Does Comma REALLY get a cure?!

Okay, since everyone else is doing, I might as well do it too! I read aloud the passage "Comma Gets a Cure." It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could comment on my accent. Guess where I'm from. Point out specific things about my accent, etc.


http://media.putfile.com/Comma-Gets-a-Cure


Meesh.

You don't sound native to me.

There is a slight Asian touch to your accent. This is what I can detect atleast. Though your accent is clear to understand. My wild guess is either from Japan or China originally but living in USA now for years.

>> My wild guess is either from Japan or China originally but living in USA now for years. <<

I would guess Korea instead.

If Meesh is really from the Midwest I'm gonna laugh, I must say.

The above comment of mine was based on previous similar threads rather than this particular case. From actually listening to the example, the individual in question is most definitely not a native Midwesterner, completely lacking even the least traces of the NCVS, Canadian Raising, and just generally did not sound like someone from this area. I not would be surprised if the individual in question were a non-native speaker simply because a lot of things sounded too careful (for instance, no unreleased stops or glottal stopped /t/s) combined with a few clear spelling pronunciations like ["ET@`] for "ether" which stuck out, but I myself am not good enough at picking out specific accents to really say for sure.

I'm guessing Oregon. You sounded like you had a small trace of the California Vowel shift, but not much. You also say "palm" with the "l".

Also, say these words:
cot
caught
tomorrow
bag
notepad
beg
dole
ban
vague
dull

I think your accent is non-native. The main reasons are

1) that you pronounce /t/ as a fully released plosive where native speakers would tend to use an unreleased plosive or a glottal stop (for example, in the phrases "from the vet" and "see it in a dog or a goat" and "foot and mouth disease"), and

2) there are some parts of your reading that sound a little "off" or non-native: "suffering from a rare form" (the rhotic sounds sounded just a little bit non-native); also, "measure out" and "can't imagine" sounded a little unnatural, and

3) you pronounced "ether" as ["ET@`] rather than ["iT@`].

But if your accent is non-native, then I'd say it's a really good, near-native accent.

I noticed that you definitely have the pre-/r/ phonemic mergers ("Mary~merry~marry", "serious~Sirius", "Tory~torrent", and "hurry~furry"), which the majority of Americans have.

It also seems to me that you have the cot-caught merger, which is fine, because about 40% of Americans (perhaps even more) have this merger.

I also noticed a shifting of [{] towards [a] that tends to be indicative of the California Shift, when you said "began" and "back". This doesn't make you sound non-native, it just gives you a slight air of Californianity. ;-)

>>I also noticed a shifting of [{] towards [a] that tends to be indicative of the California Shift, when you said "began" and "back". This doesn't make you sound non-native, it just gives you a slight air of Californianity. ;-) <<

Depends - for me at least, just about anyone who isn't an Upper Midwesterner sounds like that, even though people from California sound even more like that to me.

>> Depends - for me at least, just about anyone who isn't an Upper Midwesterner sounds like that, even though people from California sound even more like that to me. <<

Well, I noticed it too. So, at least we can say that he is definitely not a Midwesterner, or a Canadian because of his "sahree", or a Southerner, so if he is a native speaker he's either from the West or perhaps somewhere on the East Coast?

"User" wanted me to read aloud a list of words that (s)he provided, so here it is.

1. cot
2. caught
3. tomorrow
4. bag
5. notepad
6. beg
7. dole
8. ban
9. vague
10. dull

http://media.putfile.com/List-of-Words


I would be absolutely delighted to make any more recordings if you guys want.


Meesh.

Well, you sound like a Californian to me, although originally Chinese or Japanese. Your r's sound unusual as do your /aU/ sounds.

Dude Meesh, when will you disclose your true identity, origin?

Actually listening to it again, you sounded more Vietnamese than Chinese or Japanese when you said the word "aloud".

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

"User" is absolutely amazing! Haha. You should do this professionally. I'm sure that guessing people's accents would be a lucrative career ;]

I am Vietnamese-born, but I have been living in Southern California (Orange County) for sixteen years.

I have asian influences in my accent because Garden Grove (a city in Orange County where I live) has the biggest concentration of Vietnamese people in the entire world outside of Vietnam. I'm exposed to a lot of other Vietnamese Americans who probably speak the same way I do, so I don't see anything *wrong* with it. And if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? ;]

Meesh.

Note to User: what is the /aU/ sound? Can you pinpoint a particular word?