Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Ss

Should I get rid of my "deep" S in order to speak a good English? If I 
try hard I can control it, but there is a character of "Star Trek: 
Voyager", Kes, who has quite a deep S. 
(
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Kes
). FYI, the actress was born in Chicago.
Kiuhnm

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What do you mean by deep 
?  Could you provide an example, possibly 
with regards to Italian dialects?
-- 
Tchau, -João do Sabão

Kiuhnm wrote:
 > Should I get rid of my "deep" S in order to speak a good English? If I
 > try hard I can control it, but there is a character of "Star Trek:
 > Voyager", Kes, who has quite a deep S.
You could always say you're a huge fan of Sean Connery.
:-)
Cheers,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
"I've had enough trouble for a lifetime"

 Should I get rid of my "deep" S in order to speak a good English? If I 
As I always say, better a deep S than a deep ass...
Oddio che battutaccia che ho fatto! :-)

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Ok, a recording is better than 1000 words.
Can you understand what I say in the recording?
(the last three lines have nothing to do with the first part and are a 
homage to the tv series "24").
http://www.flyupload.com/get?fid=4060430
 (~ 1 MB)
(click on "Download Now" at the bottom of the page).
That's the first time I've tried to actually /speak/ English. Today I 
made something like one hundred recordings. My first recording was 
*really* horrible. This one is the last and it's far better than the 
first ones. Yes, that's quite embarassing, but it's the truth :-)
Kiuhnm

 homage to the tv series "24").
Ah ok. E' esilarante il gran finale!
:-D
Comunque direi che per ora dovresti migliorare due cose:
1) la erre, che spesso sembra quasi quella italiana
2) la esse di "this", che non è assolutamente uguale a quella di "these"
Se mi dai il testo posso anche provare a registrarmi, ma ti avviso che 
l'accento simil-americano mi viene malissimo! (non che l'altro sia 
chissà che, eh)
Ciao,
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 truth :-)
You made a tiny spelling mistake which is frequent among Italians when 
they write in English: there are actually two Rs in "embarrassing".  
Also (not referring to your written text in particular here),
- "accommodation" has two Ms
- "exaggerate" has two Gs
Hope this helps.
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 Hope this helps.
Yes, it does help, thanks.
Kiuhnm (a little embarassed!)

 Kiuhnm (a little embarassed!)
ROTFL. I can't believe it :-)
EMBARRASSED
EMBARRASSED
EMBARRASSED
EMBARRASSED
...
Kiuhnm

Kiuhnm ha scritto:
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You seem to be using Thunderbird(as I do): when I make a spelling 
mistake the program underlines the misspelled word in red.

 Kiuhnm
But let me say, you have a nice voice!
eheheh :-)
Sywen

 chissà che, eh)
Here is the text.
Peter: Bob, I hate to break the news, but our sales were down again last
month.
Bob: Down again, Peter?
Peter: Yeah. These days, everybody's shopping at our competition, Honest
Abe's Furniture Store.
Bob: But everything in there costs an arm and a leg!
Peter: That's true. They do charge top dollar.
Bob: And their salespeople are very strange. They really give me the creeps!
Peter: Well, they must be doing something right over there. Meanwhile,
we're about to go belly-up.
Bob: I'm sorry to hear that. I thought my new advertising campaign would
save the day.
Peter: Let's face it: your advertising campaign was a real flop.
Bob: Well then I'll go back to the drawing board.
Peter: It's too late for that. You're fired!
Bob: What? You're giving me the ax?
Peter: Yes. I've already found a new manager. She's as sharp as a tack.
Bob: Can't we even talk this over? After all, I've been working here for
10 years!
Peter: There's no point in arguing, Bob. I've already made up my mind.
Bob: Oh well, at least I won't have to put up with your nonsense
anymore! Good-bye to you and good-bye to this dead-end job.
Peter: Please leave before I lose my temper!
Kiuhnm

 mistake the program underlines the misspelled word in red.
I disabled it because it gave me some problems. It doesn't work very 
well on my system. I don't know why.
Kiuhnm

 eheheh :-)
Ah, you were joking...
Kiuhnm

 Here is the text.[...]
Qua sul portatile Ubuntu non mi riconosce il microfono... vedo di farlo 
funzionare, poi provo a registrare il tutto.
;-)
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 I disabled it because it gave me some problems
What problems do you have? I'm curious...

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Now, I remember. It wasn't a technical problem.
I simply wasn't able to make it cope with math posts.
After a while I forgot there was a spell checker at all :-)
Kiuhnm

 Now, I remember.
No comma here.
Kiuhnm

 Oddio che battutaccia che ho fatto! :-)
lovely one
ab

 che mi pare un po' troppo simile alla "z" di "zattera".
Ok. Keep in mind that I was speaking faster than I can speak without 
making mistakes. I've listened to the audio cassette (so I don't really 
need your recording, even if it would have been interesting!) and then I 
tried to reproduce the original intonation and speed.
Anyway, there are mistakes I didn't notice. For instance the 's' of 
"this", as you said. If I say "this" alone I pronounce it correctly, but 
if I say "this is" then I link the two words together and the first s 
becomes /z/. Similarly, when I pronounce "the", "with", "there", etc... 
alone, I think I get them right (I put the tip of my tongue between my 
teeth, etc...). I know that native speakers don't always pronounce (the 
same) th in the same way. For instance they say "close" instead of 
"clothe" in fast speaking. Perhaps I do it too many times :-)))
Kiuhnm

 "clothe" in fast speaking. Perhaps I do it too many times :-)))
A proposito di native speaker, ora quando sono all'uni devo controllare 
la mia romagnolità, altrimenti c'è pure chi osa prendermi in giro perché 
ogni tanto (ma mooolto di rado! :-D) raddoppio qualche "t", tipo in 
"router". Mondo cane!
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 "router". Mondo cane!
Hmm...
Kiuhnm

 Hmm...
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
:-D
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 :-D
I simply don't know if I... double?... the 't' or not.
No one has ever told me anything about it.
Kiuhnm

 No one has ever told me anything about it.
Prova del nove: registra "router" come lo diresti normalmente e poi con 
un accento vagamente nordico (avrei detto "romano", ma poi la "t" 
diventa una specie di "d" e quindi non è proprio la stessa cosa). Io, 
senza registrarmi, noto che nel primo caso evidenzio la "t", nel secondo 
do maggior importanza alla "u". Ovviamente sono cose che scopri solo 
quando o ti registri o gente con un accento diverso dal tuo te le fa notare.
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 notare.
I don't see the problem. According to the recordings of the Collins 
dictionary the 't' is quite strong, while according to those of the 
Longman dictionary the 't' is weaker and almost a 'd' in American.
Kiuhnm

 Longman dictionary the 't' is weaker and almost a 'd' in American.
Noooo, cosa fai? :-D
Ho detto in italiano, non in inglese!
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio, misunderstood.
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 Ho detto in italiano, non in inglese!
Well, you didn't specify the language, if I'm not wrong...
Anyway, I made the recording: I don't double the 't'. I pronounce /'Ru:ter/.
Kiuhnm

 I'll try next weekend. 
Coming soon! Last night some stuff came up and I couldn't finish the 
work I had started. I just need to touch up a couple of things, then 
it's done.
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