• In general are spoken from the back of the mouth
• Diphthongs (two vowels that should sound as one but are stretched in country dialects so that both vowels are heard)
• Hard r's produced by a retroflexed tongue (tongue pulled up in the back of the mouth towards the palate)
• Slowing down the dialect helps with understandability

• produced in the back of the mouth
• stretched diphthongs (tell" becomes "tey-ul," "said" becomes "say-ud")
• bright and stretched i's
• hard r's (retroflexed- back of tongue pulled up toward palate)
• dropped ending consonants (g's at the end of ing, t and d's)
• moves up and down in a choppy style

• Relaxed tongue against back of bottom teeth
• Rounded and opened vowels
• Speak soft r’s with the tongue lifted toward the roof of the middle of the mouth, not back of mouth, and the front of the tongue resting behind the bottom teeth
• "t's," "d's" and "l's" pronounced with the tongue behind the top teeth
• ‘l’s” pronounced with tip of tongue below top teeth
• Tip of tongue under the bottom front teeth and a little more forward than l’s for th’s
• Other consonants pronounced inside the mouth toward the front of the mouth with the tongue resting behind the bottom teeth
• Key words, phrases, and clauses spoken more slowly and deliberately as they are stressed
• Focus inside and towards the front of the mouth with the tongue resting behind the bottom teeth
• Relax and concentrate on speaking more towards the front of his mouth
• Articulate consonants with correct placement of lips and tongue with teeth
• Good speakers can benefit from singing with good choral directors

• resonance toward the front of the mouth
• actively used articulators: lips, teeth, tongue
• rounded vowels
• diminished r's
• pitch moves up and down, then goes down at the end of phrases
• formal sounding
• appropriate for Classical Literature

• resonance toward back of the mouth the mouth
• hard, retroflexed r's (back of tongue pulled up to hard palate in back of the mouth)
• elongated, stretched dipthongs two vowel sounds that should sound more like a single vowel are stretched in continuous, gliding motion)- hat would sound like haet
• dropped g from ing at the end of word- workin not working
• slow, drawled, lilted (up/down | movement)
• pitch goes down at the end of phrases
• uneducated sounding

• resonance is focused in the back of the throat
• full nasal sound which progressively decreases
• extended upper lip
• slight dilation of the nostrils
• emphasis on final syllable of words
• long "e" in words such as see, speed, knee, free
• short "i" in words such as city, in, sit, pit
• long "a" in words such as way, say, day
• short "e" in words such as feather, whether
• "er" sounds like ah in words such as alligator, here
• slow lilting drawl
• ending "d" dropped such as in word bed
• pitch goes down at the end of phrases and lines
• consonants are often not clearly articulated: ask becomes aks, they becomes dey, them becomes dem, three becomes tree, except becomes sept...

• Focus inside the mouth
• Slight emphasis or stress on short “a’s” such as in cat (for example, in the word Chicago the “a” is stressed and spoken like “ah” )
• In general the focus of the dialect is high, across the roof of the mouth with the back of the tongue lifted up inside the mouth..
• The dialect is generally flat without a lot movement, lyricism, or musicality.

• resonance focused toward front of the mouth
• rounded vowels, especially a's
• diminished r's
• liquid u such as in duke
• straight, formal sounding, limited pitch variation

• resonance focused in back of throat
• dropped h's
• elongated diphthongs
• emotional, great deal of pitch variation
• glottal stops with such words as throttle, gentleman

Southern Irish of Kerry

• resonance focused a few inches in front of lips
• musical dialect, lilting downward in pitch during vowels
• a's pronounced as "ah" as in art, balm; short as in hat, bat; or as "aw" as in broad, morning
• oy diphthong as in poise, boy
• long i as in tight, sight
• long o in grow, toe
• long oo in blue, soon
• long e in see beat, meat
• o's short in shot, tot
• short e in ten, when
• rolled r's

Northern Donegal County Irish Dialect

• where the Southern Irish Dialect of Kerry is focused more towards the front of the mouth, the Northern dialect of Donegal County is focused more like Scottish dialects inside the mouth against the palate (The Donegal is focused more towards the soft palate and the Scottish towards the hard palate.) 
• tongue is active high in the mouth
• tongue pulled up against soft palate- R broad like car, girl, tire (initial r’s always broad like arms) & R slender (th & r with air released afterwards) work , carry
• southern Irish lilts downward and Donegal, like the Scottish, lilts upward. In the Donegal dialect upward lilts are on stressed syllables.  
• more uniformity in vowel durations in both Scottish and Ulster dialects than in other English dialects
• long vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened but are not reduced to schwa 
• centralized pronunciation of the diphthong in words like mouth or mound - ah-oo sound.
• dipthongs in words face and goat tend to be monophthongized 
• “oo” in “goose” is pronounced very far in the front of the mouth (as in Scottish)
• start with a higher pitch at the beginning of a sentence, move the pitch down in the middle of the sentence, and slightly up again at the end of the sentence (lilts upward on stressed syllables, which are often at end of sentences)

The dialect is focused inside the mouth. It is lyrical, moving up and down and up with the pitch rising at the end of phrases and sentences. More specific characteristics are as follows:

• resonance is inside the mouth, under the tongue
• tongue is active high in the mouth
• r's are “retroflexed,” produced with back of tongue raised toward hard palate of the mouth
• glottal stop substituted for medial and final t's, such as in bottle, bit, bitter
• g dropped in ing endings, such as in singing, prancing
• doesn't have external musical lilt, but does have internal vowel lilt with upward rise in pitch during vowels and diphthongs of stressed words
• ah-oo in words such as house, mouse
• long a in words such as great, way
• long o in words such as grow, bow
• long e in words such as see, meat
• long oo in words such as blue, tune, goose- produced in front of the mouth
• short oo as in could, stood, boot
• uniformity in vowel durations
• long vowels in unstressed syllables are shortened but are not reduced to schwa (lack of clarity)
• centralized pronunciation of the diphthong in words like mouth or mound - ah-oo sound.
• dipthongs in words like face and goat tend to be monophthongized (or shortened)

• tone or resonance focused high and in back of mouth
• rolled r's
• w's become v's
• ending g's become k's
• long a in great, they.
• long o as in go, home
• short a as in cat, bag
• short i as in sit, sin
• short e as in get, met

• tone or resonance focused tongue tip and front of teeth
• musical lilt with pitch rising at end of stressed words and ends of phrases
• ending g's become like k's
• w's become v's
• long e in such words as see, me
• long a in such words as great, day
• long oo as in duke, boot
• long o as in snow, slow

• l's pronounced with a flat tongue, tip of tongue behind bottom teeth like French l's
• h's sound like a's such as in "As anybody seen my keys?"
• Ch sound is made deep from the throat from the top of the throat: "chhhhhh" or the sound when one is choking.
• They have a letter Tzadik (*). The name 'Tzvi? is pronounced like 'Tsunami' with the teeth together and the tip of the tongue covering from behind.
• t's pronounced as in the words 'letter.' 'later,' or 'escalator'. th's pronounced like d's such as 'they' becomes 'dey' or 'this' becomes "dis"
• Vowels are limited and pronounced near the front of the mouth. Vowels are very pronounced. Hebrew vowels are actually symbols located at the top bottom or even in the middle of a letter. The vowels are very defined are therefore always make the exact same sound. Most common of all Hebrew vowels: 'Patach' (sound = 'Ah'), 'Chirik' (sound = 'ee') and 'Segol' (sound = 'eh'). Because the vowels are so specific, Israelis will pronounce many English words while skipping half the vowels: 'Kiss' instead of 'Keys,' 'Cahrr' instead of "Car", 'Chee-cken' instead of 'Chicken' or 'Camputurr' instead of 'Computer.'
• no 'W' in Hebrew
• r's (or Resh's) are pronounced like a French or German 'r,' the tongue lies at the bottom of the mouth and the sound comes from the throat
• um becomes 'em'
• excessive hand and body movements when speaking
• lisps are slightly common



Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by many of the seven million people in Israel. Yiddish ("yidish" or "idish", literally "Jewish") is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages.

Modern Hebrew is less formal or elevated than Biblical Hebrew.

Aramaic (" Ar'm'y, Syriac, Arabic") is a language or group of languages belonging to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, which also includes the Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician.

In general:

• Aramaic and Hebrew are closely related
• Aramaic and Hebrew, semitic languages, use the same vowel symbols: a, e, I, o u- long and short. (Aramaic also has 9 different vowel letters for extra vowel sounds.)
• Lots of t & th sounds (th in then becomes d [den] and th in thin becomes t [tin]
• Hebrew avoids short i (using e or ē), Aramaic often keeps the short i-vowel
• Lots of k & kh sounds
• In Aramaic, it is the next to last syllable (penultimate one) is stressed; whereas in Hebrew, most words are stressed on the last syllable (I understand/ I understand)



Four primary languages were spoken by people in Biblical times: Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek (for trade, commerce, and scholarship) and Latin (was used for administrative decrees and legal verdicts).

These languages are not commonly spoken today. The Old Testament as originally written in Aramaic and Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in Greek. (Latin was used for formal documents.) People of Biblical times widely varied in ethnicity, class, and education.

Aramaic, a family of ancient Semitic languages, was spoken widely across the Middle East. It is closely related to Hebrew and uses the Hebrew script for its alphabet. It was the common language in Palestine. Among the Jews, Aramaic was used by the common people( Jesus likely spoke this with them), while Hebrew remained the language of religion, government, and the upper class (Jesus likely spoke this with them).

• resonance focused at top edge of bottom front teeth
• often dominating, hard, reserved sounding
• ach is guttural
• short "i" in words such as sit, still
• short "e" in such words as get, tent
• short "oo" in such words as good book
• th pronounced like a d in such words as they, therefore
• w becomes a "v" in such words as where, was, what

• resonance focused at top edge of bottom front teeth
• th pronounced like a d in such as in father (fader)
• ending d like t in such as in Lord (Lort)
• v pronounced like f such as in love (lof)
• r's slightly rolled
• w pronounced like slight v such as in we're (vere)
• ending g not hard as in Russian going (goink)
• short "i" in words such as sit, still, list

• resonance is focused in the back of the throat
• full nasal sound which progressively decreases
• extended upper lip
• slight dilation of the nostrils
• emphasis on final syllable of words
• long "e" in words such as see, speed, knee, free
• short "i" in words such as city, in, sit, pit
• long "a" in words such as way, say, day
• short "e" in words such as feather, whether

• varied but most are marked by an "e" pronounced like "ee," such as in feet, with this sound common at the end of words ending in y, such as usually
• formal sounding, spoken toward the front of the face like British English.

• spoken more inside the mouth than the South African
• musical, lilting dialect
• pitch goes down at the end of lines

In Brazil, as in most countries, there are varying dialects. Some regions sound more like Spanish and others more like French. Brazilian Portuguese has elements that sound like Spanish, French, and Italian.

However, there are some basic characteristics of Brazilian Portuguese that we can use for an English speaker with a Brazilian Portuguese accent. (Accent is used for a single speaker. Dialect is used for a cultural group of people.)

Basic characteristics of Brazilian Portuguese:

• It does not have a great deal of variation. It is not melodious. It is more characterized by stressed, unstressed patterns, which can sound like a slightly rolling sing-song pattern. It is can sound somewhat like American English in its downward pitch in the unstressed syllables in this sing-song, stressed/unstressed pattern. Word endings tend to be unstressed and less articulate.
  • Brazil, the name of the country, often sounds like "Brasiu."
  • Tonic (initial) vowels are stressed, as are second to last syllables.
• In Brazilian Portuguese all five vowels [a e i o u] are usually pronounced clearly.
• In Brazilian Portuguese there are no mute consonants.
• Ending consonants are not strongly articulated: p can sound like b, t like a d, and k like a g.
• R's are produced in the back of the mouth much like a French r or as in the English word “pressure." The tongue moves from the palate towards the bottom of the mouth and rounds a little in the tip.
• The alphabet is just like the English Alphabet.
• All the vowels are pronounced.
• Most consonants are pronounced exactly like in English (with the exception of the X) and are regular in pronunciation.
• The tongue is used high in the mouth and actively with the palate, top of the mouth.

• resonance is focused at the front of the mouth behind the top teeth
• single and double trilled or tapped r's with tip of tongue behind top teeth
• th sounds like d
• z sounds like s
• g dropped at end of ing
• aggressive tongue
• long "e" in words such as speed, knee, tree
• short "i" in words such as pit, sit, split

Here are a few more insights concerning the difference between Spanish and Standard American English (SAE) for Broadcasting:

• In Spanish dialects, vowels are often more closed and fluid than they are in Standard American English (SAE). Vowels in SAE are more open and straight. SAE is slower, straighter, and more open inside the mouth than Spanish. For Broadcast Standard, focus more toward the front of the mouth.
• Resonance in Spanish dialects are focused often at the front of the mouth behind the top teeth, whereas with Standard American English (SAE) the focus of the resonance in the middle of the mouth and for Broadcast SAE more toward the front of the mouth
• In Spanish single and double trilled or tapped "r’s" are pronounced with the tip of tongue behind the top teeth, whereas with SAE "r’s" are pronounced with more with the back of the tongue pulled up toward the roof of the mouth and the front of the tongue resting behind the bottom teeth
• The most significant differences are the focus of the dialect (behind the top teeth for Spanish and inside the mouth toward the front of the mouth with the tongue resting behind the bottom teeth with SAE)
• The general placement and activity of the tongue is more aggressive and fluid behind the top teeth for Spanish and inside the mouth behind bottom teeth for SAE
• "Th" sounds like "d" in Spanish, whereas in SAE the "t" is pronounced with the front of the tongue under the top teeth and the "h" sounded with aspiration (forced breath out the front of the mouth)
• In Spanish "z" sounds like "s", whereas in SAE "z" is pronounced with the top and bottom teeth almost touching and the front of the tongue pulled up toward the top dental ridge
• In Spanish "g" is dropped at end of "ing," whereas in SAE the "in" in the "ing" is produced with the "g" pronounced with the middle of the tongue pulled up toward the middle of the roof of the mouth to produce a nasal sound for the "g"
• In Spanish the tongue is aggressive and fluid, whereas in SAE the tongue is more relaxed inside and at the bottom of the mouth and behind the bottom teeth. Few sounds in SAE are pronounced with the tongue behind the top teeth where "t's," "d's" and "l's" in SAE are produced
• The most significant differences are the focus of the dialect (behind the top teeth for Spanish and inside the mouth with SAE) and the general placement and activity of the tongue (more aggressive and fluid behind the top teeth for Spanish and inside the mouth behind bottom teeth for SAE).
• In general one trying to speak SAE needs to speak slowly and to relax the tongue, let it rest behind the bottom teeth, and use it more inside the mouth.