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I am trying to flatten my accent and I'd like to know some words and sounds to use as markers for improvement.
As an example, I know that "ich" is often mispronounced "ick" by Americans. I'd like to know what words, when mispronounced, scream "American" -- and how I might improve my accent.
I'll start with learning consonants that do not exist in my own language. These are [ç] as in I[ç] or Tei[ç], [x] as in Ba[x] or Da[x] (Bach/Dach) and especially the German r, which is usually rendered as [ʁ]. There is a variant of [x], which is [χ], the unvoiced counterpart of [ʁ]. The American "r" is a sure telltale sign, by the way.
A sound you already know, [v], is the common way to pronounce "w". The [w] in engl. "water" doesn't exist except for loan words. "s" has to be rendered as [z] in High German (as in "design") when appearing as initial sound and as [s] when it appears as final sound. Other sounds change as well, when they appear as final sound:
Another important property is that every German syllable begins with a consonant; however, there is one that doesn't appear in writing: the glottal stop ʔ.
Vowels are much harder to learn. I'd propose to just exercise speaking short words again and again.
We tend to have broad, "twangy" vowels in addition to the ones heard in German. In American English, "Apple" "deer" "ice" "owl" "ugly" are words that, if pronounced correctly, are pretty "American"
Attached is a recording of your question read by me (American accent) and the words I listed above.* https://www.dropbox.com/s/bzyghhyxxdcupnf/American%20Accent-1.m4a?dl=0 *I made a mistake saying "ick": most americans would say the "i" like the "i" in "igloo"
