Can I Reduce My Accent?

Clients often ask ‘Can I reduce my accent?’ The secret is that you cannot reduce an accent. You can only learn a new one 😀 There is no standard language, therefore there is no standard accent or dialect. There are many terms for accent modification such as accent learning and accent training. However, the most commonly searched term is accent reduction.

If you want to sound like a native English speaker from the United States, Paul Meier says to remember two things- smoosh & slash.

Smoosh

Nonnative speakers often think that native English speakers talk very quickly. We don’t! We link words together and have very little pausing in between words.

So, in the sentence “I went to the store” the words went and to are combined and the /t/ is pronounced only once. The sentence becomes “I wento the store.”

Nonnative speakers tend to say each word separately with a short pause in between.

Slash

The other secret to sounding more native is that native English speakers slash or reduce most vowels to the “uh” sound. This is sound is referred to as the schwa. It is never stressed but is the most commonly used vowel in American English.

 

Continuing with the example sentence “I went to the store,” the vowels in to and the are reduced to an “uh” so the sentence is said, “I wentuh thuh store.”

Nonnative speakers tend to say each vowel in its true form. Paul Meier says that native English speakers ‘murder vowels.’

Practice

You try it! Throughout the day, try to smoosh as many words together as possible.

The rules are:

Consonant to Consonant
To link the same consonants, link the words together and only say the same consonants once. For example, “Speaks Spanish” becomes “Speakspanish.”

Vowel to Vowel
To link a vowel to a vowel, insert a ‘y’ or ‘w’ sound in between the words. For example, “Blue eyes” becomes “Blue-weyes.”

Consonant to Vowel
To link a consonant to a vowel, move the final consonant over to the next word. For example, “Bring on” becomes “Brin-gon.”

Nonnative speakers may consider these techniques as lazy or slang, but it’s actually a part of the melody of English. English is a stress-timed language, meaning that some syllables and words are stressed for emphasis and meaning, while the others are reduced, combined, or deleted.

What sounds and words can you smoosh and slash? Let us know in the comments below?

References

In a Manner of Speaking https://www.paulmeier.com/in-a-manner-of-speaking/