American Accents

[Bob Crowley]

I'm pretty good with most American accents. But a strong Glasgow, Geordie or Cockney accent might be a struggle for some Americans. And a strong Welsh accent might be the worst of all. I was born 'n' bred in South Wales and originally had a very strong accent. We tend to talk very rapidly as well and throw in a fair amount of local dialect. When I moved to London in my early twenties, next to no-one could understand me so I had to make a conscious effort to 'anglicise' my speech. The deeper into Wales you get, the more indesipherable it becomes. I had to reverse this process:

It's nice, isn't it. Shortened to...
S'nice, innet. Drop the t...
Nice, inneh. And drop the first sylable...
Nice neh. And 'nice' becomes 'lush' in some parts, so effectively...
Lushneh. Stress on the 'neh'.

What a lovely sunset.
Yeah. Lushneh.

So in desperation you moved to Australia where we all speak pretty much the same strine.

"Didjaaveagoodweegend?"

 

[Bradskii]

So in desperation you moved to Australia where we all speak pretty much the same strine.

"Didjaaveagoodweegend?"

Bloody oath. And it'll be a lot better if Barty wins the next set!

 

[Bob Crowley]

Looks like she made it!

It's a long time since Evonne Goolagong won it, and she is Ash Barty's mentor.

 

[Bradskii]

Looks like she made it!

It's a long time since Evonne Goolagong won it, and she is Ash Barty's mentor.

Big Barty party! Good on her. Now if we can make it a clean sweep against Q'land next week...

 

[Bob Crowley]

My wife's Baptist pastor will be pleased if NSW wins. He originally came from NSW and barracks for the Blues. During football season the parishioners could count on a State of Origin whinge from the pulpit as Qld usually won, but not this year.

I'm a Queenslander, but I couldn't care less, as I don't watch sport, although I play it.

So far though the scores have been an embarrassment - 50-6 and 26-0. It's not like the old days.

 

[Bob Crowley]

Way off the topic of US Languages, but since Bradskii and I have raised the issue of State of Origin matches in Australia, and since most of the posts are of UK origin, and whose owners would therefore be familiar with codes of football, I thought I'd give a brief explanation of what we're talking about.

In Australia, the southern states (Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia - most of WA's population is in the south west) have tended to favour Australian Rules as their football code. New South Wates and Queensland were and probably still are Rugby League states, at grass roots level anyway. Don't ask me why - I don't know.

NSW has had poker machines since 1956, whereas Qld only legalised them in 1991, thus joining the list of governments contributing to the problems they cause. This meant that the NSW clubs were much richer than the Qld clubs, so they used to buy the best Queensland players, and probably still do.

As a result, Qld vs. NSW matches were one-sided as all the best players had been bought by NSW clubs. So someone came up with the bright idea of having a 3 game series each year called State of Origin, in which players played for their original state, regardless of where they usually played during the year. Over the years since then it's developed quite a following.

Usually Qld tends to win, but this year has been a wipeout in favour of NSW for the first two games. Hence Bradskii who is from NSW is hoping for another win, and probably he's hoping for another wipeout as well....

 

[Bob Crowley]

... Consequently, she used to ring her when I was out, down the pub with some friends maybe. But when I got home, her Welsh accent had gone up a few notches having slipped into it whilst chatting. So as soon as she said anything I could always tell. 'You've been talking to your mother again!'

A friend of mine is a Kiwi, but you wouldn't know it to talk to her. She told me once that she made a deliberate effort to adopt an Aussie accent when she came here (possibly to avoid the Kiwi jokes...).

A few years ago though one of her brothers came over and he stayed with her family for a while.

The next time I spoke to her, the Kiwi accent was quite noticeable. She'd picked it up again from her brother.

But since he's now moved on, she's reverted to her Australian accent again.

PS - And if we're going to talk about British accents, many many moons ago I had a job in a factory producing potato crisps. It was a school holiday job. Anyway one of the regular staff was a bloke who originally hailed from Manchester.

Honestly I could hardly understand a word he said.

 

[Bob Crowley]

On the OP topic, American accents, we had a young American bloke as one of the staff at my last job. I had no trouble understanding him on a face to face basis, but I sometimes struggled to hear him clearly on the two way radio.

But I'm hard of hearing, and I struggled to hear other staff at times, so it's an unfair comparison.

One thing we probably don't think about is that when we listen to American actors in films (or any other actors, news anchors etc), they're trained speakers. Many of them can bung on a foreign accent if they want to, although most of them have difficulty trying to put on a convincing Australian accent.

It's a different story when we are talking about ordinary people with their home town accents.

 

[Strong in Him]

One thing we probably don't think about is that when we listen to American actors in films (or any other actors, news anchors etc), they're trained speakers. Many of them can bung on a foreign accent if they want to, although most of them have difficulty trying to put on a convincing Australian accent.

You should have heard Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins".

 

[Bradskii]

You should have heard Dick Van Dyke in "Mary Poppins".

My favourite is John Wayne in The Greatest Story Ever Told.

 

[Anthony2019]

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?

I don't usually find it difficult to understand American accents as I have grown up hearing them all the time in TV and films.
In fact, I often find it easier to understand Americans, than people who speak with the local dialect where I live!
Whenever I think of the "standard" American accent, I often associate it as being from New York, although I am aware there are many different accents across the country - and the southern accents, in particular, come across as being very distinctive.

 

[Chesterton]

On the OP topic, American accents, we had a young American bloke as one of the staff at my last job. I had no trouble understanding him on a face to face basis, but I sometimes struggled to hear him clearly on the two way radio.

But I'm hard of hearing, and I struggled to hear other staff at times, so it's an unfair comparison.

One thing we probably don't think about is that when we listen to American actors in films (or any other actors, news anchors etc), they're trained speakers. Many of them can bung on a foreign accent if they want to, although most of them have difficulty trying to put on a convincing Australian accent.

It's a different story when we are talking about ordinary people with their home town accents.

Sometimes when the guys in Monty Python would do an American accent it sounded funny. I mean funny as in strange or "off", and also a bit comical. I sometimes wondered whether they were trying to do a legitimate American accent and just doing it badly, or if they intended it to sound funny.

 

[NIrelandGillian]

I've just listened to Alan Alda on Youtube and he was saying 'Palitics really shacked him these days'.

They talk like that in some parts of Northern Ireland.

Gillian