Express Publishing ELT » Pronunciation

Rock ‘n’ roll best sung in American accents

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:22:25 +0000

The article below suggests that people naturally sing pop songs in an American accent, so how about trying this out in class? Getting the students to both sing recorded songs and their own compositions could help them with their pronunciation.

Singing with an American accent comes naturally and it not just a way to break into the US charts, a new study suggests.

Ever since the Sixties, some of the biggest names in British music have been accused of faking their style to become stars in the US. But a study has found that people lapse naturally into a stateside twang because it is actually easier to sing that way – and feels more natural. That is why it is difficult to detect Robert Plant’s West Bromwich roots in the hits of Led Zeppelin, or a London accent in the Rolling Stones or hear any trace of South Wales when husky-voiced Bonnie Tyler belts out a ballad.

According to researcher Andy Gibson, the American voice is easier to sing with and is so commonplace that it should be called the “pop music accent” instead. Mr Gibson, of the Auckland University of Technology, made the claim after tests on New Zealand singers. He found that despite speaking with distinct Kiwi accents, they would automatically sing the same words just like true Americans. This is because singing in a local accent would sound funny and because American rounding off of words makes it easier to sing them.

Mr Gibson said there were huge differences between the sung and the spoken pronunciation of the same words. Consider the difference between ‘I’ (spoken) and ‘ah’ (sung), ‘girl’, pronounced without the ‘r’ in speech and with the ‘r’ in singing, and ‘thought’ with rounded lips in speech versus ‘thart’ with unrounded lips in singing.

“Studies in the past have suggested that non-American singers wilfully put on American accents but my research suggests the opposite – that an American-influenced accent is the default when singing pop.”

Mr Gibson believed his findings also explain why so many of us end up sounding like cheesy rock stars when we sing our favourite songs in private. “We do it automatically; it doesn’t require any effort to sing with an American-influenced accent,” he said. “The American-influenced accent is automatic in the context of singing pop music, and it is used by people from all around the world. It actually requires effort to do something different. The American accent doesn’t stick out in singing because we are so used to hearing it. To sing in a New Zealand accent takes awareness and effort, and it is usually quite noticeable because it is so uncommon.

The American accent doesn’t stick out in singing because we are so used to hearing it.”

The accent people use in their singing is more about the style of music than about where they come from. “For example when we sing reggae we are more likely to use a Jamaican accent but even someone from Jamaica might use a southern American accent when they are singing country and western type songs,” Mr Gibson said.

To sum up… with American accent or not, let us all enjoy good music!

Shedule or skedule?

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:52:56 +0000

How should we pronounce “schedule”? How do you pronounce it – with a hard “k” or a soft “sh” sound? Well, in a study by the British Library, interim results suggest a third of Britons taking part now adopt the American-style “skedule” over the traditional British “sh” pronunciation. Other US pronunciations taking root, according to researchers, are “pay-triotic”, in place of “pat-riotic”, and “advertISEment”, instead of “adVERTisement”.

The research, which is ongoing, is part of a series of projects connected to the British Library’s Evolving English exhibition. It involves volunteers using the library’s website to submit a recording of themselves saying six prescribed words and stating where they are from.

Britons are also creating a new way of saying controversy which hasn’t traditionally been used in Britain or the US. Three quarters of Britons taking part say “conTROversy”, with the emphasis on the middle syllable, rather than the previously conventional “CONtroversy”.

Other words being studied are:

- “garage”, which Britons are more likely to pronounce as “garridge”, over the more French sounding “garaarge”, which is universal in the US.

- “attitude”, where there is no sign of the British adopting the US “attitood” over “atti-chewed”.

– “neither” – despite the impression given in the George Gershwin song “Let’s call the whole thing off”, there is no clear divide between Britons and Americans, with “nee-ther” and “ny-ther” used on both sides of the Atlantic.

– “scone” – which Americans all rhyme with “bone”, but which many British rhyme with “gone”.

Please Call Stella

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:29:13 +0000

Ask anyone you know from a different language background to say hello. It’s a pretty common word and used in variations in many languages. Can you tell where they’re from by their accent? As a native English speaker myself, I can tell if someone’s from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia or South Africa as soon as they speak a word or two. I can distinguish a German speaking English from a Greek; a Spaniard from a Swede.
Everyone who speaks a language speaks it with an accent. A particular accent essentially reflects a person’s linguistic background. When people listen to someone speak with a different accent from their own, they notice the difference, and they may even make certain biased social judgments about the speaker.

Try saying the following:

“Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.”

Phonetic Transcription:

This text can be heard recited 1,300 times at the online speech accent archive at George Mason University in Virginia – and every one is different. The passage was chosen because it contains most of the consonants, vowels and clusters of Standard American English. Their website says:

The speech accent archive is established to uniformly exhibit a large set of speech accents from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English all read the same English paragraph and are carefully recorded.1 The archive is constructed as a teaching tool and as a research tool. It is meant to be used by linguists as well as other people who simply wish to listen to and compare the accents of different English speakers.

This website allows users to compare the demographic and linguistic backgrounds of the speakers in order to determine which variables are key predictors of each accent. The speech accent archive demonstrates that accents are systematic rather than merely mistaken speech.

Check it out at http://accent.gmu.edu

Tongue Twisters

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:49:50 +0000

Here is an alphabetical selection for classroom fun. They also practice pronunciation as students try to get their tongues around the sounds. For best results of the single – liners, say each one 5 times in quick succession. Some of the seemingly simplest are the most difficult to repeat – try Greek grapes or Irish wristwatch!

Students can write their own, perhaps beginning each with a name.
E.g. Silly Sakis sings short songs

1. Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.

2. A big black bug bit a big black bear, made the big black bear bleed blood.

3. Betty Botter bought some butter,
     “But”, she said, “This butter’s bitter.
     If I bake this bitter butter,
     it will make my batter bitter.
     But a bit of better butter -
     That would make my batter better”.
     So she bought a bit of butter,
     better than her bitter butter,
     and she baked it in her batter,
     and the batter was not bitter.
     So ‘twas better Betty Botter
     bought a bit of better butter.

4. Black bugs blood.

5. Brad’s big black bath brush broke.

6. A cheap ship trip.

7. Comical economists.

8. The crow flew over the river with a lump of raw liver.

9. Ed had edited it.

10. Fat frogs flying past fast.

11. Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread.

12. Flash message!

13. Girl gargoyle, guy gargoyle.

14. Good blood, bad blood.

15. Greek grapes.

16. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
     if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
     He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
     and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would
     if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

17. I can think of six thin things and of six thick things too.

18. If one doctor doctors another doctor, does the doctor who doctors the doctor doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does he doctor the doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?

19. If Stu chews shoes, should Stu choose the shoes he chews?

20. I’m not the pheasant plucker,
     I’m the pheasant plucker’s mate.
     I’m only plucking pheasants
     ‘Cause the pheasant plucker’s late.

21. Irish wristwatch.

22. I saw Esau kissing Kate. I saw Esau, he saw me, and she saw I saw Esau.

23. I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit.

24. Knapsack straps.

25. The Leith police dismisseth us.

26. Listen to the local yokel yodel.

27. Mixed biscuits.

28. Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely.

29. One-One was a racehorse;
     Two-Two was one, too.
      When One-One won one race one day,
     Two-Two won one, too.

30. On mules we find two legs behind
      and two we find before.
     We stand behind before we find
      what those behind be for.

31. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
     Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
     If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
     where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

32. Please pay promptly.

33. Preshrunk silk shirts.

34. A proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot.

35. Quick kiss. Quicker kiss.

36. Red leather, yellow leather.

37. Red lorry, yellow lorry.

38. Selfish shellfish.

39. She sells seashells on the seashore.
The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure.

40. She stood on the balcony inexplicably mimicking him hiccupping, and amicably welcoming him home.

41. Sinful Caesar sipped his snifter, seized his knees, and sneezed.

42. The sinking steamer sank.

43. Six short slow shepherds.

44. Susan shineth shoes and socks;
     Socks and shoes shines Susan.
     She ceases shining shoes and socks,
     for shoes and socks shock Susan.

45. Swan swam over the sea.
      Swim, swan, swim!
      Swan swam back again.
      Well swum, swan!

46. Thieves seize skis.

47. Tim, the thin twin tinsmith.

48. Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat.

49. Unique New York.

50. Which witch wished which wicked wish?

51. Zany zippy zappy zebras