American Dialect The long awaited dispute of what is the ‘right’ way to say a sweetened carbonated beverage is in, finally. Could it be soda, pop, or coke? And the answer,according to one graduate student's American dialect research is: All of the above! That is, depending on where you are in America-due to one's American [...]
Native English Speakers Mispronounce Words More Often Than You Think When you begin accent reduction training you may be perplexed by the fact that many English words are not spelled phonetically. Moreover, English is filled with homophones, or two words that sound alike but have divergent spellings and meanings, such as meet and meat. Although [...]
Cut Corners or Cutting Corners Definition: To take an alternative route or find a faster way to complete a task. Normally said with the implication that the outcome will prove to be detrimental because of the proposed shortcuts. It is commonly used in financial situations. Example Sentence : This is not a race; you have [...]
The pronunciation of many words in the English language is sometimes puzzling to non-native speakers. One example would be the word "of". The word's history reveals interesting details about why it is pronounced with /v/ instead of an /f/. Its first known use is traced back to before the 12th century. By that time, people [...]
The Roots of the California Accent The California accent is at a young stage of development. As late as 1941, David DeCamp believed the California accent to be similar to the non-rhotic speech of the east coast; however the accent is closer in tone to the Midwest accent. Upon moving to Los Angeles many actors [...]
With every existing American accent comes a different dialect as well as particular rules, patterns, and styles of intonation, stress, and rate of speech. If you speak with a foreign accent and you are looking to talk like an American, you must learn to speak with a standard American accent. You may be wondering what [...]
The American accent began to develop quickly after America won the Revolutionary war against the British. Until that time, both parties spoke with a rhotic British accent similar to the modern day American Accent. Difference Between Rhotic and Non-Rhotic Rhotic accents pronounce the hard /r/ sound at the end of words such as "car", and all [...]
At times, people may find it difficult to distinguish between accents versus dialects. These two terms, while similar in ways, are actually quite different. In order to be able to comprehend why they shouldn’t be used interchangeably, it is necessary to examine each term individually. An accent is a form of pronunciation that is distinctive [...]
