I Love Accents-----Do You?

hollydolly said:
hahaha..oh yes you do have an accent... as a Non American I can hear the difference in all of your accents.. even though none of you think you have one.. :D.. I may now get the right state often.. but I know they're all different.
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I have been over to England during the course of my career a few times. Since I have lived in the Midwest long enough to have lost whatever accent I had in California growing up, folks in England considered me to possibly Canadian. In a way, that was good because I would watch "rich American" tourists, and some were often downright embarrassing - pushy, loud, etc., certainly not all of them (and probably not the majority), but enough for me to understand why I heard the comments about American tourists when in that part of the world. I also heard the comment that Americans "speak through their noses", though I can't say I quite understand that one, probably because I likely speak that way too. :)

It really is an interesting experience to be in another country working on a job, while observing tourists from your own country. I think it would be a far better experience to backpack across Europe as some young people do to experience the culture by interacting with the local people for more than a quick few minutes, than to take some cruise or travel package so you can rush through and check off places to see on a list just to say you have been there. Most of my travel outside the US has been for work of one kind or another, with only one trip that my wife wanted to take, which was a cruise. Fortunately, we went on a Holland America ship that was the opposite of the "party animal" atmosphere I hear about all too often. It was relaxing, but I have to admit I was glad when it was over. I did read several books during the trip though. :) My preference for a quiet relaxed vacation would be to stay at a Bed and Breakfast in a coastal British village for a week or two.

Tony
 
tbeltrans said:
Personally, I enjoy various accents.

Oddly, the most difficult accent for me to understand when on engineering phone conferences was the Scottish brogue. I have been involved in phone conferences with folks in a variety of countries and was always able to understand what was being said, regardless of the accent - except the Scottish brogue. I would have thought that people in Israel, or maybe China would be difficult to understand, but that was not the case. I think it had something to do with speaking over the phone and how it processes voice frequencies to minimize bandwidth (a guess on my part), because that was not an issue with satellite teleconferencing.

Tony
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As most people here know.. and you've just learned, I am Scottish... I am from the west of Scotland where the accents is the strongest. ..although over almost 50 years of living in England most people can't distinguish exactly what my accent is it's now a very soft lilt..... my husband is absolutely useless at accents (he's English ) but he's known me since my accent was at it's strongest and often gets me to translate for him.. and yesterday he called me to tell me I was having a visitor and that although he couldn't understand him well, he knew that the visitor was Scottish by his very strong accent...

As soon as I opened the door, in the first 3 words I knew my visitor was not only not Scottish he had one of the strongest English brogues that very few Brits fail recognise.. he was a Geordie from Newcastle in the North of England......so even my southern English husband couldn't recognise the accent of a kinsman from the north of his own country
 
hollydolly said:
As most people here know.. and you've just learned, I am Scottish... I am from the west of Scotland where the accents is the strongest. ..although over almost 50 years of living in England most people can't distinguish exactly what my accent is it's now a very soft lilt..... my husband is absolutely useless at accents (he's English ) but he's known me since my accent was at it's strongest and often gets me to translate for him.. and yesterday he called me to tell me I was having a visitor and that although he couldn't understand him well, he knew that the visitor was Scottish by his very strong accent...

As soon as I opened the door, in the first 3 words I knew my visitor was not only not Scottish he had one of the strongest English brogues that very few Brits fail recognise.. he was a Geordie from Newcastle in the North of England......so even my southern English husband couldn't recognise the accent of a kinsman from the north of his own country
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I have known people from Newcastle .. love the Geordie accent :)
 
hollydolly said:
btw...all Canadians deny this... but you all really do say '' A Boat'' instead of About or Oat instead of out etc :D...that's how most of us can tell the difference between you and Americans :LOL:
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Well, that is also the reason that folks in England thought I could be from Canada instead of the US. When I was growing up in Los Angeles, there was a family from Minneapolis that moved to our neighborhood. To me, they had a strong accent and the main thing I remember of it was exactly what you commented on. :)

I was born in a borough of NYC (Queens) and we moved to California when I was around 6 years old. I remember that the other kids made fun of, not only my accent, but also some terms we used. In California, they said "jeans" and in NYC, we said "dungarees" back then. They said "pop" in California, while we said "soder pop" in NYC. That may have changed in the intervening years, but it does point out that not only the accent may be different, but also the difference in terms used to describe the same item.

Tony
 
Pinky said:
The Scots on the east coast tend to pick up a different sort of accent for some reason. I find it all fascinating.
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my mother was born and raised in the East coast...she had a very different accent from us on the West Coast... and of course everyone who lives in the North and the highlands of Scotland have different accents again to the first 2..
 
Pinky said:
I think Canadian-born Canadians speak more of the true "Queen's English" .. at least, those of my generation.
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that's because the Queen is your Monarch.. lol... and I truly believe that more brits per capita.. emigrate to Canada than America so you all have a little bit of perfect British in you... ;):LOL:
 
StarSong said:
When I was in school a girl moved from So Cal to NJ. We thought her accent was hilarious and adorable. Just a few years later I moved to So Cal and suddenly I was the one with the hilarious, adorable accent.
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same thing happened to me as you and @tbeltrans when I moved from the East coast as a child age 7.. back to the west coast where my father was from and where I was born. Went to school, no-one could understand a word I said.. all different words for the same thing etc.. no-one thought it was cute tho' my brother and I got bullied, so we played truant from school

Then it happened again when I was 19 and moved from Scotland to England... constant mockery...
 
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Pinky said:
I think Canadian-born Canadians speak more of the true "Queen's English" .. at least, those of my generation.
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I was reminded a few times in England that they speak the "Queen's English", while I speak "American". :) It was all in good fun, no offense given or taken. It was interesting to be working side by side with these folks, getting to know them in a way a tourist wouldn't.

Tony
 
@holly, since the NY/NJ accent and patterns of speech were much coarser than Los Angeles's, particularly at that time, if anyone had given me serious static I would have responded appropriately, i.e, with an Italian salute and unladylike cutting remark.

My kids grew up in So Cal. When they were in their early 20s (still going to college and living at home) I went to NY/NJ for a wedding/visit. Just a few days after I came home I was calling out to one of my sons and said, "Yo, Jameson!"

He walked into the room and said, "OMG, Mom. Did you just "yo" me?"

I hadn't even realized what I'd said. Of course, we both started laughing.... just a few days in my childhood environment and the speech patterns came rushing back. My family finds my occasional NY/NJ slips to be high hilarity.
 
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