Neutral Accent: A Perspective

An accent the world understands

Neutral Pronunciation: The standardization of English pronunciation for communication with the majority of the audience. This is accomplished through the study and knowledge of neutral pronunciation of English, one that is free of regionalisms and that conforms to the norms of the theatrical stage and public usage - that is, the pronunciation of news broadcasters, television actors and national mass media performers.

Neutral English: This is not to imply that neutral pronunciation has greater merit than any of the regional dialects. It is also a dialect, but one without any regionalisms. It is, however, the dialect that is used by trained speakers and performers for public usage. The way we speak English regionally is part of our personal identity. It is something that should be used and mentioned in our everyday speech. However, when we are speaking or performing in a public forum, neutral English should be used, so as to erase regional barriers and communicate effectively with the most people. - Kathryn LaBouff

'A CCA(Call Center Associate) would have to be a good listener and cultivate a neutral accent'.

An actor's job is to be neutral, to be a tabula rasa, and a little kid who wants to be an actor starts learning that right away. Actors may want to sound more neutral.

Gone are the days when call centres required candidates to sound like Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts. The stress now is on a neutral accent that can be understood globally.

A neutral accent, according to Ashish Gupta, CEO from a call centre training institute, is one that removes "regional biases".

But when it was time for them to talk, they spoke in American English, in an accent nearing what is known in the call center industry as the Holy Grail: the neutral accent.

IT, BPO FIRMS ON SAME HEAD-HUNT (IT sector is gauging candidates on voice clarity, neutral accent, fluency and grammar).

It is called, in rather Orwellian fashion, "voice and accent neutralisation". "When I was training I was told to adopt a neutral accent, like the BBC news presenters," says Gaurav, whose mother tongue is Hindi, but who learned English from kindergarten and thus needs little coaching.

Voice and accent training: The objective of the trainer is to improve the speech and diction of the trainees and help them develop a 'global, neutral accent'.

Daniel_Jones
Pronunciation Playlist

A neutral accent is important, as you would be interacting with a global customer base. A heavy regional accent may hinder comprehension.

A neutral accent is safe; you can't offend anyone with it. ... What is popularly known in current parlance as 'neutral accent', a diction devoid of mother tongue influence is a primary requirement.

IBM teaches English skills in India: The focus of the software is on building English speaking skills in a neutral accent that will be universally understood, Verma said.

Why should an employee at a call centre try and develop a British or American accent to her English, or in the least develop a `neutral accent'?

So, having a neutral accent allows an employee the flexibility of switching from an American client to a British one and vice-versa.

Professionals were supposed to speak with a "neutral accent."

Accent neutralisation means achieving an accent that is 'neutral' and therefore understandable to a global audience. ...

"A neutral accent, one that doesn't betray where you come from, is still very necessary," says Henderson

Although anonymous voice actors are paid for their services, even the biggest stars generally donate their time --and that's what they were looking for in this case -- some sort of neutral accent that could be understood ...

Having an accent can be OK, just as long as everyone else around you has the same one. But accents really can be a problem if your job depends on ... Much like broadcast journalists, actors must replace their accents with the "neutral speech" pattern

Accent-neutral is the sound of a coming media culture.

Actors nowadays are making a conscious effort to eliminate these accents. In addition, it is vital that actors speak neutral.

Acting & Dubbing: A central element is speaking a "neutral" accent, free of regional accent. The actor who is dubbing has to merge vocally, temperamentally, and emotionally with the actor onscreen. "The lip-synching is a very big challenge. The timing has to be precise. But one of the most important things is the script, which has to be translated and adapted to lip-synch."

The neutral accent is comprehensible to everyone. In that, there's no regional stereotype to obscure the meaning of the lines.

The accent characteristic of most of the Midwest is considered by many to be "standard" American English. This accent is preferred by many national radio and television broadcasters. This may have started because many prominent broadcast personalities – such as Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Tom Brokaw, John Madden, Rush Limbaugh and Casey Kasem – came from this region and so created this perception. A November 1998 National Geographic article attributed the high number of telemarketing firms in Omaha to the "neutral accents" of the area's inhabitants.

In American English the neutral accent is usually " (Emerging)General American English" and occasionally "Network English" and Broadcaster English." In British English, the neutral accent would be RP (or Received Pronunciation) based primarily on the upper middle-class speech of London.

Neutral Accent & Media

English Montrealers have a neutral accent that was long considered a standard in broadcasting, according to Julia Lenardon, a dialect coach who works with local actors and business clients. However, in recent years, the idea of a neutral accent has lost currency because regional accents are now considered more acceptable in broadcasting than in the past, she says.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/That+aboat+sums/2564512/story.html#ixzz0h08c3zwc

Citing examples of call centres, he said Bangladesh has a huge potential in terms of IT outsourcing as the English accent here is "neutral".

Read more: http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=154903&cid=2

Outsourcing in SA: Linguistic overlap and high levels of fluency in English score high points for South Africa, which allows access to customer service agents with a fairly neutral accent. This is important in telephonic client interactions, as a certain level of empathy is integral to understanding the needs of customers.

Read more: http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30930:keep-them-happy&catid=143:industryinsight&Itemid=99

Attitude Towards Neutral Accent

A neutral accent is one that is grammatically and phonetically correct, but has no regional characteristics. In other words, you can't tell which part of the country the person is from. For example, it is easy to tell if a person comes from the Southern states (in the US) because of their accent; likewise Boston. English is spoken in the US, Canada and Great Britain, but it is easy to determine if the person is from Great Britain, because of the accent. Many diplomats learning a foreign language will learn it with a neutral accent.

In American English the neutral accent is usually " (Emerging)General American English" and occasionally "Network English" and Broadcaster English." In British English, the neutral accent would be RP (or Received Pronunciation) based primarily on the upper middle-class speech of London.

On the other hand, if you learn to speak clearly and precisely, you can be understood by the largest audience as possible. You avoid using slang or contractions. You have to remove local referencing or other idiomatic pitfalls. The best way to learn it is from various speakers with different origins. You will still have to contend with some turns of phrases that may correspond in one region that do not in another..."boot" in the UK is "trunk" in NA, "the pond" referring to the Atlantic Ocean, "football" has different meanings in NA vs the rest of the world, etc.

A neutral accent is good, but be careful that you don't sound like you think you are better than everyone else. Sometimes it is better just to blend in.

Personally,some people don't really mind people speaking with an accent - They find it nice and adding to a person's character. People that speak a cleaner language with a less noticeable or non-existent accent tend to have an easier time getting perceived as intelligent and educated because a clean pronunciation is often required during higher studies.

A 'neutral accent' can be defined as a way of speaking (tone, intonation etc) where people from any geographical location is able to understand you, provided they know the language themselves! The 'neutral accent', in speech training refers to the module in which the participant is taught how to get rid of his/her MTI (Mother Tongue Influence). This kind of training is mostly used in businesses where interaction with over-seas customers/clients is a prerequisite.

Accent Neutralization
1. The main cause of this trend towards accent neutralization / reduction is the demand created by outsourcing.
2. The problem that arises is that many customers have difficulties understanding accents other than their own; hence accent neutralization or reduction becomes important for customer satisfaction.
3. Neutral accent is a good idea.

How to speak with neutral accent ?
1.Frequently listen to language spoken by native speakers and repeat them.
2.Watch movies, listen to music, audio clips, news and presentations.
3.Control your rate of speech to get the correct intonation and rhythm of language.
4.Use your dictionary.Familiarize yourself with the phonetic symbols used for different words in the dictionary and look up the correct pronunciation.This method helps in neutralizing an accent tremendously.
5.Make a list of commonly used words that are difficult to pronounce.
6.Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.
7.Read newspaper regularly.
8.Work on how to pronounce the sounds.Mostly sounds play vital role for accent variation.
9.Practice the language sincerely. Don't feel shy to speak a language as a beginner.
10.Try imitating news readers.
11.The method of picking up the accent varies wildly, and speech theripists can pick up what you are doing wrong and explain how to change.

Well, Some people think there is something called as neutral accent. Accents are most clear when you speak slangs and try speaking proper language without any slangs and local pronunciations, you'll be surprised. Neural accent is easy to understand for everyone but rather difficult to speak because there will be some or other word that we use our own (or local/regional) style to pronounce.

Technically you may be correct; there is no such thing as a real neutral accent. However, in most places there is an accent that is perceived as being a neutral accent that is the "correct" way to speak. Rightly or wrongly, having this accent can be beneficial to success in one's career, and it can be advantageous for those who don't have this accent to emulate it in certain circumstances.

User Comments: Attitude Towards Neutral Accent

I think it is critical to the success (or failure) of outsource call centers. Not only do they need neutral accents, they also need to be familiar with colloquialisms and dialects so that they can better relate to the callers.

Neutral in what way? Unless you're talking about English accents in languages other than English, there's no neutral way to speak English. Unless you count RP English. Or maybe you mean that some "foreign" accents are very hard to shake off when speaking English - in which case I'm not sure. Some people can use a different accent flawlessly (for example, Englishman Hugh Laurie who plays Dr House), which means it is probably never impossible to shake-off an accent no matter where you are from, though very very hard for most people. But even then, as there's no accentless version of English, you would still be speaking with an English language accent. More specifically, I find that some English accents are very hard to shake off. Is there any way to tell which is more 'neutral'?

As a non-native speaker who enjoys the various dialects/accents the English language has to offer, I have actually wondered about how Hugh Laurie, Anthony LaPaglia, or Marianne Jean-Baptiste's spoken American accents in television shows sound to American ears (my guess is "pretty good", but I lack the nativeness). The best one is Gary Oldman; I always assumed he was American and he was faking a British accent in Harry Potter.

I am from Russia. I hardly listen to this kind of term " neutral accent " . Sorry but Now I am opening my dictionary.

I think news reporters have neutral accents for the most part because you cant easily place the region.

Most of the people from the mid western states are sometimes considered to have the most neutral accent. If you do some checking you will find that many of the most famous news broadcasters for both radio and television are often from those states...

To answer your question, there really isn't a 'neutral accent' in any kind of language. For example, a person who was born in Georgia may sound 'neutral' to other Georgians, but if that person would go up to Wisconsin, they and the people speaking would sound totally different.

There's no such thing as a neutral accent. EVERYONE who speaks has an accent.

I don't know what you mean by neutral accent, and I don't think there really is one unless you mean a sort of accepted standard like what is spoken on TV and radio.

Neutral for where? I live in California, and I've always notice Huge Grant has a very pronounced English accent.

The most neutral accent is in the Loire Valley, between Orléans and Angers, Tours being considered the heart of the French language in its purest form.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a "neutral accent".... the accent will reflect whatever area you live in. As an example, people in the northern US think southerners have an accent, but people in the southern US think northerners have an accent.

The idea of a neutral accent is a bit of an oxymoron since accent usually denotes geographical origins...

Every single person on Earth has an accent; it is impossible to have none, as you will have an accent for someone who comes from a different geographic region. The more isolated a community is, the more evident its accent is.

Middle England English with no discernable (regional) accent.

A neutral accent is supposed to be the ideal "no accent." If you say someone has a neutral accent, it means they don't speak with any regional accent.

To my ears, they all have some sort of accent. Obama, the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, has a Northern accent, which most Americans consider not to be an accent at all.

There are a lot of rants from American customers (who do business with third world) that people outside their country dont speak English properly. Hence the suggestions to acquire a neutral accent and correct diction!!!

An accent coach would be your best bet. Normally, when you try to self-train yourself to speak an with an accent, you end up sounding just like someone who is faking the accent.

Sometimes people think that basically americans speak neutral accent.But it is absolutely not true.Because american accent varies depending on the area of the country the person comes from. In some areas it can be hard to understand what a person is saying. American accent differs from neutral accent.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a "real" neutral accent. This is due to the fact that anyone from a particular region will always identify someone else's accent as "foreign".

There are a lot of different ways to say things that differentiate people from regions in England and America. To have a neutral accent, you have to try to pronounce every syllable that is meant to be pronounced in the first place.

All accents develop in a particular time and place among a certain group of people. There is no place called Neutralia where Neutralians have always spoken the Neutral dialect of English.

A neutral accent is a bit of an oxymoron. I think what you mean is transatlantic English, ie English spoken without obvious regional influences so that it can be understood universally.

My first wife who had her Masters in Communications, used to talk about "Neutral Accent." It is what many broadcasters use and is, as far as I can tell, a type of diction that removes all the regional inflections.

There is no truly "neutral" accent. Everyone who speaks has an accent that indicates to someone who is not from the same region where that person comes from. An accent only sounds neutral to somebody from the same region as you.

A neutral accent is an accent that is completely void of any sort of twang, regional pronunciation, or incorrect grammar. It's basically pronouncing words according to the dictionary and correct grammar.

Voice and accent these days focus on training you on having a Neutral Accent and training you about the nitty gritties of the country's accent so that you can understand the person on the call.

Listen to the BBC - this will be a good example for you.

It saddens me to hear people think, by default, that the Standard American accent is somehow the 'global neutral accent'. No such thing.

Neutral Accent: Share Your Ideas