Here is my sample, using that Daisy Hamilton paragraph and an extra sentence:
http://ilp303.com/temp/accent_sample.mp3 (466kb)
I grew up in Russia, moved to New York City when I was almost 14. Last 6 years I've spent in Eastern Massachusetts.
I think one thing that contributed to a worse accent was that nobody would correct me. I suppose folks imagine that be to be rude--understandable, yet without knowing what I'm pronouncing wrong, I can't recognize and get better.
I think some of my trouble spots are with words like "good" and "book" and "cook", hence the extra sentence that I've appended.
I pronounced "advertisment" kinda funky, should've pronounced it as "ad-vert-AI-sment" instead.
Could you please criticize my accent and suggest what the most glaring areas are? I am trying to speak as close to the typical North-Eastern American accent as possible.
Thanks folks! I just found this forum and it looks to be neat. Honestly, I wish I spoke with a straight-up Brooklyn accent, no hints of anything else. But I'll take speaking with no hints of Russian accent first :) (My little brother is growing up in NYC and he says "noyn" instead of "nine").
Ugh, please pardon the grammar there. For some reason, I am writing less coherently than usual tonight.
I think your intonation sounds pretty american. There are a few consonants that need to be polished up. Like when you said "detective" I had a lot of Vs. Mystery was also kind of. I guess the R sound can be polished a little bit too. Hope this helps.
Pronunciation Symbols of Reader's Digest Illustrated Encyclopedia Dictionary for Antimoon.
ă stands for 'eh-ah, not ah "cat, map, camp, sad..."
ãr stands for 'eh-ah(-r) "care, fair, bear, where..."
ā stands for 'eh-ee "cake, pain, vein, prey, day, sleigh..."
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ĕ stands for eh "bed, sweat, dead, death, health..."
er stands for eh~(-r) "bird, verb, fur, work, word..."
ē stands for ee / e "meat, beet, bee, sea, piece, field..."
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ĭ stands for 'ee-eh / ih "fish, busy, building, bitch..."
ĭ stands for 'ee-ah(-r) "beer, fear, weird, mere..."
ī stands for 'ah-ee "light, buy, lie, sky, isle..."
īr stands for 'ah-ee-ah(-r) "fire, liar, buyer..."
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ŏ stands for 'aw-ah, not ah "cot, dog, dock, pop, bomb..."
ō stands for 'aw-oo / oh "slow, bone, load, dough, comb..."
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ŭ stands for aw-'ah / uh "duck, mud, pup, slut..."
ū stands for ee-'oo "new, cute, duty, view, feudal..."
yor stands for ee-'aw-ah(r) "pure, cure..."
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ä stands for ah, not eh "grass, glance, command, bath..."
är stands for ah~(-r) "car, heart, sergeant..."
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ö stands for aw, not er "law, faun, yawn, call..."
ör stands for aw~(-r) "lord, floor, sword..."
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oo stands for oo "fool, dude, food, womb, tomb..."
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oo stands for oo-'aw "foot, woman, wolf, hook, good..."
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oi stands for 'aw-eh "boil, boy, point..."
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ou stands for 'ah-aw "round, down, proud..."
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th stands for Spanish z "thing"
th stands for hard d in few words "that"
g stands for German g "game, girl"
g stands for Italian g "gem, geometry"
h stands for soft mouth air (aspiration) "home"
stands for no sound in French origin "hour"
j stands for Italian g "jail (gaol)"
l stands for behind the tongue, "doll, ball"
no tooth
y stands for ee "yesterday"
w stands for oo "well"
wh stands for hoo or oo "wheel, what"
-nion = ~nee-un, not ñun
-tion = shun
-stion = s chun
-sion = zhun
-rsion = r shun or r zhun
-ssion = shun
-cial = shawl
-tial = shawl
Repeat these words.
receive, believe, leave
belief, leaf, brief
wrong, knowledge, gnat, psychics, dumb, debt, psalm
Some people don't say the sounds as they should be pronounced. These
people use regional accents instead of the standard or basic accent.
Received British Pronunciation is the most acceptable accent around the world.
American English is the modern accent used in the United States of America.
There's no problem for me to start using o: instead of ö.
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o: stands for aw, not er "law, faun, yawn, call..."
o:r stands for aw~(-r) "lord, floor, sword..."
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The symbols are not representing languages. Furthermore, these ones are
used in most dictionaries of the English language.
I know German has ö as er, somehow pronounced, but English isn't German.
ĭ stands for 'ee-eh / ih "fish, busy, building, bitch..."
ĭr stands for 'ee-ah(-r) "beer, fear, weird, mere..."
Then I say: I'm faking myself, 'cause I'm gay to do that.
thanks for the feedback. I listen to the clip again and it still sounds somewhat thick to my ear.
So how am I pronouncing detective? Too much "v" sound? Should it be more like "detectiff"?
I noticed two things,
The first one is the way you pronounced the certain voiced consonants like V and Z; it seems to me that your problem resides in the way you over-pronounced those sounds. Remember that you don't have two pronounced every sound like a robot, let them be V, Z, D and all the others be unvoiced when they deserve to, for example, it is Okay to pronounced Sylvia and even with an F sound, specially when you're speaking fast.
Also, the way you pronounced Book, Put Cooking, etc. Do a Google search on American pronunciation and you will find picture, diagrams and all sort of stuff that will show you what to do to in order to get the American pronunciation of those words.
I really hope i've helped you.