Tuesday, August 19, 2003, 06:52 GMT
To Ryan:
I wonder why you did not point out that my [o] vowel in the words 'honest', 'solid', 'strong' is not like Americans say it.
My r's are purposefully swallowed so that they are only half there. I used to enunciate my r's very clearly many years ago when I focused on American pronunciation. Over the years I developed in the direction of less strain on my vocal apparatus and more casual and relaxed speech. I found that I had to give up on some of the American-like tricks that I had previously picked up.
As for the r's being Slavic, it is a very big misunderstanding. The Polish 'r' is a hard trilling sound and my swallowed English 'r' is very far from it. First of all it is close to not being there at all and secondly it can be prolonged in time without changing, whereas the Polish 'r' is very conspicuous, definitely there, and it is vibrating - changes with time.
I doubt that my 'called' in the recording sounds like the British would say 'cold'. Any British people to join in and comment on that?
I listened to my "nose in the air" and I definitely heard the 'th' sound. But I am not surprised that you have come up with such a comment. I myself sometimes have the impression that a 'd' is used instead of a 'th' in native speech.
And moreover, me and Tom once made an experiment in which I read from a book in Polish and Tom was intently listening and coming up with instances of imperfect enunciation. It turned out that I could not speak clearly enunciated Polish.
Ryan, I thank you for your time and attention. Please everybody be certain that I have nothing against dissecting my accent on the forum. It is there for anybody to discuss and share their impressions.
I wonder why you did not point out that my [o] vowel in the words 'honest', 'solid', 'strong' is not like Americans say it.
My r's are purposefully swallowed so that they are only half there. I used to enunciate my r's very clearly many years ago when I focused on American pronunciation. Over the years I developed in the direction of less strain on my vocal apparatus and more casual and relaxed speech. I found that I had to give up on some of the American-like tricks that I had previously picked up.
As for the r's being Slavic, it is a very big misunderstanding. The Polish 'r' is a hard trilling sound and my swallowed English 'r' is very far from it. First of all it is close to not being there at all and secondly it can be prolonged in time without changing, whereas the Polish 'r' is very conspicuous, definitely there, and it is vibrating - changes with time.
I doubt that my 'called' in the recording sounds like the British would say 'cold'. Any British people to join in and comment on that?
I listened to my "nose in the air" and I definitely heard the 'th' sound. But I am not surprised that you have come up with such a comment. I myself sometimes have the impression that a 'd' is used instead of a 'th' in native speech.
And moreover, me and Tom once made an experiment in which I read from a book in Polish and Tom was intently listening and coming up with instances of imperfect enunciation. It turned out that I could not speak clearly enunciated Polish.
Ryan, I thank you for your time and attention. Please everybody be certain that I have nothing against dissecting my accent on the forum. It is there for anybody to discuss and share their impressions.