Learn English – Russian accent in the pronunciation of “lee”

american-accentpronunciation

My first language is Russian. I tried to learn American English pronunciation of the word "lee" and other words containing / li / sound, like "delete". When I compared the recording of my voice with the given example of correct pronunciation, they sounded quite different. My pronunciation sounded like / li /, and the correct one sounded like / lɪi / with the sound ɪ being very short. I believe, that my pronunciation was not correct, but I was told my pronunciation was ok.

I listened to many examples of pronunciation in dictionaries and in YouGlish and I still believe my pronunciation had a distinguishable Russian accent.

I would be glad if any American Native Speakers could confirm one of the two things:

  1. there was a Russian or other Foreign accent in my pronunciation or…
  2. my pronunciation sounded like an American Native Speaker without any foreign accent would pronounce it.

I attached a screen recording video. In this recoding I first press a button and the correct dictionary pronunciation plays, and then I press another button and a recording of my pronunciation plays.

Update: I found an article saying that /iː/ is a diphthong.

Here’s John Wells on FLEECE in Accents of English, 1982:

the general phonetic nature of this vowel could be adequately
represented as /i/, as /iː/, or indeed as /ɪi/, /ɪj/ (p. 140)

Gussenhoven & Broeders (English pronunciation for student teachers,
2nd ed., 1997):

RP /iː/, as in piece, sea, is a close, front, unrounded vowel. It is
typically somewhat diphthongised, much like [ɪi] (p. 95)

Best Answer

In my opinion his soft L is what clearly indicates his Russian accent. Considering, L followed by EE always requires L to be soft in Russian language it's an easy indicator of his native language. Lastly, the vowel sound seems higher pitch yet less nasal, although I don't believe that would clearly identify him as a native Russian speaker.

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