Neutralized Accent

[raindoctor]

Neutralized accent means many things and refers to many other things.

If you are a speaker from Alabama, and you want to be a national television show host, you will be advised to have a neutral accent: in this case, it is more of Northern states accent or of a dominant accent on TV shows.

If you are a L2 speaker, your accent is different from any other native accents. In this case, when you are advised to have a neutral accent, it means you should try to (a) get rid of phonological n phonetic traces of your first language, (b) acquire whatever you can from various accents from AmE, (c) avoid phonological features in some native accents that does not fit to normal ears (normal ears are those who listen to national TV shows, etc).


Let me give an example. In India, I heard one can recognize where one is from depending on his hindi accent. There are some indian folks whose native lingo is not Hindi and yet exhibit their southern accent when they speak hindi. If you have a beehari hindi accent, thats fine: you are still a native hindi speaker, but not a neutral accent for those who want to acquire native-like accent in Delhi.

[anupumh]

Originally Posted by raindoctor

Neutralized accent means many things and refers to many other things.

If you are a speaker from Alabama, and you want to be a national television show host, you will be advised to have a neutral accent: in this case, it is more of Northern states accent or of a dominant accent on TV shows.

If you are a L2 speaker, your accent is different from any other native accents. In this case, when you are advised to have a neutral accent, it means you should try to (a) get rid of phonological n phonetic traces of your first language, (b) acquire whatever you can from various accents from AmE, (c) avoid phonological features in some native accents that does not fit to normal ears (normal ears are those who listen to national TV shows, etc).


Let me give an example. In India, I heard one can recognize where one is from depending on his hindi accent. There are some indian folks whose native lingo is not Hindi and yet exhibit their southern accent when they speak hindi. If you have a beehari hindi accent, thats fine: you are still a native hindi speaker, but not a neutral accent for those who want to acquire native-like accent in Delhi.

I have never come across the concept of Neutral Accent in Hindi. The Hindi of Delhi is and cannot be considered neutral, it is influenced by Punjabi and Haryanvi languages. If you want to refer to pure and Neutral Hindi, it will come from the speakers of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, the one which is mixed with a touch of Urdu, that is considered pure, classy and you can say neutral.

[anupumh]

Originally Posted by raindoctor

Neutralized accent means many things and refers to many other things.

If you are a speaker from Alabama, and you want to be a national television show host, you will be advised to have a neutral accent: in this case, it is more of Northern states accent or of a dominant accent on TV shows.

If you are a L2 speaker, your accent is different from any other native accents. In this case, when you are advised to have a neutral accent, it means you should try to (a) get rid of phonological n phonetic traces of your first language, (b) acquire whatever you can from various accents from AmE, (c) avoid phonological features in some native accents that does not fit to normal ears (normal ears are those who listen to national TV shows, etc).


Let me give an example. In India, I heard one can recognize where one is from depending on his hindi accent. There are some indian folks whose native lingo is not Hindi and yet exhibit their southern accent when they speak hindi. If you have a beehari hindi accent, thats fine: you are still a native hindi speaker, but not a neutral accent for those who want to acquire native-like accent in Delhi.

"There are some indian folks whose native lingo is not Hindi and yet exhibit their southern accent when they speak hindi."

Very Obvious, a person who hails from Southern India and whose native language is Tamil, Telgue, Kannad, etc is bound to have a southern touch when he speaks Hindi.

[stuartnz]

Originally Posted by anupumh

Very Obvious, a person who hails from Southern India and whose native language is Tamil, Telgue, Kannad, etc is bound to have a southern touch when he speaks Hindi.

The same is true the other way round for those rare North Indians who bother to learn a Southie language.

[Lacretstreet]

But we shouldn’t forget that” BBC Accent exist, and The English language does not belong to Great Britain anymore ,also the International English or The Standard English also exists…

[sasikumar]

Personally,some people don't really mind people speaking with an accent - They find it nice and adding to a person's character.

[sasikumar]

Accent Neutralization
1. The main cause of this trend towards accent neutralization / reduction is the demand created by outsourcing.
2. The problem that arises is that many customers have difficulties understanding accents other than their own; hence accent neutralization or reduction becomes important for customer satisfaction.

ref: Neutral English.com - Free Online Global Accent Training Guide

[raindoctor]

Originally Posted by sasikumar

Personally,some people don't really mind people speaking with an accent - They find it nice and adding to a person's character.

Well, having an accent causes people loose confidence. However, if you are a billionaire and have a strong accent, people say that your accent adds to your character a la schwaznegger. It is a psychological truth that accent plays a role in discrimination. One way to go about: criticize them. The other: go thru some accent reduction program that helps you speak clearly, thereby making ya more confident.

Yes, there is no global neutral accent. But there is a neutral accent within American dialects.