when a Chinese person speaks English they often have a Chinese accent, but what does this mean?
there is no one Chinese language, within China people speak a variety of different languages and dialects
but there are some general accent features that most Chinese people have when speaking English
in this video I'm going to show you some of those features
and I'm going to be using clips of actor Jackie Chan to show you what I mean
languages have restrictions on where consonants can be and how many consonants are allowed to be together in a word
Chinese languages usually don't like consonants at the ends of words or multiple consonants together
so when a Chinese person speaks English, they may unconsciously keep to these restrictions
for example
if an English word ends in two consonants the final consonant may be deleted to avoid multiple consonants being together
listen to how Jackie Chan says jump, stunt, and script. He deletes the final consonant
the same process happens in the middle of a word. In the word action we’ve got a /k/ and a /ʃ/ sound
Jackie Chan deletes the /k/, so action becomes action
listen to this next clip and also notice how he deletes the final consonant sound of audience and world
it can also happen at the beginning of a word
so Bruce Lee becomes simplified to Buce Lee.
if one word ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a consonant
Chinese speakers may insert a vowel to break up this consonant sequence
listen to Jackie Chan say
his stunt
bus station and this script
notice how he inserts a vowel sound
Chinese has a very different rhythm compared to English
a Chinese speaker tends to stress more syllables in a sentence compared to an English speaker
this may give the impression of a flat, staccato rhythm
listen to Jackie Chan
he's stressing most of the words in the sentence equally, whereas I would only stress the most important words, for example:
the first time I met Chris Tucker we tried to make Rush Hour 1
Dark Ls in English are Ls with no vowel sound after them
when a Chinese person says a Dark L, they may turn it into a vowel sound
listen to me say roll
and table
now listen to Jackie Chan
and when Jackie Chan says too old it sounds like to owe
because the final consonant is deleted and then the L turns into a vowel
when a word ends with an N sound, it may be deleted or turned into an NG /ŋ/ sound by a Chinese speaker
the vowel before may be nasalised
listen to me say question, when, champion
now listen to Jackie Chan
/w/ and /v/ are two sounds that a Chinese person may confuse when speaking in English
so with and walk may be pronounced with a /v/ sound instead
the terms voiced and voiceless
describe whether a sound is made with the vocal folds vibrating or not
if you make a long /v/ sound you can feel your vocal folds vibrating inside your larynx
if you make a long F sound, it's not vibrating
when a Chinese person speaks in English voiced sounds at the ends of words tend to become voiceless, so live
becomes lif
the voiced B in grab sounds more like a voiceless P sound
and the voiced D sound in said and Brad is turned into a glottal stop
a glottal stop is made when the vocal folds quickly close inside the larynx
it sounds like the vowel is stopped suddenly, so said and Brad turn into saiʔ Braʔ
there are a few accent features that are specific to certain languages and dialects within China, so not every Chinese speaker will have problems
there may be confusions between an N and an L sound
when Jackie Chan says another
the first time he uses an N and the second time, it sounds closer to an L
some speakers may mix up Ls and Rs
so when Jackie Chan says far away notice how the R sounds closer to an L sound
for some speakers, /ʃ/ sounds will turn into /s/ sounds
this means words like English and Schwarzenegger
will turn into Englis and Swarzenegger
these are just some of the features that create a Chinese accents in English
of course, there are others including vowel sounds but I don't have time to cover everything in one video
if you've enjoyed this video, then please like it and share it with your Chinese friends
if you’re a non-native English speaker and you want to improve your English pronunciation
then take my online English pronunciation course
go to my website to find out more