Members sasiku Posted June 29, 2011 Members Share Posted June 29, 2011 How do you define neutral accent and how to speak in a Neutral English Accent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators davie Posted June 29, 2011 Moderators Share Posted June 29, 2011 Depends on what country you are talking about. (eg. USA, England, Canada, Australia, etc.) Usually you can get a good sense of a neutral accent by listening to news broadcasters. Typically a neutral accent is an accent without much discernible characteristics associated with certain regions. What is your goal for this? And how does it relate to singing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Sandra2011 Posted June 29, 2011 Members Share Posted June 29, 2011 Frequently listening to English spoken by native speakers and repeating them is the best way of learning the correct accent of English. Listening to BBC newsreaders and trying to imitate their accent will also help to improve the English accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members staticsound Posted June 29, 2011 Members Share Posted June 29, 2011 [video=youtube;OG3zbp-1jM0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3zbp-1jM0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators davie Posted June 29, 2011 Moderators Share Posted June 29, 2011 LOL, static Pretty much British English in a nutshell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Masklin Posted June 29, 2011 Members Share Posted June 29, 2011 There is no universal english accent, if that's what you're looking for. You need to choose one of the different existing ones, preferably western american or London british unless you want people to complain about misunderstanding the lyrics. In other words, don't aim at a southern american accent (Dolly Parton, Josh Turner, etc) or cockney british (The streets? Dunno their name, but the band that had a one-hit-wonder with 'Dry your eyes, mate'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DukeOfBoom Posted June 30, 2011 Members Share Posted June 30, 2011 Move to America. You'll get it eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members theminpoes Posted June 30, 2011 Members Share Posted June 30, 2011 Move to America. You'll get it eventually. I don't think so. There are plenty of people in America who speak with non-American accents. It's a pretty diverse country. Some British people kinda lose their accents when they sing though... maybe it's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sasiku Posted July 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 1, 2011 Neutral accent is a way of speaking a language without regionalism. Speaking with an accent affects our communication and sometimes at its worst spoils our image in public. To make ourselves understand better we should speak in neutral accent. Ref: http://www.neutralaccent.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members VJFranzK Posted July 1, 2011 Members Share Posted July 1, 2011 The English have a really strange way of speaking OUR language, don't they? ;-)Which was, of course, invented by George Washington? Actually, to them, WE sound different - "like Australians" so I've heard. What is "an accent" is in the EAR of the beholder. They are right to suggest - listen to the newscasts of the country with which you wish to clearly communicate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dobuchu Posted July 2, 2011 Members Share Posted July 2, 2011 Like other people before me have suggested, you need to listen and practice. I bought cassette tapes at a used book store that were made for this exact purpose. The tapes reeled through several dialogues of different accents while I listened and tried to follow along out loud sometimes. Tape record yourself and compare yourself to native speakers. I practice this way all the time. And it really does help! It does me anyway, ha ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SuperMonkey Posted July 4, 2011 Members Share Posted July 4, 2011 I can assure you that there is no such thing as a "neutral" accent. Everyone has an accent of some type, and everyone's sounds weird to everyone else. Even among "native speakers" (which, for English, we could assume would be natural-born Englishmen) there is so much variation that there isn't even a single "English accent". Queen's English (also known as "posh") sounds completely different from Scouse or Cockney. So which should we consider neutral? Now there is what is generalized as "English" or "American" accents, generally Queen's English and Mid-Atlantic, respectively. If it's Queen's English you want to learn, then the best way is probably just to listen to lots and lots of Londoners talking. Make sure that those you are listening to speak in the dialect/accent you're trying to learn, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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