Please assess my accent again & give advice for improvem

Samson   Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:04 pm GMT
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I have posted before but not many people gave me advice. Those who gave me advice did help me a lot, though.
I am a Cantonese speaker and I have tried my best to speak like a native speaker. I know my accent is different from native speakers' accents but I just don't know what the differences are exactly and how to improve.
Please do not tell me it's "good", "understandable", "nice" or similar terms, because it doesn't help. I am open for suggestions, advice or criticism.
And please tell me the correct position and shape of the tongue, lips and vocal cord if I have made a mistake.
Thanks a lot.
César   Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:45 pm GMT
Samson,

Use this website as a reference on phonetics: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

Hamilton sounds like Hamiten. You need to leave the tongue in the schwa neutral phoneme position (vowels, monophtongs, central, select the right-upper symbol). But don't make it that clear; instead, make it almost silent. Also, pronounce the "l".

Keep in might that this schwa sound is used a lot in English.

Pronounce the first "e" "detective" just like the "i", and make sure you pronounce the "c"; in other words, we need to hear a little stop in there.

I notice that you tend to skip the pronunciation of certain consonants. Usually, you should not ignore them (the "l", "t", "c").

"Old" sounds like "eld", so keep an eye on that "o" sound that you modify. The same thing happened to you in "Hamilton." Check the sound /o/.

Overall your pronunciation is acceptable. You need to pronounce the initial "p" and "t" with a little plosive sound. That's the way americans do. Examples:

people
pet
talk
top

The initial p's are plovise, but the one in "top" is not. The same happens with the initial t's and the one in "pet."

Regarding intonation, you need to work on it. I can easily notice that you are an Asian person based on the "singing" pattern of your voice.

My advice? Don't ever stay in a single musical note. American English is a language that is constantly going up and down when speaking.

In the word "detective" your voice stayed in the same pitch in "tective." Americans don't do that. Based on musical notes, you should have pronounced de-tec-tive with this musical pattern: D-E-C (Re-Mi-Do). On the second syllable you go up a bit and then you drop all the way down on the last one.

Also, stress the important word of the sentence: SHE was THIRTY years OLD. In that case you sounded like, "SHE was thirty years OLD."

"... To wait for PHONE CAAAALLS". Don't take too much time to pronounce some words. It's true that Americans take more time when pronouncing certain words, but not that much. And your musical note stayed way up, which is common in Asian languages. Drop it down a bit.

"... waiting for clients needing her services." The intonation pattern in that section was way better. Keep doing it like this. Notice how your lowered your voice and musical note at the end.

See how you go with this and let me know.
César   Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:47 pm GMT
Typo: keep in might. It was, "keep in mind."

Sorry 'bout that.
SpaceFlight   Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:25 pm GMT
<<The initial p's are plovise, but the one in "top" is not.>>

I don't know what you're talking about. Both the ''p'' in ''pot'' and the ''p'' in ''top'' are plosives. /p/ is always pronounced as in plosive.
César   Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:31 pm GMT
SpaceFlight,

Maybe that happens in British English, but I haven't payed attention to 'em. In American English (at least in standard American English) that does not happen.

My American coworkers don't make the final p's and t's plosive. If they are found in the middle of the word, yes (except the "t" depending on the word, of course... as in "little").

I base my explanation on two "accent reduction" training programs I have: American Accent Training by Ann Cook and American Training Guide by Beverly A. Lujan.

The plosive fenomenon, of course, is not followed by everybody.


Cheers!
Samson   Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:49 pm GMT
Cesar and everyone,

I have uploaded another file. Please comment.

Cesar,
The "detective" and "30 yrs old" comments do help me a lot. This is the kind of advice I am looking for.
Samson   Wed Dec 21, 2005 4:00 am GMT
Cesar,
Please comment again.
anonymous2   Wed Dec 21, 2005 5:58 am GMT
I'm not a native speaker myself, but here's what I noticed:

"open the door to crients" --> the dreaded l and r
"to wait for phone calls" sounded like "to white for phone calls"
"occashionally" --> the "s" should sound like the s in "pleasure"
"needing her services" sounded like "need uh her surfaces"
"detective" sounded a little bit like "detactive". The word "detect" doesn't rhyme with "tact". If you can't figure out the difference, you can go to http://www.m-w.com and look up those words.
Samson   Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:25 am GMT
Anonymous 2
Thanks a lot. Your advice does help me.
I didn't notice that I have problem pronouncing "L" after another consonant or sometimes in the middle of a word until told by you helpful guys.
"Surfaces" and "services". You are observative. I remember I did not voice the V. Because my native tongue has no voiced consonants, sometimes I have to pay attention to voice them. That's why I can remember I have not done that. The same goes for "occa(zh)ion)".

Actually, the mistakes above are correctible by paying more attention. I want to know more about the voice of my accent. Regardless of the mistakes and intonation, are there any native speakers who have similar voices?
My voices for English and Cantonese are completely different, because the voice for English can hardly produce tones and the voice for Cantonese can hardly produce voiced consonant fluently.