Accents? Do they throw you?

[jurble]

Speakin' of accents, at the bus stop, there was an honest to god hillbilly, with an accent like Cletus from the Simpsons, his teeth were awful too, his 4 year oldish son was with him, normal looking kid. But my god, I had to restrain my laughter, this dude spoke like an honest to god hillbilly.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

The only times I know that accents throw me are:

1. I'm not expecting the accent I hear.

2. I'm very, very tired.

Both of these will lead me to not processing the sounds I'm hearing, resulting in embarrassment as I have to ask people speaking (really) totally comprehensibly to repeat themselves.

3. When I hear just how inaccurate they are, coming from "skilled" actors, teachers, and dialogue coaches. (Usually compounded by the fact that they expect people to *pay* them a not-inconsiderable sum to not actually learn a new accent.)

Oh and 4. when the person is so drunk that their accent has mushed into something full of voiced consonants and nothing else. But that's just a sign that I'm too sober. :P

BTW, Happy Ent, I think you're close, but I think he actually means the island of Great Britain, on which England, Wales, and Scotland sit. Continuing on, I think he's trying to say that not all of the UK is "London", in other words, and trying to lump all of the regional accents into a single "British" accents (or even a single "English" accent) is inaccurate.

[Xray the Enforcer]

:rofl: @ Naz, Ro and Happy Ent.

As Ro points out, Science! declares the entire premise null and void. We Science!tists know that Wales is nowt but a consensual hallucination. Fossil evidence shows that Barry the Bobbitt Worm destroyed the pesthole during the late Eocene era.

[naz]

Thanks, guys. I think I understand a bit better (only a bit, though), but I'm still unclear as to which area is actually being referred to as the "sordid grief hole".

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Thanks, guys. I think I understand a bit better (only a bit, though), but I'm still unclear as to which area is actually being referred to as the "sordid grief hole".

From other posts, I'm guessing the description is applied to London, but I could be wrong.

[Xray the Enforcer]

but I'm still unclear as to which area is actually being referred to as the "sordid grief hole".

Clearly the answer is Tunbridge Wells. Or possibly wherever one regularly finds Usotsuki. :unsure:

[Chaldanya]

Even with the re-writing I'm having problems parsing what the fuck is going on with that sentence.

"sordid grief hole".

Slough?

N

"sordid grief hole".

X-Ray: Hee, I've just thought of another one that made me laugh because I am 12.

[naz]

I've decided (for better or worse) to accept the term as a general reference, as evinced by my newly revised profile info thingy...

<--------

[Maltaran]

Clearly the answer is Tunbridge Wells.

That would explain why so many of its inhabitants are Disgusted whenever they write to the Times.

[niamh]

I tend to want to be around people with any hint of an Irish accent because I love the sound.

I also tend to want to avoid people with French accents because I hate the sound.

I'm with you there

Brits singing to sound American is affectation, not stripped-down-ness. I consider standard Southern UK English to be the basic form (ie. the accent without the vowel-twangs you get from rural, or posh, or Northern, or Estuary); American accents are definitely accents.

Yes. Queen's english. That's why it's called english and not tongalese ;)

This is something I'm intrigued by.

I've been told that I've a fairly neutral "Irish" accent with guesses being Dublin, Kildare, Meath

Meath? You must mean commuter Meath. By god the Meath accent is awfully strong and culchie ;)

:lol: It amuses me to see when the History Channel or Discovery Channel has subtitles for people speaking English with a non-American accent. Can people not just listen and process what is said?

I can imagine the mess if we had subtitles for every american movie; or british soap. Actually we do for Pobol Y Cum but that's something else entirely :P

Oh, and not a BBC thing, but I couldn't understand half of what was said in the movie "The Full Monty" and had to watch that with subtitles.

One.Word:Sheffield.

What does everyone else think of the Texas accent? And please don't base it on a Western movie, because they generally use either the wrong accent entirely (generally basic southern) or just do a really poor job of it.

I really like it. It's nice soothing and friendly.

I definitely do not feel that my accent is the most basic. I think that the American Standard accent (which apparently is spoken "natively" by only the residents of a few states in the Midwest, namely Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and parts of Oklahoma and Missouri) is pretty much as basic as it gets for English. It has almost no special inflections, things are always nicely fully pronounced, etc.

It's as basic as it gets for american. Not english. Earth still revolves around the Sun even if we don't see it that way, yanno?

Where is my coat at?

Where are you going to?

Hibernian english might annoy you too.

???

Can some of my fine UK friends please help this stupid American try to make sense of the above? I've tried rearranging some commas, but that doesn't seem to be helping.

No clue.

Here's an attempt:

'Just so you know: Scotland, Wales, and regional cities are not known as "Scotland, London", "Wales, London", "Liverpool, London," etc. (Unlike the American naming scheme, "Boston, Mass.") In fact, the huge island of Eire is not even attached to London, that sordid grief hole.'

Don't know what it means, but it would pass a Turing test.

AAhhh.

I'm used to a multitude of accents, so I wouldn't say they throw me; I don't think I make judgements on most accents, maybe only South African because it's so awful to listen to.

I find northern english accents the most pleasant, which isn't the norm: Yorkshire, Geordie, Sheffield, Scouse (yes, scouse)*

As for my view of american accents, my first and favourite internet friend was from southern OK, and the coolest guy on the planet. The accent is sexy out and when I was there, hospitality was the best in the world. the American South has the best music in the world and in my eyes, the accents there are lovely. I'd be biased positively against them, put it that way.

My very favourite canadian accent is - I think - Newfie (or maybe Nova Scotia? It's always sailors speaking this way or dudes in checked shirts moving houses on giant trucks). I'm aware Newfies are meant to be Scum of the Earth and Olympic imbeciles, but this accent if it's it sounds fairly irish in origin, I can hear the irish in it; and it's pretty cool to listen to.

The irish accent is also slow, rural sounding and relaxed as a whole.

I think I just prefer hick accents full stop ;)

*lightbulb: whoever said he couldn't understand this man from northern England, that man was a scouse. As sure as the sun rises in the East.

[adamsputnik]

I had all sorts of problems understanding some of the thicker Georgian accents when I first moved to Atlanta five or so years ago, but experience and time has taken care of that, except for some particular mountain accents. They sure don't make it easy on the ears up there. I remember a particularly memorable experience talking on the phone to a fella from Helen, GA, and the entire conversation consisted of the each of us asking to repeat ourselves. I'm from Australia, by the way, but don't have a thick accent.

It's always nice to be told I speak good English for an Australian, too :wideeyed:

[Arbor Gold]

I was in Rhode Island last week and I really dug the accent over there. Maybe it was because it was usually coming from someone who was helping me or complimenting me (seriously, I got so many compliments that I started to think that maybe they felt sorry for me and were giving me pity compliments) but it sounded very cool. Kind of Masshole-lite. Although what the hell do I know...I drove for 10 minutes on 195 West and drove past a sign that said "Welcome to Massachusetts," so it is possible that my friendly Rhode Islanders were actually from Mass.

[Happy Ent]

Bigfaccoward, could you please enlighten us about what your cryptic paragraph really meant? I’m still scratching my head.

[niamh]

HA HA HA!

Wikipedia is a great thing.

Newfoundland English is a name for several dialects of English found in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, often regarded as the most distinctive dialect of English in Canada. Some specific Newfoundland dialects are similar to the accent heard in the southeast of Ireland (See Wexford and Waterford),

Well no wonder it sounds familiar and I like it. :lol:

follows a bit about it having a lot of irish (and some french) grammar and then

Newfoundland English dialects are steadily losing their distinctiveness through the action of the mass media[citation needed] and an education system that has traditionally regarded the dialect as a backward corruption of "proper" English.

:tantrum: :tantrum: :tantrum:

Me I love diversity.

[zollo]

I'm used to a multitude of accents, so I wouldn't say they throw me; I don't think I make judgements on most accents, maybe only South African because it's so awful to listen to.

I find northern english accents the most pleasant, which isn't the norm: Yorkshire, Geordie, Sheffield, Scouse (yes, scouse)*

Afrikaner or the English they speak in South Africa? Afrikaner (imo) is awesome, but that might be due to me understanding it. As to North English accents - love them - Geordie and Sheffield are positively hot - in men and women both.

[amicoa]

I'm chinese, but been living in NYC for 12 years(since i was 10) so basically I speak with neutral American accent. However, I've been trying to get a Fresh off the boat accent for years. you know is better to fake the 'Mi no speeke engrish' thing. But beginning to think I need a accent coach.

[Frosty]

A British accent in a woman is a turn on - like that chic in Bedazzled - oh yeah Liz Hurley and some southern accents are cute.

[Bellis]

I mimic accents (and dialects and mannerisms to a certain degree). I suppose my true accent is when addressing a mixed group of people, but maybe that's also a different type of accent? I really don't know what I would naturally sound like anymore.

I had a friend in grad school who was ethnically Chinese from Mauritius. She spoke with a thick French accent, though 9 out of 10 people in America would take one look at her and "hear" a Chinese accent. (It's sort of like when you eat red-coloured candy and swear it's cherry flavoured).

[niamh]

As to North English accents - love them - Geordie and Sheffield are positively hot - in men and women both.

Sean Bean> Christian Bale QFT(or is it QED? I forget.)

[Tyrellius]

Afrikaner or the English they speak in South Africa? Afrikaner (imo) is awesome, but that might be due to me understanding it. As to North English accents - love them - Geordie and Sheffield are positively hot - in men and women both.

Afrikaans

Most English speaking Saffas make fun of them and if they dont, they probably sound like them too.