How to speak in a way that commands attention, and inspires and motivates
others to take action is a matter of great import today. Why so? well, in the
class, you may be heard as a leader; at your workplace you may be taken more
seriously at meetings, the projected confidence in your speech may help you get
a promotion, or at best increase your sales; at seminars, you may keep your
audiences well-engaged when giving your presentations; or even at a shop, it
may help avoid having people ask you to repeat yourself.
"I don't like the way I speak", "My friends make fun of
the way I pronounce certain words", "I don't think my boss will ever
give me the chance to give a presentation" are some of the common phrases
you hear where speech is concerned. The truth is, few of us- if any- are
entirely satisfied with our speech. Many a time, we have found ourselves
drooling to stupor over how fluid, and smooth-flowing the speeches of certain
presenters or speakers are. Granted, unfortunately not everyone is born with
that captivating voice that makes people sit and listen. However, there is good
news! Everyone can learn how to speak in a clear, smooth, and attractive way.
The first step is to learn what kind of accent you have.
So what is an accent? An accent is a mode of pronunciation characteristic
to or distinctive of a particular person, group or locality. In Ghana, quite a
number of English accents abound. There is the General/ Neutral Ghanaian
Accent, Ashanti Accent, Ga Accent, Ewe Accent, and Northern Accent. These accents
have been heavily influenced by factors such as colonization, social or
regional background, media influence, and native language, among others.
The General/ Neutral Ghanaian Accent
As the name suggests, this speech pattern does not particularly demonstrate
one’s regional background, yet it is heavily influenced by the phonetic habits
of our native languages. The General Ghanaian Accent,
like British Received Pronunciation (RP)
and most standard language varieties of many other societies, has never been
the accent of the entire nation. However, it has become widely spoken in many
Ghanaian films, TV series, national news, commercial ads, and the nation's
radio broadcasts. This type of accent is prevalent around the southern regions
of Ghana where urbanizaton thrives progressively. Examples of such cities
include Accra, Cape Coast, Tema, to mention a few. Even though closely related
to the British pronunciation, there is still a violent contrast between the
two. For anyone barraged with conflicting views as to what the General Ghanaian
accent sounds like, below is a guide.
- Verbs ending in ‘-ate’ are usually have their pronunciation stress on the last syllable
Eg.Imitate/IM.i.tate/
becomes /im.i.TATE/
- Words ending in ‘-al’ and ‘an’ do not have a silent ‘a’ pronuciation
Eg. Global/glow.bl/ becomes /glowb.al/
- Words with long vowel sounds are pronounced with a relatively shorter vowel sounds
Eg. Heart /ha:t/ becomes /hat/ which sounds homophonous with hat
- Words ending in ‘-et’ have an ‘et’ and not an ‘it’ sound
Eg. Market/ma:k.it/ becomes /ma.ket/, and bucket/buh.kit/ becomes
/buh.ket/
- Words ending in ‘-mour’ are usually pronounced with an ‘or’ sound
Eg. Glamour /glam.ah/ and tumour /tew.mah/ become /glam.or/ and /tew.mor/
