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english_north_america · United States

General American

english_north_americaintro

United States · Midland / broadcast

The accent US network broadcasting settled on, and the one most non-American learners are taught. Rhotic; TRAP and BATH are the same vowel, so 'bath' rhymes with 'math'; LOT and PALM are the same vowel, so 'father' and 'bother' rhyme; NORTH and FORCE have fallen together, so 'horse' and 'hoarse' are homophones for the large majority of speakers. Intervocalic /t/ and /d/ are both a quick tap, which is why 'latter' and 'ladder' sound alike. LOT and THOUGHT are kept apart here, but that is the contrast currently disappearing fastest in North America -- for many younger and western speakers 'cot' and 'caught' are already identical, and this preset models the conservative side of a change still in progress rather than pretending it has finished.

Rhotic: the /r/ is pronounced everywhereTRAP and BATH merged (bath rhymes with math)LOT and PALM merged (father-bother)Intervocalic /t/ tapped (latter = ladder)Yod-dropping (tune = toon)

Live example

Transformed live against this preset's phonetic matrix.

Transforming…

Hear it

A/B where you're starting from against this accent, for the same sentence. That first clip is your own accent when you've said how you speak, and your language's reference variety when you haven't — the player says which.

Compare — Where you're starting from vs. the accent you're building

Synthetic/robotic voice (espeak), not a native speaker.
Reading the vowel system…

Active features

Every phonetic parameter that deviates from this schema’s diffing anchor, with a plain-English gloss.

FeatureValueMeaningDrill
LanguagelanguageenDrill
Mixed Languagesmixed_languagesDrill
S Treatments_treatmentstandardDrill
D Intervocalicd_intervocalicstandardDrill
D Finald_finalstandardDrill
R Infinitiver_infinitivestandardDrill
R Initialr_initialapproximantDrill
N Final Velarizationn_final_velarizationNoDrill
Final Consonant Dropfinal_consonant_dropnoneDrill
Vowel Reductionvowel_reductioncrisp_openDrill
Syllable Timingsyllable_timingstress_timedDrill
T Flappingt_flappingYesDrill
Yod Behaviouryod_behaviourdroppedDrill