#252607 - Tue Dec 28 2004 06:19 PM
British accents...
|
Mainstay
Registered: Mon Feb 14 2000
Posts: 622
Loc: Minnesota U.S.A.
|
There are so many distinct accents among people of the British Isles. Why is that? I mean, I live in Minnesota, which is similar in size to the British isles, and yet everyone in the state seems to have the same way of speaking.
_________________________
I have a catapault. Give me all of your money, or I will throw enormus rocks at your head.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#252609 - Tue Dec 28 2004 07:05 PM
Re: British accents...
|
Moderator
Registered: Thu Sep 30 1999
Posts: 12593
Loc: Kowloon Tong Hong Kong
|
It is amazing how some people can detect our accents too. I was at lunch the other day and was introduced to a man from UK. After a few minutes of chat, he said he had been in my area in the summer. I left that area 45 years ago, and had thought my accent had disappeared completely. Apparently not.
_________________________
Wandering aimlessly through FT since 1999.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#252611 - Tue Dec 28 2004 09:17 PM
Re: British accents...
|
Enthusiast
Registered: Fri Sep 24 2004
Posts: 396
Loc: Off the Shoulder of Orion
|
I think it probably has to do with the history (or herstory) of each country, as well. Britain has been around for much longer than the US. For a long time, it was not one country, but a lot of different countries that kept to their own groups. Each city was a country onto itself. They each would developed their own language, and would know if thier was a potential enemy in the city based on accents. Same concept with America, For many years, the south was seperate from the north (slavery and all that) so they developed a different dialect. Just my theory. 
_________________________
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#252612 - Wed Dec 29 2004 04:43 AM
Re: British accents...
|
Prolific
Registered: Fri Jun 20 2003
Posts: 1179
Loc: Bay Area California USA
|
Quote:
It seems to me, and I think most Brit's, that apart from the obvious 'north - south' accents, and the Texas 'drawl' there is no difference in English language accent when travelling throughout the USA.
Hmm, I think I'd kind of have to disagree with that. I think the differences are just perhaps too subtle for non-Americans to hear. Or not realizing they are actually hearing different pronunciations of things. For example, the word 'water' is one that is frequently used to detect where in the country someone is from. There's a great deal of difference in the vowel sounds in that one word.
Also, the placement of sounds can tell you a lot. I was born in Wisconsin where people tend to 'swallow' their vowels, and speak from the backs of their throats and are frequently mistaken for Canadians  . My cousins, on the other hand were raised in Chicago only 80 miles away and are the most nasally sounding people you can imagine. 
I've lived in northern California for almost 25 years,and people can still hear the Milwaukee in my voice. 
Anyway, I think the differences are maybe not as dramatic as British accents, but they are definitely there.
_________________________
"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking." ~ Jerry Seinfeld
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#252613 - Wed Dec 29 2004 05:55 AM
Re: British accents...
|
Multiloquent
Registered: Sat Nov 01 2003
Posts: 2989
Loc: Eastbourne Sussex UK
|
Total Cockney ere
_________________________
Nothing to say.............. grrrrrr
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#252614 - Thu Dec 30 2004 11:07 AM
Re: British accents...
|
Enthusiast
Registered: Fri May 14 2004
Posts: 437
Loc: Barrie
Ontario Canada
|
Yes, every country has it's accents, but the newer countries have less variations. I think it's a global village thing. Canada is largely a country of immigrants. I'm a first generation Canadian, my parents are from England and Northern Ireland.
Canadians tend to speak a common sounding language (we all use "eh"), but there are accents based on where in the country you live. On the east coast for example, people tend to drag their "t" sound, and change I to E. (think melk instead of milk)
Canadians as a whole don't pronounce the ou sound the way our American friends do.
"There's a mouse about the house, no doubt about it" becomes
"There's a moose aboot the hoose no doot aboot it", at least to yankee ears.
Newfoundlanders have a very Irish sounding dialect. I am frequently asked "What did he say?" by my friends when conversing with a Newfie, but I understand because I was exposed to so many Irish, Welsh Scottish and English dialects as a child.
I always laugh when I watch the Harry Potter movies because Ron Weasley's accent is different from his two brothers.
_________________________
What this world really needs is a Tim Horton's store at Walt Disney World.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#252615 - Mon Jan 03 2005 02:11 PM
Re: British accents...
|
Multiloquent
Registered: Tue Dec 28 2004
Posts: 2813
Loc: Hertfordshire<br>England UK
|
Quote:
Hmm, I think I'd kind of have to disagree with that. I think the differences are just perhaps too subtle for non-Americans to hear. Or not realizing they are actually hearing different pronunciations of things. For example, the word 'water' is one that is frequently used to detect where in the country someone is from.
If an accent is 'too subtle' to detect then it can't truly be called an accent, or at least it's not much of one. I like the reference to water, and it reminds me of an interesting situation a few years ago while driving in southern Florida. It had just started raining and I needed some water for the windscreen washer, so stopped at a service station to ask for some. I tried every possible pronunciation of water, warrter, wooter, watter, wurta, etc, etc, but to no avail, until eventually another customer said "I think he wants wodda"!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous Topic
Index