Language desk
< September 10	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 12 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 11

Rectifying my Urdu accent

I speak fluent Urdu, but I've spent nearly my entire life in the English-speaking world, which means my Urdu accent is largely derived from that of my parents, rather than through interaction with other speakers. The problem is that my parents are Punjabi, and while I personally am very proud of my ethnic heritage, I find that Urdu speakers are less likely to take me seriously due to my thick accent, as opposed to if I sounded like a speaker from, for example, Delhi or Aligarh.

I want to revamp my accent so that it sounds closer to standard Urdu and less Punjabi-influenced. How can I do this, as a young adult? (For both legal and safety reasons, let's just assume that cultural immersion is not an option.) Thanks, M Imtiaz (talk · contribs) 00:51, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The more modelling you can take from Urdu sources the better. It would be a lot of repetition but I would suggest starting with Urdu children's shows as they tend to repeat words a few times. If you're familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet you can use it as a tool to write down the nuances in pronunciation. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 06:16, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The article Accent reduction might be useful - Q Chris (talk) 08:07, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Without a personal instructor this is challenging. Language labs typically have a set-up with a headset and microphone. For self-study, the student typically immediately repeats a word or phrase they hear (spoken in the accent they want to master), attempting to reproduce its pronunciation. The effectiveness of this immediate feedback loop depends on the ability of the student to hear their speech as others will hear it. As anyone not accustomed to hearing their own voice on recordings can testify, it does not sound the same on the recording as how they normally hear it themselves – "Is that my voice?". Sending the signal from the mic through an amplifier to the headset gives a much better idea how it sounds to others. If the amplifier has two entrances, the sound signal of the speech to be mimicked can also be sent to the headset. --Lambiam 12:21, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

How do American children learn English when they are young?

Forwarding this question from the Chinese refdesk 205.175.118.227 (talk) 01:44, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Why do you imagine that it's significantly different from how children in other countries learn their languages? We have an article language acquisition... AnonMoos (talk) 03:37, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)

Early language development is fairly universal for all languages:

For American English speakers, there might be some cultural nuance to a child's learning, but as with most children, it involves modeling and positive reinforcement from family and others. The cultural environment (books, TV, etc.) also has an influence. Typically, a an American child knows their 'ABCs' and can identify a few words before kindergarten (age 5). Further language development is then largely supplemented by scholastics. 107.15.157.44 (talk) 03:51, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible the querent doesn't realize that Americans do not learn English English as a separate language, but just the American variety of English? It's not like Cantonese vs. Putonghua or something. --Orange Mike | Talk 03:57, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

According to our language development article, there are also socioeconomic effects in North American culture:

Specifically in North American culture, maternal race, education, and socioeconomic class influence parent-child interactions in the early linguistic environment. When speaking to their infants, mothers from middle class "incorporate language goals more frequently in their play with their infants," and in turn, their infants produce twice as many vocalizations as lower class infants. Mothers from higher social classes who are better educated also tend to be more verbal, and have more time to spend engaging with their infants in language. Additionally, lower class infants may receive more language input from their siblings and peers than from their mothers.

107.15.157.44 (talk) 04:01, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if the original OP was thinking of children born in the USA (or a broader interpretation of "America") to parents whose first language is not English, and/or possibly do not speak English at all?

From List of countries by English-speaking population, we see that only 78.95% of US residents speak English as a first language and 16.5% as an additional language, leaving about 4.54% not speaking English at all. It seems likely that most of the last live in communities that predominently speak a non-English language, so children of those communities would have to learn English not from their parents, but from adult community members who do and are prepared to teach them, informally from schoolmates or other age peers, formally from school or other organised lessons, or a combination of these. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.2.158 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 11:24, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]