Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: How do I speak?

Ok, here we go again. Jumping on the current bandwagon of sending audio
samples and for the joy and amusement of all the native speakers who hang
out in this NG, here is my try. It is a passage from Orwell's 1984. Please,
take a look ("a listen"?) and tell me what you make of it. The reference
should be BrEn.
I think that this is more or less the maximum pronunciation level I can
reach for the time being. I fell that I can better my fluency (I still have
troubles in pronouncing some sequences of sounds) but it would be quite
difficult for me to significantly improve "pure" pronunciation.
Here is the link: 
http://web.tiscali.it/Astro/1984.mp3
And here is the text (that's a bit long, sorry...):
"It was one of those dreams which, while retaining the characteristic dream
scenery, are a continuation of one's intellectual life, and in which one
becomes aware of facts and ideas which still seem new and valuable after one
is awake. The thing that now suddenly struck Winston was that his mother's
death, nearly thirty years ago, had been tragic and sorrowful in a way that
was no longer possible. Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time,
to a time when there was still privacy, love, and friendship, and when the
members of a family stood by one another without needing to know the reason.
His mother's memory tore at his heart because she had died loving him, when
he was too young and selfish to love her in return, and because somehow, he
did not remember how, she had sacrificed herself to a conception of loyalty
that was private and unalterable. Such things, he saw, could not happen
today. Today there were fear, hatred, and pain, but no dignity of emotion,
no deep or complex sorrows. All this he seemed to see in the large eyes of
his mother and his sister, looking up at him through the green water,
hundreds of fathoms down and still sinking."
Thanks, Lorenzo

Giò
A man has dreams of walking with giants,
to carve his niche in the edifice of time.
Before the mortar of his zeal
has a chance to congeal
the cup is dashed from his lips,
the flame is snuffed aborning.



A couple of noticeable mistakes were "intellectual" and "green", your
pronunciation wasn't good with these words, also the way you
pronounced "lovely" was classic Italian, classic foreign really.
Rather than saying "lav-ley" try to say "luv-ley". The following are
finer points. Some of your "that's" and "to's" sounded a little weak,
and when you said "how" and "somehow", the "how" was closed, cut
short, it should be open. You seemed to say "no dignitive emotion"
instead of "no dignity of emotion" and "hundred of fathoms" instead of
"hundreds of fathoms". But on the whole you speak very well, you have
a mild and pleasant accent.

 a mild and pleasant accent.
flatterer! :-)
thanks again, Lorenzo

thanks again, Lorenzo
NP.

  of fathoms down and still sinking."
Your accent (what very little accent you do have) does not seem
Italian to me. Were I to have heard your recording out of the context
of this newsgroup, I would have guessed that it had been recorded by a
native German speaker, probably because you have managed to eliminate
most of those phonetic characteristics which I would expect in an
Italian accent.
I was wondering if you had heard a recording of the Orwell book, and
worked at imitating the native speaker, or if you are merely reading
the text without having heard a recording of it? I noticed an
audiobook of "1984" posted on a newsgroup last month. My own
experience has taught me that repeating a text aloud after hearing it
read by a native speaker is the best method of improving one's accent.
One does not "know" a word until one has spoken it aloud.
Of course, my criticism amounts to "nit-picking", that is, finding
those small areas where your speech does not match the "perfect"
accent of the native speaker. :>)
Joe from Massachusetts

 the "r".
[...]
Thank you very much for your very detailed comment Joe, it's been very 
useful to me.
As regarding your question, yes, I have an audiobook of 1984 and I had 
previously heard that passage (the reader is the British actor Timothy 
West). I bought the book and the enclosed CD containing some significant 
passages (about 70 minutes of run-time) for as low a five o six euros in a 
bookshop in Milan ("Messaggerie musicali"), quite a bargain I'd say. 
Besides, I also have a radio dramatization of 1984 from a US radio programme 
from the 50s (NBC Theater), quite entertaining as well.
And, of course, I agree with you over the usefulness of repeating a text 
aloud... anyway I am more and more inclined to think that it might be better 
to use a "normal" conversation taken, for example, from a film or from the 
news rather than an audiobook, which is maybe just too  pitched and clear...
Thanks again, Lorenzo

 news rather than an audiobook, which is maybe just too  pitched and clear...
That's why such recordings are useful. You understand how combinations of
sounds should be pronounced, and what you can leave out.
Bye, FB
-- 
After a year of speculation, inventor Dean Kamen unveiled his mysterious
"It", which is a battery-powered two-wheel people mover. Many believe it
will completely revolutionize the way people get hit by cars.
(Saturday Night Live)

 wrote in message
news:369cjjF...@individual.net...

When I was studying French in high school in New York, there was a
radio station affiliated with a university which presented recorded
French plays every Saturday morning. At the end of the program, they
would announce what play would be presented the next week. I would go
to the main branch of the NY Public Library after school and find a
copy of the play, so that I would be able to follow along with the
next broadcast. I usually had good luck in finding the plays, because
of the large selection of foreign literature available in that
library.
News and documentaries can also be interesting and informative, and
having a transcript of the broadcast would be ideal, and would save a
lot of time. If an English speaker listens to a RAI broadcast, and
hears a discussion about "Cgil, Cisl, e Uil", he might have no idea
what they were talking about, unless he were already fairly familiar
with the acronyms from seeing them in the newspapers. The same goes
for political parties and groups. I wonder how many English-speaking
students of Italian have searched their Atlases attempting to find
"Padania" on the map of Italy?  :>)
Joe from Massachusetts

 "Padania" on the map of Italy?  :>)
Leghisti don't think it is much of a problem: usually they're not the kind
of people who read atlases, or books of any kind for that matter.
Bye, FB
-- 
"Something to take to the country." (holding out a bunch of flowers)
"Flowers come _from_ the country, Charles."
(Cold Comfort Farm, the film)


I am not concerned about the Leghisti, rather I am concerned about
those poor students of the Italian language who may have already
become convinced that such a place exists, but are frustrated when
they attempt to find its geographic location, leading them to believe
that their reference books must be out of date.   :>)
Joe from Massachusetts