#general american

[linguistness]

General American (vs. Received Pronunciation)

General American:

a pronunciation standard frequently used by news readers (aka ‘network standard’)

an accent lacking particular regional, ethnic, or other characteristics regarding the socio-economic background of the speaker

-> here are some features of GenAm that are different from RP (the general ‘British English accent’)

Phonological features: 

/r/ sounds -> GA is rhotic (/r/ in both <rat> and <tar> are pronounced)

yod-dropping: palatal approximant [j] not found after coronals, e.g. <student, duke, Tuesday, suit, new>

t-tapping: /t/ and /d/ pronounced as a tap in everyday speech if preceded by a sonorant and followed by a vowel or /l/, e.g. <party, writer, rider, little>

Vowels: 

no phonemic centring diphthongs /iə/ /ɛə/ /uə/

LOT-THOUGHT merger: in RP, <lot> is pronounced with /ɒ/ and <thought, order> are pronounced with /ɔ:/; in GenAm, <lot, thought> are pronounced with /ɐ:/ and <order> with /ɔ/

no TRAP-BATH split: the <a> is pronounced the same way in GA (e.g. <trap, cat, bad, can, gas> are pronounced as <bath, path, glass, dance, example>)

Other features: 

stronger secondary stress, e.g. <secretary, commentary, auditory>

different pronunciations than RP: e.g. <herb, leisure, privacy, schedule, tomato, vase, garage, anti>

Grammatical differences: 

RP retains some irregular past tense forms which have been regularised in GenAm, e.g. <burnt> vs. <burned>, <dreamt> vs. <dreamed>

in GenAm, singular forms with collective nouns are more wide-spread than in RP, e.g. “the committee / police / staff is aware that” (GenAm) vs. “...are aware that” (RP)

GenAm requires an article in certain constructions, e.g. “in (the) hospital”, “in (the) summer”, etc.

differences in prepositions, e.g. “check out” (GenAm) vs. “check on” (RP), “to be on a team” (GenAm) vs. “to be in a team” (RP), etc.

Lexical differences: 

same words, different meanings: e.g. pants

same words, additional meanings: e.g. smart -> can also mean ‘well-groomed’ in UK

same meaning, different words: e.g. petrol vs. gas, autumn vs. fall, bonnet vs. hood, lorry vs. truck, jumper vs. sweater, biscuit vs. cookie, etc.

[i-remember-there-was-mist]

This is kind of a weird question, but, I don't really know who else to ask. Do you know how to like, lose the "gay accent", like are there accent teachers who teach how to "sound straight" or something. I want to go into musical theatre but honestly, every time I see myself in a show recording I realize I sound feminine, and I'm worried I'll be that stereotype of a gay chorus boy who can't get speaking parts because he doesn't sound convincing enough to play a straight character.

Actually, yes.  In school, you actually learn a standard dialect called General American (if you’re in the US, if you’re in the UK, you’d learn RP otherwise known as received pronunciation.)  General American sounds a bit dated--more like the way people talk in old-timey movies, but the idea is to neutralize your accent so that you can have a versatile, accent-less voice.  Most people are getting rid of their Midwestern, Southern, Chicago, California, or New York accent, but it would also neutralize your accent.  This training doesn’t force it to go away in your day to day life, but it teaches you how to “turn it off” so to speak.  There are also vocal coaches who do this same thing one-on-one!

[airstyledraconos]

Visit Original Link

Someone asked me about my accent at one point and I had an interesting conversation with misslampface on the subject, so I went ahead and recorded this. I've always found accents to be a fascinating topic. My accent (insofar that I have one) is highly mutable, depending on the situation. I have been known to have a chameleon accent that changes to fit my environment or the subject at hand. I tried to stick to my natural accent here!

Your name and username.

Where you’re from.

Pronounce the following words: Aunt, Roof, Route, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Pajamas, Caught, Naturally, Aluminium, GIF, Tumblr, Crackerjack, Doorknob, Envelope, GPOY.

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

What is a bubbly carbonated drink called?

What do you call gym shoes?

What do you call your grandparents?

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Choose a book and read a passage from it.

Do you think you have an accent?

Be a wizard or a vampire?

Do you know anyone on Tumblr in real life?

End audio post by saying any THREE words you want.

Apparently, I'm supposed to tag people, but I really don't like pushing things on others, so if you actually listened to this, then consider yourself tagged. :)

[electeddevelopment]

I could've sworn I had an accent challenge posted somewhere on this blog, but I guess I deleted it or something.

It's okay though, because I'll just tell you that my accent cleaves pretty close to General American, so you're not missing anything attractive, funny, or otherwise interesting in any way.

[belleirene-blog]

Where are YOU from?

Straight up. I am Irish, from Dublin, went to school in Bray, Co. Wicklow (home of Katie Taylor) went to college in Cork and lived in London for 2 years. My accent diverts from south side, kinda bland, not obviously Dublin, to a Cork twang, depending on who I am near. My london stint has afforded me the odd "innit" and "I was sat there" in my vocabulary which never existed before. You'll hear all those elements in my voice. I'm like an accent mongrel at the moment. 

Now. When I sing, I sing with my own accent, unless I am mimicing an artist. I work hard to sound like myself and not General American or Standard English.

MY question is this... In a country with so many diverse accents and with internationally acclaimed artists such as Damien Dempsey, The Rubberbandits, The Dubliners singing truly in their own accents, WHY do we still have a plethora of Irish acts emerging from this country with what can only be described as MID-Atlantic Faux American Falseness?

Are we worried that there is no melody in our own accents? No? Not in Cork? Or in Kerry? 

Are we perhaps worried that words won't rhyme in the same way? Or won't rhyme in a way that the masses of people who might buy your album won't be able to sing along to the AUTOTUNED pulp?

There is a wealth of originality in accents as they are a massive component of who and how we define ourselves - vocally and socially. 

Case in POINT:

THE SCRIPT: http://youtu.be/gS9o1FAszdk

Please Please Please sing like where you're from, its SO much more interesting and believable. 

[norwegianpornfaerie]

General American (GA), also known as Standard American English (SAE), is a major accent of American English. The accent is not restricted to the United States. Within American English, General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American English, several Northeastern accents, and other distinct regional accents and social group accents like African American Vernacular English.  General American, like British Received Pronunciation (RP) and most standard language varieties of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire nation. However, it has become widely spoken in many American films, TV series, national news, commercial ads, and American radio broadcasts. The General American accent is most closely related to a generalized Midwestern accent and is spoken particularly by many newscasters.

(And it's also MY chosen accent! :D)

(Source: Wikipedia)