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Post by strat-0 on Jan 25, 2005 21:16:44 GMT -5
As a global community that communicates in English here, we obviously have many dialects and distinctive vocabularies - for some, English is even a second launguage. I've only spoken to a few folks. What do you sound like? Mary, do you say, "Pahk the cah?" RocDoc, do you have a noticeable "East European" accent? What does that sound like? Phil, would I have to ask you to repeat every sentence two or three times? Scottsy and some of you other Southern folks - do you sound like Paul Hogan or Steve Erwin? Mel Gibson? And Maarts, you got to be a mixed up pup, man. Stratman, do you have that Michigander thing going? Riley, Shane, etc., do you say, "yah"? Well, let's hear it...  I came near to speaking standard English but backslid. I went to a lot of my elementary and junior high school in the California SF Bay Area, then Tulsa Oklahoma, then on to Indiana for high school and first year of college. Then wound up here in Birmingham, via St. Louis for a bit. Well, after 20 years here, and with the first five years of my life being in Texas, I'm afraid I've got a bit of that smooth drawl going, ya'll. |
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Post by Dr. Drum on Jan 25, 2005 21:19:06 GMT -5
B'y, I talks right good - I got a Newfie haccent. ;D
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Post by Philemon on Jan 25, 2005 21:24:46 GMT -5
Phil, would I have to ask you to repeat every sentence two or three times?
YEAH man ! Something like that ... !!
I've been pretty fluent in English since I've been 15 y/o,
almost 37 years now ...
And I have an american accent (so I've been told)
probably because I did not watch canadian TV
when I was young ... !!
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Post by strat-0 on Jan 25, 2005 22:27:54 GMT -5
No offence meant, Phil; how am I going to know if I don't ask? I'm mostly monolingual, so I'm not one to criticize. But, how do I know you're not some Maurice Chevalier knock-off, come to skim off all the chicks, eh?  |
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Post by Philemon on Jan 25, 2005 23:00:39 GMT -5
No offence taken but I wish people around here understood once and for all that I'm not French !! Quebecers are North American francophones ... But, how do I know you're not some Maurice Chevalier knock-off,
come to skim off all the chicks, eh? Been there ! Done that ! I'm too old for this now ...  |
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Post by Galactus on Jan 25, 2005 23:33:40 GMT -5
While I don't this this board was intended to find out what someone from North Carolina might sound like after you've probably heard one of describe what the tor-nay-da sounded like. I think it's iteresting to point out that in a town I've lived in my whole life I get asked where I'm from. Like most people my diction gets lazy in certain company, but I try to pronouce things and enounciate. I don't think it's the drawl that makes people think we're stupid so much as a complete disreguard for the letters that are actually in a word. For instance one that particularly bugs me is a town near here called Linclonton. Just like the president with "ton" on the end however it somehow becomes "Lankerdon"...
Yes, I know I'm just being picky and no, I don't correct everyone but I do cringe alittle...
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Post by maarts on Jan 26, 2005 3:22:23 GMT -5
Funny you should mention this- I read this interesting article yesterday how that strong Aussie 'ocker'-accent is slowly fading away...but not to the 'benefit' of American or British accent but a more, steady urban variety, spoken by most kids with some typical Aussie colloquialisms and ways to pronounce words. I don't see people with the Steve Irwin-accent often- his accent's almost over the top but yeah, it's still around somewhere. Especially in the bush you hear some striking examples. As for my accent? I speak Aussie reasonably fluent (well, I've only been here for 6 years- as a matter of fact, tomorrow it will be exactly 6 year to the day) but sometimes, when questioned by customers, I get some strange results; when asked where I come from because the person can hear a slight accent, I sometimes make them guess  ...now I've been named Irish, German, Russian, Finnish (?) and Scottish on several occasions, but never Dutch. |
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Post by RocDoc on Jan 26, 2005 15:09:00 GMT -5
6 years you've already been in Oz, maarts? For some reason I'd figured it to be nowhere near that long yet... Me, w/an Eastern European accent?  Well, I'd have to say not for some 43-44 years now...ever since I hit the first grade here. I was born at St. Anthony hospital at 18th and California Avenue on the sout' side of de city of Chicaga... Lived an 'ethnic' existence for most of my life...Lithuanian schools, scouts, folkdancing and other organizations...but I was in no way sheltered from my neighborhood which had a mix of nearly everything. My best friends were Italians and hillbillies... I sorta assume I speak as 'Chicago' as they come, among friends at least...that is WHEN I'm actually speaking english. Very colloquial...allll sorts of 'shit' and 'motherfuckers' being thrown about...among friends. ...and then genteel and proper when the circumstance calls for it... I've actually been told(and have realized it in myself)that I can become somewhat chameleonic and unintentionally try to mirror the speech of the people I'm with.... When I was in California in the late 70s early 80s, several people who had no reason to 'pull my chain' on this, told me that they took me for a native....of course I was also with my girlfriend of the time who was and is a native Californian...
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Post by RocDoc on Jan 26, 2005 15:21:12 GMT -5
...and the sound of an Eastern European accent?
1) Drop 95% of the articles that the english language uses(ie 'a', 'the'...etc...)
2) Roll R's uncontrollably and pronounce the double T-words like 'button' with the T sound being very explicit...not the way that Americans pretty much 'swallow' their T's...
3) Lots of attempts at 'British English' because that's THE english which the schools there were teaching...ie 'girls' becoming 'gulls'....
4) A friend of my wife's who emigrated from Poland at the same time she did....oh, like 14 years ago AND who teaches ESL courses at some community colleges in Chicago STILL pronounces 'book' and 'foot' with the long 'oooo' sound...not always but very often.
I take every chance I get to call her on it.
'Ha! You village girl! Sprained your fooooot did you?'
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Post by strat-0 on Jan 26, 2005 20:43:19 GMT -5
Hee, hee! I've actually been told(and have realized it in myself)that I can become somewhat chameleonic and unintentionally try to mirror the speech of the people I'm with....I think that's actually more common than we might think, Doc. I'll bet Riley and Shane say "aboot." My mom swears that my dad (a Texas country boy by birth) said "har" for hair. He had dumped that by the time I came along, though. Killed him a bar by the time he was three |
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Post by koolkat on Jan 26, 2005 21:09:57 GMT -5
I would have to say "none of the above". Steve Erwin, no way do I sound like that. I'd say a male version of Kylie Minogue (she too is from Melbourne)  Or Russell Crow. I think that's better. Forget about Mel, he's had a fake American accent for years now... at least when he's conducting interviews overseas or in his movies. Over here he just sounds like your average Joe. Truth is, most people don't know, that he's actually an American. He was born in the US from American parents who lated migrated to Oz when he was a kid. How about how the words "chance" and "dance" are pronounced? I (and the majority of people I know) say them the way Americans say them... unlike other Aussies who pronounce them the way Brits do (chunce, dunce). Of course, all Aussies say "cun't"... instead of the standard US "cAn't". ;D Another thing I've always wondered, we pronounce the words 'shore' and 'sure' the same way. I know Canadians don't ... not sure about Americans though. You probably don't, you North Americans all sound the same to me. |
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Post by strat-0 on Jan 26, 2005 22:07:49 GMT -5
Another thing I've always wondered, we pronounce the words 'shore' and 'sure' the same way. I know Canadians don't ... not sure about Americans though. You probably don't, you North Americans all sound the same to me.
Some people say "shore" (or "sho") for "sure" in the US, Kool, but it is very colloquial here. An educated person would only use it for emphasis or style.
Doc, my image of you is shattered! Now I must console myself with the idea that you speak Lithuanian with an American accent!
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Post by Dr. Drum on Jan 27, 2005 8:00:44 GMT -5
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Post by Ayinger on Jan 27, 2005 12:22:28 GMT -5
From having spoken to him on the phone, I can vouch that R'doc sounds very much Chicago-ean!
Having spent my life in Indiana, I suppose I have a basic Midwestern sound & inflection. It does vary about the state; you get up there in the NW portion about "da Region" and the thicker Chicago speech creeps in as opposed to the more rural edges you get south of Lake County.
My bad habit is that I can tend to adapt my speech to those I'm talking to. For one, if they drawl more, I drawl more. But worse is when I start copping their very own speech patterns....I find myself mimicing cadence, dropped syllables, etc.
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Post by RocDoc on Jan 27, 2005 13:50:21 GMT -5
Don's actually got quite the deep rock and roll radio voice...could be an announcer from just about anywhere. Or maybe I got that from his unmistakeable enthusiasm simply from talking about making it up to Chicago to see blues player par excellance Chris Beard that weekend... ...AND for what he had cookin' on the stove...if I recall. ~ All them Canucks say 'aboot'! They revoke your citizenship otherwise...oh! Cool Newf lexicon there, Dr D... ~ ...and when I finally do talk to you, Strat, maybe I'll put on my dead-accurate Pakistani accent and totally fry your mind! ;D ~ That speech 'mirroring' phenomenon is a pretty weird one...There's a group of older black guys who I talk to nearly every day at the health club and they're nearly all true blue 'West-side' guys, which means lots of shall-we-say 'expressive' black jargon is used in conversation, with the suth'n drawls and all(...and WHY is this? The drawl I mean? They're BORN up north! I always wanted to ask that...)and I find myself, me, this whiter-than-white guy who they know is a doctor, starting to tailor my expressions to them, not able to even stop myself. More than once I'm thinkin', 'Fuck, these dudes are gonna kick my ass if I say, 'Well fellas, I fin to go now...' |
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...now I've been named Irish, German, Russian, Finnish (?) and Scottish on several occasions, but never Dutch.
Or Russell Crow. I think that's better. 
