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learn English as learnt by someone learning it as a second language app

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There is something about people who learn English as a second language. They seem pretty sophisticated, with their mastery of multiple languages; they must be quite clever, to have become so proficient in English (a language which, while easy to pick up basic conversational skills in, swiftly becomes tricky when you realise that all commonly used verbs are irregular and that there are loads of ‘just because’ rules) and finally, there are some non-English accents and speech patterns which are a bit sexy when transposed into English.

So this is an app, like DuoLingo, which helps people learn languages. In this case, the app is aimed at monoglot native English speakers and helps them to learn to speak English with the accent, speech patterns, word choices and common errors of someone who is, say, Dutch and who has spent decades learning English to a very high level.
hippo, Mar 10 2021

The story behind Stephen Hawking's voice https://www.reddit..../dr_dennis_h_klatt/
Dr Dennis Klatt [AusCan531, Mar 11 2021]

Morley, Prehistory of Music https://books.googl...v=onepage&q&f=false
See chapter 5 onwards for non-linguistic vocalisation as the basis of speech [pocmloc, Mar 11 2021]


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Annotation:







       When I was in grade school I wanted to get a Spanish accent like Antonio Banderas' "Puss in Boots" character from the hit movie "Shrek". It is probably for the best that I did not succeed in this goal. My recommendation to you would be to do something reasonably virtuous that you enjoy, repeatedly, so that over the coming decades you can continue to have the contentment and inner peace of being who you are.   

       // sexy
Be that as it may, the Old Testament patriarchs tended to find a wife by returning to the local watering hole in their ancestral village; finding someone who spoke the same language down to a very granular level of ancestry and neighborhood. In retrospect, this advice would have benefited me.
  

       // Dutch
The Hitchhiker's Guide warns that the Babel Fish's removal of communications barriers led to terrible wars. Your app sounds straightforward in principle and well aligned with current trends. So, I for one predict and eagerly await the success of your app as it would lead to re-armament of the Netherlands and a Fifth Anglo-Dutch War.
sninctown, Mar 10 2021
  

       If each brain has it's own unique unfolded processing on the universe, every first language is a really second language.   

       Yay, to uncommon ground.
wjt, Mar 10 2021
  

       You're going to need some experts to guide you in the development of this app, you can probably find some voice coaches for actors who already do this if you know anyone in the film industry to help direct your search.   

       Not that I think it's a good idea, when I was younger I often used to find my accent mutating to match those I was with after just a day or two (sometimes mere hours), I often feared this might be perceived as taking the pee & might lead to physical retaliation of this potentially perceived slight but couldn't seem to stop doing it anyway.   

       I'm thinking this may cause your app users some problems along those lines.
Skewed, Mar 10 2021
  

       Virtual Accent text to speech
pashute, Mar 10 2021
  

       Virtual Accent text to speech
pashute, Mar 10 2021
  

       // learn to speak English with the accent, speech patterns, word choices and common errors//

Zere iz such app available already. C'est vrai! Iz being called GM for ze Dungeons & ze Dragons. 'Ere is a croissant por vous, mon petite 'ippo!
DrBob, Mar 10 2021
  

       The more time I spend here, the more time I find myself talking with Stephen Hawking's accent.
RayfordSteele, Mar 10 2021
  

       \\Stephen Hawking's accent\\   

       See link for the interesting story behind that voice.
AusCan531, Mar 11 2021
  

       There needs to be new names for each accent style. I propose these: Japlish, Frenglish, Germlish, Irelish, Spanlish. Which one creates Dumblish?
xenzag, Mar 11 2021
  

       OK think laterally. If you don't understand a language at all, then all you get is a vague impression of fast sequences of vowels and consonants, rising and falling intonation, and expressive vocalisation.   

       There have been studies that connect these features of human languages to animal vocalisations, expressions of emotion and connection between individuals.   

       So perhaps the logical conclusion is the "nonolingua" app which teaches you to make complex non-linguistic utterances that will be equally well understood by all humans and also by non-humans, i.e. divorcing human utterance from semantic content.
pocmloc, Mar 11 2021
  

       That's an entirely different idea [poc], one that hinges on identifying instinctive human vocalisations & their meanings in pre-linguistic humanity.   

       Unfortunately such qualifying vocalisations as there are, are too few & even augmented by situational context too limited in the range of information they convey to be really useful.   

       Most of them are probably to be found in the vocalisations babies & infants use to elicit assistance & food from their mother, not a lot of use there & we already all understand all of them anyway by dint of them being instinctive so there's really not a lot of point to the exercise.
Skewed, Mar 11 2021
  

       I recall the parents of an Austrian friend of mine, inviting me to dinner. Arno (friend's dad) asked Wilma (friend's mum),   

       "How many are we for dinner this evening?"   

       Initially, I thought it sounded a little odd. Then I realised; it was better English than I was used to hearing from native speakers.
UnaBubba, Mar 12 2021
  

       It's not so much better English as just a bit more formal than is usually normal from native speakers .. then again, that depends, what would you normally expect to hear in it's place, from a native speaker among your associates .. enquiring minds want to know just exactly what form of knuckle dragging Neanderthals you normally associate with in meat space? ;))
Skewed, Mar 12 2021
  

       I don't associate with other people in "meat space". I have been social distancing since 1998.
UnaBubba, Mar 12 2021
  

       Who was that I met at the National Gallery in London then? :-)
hippo, Mar 12 2021
  

       A simulacrum.
UnaBubba, Mar 12 2021
  


 

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