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Clarity, not accent
Why this guide aims for English that people understand the first time, not for a British or American accent, and why Standard English is the clearest way there.
Your accent is fine
Everyone has an accent, and a Rwandan accent is fine.
Research backs this up. Munro and Derwing found that a strong foreign accent does not necessarily make speech harder to understand (Language Learning, 1995). What causes misunderstandings is a few specific sounds, and those are what the six rules fix.
Communication can be remarkably successful when foreign accents are noticeable or even strong … there is no clear correlation between accent and understanding.
— John Levis, applied linguist (TESOL Quarterly, 2005)
A few sounds matter most
The linguist Jennifer Jenkins studied which sounds matter when people from different countries speak English to each other. One of them is a full t between vowels, as in water and better (The Phonology of English as an International Language, 2000). A 2022 study tested this with 78 learners of English: when the t was tapped, as it often is in American English, most words became harder for them to understand (Social Sciences & Humanities Open).
What 'Standard English' means
It is the pronunciation used in international English and in standard British English: the English of BBC World Service newsreaders and of the 'UK' audio in learner's dictionaries. It is not a London accent or a British street accent: those drop the t in water ('wa'er'), the opposite of Rule 1.
Why Standard English is easier for Kinyarwanda speakers
American English is correct for Americans, but three of its sounds are hard for a Kinyarwanda speaker to copy without being misunderstood. The Standard English versions are closer to sounds you already make:
- A clear t. The American t in water and better is tapped, and a tapped t is almost exactly the Kinyarwanda r, so listeners hear 'berrer' or 'beller', and writing as riding. The Standard English t stops the air completely, and nobody mistakes it for r. See Rule 1.
- Words that end in a vowel. Standard English drops the r after a vowel: car is kaa, and computer ends in tə. Kinyarwanda syllables also end in vowels, so this comes naturally. American English keeps an r there, one more place where your r can be heard as l. See Rule 4.
- The Kinyarwanda o. Standard English says hot, job and stop with the Kinyarwanda o. The American vowel is the a you use for hut, held longer, so hot can be heard as hut or heart. See Rule 5.
Keeping r and l apart and the stress in numbers work the same way in both styles.