ACCENT: How the words sound

Accents are established over years by people from different areas conversing with each other. An example is the Liverpool ‘Scouse‘ accent or Singapore ‘Singaporean’ accent.

Your accent results from how, where, and when you learned the language you are speaking. It is true that accents are passed down through family however our biggest influence is from our peers, especially as teenagers.

We all have the ability to change our accents as we all have the same articulators (tongue, teeth, mouth and lips).

Other English Accents

If you are interested in English accents please check out this webpage:

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/accentsanddialects/

It includes accents from:

• Received Pronunciation (RP)
• General American
• Northern England
• Southern England
• London (Cockney)
• Wales
• Scotland
• Ireland
• New York
• Canada
• United States: New England
• United States: the South
• The West Indies
• Austrailia
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• India
• Africa: Nigeria

Try to speak with a British accent, but which one?

A Brief Tour of the Varying Accents of the British Isles from a Dialect Coach

Dialect coach Andrew Jack provides a tour of the accents found in the British Isles, and highlights the key differences between each region’s pronunciation of English. He provided dialect training for actors appearing in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.