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mangotango
Joined: 24 Apr 2015
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 Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:14 am Post subject: What is a neutral accent? Do you have one? |
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Hello again,
I am finishing a research degree and would like to ask a selection of questions over the coming month, based on the results of a questionnaire.
I posted a while back about accent discrimination and had a few comments regarding neutral accents.
I am welcoming any comments about 'neutral accents'. Whether you consider yourself to have a neutral accent? Or do you know of anyone with a neutral accent and can you explain what it is?
Thanks in advance. |
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Coltronator
Joined: 04 Dec 2013
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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| News broadcaster English. It occurs mostly in a strip running from Toronto Canada south west through Michigan, Wis, Min, Dakotas & Wy, then spreads out to cover much of Northern California, Oregon and Wash along with Vancouver in Canada. |
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Sister Ray
Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Location: Fukuoka
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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Ha ha, that's not a parochial answer at all, is it?
What if you happen to be a news broadcaster working for the BBC or Al Jazeera? They should all strive to emulate the "neutral" tones of Wisconsin? |
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Coltronator
Joined: 04 Dec 2013
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry NA news broadcaster English (England and other countries have their own NB English). It a colloquial term for the targeted accent which sometimes get labeled in the technical sense as "General American". I did not make the name up.
Even people who don't have that accent themselves often hear it as neutral because of the massive exposure to it (them as it is made of various similar accents) Not everyone does but it is the most likely to be. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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I am told for the most part that I have a neutral American accent. The Koreans always love to get me to their voice recordings for English in my area. They tell me they like my accent. Their words not mine. I'm from the Maritimes.
BTW: I'm not criticizing other English accents. |
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FMPJ
Joined: 03 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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| I have a generic Western US accent (Central Coast California, not the "pen/pin" Sacramento area), which is perceived as "neutral" by most listeners because it's the dialect of Hollywood and US television, for the most part. |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:44 am Post subject: |
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[edit]
Last edited by schwa on Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:44 am Post subject: |
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| Coltronator wrote: |
| News broadcaster English. It occurs mostly in a strip running from Toronto Canada south west through Michigan, Wis, Min, Dakotas & Wy, then spreads out to cover much of Northern California, Oregon and Wash along with Vancouver in Canada. |
Thats about right for a neutral North American accent which Koreans tend to be most comfortable with. Not parochial, just true. |
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Sister Ray
Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Location: Fukuoka
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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| schwa wrote: |
Thats about right for a neutral North American accent which Koreans tend to be most comfortable with. Not parochial, just true. |
But who decides that North American is the yard stick for neutrality? Koreans according to your post - which is, frankly, just bizarre.
I was always taught that received pronunciation was the "correct" accent when one spoke English. It is certainly held up as the standard English pronunciation in the United Kingdom.
However, I would not claim RP is "neutral" as an objective truth. Nor, do I think it makes sense to claim that "North American Broadcaster English" or whatever you called it, is inherently neutral to all speakers of English. That is parochial, whether you like it or not. |
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jazzmaster
Joined: 30 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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| A neutral accent is a misnomer. It doesn't exist. |
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Coltronator
Joined: 04 Dec 2013
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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It is not inherently. You are correct.
It is practically. The massive exposure through television, radio, and movies over 70 years of executive preference has made it sound neutral for many who do not even speak with that accent. The cause is certainly parochial, however the fact that it is now true is just simple reality. (Again for North America only, other counties have other accents that would be considered neutral such as Received British English) |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Sister Ray wrote: |
| schwa wrote: |
Thats about right for a neutral North American accent which Koreans tend to be most comfortable with. Not parochial, just true. |
But who decides that North American is the yard stick for neutrality? Koreans according to your post - which is, frankly, just bizarre. |
For jobs in Korea, Koreans decide which accent they prefer the students to learn. While you and I may disagree with their decision, in the end it's still their decision to make.
| Quote: |
| I was always taught that received pronunciation was the "correct" accent when one spoke English. |
There is no "correct accent" or "correct dialect when speaking English, or any other language for that matter. All accents and dialects are equally valid.
| Quote: |
| It is certainly held up as the standard English pronunciation in the United Kingdom. |
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the prestige dialect for the UK. Other countries have different prestige dialects. As it happens, America's is as Coltronator stated. There's no parochialism there.
| Quote: |
| However, I would not claim RP is "neutral" as an objective truth. Nor, do I think it makes sense to claim that "North American Broadcaster English" or whatever you called it, is inherently neutral to all speakers of English. That is parochial, whether you like it or not. |
Again, there's nothing parochial about it. And there's no objective truth--other than the simple fact that Korean schools, students, and students' parents generally prefer the student to learn America's prestige dialect, not the UK's. Nobody's saying that it's neutral for all speakers of English, just that Korean schools, in general, consider the American prestige dialect to be neutral. |
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Coltronator
Joined: 04 Dec 2013
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 5:55 pm Post subject: |
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It also has business applications to treat it as neutral even though there is no objective way to say it is, only practicality would dictate it being so.
Call centres and other telecommunication centres that would hire hundreds of people would be located in one of these areas because their accents are understandable to a higher degree.
It doesn't make the accent more correct, just more useful because of everyone's previous experience with them.
On a related note. Ever wonder why Koreans (or insert any other native of a country whose language you are trying to learn) hardly ever (a bit of hyperbole here) understand your Korean sentence when you make but 2 minor mistakes when you would understand an English sentence with the same types of mistakes 99% of the time? It is because as English speakers we have a large experience dealing with people who are less than 100% fluent English speakers. Korean media until very recently has never really had that except in really bad (and nationalist) stereo types played for comedy, usually at the expense of Americans and Chinese. We having such realistic depictions in media and often having personal experiences with previously have little trouble with common English errors. Why are Taxi cab drivers so fun to talk to and practice English with? Their occupation has given them such personal experiences to have a good ear for "bad korean". |
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jazzmaster
Joined: 30 Sep 2013
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| Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 11:46 pm Post subject: |
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I think people are getting confused here. A neutral accent doesn't exist. You can have Standard English, or for the older posters you can have Received Pronunciation, but a neutral accent doesn't exist.
You might have a General American accent, which is what the Koreans prefer. But that accent is still American, therefore the word neutral wouldn't accurately describe it. You can also have accents that are easier to understand, but linguistically they still have characteristics that make it region specific.
There are many different labels that people put on accents and they change over time, but the so called neutral accent is an oxymoron.
Papers have also shown that once English accents reach a particular level of understandability other traits become more important, such as speed, pitch, and tone. There are loads of papers on this stuff if the OP is interested. |
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wooden nickels
Joined: 23 May 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 3:09 am Post subject: |
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I have heard several people that speak with a very high pitch. Maybe they had a neutered accent.
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