On June 24, 2010, The L2 Accent Reduction Centre conducted a workshop with PICS (Progressive Intercultural Community Services. One of the items we covered was the varations of the T sound in North American English. Many people who grew up learning English in India produce different T sounds, which are more closely related to British English. Most Hindi and Punjabi speakers use a strong T sound in unstressed syllables. In North American English, the sound T is replaced with a D like sound when it falls between two vowels in an unstressed syllable. Words like daughter, city, water, skating, waited… all have this D like sound but many English speakers from India say these with a strong T sound. As well, it is common that a Hindi speaker will drop the sound of T. This often happens when T is at the end of a word. Punjabi speakers, on the other hand, do not aspirate the T sound enough and it can sound more like a D to a Canadian. For more information about how to make the T sound, and more, visit our accent reduction guide.
Posts Tagged ‘Hindi’
English In India
Friday, June 25th, 2010Accents and Ethnicity
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009Does your ethnicity qualify you teach English or Accent Reduction? I was born in Vancouver, BC (original Vancouverites are few in number), however in this multicultural city, amazingly I do receive a bit of discrimination. I cannot tell you the countless times that I have had clients walk in and say” Wow! I can’t believe your Asian. You sound so white on the phone !”
In fact, a PR friend of mine said that exact same thing. What does that really mean? At first, I feel a little bit offended, but then again, I have been very surprised by some of my clients. I have a very good trained ear and when I hear someone on the phone, I can usually tell whether they are a Hindi, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, etc speaker.
I myself have been surprised a number of times, when I have had clients who have heavy Spanish accents but their ethnicity is Chinese, or the Russian client whose great great grandparents are from Korea. I have also met an individual who had a Chinese accent but he was Caucasian; adopted by a Chinese family in Hong Kong. One of my client stated it best when she said that “We might speak different languages , but we have one thing in common. We are all human beings. Have an open mind. Listening to others will change your life forever.