American Accents

[Chesterton]

I've just listened to Alan Alda on Youtube and he was saying 'Palitics really shacked him these days'. More distinctive in Noo York I think. I can now do quite a decent Alda impression by substituting a for o.

Yep, that is exclusive to New Yawk I think.

While I have an Aussies ear (also @Occams Barber and @coffee4u), I have an unrelated question. Some years ago I listened online to two episodes of the TV show 60 Minutes Australia. Both contained uncensored profanity, including the "f word". I figured maybe they bleep it out when it airs on TV, but leave it raw when they post it online. But then I listened to some 60 Minutes U.S., and they do censor profanity online.

It's obviously the same production company, same product. I wonder why they'd censor one and not the other. I was wondering, maybe Australia allows strong profanity on TV? I wouldn't think so, but I don't know.

 

[Occams Barber]

Yep, that is exclusive to New Yawk I think.

While I have an Aussies ear (also @Occams Barber and @coffee4u), I have an unrelated question. Some years ago I listened online to two episodes of the TV show 60 Minutes Australia. Both contained uncensored profanity, including the "f word". I figured maybe they bleep it out when it airs on TV, but leave it raw when they post it online. But then I listened to some 60 Minutes U.S., and they do censor profanity online.

It's obviously the same production company, same product. I wonder why they'd censor one and not the other. I was wondering, maybe Australia allows strong profanity on TV? I wouldn't think so, but I don't know.

Swearing, nudity and (simulated) sex scenes are allowed on Australian TV under the MA15+ rating. Programs with MA15+ content are only allowed between 8.30pm and 6.00am and must be accompanied by a warning mentioning the nature and intensity of the content. Swearing on TV is common. Nudity and sex scenes less so.

The USA has a reputation for being a little prudish when it comes to this type of content.

OB

 

[HantsUK]

I would assume WC stands for Water Closet, but I doubt the young ones call it that any more.

Daps I don't know.

Correction - see that OS maps (Ordnance Survey) uses 'PC' for 'public convenience'.

Daps are plimsolls.

Yeah, daps rings a bell from my childhood in Wales.

The term 'daps' is used in the South West (of England), in particular, Devon. But from the internet, I see that it is also used in Wales.

Bill Bryson's book 'Mother Tongue' has a chapter on accents and dialects (although I see that it gets some poor on-line reviews for accuracy). There are at least 13 distinct dialects in Britain. And if you define a dialect as a way of speaking that allows you to identify where someone comes from geographically, then there are many more.

With radio, TV, education, increased mobility, these differences are becoming less pronounced.

Besides geographic variations, there are also social and class differences.

 

[Bradskii]

Swearing, nudity and (simulated) sex scenes are allowed on Australian TV under the MA15+ rating. Programs with MA15+ content are only allowed between 8.30pm and 6.00am and must be accompanied by a warning mentioning the nature and intensity of the content. Swearing on TV is common. Nudity and sex scenes less so.

The USA has a reputation for being a little prudish when it comes to this type of content.

OB

Although, I was half watching Shaun Micaleff's show last week and I missed the build up for this, but at one point, a guy, completely naked with his...umm..tackle all too front and centre, entered stage right , made a comment about something and exited. I sat there thinking - did I just see that? It seems, having checked online, that the segment was about censorship.

Warning: Nudity (although it's pixelated)
ABC viewers shocked by full-frontal nudity

 

[Occams Barber]

Daps are plimsolls.

Ummm.. if 'daps' are 'plimsolls' - what are 'plimsolls'?

OB

 

[Occams Barber]

Although, I was half watching Shaun Micaleff's show last week and I missed the build up for this, but at one point, a guy, completely naked with his...umm..tackle all too front and centre, entered stage right , made a comment about something and exited. I sat there thinking - did I just see that? It seems, having checked online, that the segment was about censorship.

Warning: Nudity (although it's pixelated)
ABC viewers shocked by full-frontal nudity

I usually watch Micallef but I missed that one.

OB

 

[coffee4u]

Yep, that is exclusive to New Yawk I think.

While I have an Aussies ear (also @Occams Barber and @coffee4u), I have an unrelated question. Some years ago I listened online to two episodes of the TV show 60 Minutes Australia. Both contained uncensored profanity, including the "f word". I figured maybe they bleep it out when it airs on TV, but leave it raw when they post it online. But then I listened to some 60 Minutes U.S., and they do censor profanity online.

It's obviously the same production company, same product. I wonder why they'd censor one and not the other. I was wondering, maybe Australia allows strong profanity on TV? I wouldn't think so, but I don't know.

Occams Barber answered that and I can concur.
I very rarely watch TV. I would much rather be gaming.

Ah plimsolls, okay I know those.

 

[HantsUK]

Ah plimsolls, okay I know those.

You didn't want to share the secrete with Occams Barber?

 

[GreekOrthodox]

I have another question. The majority of Americans, to my ear, have no accent. They sound "plain", or normal. My best guess is that they do have an accent, but I don't hear it because it sounds like my own. (?) Is this true of you? Are there people who sound like they have no accent?

North American Midwestern, specifically around Cincinnati, is supposed to be relatively unaccented American English and became the standard radio and eventually TV news "accent". Back in the 1920s, the radio station set up by William Crosley and the inventor of the Crosley radio, broadcast not at 5000 watts or 50,000 watts (which is now the limit), but at a whopping 500,000 watts which could be heard not only across the continental US, but on a good night, Australia. Even today, that tower is capable of broadcasting at 1 million watts.

As a result, radio and TV personalities were taught the Cincinnati accent for some time because it was unaccented compared to other regions. One example is Rod Serling, of the Twilight Zone, who was a host on WLW.

My current profession deals with voice communications and I've learned to pick up on various accents and dialects. Some can be pretty subtle but get them emotional and their real voice comes through. As a result, there may only be certain words and phrases that someone might pick up as to their regional accent. Even the "southern" accent is different across the south and you might not recognize it. This is an example of the Tidewater accent from southeastern Virginia.

 

[Chesterton]

North American Midwestern, specifically around Cincinnati, is supposed to be relatively unaccented American English and became the standard radio and eventually TV news "accent". Back in the 1920s, the radio station set up by William Crosley and the inventor of the Crosley radio, broadcast not at 5000 watts or 50,000 watts (which is now the limit), but at a whopping 500,000 watts which could be heard not only across the continental US, but on a good night, Australia. Even today, that tower is capable of broadcasting at 1 million watts.

As a result, radio and TV personalities were taught the Cincinnati accent for some time because it was unaccented compared to other regions. One example is Rod Serling, of the Twilight Zone, who was a host on WLW.

My current profession deals with voice communications and I've learned to pick up on various accents and dialects. Some can be pretty subtle but get them emotional and their real voice comes through. As a result, there may only be certain words and phrases that someone might pick up as to their regional accent. Even the "southern" accent is different across the south and you might not recognize it. This is an example of the Tidewater accent from southeastern Virginia.

So you think if that radio station had been set up in Georgia, we would today consider the Georgian accent "accent-less", and that would be how most of the nation sounded?

And I think the Cincinnati sound is "most of the nation". I have to quibble with some things on that map posted on the first page. The Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, Southwestern and others don't seem distinct, they could all be Cincinnati. Have you ever heard a Phoenix or Denver accent? If it's there maybe an expert phonetician can hear it, but I can't.

Plus, the map omits the California Surfer Dude and Valley Girl, which I think should be recognized as distinct American accents. A very tiny slice of the population, thank goodness, but distinct.

(FYI, video wouldn't play)

 

[Chesterton]

dp

 

[Albion]

I want to know why Americans call the bathrooms a 'rest' room lol.

Hardly any rooms with toilets that are located somewhere other than in a private residence have bath tubs, right?

They are places in which you relieve yourself, often in an emergency, and I almost never hear someone refer to the bathroom in his own home as a "rest room." I suspect that calling a communal toilet room (in a store, stadium, restaurant, or the like) a "rest room" is a polite expression that avoids the need to call it what it really is.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

So you think if that radio station had been set up in Georgia, we would today consider the Georgian accent "accent-less", and that would be how most of the nation sounded?

And I think the Cincinnati sound is "most of the nation". I have to quibble with some things on that map posted on the first page. The Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, Southwestern and others don't seem distinct, they could all be Cincinnati. Have you ever heard a Phoenix or Denver accent? If it's there maybe an expert phonetician can hear it, but I can't.

Plus, the map omits the California Surfer Dude and Valley Girl, which I think should be recognized as distinct American accents. A very tiny slice of the population, thank goodness, but distinct.

(FYI, video wouldn't play)

There is what is known as the General American accent which is more or less accent neutral, the midlands, which includes Ohio. Now Cincinnati does have its own dialect, that is words that don't get used elsewhere. One weird example, now more or less extinct, is that a green pepper used to be called a mango. Don't ask me why, I just grew up there.

I've lived up and down the East Coast, 12 years in Boston, 5 years in Eastern PA, and now 3 years in Tidewater Virginia. I've spent 5-1/2 dealing with speech technology so I've gotten into a game of picking up speech patterns, accents and dialects. Accents are heard by those who don't speak that regions accent, but a strong accent can drift in and out:

 

[coffee4u]

Hardly any rooms with toilets that are located somewhere other than in a private residence have bath tubs, right?

They are places in which you relieve yourself, often in an emergency, and I almost never hear someone refer to the bathroom in his own home as a "rest room." I suspect that calling a communal toilet room (in a store, stadium, restaurant, or the like) a "rest room" is a polite expression that avoids the need to call it what it really is.

We don't care lol, we just call it the toilet or the the loo or if we are being really Aussie, it's the dunny. If we are being polite its the bathroom, but it doesn't need to have an actual bathtub in it. I had heard that American's cringe when it's called outright as the toilet.

 

[Strong in Him]

I'm curious about something. When I listen to a person from the U. K. speak, most of the time I can understand them just fine. Other times, because of the accent, I have a little trouble understanding parts of their speech. Sometimes, but rarely, I can barely tell what they're saying at all. (I never understood a single word Ozzy Osbourne ever said. )

So I was wondering about the reverse - do U. K. people ever have trouble understanding Americans because of the accent?

No, not really.
I think some of the actual words are more puzzling - like if Americans say "jelly" they apparently mean jam. The one that always gets me is "pants" for "trousers" - as in, "are you wearing pants today?" Sounds a bit personal!

 

[Albion]

No, not really.
I think some of the actual words are more puzzling - like if Americans say "jelly" they apparently mean jam.

I think that's just sloppy talk, not a case of the language in America actually confusing the two.

 

[Strong in Him]

I think that's just sloppy talk, not a case of the language in America actually confusing the two.

Oh, ok.

 

[Bradskii]

No, not really.
I think some of the actual words are more puzzling - like if Americans say "jelly" they apparently mean jam.

There was an episode of House where a young woman had a minor problem...umm...'down there'. She'd brought a sample of what she was using as a contraceptive jelly so they could discount any problems with it. And it was...strawberry jam.

 

[Strong in Him]

There was an episode of House where a young woman had a minor problem...umm...'down there'. She'd brought a sample of what she was using as a contraceptive jelly so they could discount any problems with it. And it was...strawberry jam.

Ewwwww - sticky.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

There was an episode of House where a young woman had a minor problem...umm...'down there'. She'd brought a sample of what she was using as a contraceptive jelly so they could discount any problems with it. And it was...strawberry jam.

This is an old clip from a Cincinnati afternoon radio comedy group. Gilbert Gnarley, a retire eccentric, calls customer service to express his delight with Kentucky Jelly on toast. (FYI, the abbreviation for the US state of Kentucky is "KY", KY jelly is a sexual lubricant.)