Questions tagged [accent]
An accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.
92 questions
-1
votes
1
answer
129
views
Was Katherine Hepburn's accent consistently, totally non-rhotic?
According to the data of Nancy Elliot's dissertation on rhoticity in American film actors' speech, Katherine Hepburn was totally non-rhotic speaker, but I found only two r-coloured sounds in her ...
1
vote
3
answers
126
views
Is this interview approach a good methodology for dialect fieldwork? [closed]
How do I design a language survey of a local dialect?
Intro
I’m a rising high school senior who has been very interested in linguistics for the past few years.
I live in a mid-size U.S. city known for ...
- 21
3
votes
2
answers
157
views
History and Reason of Portuguese accentuation marks
What is the background of having rules for marking the accentuated syllables in Portuguese? For example the word "tecnológica" is a proparoxytone, and all of these words must have a graphic ...
1
vote
0
answers
67
views
Determining with remarkable accuracy birthplace of an American based on his pronunciation of a few words -- still possible?
Probably 40 or more years ago, I saw a professor of perhaps linguistic pick random members of a live tv audience, ask them to pronounce just a few words in English and I believe each time, guess the ...
- 555
2
votes
1
answer
157
views
Where is the father vowel found in English?
I was just wondering what words have the father vowel /ɑː/ in accents without the father-bother merger or the trap-bath split. My own accent (Australian English) has the trap-bath split so I can't ...
- 21
16
votes
8
answers
6k
views
Native English speakers: worse understanding of other accents?
In this video, Lily Tomlin (an American) doesn't really understand what Kevin Bridges is saying at all with his Scottish accent. She also says she doesn't fully understand what Chris Hemswoth (an ...
- 300
4
votes
1
answer
746
views
AmE feature related to American multiculturalism?
I speak with a (General) American accent. Native non-American English speakers sometimes tell me that "you pronounce every single syllable in every word." I've also stumbled upon very ...
- 300
0
votes
1
answer
72
views
Does IPA characterize every discernable accent?
Can the IPA, or any other formal linguistic system, fully characterize every accent discernable by language speakers? By "accent" I mean regional variations in pronunciation – for example, ...
- 191
2
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Why do people with a British accent make an "r" sound at the end of words ending in an "ah" sound
I'm American so I've seen this in so many movies and just wondering, what's up with that?
Example: We will not need those blankets in Russia-r.
- 137
1
vote
1
answer
251
views
Accents of Sung Language vs. those of Spoken Language
I'm a GenAmE speaker, but I've noticed that many BrE-speaking singers seem to sing in an accent that is almost indistinguishable from my own. I first noticed it with Ed Sheeran, who I didn't even know ...
- 121
0
votes
1
answer
538
views
What are unaccented letters called?
Does anyone know the technical name for letters without accents glyphs etc? Like what's the opposite of diacritic? Grapheme? Thanks for your advice.
amoré
é vs e
- 101
0
votes
1
answer
68
views
Adding Sounds and Slowing Pronunciation for "Proper Speech"
I routinely hear a relative add syllables to words to sound more "correct." "menu" becomes "men-a-you." "Daily" becomes "day-uh-lee." It seems to be ...
1
vote
0
answers
72
views
Is the Irish English accent derived from the phonetics of the Irish language?
Did Hiberno-English originate as native Irish speakers speaking English from Scotland and England with their native accent, or is it derived from Scots phonetics after the Scots were settled in Ulster?...
- 61
0
votes
1
answer
3k
views
What is an example of a speech repertoire?
From what I read, a speech repertoire is defined as a set of varieties controlled and used by an individual, including varieties associated with their region and social class but also with the ...
15
votes
2
answers
844
views
Why does Polish have male and female accents?
This is particularly interesting to me as I can't seem to find any information on the topic, but, having listened to numerous Polish speakers from both sexes, the male─female pronounciational split is ...
- 316
9
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Did Eureka lose its H?
Archimedes famously proclaimed Eureka, I have found it, but should the word itself proclaim I have lost my H?
According to wiktionary and wikipedia, Eureka simply comes from the greek εὕρηκα, perfect ...
- 193
1
vote
1
answer
162
views
What are the official names of the various accents in the United States?
What I'm meaning to ask is: What are the technical names for things like the Southern Accent, California accent (or Western, if that's what it is), etc.?
I assume that regional accent differences have ...
- 19
2
votes
2
answers
541
views
Guttural pronunciation of {h} in American English
I'm not a native speaker. I've noticed that some Americans pronounce {h} as a guttural sound sometimes. Is this a documented feature of American English?
Examples:
https://youtu.be/j2I9LpDF708?t=7 (...
- 23
3
votes
1
answer
528
views
What is the difference between an accent and mispronunciation?
I listened this morning to a radio discussion about accents (French radio France Inter, Doit-on avoir honte de notre accent ?). It was about accents from various regions in France (and abroad) and how ...
- 189
39
votes
5
answers
8k
views
Why is there (almost) no variety to the Hebrew accent in Israel?
Hebrew is my native language, and I grew up and spent most of my life in Israel.
Unlike English, in Hebrew we don't have a variety of accents. In fact, generally all of the people in Israel have the ...
1
vote
0
answers
67
views
Are sound fronting and raising more common in evolution than their opposites?
Fronting: Back -> Central -> Front
Raising: Open -> Open-mid -> Close-mid -> Close
In Great Vowel Shift, it seems that almost every vowel was replaced by a further or higher vowel (or their ...
- 279
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
Why is the diphthong in 'say' and 'fate' /eɪ/ rather than /ɛi/?
When I say the word 'day,' I say /dɛi/, or perhaps /dɛj/. However, when I look at any dictionary that uses IPA, they always write the diphthong as /eɪ/. Why is this? Maybe my dialect of English (UK ...
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
117
views
Do stressed (in e.g. English) or pitched (in e.g. Japanese) phones contribute to different phonemes?
In proper tonal languages such as cantonese or mandarin, the phones a phoneme comprises of share the same tone. In other words, mā (in pinyin) and má are clearly different phonemes.
If I were to look ...
- 111
3
votes
1
answer
78
views
Looking for Spanish varieties/accents
This might not be the right place to ask this, and if so, I apologize. I'm a student conducting research on Spanish varieties and I am wondering if anyone knows where I could find short texts read by ...
6
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How do accents of a whole town drift?
I've heard it said that accents of towns drift over time. I find this hard to comprehend as how could an accent of a whole town change?
I think it is established that we mainly pick up our accent ...
- 653
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Why did Canadian English remain so close to standard U.S English?
TV Stereotypes about exaggerated Canadian accents not withstanding, to me Canadian English sounds identical to standard U.S English. I can't tell English speaking Canadians from Americans with ...
- 523
1
vote
1
answer
704
views
Is there a difference between foreign and native accents?
As the title says, are there any linguistic differences between accents acquired from birth/childhood and accents ued by adult language learners who speak the language fluently, but still with a ...
- 119
-1
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Why are two versions of a word written in the same IPA pronounced differently?
My question is to be applied on any language; why do I find for instance two versions of the same word written in the same IPA symbols pronounced differently, in case of different accents for example. ...
- 39
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What type of stress does French have
So I know that there are on the one hand pitch-accent languages (like South-Slavic languages, Greek, Norwegian, etc.) where the accentuated syllable is indicated by a particular pitch contour/tone ...
- 939
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Is there a General European English Accent?
I have noticed my former trainer from Estonia, fellow students from Poland and Italy, even Khabib from UFC who comes from Dagestan speak with this accent.
Here is a video of khabib from remote ...
4
votes
1
answer
693
views
Which dialect/accent of English has the most/least sounds?
My accent is from New York City, yet I wonder which area has the most or least sounds in their phonemic inventory. While one may have the most vowels and another the most consonants, I would like to ...
- 189
1
vote
1
answer
463
views
proper terms for tipper and dipper S articulation
I just learned for the first time from a WIRED video about movie accents (at 4:30) that American English has multiple possible places of articulation for the "S" sound. I was able to find terms for ...
- 591
0
votes
1
answer
364
views
Phonetic mapping between English accents
Does anyone know if there is a resource which lists the mappings between phonemes in different English accents? e.g. a given phoneme in RP maps to this phoneme in Liverpool, that phoneme in Newcastle, ...
- 103
3
votes
0
answers
140
views
Do North and South Korean accents in Mandarin differ significantly?
I was watching a documentary about North Korean escapees living in China. It mentioned that some of these escapees were worried that their "North Korean" accent when speaking Mandarin would give them ...
- 367
0
votes
2
answers
530
views
How to remove an accent from a language (and what an accent actually is)
Wondering if there is such thing as a language without an accent. This is probably naïve, but to me as an English speaker it feels like I can tell when someone has an accent or not, myself included. ...
- 4,438
0
votes
1
answer
362
views
The reason some languages write down the accents while others don't
This may be a difficult question to answer but I'm curious as to the reason for this.
The word película in Spanish is pe-LEE-cu-la. It has an accent to mark how to say the word.
The word peninsula ...
- 4,438
8
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Why is the English phoneme /θ/ pronounced like /t/ in Indian accents but /s/ in Chinese accents?
The dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/; spelled with th) often present a challenge to non-native learners of English. Depending on the speaker's native language, different phonemes may be substituted. In ...
- 183
1
vote
1
answer
161
views
Correct to say that accent defines the mapping between phones and phonemes?
I'm trying to become acquainted with the language (hah) of linguistics (specifically speech perception, from the perspective of auditory signal processing), so that I can write and converse about the ...
- 111
1
vote
2
answers
129
views
What is the pronunciation of English word "feeling" in General American accent? The normal sound [ˈfilɪŋ] or add the "l" sound, [ˈfiɫ lɪŋ]?
What is the pronunciation of English word feeling in General American accent? The normal sound [ˈfilɪŋ] or double the "l" sound, [ˈfiɫ lɪŋ] ?
- 121
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Do natively bilingual people have accents in one or both of their languages?
Do people who grew up speaking multiple languages typically have a discernible foreign accent in one or more of their primary languages?
Also do they tend to make the kinds of mistakes that non-...
- 1,140
3
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why do Americans and Canadians pronounce "t" with flap [ɾ] in unstressed syllables in English?
Most Americans and Canadians pronounce "t" with flap [ɾ] in unstressed syllables. Why?
- 121
3
votes
1
answer
733
views
Phonetically annotated speech corpus
Are there any phonetically annotated corpora of accented English speech?
Preferably English spoken by native English speakers with a strong accents, such as speakers from a specific region in the UK ...
- 31
0
votes
2
answers
167
views
Is plumminess pharyngealization? Plus: Deaffrication
You’ve all heard the phrase “plummy accent” and many variants of it.
I’ve been trying to find out how can this be called or described in more scientific and phonetic terms. So I bumped onto John ...
- 21
3
votes
0
answers
87
views
Is accent prejudice well-established in film/television hubs other than Hollywood?
In US films and television, characters with a British accent are typically smart. Characters with a deep south accent are typically foolish or uneducated. And characters with a Scottish accent are ...
- 291
5
votes
2
answers
317
views
Conflation of language dialects and phonology
The main idea behind this questions is that I have some difficulty to accept that a certain language can be a dialect of another one by simply basing that argument on the similarity of the vocabulary ...
- 152
1
vote
0
answers
85
views
Is it possible to not only lose/gain an accent, but also lose some fluency in native language? [duplicate]
Pardon the awkward phrasing in the title, but I am essentially wondering about the following scenario.
A person, Alice, grows up bilingual, speaking languages A and B. She lives in a country C in ...
- 141
1
vote
0
answers
58
views
Can regional variations of a language cause the formant space to be reduced?
I'm doing research on speech, but I'm not a linguist. Hopefully it won't be a silly question.
I have been reading a little on regional variations of formants, because in my research we use formant ...
- 43
3
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Why do speakers of certain East Asian languages chop off the end of English words?
I've noticed that often, when speaking in English with native speakers of certain East Asian languages, they tend to skip consonants at the ends of words. I'm wary of providing examples out of a ...
9
votes
3
answers
336
views
Is it possible for an adult to learn a language without carrying a foreign accent?
As an adult, I'm working on learning French, coming from a background growing up speaking a few languages natively. According to French friends of mine I practice with, I have a "good" accent, but I'...
0
votes
0
answers
2k
views
How to differentiate an East Anglian accent from a West Country accent?
I want to understand the East Anglian accents better (Norfolk, Suffolk etc) but can't seem to differentiate it from a West country accent (Devon Somerset, Cornwall) properly.
What linguistics ...
- 211