What (American) English sounds like to non-English speaking people

[Varenne Rodin]

This is a fun video perspective on what English, with American accents, sounds like to non-English speaking people. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVt4Dfa4fOEY

To me, we sound like snarky casual slow-speaking Germans.

To those whose first language is not English, do you think the makers of this short movie got it right? Do you like English or find it unpleasant?

To everyone, do you enjoy listening to languages other than your own, or is that annoying for you? Do you prefer one type of English over another? Like, the UK's English over America's English? I should probably include Canada's English in this, but forget you, Canada! ;-)

[Varenne Rodin]

I was just kidding about Canada. I love Canada.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of French and Japanese music. Beautiful stuff.

[Darcy88]

That's a trippy video. It was like having a radio in the background that you can hear but are not consciously aware of. I agree it did sound somewhat German.

I like listening to other languages. I worked for a couple of years in a Chinese restaurant with an old couple who always spoke Mandarin. My favourite sounding language is Spanish. A beautiful woman with a Spanish accent can utterly own me.

I prefer the way we speak English over here as opposed to how they do back in England. Sometimes I can't even understand what actors are saying in British films.

[Melanie]

I clicked on your link but it said "not found". Americans have a lot of different accents and some have no accent.
I'm an American and took a quiz that determined I have no accent which they said is "good for TV and radio"...ha, I don't know about that.
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have
Southern accents sound closest to British accents as compared to other regions in America I read.
An Aussie once told me I have an "intelligent accent"...I think that was his complimentary way of saying, you have no accent.
It's interesting to read about How and When Americans lost their British accent.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents

[Hawkman]

I'm afraid I couldn't watch the video either. However, the question is really academic. There are so many different American Accents and there are equally as many British Accents. There are few Englishmen who can understand someone speaking with a broad Glaswegian accent, and Geordie (Newcastle and the North-West) can sound pretty horrible, and when really thick, unintelligible. I once knew the daughter of an admiral (Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland) who sounded positively transatlantic, although I think she was actually Scottish. Some accents are pleasant to the ear and others aren't. It's just a question of what you're used to. Personally I find some American mispronunciations really irritating. Missal for missile is one and Rout for route (root) and an inability to pronounce double Rs in combination with vowels, as in mirror which sounds like merr and warrior which sounds like war-yer. However, these are at least understandable. Where communication breaks down is in the difference in terms for things and relative usage.

PS: I was forgetting another of my pet hates: Nucular for nuclear (new-clear)

[Melanie]

I like listening to other languages....My favourite sounding language is Spanish. A beautiful woman with a Spanish accent can utterly own me....I can't even understand what actors are saying in British films.
I'm never annoyed by other accents unless I can't understand them. I also have a difficult time with some British films (not all). I read once that Spanish is closely related to Italian and they can actually understand each other. That surprised me...and I'm not sure it's true.

[cafolini]

I'm afraid I couldn't watch the video either. However, the question is really academic. There are so many different American Accents and there are equally as many British Accents. There are few Englishmen who can understand someone speaking with a broad Glaswegian accent, and Geordie (Newcastle and the North-West) can sound pretty horrible, and when really thick, unintelligible. I once new the daughter of an admiral (Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland) who sounded positively transatlantic, although I think she was actually Scottish. Some accents are pleasant to the ear and others aren't. It's just a question of what you're used to. Personally I find some American mispronunciations really irritating. Missal for missile is one and Rout for route (root) and an inability to pronounce double Rs in combination with vowels, as in mirror which sounds like merr and warrior which sounds like war-yer. However, these are at least understandable. Where communications breaks down is in the difference in terms for things and relative usage.

PS: I was forgetting another of my pet hates: Nucular for nuclear (new-clear)

You name it. LOL

[Calidore]

I'm never annoyed by other accents unless I can't understand them. I also have a difficult time with some British films (not all). I read once that Spanish is closely related to Italian and they can actually understand each other. That surprised me...and I'm not sure it's true.

I've heard that also. Since both languages are closely related in vocabulary and structure, it probably just means the listener can make out enough to get the gist of what the other is saying. I've heard the same about Spanish and Portugese.

[Charles Darnay]

I saw this one some time ago...it's really interesting. I have spent plenty of time around Americans (from the west, east, south - not so much the middle). The accents are far more noticeable than the various accents in Canada (except Québec).

[OrphanPip]

The Maritime and Newfoundland accents are pretty noticeable too.

[Ecurb]

None of us can recognize our own accents. Canadian English is instantly recognizable to me. It is identified by pronouncing out, "oot" and about, aboot. There is the use of "Eh". Again is pronounce "a gain" (instead of the American agen). A long "i" replaces the schwa sound in words like "fragile". ("frajayl" vs. the U.S. fraj(schwa)l). The "long" pronunciation of vowels is also found in accented syllables in other words, "sorrow" or "borrow". Also, words with French origins are more likely to be pronounced as they would be in French ("niche"). I know the English use some of these pronunciations, too. But overall, Canadian English sounds more like American English than like Oxbridge English (although it sounds more like Oxbridge English than American English does).

By the way, a couple of years ago when I was in Istanbul, I met a restaurant tout who claimed to look like Al Pacino. He couldn’t mimic Pacino's voice, but he had his mannerisms down pat. His best move was brushing his sleeves, which I'd never noticed Pacino doing before, but looked exactly like him. 'Can you tell what country potential customers are from as they walk down the street -- maybe from the way they dress?' I asked.

'Not from dress. From gesture. The way walk, the way smoke, the way hold their hands.' I believed him, having seen his Pacino imitation. So habits associated with nationality extend to movement of the body, as well as the tongue.

[Grit]

None of us can recognize our own accents. Canadian English is instantly recognizable to me. It is identified by pronouncing out, "oot" and about, aboot. There is the use of "Eh". Again is pronounce "a gain" (instead of the American agen). A long "i" replaces the schwa sound in words like "fragile". ("frajayl" vs. the U.S. fraj(schwa)l). The "long" pronunciation of vowels is also found in accented syllables in other words, "sorrow" or "borrow". Also, words with French origins are more likely to be pronounced as they would be in French ("niche"). I know the English use some of these pronunciations, too. But overall, Canadian English sounds more like American English than like Oxbridge English (although it sounds more like Oxbridge English than American English does).


I'm afraid I have to call false on this one. Some Eastern Canadians subscribe to the speech patterns you presented but I don't know a Vancouver-born person who says out "oot". That's the newfie accent. It's a crazy one. There's slang for cigarette where it's called a dart. I'm not sure if you've heard that one. I've heard someone say "Let's step oot fur a dirt." The I in fragile I agree with but it's not a hard and fast law, it's just how I say fragile. It's true about the French words, we all took french.

Still, we really don't talk very differently, I swear :)

Another gems of slang from my hometown, a tiny suburb in Vancouver.

$hit hawk - Term for the young scoundrel's who hang out in groups outside of Tim Horton's. Pretty funny, I think.

Yin - Yes

Nin - No

Adding "skees" to the end of any word. Ex; yinskees, ninskees, drinkskees...

The yin nin and skees things are from high school, I never hear them anymore. Good, because they're incredibly annoying.

Schmee for cigarette. Such a stupid one.

[Ecurb]

I live in Eugene, OR, which, like Vancouver, B.C. will soon be part of the new nation of Cascadia. Naturally, we share similar accents.

[OrphanPip]

I'm afraid I have to call false on this one. Some Eastern Canadians subscribe to the speech patterns you presented but I don't know a Vancouver-born person who says out "oot". That's the newfie accent. It's a crazy one. There's slang for cigarette where it's called a dart. I'm not sure if you've heard that one. I've heard someone say "Let's step oot fur a dirt." The I in fragile I agree with but it's not a hard and fast law, it's just how I say fragile. It's true about the French words, we all took french.

Still, we really don't talk very differently, I swear :)

An easy way to tell if you have the Canadian raising on the "ou" in out and about is if you pronounce it differently from the "ou" in loud.

[Grit]

I live in Eugene, OR, which, like Vancouver, B.C. will soon be part of the new nation of Cascadia. Naturally, we share similar accents.

Cascadia sounds awesome. I am tired of being associated with the yokels out East.

[Ecurb]

There's one radio commercial for Ram Pick Up trucks, in which the southern-accented announcer pronounces the word "Ram" as if it contained (almost) every vowel in the English language. "Reyaum" (or something like that).

[Maximilianus]

This is a fun video perspective on what English, with American accents, sounds like to non-English speaking people. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVt4Dfa4fOEY

To me, we sound like snarky casual slow-speaking Germans.
An alternative link to the video, because the first link doesn't seem to be working: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVt4Dfa4fOEY


To those whose first language is not English, do you think the makers of this short movie got it right? Do you like English or find it unpleasant?
If I had found English unpleasant, I would have taken up embroidery instead of the nearly 30 years that I've been trying to make some decent uses of the language :p I have some trouble with accents I'm unfamiliar with, though, and even more with natives who speak fast. I understand it's normal for them to speed up because it's their mother tongue, but it's problematic for me to make out what they are saying if they speak so fast, and I end up in need of repetition.


To everyone, do you enjoy listening to languages other than your own, or is that annoying for you? Do you prefer one type of English over another? Like, the UK's English over America's English? I should probably include Canada's English in this, but forget you, Canada! ;-)
I'm more accustomed to the US sounds of the language because of Hollywood, but I like English as a whole, whatever the accent. My main frustration is not being able to understand what I'm hearing.


It's interesting to read about How and When Americans lost their British accent.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents
Great article!


I'm afraid I couldn't watch the video either. However, the question is really academic. There are so many different American Accents and there are equally as many British Accents. There are few Englishmen who can understand someone speaking with a broad Glaswegian accent, and Geordie (Newcastle and the North-West) can sound pretty horrible, and when really thick, unintelligible. I once knew the daughter of an admiral (Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland) who sounded positively transatlantic, although I think she was actually Scottish. Some accents are pleasant to the ear and others aren't. It's just a question of what you're used to. Personally I find some American mispronunciations really irritating. Missal for missile is one and Rout for route (root) and an inability to pronounce double Rs in combination with vowels, as in mirror which sounds like merr and warrior which sounds like war-yer. However, these are at least understandable. Where communication breaks down is in the difference in terms for things and relative usage.

PS: I was forgetting another of my pet hates: Nucular for nuclear (new-clear)
Before this post, I would have never imagined that 'nucular' stands for 'nuclear' within some folks' jargon :rolleyes: Then again, the other day I was told that some people understand that 'Chester drawers' is a correct way to refer to a 'chest of drawers' :p


I read once that Spanish is closely related to Italian and they can actually understand each other. That surprised me...and I'm not sure it's true.


I've heard that also. Since both languages are closely related in vocabulary and structure, it probably just means the listener can make out enough to get the gist of what the other is saying. I've heard the same about Spanish and Portuguese.

True to a certain extent, mostly with words that are cognates. There's never anything better than learning each language separately, though, so as to avoid confusion and misinterpretations even with cognates. For example, the word 'gordura' means 'fatness' in Spanish and 'grease' (animal fat) in Portuguese, so the word is the same but the meaning changes slightly from one language to the other. Therefore, the word can't be used in both languages in exactly the same contexts.

[Varenne Rodin]

Sorry about the busted link, everyone. It was working before. So many thanks to Max for the replacement! :)

[Varenne Rodin]

That's a trippy video. It was like having a radio in the background that you can hear but are not consciously aware of. I agree it did sound somewhat German.

I like listening to other languages. I worked for a couple of years in a Chinese restaurant with an old couple who always spoke Mandarin. My favourite sounding language is Spanish. A beautiful woman with a Spanish accent can utterly own me.

I prefer the way we speak English over here as opposed to how they do back in England. Sometimes I can't even understand what actors are saying in British films.

I like Spanish, too! I live near the border of the U.S. and Mexico, and people complain about it all the time. It has never bothered me. Hearing it makes me want to learn more.

I want to learn how to speak Mandarin. I hope I'm not going to confuse myself by learning Japanese first. I know a lot of the characters look the same, but sound completely different when spoken. I think I read somewhere that Japanese women adapted Chinese in order to create an original language based on sounds rather than just pictures. I think it's neat that the women were tasked with forming the language. Clever girls.

I like British accents very much. I think it's because I grew up watching Monty Python. Words in general fascinate me. I can almost dislike Thai because my friend's mom used to scream it at us to alert us that breakfast was ready every time I slept over. She also screamed it at her sister on the phone. I couldn't get used to the screaming.

[Varenne Rodin]

I clicked on your link but it said "not found". Americans have a lot of different accents and some have no accent.
I'm an American and took a quiz that determined I have no accent which they said is "good for TV and radio"...ha, I don't know about that.
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have
Southern accents sound closest to British accents as compared to other regions in America I read.
An Aussie once told me I have an "intelligent accent"...I think that was his complimentary way of saying, you have no accent.
It's interesting to read about How and When Americans lost their British accent.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents

Thanks for the quiz, Melanie! I got this:

96% The West

"Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta."

It's funny they said Florida. When I lived in Florida people said I clearly had a California accent, and that I sounded "too sophisticated for Miami." A person from Maryland laughed at my accent, saying it was "VERY California." People from the South think I have no accent. I'm like a newscaster with a tiny touch of So-Cal beach speak. Friends in Georgia thought it was uproariously funny that I used the word "cool" for other than a description of temperature. They were also very amused that I said "soda" instead of calling every carbonated beverage "coke." :)

[Varenne Rodin]

I'm afraid I couldn't watch the video either. However, the question is really academic. There are so many different American Accents and there are equally as many British Accents. There are few Englishmen who can understand someone speaking with a broad Glaswegian accent, and Geordie (Newcastle and the North-West) can sound pretty horrible, and when really thick, unintelligible. I once knew the daughter of an admiral (Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland) who sounded positively transatlantic, although I think she was actually Scottish. Some accents are pleasant to the ear and others aren't. It's just a question of what you're used to. Personally I find some American mispronunciations really irritating. Missal for missile is one and Rout for route (root) and an inability to pronounce double Rs in combination with vowels, as in mirror which sounds like merr and warrior which sounds like war-yer. However, these are at least understandable. Where communication breaks down is in the difference in terms for things and relative usage.

PS: I was forgetting another of my pet hates: Nucular for nuclear (new-clear)

I agree about those mispronunciations! I say mirror the correct way. I also say my double Ts correctly. My southern friends make fun of me for saying kitten, button and bottle properly. Nucular is TERRIBLE to me! I will try to work on saying missile the right way.

I get confused when people pronounce pin and pen exactly the same.

[hannah_arendt]

I'm never annoyed by other accents unless I can't understand them. I also have a difficult time with some British films (not all). I read once that Spanish is closely related to Italian and they can actually understand each other. That surprised me...and I'm not sure it's true.

Some spanish words seem to be similar to the italian ones but very often it`s an example of so called "false friends". It occurs also in Polish and Russian very often.

[hannah_arendt]

According to this quiz:http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/what_american_accent_do_you_have
I have 89% The Inland North whatever it means:)

[Hawkman]

I agree about those mispronunciations! I say mirror the correct way. I also say my double Ts correctly. My southern friends make fun of me for saying kitten, button and bottle properly. Nucular is TERRIBLE to me! I will try to work on saying missile the right way.

Good for you! :D

There's one French accent, from the Picardie region, which when speaking English makes any s sound buzz like a bee! Oh, and "th" sounds too, if I remember rightly. It's quite grating. I keep wanting to swat them lol. Sometimes, of course, it's not the accent but the quality of the voice. A shrill, harsh voice is less pleasant to listen to than a soft, well-modulated one, regardless of the accent. City accents tend to be more pronounced than country ones. I think one of the most pleasant is the Southern Irish. On the whole, I prefer Dublin to Belfast. :D


I get confused when people pronounce pin and pen exactly the same.

Ah, that'd be the Antipodeans :D

[Hawkman]

An alternative link to the video, because the first link doesn't seem to be working: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVt4Dfa4fOEY

Thanks for the link Max. That's hilarious!


I'm more accustomed to the US sounds of the language because of Hollywood, but I like English as a whole, whatever the accent. My main frustration is not being able to understand what I'm hearing.

Well those of us what knows 'ow to talk proper gets the same problem, mate. ;)

If you heard this, what would you make of it?

"Toim's oi toid 'noit?"

"Bah Lem'n."

Please feel free to ask for a translation, and then I'll tell you what part of the country it comes from. :D



Before this post, I would have never imagined that 'nucular' stands for 'nuclear' within some folks' jargon :rolleyes: Then again, the other day I was told that some people understand that 'Chester drawers' is a correct way to refer to a 'chest of drawers' :p

To illustrate my point here's the late great Rod Steiger getting it wrong :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9l6vcoPtaU

And I also possess a lovely little pamphlet entitled, "Let's Talk Strine" which explains how to translate Aussie speak. I'll have to dig this out and quote some examples, other than, "Emma chisset?" (what is the price of this item?)
:D
Live and be well - H

[PeterL]

According to this quiz:http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/what_american_accent_do_you_have
I have 89% The Inland North whatever it means:)

m
That's "General American", whih is what many non-natives are taught.

I got Boston, which I do not speak, but non- New Englanders might not understand the differences.

[JuniperWoolf]

I'm embarrassingly crazy for guys with UK accents, it's my second biggest thing (don't ask what my first biggest thing is, you'll treat me different). I also really like Welsh, it's my favorite language. I'd have chosen it for my language option throughout school, but for some reason you find surprisingly few Welsh teachers in Canada.


An easy way to tell if you have the Canadian raising on the "ou" in out and about is if you pronounce it differently from the "ou" in loud.

Well hell, I really do have a Canadian accent.

Hey, we litnetters should do one of those tumblr accent/dialect challenges. I found the questions:


•Your name and username.
•Where you’re from.
•Pronounce the following words: Aunt, Roof, Route, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Mirror, Fire, Water, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Pajamas, Caught, Naturally, Aluminium, GIF, Crackerjack, Doorknob, Envelope.
•What is a bubbly carbonated drink called?
•What do you call gym shoes?
•What do you call your grandparents?
•What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
•What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
•Choose a book and read a passage from it.
•Do you think you have an accent?

There's a camera around here somewhere, I'll do it later.


I think I read somewhere that Japanese women adapted Chinese in order to create an original language based on sounds rather than just pictures.

Japanese women weren't allowed to learn kanji (or rather, they weren't allowed to go to school where they would have learned kanji) which is the pictures = words thing, so they made hiragana. Hiragana is like our alphabet, each symbol is a sound. Nowadays both kanji and hiragana are used (within the same sentences mind, it's all scrambled together), as well as katakana for foreign names and words.

Your name is バーレン (baa-re-n) in katakana, assuming I'm pronouncing it right. There's no "V" sound in Japanese.

[Calidore]

Japanese women weren't allowed to learn kanji (or rather, they weren't allowed to go to school where they would have learned kanji) which is the pictures = words thing, so they made hiragana. Hiragana is like our alphabet, each symbol is a sound. Nowadays both kanji and hiragana are used (within the same sentences mind, it's all scrambled together), as well as katakana for foreign names and words.

This was very interesting, thanks! I always wondered how the syllabic writing came about. Did the women invent katakana also, or was it men who refused to let the women have the last word?

[JuniperWoolf]

This was very interesting, thanks! I always wondered how the syllabic writing came about. Did the women invent katakana also, or was it men who refused to let the women have the last word?

Well, I know katakana came a few centuries later, and I know it was created by monks. Maybe they did refuse to use hiragana because it was "women's writing," (seriously, it was called that). They're basically the same alphabet, the symbols are usually a little to a lot different (except "heh," that's the same symbol in both) but as far as format is concerned they're twins. Maybe the monks just created it to make life difficult for language students.

[Calidore]

If katakana is used mainly for foreign words, maybe it's kind of the equivalent of our italics, only more complicated because monks have lots of time on their hands.

[Maximilianus]

Sorry about the busted link, everyone. It was working before. So many thanks to Max for the replacement! :)


Thanks for the link Max. That's hilarious!
No probs! http://smiles.kolobok.us/personal/hi.gif




Well those of us what knows 'ow to talk proper gets the same problem, mate. ;)
It's a relief :p


If you heard this, what would you make of it?

"Toim's oi toid 'noit?"

"Bah Lem'n."

Please feel free to ask for a translation, and then I'll tell you what part of the country it comes from. :D
I'm afraid I can't tell. I seem to detect some French elements there but not sure... Cajun maybe? Just risking a wild guess http://smiles.kolobok.us/artists/just_cuz/JC_thinking.gif



To illustrate my point here's the late great Rod Steiger getting it wrong :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9l6vcoPtaU
So it's totally true, with all and evidence! :svengo: :p


And I also possess a lovely little pamphlet entitled, "Let's Talk Strine" which explains how to translate Aussie speak. I'll have to dig this out and quote some examples, other than, "Emma chisset?" (what is the price of this item?)
:D
Dig it out, please! That'd be super! http://smiles.kolobok.us/artists/just_cuz/JC_rockin.gif

[Maximilianus]

Emma chisset = How much is it ... English ain't stopping no time soon http://smiles.kolobok.us/artists/just_cuz/JC_wonky.gif http://smiles.kolobok.us/remake/no.gif

[hannah_arendt]

m
That's "General American", whih is what many non-natives are taught.

I got Boston, which I do not speak, but non- New Englanders might not understand the differences.

The way of pronouncing I am being taught has nothing to do with the way natives speak. It seems me that the most important thingat my department is descriptive grammar:)

[Hawkman]

I'm afraid you're not even close Max, in fact you're on the wrong continent :D it translates as:

"What time is high tide tonight?"

"About eleven."

and is likely to be heard being uttered by a less educated member of the population in the vicinity of Southampton (in the UK), but you might hear something similar in the Southern coastal regions of the Westcountry ;)

Not sure where Let's Talk Strine is languishing at the moment, but when I find it I'll let you know. :D

[PeterL]

The way of pronouncing I am being taught has nothing to do with the way natives speak. It seems me that the most important thingat my department is descriptive grammar:)

The regional differences in pronunciation are from differing vowel sounds, which is meaningless if one does not speak a language regularly. You can be sure that your Polish vowels are different from American vowels, but there probably are slightly different vowels in other parts of Poland.

[Calidore]

I got 100% Inland North. "You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop.""

I can't say I get asked annoying questions, but I am from Chicago, and I do say "pop," so good job to the quiz designer.

Looks like I'll be sitting around at home today (stormy weather and a sore knee from a yoga fail Tuesday), so if I can find my microphone, I'll try Juniper's accent challenge.

[Emil Miller]

Here's what W.S.Maugham, a man who spent a good deal of time in the USA, had to say about their manner of speaking:

"The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried this device [the use of "ready-made phrases"] to such a height of perfection and have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment's reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication."

[PeterL]

Here's what W.S.Maugham, a man who spent a good deal of time in the USA, had to say about their manner of speaking:

"The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried this device [the use of "ready-made phrases"] to such a height of perfection and have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment's reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication."

It would seem that he didn't know mach about American speech.

[Calidore]

It would seem that he didn't know mach about American speech.

On the contrary, I think it is indeed possible for two or more people to carry on a conversation consisting of nothing but catchphrases and cliches. And he wrote that well before the prolific catchphrase-generator we call the Internet.

[Emil Miller]

It would seem that he didn't know mach about American speech.

Hardly likely considering that he had a homosexual relationship with an American for 30 years and had frequent contact with Americans over a similar length of time.

[AuntShecky]

Some experts of the opinion that after nearly a century of broadcasting--commercial radio is over 90 years old, by the bye--that regional differences in the American language are disappearing. Not true! At least not yet. That's because most children -- who have the structure of the entire English language in their heads by age five(!) learn to talk primarily from their mothers, fathers, and their siblings, with reinforcements of the prevailing regional accent acquired on the school playground.

Way back in linguistics class (so many decades ago that I've lost count) we were taught simple formulae by which we could, like Prof. Henry Higgins, tell where a person hailed from. For instance, when you say "dog" and "log", do they rhyme? In my state alone, there are huge variations in the pronunciations of various words, the short "a" vowel, for instance, flattening the farther west one travels. Speakers in the Northern parts of the state have a bit of a Canadian lilt in their speech, and those of us on the counties bordering Massachusetts have some of their well-known characteristics, especially in the pronunciation of "r," making it sound vaguely like an "ah" or dropping it entirely when it ends a word and adding an "r" when the word ends in a vowel. For instance, the word "law" sounds like "lore" when somebody from Boston says it.

New York City has thousands of different phonemes, such as the famous "Bronx" and "Brooklyn" accents and the inimitable speech idiosyncracies that come from "Long Guyland." Just across the river, Jerseyites sound different from New Yorkers, and you don't even want to try to describe the accents from Pennsylvania. They have funny ways of saying "pin" and "pen" and so on. To this day I swear a local TV sports reporter hails from the Keystone State because his speech patterns show that he could never have come from anywhere else. For instance, several years back when a certain(now retired) NY Yankee was having throwing problems, the sportscaster had a unique way of saying the player's name. He pronounced "Chuck Knoblock" in a way that made him sound like Stan on "South Park."

There are few perfect speakers of English in this lovely land, yours fooly among those who miserably fall short. Not even our past Presidents have been as exemplary as we might have liked them to be. Hence, the oft-cited mispronunciation of "nuclear," which should be three syllables-- "NU-klee-IRR." (Frightening, no matter how you pronounce it.)

Even the aforementioned national broadcasters aren't perfect. I have yet heard anyone on the air say the words "calm," "luxury" or "February" right. Good thing I'm losing my hearing, because I don't know how much longer I can stand hearing somebody on TV pronounce the "t" in "often." We know enough that the "t" is silent in "listen" and "hasten," so why do we say "of-Ten"? Maybe it's a case of overcorrection, a misguided worry that it sounds like dropping the "-ng" off a participle, the way politicians do in order to seem folksy while campaigning.

Evidently Americans are self-conscious about their regional accents. Back in the late seventies and early eighties it was trendy for bosses to hire receptionists and secretaries with British accents, in the attempt to bring some class into the office. And recently there have developed cottage industries in which speech coaches try to help young executives on the career path "de-regionalize" their speaking patterns.

There are other verbal gaffes to which we Americans are susceptible. Our grammar is atrocious. (Cf. David Foster Wallace's essay on the topic in his essay collection, Consider the Lobster.)

Our biggest flaw, to me, is that we aren't expressive enough, as explained in Arthur Plotnik's fine little book, The Elements of Expression. For instance, a manager might describe one of his team members as "A great hitter, a great fielder, and a great human being." In a culture which prides itself on its "level-playing field" it's difficult to wrap our minds around expressive superlatives. That's why we describe everything we like as "awesome," and tell one another to "have a nice day."

[Hawkman]

One really ought to acknowledge that Americans don't speak English, they speak American :D

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=-aufCfiS0AA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-aufCfiS0AA

Phil Harris knew the score!

[MANICHAEAN]

My current boss is a “southern boy,” and has a likable way of expressing “New Orleans” as something akin to “Nu / Or / Lens.”
One expression to which I was obliged to get accustomed to in meetings with our American cousins was the word “route.”
Imagine if you will, a combined American (Exxon-Mobil), English, Japanese meeting in which the US spokesman asks:
“What is the rout?”
“I beg your pardon, I don’t understand.”
“Rout”
“How do you spell it?”
“Route.”
“Oh, you mean root.”
“No, that’s the base of a tree.”
“Yes correct, but we pronounce root and route the same.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s how we learnt it as children.”
“So what’s a rout?”
“It’s when you beat the enemy in battle and they run away.”

I will not even bother to go into the phrase “Keep your pecker up,” as we will be in deep, unchartered waters!!

[Maximilianus]

I'm afraid you're not even close Max, in fact you're on the wrong continent :D it translates as:

"What time is high tide tonight?"

"About eleven."

and is likely to be heard being uttered by a less educated member of the population in the vicinity of Southampton (in the UK), but you might hear something similar in the Southern coastal regions of the Westcountry ;)
:svengo: Now with the translation it makes sense. I've been reading the lines with inaccurate interpretation of sounds :p


Not sure where Let's Talk Strine is languishing at the moment, but when I find it I'll let you know. :D
Cool! http://smiles.kolobok.us/standart/good3.gif

[Maximilianus]

I find this thread is especially educational. I've been studying the language for nearly 30 years, although for a shorter time in a really deep manner, and considering that no depth is really substantial given the fact that I live in a place where English-speaking natives do not abound. Thank you very much to all who have been posting these pieces of linguistic knowledge, particularly useful for a learner like me.

[Sancho]

I read an article a few years ago in The New Yorker about a guy who coached Hollywood actors on dialects. The guy, Tim Monich, had been studying and recording accents for years. He had such a good ear for accents that he could distinguish between someone from, say, Raleigh and someone from Durham, North Carolina. Anyway, it was a fascinating article - November, 9, 2009 issue.

I grew up in the South, but my folks were from the Midwest, so I'm bi-lingual. I gotta tell, though, there are regions in the south still where I really have to listen to understand what people are saying. My wife is from California. When she first came to the south, I had to translate for her. I think she assumed everybody down here was going to sound like Scarlet O'Hara and Rhett Butler. (I'm not sure, but I think Vivien Leigh was British. She got a little closer with Blanche Dubois than she did with Scarlet, in my humble opinion.)

Anyway, my wife swears she doesn't have an accent. "I'm from California. I don't have an accent." Says she. "P'Tooey," says I, "I can spot a California accent a mile away." She, her mother, and her sister all sound alike. And to me they sound like Grace Slick:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

They sort of round their vowels in small, at all, and tall.

Ah well, at least they don't call a Coca-Cola a Pop.

[PeterL]

Anyway, my wife swears she doesn't have an accent. "I'm from California. I don't have an accent." Says she. "P'Tooey," says I, "I can spot a California accent a mile away." She, her mother, and her sister all sound alike. And to me they sound like Grace Slick:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

They sort of round their vowels in small, at all, and tall.

Ah well, at least they don't call a Coca-Cola a Pop.

Grace Slick has essentially no accent, so your wife, S-i-L, and M-i-L may not have accents. It's probably just that they speak differently from your Midwestern accent.

[Sancho]

"P'tooey," sez I. "I can spot a California accent a mile away."

I think I know what you're saying, though, Peter. There is a standard American accent, and out in California they've got it. It's a sort of broadcast journalism accent. I once heard that the standard American accent was from Nebraska, and that the most standard of Americans, accent wise, was Johnny Carson. At any rate, if the accent is standard in the middle, then I suppose it migrated out to California during the dust bowl, and Hollywood has been propagating it ever since.

And yet there are a few California-isms I've tuned into, you know, being married to one of 'em. They use a subtle inflection at the end of some sentences were a regular American wouldn't. There's a certain flattening of the vowel sound in words like Ron and John - Rahn and Jahn. And of course there are the many uses of the word, dude:

http://youtu.be/77v_Q0mhbZU

By the way, El Sancho most definitely does not have a mid-western accent. Mine is a Southern American accent, which I earned the hard way - by growing up in this godforsaken place. One of my buddies in the Air Force told me I sounded like Foghorn Leghorn - a sort of Southern American Barnyard Drawl:

"Yer built too low, son. The fast ones - they go right over yer head. I keep a pitchin' 'em and you keep a duckin' 'em."

[hannah_arendt]

The regional differences in pronunciation are from differing vowel sounds, which is meaningless if one does not speak a language regularly. You can be sure that your Polish vowels are different from American vowels, but there probably are slightly different vowels in other parts of Poland.

Yes, there are differences in polis dialects. However there arent`t many. The most difficult is Kashubian (north of Poland) which sometimes is called a language, and a dialect from Silesia.

[PeterL]

Yes, there are differences in polis dialects. However there arent`t many. The most difficult is Kashubian (north of Poland) which sometimes is called a language, and a dialect from Silesia.

The Kashubis like to think of themselves as other than Poles, and a thousand years ago they were. I've never known any Silesians, but I believe that Silesia was not part od Poland more than it was.

[Calidore]

I sent my father the link to that article on how Americans lost the English accent, and he sent back this page with TONS of info on American dialects:

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

[Adolescent09]

I clicked on your link but it said "not found". Americans have a lot of different accents and some have no accent.
I'm an American and took a quiz that determined I have no accent which they said is "good for TV and radio"...ha, I don't know about that.
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have
Southern accents sound closest to British accents as compared to other regions in America I read.
An Aussie once told me I have an "intelligent accent"...I think that was his complimentary way of saying, you have no accent.
It's interesting to read about How and When Americans lost their British accent.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents

I took the quiz and it says I sound 93% Boston. I was born and raised in the deep south of the United States (Florida). I have no idea how the algorithm was written to make pronunciational assessments especially based on such broad/vague questions... but it came to that conclusion. In light of the recent tragedy, it seems ominous, quite frankly.

[hannah_arendt]

The Kashubis like to think of themselves as other than Poles, and a thousand years ago they were. I've never known any Silesians, but I believe that Silesia was not part od Poland more than it was.

Silesia was a part of Germany. There are many people who have their relatives in Germany.

Polish PM is Kashubian:)

[hannah_arendt]

I sent my father the link to that article on how Americans lost the English accent, and he sent back this page with TONS of info on American dialects:

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

Very interesting. Thanks:)

[PeterL]

I sent my father the link to that article on how Americans lost the English accent, and he sent back this page with TONS of info on American dialects:

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

I thank you for posting the link. It is interesting, but it is not completely accurate, as one should expect.

[jajdude]

You can recognize your own accent when you've been away long enough. Everybody has an accent. Some are easier for more people to understand. Some are tough, and I guess more so for people who don't speak English as their first language.

[PeterL]

You can recognize your own accent when you've been away long enough. Everybody has an accent. Some are easier for more people to understand. Some are tough, and I guess more so for people who don't speak English as their first language.

You are mistaken; not everyone has an accent. I do not, and that is why I can understands such a broad swath of the pecularities of accents.

REgardless of where in the Englich speaking world I go, I hear people abusing the language. :)

[ralfyman]

Reminds me of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXcRqFmFa8