Indo-Aryan Accents in English

If an Indo-Aryan language like Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Nepali, Sinhala, or Divehi, is your native language…

you may be using its “sound system” when you speak English. The more you understand about the English sound system, the better you will sound when you speak. There are some English consonants that you must learn to pronounce and remember to use, but most of your work will be on stress patterns and rhythms. Stress patterns and rhythms don’t mean as much in Indo-Aryan languages, but they are hugely important in English.

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Stress patterns & rhythms don't mean as much in Indo-Aryan languages; but they are critical in English. Share on X

Each language has a unique sound system

You may not realize that each language has a unique way of making and organizing its sounds. Applying your first language’s sound system to English causes your accent. Some of the resulting effects don’t have great impact, but others can interfere with your ability to communication, or your effectiveness as a speaker.

You may get feedback that listeners have difficulty following you as you speak.  Perhaps you’ve gotten feedback at work that your presentation style needs some work, or people in the audience ask you to repeat yourself.  You may understand that you don’t sound “natural” enough in English. These and other problems result from applying what you know and use successfully in your first language, to English where it doesn’t work at all.  You are applying a set of “sound rules” to English that don’t belong there—English has its own sound rules.

Some common interference points between this group of languages, and English, are:

Vowel system differences

The good news is…we have similar sets of vowels, so you don’t have to learn to make a lot of new sounds you are unfamiliar with.  The bad news is, you may be using them in the wrong way when you switch to English.  Vowel misuse might result in a change of meaning, since vowels make a difference in the meaning of many common one-syllable English words, e.g. [bad, bed] and [sit, set].  In addition, English vowels have varying lengths, so making a short vowel sound when it should be a long vowel sound may change the expected sound of the word. Lengthening vowels is also a stress and intonation tool, which is an important strategy used in English speech and communication.

Gaining control over vowels, and understanding how they work differently in English, will greatly improve your comprehensibility.

Consonant system differences

There are consonants in American English that are hard for you to say–/th/ for instance–so you substitute the nearest familiar sound from your first language. This leads to a very distinctive South Asian accent in English, saying tink for think, and den for then.

Also, /t/ and /d/ are often formed, in your first language, in a retroflex position, far back in the mouth. American and British English create these in a different position, and the sound is noticeably different.  In American English, your tongue must be much more relaxed and the tip must be much more active.

Here’s another example of consonant confusion.  English does not differentiate between /p/ and /p?/=[p with more air], as Hindi does, but we do use both forms, for example /p?/ in the word [pin], and /p/ in the word [spin].  You’ll have to learn these word patterns or you will be using them indiscriminately, and it will be a noticeable part of your accent.  Another example can be found in words like “pin” versus “bin”;  if the “p” is under-pronounced, it will sound like “bin”, but if it is over-pronounced, it will sound out-of-place.

Consonant clusters

South Asian speakers may inadvertently add vowels between consonant clusters or add a vowel to the beginning of a word that has an initial cluster. For example, [steps] becomes [isteps], with the result that a one-syllable word has now become a two-syllable word. This is a critical difference for listeners. A word that should have one beat now has two beats, and may confuse listeners who are listening for a specific pattern. Final consonant clusters may also have vowels inserted, with the same effect:  [kiln] becomes [kil.un].

Rhythm

South Asian languages are syllable-timed, but English is not. English is stress-timed, which means that stressing a specific rhythm for syllables in words, and words in phrases, is critical.  This is of secondary importance in your language, so you may not pay much attention to it, but if you are going to use English as a public speaker, or communicate with native speakers, you must master on syllable and word stress.

Rhythm and Intonation

In Indo-Aryan languages, intonation has short, repetitive, syntactic patterns, causing repetitive waves of sound that often confuse native English listeners. In English, speakers use pitch change, duration (length of sound), and energy to create varying patterns that create the rhythm and stress pattern of each word, phrase and statement. A few intonation patterns are specific to grammar, such as question and statement forms, but most intonation changes focus an acoustic “spotlight” on words and phrases that are most important to our message, so it changes with every statement you make.

In Indo-Aryan languages, intonation has a short, repetitive pattern that confuses English speakers. Share on X

In English, intonation and pitch change coordinate your statement and establishes the relationships between them as you speak.  If you aren’t doing this, your listeners will find it hard work to connect your ideas and follow your longer, complex statements.  You must learn to control and adjust your intonation so listeners are able to follow the coordination and subordination of your statements.

This Indo-Aryan group consists of many languages, and each one has its own characteristics. In our work together, we can diagnose your current pronunciation habits, define your goals, determine your skills and understanding in these target areas, and create a plan that will enable you to improve your sound in English.  We’ll make sure you have the tools to continue independently after we are finished studying together.

Contact Peggy for more information about customized, private online pronunciation classes. Peggy@AmericanPronunciationCoach.com