Point of resonance

[prono]

Hello,

I the last few months I did quite a bit of research on the subject of different English accent (american, australian and british). As a non native speaker, I was interested in what makes up an accent and how to speak with native like accent. I most of the material I read it says that in order to immitate a English accent you have to have the right "point of resonance/placement", which is the place in one's mouth where the sound are created.

The american placement lies in the midle of the mouth while the placement for the standart british RP accent lies in the front of the mouth. Does anybody know more about this subject and more importantly how to achieve a different point of placement?

Thanks

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello,

I​n the last few months I [STRIKE]did[/STRIKE] have done quite a bit of research on the subject of different English accents (American, Australian and British). As a non native speaker, I was interested in what makes up an accent and how to speak with a native-like accent. In most of the material I read it says that in order to [STRIKE]immitate[/STRIKE] imitate an English accent you have to have the right "point of resonance/placement", which is the place in one's mouth where the sounds are created.

The American placement lies in the middle of the mouth while the placement for the [STRIKE]standart[/STRIKE] standard British RP accent lies in the front of the mouth. Does anybody know more about this subject and, more importantly, how to achieve a different point of placement?

Thanks.

I'm not a pronunciation expert but I have made several corrections to your post in red. While you are waiting for an answer to your pronunciation question, please take the time to look at the errors you made.

 

[BobK]

I've never heard specifically of the 'point of resonance', but I suspect it refers to vowels - which, in English, account for a lot of the sound associated with an utterance. Besides, only a voiced sound can resonate (and in that I include voiced consonants, liquids, and vowels). A stop consonant (/p k t b d g/), produces sound at the point of articulation (which I have[/I] heard of - it's where stuff happens: for example, if the point of articulation is where the lips meet, you're dealing [in English] with /p/ or /b/ {known as the 'bilabial stops'}.)

A vowel produces resonance in the chamber formed between the body of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. Traditionally, vowels are classified according to the high point of the tongue. In different languages that high point can be either forward or back or central - with as many gradations as you care to recognize.

Where's Jed when you need him?

b

 

[prono]

Thanks to both of you.

I don't think it has anything to do with vowels. For example, there is a big difference between an American and a British accent in terms of what part of the mouth the sounds are created. Even if an American tries to imitate a British accent by dropping the R's and using the British slang, he will still sound American.

The guy in the video below explains it quite simply.

Cheers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yZYB7Li_nA

 

[BobK]

Thanks for the link. He may not mention vowels, but what he says applies particularly to them. Wherever your 'resonance' is (whatever that means), and however far front or back your dialect is, you can only pronounce a bilabial (to take an extreme example) between your lips, and your lips are where they are - right at the front. (Of course, to use his example of a 'front-resonance' Texan, it would be possible to argue that they pronounce a /p/ by touching the extreme top of the front lip to the extreme bottom of the bottom lip [like your sister putting lipstick on ], but it's not true and he doesn't say it is.) He's talking about what goes on right in the centre of the mouth - mostly vowels.

This 'resonance' thing may have come to the fore since I studied phonology, but it seems to me ill-defined and unhelpful.

b