what can i do to sound californian?

Hi people,

I'm an ESL student and I'm studying English phonetics to improve my pronunciation. Now I want to sound like californians (or any west coast accent) because I'm planning to stay there for some time. Is there any things that I have to be careful of when trying to speak with this accent?

There are some points I usually pay attention to;

1. merging /O/ and /A/
2. merging /ur/ with either /Or/ or /3`/
3. barely rounded /u/ and /o/
4. monophthongal /e/ and /o/

Is there any other points where General American differs from the Californian accent or any thoughts about the things mentioned above?

Thanks in advance.

<<There are some points I usually pay attention to;

1. merging /O/ and /A/
2. merging /ur/ with either /Or/ or /3`/
3. barely rounded /u/ and /o/
4. monophthongal /e/ and /o/

Is there any other points where General American differs from the Californian accent or any thoughts about the things mentioned above? >>

Looks like you already know some of the features! Also, for #3, /u/ is quite fronted as well as barely rounded. /o/ is mid-back (not usually as fronted as /u/ is)

About #4, one thing I've noticed in my speech (I'm Californian) and others here is that, as you mentioned, /e/ and /o/ are indeed monophthongal in closed position but may be slightly diphthongal in open position. Thus, "bait" and "boat" are always monophthongs as I say them, but "bay" and "low" may be either monophthongal or slightly diphthongal. This has also been applied to /u/, which I may produce as a diphthong in open position as well (generally its initial point is centralized or fronted...in between /@/ and /I/ and then followed by my fronted unrounded /u/).

Hmm..what else? Oh yeah--front vowels are commonly raised before velar nasal /N/. I have the same vowel in "bait" /bet/ and "bank" /beNk/, and a very similar vowel in "keen" /kin/ and "king" /kiN/, for example.

Also, you may notice some of the vowels have shifted around slightly or more dramatically (depends on the speaker and the circumstance) in position as compared to General American--this is the California Vowel Shift. I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point, but I'm just saying you may notice it in speakers.

Just curious--where are you from and where are you going to stay in California or do you not know yet?

Thanks Kirk for your comments.

I'm from Japan and I haven't decided where in California I'll be staying, in fact possibly I'll be staying with my relatives in Arizona. (I suppose they have a similar accent to Californians'.)

So for many speakers /o/ and /e/ can be either diphthongal or monophthongal depending on their positions in words. How about words like load or laid? I thought it might have something to do with pre-fortis clipping (where late has a shorter /e/ compared to laid)

I've also heard that many Californians say /melk/ for milk. Is there any other example of words that are pronounced differently in California?

Thanks in advance:)

You're right about that /mElk/ thing in Californian. Many Californians do pronounce ''milk'' that way.

<<Thanks Kirk for your comments.>>

Sure, no prob :)

<<I'm from Japan and I haven't decided where in California I'll be staying, in fact possibly I'll be staying with my relatives in Arizona. (I suppose they have a similar accent to Californians'.)>>

I have relatives in Arizona, too, and I haven't noticed any significant differences in between their speech and mine. Of course, Arizona is right next to California, so that has to do with it, but also Arizona as a reasonably populated state is a relatively new thing, and few people are actually Arizona natives, so there really hasn't been a lot of time for a distinct Arizonan accent to pop up as far as I'm aware. All my relatives that live there were at least originally from California or their parents were.

<<So for many speakers /o/ and /e/ can be either diphthongal or monophthongal depending on their positions in words. How about words like load or laid? I thought it might have something to do with pre-fortis clipping (where late has a shorter /e/ compared to laid)>>

Good question--I at least still seem to have monophthongs even in longer /e/ and /o/ before voiced stops. Those would be [lo:d] and [le:d] for me.

<<I've also heard that many Californians say /melk/ for milk. Is there any other example of words that are pronounced differently in California?

Thanks in advance:)>>

Well, you heard right! And, indeed, I do pronounce it /mElk/--> [mE5k].

I've thought about this phenomenon before and I can't find any other words where a similar change occurs. For example, I have [I5k] and [sI5k] for "ilk" and "silk," so it's not the "-ilk" part. It's also not the "mil-" part, as I have ["mI5jIn] and ["mIldM] for "million" and "mildew," respectively. Some dialects have [E5] for [I5] in most or all positions ("vanella" or "pellow" for "vanilla" and "pillow") but I don't appear to have that either. "Milk" seems to be one of those random words that for some reason has that pronunciation here.

Oops, that should be ["mI5dM] for "mildew" above.

Californian pronunciation is extremely similar to GAE and you need not take any special action to "sound Californian." People in the state come from all over and nobody will care how you sound as long as you don't have a _foreign_ (non-English) accent. And even a foreign accent isn't a big deal in California.

**nobody will care how you sound as long as you don't have a _foreign_ (non-English) accent. And even a foreign accent isn't a big deal in California. **

Unless I'm missing something, there seems to be some contradiction here. Please explain to a simple minded Scot....is a "foreign (non English) accent" in California a big deal or not? I would not be over the moon to go there one day and find myself persona non grata and given the big E as soon as I open my gob.

No...a foreign accent in California is perfectly acceptable. No worries. :)

Seeing as California has one of the highest rates of foreign-born people in the US, we're used to foreign accents (especially nonnative English accents), so it really is no big deal as long as you can communicate and understand well.

I just checked and according to wikipedia:

<<As of 2004 California had a population of 35,893,799. The state had 9,400,000 foreign-born residents (26.5% of the population)>>

This is a pretty high percentage. I assume it's either the highest or one of the highest percentages of foreign-born residents for states in the US. Needless to say, we're used to nonnatives and as I said before, you should have no problem if you understand and speak English at a competent level.

<<No...a foreign accent in California is perfectly acceptable. No worries. :) >>

...And you can even be elected governor! ;-)

<<...And you can even be elected governor! ;-)>>

Haha...exactly!

The only difference between a foreign accent and a non-foreign accent is that the former tells Californians that you probably weren't born locally, whereas the latter creates no such impression. A Scots accent might be perceived as foreign, if it is strong. However, foreign accents don't necessarily make a negative impression in California; they simply are noticed (whereas non-foreign accents are not noticed).

The same principle applies just about everywhere else, with only the perception of foreign accents (as good or bad, desirable or undesirable, etc.) changing.

At the same time, in terms of a nonnative language, I understand the desire to learn as many of the speech characteristics of the area you're planning on living in as you can, if for no other reason than just familiarizing yourself with how people in that particular area talk.

Before I lived in Argentina I familiarized myself with characteristics of Argentine Spanish so I was at least pretty familiar and comfortable with the speech norms there when I got there. Once I got there I also consciously and subconsciously changed my accent in Spanish in ways that imitated native Argentine Spanish speakers around me while I was there. While of course I realized I would never have a native accent in Spanish, I imitated Argentine Spanish the best I could and was happy with my results.
Argentines always understood what I was saying and I always understood them, so the ultimate goal of clear communication was accomplished.