British accent or American?

Question

HiCould you please tell me if this is a British accent or American? Also, [though it sounds daft], could you privide me with a "tip" that could help me understand/differentiate the British accent from the American"?Thanks,Tom

Dokterjokkebrok · Accepted Answer

Mr. TomHi

Could you please tell me if this is a British accent or American?

Also, [though it sounds daft], could you privide me with a "tip" that could help me understand/differentiate the British accent from the American"?

Thanks,

Tom

Hi Tom,

I would say British English. I can tell that from:

- the non-rhotic speech (although some British accents employ a 'burr', and in some American accents r's are also very weakly pronounced or even omitted. It's especially clear in words like 'world', which the commentator pronounces /w??ld/ rather than /w??rld/.

- also the different pronunciations of constancy /'k?nt .st?nt .si/ (Br.) and /'k??nt st?nt .si/ (Am.)

- know /n??/ (Br.) and /no?/ (Am.)

- also the word 'been'. In British, been functioning as ed-participle is frequently pronounced /bi:n/, whereas in American English this is usually not the case. More natural for the American accent would be /bIn/.

Beside all of the phoneme contrasts mentioned above, we also need to to take into account 'idiomatic differences', 'grammatical differences', and, not to forget – often times severely underestimated – intonation. The American accent, phonemic differences left aside, has a different tongue setting as well as acoustic sound, if you will.

So, in brief, many very subtle differences and once you've familiarized yourself with the underlying phonetics, I'm sure that, in time, it'll become increasingly less difficult for you to distinguish between the two accents.

Best wishes,

- DJB -

Mr. Tom · Answer

Thanks, DJB!

I really appreciate the effort!

Tom

British accent or American?

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