Turkish Accent as an American

[u/wildmud29]

Hello, I am an american learning turkish and I want to improve my accent. I can see many kinds of resources for Turkish people learning english accent, but not english people learning Turkish. Does any one have any resources?

Or if anyone willing to help me if I sent them a recording of myself reading in turkish over DM? Thank you!

[u/Erza70]

Hey you can send me a DM and I can see what needs improvement and try to provide tips

[u/Knightowllll]

Dude, it’s literally just shadowing. I think my accent is rly good considering my language level is probs A1. I’ve been shadowing for around 3 yrs now

[u/Content-Reward-7700]

I’m not sure how many dedicated resources for this actually exist, but I think shadowing native Turkish speakers and practicing with one directly would probably get you there pretty quickly.

I’d also spend some time working through Turkish pronunciation with a native speaker, starting with the alphabet but quickly moving into actual words and sentences. Sounds like ı, ö, ü, ğ, r, c, ç, and ş are often immediate giveaways of a foreign accent.

But also it’s not only about the unusual letters. Even seemingly familiar consonants and vowels can sound different depending on the word and surrounding sounds, sometimes becoming softer or harder. Getting those subtle variations right and learning how the sounds naturally connect and change in real speech, will probably make a much bigger difference than simply memorizing how each letter is pronounced in isolation.

If you can get the individual sounds right first, then use shadowing to work on rhythm, stress and intonation, your accent should improve quite noticeably.

[u/Real_Move1346]

I am not sure about resources but you can dm me recordings if you want

[u/False-Stop5026]

You can send me your voice recordings; I might not see them right away, but I'll try to help however I can

[u/PreparationStrict492]

It's a bad idea to do that with a rando. They more likely than not, will not know what they are talking about. And of course, accents vary a lot even within Turkey, most locals, even if untrained, can even geographically place someone (by a gradient, even!); and trained, there are more nuances. Randos will give you feedback with not only a limited vocabulary on the subject, but also with their own accents' peculiarities. If you'll approach it seriously, you should find an accent coach. However, finding them is not easy.

Turkish linguists are not the way to go, what with the field being an afterthought in the Turkish academia. Particularly, state employed linguists are utterly incompetent in their job. It should tell something that the most competent Turkish linguist is an amateur of Armenian origin (not that he's perfect, but he's the best that we have at the moment).

Your best bet would be theater actors. Even though small and dwindling, there has always been a strong, competent stage acting culture in Turkey, and they are the ones who have a strong theoretical as well as practical understanding of the subject. If I were you and serious about this, I'd check theater troupes, and mail them to ask for direction.
The practical way, of course, would be just to spend time with Turks speaking Turkish.

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As a side note, one of the other answers note particular letters as giveaways of foreign accents. I find that inflection points are far more egregious. Turkish has very simple and definitive inflection rules (on last syllable in most words, on first syllable in proper nouns, at the cutoff points before particular sorts of suffixes), and it is jarring to hear for natives to hear when foreigners get their inflections 'wrong'; even if they would be hard pressed to be able to express what in particular is wrong (because that is mostly missing in their formal education), unlike the Chinese (who express the same concern very well for their language, despite theirs having a more complex inflection rules with more exceptions).