BBC Learning EnglishPeople and PlacesSpeak English like a native!
Amber: Hello! Today, we learn how to speak English likesomeone from Yorkshire, inthe north of England, and like someone from the USA! Ourteacher is Penny Dyer – she’s one of the most respectedinternational film and theatre voice coaches. A voice coachteaches actors to speak with different accents.
An accent is a way of saying words that shows what country,region or social class someone comes from. So we talk about‘a Yorkshire accent’ or ‘an American accent’, and youmay have heard of ‘RP’ – which stands for ReceivedPronunciation. RP is a way of speaking British English thatis considered to be the standard pronunciation in the UK.
And we have the verb‘to coach’, which means to teach someone a special skill.
Penny has worked with many famous actors such as NicoleKidman, Cate Blanchett and Helen Mirren (whom Penny taughtto act the role of the Queen!). So, time for our firstlesson – how to speak English with a Yorkshire accent or‘dialect’. Penny’s advice to actors is to ‘use yourimagination’ – in other words, try to see the place, or‘the landscape’ in your mind, and try to feel theweather! As you listen to Penny, try to catch what theweather is like in Yorkshire.
Penny DyerGetting in through the actor’s imagination is always theway forward with dialect. So I suppose, when you listen tosomeone like Kelly from Doncaster, what she’s doing istalking about how lovely it is to get all snuggle-ly andwrapped up against the biting cold, wet Yorkshire weather,and there’s something about that that you need to battleagainst when you do a Yorkshire accent. So actually talkingabout the landscape, the topography, the history - thatsort of gets you into other areas and that opens up theimagination really for the actors.
Amber: So Penny says to speak with a Yorkshire accent, youneed to imagine you aretrying to keep warm in the face of ‘the biting cold, wetYorkshire weather’! That’s a strong description - isn’tit? - ‘the biting cold’. Penny says you need to thinkabout ‘the topography’ of Yorkshire – the features ofthe Yorkshire landscape – for example, the opencountryside, the hills, the winding roads. Listen again andtry to hear the sound of the rolling Yorkshire countrysidein Penny’s Yorkshire accent!
Penny DyerGetting in through the actor’s imagination is always theway forward with dialect. So I suppose, when you listen tosomeone like Kelly from Doncaster, what she’s doing istalking about how lovely it is to get all snuggle-ly andwrapped up against the biting, cold, wet Yorkshire weather,and there’s something about that that you need to battleagainst when you do a Yorkshire accent. So actually talkingabout the landscape, the topography, the history - thatsort of gets you into other areas and that opens up theimagination really for the actors.
Amber: Next, we learn how to speak like a native American!
As you’ll hear, the trick is the same as before. We haveto imagine the place, and in the case of the USA, the hugeplace! So we need to think of putting some ‘space’ intohow our English sounds!
Notice Penny also talks about emphasising ‘the vowelsounds’ – vowel sounds are the sounds you make withoutclosing your mouth or throat. Penny says Americans put alot of ‘the emotional meaning’ into their vowel sounds.
That’s interesting, isn’t it? See if you can hear thatthe next time you hear anAmerican accent, in a film, for example. Here’s Pennyagain. As you listen, try to move your face and mouth inthe relaxed way she suggests!
Penny DyerYou need to think about the air under the armpits and thespace between the knees when you’re doing an Americanaccent – you sort of have to take your space and you sortof hear that, because they put a lot of what they do intothe vowel sounds. You know, that’s how you get the energy,and the length, and the meaning. The emotional meaning goesstraight into the vowel, and you let the tongue reallystart to relax a little bit more in the back of your mouthand that makes you realise that the resonant space isfurther back. Everything is a little bit more relaxed inthe front of the face, and you’re working a little bit offyour lip corners, here, because that’ll help you to getinto the ‘r’ – because as we know, with most of theAmerican accents, we have to use something that we don’tuse, for instance, with southern English, which is thisall-American ‘r’.
Amber: How did you do?! The important thing seems to be tomake a bigger space inside your mouth – a ‘resonant space’. Have fun practising! |