Transcript
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.
