Spoken English
Monday, 9. February 2009, 17:58:20
The various accents with which the British,the Americans, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the South Africans, and the Canadians speak English are called the native accents of English.The accents of well-educated people are regarded as the standard accents and those of the uneducated as the nonstandard.The Educated South-eastern British, Educated Scottish,General American,Educated Canadian,Educated Australian,Educated New Zealander, and the South African are regarded as the standard native accents of English.
English has become an international language of business,tourism,and science and technology.It's also used as a second language for administration,higher education,inter-state communication in many countries.English and its accents in these countries get influenced by the various aspects:phonemes,grammar,and vacabulary of the vernacular languages in these countries.These accents are called non-native accents of English.There are many non-native accents of English such as German,Japanese,Russian,Hebrew,Indian,Hungarian etc.
The official language of the Union of India is Hindi and its subsidiary official language is English.English is an important language for the proceedings of the parliament and the supreme court of India.Majority of the courses for the higher studies in India are offered in English.That's why English is taught as a second or a third language in all the vernacular medium schools in India.Since English is taught only through texts and by the teachers who are not quite familiar with the native accents of English,English spoken in India generally tends to have the following phonological peculiarities:
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English sopken in India generally has syllable-timed rhythm,i.e.,all the syllables in sentences are accentuated or stressed.This is because all the vernacular languages in India have syllable-timed rhythm.Whereas,the native English accents have stress-timed rhythm,i.e.,in sentences only certain syllables in the content words (nonuns,main verbs,adjectives,adverbs etc.) are accented and the function words(pronouns,prepositions,auxiliary verbs,articles,conjunctions) are said quickly using their weak forms and contracted forms,in other words
they are not accented.The speaker tends to hop from one accented syllable to the other by quickly saying any number of unaccented syllables between them.
The accented syllables occur at equal intervals of time.To rephrase,the syllable-timed rhythm is 'laa laa laa laa',the stress-timed rhythm is 'la la laa la la laa la la laa'.See the accented syellables in bold in the sentences below for example:
1) He promised he'd accept the invitation.
2)Put the pot on the table.
3)The modified electric cars, store electricity and then give power back to the grid.
4) It's almost astonishing!
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Speakers of English in India generally stress all the syllables in polysyllabic English words.Whereas,in native English only one syllable-shown with ' mark before it in the dictionary- in a polysyllabic word is stressed.Every polysyllabic word in English has unique accentuation pattern,eg:
democrat democracy democratic
photograph photographer photographical
telephone telephony telephonic
Sometimes the word accentuation determines whether a word is a noun or an adjective or a verb,eg. accent(n) accent(v) present(n) present(v)
When the native speakers listen to spoken English,they listen concentrating on the accentuated syllables in words.All the native English accents might differ in the use of vowels and sometimes consonants,but it's important to note that they use the same word accentuation patterns.This helps a native English speaker easily understand the other native accents.The word accentuation patterns are as important to know as the spellings of words. - The consonant phonemes /p/ /t/ /k/ are not aspirated in spoken English in India.In native accents of English they are aspirated or said with a puff of breath,as /ph/ /th/ /kh /.If these phonemes are aspirated,it's easier to recognize the words such as: pin-bin,pit-bit,pill-bill,peach-beach tin-din,tip-dip,tale-dale cane-gain,curl-girl,come-gum,crew-grew etc.
- The consonant phoneme /r/ is a tap or trill in spoken English in India.It's pronounced wherever it occurs in the spellings of words,imagine someone pronouncing all the r's in the word performance.In native English /r/ is generally a post-alveolar frictionless continuant,and it's pronounced smoothly and only when it occurs before vowels,it's silent before consonants and word-finally.In English, words are not pronounced the way they are spelled,eg. the word tortoise is pronounced as totas, and the word performance is pronounced as pafomans.For more information on this topic please refer to this article and these links.
Computers and PDAs generally don't support phonetic symbols,so I haven't used them in this post.
Frankly speaking,languages are not the subjects to be taught only through texts.Learn as many languages as you want.Linguistically,the best way of learning the correct sound,rhythm and pronounciation of a language starts form listening to it first.We use languages mainly for communication so it's important to listen to the actual rhythm and pronunciation of the languages we learn.
If you think you have perfectly learnt a second language,if you will,you can share your language learning techniques as comments on this post. ![]()



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I_ArtMan # 10. February 2009, 03:56
i have a dictionary that my wife bought me for a birthday a few years ago. it's a book with a disc.
every word has a little sound symbol you can click on and get the word pronounced properly. it's very useful even for me with my vocabulary, mostly built from reading, because some of the words i use, i don't really know the proper pronunciation for. so that's cool.
oh, it's called the "american heritage dictionary". 4th edition with a thesaurus.
Chas4 # 10. February 2009, 05:49
KYren # 10. February 2009, 06:02
English vocabulary has more than 500,000 words,80% of them borrowed from other languages.English words are not pronounced the way they are written.So a dictionary is a must while learning english.
I hope this post will be helpful from the beginners to advanced learners of ESL,including me of course.You'd find in the references under this post,a link to an online dictionary wich shows meanings of words from at least 40 other online dictionaries,a lyrics library,an online ebooks library(I will read the books you've recommened),free audiobooks and multimedia lessons on English.
Btw,don't you think I write on super boring subjects?
Arnekrilu # 10. February 2009, 08:18
KYren # 10. February 2009, 08:28
In India,there are many native vernacular languages so there's no single accent of English here.And they don't have the same pronunciation and accentuation pattern.My south indian friends don't speak Hindi so only English is the common language between us.But sometimes I don't understand them coz their accent is different.A South Indian may pronounce the word example as yegzampal.A Bihari may pronounce the word school as sakool and a Punjabi might pronounce it as iskool.
That's why linguists in India suggest to adopt RP as the model to teach English in India.So that a Punjabi could easily understand a South Indian and vice versa.Plus RP has wide international intelligibility.
KYren # 10. February 2009, 09:08
ellinidata # 10. February 2009, 11:38
since my English is one of my second languages,
I do learn daily too.
Recently we did try a post with my friend Zaphira on vocabulary ,
the title of it is
"I love Words".
Of course we start something seriously and it turns to silly entries but there are some interesting words there to learn...
I am learning to appreciate English by the minute.
In the beginning I thought it is a boring language.
Comparing to it with some European languages it seemed to be.
Now I realize how many words I don't know
and how many I learn especially after reading literature more often.
I admire people with rich vocabulary.
Scott is one of them,
not to mention Melissa aka mjohnson
and Matthew aka noah counte.
Ed fascinates me as a wtiter more than as a vocabulaty user.
His imaginations is beyond imagination
and that makes the English read a treat.
Having a Greek/French accent makes me not to
try any compilated words in my daily use.
That will confuse my kids to tears
thanks for directing me her
KYren # 10. February 2009, 12:44
I wanted to ask you
what's the meaning of the word 'Meli'?
ellinidata # 10. February 2009, 14:59
there are people who live here for over 20 years and still don't speak the language.
That happens because in their jobs and family( the environment that they live) their native language is only spoken.
meli= honey (in Greek)
KYren # 10. February 2009, 17:06
how is the e in Meli pronounced? as i or e as in egg?
kalynka # 10. February 2009, 19:44
ellinidata # 10. February 2009, 20:00
KYren # 11. February 2009, 15:36
KYren # 11. February 2009, 15:49
Eggs become sweet when they're used for making desserts.
ellinidata # 11. February 2009, 16:18
night wolf # 15. February 2009, 13:11
bohot atcha Post man keep it "hogeya" <=== meaning comming
KYren # 15. February 2009, 13:19
ellinidata # 15. February 2009, 14:09
one can hear more American accent coming from you than from the Persians that live in the USA !
too much TV Prince
KYren # 15. February 2009, 14:40
night wolf # 15. February 2009, 20:05
bulls eye!
T.V /movies /American girl next door!/ Movies/Movies
I love the accent I even think in American! Even Speak to myself in American
ellinidata # 15. February 2009, 20:16
do you dream in American?
are the dreams in color?
night wolf # 16. February 2009, 12:21
and yes again
All the time
KYren # 16. February 2009, 12:44
night wolf # 16. February 2009, 12:45
KYren # 16. February 2009, 14:20
night wolf # 16. February 2009, 19:52
KYren # 16. February 2009, 20:28
night wolf # 16. February 2009, 20:36
still saving money to get a car or something
KYren # 16. February 2009, 21:20
Is the job related to your qualifications or it's just a temporary job which has nothing to do with your degree?
night wolf # 17. February 2009, 05:31
KYren # 17. February 2009, 08:19
night wolf # 17. February 2009, 08:52
KYren # 17. February 2009, 09:02
btw,don't you have ' mark in the computer? Why are you using this ` mark instead? It`s interesting.
night wolf # 17. February 2009, 09:21
KYren # 17. February 2009, 09:58
night wolf # 17. February 2009, 10:46
KYren # 17. February 2009, 11:14
night wolf # 17. February 2009, 19:00
KYren # 18. February 2009, 09:49
night wolf # 18. February 2009, 10:00
ShwetankD # 1. March 2009, 05:33
KYren # 1. March 2009, 05:53
ShwetankD # 1. March 2009, 06:18
KYren # 1. March 2009, 07:10
ShwetankD # 1. March 2009, 07:28
KYren # 1. March 2009, 07:44
ShwetankD # 1. March 2009, 07:55
ShwetankD # 1. March 2009, 08:00
KYren # 1. March 2009, 08:08
Arnekrilu # 2. March 2009, 07:58