Is this person a native speaker?

Rhapsody   Wed May 09, 2007 6:22 pm GMT
Do you think this person who's talking is an English-speaker? It sometimes sounds as if he was, and sometimes as if he wasn't...
As far as I can jusge, he sounds British or perhaps Australian

http://www.fileupyours.com/files/98292/The%20world%20is%20too%20much%20with%20usj.mp3
furrykef   Wed May 09, 2007 8:08 pm GMT
It sounds like a British accent to me, although it's not a generic one... it's a more specific one that I can't identify (I don't know anything about distinguishing various British accents).

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a non-native speaker (it's impossible to rule that out completely anyway), but it seems a plausible enough accent to me.

- Kef
Lazar   Thu May 10, 2007 2:41 am GMT
I'm pretty sure that that person is a non-native speaker. He speaks English (and specifically RP) very well, but some aspects of his pronunciation sound unnatural to me.

Some parts where his pronunciation sounds non-native are "getting and spending", "we have given", "are out of tune", and "old Triton". When he says "flowers", the /l/ sounds too velarized for RP. His stress pattern sounds unnatural when he says "our powers" and "at all hours"; and overall, his speech seems halting. Also, he pronounces "bosom" as ["bQs@m], which seems like a non-native error to me.
Mimi   Sun May 20, 2007 9:11 am GMT
This person is an Asian. Possibly a non-native speaker. His speech sounds contrived and quite unnatural to me.
Josh Lalonde   Sun May 20, 2007 11:06 pm GMT
I would say non-native. Although the pronunciation is pretty good overall, the intonation is very odd. I wonèt speculate on native language though.
s   Thu May 24, 2007 12:20 am GMT
He's probably Chinese.
superdavid   Thu May 24, 2007 12:58 pm GMT
I'm pretty sure he is a Chinese man who is just trying to speak like British.