DCTP Forums

In the "What's on your mind?" thread a discussion about dialects and accents started up, and people started sharing videos and recordings of themselves speaking English. Then I started doing phonetic transcriptions of the first 3 sentences, and discussing what makes an accent sound one way or another, and guessing people's first language in some cases. (Be warned, I am not an encyclopedia of all accents. I may not be able to identify one that I haven't studied or heard before, and many accents have a lot in common.)

I'm studying linguistics in college (I'm just about to graduate, actually. Only 3 classes left to go!) and I have an interest in phonology. I've been trained in making phonetic transcriptions of speech, and I have the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA, keyboard installed on my laptop, so I can do transcriptions pretty quickly. Doing more of these is really good practice for me!

There's one thing I want to make clear, before we start. There is no "correct" English. There are many, many dialects of English, some mutually intelligible, some not. Linguistically speaking, there is absolutely nothing that can make one dialect or accent or language "better" than another. Everyone who speaks English has both an accent and a dialect. DO NOT BE ASHAMED OF YOUR DIALECT OR ACCENT. Do be ashamed if you look down on someone else for not using a specific dialect, or for having an accent.

For posting your voice, people have been using YouTube and Sound Cloud to post their voices. I suggest making the recording with your computer, using Audacity.

Here are the one's that have Posted their voices already:
Shiromi - Accent Discussion
mangaluva - Transcription - Accent Discussion
Iwamoto Yuri - Transcription - Accent Discussion
Hime-Chan - Accent Discussion
kkslider5552000 (transcription and discussion to follow)

kkslider5552000 wrote:https://soundcloud.com/kkslider555/voice

I REGRET NOTHING (everything)

“Ladies and gentlemen, a reading of a modern classic.”
/ˈle.diz n ˈdʒɛn.ɾɫ̩.ˌmɛn e ˈɹi.dɪŋ ʌːv e ˈmɑd.ə˞n ˈkʰlæ.sɪk/

“Greetings, loved-ones. Let’s take a journey!”
/ˈɡɹi.ɾɪŋz ˌlʌvd.ˈwʌnz .. ˈlɛts ˈtʰe.kə ˈdʒə˞.nij/

“I know a place, where the grass is really greener, warm, wet, and wild.”
/ˌaə ˈno.wə ˈpleːs .. ˈwɛɹ ðə ˈɡɹæs ɪz ˈɹɪ.li ˈɡɹi.nə˞ ˌwɔɹm ˈwɛt̚ æn ˌwaəɫd/

Let’s see… North East US is about as well as I can guess for the accent.
Americans have a lot of syllabic consonants, so there are a lot of words that end up having no vowels. The “dark L”, or Velar L (the one said in the back of your mouth) can take the place of a vowel, as well as Nasals (N, M, NG, sounds that push the air through your nose) and most famously, Rs. You can see this in the following words: /n/ - “and”, /ˈdʒɛn.ɾɫ.ˌmɛn/ - “gentlemen”, /ˈmɑd.ə˞n/ - “modern”, /ˈdʒə˞.nij/ - “journey”, /ˈɡɹi.nə˞/ - “greener”.

Another thing that marks your accent as American is the Intervocalic Ts became Alveolar Taps instead of Glottal Stops, as they do in many British accents. You can see this in these words: /ˈdʒɛn.ɾɫ.ˌmɛn/ - “gentlemen” and /ˈɡɹi.ɾɪŋz/ - “greetings”.

Post-vowel Rs are retained in most non-south-eastern US dialects, ruling out the deepsouth.

And finally, you have the East-Coast extra vowel, as seen in this word: /wɔɹm/ - “warm”.

This sounds pretty neat, so I'll go ahead and join in the fun :x

I like how other people can figure out my own accent that I somehow know nothing about.

ALSO SONOCI'S VOICE :O

I DON'T KNOW YOUR ACCENT AT ALL, WHY DO I NOT KNOW THINGS

Ok, absolutely doing it tomorrow. It'll be up before 2pm est.

Lawl, slider, that's amazing XD
and poor sonoci D:, how dare they take your name!

Here. *Drops and flees*


Things I said weird: "excerpt" and "bones" :V
I also apologize for my not very good mic :x

sonoci wrote:This sounds pretty neat, so I'll go ahead and join in the fun :x

“Ay! This is Sonoci here!”
/êːj ˌðɪs ɪs ˈso.no.kij ˈhiːɹ/

“Guess what? Someone else actually has the Sonoci nickname.”
/ˌɡʰɛs ˈwʌt .. ˈsʌm.wən ˈɛɫ̥s ˈæk.tʃə.ˌli ˈhæz ðə ˈso.no.ki ˈnɪk.neːm/

“So I had to change it.”
/ˈso.waɛ ˈhæ.tə ˈtʃêndʒ ɪ̰t̚/


Alright, we have the retained R after a vowel, found in /hiːɹ/ - “here”, so you’re probably a speaker of non-deep-south US dialects.

You didn’t use any words in this segment that would tell me if you have the East coast vowel, but you don’t have the vowel-raising found in the north-central Great Lakes area, so probably not a speaker of that dialect.

You use Creaky-voice! I found it in /ɪ̰t̚/ and when I listened on, you did entire sentences in it. That’s a North-West US thing (though it could be in Canada too, I don’t know… but you don’t have any /au/ diphthongs in this segment so I can’t tell).

You used some familiar slang too, /ˈhæ.tə/ - “hatta” for “had to” and the Z in “is” was devoiced before “Sonoki”, so I’m fairly confident that you speak the same dialect of English that I do – North-West US. Am I right?

Jecka wrote:Here. *Drops and flees*


Things I said weird: "excerpt" and "bones" :V
I also apologize for my not very good mic :x

“Somethinganother Jecka-y”
/ə.ˈlʌp.pə.ˌsoɹz .. ˈsòːw dʒɛ.ˈkə ˈiːj/

“I’m trying to act cool because I know Vertiaiz(spelling? Help?) and no one else does.”
/ˌaəm ˈtʰɹaɪŋ tʰu ˈæk ˈkʰú.ɫ ˈbi.kəz ˈaɛ ˌnow ˌvə˞.tʰi.ˈḛɪ̰z æn ˈno.wən ˈɛɫs dʌ̰z./

“I’m going to be reading “Pirates Past Noon” by Mary Pope Osborne, which is a Magic Treehouse book number 4, because I am not much of a talker, even though I’m totally talking right now.”
/ˌaəmm ˈɡoɪŋ tʰə bi ˈɹi.ɾɪŋ ˈpʰaɪ.ɹɪts ˌpʰæst ˈnúːn baj ˈmɛ.ɹij pʰop ˈɑz.boɹn ˈwɪtʃ ɪz ə ˈmæ.tʃɪk ˈtʃɹij.haʊs ˈbʊk ɪ̊s ˈnʌm.bə˞ ˈfoɹ bi.ˈkʰʌz ˈáɪ æm ˈnɑt̚ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʌ.və ˈtʰɑ.kə˞ ˈi.vɪn ðow aəm ˈtʰo.ɾɫ.ˌij ˈtʰɑ.kɪŋ ˈɹaət̚ ˌna̰ːw̰/

Alright, we have retained post-vowel Rs and syllabic Rs; see /ˌvə˞.tʰi.ˈḛɪ̰z/, /ˈɑz.boɹn/ - “Osborne” and /ˈfoɹ/ ; /ˈnʌm.bə˞/ - “number” and /ˈtʰɑ.kə˞/ - “talker”. Mist likely a North American, but not from the south-east of the US.

I don’t see vowel-raising, so not from the North-Central states.

You lack the East Coast extra vowel, so definitely western US.

There was a little bit of creaky voice, but it wasn’t used anywhere near as much as someone from the North-West dialects would use.

You turn some two-syllable words into single syllable words, “trying” and “going” with their vowels turned into diphthongs, though the resulting diphthongs were different from similar diphthongs. Compare /ˌaəm/ - “I’m” to /ˈtʰɹaɪŋ/ - “trying”. It looks like a new diphthong is entering your dialect! This is a trait of coastal Californian dialects, specific to effeminate speech only actually, as is the use of “totally” for emphasis.

My guess – California, probably Northern California, and probably coastal. How close am I?

Shiromi wrote:“I’m trying to act cool because I know Vertiaiz(spelling? Help?) and no one else does.”
/ˌaəm ˈtʰɹaɪŋ tʰu ˈæk ˈkʰú.ɫ ˈbi.kəz ˈaɛ ˌnow ˌvə˞.tʰi.ˈḛɪ̰z æn ˈno.wən ˈɛɫs dʌ̰z./

No, no, "Portuguese"

Shiromi wrote:My guess – California, probably Northern California, and probably coastal. How close am I?

Pretty far actually. Coastal...I live about an hour and a half from the shore, so kinda close?

Edit:

Shiromi wrote:You lack the East Coast extra vowel, so definitely western US.

Hmm really? :V huh...

Shiromi wrote:You turn some two-syllable words into single syllable words, “trying” and “going” with their vowels turned into diphthongs, though the resulting diphthongs were different from similar diphthongs. Compare /ˌaəm/ - “I’m” to /ˈtʰɹaɪŋ/ - “trying”. It looks like a new diphthong is entering your dialect! This is a trait of coastal Californian dialects, specific to effeminate speech only actually, as is the use of “totally” for emphasis.

I'm beginning to think I have a bad habit :V

I keep imagining you with a higher voice XD
still awesome

Yuri Iwamoto wrote:I keep imagining you with a higher voice XD
still awesome

Sometimes I try to talk with a slightly higher voice. This is might be more of me being extremely laid back

*Jecka is basically admitting that she is weird :V

I was just gonna be like "I'm from Canada so Canadian accent " but I guess not! I think Northwest-US (and creaky voice - which makes a lot of sense for my voice) fits quite well

Jecka wrote:

Shiromi wrote:“I’m trying to act cool because I know Vertiaiz(spelling? Help?) and no one else does.”
/ˌaəm ˈtʰɹaɪŋ tʰu ˈæk ˈkʰú.ɫ ˈbi.kəz ˈaɛ ˌnow ˌvə˞.tʰi.ˈḛɪ̰z æn ˈno.wən ˈɛɫs dʌ̰z./

No, no, "Portuguese"

Aha! I'm yet another person who doesn't speak Portuguese.

Jecka wrote:

Shiromi wrote:My guess – California, probably Northern California, and probably coastal. How close am I?

Pretty far actually. Coastal...I live about an hour and a half from the shore, so kinda close?

Did you misspell "fair" or am I way off?

sonoci wrote:I was just gonna be like "I'm from Canada so Canadian accent " but I guess not! I think Northwest-US (and creaky voice - which makes a lot of sense for my voice) fits quite well

Yay! By the way, "creaky voice" is the real name for that type of voicing. Linguists aren't often creative about naming linguistic stuff, but that one is my favorite. Next to the smilies and skulls of Optimality Theory.

Shiromi wrote:

Jecka wrote:

Shiromi wrote:My guess – California, probably Northern California, and probably coastal. How close am I?

Pretty far actually. Coastal...I live about an hour and a half from the shore, so kinda close?

Did you misspell "fair" or am I way off?

You're way off. I live in PA and have never been to anywhere further than Michigan (State wise).