My Accent

L. N.   Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:37 am GMT
This idea was taken from another topic, but I have always wondered how people perceive my accent. I have enclosed a link below where you can listen to the clip.

The passage I read is: "Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."

Any comments would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

The link: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=907E6A860AB23614
Presley.   Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:20 am GMT
I can't quite put my finger on it. At first, I thought north Midwestern (e.g. Wisconsin, Minnesota), but it sounds a little different.
User   Thu Nov 23, 2006 3:50 pm GMT
Hmm. Interesting. It's sort of hard to tell. It sounds sort of like a North Central accent, except not cot-caught merged. I'm guessing some sort of transitional accent between the Northern and the North Central accent. You seem to make a clear distinction between the vowels in the words "call" and "on", so I'm guessing you aren't cot-caught merged, although its a little hard to tell--so that would seem to indicate a Northern accent. You have very strong Canadian raising on the word "thousand", but you're probably not Canadian because 99% merge the vowels in words like cot and caught. Your u's and o sounds are very rounded, but this could indicate several dialect regions. So, right now I'm guessing: Northern (proabably north of Illinois) or North Central. It would help if you could also record the following words:
tomorrow
sorry
sorrow
horrible
cat
cot
caught
dull
doll
loud
lout
bag
beg
vague
lied
light
stock
stack
stalk
Guest   Thu Nov 23, 2006 3:58 pm GMT
well I think we can narrow it down to:
Northeastern Montana
North Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Guest   Thu Nov 23, 2006 11:42 pm GMT
Minnesota or Michigan.
L. N.   Fri Nov 24, 2006 2:54 am GMT
I made another recording of me saying: tomorrow, sorry, sorrow, horrible, cat, cot, caught, dull, doll, loud, lout, bag, beg, vague, lied, light, stock, stack, and stalk.

The link is here: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=A0A14C4D4010D19C

In regards to the caught-cot merger, it appears that I switch between the two at times. Whenever I say "call" it almost always comes out as k-AUL (which is always very rounded) as opposed to k-ALL. However, I am not sure how to explain that.
Guest   Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:28 am GMT
Minnesota or Michigan. Or some village in Canada that doesn't quite have the low back merger. Am I right???
mike   Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:11 am GMT
1-Instead of saying “20 second”, you said: "20 secont" (with T end)
2-You have a problem with the R
3-Your syllables seems short, like when you pronounce Cat, Loud, Lout

YOU ARE ChINESE, or somewhere around!
Guest   Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:17 am GMT
The prairies perhaps?
User   Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:22 am GMT
>> YOU ARE ChINESE, or somewhere around! <<

Well, if you're a non-native speaker, I would guess Japanese rather than Chinese. And if you are a non-native speaker, most likely you either learned Canadian English, or pronounced the words tomorrow, sorry, sorrow, and horrible with the same vowel by analogy based on the spelling. That could also explain your transitional c-c merger.
mike   Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:35 am GMT
Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian... all will have nearly same accent when they speak english
User   Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:45 am GMT
>> Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian... all will have nearly same accent when they speak english <<

Most Chinese people don't raise the nucleus in words like "loud" though.
Guest   Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:48 am GMT
Why do Upper North/North Central accents sound like Chinese accents? Similar comments were made here: http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2003/3484.htm
Felix the Cat   Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:54 am GMT
1-Instead of saying “20 second”, you said: "20 secont" (with T end)
I say "second" with a glottal stop at the end
2-You have a problem with the R
People from that region have a slightly different R sound. Watch "Fargo"
3-Your syllables seems short, like when you pronounce Cat, Loud, Lout
Most people's are when they are reading
Presley.   Fri Nov 24, 2006 6:08 am GMT
«Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian... all will have nearly same accent when they speak english »

Not really. I disagree STRONGLY. Just because you are unfamiliar with the characteristics of each accent/language and you think they sound the same (or nearly so) does not make what you say true.

That's just like if I said that Spanish, Italian, and German people all have the same accent when they speak English. Just because I'm not familiar with these accents and they sound the same to me, it doesn't mean that they are.

Also, why did you pick these three languages to refer to as a whole? They are all in different language families!