Non-native pronunciations of English explained

pronounced as /notice/Non-native pronunciations of English result from the common linguistic phenomenon in which non-native speakers of any language tend to transfer the intonation, phonological processes and pronunciation rules of their first language into their English speech. They may also create innovative pronunciations not found in the speaker's native language.

Overview

Non-native English speakers may pronounce words differently due to not having fully mastered English pronunciation. This can happen either because they apply the speech rules of their mother tongue to English ("interference") or through implementing strategies similar to those used in first language acquisition. They may also create innovative pronunciations for English sounds not found in the speaker's first language.

The extent to which native speakers can identify a non-native accent is linked to the age at which individuals begin to immerse themselves in a language. Scholars disagree on the precise nature of this link, which might be influenced by a combination of factors, including: neurological plasticity, cognitive development, motivation, psychosocial states, formal instruction, language learning aptitude, and the usage of their first (L1) and second (L2) languages.

English is unusual in that speakers rarely produce an audible release between consonant clusters and often overlap constriction times. Speaking English with a timing pattern that is dramatically different may lead to speech that is difficult to understand.

Phonological differences between a speaker's native language and English often lead to neutralization of distinctions in their English. Moreover, differences in sound inventory or distribution can result in difficult English sounds being substituted or dropped entirely. This is more common when the distinction is subtle between English sounds or between a sound of English and of a speaker's native language. While there is no evidence to suggest that a simple absence of a sound or sequence in one language's phonological inventory makes it difficult to learn, several theoretical models have presumed that non-native speech perceptions reflect both the abstract phonological properties and phonetic details of the native language.^[1]

Non-native speech patterns can be passed on to the children of learners, who will then exhibit some of the same characteristics despite being native speakers themselves. For example, this process has resulted in many of the distinctive qualities of Irish English and Highland English which were heavily influenced by a Goidelic substratum.^[2]

Examples

Arabic

See also: Arabic phonology, Egyptian Arabic phonology, Hejazi Arabic phonology, Levantine Arabic phonology and Tunisian Arabic phonology. General features among most or all Arabic speakers:

• Confusion between pronounced as //ɪ// as in sit pronounced as //sɪt// and pronounced as //ɛ// as in set pronounced as //sɛt//, pronouncing both vowels as pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, or pronounced as /link/.
• Difficulty distinguishing low sounds, pronounced as //æ// as in bam and pronounced as //ɑː// as in balm may both be realized as pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, or pronounced as /link/ depending on the speaker's dialect.
• Confusion between pronounced as //ɔː// as in called and caught with pronounced as //oʊ// as in cold and coat, both being realized as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ depending on the speaker's dialect.
• Speakers tend to speak with a rhotic accent and pronounce pronounced as /link/ as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/.

Catalan

See also: Catalan phonology.

• Devoicing of final consonants: pronounced as //b/ pronounced as /d/ pronounced as /ɡ/ pronounced as /v/ pronounced as /z/ pronounced as /dʒ/ pronounced as /ʒ// to pronounced as /[p]/ pronounced as /t/ pronounced as /k/ pronounced as /f/ pronounced as /s/ pronounced as /tʃ/ pronounced as /ʃ]/.

E.g. phase can be pronounced like face (even though Catalan has both pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //z// phonemes).

• Vowel length confusions.
• Confusion of pronounced as //æ// pronounced as //ɑ(ː)// pronounced as //ʌ//, usually realized as pronounced as /[a]/
• Confusion of pronounced as //ɪ// pronounced as //i(ː)//, usually realized as pronounced as /[i]/.
• Confusion of pronounced as //ʊ// pronounced as //u(ː)//, usually realized as pronounced as /[u]/.
• Confusion of pronounced as //ɔ(ː)// pronounced as //ɒ//, usually realized as pronounced as /[ɔ]/ or pronounced as /[o]/.
• Confusion of pronounced as //b// pronounced as //v//, usually realized as pronounced as /[b~β]/ (pronounced as //b// pronounced as //v// are only distinguished in Valencian and Balearic).
• Rhotic pronunciation, with pronounced as //r// pronounced as a trill pronounced as /[r]/ or a flap pronounced as /[ɾ]/.
• Difficulties with word-initial clusters involving pronounced as //s//, where an epenthetic e is usually added.

E.g. stop being pronounced estop.

• Simplification of some word consonant clusters.

E.g. instant being pronounced instan

• Narrower pitch range, with emphasis marked with extra length instead of extra pitch variation.
• Problems with variable stress.

E.g. the blackbird vs. the black bird.

• Problems with contrastive stress.

E.g. with sugar or without sugar? (the second sugar is more heavily stressed)

Cantonese

See main article: Hong Kong English.

• tends to be [d], so this is [dis],^[3]
• /ə/ tends to be [a], so whether is .^[4]
• There is less vowel reduction in unstressed syllables, and some variation in the placement of stress. For example, chocolate may be pronounced pronounced as /[ˈtʃɒkoʊleɪt]/ instead of pronounced as /[ˈtʃɒklɪt]/.^[5]

Czech

See also: Czech phonology. These are the most common characteristics of the Czech pronunciation of English:

• Final devoicing of voiced consonants (e.g. "bet" and "bed" are both pronounced pronounced as /[bɛt]/), since non-sonorant consonants are always voiceless at the end of words in Czech. Some speakers may pronounce consonant-final English words with a strong vocalic offset, especially in isolated words (e.g. "dog" can be pronounced as /[ˈdɔɡə]/).
• Czech pronounced as //r// is alveolar trill. There is a tendency to pronounce the trill in English and in all positions where is written.
• Final -er (-or) pronounced as syllabic alveolar trill pronounced as /[r̩]/ (e.g. "water" sounds pronounced as /[ˈvɔːtr̩]/). Stressed pronounced as //ɜː// tends to be realized as pronounced as /[ɛːr]/ (e.g. "bird" pronounced as /[bɛːrt]/).
• Tendency to realize both pronounced as //v// and pronounced as //w// as pronounced as /[v]/, since pronounced as //w// does not exist in Czech.
• Tendency to pronounce the initial cluster as pronounced as /[vr]/ (e.g. "write" pronounced as /[vrajt]/).
• Tendency to realize pronounced as //θ// as pronounced as /[s]/ or pronounced as /[f]/, since pronounced as /[θ]/ does not exist in Czech.
• Tendency to substitute pronounced as //ð// as pronounced as /[d]/ or pronounced as /[d͡z]/, since pronounced as /[ð]/ does not exist in Czech.
• Tendency to pronounce pronounced as //h// as voiced (e.g. "how" pronounced as /[ɦau̯]/).
• Tendency not to aspirate the stops pronounced as //p, t, tʃ, k// (e.g. "keep" sounds pronounced as /[kiːp]/ instead of pronounced as /[kʰiːp]/), since these stop consonants are not aspirated in Czech.
• pronounced as //æ// is often realised as pronounced as /[ɛ]/, so that "had" sounds like "head" pronounced as /[ɦɛt]/, homophonous with "hat".
• Schwa pronounced as /[ə]/ does not exist in Czech. Speakers tend to pronounce it as pronounced as /[ɛ]/ (e.g. "a table" pronounced as /[ɛ ˈtɛjbl̩]/) or pronounced as /[a]/ (e.g. "China" pronounced as /[ˈt͡ʃajna]/).
• Tendency to realise pronounced as //ŋ// as pronounced as /[ŋk]/ or pronounced as /[ŋɡ]/ (e.g. "singing" pronounced as /[ˈsɪŋɡɪŋk]/), because Czech pronounced as /[ŋ]/ is an allophone of pronounced as //n// before velar stops.
• Tendency to isolate all words in speech, because the liaison is unusual in Czech. For instance, "see it" tends to be pronounced pronounced as /[siː ʔɪt]/, rather than pronounced as /[siː‿ɪt]/.
• The melody of the Czech language is not so strong as in English. Czech speakers may sound monotonous to an English ear.

Dutch

See also: Dutch phonology.

These are some of the most notable features a Dutch speaker might have:

Pronunciation of consonants

• Speakers have difficulty with dental fricatives, often pronouncing pronounced as //ð// as pronounced as /[d]/ (failing to contrast then and den) or pronounced as /[s]/ (especially between vowels). Similarly, the dental fricative pronounced as //θ// is replaced by pronounced as /[s]/ or pronounced as /[t]/, though Belgian speakers may pronounce both pronounced as //θ// and pronounced as //ð// as pronounced as /[f]/ in word-final position.
• The voiced stops and fricatives undergo terminal devoicing, especially in stressed syllables, causing feed and feet to be pronounced as the latter. Similarly, Dutch voicing assimilation patterns may be applied to English utterances so that, for example, iceberg is pronounced as pronounced as /[aɪzbɜːk]/, and if I as pronounced as /[ɪv aɪ]/.
• Speakers have difficulty with the glottalization of pronounced as //p t k//, either not pronouncing it or applying it in the wrong contexts so that good morning is pronounced pronounced as /[ɡʊʔ ˈmɔːnɪŋ]/.
• The voiceless stops pronounced as //p t k// lack aspiration in stressed syllable-initial context.
• Medial pronounced as //t// is replaced by pronounced as //d// such that better is pronounced as pronounced as /[bɛdə]/.
• The postalveolar sibilants pronounced as //tʃ dʒ ʃ ʒ// tend to be pronounced as their alveolo-palatal equivalents in Dutch: pronounced as /[tɕ dʑ ɕ ʑ]/; beginners may pronounce them as alveolar (and voiceless) pronounced as /[ts]/ or pronounced as /[s]/ in syllable-final positions, leading to wish being pronounced as pronounced as /[wɪs]/.
• pronounced as //ɡ// may be confused with pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //v// with pronounced as //f// in initial position.
• pronounced as //l// may be strongly pharyngealized, even in contexts where dark l doesn't normally appear in English. Beginners may insert an epenthetic schwa between pronounced as //l// and a following pronounced as //p, f, m, k//, leading to milk being pronounced as pronounced as /[ˈmɪlək]/.
• pronounced as //h// could pose difficulties for certain regional dialects which lack /h/, such as in Zeelandic and West Flemish.
• pronounced as //w// is replaced by pronounced as /link/, which English listeners may perceive as pronounced as //v//.
• The alveolar consonants /t, d, n, s, z, l/ are articulated with the blade of the tongue, rather than the tip as in English.

Pronunciation of vowels

• Speakers confuse between pronounced as //æ// and pronounced as //ɛ//, so that man and men are both pronounced as the latter.
• Speakers confuse between pronounced as //uː// and pronounced as //ʊ//, so that pool and pull are both pronounced with pronounced as /[u]/. Some advanced speakers may employ a glide [ʉy].
• /iː/ is pronounced closer, tenser, and sometimes shorter than usual. Some advanced speakers might over-compensate for the length with a diphthong like [ëi].
• pronounced as //ʌ// is replaced by pronounced as /[ʉ]/. Spelling might cause confusion with /ɒ/ in words like wonder, nothing and lovely.
• British English /ɒ/ is replaced by [ɔ].
• British English /ɜː/ is replaced by the sequence in Dutch /ør/, with significant lip-rounding and r-insertion.
• /eɪ/ is replaced by [eː].
• /əʊ/ is replaced by [oː]. More advanced speakers might use the Dutch diphthong [eːu].
• /aɪ/ tends to be overly long before fortis consonants, giving the impression of a following lenis consonant.

French

See also: French phonology.

• Because of the phonetic differences between English and French rhotics, speakers may perceive English pronounced as /link/, allophonically labialized to pronounced as /[ɹʷ]/, as pronounced as /link/-like and have trouble distinguishing between pronounced as //r// and pronounced as //w//.
• French speakers have difficulty with pronounced as /link/ and many delete it, as most French dialects do not have this sound.^[6]
• French speakers have difficulty with dental fricatives pronounced as //θ// and pronounced as //ð// (since these sounds do not exist in French). In France they may be pronounced as pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //z//,^[7] while in Quebec, Canada, the usual substitution is pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d//.
• Speakers tend not to make a contrast between pronounced as //ɪ// (as in ship) and pronounced as //iː//. (as in sheep).^[7]

German

• Speakers may not velarize pronounced as /link/ in coda positions as most native speakers do.
• German has a smaller pitch range, less consonant cluster reduction, and less vowel reduction.
• German features terminal devoicing, which is often carried over to English (creating homophones in cub/cup, had/hat, etc.)^{[8] [9]}
• German features neither pronounced as /link/ ("the") nor pronounced as /link/ ("think"), and both are often realised as either /s/ or /f/ (think/sink, thought/fought, etc.)^[10]
• German speakers tend to realise pronounced as //w// (written (w) in English) as pronounced as /[v]/ (also written (w) in German) when speaking English.
• The German /r/ is realised differently from the English /r/. Whereas in the former case the tongue touches the uvula, in the latter case it does not.

Greek

See also: Modern Greek phonology.

• Greek speakers tend to struggle with the difference between pronounced as //s// and pronounced as //ʃ//.
• pronounced as //tʃ// and pronounced as //dʒ// can be replaced by pronounced as /[ts]/ or pronounced as /[dz]/.
• pronounced as //p t k// tend to be unaspirated.
• Greek speakers may pronounce the English rhotic as a flap pronounced as /[ɾ]/.
• The closest sound to English pronounced as //h// in Greek is pronounced as /[x]/, and speakers may substitute this sound in words like house.
• The English vowels [ɪ] (bit) and [iː] (beat) are conflated.^[11]

Hebrew

See also: Modern Hebrew phonology.

• The lack of discrimination in Hebrew between tense and lax vowels makes correctly pronouncing English words such as hit/heat and cook/kook difficult.
• The dental fricatives pronounced as /link/ (as in "the") and pronounced as /link/ (as in "think") are often mispronounced.
• Hebrew speakers may confuse pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/.
• In Hebrew, word stress is usually on the last (ultimate) or penultimate syllable of a word; speakers may carry their stress system into English, which has a much more varied stress system. Hebrew speakers may also use Hebrew intonation patterns which mark them as foreign speakers of English.

Hungarian

See also: Hungarian phonology.

• The dental fricatives pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ may be realised as pronounced as /[s̻]/ and pronounced as /link/ respectively.
• Since Hungarian lacks the phoneme pronounced as /link/, many Hungarian speakers substitute pronounced as /link/ for pronounced as //w// when speaking in English. A less frequent practice is hypercorrection: substituting pronounced as //w// for pronounced as //v// in instances where the latter is actually correct.
• In Hungarian phonology, in obstruent clusters, retrograde voicing assimilation occurs,^[12] so voiced consonants change to their voiceless counterparts if a voiceless consonant follows them and voiceless consonants change to their voiced counterparts if a voiced consonant follows them. While in English, it's the other way around. e.g. pronouncing dropped as [d r ɔ́ b d] instead of [d r ɔ́ p t]^[13]

Italian

See also: Italian phonology. Studies on Italian speakers' pronunciation of English revealed the following characteristics:^{[14] [15]}

• Tendency to realise pronounced as /link/ as pronounced as /[ŋ[[Voiced velar stop|ɡ]]]/ ("singer" rhymes with "finger") or as pronounced as /link/ because Italian pronounced as /[ŋ]/ is an allophone of pronounced as //n// before velar stops.
• Difficulty with English vowels
  • pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are pronounced pronounced as /link/ (ship and sheep are homophones);
  • pronounced as /link/ (in certain words) and pronounced as /link/ are pronounced pronounced as /link/ (bad and bed are homophones);^[16]
  • pronounced as /link/ (in certain words), pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/ are pronounced pronounced as /link/ (bat, but, and bath are homophones);^[17]
  • pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are pronounced pronounced as /link/ (cook and kook are homophones);
  • Speakers tend to have little difficulty with pronounced as /link/, though some might pronounce it as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/).
  • The pronunciation of pronounced as /link/, pronounced as //əʊ//, and pronounced as //oʊ// are variable, pronounced as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/.^[18]
• The pronounced as //əl// sequence in words like bottle is realized as pronounced as /[ʌl]/, pronounced as /[ɒl]/, or pronounced as /[ʊl]/.
• Tendency to realise word-initial pronounced as //sm// with pronounced as /[zm]/, e.g. small pronounced as /[zmɔl]/. This voicing also applies to pronounced as //sl// and pronounced as //sn//. The main reason is that the letter "s" is always pronounced as pronounced as /link/ before a voiced consonant in Italian.
• Italian does not have dental fricatives:
  • Voiceless pronounced as /link/ may be realised as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/.
  • Voiced pronounced as /link/ may be realised as pronounced as /link/.
• Since pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are typically pronounced as dental stops anyway, words like there and dare can become homophones.
• Tendency to pronounce pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ as unaspirated stops.
• Schwa pronounced as /link/ does not exist in Italian; speakers tend to give the written vowel its full pronunciation, e.g. lemon pronounced as /[ˈlɛmɔn]/, television pronounced as /[ˌt̪ɛleˈviʒɔn]/, parrot pronounced as /[ˈpar(ː)ɔt̪]/, intelligent pronounced as /[in̪ˈt̪ɛl(ː)idʒɛn̪t̪]/, water pronounced as /[ˈwɔt̪ɛr]/, sugar pronounced as /[ˈʃuɡar]/.
• Italian speakers may pronounce consonant-final English words with a strong vocalic offset, especially in isolated words, e.g. dog pronounced as /[ˈdɔɡːə]/.
• Tendency to realise pronounced as /link/ as pronounced as /link/; a trill rather than the native approximant pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/, even when the dialect of English they are learning is nonrhotic.

In addition, Italians learning English have a tendency to pronounce words as they are spelled, so that walk is pronounced as /[walk]/, guide is pronounced as /[ɡwid̪]/, and boiled is pronounced as /[ˈbɔilɛd]/. This is also true for loanwords borrowed from English as water (water closet), which is pronounced pronounced as /[ˈvat̪ɛr]/ instead of pronounced as /[ˈwɔːtə(r)]/.

Japanese

See also: Japanese phonology, Engrish and Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers.

• Speakers tend to confuse pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //r// both in perception and production, since the Japanese language has only one liquid phoneme /r/, whose possible realizations include central pronounced as /link/ and lateral pronounced as /link/. Speakers may also hear English pronounced as //r// as similar to the Japanese pronounced as //w//.
• Tendency to realize syllables containing unstressed central vowel /ə/ with a vowel based on the written form
• Tendency to insert a vowel, typically /o/ or /ɯ/, after consonants other than moraic nasal /ɴ/, as Japanese lacks syllable-final consonants.
• Tendency to reanalyze English words according to moraic timing and/or pitch accent, leading to unnatural stress/timing

Portuguese

See also: Portuguese phonology.

Brazilian speakers of English as a second language are likely to exhibit several non-standard pronunciation features, including:^[19]

Pronunciation of vowels

• Confusion of pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //iː//, usually realized as pronounced as /link/, and of pronounced as //ʊ// and pronounced as //uː//, usually realized as pronounced as /link/.
• Especially in a British context, confusion of pronounced as //əʊ// and pronounced as //ɒ//. The Brazilian pronounced as //ɔ// is equivalent to RP English pronounced as //ɒ//, and English orthography rarely makes a clear demarcation between the phonemes, thus cold (ideally pronounced as /[ˈkɜʊ̯ɫd]/) might be homophone with called pronounced as //ˈkɔːld//. The North American equivalent of British pronounced as //əʊ//, pronounced as //oʊ//, may be easier to perceive as it closely resembles the Portuguese diphthong pronounced as /[ow]/. Speakers may also have trouble distinguishing between schwa and pronounced as //ʌ//.
• In a British context, the diphthong pronounced as //əʊ// might also be pronounced as the Portuguese diphthong eu, pronounced as /[ew]/.
• Persistent preference for pronounced as //æ// over pronounced as //ɑː// (even if the target pronunciation is England's prestige accent), and use of pronounced as //æ// within the IPA pronounced as /[ɛ]/ space (Portuguese pronounced as //ɛ// is often pronounced as /[æ]/, what makes it even more due to confusion in production and perception), so that can't, even in RP, might sound like an American pronunciation of Kent. Some might even go as far as having pronounced as /[le̞st]/ instead of pronounced as //læst ~ lɑːst// for last

Pronunciation of consonants

• Difficulty with dental fricatives pronounced as //θ// and pronounced as //ð//. These may be instead fronted pronounced as /[f v]/, stopped pronounced as /[t̪ d̪]/ or hissed pronounced as /[s̻ z̻]/.
• Speakers may pronounce word-initial r as a guttural r pronunciations or a trill. These often sound to English speakers as pronounced as //h//, leading to confusion between ray and hay, red and head, height and right, etc.
• Neutralization of coda pronounced as //m n ŋ//, giving preference to a multitude of nasal vowels (often forming random diphthongs with pronounced as /[j̃ w̃ ɰ̃]/, or also randomly losing them, so that sent and saint, and song and sown, are homophonous) originating from their deletion. Vowels are also often strongly nasalized when stressed and succeeded by a nasal consonant, even if said consonant starts a full syllable after it.
• Fluctuation of the levels of aspiration of voiceless stops pronounced as //p t k//, that might sound like pronounced as //b d g//.
• Loss of contrast between coronal stops pronounced as //t d// and post-alveolar affricates pronounced as //tʃ dʒ// due to palatalization of the earlier, before vowels such as pronounced as //iː//, pronounced as //ɪ//, pronounced as //juː//,^[20] and pronounced as //ɨ//.
• The insertion of [i] to break up consonant clusters.
• Palatalization due to epenthetic pronounced as //ɪ ~ iː//, so that night sounds slightly like nightch (pronounced as /[ˈnajtɕ ~ ˈnajtɕi̥]/ rather than pronounced as //ˈnaɪt//) and light sounds like lightchie (pronounced as /[ˈlajtɕi]/ rather than pronounced as //laɪt//).
• Loss of unstressed, syllable-final pronounced as /[i ~ ɪ ~ ɨ]/ to palatalization, so that city sounds slightly like sitch (pronounced as /[ˈsitɕ ~ sitɕi̥]/ rather than pronounced as //ˈsɪti//).
• Post-alveolar affricates pronounced as //tʃ dʒ// are easily confused with their fricative counterparts pronounced as //ʃ ʒ//, often merging chip and ship, cheap and sheep, and pledger and pleasure.
• Absence of contrast of voice for coda fricatives. He's, hiss and his are easily confused with each other. Spelling pronunciations are also possible, in which all words that historically contain schwas in their orthography are pronounced as /z/, even when the usual pronunciation would be /s/.
• English is less prone to perfect liaison-style sandhi than Portuguese, Spanish and French might be. Often, two identical or very similar consonants follow each other within a row, each in a different word, and both should be pronounced. Brazilians might either perform epenthesis or delete one of them. As such, this stop is produced either pronounced as /[ˈdis i̥sˈtɒpi̥ ~ ˈdiz isˈtɒpi̥]/ or pronounced as /[ˈdi sˈtɒpi̥]/, instead of the native pronounced as //ðɪs ˈstɒp//
• In Portuguese, the semivowels pronounced as /[j]/ and pronounced as /[w]/ may be vocalized to their corresponding vowels (pronounced as /[i]/ and pronounced as /[u]/, respectively).^[21] so that I love you is pronounced pronounced as /[ˈaj ˈlɐviː ˈuː]/. These semivowels may also be epenthetically inserted between vowels of very dissimilar qualities.
• With the exception of pronounced as //s ~ z// (here represented with a loss of contrast at the end of a word) and pronounced as //r//, consonants tend to not elide corresponding to or assimilate to the next word's phoneme, even in connected speech. This means, for example, occasional epenthesis even if the following word starts in a vowel, as in their native language (notpronounced as /[ɕi]/ really).

Russian

See also: Russian phonology.

• There is no pronounced as /link/ in Russian; speakers typically substitute pronounced as /link/.
• Native Russian speakers tend to produce an audible release for final consonants and in consonant clusters and are likely to transfer this to English speech, creating inappropriate releases of final bursts that sound overly careful and stilted and even causing native listeners to perceive extra unstressed syllables.
• Word-initial voiceless stops pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ may not be aspirated by Russian speakers (following the pattern in Russian), which may sound to native English speakers as pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ instead. However, at least one study challenges this, with Russian-accented English speakers in the study aspirating the voiceless consonants just as much as General American English speakers, and pronounced as /link/ even more than General American speakers.^[22]
• Russian exhibits final-obstruent devoicing, which may also be used by speakers in English.^{[23] [24]}
• Since there are no dental fricatives (pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/) in Russian, speakers may pronounce them respectively as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ and as pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/.^{[24] [23] [25]}
• Difficulty with English vowels. Russian speakers may have difficulty distinguishing pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/; similarly, speakers' pronunciation of long vowels may sound more like their close counterpart (e.g. pronounced as /link/ may sound closer to pronounced as //æ//)^[23]
• English pronounced as //r// is typically realised as a trill pronounced as /link/, the native Russian rhotic.^[23]
• Likewise, pronounced as /link/ may be pronounced like its closest Russian equivalent, pronounced as /link/.^{[23] [25]}
• Since there is no pronounced as /link/ in Russian, speakers typically produce pronounced as /link/^[23] or pronounced as /ru/ instead.
• The voiced palato-alveolar affricate pronounced as /link/ may be realised as a sequence of a stop and a fricative: pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/.^[23]
• The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate pronounced as /link/ may be pronounced as its closest Russian equivalent, pronounced as /link/.
• The postalveolar fricatives pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ may be realised as their closest Russian equivalents, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/.
• The consonant cluster pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ may be realised as an affricate, pronounced as /link/.
• The "clear" alveolar pronounced as /link/ may be realised as Russian pronounced as /link/, sounding closer to English velarised pronounced as /link/ (a.k.a. "dark l").^[23]
• Consonants written twice in English may be geminated by speakers.^[25]

Spanish

Notes and References

1. See the overview at
2. Web site: McEwan-Fujita. Emily. Gaelic and English. Experience an Emerald Adventure.
3. Sewell. Andrew. 2009. World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and the case of Hong Kong English. English Today. 25. 1. 37–43. 10.1017/S0266078409000066. 54170922.
4. Deterding, D., Wong J., & Kirkpatrick, A. (2008). The pronunciation of Hong Kong English. English World-Wide, 29, 148–149.
5. Book: Sewell, Andrew. 2017. Pronunciation Assessment in Asia's World City: Implications of a Lingua Franca Approach in Hong Kong. Isaacs T. . Trofimovich P.. Second Language Pronunciation Assessment: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. 107. 237–255. Bristol. Multilingual Matters / Channel View Publications. 10.21832/j.ctt1xp3wcc.17. 9781783096848.
6. , citing
7. Web site: French Speakers' English Pronunciation Errors. 2013-12-06.
8. Web site: 10 English Pronunciation Errors by German Speakers - Pronunciation Studio. pronunciationstudio.com. en-US. 2017-03-04. 2016-04-04.
9. Web site: German pronunciations of English. Hickey. Raymond. October 2014. University of Duisburg-Essen.
10. Web site: Language differences: English - German. Shoebottom. Paul. esl.fis.edu. 2017-03-04. 2017-05-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20170515140106/http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/german.htm. dead.
11. Georgiou . Georgios P. . 2019-03-01 . Bit and beat are heard as the same: Mapping the vowel perceptual patterns of Greek-English bilingual children . Language Sciences . 72 . 1–12 . 10.1016/j.langsci.2018.12.001 . 150229377 . 0388-0001.
12. Book: Michael., Vago, Robert . The sound pattern of Hungarian . 1980 . Georgetown University Press . 0-87840-177-6 . 1171902116.
13. Web site: CUBE: dropped . 2022-10-08 . seas3.elte.hu.
14. Martin Russell, Analysis of Italian children's English pronunciation . Accessed 2007-07-12.
15. Web site: Italian Speakers' English Pronunciation Errors. 22 November 2013.
16. Web site: Italian Speakers' English Pronunciation Errors. 22 November 2013.
17. Web site: Italian Speakers' English Pronunciation Errors. 22 November 2013.
18. Web site: Italian Speakers' English Pronunciation Errors. 22 November 2013.
19. Web site: Pronunciation problems for Brazilian students of English . 2009-10-15 . http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091015203916/http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/pronunciation.html . 2009-10-15 . dead .
20. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fOscBVwPTY8J:ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/000503/current.pdf+&cd=2&hl=pt-BR&ct=clnk&gl=br Palatalization in Brazilian Portuguese/English interphonology
21. https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/desterro/article/view/2175-8026.2008n55p63/14859 Preceding phonological context effects on palatalization in Brazilian Portuguese/English interphonology
22. Sukmawijaya, Jeri, Sutiono Mahdi, and Susi Yuliawati (2020). "AN ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF VOICELESS ALVEOLAR PLOSIVE/t/IN SUNDANESE, INDONESIAN, AND ENGLISH BY SUNDANESE SPEAKERS." Metahumaniora 10.1: 1-13.
23. Web site: LanguageLink TEFL clinic - Pronunciation.
24. Web site: О характерных ошибках в произношении при изучении английского языка. 2017-10-20.
25. Web site: Как исправить или улучшить свое произношение?.