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Here are some tips on a general Persian accent, the speaker I listened to was from Iran and so, he was a native Farsi speaker but, you know, you get different flavors in Afghanistan or wherever else you look for a general Persian accent. But the oral posture, the tongue is very thick and flat in the mouth, there’s not a lot of jaw action. So, you can feel your tongue very think and very heavy in the tongue you’re almost already there. If you sigh through the sound you get that oral posture right and you sigh through it, it’s like an sound, that’s the thinking sound in this general Persian accent where in American English we’d say. In your oral posture for Persian it’s.

So, in your Persian accent the T, Th and D sounds become very dentalized, so, that, this, they, dentalized meaning your tongue is right up against your teeth. That, this, they, time, try that. Z sounds become unvoiced to a S sound, so plans in an American English accent would be plain, very short and devoiced at the end. In the same token, V sounds turn into the unvoiced version F sounds, so instead of have you have haf. So, in American English we’d say words like didn’t, and hadn’t there’s nasal plosion so you get some air out of the nose, didn’t, hadn’t. In your Persian accent it would be didn’t, hadn’t, no nasal plosion, all the sound comes out the mouth, didn’t, hadn’t, give that a shot. There’s that eh, e, transition, so words like animal, English, become animal, English, English, instead of English, English. And animal, animal, imal, give that a shot.

A lot of ?? sounds, so a lot of two element American English sounds like o, as in goat and own become pure, like goat, own. An own American diphthong as in about and thousand, become about and thousand, a, a, pure sounds, single sounds. Play with a tapped R for your Persian accent, so when you say the word Iran, you can say Iran, and sometimes the accent of that word changes so sometimes it’s Iran and sometimes it’s Iran, Iran, Iran.

So what’s the musicality of this Persian accent, there aren’t a lot of unstressed syllables and you hear that in words like animal, animal, and complain, instead of complain, you’ve got complain, you get a lot of stress on all of the syllables. So, the feeling of the accent is a little bit like this, a little more monotone than a general American accent but don’t take my word for it, listen to some native Persian speakers and see what you get from them.

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Here are some tips for your general Russian accent. So the oral posture for a general Russian accent is to pull your tongue all the way back in your throat. So you’re pulling your tongue all the way back here. And a lot of the sounds take care of themselves when you pull your tongue all the way back where it needs to be. Let’s take a look at some Russian sound changes.

The first thing I want to look at is that r sound. It’s a really hard r when your tongue is pulled all way back in the back of your throat. Rachel runs errands for her mother and father on Saturdays. Rachel runs errands for her mother and father on Saturdays. Let’s look at the ah to the eh. So in American English, I’d say I had a bad day. But in your Russian accent I had a bad day. I had a bad day. And listen to the friction in that h. Had. I had a bad day. Bad day.

Again, that th sound changes for your Russian accent. So thin, thick, this, and that becomes thin, thick, or this, that. Thin, thick, this, that. So again that th sound changes for your Russian accent. In American English it would be thin, thick, this, that. In Russian it would be thin, thick, this, that. Or it becomes completely dentalized, meaning your tongue is all the way up on your teeth. For thin, thick, this, that. That ih to e transition. So in American English it would be I loved my big trip. Ih, ih. In your Russian accent it would be I loved my big trip. I loved my big trip. E, e.

And listen to that l sound when I say the word loved. Loved. Instead of loved, loved, where I’m using just the tip of my tongue. Loved, loved. I’m using my whole tongue, and bringing the back of my tongue almost to close off my throat. I loved my big trip. La, la, la. Give that a shot. And then also notice that vowel sound. Instead of loved, uh, that shwa sound that’s very American. The American oral posture sound uh. It opens up and it becomes forward a little bit. For loved, loved.

So try this sentence. I got up and saw my files were corrupt. I got up and saw my files were corrupt. In American English it would be I got up and saw my files were corrupt. Uh, uh. But in your Russian accent it’s got files corrupt.

So what do you hear in the musicality of the Russian accent? It’s a little bit slower. It’s a little bit heavier than your American accent. There’s less pitch variety in your Russian accent. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to native Russian speakers, and see what you hear for yourself. Crawl into the accent that way.

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Here are some tips for a general Scottish accent. The first thing we look at is the oral posture. What’s the oral posture of a general Scottish accent? You want to bring your tongue tip all the way back, but you’ve got a lot of action still in your lips and in your jaw. Unlike a Russian accent where you pull your tongue all the way back, and you don’t move your lips a lot, you pull your tongue back all the way, and you get sort of a Scottish feel to the accent.

Let’s take a look at some Scottish sound changes. In Scottish, the Rs are very often tapped. “The room was very bright” becomes “The room was very bright.” The room was very bright. Give that a shot. The A diphthong two-element vowel sound in English, “A,” becomes pure, becomes a single vowel sound in a Scottish accent. “Play, take, a,” becomes “play, take, a.” It’s fun to play with a liquid “U” sound in your Scottish accent. Duty. News. Duke. You can go really far with it, and you’ll sound like Mike Meyers. Duty. News. Duke. Or you can knock it back. Duty. News. Duke.

Let’s take a look at that “ah” “aww” transition in the Scottish accent. In American English I’d say “got, shot, knob, ” but in your Scottish accent you’d say, “got, shot, knob.” You hear that glottal at the ends of the sounds, so instead of “got,” you get “got.” That’s a sound that’s very characteristic of a general Scottish accent, that glottal sound at the end. “ah ah ah”

The “OO” sound in American English. I can’t put this good book down. “OO, oo, oo, oo” becomes “I can’t put this good book down.” You can find that sound. It’s a fun sound to make, “OO.” You can find that sound my making an E, “E,” and then wrapping the lips and kind of sucking the sound back into the middle of your mouth a little bit. So you get “E, OO. OO” I can’t put this good book down. I can’t put this good book down. Give that a shot.

What’s the musicality of a Scottish accent? The room was very bright. You get a lot of glottals. It’s a strong accent. Emphasis is usually with volume and less with pitch variety. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to some native speakers and train your ear to recognize what you hear in the musicality, and what can you learn about Scottish people by the way that they speak.

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So Long Island is a very big place. We’re going to zero in on one Long Island accent here. And the person that I studied, to bring these tips to you, was a Yittish first language speaker. So, her lip corners were very tight, and the back of her tongue was very high so that a lot of sounds became nasalized. So if you saw it through this oral posture, you get haa, haa. You hear that? A very, very, nasal sound. Go for that one. The ough sound in thought, coughst, doughg, becomes thought, coughst, doughg. Comes a [inaudible 00: 43], two elements. Oughr, oughr, oughr. I thought it was going to be houghrible. I thought it was going to be houghrible.

I kind of pretend that my nails are drying to get really into this accent. I thought it was going to be horrible. There are no R’s at the end of some words, so there, care, player, try that. The T sound becomes almost like a ss sound. So, Sony takes his time going to Long Islands. Sony takes his time. Ss. Ss. Ss. Hear that? So what’s the musicality of this nasal accent? Well it’s very nasal-i, so that affects some of the way the words are pronounced. So, words like apartment become apoughtment.

So there’s no T. It’s apoughtment. All through the nose. There’s a lot of pitch variety in this accent. There’s a lot of up glides at the ends of thoughts. But don’t take my word for it. Go listen to some native Long Islanders. Long Islanders. And listen to it that way. Train your ears, train your eyes, and train your tongue.

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Texas is big. So there are a lot of different kinds of accents in Texas.
We’re going to work on a general Texas accent. What’s the oral posture
of a general Texas accent? Well, there’s a lot of bunching in the back
of the tongue. The back of the tongue is braced up against the back
molars and the opening in the back of the throat is so small that
sometimes you get that nasal, twangy sound that you hear right now. And the lip corners are tense, so you don’t get a lot of opening in the mouth.

Let’s talk about ‘r’ coloring. Don’t be shy. Rachel runs errands for
her mother and father on Saturday. Have fun with them r’s y’all. And
hear how that ‘r’ coloring affects words like ‘her’. Rachel runs
errands for her mother and father on Saturday. Her becomes her. All
the way in the back of the throat like that. And the ‘a’ diphthong
becomes ‘a’. Play. Tay. That ‘e’ turns to an ‘i.’ So in words like sorry and library, you’ve got sorry, library. Sorry. Library. And the ‘i’, becomes a diphthong, so it becomes a two element vowel. ‘I’ in pin and thin becomes pin, thin. Do you hear those two elements? ‘ii’, ‘ii.’

Have fun with the liquid ‘u’ in your Texas accent, so tune and new. Tune and new become tune and new.

So what’s the musicality of this accent? You hear a little twang in the sound, it’s a little bit slower possibly. But don’t take my word for it. Go listen to some native Texan accents. There are as many accents in Texas as there are people, so have fun with it.

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Here are some tips for a general Moroccan accent. Now, Morocco is a melting pot. Just like the United States is. So there are as many accents as there are people. So I’m zeroing in on a French speaking Moroccan accent. So, as you might imagine, the oral posture is a little similar to French. So if I were to say, I was born in Morocco, in Casablanca, my lip corners are a little bit forward. But you don’t have those French ah sounds. You have those very relaxed r sounds, like that. There’s also a bit more jaw action than you would get in your regular French accent. So that is another difference.

Already you start to hear the sound changes, from the ih to the e sound. I was living in one building changes to I was living in one little building. One little building. The e. E, e, e. That American shwa sound, that uh sound, opens up. So my son had one and had so much fun becomes my son had one and had so much fun. Ah, ah, ah, ah. Hear that? That oouh sound becomes all the way to a pure ooh. She looks good in that color. She looks good in that color. That ooh sound becomes very rounded in the Moroccan accent. So he went to school ’til noon, and then he got the boot becomes he went to school ’til noon, and then he got the boot. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

That th sound becomes dentalized. So right up on your teeth. So instead of thin, thick, this, and that you’ve got thin, thick, this, that. In French you would get thin, thick, this, that. I don’t hear that as much in the Moroccan accent. It’s more of a flatter sound. Thin, thick, this, that. The africate [SP], that dz combination in American English you hear in words like judge, and Jill. In your Moroccan accent you get judge, Jill, vegetable. H’s are routinely dropped. Just like in a pure French accent. How do you get to the palace hotel? How do you get to the palace hotel?

What is the musicality of this accent? So, you get a little bit more pitch variety than your typical French accent. You get a little more openness. It feels a little warmer to me. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to speakers from Morocco. French speaking speakers from Morocco. And see what your hear in the accent. And make it your own.

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Let’s take a look at some tips for a general Turkish accent.

So what’s the oral posture of a general Turkish Accent? The tongue is pulled back a little bit and, so that affects the articulation in the front of the mouth. But the jaw is quite open still, so you get a lot of this action going on.

Sound changes for Turkish. The “er” sound in Turkey, for instance, becomes a little, a little bit more like an or. Turkey, Turkey. Not Turkey but Turkey. A little bit. Closer to the or.

The th sound becomes very dentalized, meaning your tongue is right up against your teeth. So it’s thin, thick, this, that become thin, thick, this, that. All the way up on your teeth.

There’s a very light w, v switcheroo. So that w’s kind of sound like v’s, and v’s kind of sound like w’s. But it’s very light, so have a light touch with Columbia University. I went to Columbia University. I went to Columbia University. So it’s sort of amorphously switching.

Also you hear that American sha sound, that ah sound in words like Columbia becoming very open in the Turkish accent. So it’s Columbia and culture.

So what’s the musicality of the Turkish accent like? Well, if you listen to all the dentalized sounds then that gives you an indication of what the culture is like. The Turkish culture is very community oriented. Did you hear that? The Turkish culture is very community oriented. All those dentalized sounds. And it is very community oriented.

So that gives you an indication of how people express themselves. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to some native Turkish speakers. And listen to what you hear for yourself. And crawl into the accent that way. Make it your own.

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Now let’s work on your Queen’s accent. Queen’s is big, so this accent is one of many, many, many Queen’s accents. But the oral posture for this one, I want you to sigh through the sound aw, as in four, born. Try this phrase, I was born in Queens, New York. What do you notice about the oral posture of that phrase? The lip corners are coming forward, the lip corners are doing a lot of work that the jaw is not doing. So the jaw stays more still, and the lip corners do it. I was born in Queens New York.

This accent will create some, so rafter and calf, become rafter and calf. Sometimes the ew, and the oh, sounds, tend toward schwa, tend toward the uh, that general American uh sound. So, I’ll see you tomorrow, sometimes become, I’ll see ya tomorrow, I’ll see ya tomorrow. Got it?

The aw sound becomes a. So thought, dog, law, become, thought, dog, law. Notice those lip corners coming forward each time. You get into that oral posture and some of these sounds kind of take care of themselves. The th sound, thin, thick, this and that, become very dentalized and very flat. So thin, thick, this, that.

So what’s the musicality of this accent, it’s definitely an urban accent, but Queens is a very residential place. It might not feel as like hard edged as some of the other New York accents so, give it a shot. Listen to some native Queens speakers, and figure it out for yourself.

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Here are some tips for a general Norwegian accent. Go all the way for it, then knock it back for some more authenticity, but go all the way for the caricature if you want. So first, we look at the oral posture. So, I’m going to say a phrase in my Norwegian accent and I want you to try to identify what oral posture is.

[In Norwegian accent]: “I went to high school in Norway. I would say it was pretty normal”.

Do you notice that there’s some tension in my lip corners? And that my jaw doesn’t move that much. The jaw is closed a little bit. Now, let’s take a look at some sound changes for the Norwegian accent. Well, the first one you probably hear is that “w” to “v” transition. Norway becomes “Norvay, I went to high school in Norvay”. That becomes a “v”. So, give that a shot. The “oo” sound gets a little more rounded so “high school” becomes “high school, school, ool”. It’s a little bit more rounding of that sound. Sometimes you’ll hear a tapped “r” sound, like in the word “pretty”, I went to school in Norvway. I have to say it was pretty normal”. But not in the word normal.

So, you’ve got to investigate that for yourself and see when a tapped “r” feels right. And you’ll know when it feels right if you’re in the oral posture. Also notice that there’s no “schwa” sound, that “uh”, American sound in words like, “normal, mal, mal” in your Norwegian accent become, “normal, normal”. Give that a shot. So, what’s the musicality of this? It’s a friendly accent. Yes, there’s some upward inflection at the end there. What else do you notice? Listen to some native Norwegian speakers and let them tell you what the musicality of their accent is and then give it a shot for yourself.

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Let’s work on a general Philadelphia accent. My idea of a general Philadelphia accent probably has a little bit of an Atlantic City flavor in it. Because that’s where my father’s family is from. So we’re going to give this a shot. So the oral posture of this accent is, the lip corners are really far forward. And that pretty much takes care of it. So, try this phrase out. The cost of the course was too high, I thought. The cost of the course was too high, I thought. So course, cost, and thought end up sort of having the same kind of sound. The cost of the course was too high, I thought. Hear that?

This o sound is really interesting, because it turns into an o. Oh no, I don’t think so. It’s a really interesting kind of o sound. Try that one. Oh no, I don’t think so. Animal, hairy, and married become animal. Hairy. Married. The sound ah sometimes turns into a. So glass, fast, sometimes become glass, fast. So there’s two elements. Air. So because the lip corners are so far forward, sounds like ah in water become water. Water. My father would always offer me a glass of water. Not water. Water.

The l happens in the back of the throat, and can become very loose. So Philadelphia. You’re really just kind of bringing the back of the tongue up. Instead of Philadelphia with the front of the tongue, Philadelphia. Loose. So, what’s the musicality of this accent? You know, it’s got a lot of features of the New York accent. But it’s more rounded. So more lips forward. And it’s a little bit slower. It’s a metropolitan, urban accent. But it’s not as hard edged as your New York accents might be, so.

But listen to some native Philadelphia speakers. Explore the accent for yourself. Crawl into it that way. I hope these tips were helpful.

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So let’s work on some traits for a general Pittsburgh accent or ‘Pittsburgh-ese.’ A lot of people think that this is a fictional accent but my mother’s family is all from Pittsburgh and I’m telling you I was raised listening to these sounds. The oral posture for a general Pittsburgh accent, the tongue is pulled back and the tongue tip barely ever touches the roof of the mouth. Sounds like ‘L’ sounds are very difficult, if not, impossible to make. Words like, ‘Steelers’ and ‘Aliganey [SP]’ become ‘Steewers’ and ‘Awiganey,’ because the tongue tip never comes up. ‘Steewers Awiganey.’ Try that out. The ‘L’ kind of happens in the back of the mouth. You can throw out the word, ‘garbage’ all-together because old-school Pittsburgers use the world rubbish. Your classic ‘ow’ sound goes to an ‘ah,’ so ‘downtown’ becomes ‘downtahn.’ It’s a classic Pittburgh-ese, ‘downtahn, going downtahn.’ There’s another one, ‘going,’ ‘oh,’ sound turns more into a, ‘gawn.’ ‘Gawn downtahn.’ What’s the musicality of this accent? There’s very little articulation, so, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ becomes, ‘Whatamis’posetodo?’ Give that a shot with that tongue pulled back and the tongue tip never coming up. Look into some actual Pittsburgh speakers and see if you hear the same things I do.

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So let’s work on a general Minnesota accent. We’re gonna go straight for the stereotype, and then you can kind of knock it back from there. Depending on what you’re going for. So let’s work on the oral posture of the Minnesota accent. Take a look at me saying this phrase. ‘Oh geez, I’ve known him for 20 years or so.’ So watch what’s happening with my mouth. ‘Oh geez, I’ve known him for 20 years or so.’ So there’s a lot of lip corner tension, and there’s not a lot of jaw movement. So you get kind of a little bit of a smile there. They call it the Minnesota friendly accent.

The diphthong O. The two elements O in your Minnesota accent become shorter, to a more of a pure sound. So, Minnesota becomes Minnesota. O, O, Minnesota. The diphthong I. Because the jaw tension in the Minnesota accent, it brings that sound very far forward to I, I. I becomes I. And also, because the jaw doesn’t move that much that R sound becomes kind of hard. So work and further are the R sounds in the words work and further. Work and further. So in this oral posture, the ah sound becomes more forward. So father becomes father. Gone becomes gone.

So what’s the musicality of this accent? Listen to this phrase, ‘Oh geez, I’ve known him for 20 years or so.’ There’s a lot of upward inflect. It’s a very friendly accent there. So that tells you a little bit about the people from Minnesota, possibly. But don’t take my word for it. Go listen to some native Minnesota speakers, and discover the accent for yourself. Take a look at the oral posture. Take a look at the sound changes, and the musicality. And it’ll give you a good idea of what the accent is like.

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Here are some tips for your Mississippi southern accent. It’s a romantic stereotype kind of accent, and it’s southern drawn out. So you hear the musicality in some of the drawn out portions of it. The jaw is slightly elevated. So if you sigh through that oral posture, you have ahh. Ahh. Ahh. As opposed to your general American oral posture, which is uh, uh. A jaw that’s a little bit more dropped.

So let’s take a look at some sound changes. The diphthong I, that has two elements, I, ih, is drawn out and lengthened to one sound. Ahh. So my, time, I becomes my, time, I. But that’s really the only one that goes to a pure sound. That ahh. Everything else turns into another diphthong. Another two element vowel. So the e sound turns into oi. Is he afraid to speak to me? There’s that ahhn glide. Oi. Same thing with a. You want to elongate the first element. I. Play. Jake. Say. Give that a shot.

For that ih sound, that also turns into a diphthong. So hill, pen, chill becomes hill, pen, chill. So we would call this Mississippi southern accent a non-rhotic accent, meaning there are no r’s. So you would say things like father, and drifter. Instead of father, and drifter. Also there is no elision in this accent. So you wouldn’t say it’s farther up. You would say it’s farther up. Like that. So you wouldn’t connect farther and up. You would say it’s farther up. Give that a shot.

Very often in this Mississippi southern, we’ll drop the ng sound at the ends of words. So you’ll be swimmin’, and sittin’. Instead of swimming, and sitting.

So what’s the musicality of this accent? Well you hear it right now. It’s very lengthened, and very slow southern drawl. So slow that you create diphthongs. You create two element vowels instead of pure vowel sounds.

So have some fun with that accent. This is, like I said, a romantic stereotype accent. But people still speak like this. So look on the internet. Look for some clips. And see what you find in the accent.

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Here are some tips for a general Polish accent. Now the reason I know a Polish accent is because I used to go to a Polish day spa. So my way to crawl into my Polish accent, and to get into the oral posture, is to say exfoliation, exfoliation, exfoliation. It’s very similar to your Russian oral posture. So your tongue is pulled back. But it’s not pulled back as far as the Russian accent. There’s more action in the front of the mouth. Exfoliation, exfoliation, exfoliation.

Some sounds changes for Polish include that ih to ee transition. So “I loved my big trip.” in your Polish accent becomes “I loveed my big treep. I loveed my big treep.” And it’s all very front in the mouth. Unlike your Russian accent. “I loveed my big treep.” Same sounds, but you put the focus in a different way and it’s more Polish. That th sound, in American English, thin, thick, this, and that, in your Polish accent become theenk, theeck, thees, thaeet. Very far forward. In your Polish accent you’ll get a hard R sound. So “Rachels runs errands for her mother and father on Saturday. Rachel runs errands for her mother and father on Saturday.” And you still feel all that action in the front of the mouth, even though those R’s are pulled back pretty far. Hear how I say the word mother. Mother. Mother. There’s no shwa. There’s no uh. It’s mah. Mahther. Mahther and fahther. Ah.

Try that. And try this phrase. “I gaht ahp, and sahw my fahiles were corrahpt.” So the musicality of the Polish accent, feels very reserved to me for some reason. And it feels a little bit softer. A little quieter. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to some native Polish speakers, and see what you get from it.

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Let’s work on a general Mexican dialect. And we’re going to straight for the caricature, and then we can knock it back to a more realistic version. Once we get really good with the caricature. So what’s the oral posture of a Mexican dialect. My daughters is why I work hard, you know? Because I don’t want my daughter to have two jobs, you know? That’s a line from one of my plays. I have a Mexican character. So did you notice anything about where my mouth was moving? The corners of my mouth were coming down a little bit. There was jaw movement. There was also a lot of nasality, because the mouth doesn’t open up too much. So some sounds go through the nose, you know? So, I don’t want my daughters, you know, have two jobs, you know? You hear that nasality quality?

A lot of sounds become de-voiced in the Mexican accents. So daughters has a s at the end instead of a z at the end. So it’s not daughters. It’s daughters. And you’ll hear also that the y sound in you know. It’s a phrase that this one speaker that I studied said a lot. You know? Do you know? Do you know? Starts with a sort of a ja sound. Ja know? Ja know? Ja know? That’s because in the Spanish language, the letter y is pronounced as a j. And so a lot of the times Mexican speakers will speak words that begin with a y with that ja sound.

A lot of times you’ll hear that hard r sound. Like daughters. Daughters. Instead of daughters. That general r sound. You’ll hear a really dark, hard r. Daughters. So what’s the musicality of the Mexican accent. It’s (?), (?). Slow it down. And talk slow. And you take your time. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to some native Mexican speakers. And try it on for yourself. Do some conscious mimicry. By trying to imitate the way they move their mouth. The way they inflect their phrases. And go work on your Mexican accent.

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Hi, let’s take a look at some tips for a general Indian accent. One might even call it stereotypical Indian accent. But go all the way for it. And then you can pull back on it to make it more authentic. So, you pull your tongue back all the way in the back of your mouth, and you imagine that you have a, an egg in the back of your throat. You imagine that you have an egg in the back of your throat. Your tongue comes back and down. So you pull your tongue back and down, like this, and you hear that first sound change right away. That pull, pull, pull. The p sound, pull and push, almost sounds like a “b.” Do you hear that? There’s not a lot of air coming out of the mouth for pull and push. It’s pull, push.

Also you hear that vowel change. That pull, push sound. That uh, uh sound becomes pull, pull, push. Give that a shot. There’s this very slight v w exchange, so that the woman was a vet becomes the woman was a vet. The woman was a vet. It’s not the voman was a vet, or the woman was a wet. It’s somewhere in the middle. And it’s very, give that a light touch. Give tapping the r’s a shot for your Indian accent. So I took my daughter for a treatment. I took my daughter for a treatment. The o (?), that combination vowel sound, that o ooh sound for old, and no, in your Indian accent will become of a pure single vowel sound. So no. Old. Give that a shot.

So what’s the musicality of this accent? There’s an upward inflection at the ends of the thoughts, as you’ve noticed. There’s also a darkness to the sound, because the tongue is pulled so far back in the mouth. But listen to some native speakers, and investigate it for yourself. Maybe you’ll notice some other things about the musicality. And you’ll get to know a little bit more about the Indian people by the way they communicate.

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There are lots of different kinds of people that live in the Bronx, which makes it such an amazing place. So, we’re going to zero in on a sort of Puerto Rican flavor to this Bronx accent.

There’s a lot of lip corner tension, and the tongue is high in the back of the mouth. Ah sounds become dipthongs, so there’s two elements to them. They become ‘Awh,’ so law, thought, cost become ‘lawh, thawht, cawhst.’ Try this fritz. I thought this was happening, but basically, it’s not happening. I ‘thawht’ this was happening, but ‘basicilly’, it’s not happening. You hear that little Latin flavor, very fast tip of the tongue.

That ‘th’ sound definitely does turn to a d in phrases like the Bronx, da Bronx instead of the Bronx. So, what’s the musicality of this accent? It’s a very fast accent, you get some New York flavors, and you also get some Spanish as a first language flavor too. There’s lots of fun variety in this accent, and there’s a lot of musicality, a lot of pitch variation. But go listen to some native Bronx speakers, and crawl into the language that way.

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Here are some tips for a Cockney accent. Now, this is a very general form of your very urban London accent. So you want to bring your lips really far forward for the oral posture. And you want to almost imagine that there’s like a light bulb in your mouth, so there’s a lot of space in the back of your mouth and the front of your mouth is closed. Bring your lip corners forward, for something that looks like this.

Let us look at some sound changes for Cockney. The ‘E’ turns into an ‘eh’. “Does she really need to make believe she can’t see me?” in your Cockney accent turns into, “Does she really need to make believe she can’t see me?” “Eh, eh, eh.” So it is that gentle up-glide into the ‘e’ sound.

Another important one is that ‘ah to o.’ Now, “Saul’s daughter studied law” is how I would say it in my American accent. In RP we’d bring our lips corners forward for, “Saul’s daughter studied law.” But for Cockney you want to just shove those lip corners all the way forward and go, “Saul’s daughter studied law.” The more forward you can bring your lip corners, the easier all of the other sound changes are to make. So, “Saul’s daughter studied law. Saul’s daughter studied law.” Hear that? So in RP, we would bring that ‘e’ sound to an ‘ih’ in cases like, “Betty is really silly. Betty is really silly.” But in Cockney, it actually is closer to your American pronunciation of ‘e’, “Betty is really silly. Betty is really silly.” You go all the way to the ‘e’ sound. But notice that glottal stop on the word, “Betty. Betty?” There are a lot of glottals in Cockney accent and that’s part of the musicality of the accent. A lot of glottal stops, a lot of syncopation.

A couple more sound changes for Cockney. Tat ‘t-h’ sound “th” turns into an “f” sometimes, it turns into an ‘f’ sometimes. “I knew I’d think of something.” turns into, “I knew I’d think of something. I knew I’d think of something. I knew I’d think of something.” And, you know, you go all the way into a sound change like that, then you kind of back off from it once you get it because it sounds a little strong at first and then when you practice them and drill them, you knock it back a little bit and it sounds a little more authentic.

The ‘t-h’ sound can also turn into a ‘v’ sound as in, “My brother and I are always together. My brother and I are always together.” turns into “brother, together.” You hear the elision, just like in the RP and the Estuary accent. “My brother and I. Brother and I. Brother and I are always together,” so you hear that elision of the ‘r’ sound too.

So again, listen to some native speakers for that musicality. It’s a syncopated sound. It’s a really urban sound so those sounds are very far forward and a little sharper than you would get in your more upper class British accent where it’s a more little delicate. And so then you can hear some differences for yourself, okay?

There are some tips for a general Cockney accent.

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Let’s take a look at some for a general Italian accent. So, first we look at the oral posture. So what’s the oral posture of a native Italian speaker? It’s easy to find it if you pretend you’re about to trill your R’s. So, and then you just hold your tongue there. The tongue is forward in the mouth and it’s high and if you sign through that sounds you get an, which is sort of the Italian thinking sound. You know in American English you would say an a, which is the oral posture for American English but you pop into that Italian oral posture and it’s an.

An interesting feature of an Italian is that there are no diphthongs in Italian. So there are no vowels with 2 elements like, in American English would be, in Italian. Here are some words to practice your pure vowels instead of go, I, play 2 elements, 2 elements you got 1 element. Go, I, play. Often in Italian H’s are dropped so I’m so happy to see you becomes I’m so happy to see you. Try tapping or rolling your R’s for a general Italian accent. So, the river is rough this time of day becomes the river is rough this time of day, the river is rough. You do a little tap of your uvula ridge, the gum ridge right behind your upper teeth. Sometimes Italian speakers will add a little vestigial schwa, so an extra a sound before a word. So instead of, do you like my new dress? You’ll get something like, do you like my new dress? So you head that little a sound at the end. Start going all the way into it. Do you like my new dress? And then back off for a minute so it sounds a little more natural. The, to the E sound is a very important distinguishment. So, Italians and my Italian students will know this for sure that the, sound doesn’t show up that that much in Italian. So I’m mixing it in, in American English and will become an Italian. I’m mixing it in, E. I’m mixing it in.

The T, H sound and, becomes very dentalized in the Italian accent just because of where the tongue is in the oral posture. So thick, thin, this, and that become thick, thin, this, that. The, to the, sound so in American English we’ll say hat, chat, that. In Italian we might say hit, that, chat. This is a tricky 1 for Italian speakers to get this in American English that, sound. Good. So in Italian and in your Italian accent, you want to go all the way to an, good, books. So what’s the musicality in Italian accent? Oh my gosh! Italian is all about musicality so just listen to some Italian speakers and you hear the music of the way they express themselves, it tells you a lot about who they are as people and it helps you to jump into the accent with your whole body, your whole spirit.

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Here are some tips for a general French accent. The first thing we do is look at the oral posture. What is the oral posture of a French speaker? You bring your lip kind of forward and the lips are relaxed. So they are forward but they are relaxed and you can find this posture by making an ‘e’ sound, “e” and then you wrap your lips around it. “eu” and that is your French thinking sound as opposed to your general American thinking sound which is that schwa right in the middle of your mouth, “ah”. The lips are forward but they are relaxed so when you say ‘p’ sounds, sometimes they have a little bit of a ‘b’ quality to them so it sounds a little like ‘”bout,” “balace,” “blace.” You get a little bit of that ‘b’ sound to ‘p’ words.

Another sound change for the French accent is the ‘t-h’ sound, “th;” thin, thick, this and that become szin, szick, szis and szat so they switch to that ‘s-z’ sound. That very American ‘oo’ sound, ‘she looks good in that color.’ She looks good, ‘ugh, ugh’ becomes a very rounded, “She looks good in szis color. She looks good in szis color.”

Okay, so color, we have gotten to the ‘r’, the French ‘r’. So your general American ‘r’ is in the front of the mouth, “ra, ra, ra” or really more in the middle, the middle of the tongue. But your French ‘r’ sound is all the way in the back. So the tongue root, the back of the tongue, comes up for ‘ra, ra, ra.’ So try this sentence, “Around the rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.” In your French accent would be “Around the rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.” So the combination d-g sound, “dg” is an affricate in American English for judge becomes “j”. So the word judge becomes judge and the word Jill becomes Jill.

‘H’s are routinely dropped in your French accent so if you have a sentence like, “How do you get to the palace hotel?” In your French accent would be, “How do you get to the palace hotel?”

What is the musicality of the French accent? Well it is really fluid. There is not a lot of pitch variety. It moves like this. I mean, the word that comes to my mind is sexy. It is sexy. It is a sexy accent so give that a shot and listen to some native French speakers so you get their take on it as well.

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So what’s the oral posture of the German accent? So there is a lot of lip corner action. A lot of action in the front of the mouth. And not a lot of opening in the mouth. Sound changes for the German accent includes the a sound. This area is very close to my work. This area is very close to my work. You hear that va, va, va. It’s similar to that French r in the back of your mouth. This area is very close to my work. Again, this th sound that comes up in so many accents, in the German accent thin, thick, this, and that become thin, thick, this, that.

So ss, ss, zss, zss. Or thin, thick, this, that. Zss, zss sounds. I think you’ve already heard that that w transitions to a v sound. For a word like work. Work. And you want to give it a shot, and make it very hard, and say work. But you don’t really hear that as much as a lighter touch to it. Work. Work. This area is very close to my work. Lots of sounds in your German accent become unvoiced. So words like thinking, and wishing, you get that sound in American English. That mm in the back of your mouth.

In your German accent, you get thinking. Wishing. K, k. Thinking. Wishing. It’s an unvoiced plosive in the back of the mouth. So the (?) in your American English, that d g combination sound for judge, and German, in your German accent become judge, German. A little more ch, ch, ch. Again, unvoiced.

So what is the musicality of the German accent? It’s very sharp. It’s very to the point. In general. I mean, there are all kinds of different German speakers. So listen to some native German speakers for yourself. And explore the musicality. And kind of crawl into the accent that way. I hope these tips on your German accent were helpful.

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Let’s work on your Appalachian accent. This is mountain speak, and this is the accent that shows up in the mountains of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee.

The oral posture for this accent, your tongue is pulled really far back in your throat, and your lips are barely moving at all. Try that. The “OO” sound becomes “Oooo.” The moon looks blue on a June night. The “AW” sound becomes “Aaaaw.” I thought I caught that dog. I thought I caught that dog becomes I thought I caught that dog. Have fun with that.

The “I” sound, as in “tiny my, ” becomes the “A.” Tiny. My. Let’s talk about Rs. Do it. Do it even more. Really go into that R. In fact, do it so much that you add an R sometimes when there isn’t even an R in the word, like “warsh.” “Wash” becomes “warsh.” “Carolina” becomes “Carolinar.” Go for it. Go all the way for the caricature, and then you can always knock it back some if you want to. Go for it, and have fun with it.

What do you notice about the musicality of this accent? It’s very choppy. It’s very (?), meaning there’s lots of Rs, so that affects the musicality of it. Because my mouth isn’t opening so much, there’s a privacy in that kind of communication. Don’t take my word for it. Go listen to some native Appalachian speakers. There’s a fabulous documentary on Appalachian folk ballads. Watch it. Learn it, and work on your Appalachian accent.

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Here are some tips for a general Irish accent. So the first thing we look at is that oral posture. When I start to talk in my Irish accent, there’s a little bit tension in the back of my tongue. So it pulls it back just a little bit. But the tongue is very relaxed, so you get those little whistling sounds through the t’s and the d’s. So that might be your first sound change. I thought about it, and I read about it, turns into your Irish I thought about it, and I read about it. Hear that little whistling? I thought about it. And I read about it. The o (?), in American English, o ooh, it’s two elements. It’s a very pure and single element in your Irish accent.

So it’s oh. I don’t know. I don’t know becomes I don’t know. Or try the phrase, either ya come home or ya don’t. Either ya come home, or ya don’t. The r is retroflects [SP], meaning that you’re pulling your tongue back like this, so it’s more of your general American ruh, ruh. It’s r, ruh, ruh. The western world. The western world. Instead of the western world. You get the western world. Give that a shot.

The th sound is so awesome in Irish. Because it’s that very soft sound. So instead of thirty-three, you’re getting a very soft t sound in tirtee-tree. The shwa sound, that a American sound, in Irish, becomes a little bit more rounded. So it’s ohp. Abohve. Lohve. Instead of up. Above. Love. A little more rounded. Ohp. Abohve. Lohve.

So what’s the musicality of the Irish accent? Well I think you can hear it for yourself. I know it sounds a little stereotypical, but people really talk like this. So don’t take my word for it, though. Listen to some native speakers, and hear that beautiful Irish lilt for yourself. And get into the rhythm of it, by doing some Conscious mimicry.

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Let’s take a look at some tips for the London accent, or what we call estuary. Estuary is a river tributary off of the Thames, so think of this accent as sort of off chute of the RP accent. Take a look at this same oral posture for RO. The jewel is raised and forward just a little bit. The tongue is raised in the mouth, but not pulled back. You get more glottal stops like in the word department. In RP we would say department, but in estuary we would say department. You get more vocalized “L” sounds.

In RP we’d say milk. In estuary we might say milk. In the word football, in RP we might say football. In estuary we might say football. Hear the difference there? Just a little bit more glottal, a little bit more urban sound. It’s not all the way to Cockney. It’s not like football or milk, but it’s on the way there. If you think about all the British accents at a spectrum, you’ve got RP on one end and Cockney on the other. Estuary is somewhere in the middle.

Just like in RP, is estuary we would look for elisions. We’d look for words that end in an “R” and the following word begins with a vowel so you hear that “R.” My brother owns a number of them. My brother owns a number of them. You wouldn’t say my brother owns, you would say my brother owns a number of them.

In estuary, you might see some vestigial “R” action going on. R’s get thrown in when they really shouldn’t be there at all. In the phrase, “Rebecca and I saw each other yesterday,” you might hear someone speaking that London estuary accent. “Rebeccer and I sawr each other the other day.” Unlike the RP accent, there are no tact R’s in estuary. You wouldn’t say very in estuary. You would say very.

There can be some H dropping. Things that you may consider very Cockney sounding for your modern London accent, you want to drop the H’s. “I went home for holidays.” Sounds perfectly fine. In RP it would be, “I went home for the holiday.” In estuary it would be I went home for the holiday.

What’s the musicality of the estuary accent? It’s very quick. It’s very musical. You use pitch to make emphasis and link the vowel instead of loudness. Don’t take my word for it. Go and listen to some modern London speakers and watch their mouths. Listen to the way they speak. Pick up some tips of your own.