In this thread we compare English accents and dialects

[mandyb]

I think you have to make a distinction between accents and dialects.
Most english speaking people are reasonably well understood by anyone if they use a standard english syntax, vocabulary and grammar; regardless of accent.
Understanding becomes difficult when they use a particular dialect, slang or non-standard vocabulary.
Most educated people, however, (and by educated, I mean people who've been to school) tend to have both a standard english, which they use when communicating with 'outsiders', and a non-standard dialect which they revert to with people from their area.

[Dancing Mustard]

This doesn't really advance this thread. But it does have a hilarious accent in it, and it made me laugh embarassingly loudly during a lecture.

[CrabNebula]

You forgot Indian English, Meggy. Very distinctive, that one.

Actually, I considered it. I wonder: what percentage of people in India speak English as their first language?

Wiki

[Jenos Ridan]

Can't say that people here even have an accent at all. Impossible as that may sound, I have found no difference in the way people in any part of the west coast speak. Even been to Victoria and I have not encountered a "Canadian" excent there either.

Maybe I have one and I just don't know it !

[InkL0sed]

i mean i dont think ur all fat and spotty with southern american accents.

Maybe you should be... I mean seriously, God DAMN!!

Can't say that people here even have an accent at all. Impossible as that may sound, I have found no difference in the way people in any part of the west coast speak. Even been to Victoria and I have not encountered a "Canadian" excent there either.

Maybe I have one and I just don't know it !

That's always the case. I think my accent sounds neutral, but I am aware that it isn't.

[greenoaks]

the legend is that aussies speak the way they do because they are trying to keep their mouth closed to keep the flies out.

[muy_thaiguy]

i mean i dont think ur all fat and spotty with southern american accents.

Maybe you should be... I mean seriously, God DAMN!!

Can't say that people here even have an accent at all. Impossible as that may sound, I have found no difference in the way people in any part of the west coast speak. Even been to Victoria and I have not encountered a "Canadian" excent there either.

Maybe I have one and I just don't know it !

That's always the case. I think my accent sounds neutral, but I am aware that it isn't.

Yeah, I've noticed that I do have an accent of sorts. Like how I say certain words and such.

[brooksieb]

Can't say that people here even have an accent at all. Impossible as that may sound, I have found no difference in the way people in any part of the west coast speak. Even been to Victoria and I have not encountered a "Canadian" excent there either.

Maybe I have one and I just don't know it !

Trust me i had a old american teacher back when i was at school in the 70's from california....LIKE TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

[btownmeggy]

Can't say that people here even have an accent at all. Impossible as that may sound, I have found no difference in the way people in any part of the west coast speak. Even been to Victoria and I have not encountered a "Canadian" excent there either.

Maybe I have one and I just don't know it !

Please let's not return to that stupid debate where people argue they don't have accents. Even if you have a Standard American English accent, it's still an accent. You don't talk like all those people from Britain who claim they don't have accents, do you? (Of course they have accents, too.)

[jonesthecurl]

A part of the difference in speeech between US and UK (or parts thereof) is also in where in a word the emphasis falls. I suspect a German influence in the US, where the emphasis usually falls on the first syllable e.g. a Brit will say Iraq , an American will say Iraq. A Brit will say "Robin Hood", an American "Robin Hood". I even notice it with my daughter's name, Poppy. We pronounce with both syllables equally emphasised, the Americans say "Poppy", which sits very strangely on the Brit ear.

[Jenos Ridan]

Can't say that people here even have an accent at all. Impossible as that may sound, I have found no difference in the way people in any part of the west coast speak. Even been to Victoria and I have not encountered a "Canadian" excent there either.

Maybe I have one and I just don't know it !

Please let's not return to that stupid debate where people argue they don't have accents. Even if you have a Standard American English accent, it's still an accent.

I haven't noticed, that's all. Perhaps I do. I can't be certain. I am told, by relatives who have traveled, that people on the west coast sound almost 'british' to southerners. But the day I hear about a "west coast" accent is the day I have some sort of evidence. Until then, I cannot prove it one way or the other.

You don't talk like all those people from Britain who claim they don't have accents, do you? (Of course they have accents, too.)

What exactly do you mean?

[jonesthecurl]

To hear some pucca Lundun accents, and have a great time, go and see "the Bank Job".

[jonesthecurl]

...and to be more on topic, I've been thinking about accents and generations.
My dad was born in an grew up in South Wales. As a young man he ended up in London looking for work, and lied in Londn/Essex until he retired, when he moved back to Wales. He never quite lost his Welsh accent, but the locals now think he has an English accent.
I never lived in Wales, and have not a Codney accent, but what is nowadays caled "Estuary", the result of people from all over the South East moving about a lot and sort of melding together. I have a rather whiny voice, very much like politician Ken Livingston.

I've lived in the US now for about a year and a half, which I don't think has affected my "Estuary" at all. But my kids now have different accents even from each other. My son Glenn is gradually picking up a local accent, starting with the word-emphasis. But he still sounds English. My daughter Poppy on the other hand now sounds completely local, to the extent that her teacher this year was amazed to discover she was from England, which she didn't do until a couple of months into the school year.

[btownmeggy]

You don't talk like all those people from Britain who claim they don't have accents, do you? (Of course they have accents, too.)

What exactly do you mean?

You DO have an accent, and it sounds like it's called Standard American (more likely a Northwestern variant, though, which is very similar to standard).

[Neoteny]

I've decided (just now) that I don't have an accent. "Southern English" TM is now a language of its own, and everyone else needs to learn how to speak properly. Especially Mexicans. I learned, and my family's from Michigan, so I know everyone else can to. Here's a helpful starter list...

Talk very slowly.
Shorten all your words
Combine as many words as possible.
Eliminate "iced tea" from your vocabulary.
It's "coke" and not "pop." One is onomatopoeia. The other is a general term for soft drink.
Virginia is not a southern state, dammit.
Figure out how to pronounce hard o's. You Minnesotans are weirding me out.

[Balsiefen]

I heard a theory from a linguist that accents fit quite well with the country around them(at least in Britain), It works quite well. Comparing for instance, the rolling ups and downs of north welsh with the flat, nasal Norfolk accent.

Myself, i have what seems to be a good cross between a Lincolnshire accent and a stereotype English accent, such as like pirates of the caribbean. It works out quite well together.

Oh yes, When i went to France two weeks ago, after i had just arrived at the hotel in Bologne i decided to see if i could pick up my french. I listened to a group of people talking in the lobby but frustratingly I couldn't understand a word they said, not even anything simple. It took me ages to realise they were fecking geordies.

[btownmeggy]

I've decided (just now) that I don't have an accent. "Southern English" TM is now a language of its own, and everyone else needs to learn how to speak properly. Especially Mexicans. I learned, and my family's from Michigan, so I know everyone else can to. Here's a helpful starter list...

Talk very slowly.
Shorten all your words
Combine as many words as possible.
Eliminate "iced tea" from your vocabulary.
It's "coke" and not "pop." One is onomatopoeia. The other is a general term for soft drink.
Virginia is not a southern state, dammit.
Figure out how to pronounce hard o's. You Minnesotans are weirding me out.

Somewhere over the past 6 or 7 years since I left my childhood home in the sticks, I've lost most of my accent. I still speak quite irregularly, it's definitely not Standard American, but it also can't be recognized as Standard Southwestern Arkansan any more. In terms of vocabulary, I still say y'all and either coke or cold drinks (which is, like, WAY OLD-TIMEY Southern), but I've completely lost "fixing-to". It no longer even occurs to me to say it. It's a real tragedy.

[Pedronicus]

The South African accent is due to the Dutch.

[PLAYER57832]

Better break up North American -- you have distinct dialects in EACH part of the south .. Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, etc. AND even further distinctions within. Louisiana, in particular has, in addition to a flat out DIFFERENT language (cajun) dialects so strong it is debateable whether they are actually still English.

Then you have CA "beach" or "valley", New England, midwestern -- all within the US. Canada has yet more dialects.

[Neoteny]

I've decided (just now) that I don't have an accent. "Southern English" TM is now a language of its own, and everyone else needs to learn how to speak properly. Especially Mexicans. I learned, and my family's from Michigan, so I know everyone else can to. Here's a helpful starter list...

Talk very slowly.
Shorten all your words
Combine as many words as possible.
Eliminate "iced tea" from your vocabulary.
It's "coke" and not "pop." One is onomatopoeia. The other is a general term for soft drink.
Virginia is not a southern state, dammit.
Figure out how to pronounce hard o's. You Minnesotans are weirding me out.

Somewhere over the past 6 or 7 years since I left my childhood home in the sticks, I've lost most of my accent. I still speak quite irregularly, it's definitely not Standard American, but it also can't be recognized as Standard Southwestern Arkansan any more. In terms of vocabulary, I still say y'all and either coke or cold drinks (which is, like, WAY OLD-TIMEY Southern), but I've completely lost "fixing-to". It no longer even occurs to me to say it. It's a real tragedy.

I actually resisted the southern accent for the longest time. My family is originally from Michigan, but I spent a good bit of my youth in Japan, and on military bases throughout the country, so my speech was relatively un-placeable as far as accents go when I was younger. I've lived in the AL/GA area for about half of my life now, and I've picked up quite a bit, but I vowed early on that I would never, ever say "fixin' to" in conversation, and I have not. There's just something incredibly irking to me about that phrase. I don't know why, really.

[greenoaks]

My Fair Lady is one of my favourites movies.

[Gypsys Kiss]

As long as nobody supposes that Dick Van Dyke does a credible cockney accent in "Mary Poppins", I'll be happy.

You mean Dick aint a cockney!!!!!!!!!!!!..................Blimey! would you adam an' eve it. Nuff said.


I didnt think I had a noticeable accent until I heard myself on tape. At first I didnt realise it was me. I have managed to pick a slight Bristolian accent even though I didnt live there long.

Also Jan Molby, a Danish footballer who played for Liverpool, now sounds more scouse than most scousers.

[muy_thaiguy]

I've decided (just now) that I don't have an accent. "Southern English" TM is now a language of its own, and everyone else needs to learn how to speak properly. Especially Mexicans. I learned, and my family's from Michigan, so I know everyone else can to. Here's a helpful starter list...

Talk very slowly.
Shorten all your words
Combine as many words as possible.
Eliminate "iced tea" from your vocabulary.
It's "coke" and not "pop." One is onomatopoeia. The other is a general term for soft drink.
Virginia is not a southern state, dammit.
Figure out how to pronounce hard o's. You Minnesotans are weirding me out.

GAH!
A coke


And pop (not limited to these!)


And yes, I AM overreacting!

[jonesthecurl]

I heard a theory from a linguist that accents fit quite well with the country around them(at least in Britain), It works quite well. Comparing for instance, the rolling ups and downs of north welsh with the flat, nasal Norfolk accent.

A friend of mine used to have a similar theory about beer - the flatter the area, the flatter the beer...

[Neoteny]

I've decided (just now) that I don't have an accent. "Southern English" TM is now a language of its own, and everyone else needs to learn how to speak properly. Especially Mexicans. I learned, and my family's from Michigan, so I know everyone else can to. Here's a helpful starter list...

Talk very slowly.
Shorten all your words
Combine as many words as possible.
Eliminate "iced tea" from your vocabulary.
It's "coke" and not "pop." One is onomatopoeia. The other is a general term for soft drink.
Virginia is not a southern state, dammit.
Figure out how to pronounce hard o's. You Minnesotans are weirding me out.

GAH!
A Coke


And cokes (not limited to these!)


And yes, I AM overreacting!

Fixed.