Non-native Accents of English - Part III
As we know, English is 'the' global language of communication nowadays, spoken by 1.9 billion people worldwide of which some 350 million are native speakers. Therefore, most speakers of English are non-native, with varying degrees of linguistic competence. Accordingly, the influence of native accents on English will be an important factor in understanding and communication, as most people retain traces of their native accent when speaking a foreign language. For example, most of your classmates show a clear influence of Spanish or Catalan in their English accents.
Many of you will have had problems trying to understand people speaking English with heavy foreign accents (especially on the phone!). Being familiar with the main non-native accents of English will help you in this respect. Sometimes you will also be able to detect accents and therefore origins of people!
Enjoy the last chapter of the series "World Tour of British Accents" and Mr. Seanie's rendition of world accents.
NB: If you want to go more scientific or systematic, this is the link for you, with more than 700 samples from all over the world! Speech Accent Archive
Many of you will have had problems trying to understand people speaking English with heavy foreign accents (especially on the phone!). Being familiar with the main non-native accents of English will help you in this respect. Sometimes you will also be able to detect accents and therefore origins of people!
Enjoy the last chapter of the series "World Tour of British Accents" and Mr. Seanie's rendition of world accents.
NB: If you want to go more scientific or systematic, this is the link for you, with more than 700 samples from all over the world! Speech Accent Archive
2 comments:
I've heard the "non-native accents" and in my opinion, they speak as if they were speaking their own languages, their intonation is more noticeable and more real than their pronunciation. It's only an opinion but, the people from the South East of Asia for example, don't speak English like that, but if you year them speaking their own language, it sounds like that, their intonation is like that.
Did I manage to explain myself?
Ferran, you'll see how the Swedish speak english. Although they have a pronounced singing intonation in swedish, they don't sing when speaking english.
Bye, have a good day.
Susana
Hi Susana!
your explanation is perfectly clear. Well, imitation often entails exaggeration, therefore some of the accents are clearly exaggerated. But as you know, reality often surpasses fiction. Haven't you met Germans who speak English like Mr. Seanie? I know quite a few!
Actually most Swedes I've met speak very good English and don't sing, as you say. But I met old Norwegian people in Minnesota (USA) who really sing when speaking English, maybe it's similar in Sweden.
Good day to you too!
Ferran
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