Accent Coaching: General American to RP

Hello again and a very happy May-time!

I have recently had a flurry of accent coaching enquiries from people who find they have an ‘uncomfortable’ combination of General American and RP. They say they wish to lose their American accent sounds and move more confidently and absolutely into RP.

They explain they acquired their American accent sounds in a variety of ways - from working regularly with American clients, working in the States for some years or having learnt English through watching films and TV based in the States. Whatever the reasons, it is clear at present that losing American accent sounds and replacing with RP seems to be a real intention and focus for many.

I have an accent coaching poem for you to peruse about this uplifting Springtime season to help consider the real differences in rhythm, tune and placements when moving from Standard American to RP accent.

So, firstly, have a go at speaking this poem called May-Flower by American poet Emily Dickinson, born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, finding your most confident General American energy! Find your sound focus at the back of the throat and move your words forward with intention! These following American sounds to consider are most often reproduced and adopted by us when in the company of American speakers for any length of time!

Consider the American tapped /t/ in aromatic, little, beauty, antiquity [the blade of the tongue contacts the gum ridge]

Consider the short /o/ vowel in moss, robin [drop your lower jaw a little to find]

Consider the rhotic /r/ sounds in flower, covert, dear, nature, forswears, [wherever the /r/ occurs let it sound; your tongue bunching back in the mouth, the sides contacting the back molars]

Consider the final /y/ in beauty, antiquity [let this semi vowel be sounded as /ee/]

May-Flower by Emily Dickinson

Pink, small, and punctual, 
Aromatic, low, 
Covert in April, 
Candid in May,

Dear to the moss, 
Known by the knoll, 
Next to the robin 
In every human soul.

Bold little beauty, 
Bedecked with thee, 
Nature forswears 
Antiquity.

See how far this differs from an RP accent which is necessarily focused forward in the mouth its energy placed behind the front teeth, has no use of a rhotic /r/, has a bright and sharp and clear English /t/ made with the tip of the tongue connecting to the gum ridge, uses a short /o/ sound shaped only by the mouth in a firm circle, and, in general, the final /y/ is sounded as an /I/ [as in still].

Now, try reading through this poem again, replacing all the American sounds we have initially been considering, and finding a consistent forward placed Modern RP. Find a clarity and a lightness of touch. Let your tune be full of flow and lyricism!

When you wish to adopt an accent fundamentally different to your own natural sounds I believe it helps to imagine you simply have a different coat to wear - its colour and weight is different and, when you are wearing one or the other, you can confidently acquire, or shed, the appropriate sounds that particular garment engenders when you need to!

Enjoy a creative approach to finding the differences between these two distinct accent sounds and find yourself stepping into, and inhabiting, your American or English cousin!

After this why don’t you read aloud, [testing changing your American into RP coats], this wonderfully subversive accent coaching poem Today by American poet Billy Collins, who celebrates the wonders of Spring with a need to throw out all our strict observances to finally enjoy the freedom of Nature!

Do note that this poem includes the vowel which changes from short American /a/ to RP /ah/ in words as in: paths, glass.

Today by Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect, 
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw 
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage, 
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths 
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight 
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight 
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants 
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out, 
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white, 
well, today is just that kind of day.

Enjoy the Spring!

Ros