What's your English accent like?

<<As a matter of a fact, I do have several recordings of myself speaking with friends on my old computer, so I'll try and access those and post them here as soon as I can.>>

Yes do that if it's not a bother, I'd like to hear it. When people make fun of Californians they always say "fer sher." Is that the way people say that.

Of course in Boston it's always, "Paahked the cahh in Haahvaahd Yaahd," that people make fun of and it's true, actually, but there are far worse accents in Boston as well.

<I have not as of yet visited said "hub," tho I'd love to :) >

If you decide to visit Boston June and early July are the nicest times, but of course probably the most expensive. Who wants to go there in Winter?

<<Yes do that if it's not a bother, I'd like to hear it. When people make fun of Californians they always say "fer sher." Is that the way people say that.>>

Yup--that's the only way I say it, which would be [f3` S3`] in X-SAMPA. I didn't even realize some people pronounced those differently till I started learning about different dialects several years ago. And, yes, I'm working right now on finding those files I was talking about--I'll post 'em when I can.

<<If you decide to visit Boston June and early July are the nicest times, but of course probably the most expensive. Who wants to go there in Winter?>>

Hehe, it's not at the top of my list of places to go in winter.

<<Yup--that's the only way I say it, which would be [f3` S3`] in X-SAMPA. I didn't even realize some people pronounced those differently till I started learning about different dialects several years ago. >>

Really? Now I have to hear your recordings. Some people in northern New England pronounce for sure, "for show-a"..."Ayah." :) Even some young ones, which is interesting but I think that accent is dying out as are so many.

>><<Yes do that if it's not a bother, I'd like to hear it. When people make fun of Californians they always say "fer sher." Is that the way people say that.>>

Yup--that's the only way I say it, which would be [f3` S3`] in X-SAMPA. I didn't even realize some people pronounced those differently till I started learning about different dialects several years ago. And, yes, I'm working right now on finding those files I was talking about--I'll post 'em when I can.<<

That's pretty much how I also pronounce "for sure" informally, even though semiformally it is:

["fo:r\."S3`]

and very formally it is:

["fo:r\."Su:r\]

<<That's pretty much how I also pronounce "for sure" informally, even though semiformally it is:

["fo:r\."S3`]

and very formally it is:

["fo:r\."Su:r\] >>

Now that's intersting and you're from Wisconsin.

What do you mean by formally vs. informally, Travis? Do you mean formally, as when you lecture or read out loud, and informally, just chatting with friends. I pronounce it the same either way, that's why I ask.

By formally versus informally I mean which register I'm using, even though in this case it is actually a three-way variation register-wise. What I denote as "informal" is just my everyday speech, without any attempt to speak "carefully". What I denote as "semi-formal" corresponds to my normal "reading voice" and to what I often use when speaking politely or forcefully or when speaking to non-native English speakers. And what I denote as "very formal" refers to markedly formal, even poetic, usage (often for the sake of effect), and often has notable phonological, grammatical, and lexical differences from my more usual semi-formal speech, such as, in this case, the use of [Su:r\] rather than [S3`] for "sure".

Thank you, Travis. I'm wondering now if I actually pronounce words differently when I read aloud or otherwise speak formally. I didn't think so but now I'm going to listen more closely to myself and see.

<<
Really? Now I have to hear your recordings. Some people in northern New England pronounce for sure, "for show-a"..."Ayah." :) Even some young ones, which is interesting but I think that accent is dying out as are so many.>>

I couldn't say authoritatively about New England accents specifically, but linguistic research has consistently shown that English dialects are continually diverging from each other, rather than becoming more alike or homogenizing. For instance, patterns such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift and California Vowel Shift and the like have emerged in areas which previously did not have clear-cut regional accents (because people had not been settled there for a long enough time, so a melting pot of different accents could be heard). Even if accents are changing (as they always are), I wouldn't say any of them are anywhere near dying out but are actually becoming more pronounced in certain cases. To look at New England, let's take Lazar's accent. While he's rhotic, he has a lot of features in his speech which are very traditional New England ones from his area--he's not "hurry-furry" merged, "Mary-marry-merry" merged or even "father-bother" merged, as most American accents are.

<<Thank you, Travis. I'm wondering now if I actually pronounce words differently when I read aloud or otherwise speak formally. I didn't think so but now I'm going to listen more closely to myself and see.>>

Yes, there are usually quite large differences between formal semi-formal, and informal registers of speech. Many people don't really pay attention to these differences or consciously use one register over another (tho it may happen sometimes), but there really are very large differences. I'm having problems with my old computer (which is why I got this new one...heh) but when I can get it to work properly I'll get those files of my informal speech. I wish I could explain more now but I have to run--heopfully we can carry on this interesting discussion later! :)

<<To look at New England, let's take Lazar's accent. While he's rhotic, he has a lot of features in his speech which are very traditional New England ones from his area--he's not "hurry-furry" merged, "Mary-marry-merry" merged or even "father-bother" merged, as most American accents are.>>

I don't think I'm merged like that either. I can't imagine it really. They can't possibly merge. Now I'm going to have to listen more closely to my midwestern and southern friends. :)

<<Yes, there are usually quite large differences between formal semi-formal, and informal registers of speech... I wish I could explain more now but I have to run--heopfully we can carry on this interesting discussion later! :) >>

Yes do, it is interesting and thanks for the info.

<<I don't think I'm merged like that either. I can't imagine it really. They can't possibly merge. Now I'm going to have to listen more closely to my midwestern and southern friends. :)>>

Hehe. Well, I happen to be "hurry-furry" merged (I have the same vowel for both of those), "Mary-marry-merry" merged (I pronounce them all identically), "father-bother-caught" merged (I have the same vowel for all of those). Altho many people may not realize it, there is actually considerable regional dialectal variation within North America, even tho almost all of us can understand each other fine.

To use some other posters' speech as an example, Travis is "hurry-furry" merged and "Mary-marry-merry" merged (tho he merges them to a different vowel than I do--that's another issue--even if two people have a merger or a split that doesn't entail that they've merged it to the same sound), but he is not "father-bother-caught" merged. He is "father-bother" merged but he pronounces "cot-caught" differently, whereas I pronounce them the same.

On the other hand, Lazar is "cot-caught" merged but not "father-bother" merged (which is a pretty rare combination, but one prevalent in many parts of New England apparently) and the other things about him I've already mentioned. He's also not "serious-sirius" merged, while most Americans and Canadians are. One thing to keep in mind is that all these mergers and splits don't just refer to those individual words mentioned, but they're indicative of large classes of words which behave like the ones cited. So, since I'm "cot-caught" merged (as about 40-50% of the US is and nearly all of English-speaking Canadians are), I also have the exact same vowel in "tot-taught" and "body-bawdy," which in turn is the same vowel I have in "father."

Some other things: Travis is also partly Canadian Raised, which affects his vowels in "writer" and "rider" (I have the same vowels for those while he doesn't). He also has some influence of the Northern Cities Vowel shift on his vowels, which is a vowel shift that goes almost the opposite direction that the California Vowel shift has been going (the CVS is evident in my informal speech).

These are just a few samples of the noteworthy dialectal differences you'll find here in English-speaking North America.

To Cesar and Kirk. Guys you have shown me how nice an American accent could be. I don't know why I had only heard cowboy's and rustic's accents, till now. You guys speak very nicely. :)

To Ben. Yes that's a typical Londoner accent, but not Cockney, at least not completely I guess. It's great. A very nice English accent.

Well here you are, a recording of myself. Again.

"Daisy Hamilton was a private detective. She was thirty years old and had been a detective for the past two years. Every morning she went to her office to wait for phone calls or open the door to clients needing her services. Daisy wasn't very well known yet but occasionally people telephoned her from the advertisement she had put in the local newspaper."

Recording: http://uploadhut.com/view.php/473426.mp3
Accent I learned: RP English
Country of origin: Peru
Age: 20
Native language: Spanish.
How I learned English? I studied in a English Language School in Peru with some English teachers using a course called REWARD. Then I was able to go to England and applied for a short (and bloody expensive) course at St. Giles language school in London. Now I live in Spain working as a tour guide, getting strange looks because of my accent.

Regards

Well, my accent has changed a lot. It's received a lot of influence from different European accents, It's a great mixture of different accents as someone else pointed out. Any way at least it IS understandable, I'll have to work a lot on my voice's pitch to sound like Mr Tim Yeo, hahaha. But I'll try not to sound so conservative, and despite what Mr Yeo thinks, I consider that modernising a conservative party means more than appearing on Television without a tie. hahaha.

>>But I'll try not to sound so conservative, and despite what Mr Yeo thinks, I consider that modernising a conservative party means more than appearing on Television without a tie. hahaha.<<

Mind you though that in linguistic contexts, the term "conservative" has nothing to do with the term in political contexts, and neither does terms like "progressive" either. Rather, they just have to do with the degree of retention of historical features versus innovation of new features, respectively, present in any given dialect, in a relative fashion, of course. Of course, at the same time, often rather conservative formal forms may be associated with more generally politically conservative groups. However, that is more just an incidental association of a particular speech form with a given group, as often more "divergent" dialects of a given language, which are probably not likely to be specifically associated with politically conservative social groups, often are actually quite conservative in nature relative to the "standard" form of that language in reality.

"Mind you though that in linguistic contexts, the term "conservative" has nothing to do with the term in political contexts, and neither does terms like "progressive" either. Rather, they just have to do with the degree of retention of historical features versus innovation of new features, respectively, present in any given dialect, in a relative fashion, of course. Of course, at the same time, often rather conservative formal forms may be associated with more generally politically conservative groups. However, that is more just an incidental association of a particular speech form with a given group, as often more "divergent" dialects of a given language, which are probably not likely to be specifically associated with politically conservative social groups, often are actually quite conservative in nature relative to the "standard" form of that language in reality."

I beg your pardon!

>>Some other things: Travis is also partly Canadian Raised, which affects his vowels in "writer" and "rider" (I have the same vowels for those while he doesn't).<<

I just had to add that it isn't exactly that simple, because I have a second similar raising in parallel to Canadian Raising, so hence I will actually raise /aI/ (but not /aU/) in places where it is not raised in Canadian English. Simply, in addition to raising /aI/ to [VI] before unvoiced consonants, ignoring directly intervening sonorants, /r/ and /@`/ may also trigger such raising under certain conditions. Specifically, if /aI/ is directly followed by /r/ or there is a following /@`/ at some point within the same morpheme as /aI/ which does not *immediately* follow it, /aI/ will be raised to [VI]. What is important here is that it is sensitive to morpheme structure, resulting in:

"spider" : /"spaId@`/ -> ["spV:I.4@`]

but

"rider" : /"raId@`/ -> ["r\a:I.4@`]