2. Salient Features of
American Accent
The nasal twang
The aerodynamic accent
Elasticity
Crystal clarity
Wafer crispy
The rolling R’s
3. 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…
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. There are some characteristic
differences in the way Indians
speak English versus the American
way
12. The way Indians speak
Presence 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 used
Differences of syllable emphasis
13. 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
14. Stages of Learning American Accent
Accent neutralization process
American accent adoption
Continuous Learning Process
15. 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.
16. Unvoiced Voiced
P 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
19. 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
20. Diphthongs
ae as in high
au as in how
ei as in day
eu as in 'red-blue'
oe as in boy
ui as in gooey
21. 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.
22. The American T
The American T is influenced very strongly
by intonation and its position in a word or
phrase.
23. 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.
24. 1st Rule for T
Terry told Tim to take turns this time.
Thirteen and fourteen and fifteen make forty
two.
25. 2nd
Rule for T
T is D in the middle of a word.
Examples
Betty 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.
26. 2nd
Rule for T
Let him wait a little bit.
Go get a letter opener.
The meeting was at one.
27. 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?
28. 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.
30. 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?
31. 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
39. Try pronouncing these words
Great Paula
Put Copy
Cut Gorgeous
Flat Problem
Rule Promote
Mine Content
Oak Travel
Have Layout
40. Now try these words…
Abdomen
Energy
Holiday
Beautiful
Promotion
Computer
Microchip
Deposit
41. 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.
42. 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
44. A one-syllable word is never divided.
For Example
boat
good
Knelt
Cut
45. Syllable Rules
1. 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.
46. 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.
48. 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.
50. If the first vowel is shortshort, divide after the
consonant.
For Examples
Cab-in
Fif-ty
Shiv-er
Riv-er
51. Compound Words
Divide compound words between the two words
which forms the compound word.
For Example
Home-work
Foot-ball
Dog-house
Soft-ware
Car-pool
Rail-road
Gate-way
52. 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
53. Divide between two vowels when they are
sounded separately.
[di et, cru el]
54. Vowels that are sounded alone form their
own syllable.
[dis o bey, a live, u ni form]
55. When a word ends in l-e preceded by a
consonant, divide before the consonant.
For Example
Tur-tle
ca-ble
this-tle
Cas-tle
The number of syllables that you hear when you pronounce a word is the same as the number of vowels sounds heard. For example: The word "came" has 2 vowels, but the "e" is silent, leaving one vowel sound and one syllable. The word "outside" has 4 vowels, but the "e" is silent and the "ou" is a diphthong which counts as only one sound, so this word has only two vowels sounds and therefore, two syllables.
