vbc t4 m16 accent familiarization

Accent FamiliarizationVBC T4/M16 Kausar Abdullah

May 2007

2© Virtusa Corporation ● Confidential

Accent familiarization

Everyone speaks a language with an accent.

A particular accent essentially reflects a person's linguistic background and there are noticeable differences.

Virtusa’s head office is in the US and has a clientele spread across the US. The case is similar with our office and clients in the UK.

This means there will be Virtusan interaction with a wide range of accents.

This module will assist you in familiarizing yourself with these different accents.

The sound clips enable you to get an idea of the differences between the American and the British accents - start sharpening your hearing skills.

TIP - Every time you say something to someone and they look blankly back at you, know that both of you are about to have a language learning experience!


Accent familiarization

The main differences in English Standard and Variant language are:

1. Pronunciation of words

2. Vocabulary usage + Spelling

3. Stress patterns

4. Intonation

5. Idiomatic speech


Main differences

1. Pronunciation of Words

This part will help you understand a few of the differences between pronunciation in the US and UK accents


Pronunciation

United States

The different dialects cannot be simply divided into the Northern American and the Southern American accents

There's also a New Jersey (or should I say "Noo Joisey") accent

There's also a New England accent, a Californian accent, the Southern drawl and lot more variations in between

Here are a few examples:

• Americans usually pronounce the letter "u" as oo, so "duty" (which in UK would be "dyuty") comes out as "do-tee" and "tune" is " toon “. Mind you, this isn’t applicable to all "u" words.

• “often” US – of-tin UK - of-fin


Pronunciation

Dialects and accents vary not only between the countries in the

United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales)

but also within areas of these individual countries.

Just some of the different ‘British’ accents:

– Northern England – Geordie; Lancashire; Yorkshire; Cumbrian, etc.

– The Midlands – Birmingham; Leicestershire; Derbyshire, etc.

– Southern England – Cockney; ‘Estuary’; Cornish; Somerset; Bristolian, etc.

– Wales – South coast; Valleys; North coast, etc. + Welsh language

– Scotland – West coast, East coast, Highland; Isles, etc. + Gaelic language

– Northern Ireland

– Eire// Southern Ireland + Irish Gaelic language


Pronunciation

United Kingdom

A few examples of UK pronunciation vs. US pronunciation

• A word with "er/ar" at the end - "runner"

UK – run-na US – run-err (more emphasis on the –er- sound)

• The commonly used word “schedule”

UK – shedyul US – skejyul/skedyul

• Yet another very different sound in the pronunciation of the prefix “anti-”

UK – ant-ee US – ant-eye


2. Vocabulary usage + Spelling differences

This part will show you different words used for a common object and some slight variations in spellings


Vocabulary usage

American (AE) British (BE) Notes

apartment flat

A flat occupying more than one floor is called a “maisonette in BE and a “duplex” in New York. AE uses “townhouse” to refer to a multi-level apartment.

appetizer starter, hors

d'oeuvre But "hors d'oeuvre" is rather posh.

area code dialling code Telephone. The obsolescent BE phrase STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling) code

may be encountered.

bathroom toilet Especially in a domestic context. In BE a bathroom is a room in a private

house or a hotel that contains a bath.

bell pepper

red pepper, green pepper Yellow ones are also available. A variety of capsicum.

Brit Briton

The word "Brit" is rapidly coming into popular usage everywhere but Britain! The correct adjectives for things from Scotland are: "Scottish" for most things, "Scots" for the people and a sort of pine tree, and "Scotch" for the whisky.

busy signal engaged tone Telephone system. In India either 'busy' or 'engaged' is used for the same.

cell phone, cellular phone mobile phone Often just called “a mobile" in BE and "cell" in AE.

eraser rubber Used to remove marks made by pencils.

faucet tap

gas petrol

high school secondary

school


Vocabulary usage

American (AE) British (BE) Notes

hood bonnet car

line queue Group of people waiting in an orderly fashion. AE "waiting in line" is equivalent to BE "queueing".

mail post

movies films The productions themselves. In BE you go to the cinema; the theatre (UK spelling) is for plays. US ‘theater’.

number sign hash mark On the computer keyboard and telephones.

outlet socket Power points.

pants trousers

private school public school

public school state school

rain check no equivalent A ticket for re-admission at a later date. Also used to indicate "Can we do it later?"

résumé curriculum vitae (CV) AE pronounced as -re/za/may-

sidewalk pavement or footpath

soccer football Do not confuse with American football.

stop lights traffic lights

stove cooker, oven AE pronounced as -st[ou]ve-

washroom toilet


Spelling differences

Here are some words with different spellingsAmerican British Notes

aluminum aluminium AE pronunciation – eloominum BE pronunciation - aleminiyum

boro borough

"boro" is informal and is sometimes seen in British road markings. In Scotland the word is "burgh" but it is pronounced "burr-ah" NOT "berg“, e.g. Edinburgh = E-din-burr-ah

center centre

curb kerb Edge of roadway or pavement. To "curb" in the sense of "restrain" is used in British and American English.

license licence British usage is license for the verb and licence for the noun

program programme British usage is "program" for computers and "programme" for television or radio.


3. Stress Patterns

This part will explain the two types of Stress Patterns – Stress in a Word and Stress in a Sentence.

Relax, as this has nothing to do with the stress in life!


Stress Patterns

Stress in a Word is also called Syllable Stress.

A syllable is a word or part of a word and always contains a vowel sound. Most syllables have consonants associated with the vowel.

The stressed syllable in a word is usually given more emphasis with your voice, i.e. a higher pitch, e.g. I am HA-ppy today! You raise your pitch upwards on the 1st syllable.

This helps you add expression in your speech – it eliminates a monotonous tone.

Applying stress on the appropriate syllable also helps the listener understand the meaning of the word/s.


Examples of Stress Patterns in a Word

Noun Verb Word

RE-cord ri- CORD record

CON-tent cn- TENT content

OB-ject eb- JECT object

1st syllable is stressed in nouns 2nd syllable is stressed in verbs

• Do you still have the Elvis records? (noun)

• I have to record tonight’s show. (verb)

• I was not very content (v) with the book’s contents. (n)

• The lawyer objected (v) to the object (n) used for murder.


Stress Patterns in a Word

Base WordSyllables in bold have to be stressed

Word + suffixSyllables in bold have to be stressed

de/mo/crat de/mo/cra/cy

e/lec/tric e/lec/tri/ci/ty

a/vai/la/ble a/vai/la/bi/li/ty

in/form in/for/ma/tion

mil/lion mil/lion/aire

pro/duct pro/duc/tion


Stress Patterns in a Word

Here a few examples of words that have different syllable stress in the US and UK

America British

lab/ra/to/ryla/bo/ra/tory - the last syllable is

pronounced as trih

man/da/to/ry man/da/tory

a/lu/mi/num a/lu/mi/ni/um

ad/dress (noun) ad/dress (noun)

ga/rage ge-raaj ga/rage ga-rij


Stress Patterns in a Sentence

When you speak English, the words you stress can change the underlying meaning of a sentence. Let's take a look at the following sentence: I don’t think he should get that job

Stressing on ‘I’ means: Somebody else thinks he should get the job

Stressing on ‘should’ means: In my opinion it's wrong that he's going to get that job

In this way, stressing on each word has a different meaning.

Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as:

Nouns / verbs / Adjectives / Adverbs

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as:

Determiners / Auxiliary verbs / Prepositions /Conjunctions / Pronouns

TIP - Your true meaning can only be conveyed when you put the stress on the correct word


4. Intonation

Intonation is the tone of voice. Tone is the pitch variation in your voice that serves to distinguish words & their meanings

In this part you will learn the importance of Intonation in your speech


Intonation

English has a number of intonation patterns which add meanings to the utterance:

in a statement, question, surprise, disbelief, sarcasm, teasing

An important feature of English intonation is the pitch at the end of a sentence

Examples: the arrow indicates the pitch

1. You were late. (can indicate statement/sarcasm)

You were late? (can indicate question/surprise/disbelief)

2. We will complete it in 10 days. (indicates assurance)

Now imagine the same sentence with a tone. Try it.

It would completely reverse the tone from assurance to more like, “Are you sure we will complete it in 10 days?!”

TIP – when you ask a question, along with your grammatically correct question structure, remember to raise your pitch at the end.


5. Idiomatic Speech

What are Idioms? Why are idioms used? How do we understand their meanings? Do we have to use them in our speech?

This part will answer these questions for you


Idiomatic Speech

Idiom use acts as a kind of shorthand in cultures. The phrases are based on connections that local people understand because they share the experiences on which idioms are based.

Similarly, cultural traditions, citizens’ habits, geographical features, racial idiosyncrasies, the cuisine and even weather conditions – all of these provide common sharing within a country’s regions.

To be able to understand regional idiomatic speech, one must be aware of all of the above, so it is extremely difficult to pick up quickly. Try to pick some of them up, slowly!

These links will help you understand some idiom meanings by showing usage examples: http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-English/English-idioms-01.html- (US) http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-british-idioms- (UK)

NOTE: Please do not use these in your regular speech (specially the region specific ones). If you use them incorrectly, the meaning might just turn out to be nonsense!

TIP – Stick to your standard English – that’s what this is all about!


Quick Quiz

You might want to re-read this module, ensuring you have memorized anything new to you.

Next, complete the quiz (available on your local VBC server).

If you reach 60% or above in the test, congratulations – you have passed this T4 module!

If you do not achieve 60%, you need further help and will be guided to the VBC team for assistance.

Please feel free to contact your local VBC staff via [email protected]


USA UK INDIA SRI LANKA

www.virtusa.com

© 2007 Virtusa Corporation ● Confidential

"Virtusa" is a trademark of the company and a registered trademark in the EU and In India. "Productization" is a service mark of the company and a registered service mark in the United States.

"vRule" is a service mark of the company. All Rights Reserved

vbc t4 m16 accent familiarization

Documents