Funny accents

[MikeH]

I understand how absurd it is. That said, if there was a standard it wouldn't make sense to choose any other would it?

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Oerdin
The habit mid-westerners have of inserting "R" sounds into words which don't have Rs in them is quite funny. Nothing like hearing someone say they are going to warsh their car.

I haven't heard that habit much -- I think that may be more of a middle-Southern thing. What seems more common in the midwest is that they'll clip their soft s's (like at the end of "his") turn them into hard s's (like at the end of "hiss"), so that words like "there's" sound like "there'ss."

[Kramerman]

the boston accent is funny. They say r's at the end of words were they arent supposed to be (usually words that end in 'a'), and dont say them in words they are supposed to be in.

Such as, "I pahked the caah in back of the yahd"

and then they'll continue to say htinks like, "i have an idear about space and time..."

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

The Bristolian equivalent of that is "I got an ideal 'bout space an' time. 's gert lush."

[Provost Harrison]

Actually to me, Mike possesses next to no accent. Now the Hull accent is truly awful...but surely nothing can top the Brummie accent (the accent of Birmingham)...if you can find a sample of that you'll love it. Scouse as well (the accent of Liverpool)

[Paul Hanson]

ERRRRRRRRRR NERRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Ah, the joys of the Hull accent.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Lung
New Zullund!

What's funny is that the educated ones that go overseas and sound funny don't speak nearly as funny as those New Zullunders who don't!

There's a famous bit of graffiti coming out the tunnel on Sydney's eastern suburbs train line that says:

"AUSTRALIA SUX!"

Underneath a clever aussie wrote:

"NEW ZEALAND NIL"

And all the stuff about "Lord of the Rungs".

[mindseye]

In China there are some accents in which consonants are transposed, as opposed to English in which most of the variation is in vowel sounds.

Some Chinese mix up L and N, others swap H and F. This can be extremely confusing to foreigners who speak Chinese!

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Actually to me, Mike possesses next to no accent. Now the Hull accent is truly awful...but surely nothing can top the Brummie accent (the accent of Birmingham)...if you can find a sample of that you'll love it. Scouse as well (the accent of Liverpool)

YEAH! I have no accent, I rule.

[The Viceroy]

I pray the day never comes, when people who say BARTH, instead of Bath, and Grarse, instead of Grass .. are ever considered Standard.

Ive lived all over the shop in the UK, born in Chester, which has its own accent (although, slightly scouse to the ears of southerners), lived in Portsmouth (they all sound like Pirates to me), Nottingham (Eyy me duck), London - hounslow (Init), Newcastle (way-hay man) and now im off to Reading ..

Bombay has its own accent of English, and there's also a sub-accent of "I want to sound as American as possible" .. which is really sad.

[Drake Tungsten]

and there's also a sub-accent of "I want to sound as American as possible" .. which is really sad.

I think it's an intelligent move on the part of those who speak it. The Queen's English is dead; American English is the international language.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by The Viceroy
I pray the day never comes, when people who say BARTH, instead of Bath, and Grarse, instead of Grass .. are ever considered Standard.

That day came when the BBC Home Service started about 75 years ago.

It isn't the 'most correct' or anything (using northern or other regional pronunciation isn't 'wrong'), it's just that Oxford-English, Queen's-English, BBC-English or whatever else you want to call it is a kind of recognized standard. Which is why people like PH say that Mike "doesn't have an accent".

[The Viceroy]

Ha ha .. nahh .. it has nothing to do with the words they use, they all use American English as standard (my wife still says tomAYto .. even after 5 years of being in the UK).

Some of the younger generation (amongst the upper classes) are so besotted with being American, they try to pretend they are .. by making a false american accent, which sounds rather embarresing.

Were talking about a group of people. that until recently, use to walk around holding their mobiles out for all to see.. thankfully, everybody in Bombay has them now, and thats put an end to that sad practice.

What I was really trying to say was, that there is a large group of people, who try to have an accent, they quite obviously don't have , and that in itself has spawned a sub-accent all of its own.

I know of no other place where people on such a scale, attempt to sound like an accent.

[MikeH]

Barth is the correct way to say it. The people who live in a place should know how to pronounce it wouldn't you say?

Therefore it's also NOT Newcarstle.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by MikeH
Therefore it's also NOT Newcarstle.

Out of interest, do you actually pronounce it "Noo-cassel" then?

I should, because I believe what you just said is true, but I never do.