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Accents and Dialects

Accents and Dialects
Public Domain / CIA NOTE: This guide uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For information about this notation, please visit my page of International Phonetic Alphabet Resources. There are obviously many North American accents. For reference, here is a list of only the most common classifications in the United States and Canada. General American This refers to the spectrum of ‘standard’ English spoken by newscasters, TV actors, and a large percentage of middle-class Americans. Prominent Features: The short-a (as in cat) is raised and diphthongized before nasal consonants. Accent Samples: Eastern New England English This describes the classic “Boston Accent.” New York City English One of the more famous American accents, the classic “New Yorkese” has been immortalized by films (“Goodfellas,” “Marty,” and “Manhattan,” among countless others), TV shows (“All in the Family,” “Seinfeld,” “King of Queens”) and plays (“A View from the Bridge,” “Lost in Yonkers,” “Guys and Dolls”). Conclusion Related:  LanguageEnglish / American Pronunciation

Clear Communication Introduction to Plain Language at NIH Plain language is grammatically correct language that includes complete sentence structure and accurate word usage. Plain language is not unprofessional writing or a method of "dumbing down" or "talking down" to the reader. Plain Language Act President Barack Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 (H.R. 946/Public Law 111-274) on October 13, 2010. Part of the NIH mission is to reach all Americans with health information they can use and to communicate in a way that helps people to easily understand research results. Celebrating Plain Language at NIH Health literacy incorporates a range of abilities: reading, comprehending, and analyzing information; decoding instructions, symbols, charts, and diagrams; weighing risks and benefits; and, ultimately, making decisions and taking action. Plain Language/Clear Communications Awards Program Tips for Using Plain Language: Certain qualities characterize plain language. 1. 3. Organization. 4.

Pronunciation: 3 Principles On How To Make Your Spoken English Sound More Natural – A Guest Post I recently had the privilege and honour of being interviewed by my fellow English Language trainer, Elena Mutonono on her recent webinar “Accent Training for Business People“. For those of you who didn’t sign up for the webinar, here’s the recording. In that webinar we discussed the benefits of accent training for non-native business people and how accent training improves communication. I asked Elena, a pronunciation expert, to write a guest post for me to share her three tips on how you can make your spoken English sound more natural. I am delighted to pass the baton over to Elena for this week’s post. Elena Mutonono I remember a few years ago I went to a beauty salon in New Orleans and was served by a nice lady from Brazil. The intonation and the word stress sounded to me as though I was watching a Brazilian soap opera without translation where one good sister loses the love of her life, and the other one steals him. What was worse is I felt ashamed that I couldn’t talk to this lady.

Linguistics 201: The Dialects of American English The Dialects of American English The various Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) who invaded Britain after 437 AD brought with them their own dialects of West Germanic. These formed the basis for the emergence of later dialect areas. British colonization of other continents led to the establishment of various colonial, or overseas, dialects. The main dialect areas of the US can be traced to the four main migrations of English speaking people to America from the British Isles during the colonial period (1607-1775). 1. Main features --pronunciation of [O] in caught, bought --low fronted [a] instead of back[A] in words such asfar, father (the so-called nasal twang) --Deletion of syllable final [r], as in far pronounced "fah", Carter pronounced "Cahtah". --Compensatory addition of [r] after a final schwa, as in Cuber (instead of Cuba). --some lexical particularities, such as earthworm called an angleworm,pail rather thanbucket (either word is used in standard American.) 2. 3. 4. 5.

Linguistic Atlas Projects On Language The Great Language Land Grab By BEN ZIMMER When tech companies engage in legal squabbles about who gets to use our everyday words, what are ordinary speakers of the language to make of it all? March 27, 2011, Sunday ‘Cannot Be Underestimated’ This perplexing turn of phrase is extremely common, even among careful writers and speakers. January 23, 2011, Sunday Auto(in)correct How smartphones are making us look dumb. January 16, 2011, Sunday 'Treasure Trove' Keith Otis Edwards e-mails: ''In the Dec. 12 On Language column, I see that hackneyed phrase treasure trove. January 09, 2011, Sunday On Language - Junk The endless reusability of a trashy term. January 02, 2011, Sunday On Language - ‘Acronym’ A reader asks if “acronyms” must be pronounced as words. December 19, 2010, Sunday On Language - The King’s Tongue Twisters Did vocal gymnastics help cure George VI’s stutter? December 12, 2010, Sunday On Language - Web The 20th anniversary of a research proposal that remade the language.

This is What Michael Jackson Sounds Like in Quechua Even the youngs think Quechua is cool. After the language was translated for a book, a song, and given a shoutout by a fútbolero, we started thinking that Quechua was having a sort of moment. Perhaps the biggest sign of this is that a 14-year-old girl named Renata Flores sang a Quechua version of Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.” The Ayacuchana sings the tune at the Vilcashuamán ruins, as guitars and a Peruvian cajón play. According to La Republica, the video is part of the Asociación Cultural SURCA, which works to get the youth to learn the importance of Quechua. The Primary Differences Among Major International English Dialects | Grammarly Blog The British Empire hasn’t been in existence for almost three-quarters of a century. At the peak of its might, it covered close to a quarter of the world’s land area and ruled a fifth of its population. But the empire changed, transformed, and passed as all things pass. American English Out of all the international English dialects, American English has the most speakers. Indian English India is a country where English is one of two official languages, the other being Hindi. Nigerian English You don’t need a letter from a Nigerian prince to figure out that Nigerians speak English, and the English they speak is very distinct. British English Jay-Z becomes Jay Zed when he goes to the UK.

The History and Development of American English | Cheryl Mahmoud Cheryl Mahmoud LNG 2100- Assignment 2 December 20114 including Algonquian, Muskoghian and Penutian (Wolfram and Schilling-Estes, 1998:105).These Native American languages became a rich source of words and expressions that wereneeded by the early colonists; to describe the new sights, tastes and experiences of their adopted homeland. Many of the native languages, however, contained nasal, pharyngialisedand glottalised sounds which were unfamiliar to speakers of English. An inevitable result wasthat the borrowed words from the native languages were changed considerably, both in formand meaning, for ease of assimilation (Marckwardt, 1958:24). (A list of loan words from allthe languages mentioned so far is attached as Appendix 1).The main effect of the vast diversification of the American population, and the processes bywhich the languages came into contact was that the English spoken by Americans tended tolevel out. Princeton University, who remarked that people… th to mean ibid : 360). –„eth‟

Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK), Basics The R Project for Statistical Computing 25 maps that explain the English language English is the language of Shakespeare and the language of Chaucer. It’s spoken in dozens of countries around the world, from the United States to a tiny island named Tristan da Cunha. It reflects the influences of centuries of international exchange, including conquest and colonization, from the Vikings through the 21st century. Here are 25 maps and charts that explain how English got started and evolved into the differently accented languages spoken today. 1) Where English comes from English, like more than 400 other languages, is part of the Indo-European language family, sharing common roots not just with German and French but with Russian, Hindi, Punjabi, and Persian. 2) Where Indo-European languages are spoken in Europe today Saying that English is Indo-European, though, doesn’t really narrow it down much. 3) The Anglo-Saxon migration The next source of English was Old Norse. 7) The colonization of America 8) Early exploration of Australia 14) Where people read English Wikipedia

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