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DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> English accent... what's the deal ?
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 09/11/2011 09:54:47 AM · #26
Originally posted by Jon_H:
Originally posted by paulbtlw:
Originally posted by Jon_H:
You might want to avoid the Birmingham accent, that accent is notorious for sounding anything but intelligent (apologies to any Brummys on here)


Says he from Liverpool. Ladies and Gentlemen, please make sure all your valuables are locked away. ;-)


13 minutes for a response from a Brummy, im impressed. i was up early robbin' cars, whats your excuse ;)

Brummies

Scousers.


Ummmm ... never mind.
 09/11/2011 10:09:05 AM · #27
Originally posted by mike_311:
my gps has a womans voice and i trust it to get me to where i need to get to, it must be the english accent.


Too funny that...

I remember being in Germany a few years ago and the GPS had a male voice with an Aussie accent. We spent so much time trying to decipher what it was he was saying that we switched it to German. Mind you, we did have German speaking people in the car...that helped a bit.

Ray
 09/11/2011 11:00:23 AM · #28
A punch line in one of the "Deep South (US)" jokes is ; "Y'a hear how fast I'm talkin'? Wellll, that's about how fast I'm listenin'."
 09/11/2011 11:02:11 AM · #29
Originally posted by ShutterPug:
I much prefer an Irish accent

Originally posted by geinafets:
Ditto on the Irish! I could listen to that accent all day.

Hah! You're wrong.
09/11/2011 11:08:08 AM · #30
Originally posted by jagar:
I have a Geordie accent, don't think it boosts my credibility much.


Ah divvun kna boot tha', like
 09/11/2011 11:08:47 AM · #31
As an American, I'm not sure what you mean by 'other parts of the world.'

eta: tongue in cheek

Message edited by author 2011-09-11 11:09:58.
 09/11/2011 11:26:24 AM · #32
Originally posted by RayEthier:
Originally posted by mike_311:
my gps has a womans voice and i trust it to get me to where i need to get to, it must be the english accent.


Too funny that...

I remember being in Germany a few years ago and the GPS had a male voice with an Aussie accent. We spent so much time trying to decipher what it was he was saying that we switched it to German. Mind you, we did have German speaking people in the car...that helped a bit.

Ray


I thought they hired Mr. T do the voice on gps. No matter what native accent you have, you will listen to Mr. T :-)
 09/11/2011 11:57:44 AM · #33
It's very interesting to read your words here considering that I'm not an English/American/Australian/Canadian etc. native tongue, but I've been studying English for a long time.

If can it be of any interest I'd like to explain you what happens in Italy about accents and dialects:

The accents can be divided in three big areas: the one from the north of Italy, the one from the south and the other from the center that has inside a lot of different shades.

But the biggest problem about our language are dialects: they are something like a second language (sometimes even first in small villages in the mountains). In English and Spanish in the different countries and regions you have very different accents and a few words that you use differently. But here if we speak our native dialect we use words not understable for people living in another area. A person from Turin can't understand (not even a word!) what a Sicilian says, if he uses his dialect. The only region using a dialect very similar to standard Italian language is Tuscany, but that's because our language was born there, in the time of Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy.

Going back to our accents: southern ones are considered gross. In my region, Abruzzo, we speak a southern oriented accent (even if I speak a quite standard Italian due to my theater studies) but not easily recognizable like the ones from Naples or Sicily. In the north the accent, especially the Milan one, is considered much more posh (above all from when TV has shifted his standard Italian much more towards that accent). It is far from being a correct standard pronunciation of Italian language but sounds much more acceptable than southern accents.

I could speak for hours about it, but I don't wanna bore you :)

Ciao
 09/11/2011 12:15:10 PM · #34
Nothing like the sound of a Brooklyn accent in the morning :-)

Fascinating reading, guys. Carry on.
 09/11/2011 12:30:24 PM · #35
Originally posted by Guyzy:
As a very good ambassador for the English language would say,

"God bless ya Mary Poppins" (Dick Van Dyke )

Dick Van Dyke says he still "hears it" about his somewhat-lamely executed accent in that movie, but he has a pretty legitimate excuse, since the voice coach they hired for him was ... Irish.
 09/11/2011 12:35:13 PM · #36
When ah tyek wor lass back hyem she has git big problems understanding what everyone is gannin on aboot , if yee knaa what ah mean leik .
 09/11/2011 12:41:56 PM · #37
Originally posted by Alexkc:
It's very interesting to read your words here considering that I'm not an English/American/Australian/Canadian etc. native tongue, but I've been studying English for a long time.

If can it be of any interest I'd like to explain you what happens in Italy about accents and dialects:

The accents can be divided in three big areas: the one from the north of Italy, the one from the south and the other from the center that has inside a lot of different shades.

But the biggest problem about our language are dialects: they are something like a second language (sometimes even first in small villages in the mountains). In English and Spanish in the different countries and regions you have very different accents and a few words that you use differently. But here if we speak our native dialect we use words not understable for people living in another area. A person from Turin can't understand (not even a word!) what a Sicilian says, if he uses his dialect. The only region using a dialect very similar to standard Italian language is Tuscany, but that's because our language was born there, in the time of Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy.

Going back to our accents: southern ones are considered gross. In my region, Abruzzo, we speak a southern oriented accent (even if I speak a quite standard Italian due to my theater studies) but not easily recognizable like the ones from Naples or Sicily. In the north the accent, especially the Milan one, is considered much more posh (above all from when TV has shifted his standard Italian much more towards that accent). It is far from being a correct standard pronunciation of Italian language but sounds much more acceptable than southern accents.

I could speak for hours about it, but I don't wanna bore you :)

Ciao


The best thing about Italian is that there are so many dialects and I pull pieces from a bunch of them (unintentionally--that's just how I learned), so no one ever can tell where I'm from. Surprisingly, because of all the dialect words I use, people also rarely guess that I'm actually American. They usually guess French or Spanish. Most of the dialect words I use come from Ticinese and Milanese, but I guess I use some Roman and Venetian words too. I think dialects are so strange how they work!
 09/11/2011 12:48:51 PM · #38
There is a great scene in the movie A Thousand Clowns in which the protagonists describe where their visitors have lived, gone to school, etc. by analyzing their accents. If you haven't seen this film, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in an analysis of the conflict between artistic creativity and social conformity ...

ETA: Might make a good double-feature with My Fair Lady ...

Message edited by author 2011-09-11 12:49:28.
 09/11/2011 01:42:35 PM · #39
If you want to hear a really horrid accent, just watch Nicolas Cage in "Con-Air" Such a horrible emulation of a southern drawl it makes me cringe.
 09/11/2011 02:54:02 PM · #40
Originally posted by geinafets:
The best thing about Italian is that there are so many dialects and I pull pieces from a bunch of them (unintentionally--that's just how I learned), so no one ever can tell where I'm from. Surprisingly, because of all the dialect words I use, people also rarely guess that I'm actually American. They usually guess French or Spanish. Most of the dialect words I use come from Ticinese and Milanese, but I guess I use some Roman and Venetian words too. I think dialects are so strange how they work!


Do you have Italian origins? Can you tell me some dialects words you know? I could tell you where they are from :)
 09/11/2011 03:07:37 PM · #41
I believe there was a policy of sorting people who came through Staten Island by ethnicity/nationality, so that a lot of Italians were shipped up to Chicago. They then had to learn English because they couldn't understand each other when they spoke Italian.

The above may well be apocryphal, but it sounds good...

Not boring, Alex, thanks :)
 09/11/2011 03:20:51 PM · #42
Originally posted by GeneralE:
There is a great scene in the movie A Thousand Clowns in which the protagonists describe where their visitors have lived, gone to school, etc. by analyzing their accents. If you haven't seen this film, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in an analysis of the conflict between artistic creativity and social conformity ...

ETA: Might make a good double-feature with My Fair Lady ...


I used to explain to students of Norwegian (immigrants who are obliged to learn) that if you pick up the phone and talk to a stranger in your own language, then you form a picture (not a visual one so much as a mind-map) of the other's age, gender, education, class, level of sophistication, place of origin (the accuracy of which increases according to how close their dialect is to your own or one with which you are familiar), within one or two sentences. When you yourself speak to someone on the phone, you give out that information. When you speak a foreign language you can't give out much more than your foreignness. Not one of the great motivators, but I used it by way of saying never mind, we're all in the same boat, you appear to become dumb by adopting an alien idiom, but you're not. Don't be scared to appear dumb, it shackles you.
 09/11/2011 05:23:27 PM · #43
Originally posted by Cyberlandz:
Originally posted by RayEthier:
Originally posted by mike_311:
my gps has a womans voice and i trust it to get me to where i need to get to, it must be the english accent.


Too funny that...

I remember being in Germany a few years ago and the GPS had a male voice with an Aussie accent. We spent so much time trying to decipher what it was he was saying that we switched it to German. Mind you, we did have German speaking people in the car...that helped a bit.

Ray


I thought they hired Mr. T do the voice on gps. No matter what native accent you have, you will listen to Mr. T :-)


I seriously doubt I would listen to anything Mr. T had to say, even if he was in the same room as me... let alone a GPS.

Ray
 09/11/2011 05:24:32 PM · #44
Originally posted by RayEthier:
Originally posted by Cyberlandz:
Originally posted by RayEthier:
Originally posted by mike_311:
my gps has a womans voice and i trust it to get me to where i need to get to, it must be the english accent.


Too funny that...

I remember being in Germany a few years ago and the GPS had a male voice with an Aussie accent. We spent so much time trying to decipher what it was he was saying that we switched it to German. Mind you, we did have German speaking people in the car...that helped a bit.

Ray


I thought they hired Mr. T do the voice on gps. No matter what native accent you have, you will listen to Mr. T :-)


I seriously doubt I would listen to anything Mr. T had to say, even if he was in the same room as me... let alone a GPS.

Ray

I PITTY THE FOOL WHO DON'T MAKE A LEFT NOW!
 09/11/2011 05:47:32 PM · #45
Originally posted by Strikeslip:
No matter how stupid the statement, if it's heard in an English accent it sounds plausible and even intelligent and classy. What's up with that?


It even works for actors - take Terence Stamp; he's dreadfully wooden but nonetheless he has a career.
 09/11/2011 06:06:22 PM · #46
Originally posted by Alexkc:
Originally posted by geinafets:
The best thing about Italian is that there are so many dialects and I pull pieces from a bunch of them (unintentionally--that's just how I learned), so no one ever can tell where I'm from. Surprisingly, because of all the dialect words I use, people also rarely guess that I'm actually American. They usually guess French or Spanish. Most of the dialect words I use come from Ticinese and Milanese, but I guess I use some Roman and Venetian words too. I think dialects are so strange how they work!


Do you have Italian origins? Can you tell me some dialects words you know? I could tell you where they are from :)


My father's parents were born in Bari, but they died when I was very young, so I didn't learn Italian from them. I went to an international school in Italian-speaking Switzerland, so that's where I learned Italian. I had friends from all over Italy, so that, paired with the Italian I learned in town and the Italian I learned in school, has made me speak in pieces of 5 or 6 dialects. I know where the dialects are from, but when I speak them all together, people don't know where *I'm* from : )
 09/11/2011 06:23:02 PM · #47
Originally posted by geinafets:
My father's parents were born in Bari, but they died when I was very young, so I didn't learn Italian from them. I went to an international school in Italian-speaking Switzerland, so that's where I learned Italian. I had friends from all over Italy, so that, paired with the Italian I learned in town and the Italian I learned in school, has made me speak in pieces of 5 or 6 dialects. I know where the dialects are from, but when I speak them all together, people don't know where *I'm* from : )


Cool! :)

Do you know any dialect words from my region, Abruzzo?
 09/11/2011 06:31:52 PM · #48
Originally posted by Alexkc:
Originally posted by geinafets:
My father's parents were born in Bari, but they died when I was very young, so I didn't learn Italian from them. I went to an international school in Italian-speaking Switzerland, so that's where I learned Italian. I had friends from all over Italy, so that, paired with the Italian I learned in town and the Italian I learned in school, has made me speak in pieces of 5 or 6 dialects. I know where the dialects are from, but when I speak them all together, people don't know where *I'm* from : )


Cool! :)

Do you know any dialect words from my region, Abruzzo?


No, I don't think I do. But I'm willing to learn if you have some good ones : )
 09/11/2011 06:45:48 PM · #49
Il sito fornisce informazioni e documenti su tutto ciò che riguarda caccia e pesca sportiva, normativa di riferimento.
 09/11/2011 06:49:42 PM · #50
Originally posted by David Ey:
Il sito fornisce informazioni e documenti su tutto ciò che riguarda caccia e pesca sportiva, normativa di riferimento.


Surely it's not about DPChallenge :)
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