If your native language is Italian
but you’re speaking English
you may have an Italian accent
But what does this actually mean?
Almost all words in Italian end in vowel sound
which means that Italian speakers are
not used to pronouncing words ending in a consonant
For English words ending in a consonant
Italians may add a vowel to make it easier to pronounce
For example, "man" would be become "man-a"
Listen to how vowels are added in the following clips
The /r/ sound in English
is made with the tongue
not touching the top of the mouth: /r/
In Italian
the tip of the tongue does touch the top of the mouth
It’s sometimes called a rolling R
but linguists call it an alveolar tap or trill
Italians may use their /r/ sound
when speaking English
Italian has a difference between single
and double consonants
Listen to the difference between these two Italian words
Notice how the T sound in the second word
is longer
Linguists call these double consonants geminates
which comes from the Latin word for twin
In English, we have words written with
two identical letters next to each other,
but they aren’t usually pronounced as a longer sound
For example, we say "happy" and not "happppppy"
When Italian speakers talk in English
they are likely to follow the Italian rules
and pronounce any double letter as a longer sound
There’s no /h/ sound in Italian
so Italian speakers
are likely to delete this sound when speaking English
Italian speakers may add a /h/ sound
to words beginning with a vowel
For example, the word "out"
may become “h-out”
This is called hypercorrection
Both Italian and English
have the /s/ and /z/ sounds
But these sounds exist in different environments
In Italian, when a word begins with SM or SL
the letter S is pronounced /z/
like in these words
But when a word begins with SM or SL in English
the letter S is pronounced /s/
For example
"small" and "slow"
Italian speakers are likely to follow
the rules of their native language
and pronounce words like "small" and "slow"
with a /z/ sound in English
Linguists give vowels names to make it easier to talk about them
The /əʊ/ vowel in the word "notes"
is called the GOAT vowel
It’s a diphthong which means it moves from one vowel
towards another: /əʊ/
This vowel doesn’t exist in Italian
so Italian speakers are likely to replace it
with a vowel sound in their native language
usually a monophthong which means
just one single vowel sound
Like many non-native English speakers
Italians may not distinguish between
the /iː/ vowel in FLEECE
and the /ɪ/ vowel in KIT
so words like "beat" - "bit" and "feet" - "fit"
may get mixed up
Unfortunately, the word "sheet" may also get
mixed up with another word...
Italian has 5 to 7 vowel sounds
depending on the variety
whereas British English has around 20
It’s not easy speaking a foreign language
when there are so many new sounds
you have to make
But it’s not just about new sounds
As we found out with the S and Z
there are rules about where a sound can appear in a word
and these rules are different
from language to language
These are just some of the features
that create an Italian accent in English
of course there are many others
such as rhythm and the TH sounds
but I can’t cover everything in one video
If you’re a non-native English speaker
who wants to improve your pronunciation
then sign up for my online course
Go to my website to find out more
If you’ve enjoyed this video
please like it
and share it with your Italian-speaking friends