Accent Reduction

Peter - our friend from Poland, says:

***The problem here was not about people asking where I was from, but rather, whether I was Russian or not. Whenever this question comes up Im always irritated since I have nothing to do with Russia...***

I don't think that Peter needs to get too wound up about this one. He's in good company - although we British people speak roughly a similar Language to the Canadians and the Americans, apparently our fellow countrywo/men frequently get asked where they come from while they are over there, and sometimes complimented on their very good standard of spoken English! Censorship prohibits me from relating some of the more colourful responses the Brits so characteristically give to this question, but the most common is something on the lines of "Well, not bad considering we invented the (bleep) Language in the first place!" :-)

As for the "coming from Russia" thingy, it's not uncommon for Brits to be asked (in the USA especially - not so much Canada, apparently) if they come from Australia or South Africa - these two countries seem to be singled out the most for some reason. The conclusion to this one must be that if the Brits don't speak like The Queen or Hugh Grant or Keira Knightley then they must be Aussies or Springboks!

Like with you, irritation levels must get pretty high if it's an on going thing - normally it would be quite funny at first, but after a while I would imagine it can get (bleep) tiresome!

Did you know that some Brits in the USA carry lapel badges (or sport a tee shirt) with the logo: "No, I am NOT from Oz"! :-)

From a distance I think it's very funny, but I can, on reflection, feel your pain! My advice is to try and acquire as much of the local accent as it's possible for you to do so, then assimilation will go a long way to solve your problem!

Ten years from now people will think you've lived in downtown Toronto all your life!

Travis,

Your speech sample was fascinating. No kidding.

You DO have an unusual accent, Trav! The only thing I've heard that reminded me of it was the actress who played Vincent D'Onofrio's wife in Men In Black (I think she was also in Dancer In The Dark with Bjork). She dropped whole sounds like you do -- your version of computer ("compure") reminded me of how she said Edgar ("Egger").

>>You DO have an unusual accent, Trav! The only thing I've heard that reminded me of it was the actress who played Vincent D'Onofrio's wife in Men In Black (I think she was also in Dancer In The Dark with Bjork). She dropped whole sounds like you do -- your version of computer ("compure") reminded me of how she said Edgar ("Egger").<<

Heh - I would actually say "Edgar" like, as [ˈɜ̟ːgːʁ̩ː] specifically. Note that I would not really read "egger" that way, though - as I would actually pronounce that from reading it as [ˈɜ̟ːgʁ̩ː] not [ˈɜ̟ːgːʁ̩ː].

Note, though, that I don't really exactly say "compure" for "computer", as that'd actually be [kʰə̃mˈpʰjuːʁ̩ː] - what I actually say is generally either [kʰə̃mˈpʰjuʁ̩ː] or [kʰə̃ːmˈpʰjuːʁ] (yes the distinction there really does matter, and I can easily hear it myself). The matter is that I can actually hear a lot of the "dropped" sounds in my speech, because they have left traces of their presence in things like vowel length and nasalization, consonant length and palatalization, and proglottalization or the lack thereof. However, many of these phonetic cues are likely not really easily perceived by many English-speakers, and are probably even more likely to be missed by non-native speakers of English, especially those not really familiar with actual northern NAE dialects.

>>Note, though, that I don't really exactly say "compure" for "computer", as that'd actually be [kʰə̃mˈpʰjuːʁ̩ː] - what I actually say is generally either [kʰə̃mˈpʰjuʁ̩ː] or [kʰə̃ːmˈpʰjuːʁ] (yes the distinction there really does matter, and I can easily hear it myself). The matter is that I can actually hear a lot of the "dropped" sounds in my speech, because they have left traces of their presence in things like vowel length and nasalization, consonant length and palatalization, and proglottalization or the lack thereof. However, many of these phonetic cues are likely not really easily perceived by many English-speakers, and are probably even more likely to be missed by non-native speakers of English, especially those not really familiar with actual northern NAE dialects.<<

Ignore the first part of my comment - I sort of got confused for a moment, as for some reason I was thinking "compuer" /kəmˈpjuər/, which would be [kʰə̃mˈpʰjuːʁ̩ː], rather than "compure" /kəmˈpjur/, which, yes, I often do pronounce "computer" like as [kʰə̃mˈpʰjuːʁ].

Travis: It's SO very rhotic! Nobody in this country could EVER be in doubt as to where you come from. But as to which particular part of the USA..........not a clue, none at all. For most of us here you all sound the same. Uness of course it's from the Deep South....

I've just got curious and recorded something. Where may I put my mp3 files?

One easy place to put them so that they are publicly accessible is:

http://putfile.com/

which is where one of my two samples mentioned earlier is hosted.

>>Travis: It's SO very rhotic! Nobody in this country could EVER be in doubt as to where you come from. But as to which particular part of the USA..........not a clue, none at all. For most of us here you all sound the same. Uness of course it's from the Deep South....<<

You guys probably do not hear many people from areas like northern Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, North Dakota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan over there, do ya? Heh. (People from that area *definitely* do not sound like your average generic American...)

<<As for the "coming from Russia" thingy, it's not uncommon for Brits to be asked (in the USA especially - not so much Canada, apparently) if they come from Australia or South Africa - these two countries seem to be singled out the most for some reason. The conclusion to this one must be that if the Brits don't speak like The Queen or Hugh Grant or Keira Knightley then they must be Aussies or Springboks! >>

It's our media, Damian.

Much of what we know about ANYTHING is based on what somebody else tells us. Since the media is the strongest input of information, we base our ideas about the UK on what we see. (The media, for example, shows no hint on the extent of how international London is.)

There seems to be no middle ground--it's either the Queen's English, or Cockney. Admittedly, this is beginning to change; BBCAmerica is helping.

(This is true in reverse, too; most UKers base their opinions on Americans on what they either see in the media or hear about from somebody else. Never mind that the US is a vast country, and difficult to generalize. Wisconsin has a much different culture than Nevada--and much different, still, than the South-- but I digress.)

I take your word for that, Travis! Like YOU don't hear many people from Cowdenbeath or Kirkcaldy...or anyone from the Kingdom of Fife generally. Think yourself lucky on that score! Ha! ..... Only joking, you guys from over the Firth! Our British Prime Minister comes from Kirkcaldy :-)

It's pronounced "KURR-coddy" btw.....don't forget to roll the R good and proper! Very important if you want to go "native".

<<You guys probably do not hear many people from areas like northern Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, North Dakota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan over there, do ya? Heh. (People from that area *definitely* do not sound like your average generic American...)>>

Isn't THAT the truth?

Oddly enough, people from those areas don't THINK they have an accent. (We discussed this before, didn't we?)

>>(This is true in reverse, too; most UKers base their opinions on Americans on what they either see in the media or hear about from somebody else. Never mind that the US is a vast country, and difficult to generalize. Wisconsin has a much different culture than Nevada--and much different, still, than the South-- but I digress.)<<

Furthermore, the culture in much of the Upper Midwest in many ways does not really fit in with what the general perception of "Middle America" even in the US itself, much the less outside the US. Wisconsin to even much of the US is a relatively unnotably innocuous place, largely rural and agricultural outside the Milwaukee and Madison areas, with little really notable culture of its own which is primarily a common place to set sitcoms (which generally have little relation to the actual Wisconsin aside from the occasional reference to something here or which was here at one time or to something *stereotypically* associated with Wisconsin)...

>>It's pronounced "KURR-coddy" btw.....don't forget to roll the R good and proper! Very important if you want to go "native".<<

I probably would be inclined to just have an approximant or, if I were really emphasizing it, fricative for the /r/ and to elide the /d/, making that [ˈkʰʁ̩kaːːi̯] - heh. Not really native, but I assume it would be sufficiently rhotic at least.

>>Isn't THAT the truth?<<

Yeah; we do not really even hear that many of those people down in southeastern Wisconsin, even though I did have some coworkers at a previous job of mine who were from northern Wisconsin, and they definitely did sound it...

>>Oddly enough, people from those areas don't THINK they have an accent. (We discussed this before, didn't we?)<<

That is likely so, but such probably does not hold exactly true either. People here in southeastern Wisconsin often have a vague awareness that we don't speak like most other Americans, and can normally tell the difference between people from here and other Americans in media content, but they still intuitively do not think of themselves as having an "accent", unlike, say, many Southerners. Also, there is almost a stereotype of how people in the far north of the Upper Midwest speak even here in southeastern Wisconsin, with there being a common perception even here in southeastern Wisconsin of people from "Up North" being heavily accented (while in turn we in southeastern Wisconsin apparently likewise sound weird to people to our south in the Chicago area).

Thanks for your interesting input, Jasper.

Now please tell your media to sort themselves out a wee bit! :-)

Not including BBC America - going by what you have told us over here that is -I'm perfectly willing to believe what you say about their naturally more realistic coverage of UK affairs - or indeed, the affairs of any country outside of the borders of the United States! :-) The simple fact, though, is that a large % of Americans don't really give a toss about those, do they? :-)

Don't worry - we have our share of numbnut muppets, too. Like the (in)famous "lady" from South London, who shall remain nameless, and who has made her name simply from being totally ignorant and gross (the media again!) and her millions from a perfumery business (which rapidly, and deservedly, went down the pan following her vile and racist behaviour against a really beautiful and graceful Asian girl in a reality TV program in 2006, happily admitted that she thought "East Angular" (she meant East Anglia, a region in eastern England) was "somewhere abroad - like Japan...."

Weekend here again - hae a guid one!

*The problem here was not about people asking where I was from, but rather, whether I was Russian or not. Whenever this question comes up Im always irritated since I have nothing to do with Russia...*
Would you be pleased or less irritated if they were constantly asking "Are you from Poland/ France/Sweden?"

Come on, take it easy. If your English is comprehensible, does it matter what kind of accent you've got? In the end, it's your personal qualities that form people's attitude to you and let you succeed.
Mr.B's excellent Eton English doesn't make him any more attractive or respected.

I do agree, though, that one should try to reduce his/her accent when speaking a foreign language.