In Weeks

I often get questions from aspiring speakers who want to overcome their dialect or become more “well-spoken” in general.  Live, I must be faking it pretty well.  What I offer them is two-fold;  first, learn to work with your own image (voice is part of speakers imaging, a separate discussion), that is, learn to make the best of what you have.  This may mean just chill out and pay attention, and it may mean learning new tricks.  Second, know your whole voice to know how to change it.  The former is a matter of practice, and the latter is a matter of practice and training.  Or rather, re-training.

The way we shape words is developed in nerves and muscle memory.  The voice is a function of more than the vocal chords, its also the throat, the mouth, the tongue, the nose, the nasal chambers, the lips, and the jaw muscles. We learn as infants to shape sounds the way we hear them from others.  We adopt local habits and dialects, because we echo what we hear in order to adapt to our environment.  It’s a deep-rooted survival behavior thing.  People can also lose accents through cultural immersion.  But that takes time.  I met a woman originally from the south of Italy whose accent I could not identify.  Turned out she was part Italian and part Greek; in English, it made for a kind of Mediterranean cosmopolitan sound, very nice and quite eloquent.  She had been in this country 20 years, so the accent was slight and beautifully characteristic.

In the US, there are several major dialects including Bostonian, Southern Plains, and Midwest.  There are many dialects in many countries, such as Vietnam, China, and Italy.   I think regionalization was more respected before society was so mobile and so communicative.  To me, diversity makes life more interesting, and this is why I tell aspiring speakers to be their best them. 

In my voice-over work, I regularly attempt the seemingly impossible.  Ah, to be popularly “neutral”.  Neutral voice tone and neutral dialect is an issue for me because, well, I am a born, bred, reared, raised, cultured, immersed, programmed, trained, Texan.  My mouth thinks that “you all” is pronounced “ya’ll”, “let’s eat” is “lesseet”, and “ah tell you whut” is a complete sentence.  Positively, though, over the years, I’ve had many business associates who could not identify my natural dialect, and some even guessed US Western (which is considered crisp and neutral).  Encouraging. But, feedback in my auditions repeatedly brings up my roots, observable in the producers expressions of pain.  Once in a while I receive a script that seeks the real me, but more often I have to work at being someone else.  It is a matter of application of good vocal technique.  For real change, I take voice classes from a long-time certified professional voice coach.

Word structure and facial posture are the keys to understanding and changing localisms and overcoming dialects.   The process which pays the highest dividends the fastest is to practice by enunciating slowly, methodically, and intentionally each and every vowel sound and each consonant.  By choosing words to “exercise” with, you can analyze each one carefully.  Use words with a soft (e's) and hard sounds (k's).  Slow it down. The intention in the process should be to learn the shape and resonance of each individual sound (in the language of choice, and I am still learning English, my only language).  By exercising each sound carefully, slowly and with intent, the muscles of the mouth will begin to learn how to pronounce each all over again. This is how great actors like Meryl Streep do it – they apply themselves to the task of letting the brain and the structural verbal toolset learn how to work together in a new way. 

There are a number of guiding resources and voice training videos on the net.  Arthur Lessac’s work is the best.(.) Paul Meier and others have great products, and the International Dialects of English Archive website is very helpful for dialect studies.

With dedicated practice, something like 15 minutes per day, a new voice can rise within weeks.  Not months, not years, weeks.

Comments

[Brad Fallon]

I have a friend who is Asian and I cannot detect any accent when he speaks English. He grew up in the states. I believe that when you are still young you will easily adapt the language of your surroundings compare to the old ones they retain their accent even if they are already fluent in English.