Sound

I think sound is the most important feature of language comprehension.

If Native English Speaker 1 was listening to Native English Speaker 2 (who has poor syntax), 1 would be able to put together the parts of the sentence enough to figure out what 2 meant to say.

"Want breakfast." would become "I want breakfast."


Similarly, if 2 has poor vocabulary, 1 will be able to use 2's longer descriptions to determine meanings that would have come quicker if 2 have a good vocabulary.

"I love the bright things that come out at night in the sky" would become "I love the stars" after 1 thought for a moment.


But I think that if 2's sounds were off, 1 would have a very hard time deciphering what 2 meant to say.

"I love tomatoes so much" could become "I love to make those so much."
"Meet us at the bottom thing" could become "Meter sat the bar, dumb thing."
"I have to shave my legs" could become "I aftershave my legs."

With the right pauses or regional (or foreign) accents, I think these phrases could be confused, and 1 would have to work much harder to understand 2 than 1 would have to work if 2 had poor diction or poor vocabulary.

Accent Quiz

"You have an accent most closely matching that of San Carlos, California... more than likely the White Oaks section, maybe northern Redwood City (Edgewood Park area)."

I'm actually from right outside of Washington, DC, so the quiz got it pretty wrong. But the questions did make me think. Do I say "pen" and "pin" the same? No. Do I say "cot" and "caught" the same? Yes. I'm assuming that DC accents are pretty similar to the accents in San Carlos, California if the quiz is at least somewhat accurate. I thought it was too short to really try to guess where I'm from. Also, I didn't know there was a difference between accents in men and women.

Hopefully this means I will blend in well in California!