# Non-native English pronunciation



## Dymn

Today I wonder which are the main traits of your accent when speaking English, if it isn't your native language. I guess that your English level is higher than the average in your country, so think about the English accent that you've heard in your class, in TV, etc.

By the way, I didn't know if I should put this thread here in 'All languages' or in 'Only English'. Moderators will decide.

Catalan accent (influenced by Spanish):

Confusion between /b/ and /v/. They are both pronounced [β] in intervocalic position and ["b"] elsewhere.
Confusion between /d/ and /ð/. They are both pronounced [ð] in intervocalic position and [d] elsewhere.
/x/ instead of /h/. Catalan lacks both sounds, but Spanish has /x/.
Use of the trill [r] (or flap [ɾ] after consonant) instead of the approximant [ɹ].
/a/ instead of /ɑː/, /ʌ/ (when spellt _u_) and /æ/: _cat-cut_
/i/ instead of /ɪ/ and /iː/: the famous _beach-bitch_
/ɔ/ instead of /ɔː/, /ɒ/ and /ʌ/ (when spellt _o_): _cot-caught_
/u/ instead of /ʊ/ and /uː/: _full-fool_
Addition of an epenthetic /ə/ before initial s+consonant clusters if they succeed a consonant: _I live in Espain._
Final devoicing: /lɔf/ instead of /lʌv/ (_love_), /diˈzis/ instead of /dɪˈziːz/ (_disease_), /bak/ instead of /bæg/ (_bag_), /kowt/ instead of /koʊd/ (_code_), etc.
Simplification of some final clusters. The second consonant is omitted: -lt, -nt, -ld, -nd, -mp, -mb, -st, etc.


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## Nino83

There is a very good book of Luciano Canepari, _English pronunciation & accents_ where a lot of native and foreign accents are transcribed

Italian accent:
- pronunciation of /ð/ and /θ/ like [d] and [f]: _I think that_ [ai̯ fiŋk dɛt]; [ɑɪ̯ θɪŋk̚ ðætʰ]
- /h/ is not pronounced: _his home_ [is ɔm]/[iz ˈɔm]; [hɪz ˈhoʊ̯m]
- no vowel reduction: _about_ [aˈbau̯t]; [əˈbæʊ̯t] _little_ [ˈlittol] [ˈlɪtɫ, ˈlɪɾɫ, ˈlɪʔo], _national_ [ˈnɛʃʃonal]; [ˈnæʃnəɫ]
- /æ/ and /ɛ/ are [ɛ]: _bad_ and _bed_ [bɛd]; [bæd] and [bɛd]
- /ʌ/ is [a]: _but_ [bat]; [bʌt, bɐt]
- /iː/ and /ɪ/ are [i], /uː/ and /ʊ/ are [u]
- /oʊ̯/ is pronounced /ɔ/: _home_ [ɔm]; [hoʊ̯m]
- words are often pronounced like they're spelled: _work_ [wɔrk]; [wɜːk, wɹ̩k] _should_ [ʃuld]; [ʃʊd] and so on


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## apmoy70

For Greeks learning English, the biggest problem is the pronunciation of /ʃ/ or /tʃ/ for the simple reason that these phonemes are absent in Standard Greek (with the exception of Cypriots, Cretans, and Dodecanesians (Rhodians, Karpathians) who have no problem pronouncing it as they have them in their regiolect).
Also the aspirated /pʰ/ & /tʰ/ do pose a problem (Standard Greek expects p & t to be pronounced as plain and unanspirated).
And of course the pronouncing of /h/ as a voiceless velar fricative /x/ almost always.
Similar pronunciation problems for Greek speakers learning English (with the Catalan, Spanish and Italian speakers), is the difficulty to distinguish /ɑː/ or /ʌ/ from /a/, /ɔː/ or /ɒ/ or /ʌ/ from /ɔ/, /æ/ or /ɛ/ from /e/


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## ger4

German accent:

final devoicing (league = leak, side = site, raid = rate, feed = feet, of = off, lived = lift, made = mate, phase = face, code = coat, mad = mat, tags = tax, ...)
speakers from southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland generally tend to devoice every /z/ (not only word-finally)
/dʒ/ > /tʃ/, not only word-finally, mainly by speakers of southern German accents (Jeep = cheap)

a tendency to pronounce a glottal stop /ʔ/ before all word-initial vowels (I ʔam ʔeating ʔa very ʔold ʔapple)
/æ/ > /ɛ/ (cattle = kettle, man = men, land = lend, mat = met)

/ɪ/ > /ə/ in some prefixes, following the spelling (probably influenced by German pronunciation: begin < German _beginnen_, /bə-/)
/ɹ/ > /ʀ/
/ð/ > /z/
/θ/ > /s/
/w/ > /v/
/əʊ/ > /o:/
/eɪ/ > /e:/


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## Messquito

Taiwanese accent:

confusion of [æ] as in man and [ɛ] as in men.
mild lisping: Chinese [s], [l], [t], etc. are produced sometimes with lips touching the teeth (but not so front as [θ])
[s] instead of [θ]
[l] instead of [ð]
[u] instead of [ʊ]
[a] instead of [ʌ]
[ɤ] instead of [ə]
[ɑʊ] instead of [aʊ]
[ɕ] or [ʂ] instead of [ʃ]: She-[ɕy:] instead of [ʃi:]
[ʨ] or [ʈʂ] instead of [dʒ]
[ʨʰ] or [ʈʂʰ] instead of [tʃ]
[i] instead of [ɪ]: this-[lisɤ] instead of [ðɪs]
[s] for every s (except sh): is-[isɤ] instead of [ɪz]
additional [ɤ](like a Chinese schwa) after final consonants: stop-[stapʰɤ] instead of [stɑp] (we don't have final consonants other than [n])
inability to make liaisons: this is-[lisɤʔisɤ] instead of [ðɪsɪz]
[ɻ] instead of [l] at syllable-final positions: cancel-[kʰɛnsəɻ](sounds like cancer) instead of [kʰænsl]
[ɛn] instead of [eɪn]: complain-[camp(ɤ)lɛn] instead of [kʰəmpleɪn] (Chinese [n] just never goes after [eɪ])
devoicing of [b], [d], [g]; inaspirated [p], [t], [k] instead
unaware of long vowels
monotonous
ignoring the schwa and pronouncing them according to how it spells
syllable-timing instead of stress-timing
adding la(啦) after sentences


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## frugnaglio

Nino83 said:


> - pronunciation of /ð/ and /θ/ like [d] and [f]: _I think that_ [ai̯ fiŋk dɛt]; [ɑɪ̯ θɪŋk̚ ðætʰ]
> - /oʊ̯/ is pronounced /ɔ/: _home_ [ɔm]; [hoʊ̯m]



/θ/ can also be pronounced [t] because of the spelling: _thank you_ [tɛŋk ju]
and I'd say /oʊ̯/ is pronounced [o], not [ɔ]

also:
gemination of consonants that are doubled in spelling: _filling_ ['fil:iŋg]
_ng_ pronounced [ŋg]

and on the more crass side:
final [ə] added to all words ending in a consonant: _if I come to England_ [if:ə ai̯ 'kam:ə tu 'iŋglandə]
stress steadily moved to the first syllable: p*è*rformance, c*ò*ntrol, r*è*set (according to some Italians, ['rɛzet]  )


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## Nino83

frugnaglio said:


> stress steadily moved to the first syllable: p*è*rformance, c*ò*ntrol, r*è*set (according to some Italians, ['rɛzet]  )



Yes, it happens also with _quartet_ which in Italy is pronounced [ˈkwartet] instead of [kwɔːˈte̞t], which is more similar to the Italian _quartétto_!


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## Radioh

For me, I usually forget to make the long a and o sounds when speaking fast but I think this isn't a big mistake 'cause people I converse with have never corrected me(or they're being polite). I also sometimes cannot hear the difference between the two final sounds /t/ and /d/.


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## Dymn

@Messquito, such a comprehensive list! I just have a question: how do you pronounce /v/? If I'm not mistaken Chinese doesn't have this sound.


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## 810senior

What I'm well aware of is that an English consonant /th/ sounds like either /s/ or /z/ because there is no sound corresponding to that in Japanese language. e.g. the[za], therapy[serapi:], thunderbolt[sanda:boruto].
For one sure thing we're getting trouble in distinguishing /th/ from /t/ or other similar sounds. As for me both sound all identical whatsoever.


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## Messquito

Diamant7 said:


> @Messquito, such a comprehensive list! I just have a question: how do you pronounce /v/? If I'm not mistaken Chinese doesn't have this sound.


I think most of us can pronounce [v] correctly, because we have [f]. The only thing we have to do is leaving out the aspiration.
But there are indeed some times that people pronounce it [w].


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## bo-marco

> Catalan accent (influenced by Spanish):
> 
> Confusion between /b/ and /v/. They are both pronounced [β] in intervocalic position and ["b"] elsewhere.



What would be your pronunciation of Emilian word [bvu:]=drunk?


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## Dymn

bo-marco said:


> What would be your pronunciation of Emilian word [bvu:]=drunk?


Wow, difficult to know because I've never heard any Catalan speaking Emilian but I suppose we would simply get rid of [v]. It would be something like [bu] (we wouldn't distinguish long vowels either).


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## SuperXW

Diamant7 said:


> @Messquito, such a comprehensive list! I just have a question: how do you pronounce /v/? If I'm not mistaken Chinese doesn't have this sound.


There are long lists of Chinese accents on different websites. Try keywords "Chinese English" or "Chinglish".
I'm not sure about Taiwanese, but for Mainland Chinese, it's common for people to mess up /v/ and /w/, because we don't have /v/ in Mandarin. It's like a variant of our /w/.


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## M Mira

SuperXW said:


> There are long lists of Chinese accents on different websites. Try keywords "Chinese English" or "Chinglish".
> I'm not sure about Taiwanese, but for Mainland Chinese, it's common for people to mess up /v/ and /w/, because we don't have /v/ in Mandarin. It's like a variant of our /w/.


Mandarin spoken in the Mainland sometimes has [ʋ] as a positional allophone of /w/, while in Taiwan, it's always [w] or sometimes even [∅]



Messquito said:


> Taiwanese accent:
> 
> [ɕ] or [ʂ] instead of [ʃ]: She-[ɕy:] instead of [ʃi:]
> [ʨ] or [ʈʂ] instead of [dʒ]
> [ʨʰ] or [ʈʂʰ] instead of [tʃ]


More that example: an English /i/ after these three palatal-alveolar fricative/affricates becomes [y]. Another example: letter G is pronounced [ʨy:]


Messquito said:


> [ɻ] instead of [l] at syllable-final positions: cancel-[kʰɛnsəɻ](sounds like cancer) instead of [kʰænsl]


I only discovered that in university, before that I was more familiar to <Vl> sequence -> [ɔ:] or [ɔw], except for <el> which is something like [ɛɐw] with the diphthong together pronounced as long as the off-glide.


Messquito said:


> unaware of long vowels
> monotonous
> ignoring the schwa and pronouncing them according to how it spells
> And chopping words into segments then pronounce them separately, like reading Skype "sky-pee", YouTube "you-to-be"





Messquito said:


> adding la(啦) after sentences


I thought that more Singlish?


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## merquiades

Diamant7 said:


> Wow, difficult to know because I've never heard any Catalan speaking Emilian but I suppose we would simply get rid of [v]. It would be something like [bu] (we wouldn't distinguish long vowels either).


Diamant.  So would you pronounce beure and veure the exact same way?
I thought the two sounds were traditionally distinguished.


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## Dymn

merquiades said:


> Diamant.  So would you pronounce beure and veure the exact same way?
> I thought the two sounds were traditionally distinguished.


Yes, nowadays /v/ only exists in the Balearic Islands and most part of Valencia, where as far as I know young generations are starting to pronounce it /b/ due to Spanish influence. In most parts of Catalonia it disappeared during the 15th century I think.


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## merquiades

Diamant7 said:


> Yes, nowadays /v/ only exists in the Balearic Islands and most part of Valencia, where as far as I know young generations are starting to pronounce it /b/ due to Spanish influence. In most parts of Catalonia it disappeared during the 15th century I think.


Don't they teach you to pronounce it in school?

The first thing that comes to mind about a strong non-native pronunciation of Spaniards in English (perhaps it could be slightly different in the case of Catalans) is that consonants are weakened quite a lot and sound only approximate.   Vowels are not reduced, however, and syllables are all cut short.  This makes them sound a bit drunk at times.


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## Dymn

merquiades said:


> Don't they teach you to pronounce it in school?
> 
> The first thing that comes to mind about a strong non-native pronunciation of Spaniards in English (perhaps it could be slightly different in the case of Catalans) is that consonants are weakened quite a lot and sound only approximate. Vowels are not reduced, however, and syllables are all cut short. This makes them sound *a bit drunk at times*.


Hahaha, I was never told so 

You're right as for the approximants, that's because /b d g/ are pronounced [β ð ɣ] in some places (in the initial post of this thread I said in intervocalic positions, but there are some more instances). The same happens in Catalan. Vowel reduction doesn't occur in English as spoken by Spaniards, right, and in Catalan this may depend. As you know Catalan has a noteworthy vowel reduction (7 stressed vowels for only 3 unstressed vowels). However, we rely heavily on spelling. Schwa is pronounced in unstressed _a_'s and _e_'s, but in _o_'s I've heard it both ways.


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## Messquito

One interesting thing I found about Taiwanese people's pronunciation of English is that some of us pronounce N [ən] in the level tone(1) and M [ɛn] in the high falling tone (4).


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## bibax

Czech:

final devoicing (I cannot break this habit): dog like dock, feed like feet, etc.

a [æ] like e [ɛ]: bad, bat and bed pronounced like bet [bɛt];

non-aspirated k, p,  t: kick [kik], peek [pi:k], tag [tɛk], etc.

Czechs distinguish shit and sheet, fit and feet, pick and peek, etc. only by quantity (duration) of "i" which is wrong (I was told).

th [ð, θ] is an individual chapter;


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## Enquiring Mind

To bibax's excellent list I would just add that in my experience, it is common for Czechs speaking English to retain Czech intonation, and not to use correct sentence stress - these are also, I think, part of the "accent" in a broader sense. (No doubt just like English speakers when they speak a foreign language. It really helps if you have a good "ear".)


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## luitzen

The interesting thing is that these lists of what is the hardest for people from your language to pronounce in English are actually the ones that are the easiest. They are the most obvious and can be trained, improved. The ones that are more subtle are harder to get right. Virtually nobody from your language will even notice them, but they are very telling to native English speakers.


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