Feedback on my accent, please (file attached)

Hey beneficii,

You're right, that's the reason I tripped over some of the parts (I explained that earlier), but TLC's points are still good ones.

Are you a native, American-born speaker yourself?

<<I don't know what he's talking about with "thee army" verses "thuh army"; I think I personally say "thuh army" most of the time. I find "thee" and "thuh" to be mostly interchangable, just like "aither" and "eether" for "either.">>

That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Just know that there are rules to how "the" is pronounced. Whether one follows them or not depends on how much of a stickler they are for language rules.

Dictionary.com -- "Pronunciation note: ...the pronunciation of the definite article 'the' changes, primarily depending on whether the following sound is a consonant or a vowel. Before a consonant sound the pronunciation is /ðə/ [thuh]. Before a vowel sound it is usually /ði/[thee], sometimes /ðɪ/[thi]. As an emphatic form ("I didn't say a book—I said the book.") or a citation form ("The word 'the' is a definite article."), the usual pronunciation is /ði/[thee], although in both of these uses of the stressed form, /ði/[thee] is often replaced by /ðʌ/[thuh], especially among younger speakers."

ESB,

"Hey beneficii,

"You're right, that's the reason I tripped over some of the parts (I explained that earlier), but TLC's points are still good ones.

"Are you a native, American-born speaker yourself?"

Yes. I've tripped over words myself, they are not very good indicators, especially if you're reading some boring thing you haven't really read that much.

To be honest, that recording may not have been the best for judging your accent; you're too tense, reading some boring thing where you're tripping over the words.

TLC,

With that last sentence in the dictionary, my pronunciation of "the" seems to be exonerated: I'm in my 20s.

ESB,

Since I've answered your question, let me pose one: Are you Blackhawk?

What is Blackhawk, BTW?

I think your monotony is what's really preventing you from sounding like a native and making people ask, "Where are you from?"
Everything else is good.

ESB, are you still following this thread? If so, I could give you some concrete advice on what you need to improve. But before I start writing a lot here, I thought I should check with you so that I don't do it in vain.

Hey man, yes, I'm definitely following this thread. Thanks for replying. So what should I work on?

Ok. First of all I would like to agree with the others on the board: You sound *almost* like a native American and you don't need to improve your accent if you don't want to. I understand you're tired of always getting the question "where are you from?" though. Since you're already this good, getting perfect shouldn't be a problem. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to point out some "issues" (I hate that word!) by picking examples of words.
Here we go:

* Troops and other oo-words should be pronounced more towards the u-sound. This site's pretty good: http://tyda.se/index.php?lang=en&w=troop - click on the listen symbol next to the word. You can use this site for all my examples.

* Two - The t is different from the t in most European languages. Hard to explain, but you should put your tongue further back. Also it's should almost be pronounced "tiou". Same goes for words like "do" (tounge further back, and "diou").

* You have to make up your mind about how to say words like Afghanistan, am, thanksgiving, secretary. You're sometimes using the plain a sound without the diftong and sometimes (like when you said Afghanistan and can't) with the diftong. I say go for the diftong, but be consistent.

* Mountains and proud - try using the common diftong here as well by opening your mouth a little more (pruod vs praod). The diffenrence is so small it's barely audible, but I still hear it.

* Told and coast etc. - try saying it more towards "tould" and less like "tolld".

Saying things the way you do aren't "wrong" and most of the time they don't even sound like a foreign accent. But by following my advice you will be closer to the way the talk on TV. Also, in case you would slip/trip over words/use the wrong intonation for a short while, by sounding more like the average American and less "black", people will be less inclined to believe that you have an accent.
If you have any questions (some things were kind of hard to explain), just ask away!

Wow, that's some truly useful advice, Cassis!!

You're spot-on regarding the "t" sound, I pronounce it very close to my teeth. I tried moving the tongue farther back,like you said, and can already feel the difference. I could never understand why native speakers pronounced words like "told" and "toad" with such heavy aspiration and a U diphthong at the end, which I could never mimic. Now I understand that that's only possible when the tongue is further back.

OK, I'm not clear on where I used a diphthong in "can't" -- I just pronounced it straight, and also I thought "troops" was a pretty good U sound as in "blue."

But thanks again, at least one point I understand now

Your accent sounds like a combination of British and American General accents. The sounds that you use for the American r-coloured vowels are more like an Americans', that is to say that your accent is rhotic. (I know there exists rhotic accents in the UK, though.) Also your pronunciation of the words 'god' /gAd/, marked very North American, too.

However, words like military, secretary etc... are pronounced without secondary stresses. In General American, the -tar- part in these words receive secondary stress, and are pronounced with the vowel /E/, rather than a schwa.
Also words ending with the /i/ sound, like 'army' and 'navy' were pronounced more like /A@`mI/ and /neIvI/. In many American accents, this vowel at the end of words is pronounced with tense /i/, not lax /I/. The lax version is pretty common in England, though.

Overall, your accent, to me, does not sound very 'foreign' but rather as a combination of different native English accents. I suspect this is why people around you ask you where you are from.

One more thing, your intonation is very pleasant to listen to, and is a natural one. I wonder how you learned it so well.

I'm glad to hear you were helped by my advice!

To answer some of your questions:

>I'm not clear on where I used a diphthong in "can't"
Listen to how you said "can't" and "am" (I can't tell you how impressed I am) and compare it to how you said "commander" (thankful to be commander in chief). Do you hear the difference? In the former case it's more like "cean't" while in the latter it's more plain: "commannder".
Inconsistency is one of the ways to spot a foreign accent.

If you're going to say words like "toad" with the u-diphtong, you will have to do the same thing with words like "coast".

>I thought "troops" was a pretty good U sound as in "blue."
Ok, let's use another example. How do you say the word "room"? Room or ruom? I assure you the latter will make you sound more like a native speaker. But again, you have to be consistent.

Same thing with your T's - if you follow my advice on that one, you'll have to do the same thing with your D's. And then try saying "do" more like "diou".

>>>I'm not clear on where I used a diphthong in "can't"
Listen to how you said "can't" and "am" (I can't tell you how impressed I am) and compare it to how you said "commander" (thankful to be commander in chief). Do you hear the difference? In the former case it's more like "cean't" while in the latter it's more plain: "commannder".
Inconsistency is one of the ways to spot a foreign accent.<<

Mind you that not all English dialects are "consistent" in how they realize historical /{/. For starters, there are very many North American English dialects which realize /{/ as a centering or opening diphthong before nasals but as a monophthong in other cases. The dialect here is more complex in that regard, as it is an NCVS dialect, but the fate of historical /{/ is not really fixed, as it may be realized as a range of raising opening diphthongs ending in [{], as [E3_^], as [E_o] or [E], or even as just [{_r] depending on the overall degree of stress which it is given, the overall level of formality, and just who is speaking (and particularly how old they are).

That should be "rising opening diphthongs" above.