American Accent American Accent

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Salient Features ofAmerican Accent

The nasal twang The aerodynamic accent Elasticity Crystal clarity Wafer crispy The rolling R’s

The Nasal Twang

It sounds funny to produce a nasal twang.

This calls for a requisite pressure of air through your nostrils.

Words like neither, name, Maryland, America…

The Aerodynamic Accent

The cushion of air that props up a speech. Imparts sheer crispness and freshness

laced with clarity. The airborne words take their original

shape. It gives a special shape & volume to

words. Makes the speech more animated and

flamboyant.

Elasticity

Tongue acts like a string of rubber band and strums against the palate of mouth.

It sounds stretchable and frisky. The resilience never lets words lose

their original shape. Words get stretched to a breaking point

and yet sound smart with a comforted speed.

Crystal Clarity

It is a crystal clear accent… Gives an animated outlining to the

words… Use your Adam’s apple to produce a

comforted shrillness… It imparts a differentiated 3-D surround

quality to the speech. Makes it a predictably accurate accent.

Wafer Crispy

It imparts a special flavour to the speech.

Makes your speech sound wafer crispy.

You have to work upon the bass of your voice to develop such crispy clarity.

The Rolling R’s

Roll your tongue while pronouncing r’s Use your tongue like rubber and

harden the tip of the tongue by rolling it a bit.

Just stretch the first half of the word, and let go the other half by striking your tongue back against the palate.

To Top It All

Flex your Tongue muscles. Work on nasal twang with a buzzing nose. Use the bass voice to create a crispy

clarity. Strain your Adam’s apple to produce the

comforted shrillness. Stretch your tongue like rubber band and

strum it against the palate.

The End Result

You’ll feel at home with Americans.

Add to the quality of call and save silly repetition.

Helps you strike instant rapport.

There are some characteristic differences in the way Indians speak

English versus the American way

The way Indians speakPresence of harder sounds

Faster Speed – 220 words per minute

Weak word emphasis, intonation and pronunciation on English words and phrases. This could be due to faster rate of speech and there being no stress in languages here in India

Long sentences and words usedDifferences of syllable emphasis

The way Americans speak

American intonations – ‘T R O L I’ concept

American Reductions Speed – 140-160 words per

minute Shorter sentences and words Proper Intonation

Stages of Learning American Accent

Accent neutralization process

American accent adoption Continuous Learning

Process

Unvoiced & Voiced Consonant Sounds

Unvoiced (voiceless) - The vocal cords do not vibrate.

Voiced - The sound is made by vibrating the vocal cords (voice box). To test whether you are making the sound voiced, put your fingers on your voice box. With a voiced sound you should feel a vibration. All vowels are voiced.

Unvoiced VoicedP B T D K G S Z

Sh Zh F V

  V W   M N

Ch J Th (as in thanks) Th (as in the)   R   L

Vowel SoundsVowel Sounds

Vowel ShadesAA AAAw AeOh eeoo I

                                   Long                                     Short

                        â      as in father                      a     as in cup                        ê      as in they                         e     as in pet                        î       as in deep                         i     as in dip                        ô      as in clover                      o     as in pot                        û      as in fool                          u     as in put

Vowels

Diphthongsae        as in highau        as in howei         as in day

          eu        as in 'red-blue'oe        as in boy

    ui         as in gooey

How do I sound American?

There is an expression in America, “Go with the flow”. One really important thing is to relax when you are speaking American English. The more you try to pronounce every single word clearly, the harder it is for the average American to understand you.

The American T

The American T is influenced very strongly by intonation and its position in a word or

phrase.

1st Rule for T

T is T at the beginning of a word or in a stressed syllable.

Examples,Tina taxed Ted’s temper.Tom and Tasha were too tense to Tango in

Taiwan.Tell Tyler to take two turns this time.

1st Rule for T

Terry told Tim to take turns this time.Thirteen and fourteen and fifteen make forty

two.

2nd Rule for T

T is D in the middle of a word.ExamplesBetty bought a bit of better butter.The brittle metal snapped.Put a little water in it.Eddie was a little bitter.Betty put a sweater on.

2nd Rule for T

Let him wait a little bit.Go get a letter opener.The meeting was at one.

3rd rule for T

T is held at the end of a word.Examples:Take it. It’s hot.It’s what they wanted to get.Put them back in the pot.Set the clock back at the event.What did you find at the site?

4th Rule for T

T is held before N in -tain and –ten endings.Examples:We tried to shorten the class.Betty had written about the fountain of

youth.The sumo wrestlers had eaten well to fatten

up.

4th Rule for T

Whitney’s rotten kitten has bitten Martin.The mountain peak was invisible.

5th Rule for T

T is silent after N with lax vowels.Example:Don’t interrupt him.Why are you interfering in our matter.Is he going at the center?Where is the enter key?

Letter ‘R’ Emphasis

Situation Examples

1.Weak If R is in the beginning of the word

Problem, process

1.Medium If R is in the middle of the word

Charges, Charter

1.Strong If R is at the end of the word

Dollar, Car, Sir

O becomes A

GodContactBroadPolicyShopping

The American ou & ow

[ow] cow, bow, powder, chowder [ou] sound. Loud, louder, cloud

Letter ‘L’ Emphasis

Situation Examples

1. ‘Y’ gets added to ‘L’

Sale becomes Sa-yle Male, Gale

Hell becomes He-yle

Letter ‘I’ Emphasis Situation Examples

 I (ee) becomes ‘ai’Semi becomes ‘sem-ai’

Anti, Vitamin 

Letter ‘I’ Emphasis

The ‘ae’ sound

TransferChangePastLastCan’t

The ‘ae’ sound

Last Saturday, on the last day January, we planned a national travel package to Los Angeles.

Understanding Syllables

Try pronouncing these words

Great PaulaPut CopyCut GorgeousFlat ProblemRule PromoteMine ContentOak TravelHave Layout

Now try these words…Abdomen Energy HolidayBeautifulPromotionComputerMicrochipDeposit

Dictionary Definition

A unit of spoken language consisting of a single uninterrupted sound formed by a vowel, diphthong, or syllabic consonant alone, or by any of these sounds preceded, followed, or surrounded by one or more consonants.

Word Syllable Breakdown Number of syllables

dog dog 1

green green 1

quite quite 1

quiet qui-et 2

orange o-range 2

table ta-ble 2

expensive ex-pen-sive 3

interesting in-ter-est-ing 4

realistic re-a-lis-tic 4

unexceptional un-ex-cep-tio-nal 5

Stressed SyllableThe emphasis placed on the sound or syllable

spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase.

A one-syllable word is never divided.For ExampleboatgoodKneltCut

Syllable Rules1. To find the number of syllables:

---count the vowels in the word,

---subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent "e" at the end of a word or the second vowel when two vowels a together in a syllable)

---subtract one vowel from every dipthong, (diphthongs only count as one vowel sound.)

---the number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables.

VCCV Rule

When a word contains more than one vowel, it could follow the VCCV or vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel pattern.  Divide the word into syllables by drawing a dash between the two consonants. These are called Closed SyllablesClosed Syllables. 

Some examples

Nap-kin Pic-nic Doc-tor Den-tist Exam-ple For-mat En-ter In-sert

VCV Rule

When a word contains a vowel, consonant, and a vowel it will be divided based on the sound the first vowel makes.  If the first vowel is longlong, divide after that vowel.  These are called Open SyllablesOpen Syllables.

Some Examples

Ra-dar Ba-ker Ho-tel Pu-pils Coo-ler Ma-ker Mo-tel

If the first vowel is shortshort, divide after the consonant.

For Examples Cab-in Fif-ty Shiv-er Riv-er

Compound Words

Divide compound words between the two words which forms the compound word.

For ExampleHome-workFoot-ballDog-houseSoft-wareCar-poolRail-roadGate-way

When a word has an affix, it is divided between the root and the affix.

Re-run Soft-ness, Cry-ing Re-play Great-ness

Divide between two vowels when they are sounded separately.

[di et, cru el]

Vowels that are sounded alone form their own syllable.

[dis o bey, a live, u ni form]

When a word ends in l-e preceded by a consonant, divide before the consonant.

For ExampleTur-tleca-blethis-tleCas-tle

The logy rule

Bi-ol-ogy Psy-chol-ogy Phy-siol-ogy

The Graphy rule Photography Geography Lithography

The tion rule

Nation Dictation Completion Situation Modulation Communication Notation Systemization

The ity rule

Simplicity Electricity Complexity Formality Nationality Possibility