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2 users currently in General Chat:  Dark Vampriel |
| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - General Chat - Language opinions: English |
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Heian-794 Red Super Koopa Level: 44 Posts: 7/896 EXP: 611014 For next: 271 Since: 06-01-04 From: Kyoto, Japan Since last post: 21 days Last activity: 10 days |
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| In Japan they teach mostly American English, to the point where poor British, Aussie, NZ teachers find themselves being "corrected" by Japanese people who can barely speak English to begin with! Plus, thanks to the central government, the poor Japanese teachers have to speak a Tokyo-based "common language" instead of the intonation of the area they live in. That's nuts. |
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Liquid Pi Experiment Red Koopa Level: 20  Posts: 35/138 EXP: 39623 For next: 2816 Since: 03-15-04 From: Ye olde England! Since last post: 117 days Last activity: 4 days |
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Originally posted by NightHawk Thats because it IS hanged when referring to criminals being hanged, and hung when its something like washing. Thats where the confusion comes from |
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Slash Dafter Kodondo Level: 38  Posts: 281/584 EXP: 338934 For next: 31513 Since: 04-04-04 From: E. Millinocket, ME Since last post: 9 hours Last activity: 9 hours |
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| I find myself speaking more British English than American English. I'd be talking to my friends and sound American, but for some weird reason, especially around girls, I find myself speaking in a British accent. (I am an American by the way, born and raised.) I have no idea why I do this. | |||
Imajin Buster Beetle Level: 34  Posts: 294/452 EXP: 234863 For next: 18788 Since: 03-15-04 From: Kingdom of Zeal Since last post: 39 days Last activity: 53 days |
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"American English" is a broad term, though... For instance, I'm a New Englander (It's in the Northeast par tof the US, for those who arent good with US geography), and recently, I went to the South (The southern part of the US =o) and the language is quite different.. hearing South American English was pretty different than what I'm used to, at least as much as British English would be to me.. (Thoguh the spelling was at least the same  ) |
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FreeDOS Lava Lotus Wannabe-Mod :< Level: 59 Posts: 467/1657 EXP: 1648646 For next: 24482 Since: 03-15-04 From: Seattle Since last post: 6 hours Last activity: 4 hours |
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I kind of prefer the English way of spelling things, as opposed to the American.   Though as Imajin said, there are significant differences across America. On IM once, some guy in Boston said this word that I never heard of (nor do I remember it). And it's not in anyone's dictionary here (in Seatlle)... it was only a slang used there. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35  Posts: 73/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I speak Australian English, which is of course its own entity with differences from both English and American in vocabulary, usage and pronunciation... but having lived in the US for a while then gone back to Australia, now I can't decide whether everything sounds weird to me or nothing does. Neither spelling of colour looks right to me now. I can speak American when needs be - throwing in US words and pronunciations to aid myself being understood. However it still feels a bit weird - Americans tend to speak from the back or middle of their mouth while Brits and Aussies speak from right at the front of the mouth. So excessive use of an Ameircanish accent (probably a mashup of Californian, Midwestern and Canadian) kinda hurts my jaw. Placement of 'R's is totally different too - and key to the accent difference. Australians of course drop the R next to a vowel from words like "car" and "farm" BUT they insert Rs between words in certain situations - the phrase "the car is red" is said "the cah ris red" or something to that effect. So R placement is an instant giveaway about accents. Mostly I can deal with the vocab - aluminum, ketchup, etc... but "acclimate" just sounds weird - "Acclimatise" just sounds more natural. Oh, and I have noticed that "lucked out" has the exact opposite meaning in America to what it does in Australia. And they say "could care less" here in the US instead of "couldn't care less" - I think the Aussie term makes more sense given the meaning of the phrase. Of course there's always exceptions to generalisations - my experience of Australian English is based on New South Wales and my American English on Southern California so my observtions arent 100% correct. |
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The SomerZ Summer, yay! Level: 45  Posts: 308/862 EXP: 618182 For next: 41982 Since: 03-15-04 From: Norway Since last post: 2 days Last activity: 3 hours |
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What Imajin said goes for any nation in the world, though. Dialects can be found anywhere, also in Britian. Take Mancunian and a London-dialect, they're quite different. They also have different slang-words in different parts of the country. In Northern England and Scotland, some people say "bairn" in stead of "children", while people from Southern England and Wales would never say that (this is actually because the Northern English/Scottish regions have been influenced by the Scandinavian languages (namely Danish and Norwegian), where the word for children is barn  ). Britain also has a wide range of different sociolects. A factory worker would say that he's "'avin' tea" (which actually means he's eating dinner), while you'd never hear anyone from the upper class use that expression.(edited by The SomerZ on 06-02-04 04:53 AM) |
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Heian-794 Red Super Koopa Level: 44 Posts: 16/896 EXP: 611014 For next: 271 Since: 06-01-04 From: Kyoto, Japan Since last post: 21 days Last activity: 10 days |
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| Arwon, your example about "the car is red" sounds normal enough, since most speakers from any country run the words together and say "thecarisred". But what sounds completely, totally, off-the-wall bizarre about Aussie accents (to me) is how they'll avoid consecutive vowels and insert an R sound where there is none, such as: Aussie: I saw a Honderadd on TV. Me: What's a Honderadd? (totally confused) Aussie: You know, an advertisement for Honda. Me: Ah, I'd call that a Honda ad. Aussie: That's what I said, a Honderadd. I'll never understand you guys! |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 74/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Yeah! That's what I was referring to, I just picked a horrendously bad example because car has an R in it. (We still add the R in the middle like those other examples but it sounds normal) | |||
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Vystrix Nexoth Level: 30 Posts: 164/348 EXP: 158678 For next: 7191 Since: 03-15-04 From: somewhere between anima and animus Since last post: 3 days Last activity: 2 days |
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| yep, SomerZ makes a good point. naturally, the same can be said of the native language of just about anywhere, including, of course, the U.S. probably the three primary dialects of American-style English would be: New England, Southern, and 'Neutral' (the kind a news reporter would have, for example; no real accent to speak of, just 'plain american english'). and those sub-dialects, of course, can be further divided; for example, New York City ("Nu Yohrk") compared to Boston ("Bastan"). typical example of a Bostonian dialect/accent: "De cah is pahked in hahvahd yahd" (The car is parked in Harvard yard). John F. Kennedy had such an accent. A Southern U.S. accent sounds more "twangy". (stereotypical 'redneck' example: "Maw! Git muh Shawtgun!" (Ma, get my shotgun). There are of course sub-dialects of this, but I'm not quite so familiar with them. I grew up in Montana (which is along the Canadian border, a couple states away from the Pacific Ocean) and when I later moved to Oregon (which is the state directly south of Washington state, which is in the far north-western corner of the continental U.S.), people told me I had a "southern" accent. I don't anymore, though (I don't think I do, anyway). And that's just with "native" (so to speak) Americans; there are countless other accents spoken by people for whom English is not their native language (most predominant of these being a Hispanic/Spanish/Mexican accent, due to the large number of immigrants from Mexico). however, one place where accents diminish is online. most accents affect only how to pronounce words, but for the most part, the various dialects are written in the same way. the most obvious differences are ones such as "color" vs "colour". however, idioms (figures of speech, sayings, etc) can, for example, distinguish someone who is British or Australian (e.g. "cheers, mate"), by comparison with how Americans write. of course, British or Australian accents/idioms are more recognizable to me by constract with American English, since that's what I grew up with. I'm sure that e.g. British people regard Australians as having an accent, even though they sound more or less the same to an average American. or, alternately: that British and Australian folk consider American English to have an 'accent' to it, which brings us back to the topic of this thread as originally posted. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 75/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Pet peeve of mine is people who believe they don't have an accent and there's such a think as neutral accent-free English. Everyone everywhere has an accent. |
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The SomerZ Summer, yay! Level: 45 Posts: 310/862 EXP: 618182 For next: 41982 Since: 03-15-04 From: Norway Since last post: 2 days Last activity: 3 hours |
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| Not having an accent or a dialect would mean that you pronounced every word exactly as they are written. Nobody does that. Written English does not equal Spoken English, and thus we all have accents. | |||
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Vystrix Nexoth Level: 30 Posts: 165/348 EXP: 158678 For next: 7191 Since: 03-15-04 From: somewhere between anima and animus Since last post: 3 days Last activity: 2 days |
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| well, what I meant by a 'neutral' accent is that it's a sort of 'generic' accent, not particular to any one geographic region. nonetheless it is still an accent to those who don't talk that way. |
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FreeDOS Lava Lotus Wannabe-Mod :< Level: 59 Posts: 471/1657 EXP: 1648646 For next: 24482 Since: 03-15-04 From: Seattle Since last post: 6 hours Last activity: 4 hours |
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| About the whole spelling issue... I prefer colour over color, because of how it's pronouced. It's not COL-OR, it's more COL-OAR, so naturally, colour looks better. |
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NightHawk Bob-Omb Level: 39  Posts: 144/621 EXP: 374743 For next: 30028 Since: 03-26-04 From: Switzerland Since last post: 432 days Last activity: 339 days |
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Originally posted by FreeDOSI pronounce it more "cuh-lrr", and I usually hear it that way too (even from some Brits). |
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Uncle Elmo Hammer Brother Partly Sweet, Helpful, good at advice and a half decent writer. Also modest. Level: 49 Posts: 451/1062 EXP: 845899 For next: 37984 Since: 03-15-04 From: Prestatyn, Uk Since last post: 23 hours Last activity: 2 hours |
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| Before I dated my ex, I found American accents really exotic, especially if you were from the south, as we don't really hear accents like that on TV over here, 5 years down the road and I'm used to the whole spectrum of American accents, and so I can converse and understand pretty much all dialects. As for my own accent, I'm told I speak pretty posh, and I surprise a lot of people by slipping into Welsh easily (as they say there's no trace of a Welsh accent, apart from when I speak Welsh obviously!) |
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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - General Chat - Language opinions: English |
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