Jagwar/ is the most commonly heard pronunciation in the US, although the 'British' one is also used by some GAE speakers. A GAE speaker would always pronounce the 'r', though. Englishuser Using / /'s imply that you're using phonemic IPA or XSAMPA transcription. If this is the case then that means that you pronounce "jaguar" as /jagwar/, which written in fauxnetics would be approximately "yahgwahr". Somehow I don't think you meant it that way. In IPA/XSAMPA, the letter "j" is pronounced like "y" in English. I myself, pronounce jagwar as , or in...http://www.englishforums.com/English/NewcastleAccent/cvmpl/post.htm#190604Mon, 30 Jan 2006 00:08:54 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:190604leicesterladHi Bluealbatross, I live near Newcastle, and answered your similar question in the thread entitled: "Received pronunciation and mid Atlantic English" ...but I've pasted it here in case anyone wants to continue on this thread: I don't think I'd recommend learning the Newcastle accent if you want to learn a British regional accent. Its often reckoned to be one of the most difficult of accents to understand - not only for non British, but for many British themselves! There are both vowel and consonant sounds that are unique to the area, one of the most distinctive being how they say the "t" sound in a word like "butter". Try simultaneously combining a glottal stop (creating a "vowel" by closing the throat) with saying the letter...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ReceivedPronunciationAtlantic-English/2/cvrlc/Post.htm#190602Sun, 29 Jan 2006 23:59:10 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:190602leicesterladI don't think I'd recommend learning the Newcastle accent if you want to learn a British regional accent. Its often reckoned to be one of the most difficult of accents to understand - not only for non British, but for many British themselves! There are both vowel and consonant sounds that are unique to the area, one of the most distinctive being how they say the "t" sound in a word like "butter". Try simultaneously combining a glottal stop (creating a "vowel" by closing the throat) with saying the letter "d". That's the best way I can describe it! The only other language group I know that use anything like this sound are the south east Asian languages of Malaysia and Indonesia - though a language expert may know others. I think the...http://www.englishforums.com/English/PoorAccent/bpmpk/post.htm#161796Wed, 23 Nov 2005 13:58:37 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:161796crux_onlineThere are a number of variations within the British accent. Here are some suggestions on how to improve your accent: 1. If you have any close British friends or acquaintences, speak with them as often as possible while imitating their accent. Sometimes people are offended by this because they believe you to be mocking them or poking fun. Let them know that this is not the case and don't be afraid to ask them to say some things slowly so you can hear the sound changes. Generally you will want to learn the accent of educated people because the uneducated often develop very bad habits of pronunciation while the educated often cling like barnacles to their pride in well-spoken English. 2. Watch the speaker's mouth closely,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/OriginEarliestUsagePlonkerRodney-Plonker/6/hmhwv/Post.htm#646104Mon, 05 Sep 2005 21:37:16 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:646104I must be slow this morning, but I got there in the end. You are not the only one, even I did not get it straight away. As John seems to have noticed, in day to day life I am John Lawler. But when I first started posting to this group and sci.lang, I discovered that there was another John Lawler already here. After some experimentation, I settled on the Irish form of my name as a nom-de-clavier. It would be equally applicable to the other John but I got it first. I was actually born in London but my parents were both born in Ireland. Explaining the pronunciation of my surname would take quite a while. If you are interested, scan this group and sci.lang for it. One or the other contains an explanation with contributions from people whose...http://www.englishforums.com/English/VowelsOfAmericanEnglish/hgzcb/post.htm#615611Mon, 06 Sep 2004 18:29:50 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:615611mxsmanicWhich do you think is better to learn? The one that doesn't require Flash. Other than that, it's up to you. There is no rigid number for the vowels in American English or any other dialect of any language. It all depends on where you draw the line. Instead of learning a fixed set of vowels by rote, look at all the vowels defined for the pronunciation you wish to adopt and then look at their relative importance. Vowels are important when they appear in many minimal pairs or sets; they are less important when they appear in few minimal pairs or sets; and they are unimportant if they don't appear in any minimal pairs or sets (unless you want to eliminate an accent). Contrasts between /i/ and /I/ are extremely important in...http://www.englishforums.com/English/AddressAndCity/7/lpxvg/Post.htm#996955Sun, 29 Aug 2004 15:17:07 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:996955areffI know he does, but I'm afraid to say that ... 'Avenue' in New York City dialects gets the lax vowel. Yes. I confess that it took me a long time to understand what the lax/tense split was all about, despite the fact that it had always been a feature of my speech. You can see the confusion in that posting I really didn't know what I was talking about (I mean, more than usual). And it *is* difficult to hear in PNYPS especially because the distance between the two vowels isn't as great as it might be in other New York dialects, plus you have those troublesome quantum pronunciation effects.http://www.englishforums.com/English/PronunciationShoulderL/5/hgrdx/Post.htm#614883Thu, 12 Aug 2004 04:30:38 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:614883mxsmanicAgreed, if such coursebooks claim to be representing American pronunciation. They are incorrect even when representing RP. Apparently length is indeed an inherent part of vowel phonemes in several important British dialects, where /i/ ~ (i:) is in fact longer than /I/ ~ (I). There may be some dialect somewhere that makes phonemic distinctions based on length, but RP does not, nor does GAE. There are other errors in transcriptions as well, such as the persistent tendency to note /E/ as /e/, which is very confusing to people who actually know the IPA (these are two entirely different vowels), and the tendency to note /I/ as /i/ and /i/ as /i:/, which is also incorrect and confusing. Don't English speakers ever study any other languages...http://www.englishforums.com/English/PronunciationShoulderL/5/hgrdx/Post.htm#614878Thu, 12 Aug 2004 03:56:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:614878jim heckmanOn 11-Aug-2004, Mxsmanic (Email Removed) wrote in message (Email Removed): It is not true for English in Los Angeles, where ... same phonetic length; the difference is almost entirely in quality. I agree; I've noticed the same thing in American English, which makes the incorrect phonetic transcriptions used in so many English coursebooks even more misleading. Agreed, if such coursebooks claim to be representing American pronunciation. Apparently length is indeed an inherent part of vowel phonemes in several important British dialects, where /i/ ~ (i:) is in fact longer than /I/ ~ (I). Like other vowels, both do vary in length depending on the surrounding segments, though. Yes, but it's irrelevant to meaning. Depends on what you...http://www.englishforums.com/English/CanRemainImplementPassiveVoice/5/lkwpl/Post.htm#972803Mon, 09 Aug 2004 04:46:21 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:972803dr zenI don't see why. Other languages have no problem with ... English is, as we all know, already far from phonetic. Just out of curiosity...which languages are you thinking of? Well, the obvious are languages that have different literary and spoken standards, such as German, Arabic and Greek. More interestingly, how about Albanian? It has two major dialects and is written in neither, but rather in a hybrid that no one actually speaks. Okay, I cheated. These languages can all be read out without problems, even though they are not actually spoken as such. How about Dutch? Danish? Malagasy? These are in descending order of pronounceability by rule. Japanese. I'm not sure of the detail, but I know that (some?) kanji can be read...http://www.englishforums.com/English/IreWords/2/lwzpv/Post.htm#960438Fri, 16 Jul 2004 22:34:48 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:960438mike lyleI have come to the sudden realization that I don't ... and I can't say (wVjr). -Aaron J. Dinkin Dr. Whom I pronounce them all in the same way. But I have heard others pronounce them differently, as you say. Fi-uhr, with a schwa. But no one says di-uhr. I've done some 'trials', and though it's hard to be objective about one's own pronunciations I think I agree that all have the same sound in my kind of non-rhotic RP. But I disagree that nobody says 'di-uh' (daj@) (I hope this works: I've put my copy of Evan's ASCII IPA somewhere recondite): as I've suggested before, speakers of my dialect and I imagine most others have more than one pronunciation according to stress, position in sentence,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/LostDisplacedBriticisms/59/hhvpc/Post.htm#958376Wed, 14 Jul 2004 21:03:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:958376pat durkinI wonder if there are any speakers of a variety ... the "Ef" pronunciation. Is he from Scotland or somewhere nearthere? I don't know, but I still want to know what that ferocious-sounding interjection is that all the MPs utter whenever ... ... House of Commons: NYAAAH! NYAAAH! NYAAAH! We don't have the word "NYAAAH!" in American political English, you see. In theater- and perhaps movie-speak, rather than to have extras memorize particular lines to emulate crowd-speak, there appear to be a couple of words given to the to say repeatedly, all the while doing various stage business (businesses?). I think "bridge" is one of them. I think mumble and mutter and the like are too indistinct to yield a...http://www.englishforums.com/English/LostDisplacedBriticisms/59/hhvpc/Post.htm#958351Wed, 14 Jul 2004 20:26:16 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:958351areffI wonder if there are any speakers of a variety of BrE who has created an initialism for the phenom ... in London). It was the Speaker who consistently used the "Ef" pronunciation. Is he from Scotland or somewhere near there? I don't know, but I still want to know what that ferocious-sounding interjection is that all the MPs utter whenever the Prime Minister says anything. E.g.: Tory Blair: No one lied. No one made up the intelligence ... House of Commons: NYAAAH! NYAAAH! NYAAAH! We don't have the word "NYAAAH!" in American political English, you see. But seriously, I've noticed many British speakers of various dialectal stripes lowering /I/ to /E/. Some Americans do a similar thing. Tory Blair himself is...http://www.englishforums.com/English/SecsSoundSoundsLikeSex/2/lgnmb/Post.htm#953359Thu, 08 Jul 2004 14:47:31 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:953359pat durkinThe standard AmE Anglicized pronunciation of "Juan" has the 'father' vowel (rhyming with "John" in most AmE dialects); Hum. I've always pronounced (in English) with my non-"father" "John"vowel. I expect this may have something to do with the ... usually get the "father" vowel for , however; and I can't tellyou why "Juan" would follow the English-orthography rule instead. I see the name of an actress (I think) with the name Sian Phillips. I don't know how to prononce that. (Is she the wife of Michael Caine? Or is it Peter O'Toole?http://www.englishforums.com/English/SecsSoundSoundsLikeSex/3/lgnmb/Post.htm#953167Thu, 08 Jul 2004 08:15:25 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:953167sean o'leathlobhairSince 'Juan' is often pronounced as 'one', this is getting confusing. The standard AmE Anglicized pronunciation of "Juan" has the 'father' vowel (rhyming with "John" in most AmE dialects); the standard AmE pronunciation of "one" rhymes with "fun". I would also use the same vowel in Juan and father. I would also expect a detectable H, if not better, at the beginning. I have heard the "one" pronunciation but regard it as ignorant and lazy. I would train my colleagues by failing to respond to "one". In my CINC AmE dialect, and so far as I know in standard AmE, "Sean" has the "caught" vowel, as indeed the alternative spelling...http://www.englishforums.com/English/SecsSoundSoundsLikeSex/2/lgnmb/Post.htm#952969Wed, 07 Jul 2004 18:26:26 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:952969aaron j. dinkinSince 'Juan' is often pronounced as 'one', this is getting confusing. The standard AmE Anglicized pronunciation of "Juan" has the 'father' vowel (rhyming with "John" in most AmE dialects); Hum. I've always pronounced (in English) with my non-"father" "John" vowel. I expect this may have something to do with the influence of the previous /w/, which produces the "John" vowel for written in lots of words. Foreign words usually get the "father" vowel for , however; and I can't tell you why "Juan" would follow the English-orthography rule instead. -Aaron J. Dinkin Dr. Whomhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/SecsSoundSoundsLikeSex/2/lgnmb/Post.htm#952939Wed, 07 Jul 2004 16:19:36 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:952939areffSince 'Juan' is often pronounced as 'one', this is getting confusing. The standard AmE Anglicized pronunciation of "Juan" has the 'father' vowel (rhyming with "John" in most AmE dialects); the standard AmE pronunciation of "one" rhymes with "fun". In my CINC AmE dialect, and so far as I know in standard AmE, "Sean" has the "caught" vowel, as indeed the alternative spelling "Shawn" indicates. In CIC dialects, of course, "John" and "Sean" rhyme. Is there any CINC AmE dialect that uses "caught" in "John"? I know that in some AmE CINC dialects /n/ is one of the set of consonants preceding which a historical...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowDictionariesPronounce/8/lgdph/Post.htm#951055Thu, 01 Jul 2004 22:42:43 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:951055dylan nicholsonYes, but why do American dictionaries choose *my* pronunciation oversomeone from Alabama, or Massachusetts, or Wisconsin? There are glaring anddrastic differences in pronunciation from region to region. Not sure if this helps, but from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinguishing accents in English United States of America (See also American English; North American English) The standard American English accent is the neutral dialect spoken by TV network announcers and typical of educated speech in the Upper Midwest, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Philadelphia. Standard American makes a good reference dialect because it has crisp consonants and more vowel distinctions than other major dialects, tends to retain distinctions between...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowDictionariesPronounce/7/lgdph/Post.htm#951007Thu, 01 Jul 2004 20:40:36 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:951007aaron j. dinkinYes, but why do American dictionaries choose *my* pronunciation over someone from Alabama, or Massachusetts, or Wisconsin? There are glaring and drastic differences in pronunciation from region to region. There are, certainly. But, as I said elsewhere, American dictionaries can ignore the systematic differences. The class of words in which you say (E) is essentially the same as the class of words in which someone from Tuscaloosa says (Ej@) or someone from Flint says (V") (or whatever the most extreme Northern Cities version of that vowel is), and the exceptions to that are themselves mostly systematic. So all the dictionary needs to indicate is that such-and-such a word contains the same vowel as "pet", and you can do the...http://www.englishforums.com/English/NotAboutCienfuegos/4/lzqcw/Post.htm#949204Wed, 30 Jun 2004 19:15:47 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:949204aaron j. dinkinIt seems pretty clear to me that Richard means that ... would prefer to spell as "aw" rather than as "ah". Why he would want to spell it "aw" passes understanding, since he has also implied that "aw" may be a low back vowel. I don't think I get your point. Isn't your merged "ah"/"aw" a low back vowel? It's not true at all that he's saying nothing. He's ... his own ear interprets a particular vowel in your speech). I'm not a mind-reader. I don't know how his ear interprets anything. That's why he tells you. And telling me that his ear interprets a sound as "aw" tells me nothing unless I can associate a useful ... himself if anyone,...http://www.englishforums.com/English/MethodsPoliteInstruction/17/lzqjl/Post.htm#948676Wed, 30 Jun 2004 02:53:57 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:948676maria conlonI know dialects and idiolects differ on this pernt, but in my dialect "gram" and "Graham" and "graham" and, I ... I'm talking from, what with the vowel shift and all. A Southern US speaker would probably have even more trouble. "Graham" (the first name) is "Gra-um" to me; "Graham" (the surname) is "Gra-m," that is, just a shade more than one syllable; "graham" (the cracker) is usually "gra-m" also. But none of that is written in cement. I can switch at a moment's notice, and I think that there's no *one and only official* pronunciation for any of the G/grahams. So if one of your names is Graham (no matter how it's spelled), just say...http://www.englishforums.com/English/MethodsPoliteInstruction/17/lzqjl/Post.htm#948591Tue, 29 Jun 2004 22:43:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:948591areffWhen people write to me addressing me as "Graham", I usually reply with "who?" That might work for the spoken name, too. Have you tried that on US speakers that call you "Gram"? Or is that pronunciation only used when talking about the crackers? I know dialects and idiolects differ on this pernt, but in my dialect "gram" and "Graham" and "graham" and, I guess, "Graeme" all have the same pronunciation, rhyming with "spam" and "jam" and so forth. Strangely enough, and I've remarked upon this before, I heard my sister some years ago pronounce "Graham" (as in the cracker) as "grayum" /greI@m/, two syllables, which I gather is...