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RP speaker trying an American accent
Every now and then I try to see how close I can get to an authentic American accent. This is my latest attempt; I'd appreciate comments (especially from Lazar, Josh Lalonde, Travis) that could help me tune it.
http://media.putfile.com/as-american
happy [hEpi], that's strange
wash [wAS] but dog [dQg], that's strange not American, sorry ;) try anew
Thanks for your response, Lon. I wasn't aware that having [A] in wash also meant one had to have [A] in dog. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists [wAS] and [lON] first for those two words (with potential [A] or [O] for both). And I do realize that a raised [{] without diphthongization does not sound American, whereas [E@] may.
Actually, Lon must just be speaking about their own dialect, because there are definitely North American English dialects which will have [Q] or [O] in "dog"; however, if one is cot-caught merged, one will most likely have [A] in words such as "dog".
As for raised [{], the matter is that when [{] is markedly raised in North American English dialects, yes, it is generally diphthongized as something like [E@], [E{], [e@], even [I@] in some dialects . Even still, when unstressed I often realize historical /{/ as something awfully close to [E] (my stressed version of such is usually [E{] to begin with, even though it sometimes can be [e{] or [E@])...
It sounds more like Spanish-accented GenAm than RP-accented GenAm.
A few things I noted: porridge [par\IdZ] seems strange with some of the other features /l/ in American English is generally darker than in RP old [oUl] sounds Spanish got [gOt] sounds RP woman ["BV.m@n] sounds Spanish Overall, it's pretty good though. Probably 7/10. You got the post-vocalic /r/s well, no hypercorrections or missing r's (though reading a text makes that easier).
That's weird. Why would anyone, with a British accent want to speak with an American accent?!
I'm American, but I'd love to speak with a British accent =P
Maybe they just want to see how well they can imitate other accents? Are you stupid or something?
<<It sounds more like Spanish-accented GenAm than RP-accented GenAm. >>
Right you are, Josh. Perhaps the title of the thread should have read "adoptive RP-speaker trying an American accent". I'm not a native speaker, but I've managed to develop a reasonable pronunciation that for the most part can pass for RP. Somehow I think my underlying Spanish phonology shows more when I'm attempting an accent I'm not very good at, like GenAm (I do not have ["BV.m@n] in my "normal" speech!).
''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists [A] and [O] first for those two words (with potential [A] or [O] for both). ''
well, this dictionary includes all possible pronunciations, but not indicating which is which...it's strange to pronounce some words in an EastCoast way, and some words in a WestCoast way... for example, if you pronounce hot dog as [hAt dAg], talk as [tAk] you normally don't have [A] in orange, horrible...but [o(r)] Longman's dictionary lists them like this: hot [hAt], talk [tOk, tAk], coffee [kOfi, kAfi] orange [or@ndZ, Ar@ndZ]... tOk + or@ndZ is a strange mix tOk [east coast] + or@ndZ [west coast]... Personally, I find Cambridge Pronunciation Dictionary much better since it uses WestCoast General American [cot/caught merged] so you can get a non mixed accent...( hot [hAt], dog [dAg], wash [wAS], talk [tAk], lost [lAst], dawn/Don [dAn], orange ['or@ndZ]) http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ [USE show phonetics]
>>tOk + or@ndZ is a strange mix
tOk [east coast] + or@ndZ [west coast]...<< The matter is that General American has [O] or "orange", and some other dialects outside the East Coast may very well have [o] for such, and pronunciations of [A] are relatively limited to some parts of the East Coast itself, not being present in the interior of the eastern half of the US. Consequently, this really is not a strange mix at all.
I have to agree with Travis. Having /O/ for both "talk" and "orange" is common in much of the country; you could think of it as the default US pronunciation that is neither Northeastern (Tory-torrent unmerged) nor Western (cot-caught merged).
''Having /O/ for both "talk" and "orange" is common in much of the country''
where? even in the Norther Cities shift region talk has [A]: talk, dawn, caught [A] (not [O]) Don, cot [a] orange [o(r)]
For most of the US, there is no contrast between /Or/ and /or/ the actual realisation is often somewhere between the two. Obviously the c-c merged parts of the country doesn't fit into this category, nor do those parts of the Northeast that have /A/ or /Q/ in 'orange'. I think most of the rest of the country could be said to fit those criteria.
<<where?>>
I was talking about phonemics, not phonetics. The [A] in NCVS "talk, dawn, caught", in interdialectal phonemics, is still /O/. |