Accent Sample Thread

Sho   Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:58 pm GMT
I know so many similar threads have been created, so I hope we can sort of unify them.

Anyone willing to share their speech / accent sample with other posters, improve their pronunciation or imitate different accents and see how they're doing, please post an audio clip.

Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

I'd like to share mine as a starter.

http://www.kantalk.com/Recording/Play/ID/4526

People sometimes tell me I have an american-sounding accent, but I'm not aiming for anything regional. I picked up this accent mostly from watching movies.

Thanks!
Brian   Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:32 am GMT
I guess I'lll post mine as well.

Please call Stella.
http://media.putfile.com/Please-Call-Stella-58

And then there's this one.
http://media.putfile.com/your-children-2

I'm American.
Brian   Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:03 am GMT
No one else wants to contribute?
Sho   Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:03 pm GMT
Brian,

Thanks for your contribution. It was awesome.

You seem to have cot-caught merger, slightly fronted /u:/ (as in spoon) and /oU/ (a little like the British version /@U/.
Are you from the West Coast?

Also it'd be great if you could comment on my accent:)

Anyone else to contribute?
Sho   Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:08 pm GMT
I recorded the second sentence again, with a slightly different stress pattern on some compound nouns.

Which sounds more natural?

http://www.kantalk.com/Recording/Play/ID/4539
JS   Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:54 pm GMT
Benny   Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:07 pm GMT
Sho, your American accent is extremly good. Only when you said the word "Wednesday" did I hear anything remotely non-native. I'd say you can pass for a native.
Brian   Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:34 pm GMT
He could almost pass for a native, but most people would probably pick up on his foreign accent. There is something Asian about it. It's still VERY good, Sho.

JS sounds very Asian.

And no, Sho. I'm not from the west coast. I've never been anywhere near it, actually. ;)
Wintereis   Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:42 pm GMT
Sho, your accent is very similar to a GA accent. It will be very understandable to native speakers. I would suggest that you work on making youer "w" sound a little more crisp, howver. You seemed to stumple a bit when you had to w's close together.
Brian   Tue Jul 01, 2008 2:47 am GMT
<<Sho, your accent is very similar to a GA accent. It will be very understandable to native speakers. I would suggest that you work on making youer "w" sound a little more crisp, howver. You seemed to stumple a bit when you had to w's close together.>>

I agree. I noticed that too.
Sho   Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:34 am GMT
JS

Thanks for posting your sample:)
Your accent is very clear, but as others have said, I can hear a Chinese (?) accent. For example, your "fresh" sounded more like "fress" with a hissing sound.
Where are you from?

Benny,
Thanks for your comment:)
I recorded myself saying all days of the week in a row, paying more attention to my w's.

http://www.kantalk.com/Recording/Play/ID/4549

I thought maybe I should round my lips closer for /w/. Is it any better?

Brian,
Yeah I can hear there's a slight accent in my speech too, but I can't tell what it is that gives me away.
Any thoughts? And any advice for my w's?
Hmm maybe you're from Philadelphia? Give me a hint:P

Wintereis,
Thanks for your advice:)
I actually never thought w's would be a problem, but it's true, Japanese don't have as many w's as English does so maybe that's why it's somewhat hard for me to pronouce.
Am I doing better in the new recording above?
Brian   Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:59 pm GMT
<<Brian,
Yeah I can hear there's a slight accent in my speech too, but I can't tell what it is that gives me away.
Any thoughts? And any advice for my w's?
Hmm maybe you're from Philadelphia? Give me a hint:P>>

A little further west. ;)
JS   Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:45 pm GMT
I don't even know anyone from Asia...
Actually I find it rather bizarre to say that someone has an "Asian accent", as there are thousands of languages belonging to multiple language families spoken in Asia (which is the largest continent of the world).
ID   Tue Jul 01, 2008 8:30 pm GMT
Ed   Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:13 am GMT