About American Intonation
One of the main differences between the way an American talks and the way the rest of the world talks is that we don’t really move our lips. We create most of our sounds in the throat, using our tongue very actively. If you hold your fingers over your lips or clench your jaws when you practice speaking American English, you will find yourself much closer to native-sounding speech than if you try to pronounce every … single … sound … very … carefully. If you can relate American English to music, remember that the indigenous music is jazz. Listen to their speech music, and you will hear that Americans have a melodic, jazzy way of producing sounds.
Because most Americans came from somewhere else, American English reflects the accent contributions of many lands. The speech music has become much more exaggerated than British English, developing a strong and distinctive intonation. If you use this intonation, not only will you be easier to understand, but you will sound much more confident, dynamic, and persuasive.
“Do it” list
- Connect words to form Sound Groups
This part is the most difficult for many people because it goes against everything they’ve been taught. Instead of thinking of each word as a unit, think of sound units. These sound units may or may not correspond to a word written on a page. Native speakers don’t say ‘Bob… is… on… the… phone…” but say [babizan-the-foun]. Sound units make a sentence flow smoothly, like peanut butter — never really ending and never really starting, just flowing along. - Use staircase intonation
Let those sound groups floating on the wavy river in the figure flow downhill and you’ll get the staircase. Staircase intonation not only gives you that American sound, it also makes you sound much more confident.
“Don’t do it” list
- Don’t speak word by word
Like “Bob…is…on…the…phone…”
And that’s all!
