american accent capsule
TRANSCRIPT
American Accent American Accent
Atul Sharma9999 5989 64
Salient Features ofAmerican Accent
The nasal twang The aerodynamic accent Elasticity Crystal clarity Wafer crispy The rolling R’s
The Nasal Twang
It sounds funny to produce a nasal twang.
This calls for a requisite pressure of air through your nostrils.
Words like neither, name, Maryland, America…
The Aerodynamic Accent
The cushion of air that props up a speech. Imparts sheer crispness and freshness
laced with clarity. The airborne words take their original
shape. It gives a special shape & volume to
words. Makes the speech more animated and
flamboyant.
Elasticity
Tongue acts like a string of rubber band and strums against the palate of mouth.
It sounds stretchable and frisky. The resilience never lets words lose
their original shape. Words get stretched to a breaking point
and yet sound smart with a comforted speed.
Crystal Clarity
It is a crystal clear accent… Gives an animated outlining to the
words… Use your Adam’s apple to produce a
comforted shrillness… It imparts a differentiated 3-D surround
quality to the speech. Makes it a predictably accurate accent.
Wafer Crispy
It imparts a special flavour to the speech.
Makes your speech sound wafer crispy.
You have to work upon the bass of your voice to develop such crispy clarity.
The Rolling R’s
Roll your tongue while pronouncing r’s Use your tongue like rubber and
harden the tip of the tongue by rolling it a bit.
Just stretch the first half of the word, and let go the other half by striking your tongue back against the palate.
To Top It All
Flex your Tongue muscles. Work on nasal twang with a buzzing nose. Use the bass voice to create a crispy
clarity. Strain your Adam’s apple to produce the
comforted shrillness. Stretch your tongue like rubber band and
strum it against the palate.
The End Result
You’ll feel at home with Americans.
Add to the quality of call and save silly repetition.
Helps you strike instant rapport.
There are some characteristic differences in the way Indians speak
English versus the American way
The way Indians speakPresence of harder sounds
Faster Speed – 220 words per minute
Weak word emphasis, intonation and pronunciation on English words and phrases. This could be due to faster rate of speech and there being no stress in languages here in India
Long sentences and words usedDifferences of syllable emphasis
The way Americans speak
American intonations – ‘T R O L I’ concept
American Reductions Speed – 140-160 words per
minute Shorter sentences and words Proper Intonation
Stages of Learning American Accent
Accent neutralization process
American accent adoption Continuous Learning
Process
Unvoiced & Voiced Consonant Sounds
Unvoiced (voiceless) - The vocal cords do not vibrate.
Voiced - The sound is made by vibrating the vocal cords (voice box). To test whether you are making the sound voiced, put your fingers on your voice box. With a voiced sound you should feel a vibration. All vowels are voiced.
Unvoiced VoicedP B T D K G S Z
Sh Zh F V
V W M N
Ch J Th (as in thanks) Th (as in the) R L
Vowel SoundsVowel Sounds
Vowel ShadesAA AAAw AeOh eeoo I
Long Short
â as in father a as in cup ê as in they e as in pet î as in deep i as in dip ô as in clover o as in pot û as in fool u as in put
Vowels
Diphthongsae as in highau as in howei as in day
eu as in 'red-blue'oe as in boy
ui as in gooey
How do I sound American?
There is an expression in America, “Go with the flow”. One really important thing is to relax when you are speaking American English. The more you try to pronounce every single word clearly, the harder it is for the average American to understand you.
The American T
The American T is influenced very strongly by intonation and its position in a word or
phrase.
1st Rule for T
T is T at the beginning of a word or in a stressed syllable.
Examples,Tina taxed Ted’s temper.Tom and Tasha were too tense to Tango in
Taiwan.Tell Tyler to take two turns this time.
1st Rule for T
Terry told Tim to take turns this time.Thirteen and fourteen and fifteen make forty
two.
2nd Rule for T
T is D in the middle of a word.ExamplesBetty bought a bit of better butter.The brittle metal snapped.Put a little water in it.Eddie was a little bitter.Betty put a sweater on.
2nd Rule for T
Let him wait a little bit.Go get a letter opener.The meeting was at one.
3rd rule for T
T is held at the end of a word.Examples:Take it. It’s hot.It’s what they wanted to get.Put them back in the pot.Set the clock back at the event.What did you find at the site?
4th Rule for T
T is held before N in -tain and –ten endings.Examples:We tried to shorten the class.Betty had written about the fountain of
youth.The sumo wrestlers had eaten well to fatten
up.
4th Rule for T
Whitney’s rotten kitten has bitten Martin.The mountain peak was invisible.
5th Rule for T
T is silent after N with lax vowels.Example:Don’t interrupt him.Why are you interfering in our matter.Is he going at the center?Where is the enter key?
Letter ‘R’ Emphasis
Situation Examples
1.Weak If R is in the beginning of the word
Problem, process
1.Medium If R is in the middle of the word
Charges, Charter
1.Strong If R is at the end of the word
Dollar, Car, Sir
O becomes A
GodContactBroadPolicyShopping
The American ou & ow
[ow] cow, bow, powder, chowder [ou] sound. Loud, louder, cloud
Letter ‘L’ Emphasis
Situation Examples
1. ‘Y’ gets added to ‘L’
Sale becomes Sa-yle Male, Gale
Hell becomes He-yle
Letter ‘I’ Emphasis Situation Examples
I (ee) becomes ‘ai’Semi becomes ‘sem-ai’
Anti, Vitamin
Letter ‘I’ Emphasis
The ‘ae’ sound
TransferChangePastLastCan’t
The ‘ae’ sound
Last Saturday, on the last day January, we planned a national travel package to Los Angeles.
Understanding Syllables
Try pronouncing these words
Great PaulaPut CopyCut GorgeousFlat ProblemRule PromoteMine ContentOak TravelHave Layout
Now try these words…Abdomen Energy HolidayBeautifulPromotionComputerMicrochipDeposit
Dictionary Definition
A unit of spoken language consisting of a single uninterrupted sound formed by a vowel, diphthong, or syllabic consonant alone, or by any of these sounds preceded, followed, or surrounded by one or more consonants.
Word Syllable Breakdown Number of syllables
dog dog 1
green green 1
quite quite 1
quiet qui-et 2
orange o-range 2
table ta-ble 2
expensive ex-pen-sive 3
interesting in-ter-est-ing 4
realistic re-a-lis-tic 4
unexceptional un-ex-cep-tio-nal 5
Stressed SyllableThe emphasis placed on the sound or syllable
spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase.
A one-syllable word is never divided.For ExampleboatgoodKneltCut
Syllable Rules1. To find the number of syllables:
---count the vowels in the word,
---subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent "e" at the end of a word or the second vowel when two vowels a together in a syllable)
---subtract one vowel from every dipthong, (diphthongs only count as one vowel sound.)
---the number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables.
VCCV Rule
When a word contains more than one vowel, it could follow the VCCV or vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel pattern. Divide the word into syllables by drawing a dash between the two consonants. These are called Closed SyllablesClosed Syllables.
Some examples
Nap-kin Pic-nic Doc-tor Den-tist Exam-ple For-mat En-ter In-sert
VCV Rule
When a word contains a vowel, consonant, and a vowel it will be divided based on the sound the first vowel makes. If the first vowel is longlong, divide after that vowel. These are called Open SyllablesOpen Syllables.
Some Examples
Ra-dar Ba-ker Ho-tel Pu-pils Coo-ler Ma-ker Mo-tel
If the first vowel is shortshort, divide after the consonant.
For Examples Cab-in Fif-ty Shiv-er Riv-er
Compound Words
Divide compound words between the two words which forms the compound word.
For ExampleHome-workFoot-ballDog-houseSoft-wareCar-poolRail-roadGate-way
When a word has an affix, it is divided between the root and the affix.
Re-run Soft-ness, Cry-ing Re-play Great-ness
Divide between two vowels when they are sounded separately.
[di et, cru el]
Vowels that are sounded alone form their own syllable.
[dis o bey, a live, u ni form]
When a word ends in l-e preceded by a consonant, divide before the consonant.
For ExampleTur-tleca-blethis-tleCas-tle
The logy rule
Bi-ol-ogy Psy-chol-ogy Phy-siol-ogy
The Graphy rule Photography Geography Lithography
The tion rule
Nation Dictation Completion Situation Modulation Communication Notation Systemization
The ity rule
Simplicity Electricity Complexity Formality Nationality Possibility