Accent, Pronunciation

[wildweathel]

'Lo everyone.

I'd like to take a moment to introduce the pronunciation key I'll be using.  It's based on the one used by the CMU pronouncing dictionary (but with some modification to properly handle non-rhotic accents). 

Consonants: B CH D F G K L M N P S SH T V W Y Z as you would expect
JH -- 'j' in 'judge'
HH -- 'h' in 'house'
NG -- 'ng' in 'sing'
TH -- 'th' in 'thigh,' 'thin,' 'with'
DH -- 'th' in 'thy,' 'these'
ZH -- 'z' in 'seizure'

Vowels:
AA - 'o' in 'odd'; 'a' in 'father'
AO - 'ough' in 'ought'; 'a' in 'all' (don't worry if this sounds like AA--many North American accents merge these two together)
AE - 'a' in 'at'
AH - 'u' in 'hut'
AW - 'ow' in 'cow'
AY - 'i' in 'glide'
EH - 'e' in 'pet'
EY - 'a' in 'hate'
IH - 'i' in 'pit'
IY - 'ee' in 'feet'
OW - 'oa' in 'oat'
OY - 'oy' in 'toy'
UH - 'oo' in 'hood'
UW - 'oo' in 'boot'

Vowels with R (I count these as one phoneme, CMU often uses two)
AR - 'ar' in 'far' (CMU: AA R)
ER - 'ur' in 'hurt' (ER)
IR - 'ear' in 'fear' (IH R)
OR -'or' in 'for' (AO R)
UR - 'ur' in 'pure' (UH R)
AIR - 'air' in 'air' (EH R)

Accent tapes:

#01 -- Pronunciation of AY without Canadian Raising: Say it "Like" This (required for most US and all Canadian actors)

Coming soon:
#02 -- Pronunciation of AW without Canadian Raising: About "About" (required for Canadian actors)
#03 -- Pronunciation of AE with Nasal-System Tensing: Sad / Sand Split (required for everyone, except Californians and New Englanders)

[morfowt]

this is starting to sound like my boring english class...no offense...

[goom]

this is starting to sound like my boring english class...no offense...

offense taken

i like the effort. when's the tape going to be made?

[Liz]

this is starting to sound like my boring english class...no offense...

For me it's more like chorus rehearsal...except in English.  Heh.

This looks great, I'll listen to it later when I have time.  Though I suppose I don't really need to xD

[wildweathel]

Though I suppose I don't really need to xD

Unless you grew up somewhere like Redwing, MN, or Manchester, NH, no probably not.  I haven't listened to your voice yet, so I can't say for sure, but for most of the human parts (assuming you grew up in the San Fransisco/San Jose area) you shouldn't require much if any adjustment.  Perhaps a little less CAVS (California vowel shift), since we're further south and back in time.  *rechecks cast list*  I know you're interested in management, but are you reading a part, too?  If so, the cast list needs to be updated.

Goom, tape #01 is made and attached to the first post.  #03 is next (since more actors will need it), then #02.  After that, either English accent stuff or rhoticity (West/Midwest/Canadian/Gaelic/Somerset/Scandinavian 'arrr's), probably, but depending on what I hear people needing.

this is starting to sound like my boring english class...no offense...

English class in China?  Shouldn't you be helping to teach that, not having to take it?

[morfowt]

this is starting to sound like my boring english class...no offense...

English class in China?  Shouldn't you be helping to teach that, not having to take it?

yes, I do help to teach that (but only on less-than-rare occasions), but I still have to take it nonetheless...besid es, I'm not that good at language arts and stuff, so I'm not good with the grammar rules...plus they teach British english not american english...so some of it is different...

[Duff]

i bet morf would make a hell of a teacher

awesome work weathel, love the effort your putting into this

im from new england, massachusetts specifically, what should I focus on?

[morfowt]

yeah, a math teacher maybe, english, I'd be lucky to actually be able to teach them anything...

[Duff]

I was thinking more like Sex Ed haha

Sex Ed with Sakae

[wildweathel]

Duff, I'll make up tapes for rhotic-vs-non-rhotic accents, and you should listen to tape 01 to get the pronunciation of 'right', 'like', 'might', etc.  The other features of Californian are probably already part of your accent: caught/cot merger and sad/sand split. 

For the pronunciation of r after a vowel, even if you're not willing to record yourself, listen to and imitate the pronunciation in this song:
Summertime by Hale-Bopp
especially the 'r's in.
"slumber again"
"far away"
"your confusion"
"you are only human"
"look around you"
"summer again"

If you're feeling adventurous, here are the details of the differences:

[spoiler]
New England English:
R is pronounced with a backwards curled tongue.  This sound only occurs in the phoneme R.

ER pronounced with the tip of the tongue below the teeth.  Some varieties merge to AH. ('lobster' becomes 'lobstuh')
UR is pronounced the same as ER (so hurry (HH UR IY) and furry rhyme)

AR is pronounced almost the same as Received Pronunciation AA.  'Cod' (K AA D) is distinct from 'card' (K AR D), which sounds like RP 'cod/card' (since RP merges AR and AA).  The sound isn't exactly the same--the tongue is pushed a little further forward in NE AR.  NE AA is a lot farther back than RP AA, like AA in other American accents.  Some varieties of NE English, however, do merge these sounds.

OR is a diphthong (moving vowel) that ends in the same position as ER.  The first vowel is the "open o" of RP AO (most NE accents don't use this vowel alone, and pronounce AO like AA).  NE OR is exactly like RP 'AO ER'--however, RP merges OR and AO.

AIR IR OR are pronounced as diphthongs (two vowels together):
AIR -> EH ER -or- AY ER (a triphthong) in accents that merge ER and AH (so 'there' sounds like "they-uh')
IR -> IH ER

AY has two pronunciations depending on context (Canadian vowel raising).  For example "right" and "ride" are pronounced with different vowels.

AE has a different pronunciation before N, M and NG.  Before N and M, the vowel is tenser.  Compare "sad" and "sand".  Before NG, AE is pronounced like EY.

AA and AO are merged, so that "caught" and "cot", "ball" and "Baal", "all" and "cauliflower" are pronounced the same.

Southern California (no CAVS)
R is pronounced the same way.  The sound used also occurs in the phonemes AR AIR ER IR OR UR
ER pronounced with a backwards-curled tongue.
AR -> AA R
AIR -> EH R
IR -> IH R
OR pronounced with same starting vowel as NE, but then goes to R, not NE ER
UR -> ER

AY has only one pronunciation.

AE before N M is the same as NE.  I'm not sure about NG.

AA and AO are merged.
[/spoiler]

[Liz]

Though I suppose I don't really need to xD

Unless you grew up somewhere like Redwing, MN, or Manchester, NH, no probably not.  I haven't listened to your voice yet, so I can't say for sure, but for most of the human parts (assuming you grew up in the San Fransisco/San Jose area) you shouldn't require much if any adjustment.  Perhaps a little less CAVS (California vowel shift), since we're further south and back in time.  *rechecks cast list*  I know you're interested in management, but are you reading a part, too?  If so, the cast list needs to be updated.

I was planning on playing Beth (tiny part in #26).  And I had thought about playing the Drode, but I think I might try Edriss instead.  It's been ages since I first expressed interest in playing a part and I still haven't done any line tests, so I definitely need to get on that. 

[wildweathel]

Sure, fire up your microphone.  Like I said, there probably aren't any adjustments for you to make (and if any, they'll be minor).