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From: dav@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au (Sasha Dotsenko)
Subject: Re: Accent Elimination
Message-ID: <1994Dec7.232255.14731@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>
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Organization: The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
References: <42651@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <HANS.94Dec6163022@ravn.iesd.auc.dk> <42664@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 23:22:55 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <42664@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
  veklerov@spindle.ee.lbl.gov (Eugene Veklerov) writes:
} In article <HANS.94Dec6163022@ravn.iesd.auc.dk>
}   hans@iesd.auc.dk (Hans Huttel) writes:
} |
} |A very good observation. Most people think that non-native speakers of
} |a language have a "foreign accent" because they cannot speak the
} |language properly. However, the truth is rather that non-native
} |speakers with a "foreign accent" cannot tell sounds apart by
} |_listening_ to them. (Cf. the discussion about Russian "v" and "w"
} |here in sci.lang). People with musical talents are, in my experience,
} |usually better listeners than others.
} 
} As a proud owner of an accent, I'd like to say that Hans' statement
} is not entirely applicable to me.  Specifically, I can hear the
} Russian accent when I listen to my fellow Russians speaking English.
} 
} Furthermore, I can hear it when I listen to myself recorded on tape.
} And yet, there is nothing I can do to make it sound better.
} Actually, nice people claim that my accent is decreasing, but I suspect
} they've just gotten used to it.

Apparently, three situations can take place:

1. People cannot hear any difference in sounds.
2. People can hear that there is some difference but don't quite understand
what exactly the difference is. This often happens with me. I hear that
something's wrong but don't quite understand *what* is wrong.
3. People perfectly hear and understand the sounds but either do not have a
sufficient control over their speach organs or don't want to loose their
ethnic identity.



