Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

English speakers have contact or familiarity with a huge variety of foreign speakers, enough that we can categorise French accents, Swedish accents, Hindi accents etc etc. And we simply get heaps of practice with non-native English speakers. I don't think the same thing occurs so strongly in other languages.

English has a massive variety of vowel sounds within its different accents, as well as other variations in length, emphasis, consonants etc. Native English speakers have a subtle ear for a massive range of vowel sounds (and plenty of people can reproduce them when speaking in an accent). A Spanish person can be confused if you substitute or mispronounce a single vowel in my experience.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: