Home: Forum: Old messages: If you want to speak pure American, you must study British.

If you want to speak pure American, you must study British.

greg   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 16:13 GMT

Michal Ryszard Wojcik Assumption 1: You are exposed to both spoken American and British. Assumption 2: You want to speak pure American. Assumption 3: You do not speak pure American. Conclusion: You have to study British pronunciation. Proof Notice that your input influences your output. In other words, what you hear is the basis for what you speak. This is because of the imitation-skill that you employ when learning pronunciation. By Assumption 1, you are influenced in the direction of British English. By Assumption 2, this fact is undesirable for you. Hence, you need to guard against this. Metaphorically, your British English input is your enemy, and you must know how to defend against this enemy. One way would be to remove the enemy from your environment. But this is impossible by Assumption 1. So you need to be prepared for the constant existence of the enemy. You must be "immune". You must be so prepared, so vaccinated, that the existence of the enemy is harmless. First of all, you must be able to recognize the enemy. If you do not see the difference between American input and British input, both kinds will influence your output, via the imitation-skill. By Assumption 3, your knowledge of American pronunciation is incomplete. Hence, if you meet an unknown piece of input, it could be a missing piece of knowledge about American pronunciation. So you must not ignore it. You must study it. It can be American or it can be British. But you must absorb it only if it is American. So if you want to expand your knowledge, (which you do by Assumptions 2 and 3) you must have the technical knowledge to tell between American and British. So you must have technical knowledge about British pronunciation. Thus you must study British pronunciation, and the proof is complete. Tom <<<< First of all, you must be able to recognize the enemy. If you do not see the difference between American input and British input, both kinds will influence your output, via the imitation-skill. >>>> Maybe I don't have to see the difference. If I know a person is British, I can ignore what they say, or at least approach it carefully. You may argue that I sometimes don't know if the speaker is British or American. For example, in a movie or on an international TV network like CNN International. But then perhaps I don't have to know ALL the differences between American and British. I just need to recognize ONE difference. I could also approach a speaker's pronunciation with care until I'm sure he's American. <<<< By Assumption 3, your knowledge of American pronunciation is incomplete. Hence, if you meet an unknown piece of input, it could be a missing piece of knowledge about American pronunciation. So you must not ignore it. You must study it. It can be American or it can be British. But you must absorb it only if it is American. >>>> This doesn't mean that I have to learn both British and American pronunciations of words, does it? It only means I should check the pronunciation if I hear a word spoken by a British person (because it may be different from the American pronunciation). <<<< you must have the technical knowledge to tell between American and British. >>>> Maybe not. Perhaps a better argument in favor of learning British would be the need to understand British? "I need to study the British pronunciation of words, because I need to understand British English"?

Anton   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 16:30 GMT

I agree with greg 100% British English is the mother of all English varieties In order to study any variety, a proper English knowledge is required…AE is just a variety or a subdivision of the RP…

EU   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 16:42 GMT

Michal and Tom are just too Polish ex-commies .Two ass kissers who venerate the Americans. Poland even sent troops there… It’s typical East European, Poland is a country of migrants,6.000.000 Polish immigrants are in America…What do you expect from an pro-American ass kisser country like Poland ! Besides Poland is the only EU country who agrees with Bush administration… Don’t even waste your time greg with the no personality, no identity Polish ass kissers

Anton   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 16:48 GMT

Sorry I meant : I agree with Michal Ryszard Wojcik

greg   Sunday, June 12, 2005, 16:48 GMT

Anton : "I agree with greg 100%". That wasn't my statement : I copypasted an old thread suggested by Michal Ryszard Wojcik.