What's your accent (in your native language)?

[Winner]

Isn't Czechia just a state that contains Bohemia, Moravia, and parts of Silesia? and Sudetenland

Sudetenland isn't/wasn't a historical region.

and since Bohemia is the largest and most influential region, that's what all of Czechia is called sometimes? That's what I think my friend Czech told me once anyway

Not exactly. We have a problem with the one-word name for the country. "Česko" (Czechia) is now used most often, but it's controversial. Note the difference between "Česko" and "Čechy" though. Polish doesn't make the difference at all. Bohemians of course often "forget" that "Čechy" is just the name of Bohemia as well, and Moravians tend to dislike that

I think that it's unfair to call it "idiocy". A language, as we're all well aware, is really just a dialect with an army, so it seems to me that they're following the Western European example to the letter.

I still call it idiocy to define a language on the basis of something that is hardly enough to constitute a dialect. (Or conversely when separate languages are called dialects because of nationalism.)

To mis-misquote Bismarck "A language is a dialect with an army"

Who's going to tell the Icelanders?

 

[kochman]

Non-regional diction (American English), with a few mispronounced words handed down to me from my father who is from Texas and I couple I just have always pronounced slightly wrong...

milk = melk
monster = munster
across = acrosst
pillow = pellow

 

[metatron]

To mis-misquote Bismarck "A language is a dialect with an army"

Wow.

I amazed by the enormous potential for making fun of the Swiss that one single line contains.

 

[Leoreth]

Wow.

I amazed by the enormous potential for making fun of the Swiss that one single line contains.

Even better: one "mis" is because the original quote says "a language is a dialect with a navy". Poor Swiss

 

[Phrossack]

I speak more or less with a Midwestern accent, though some say I have a slight British accent and vocabulary(I know, there are actually dozens of them). Could be because a lot of the TV and literature I see/read is done by English people.

In German, I've been told I sound Bavarian by Germans, though they added that's probably because Bavarian and American accents sound vaguely similar.

 

[Babbler]

That quote was from a Yiddist linguist, IIRC.

I speak standard Canadian English with the accent that goes with it.

 

[Winner]

I speak standard Canadian English with the accent that goes with it.

There is a legitimate "Canadian English" now?

How do you differentiate it from the (sort of) Standard American English?

 

[madviking]

There is a legitimate "Canadian English" now?

How do you differentiate it from the (sort of) Standard American English?

You don't know, eh?

 

[Winner]

You don't know, eh?

If "eh" and "zet" are the only features of "Canadian English", then it's absurd.

 

[Lillefix]

If "eh" and "zet" are the only features of "Canadian English", then it's absurd.

There's also aboot in stead of about. Those are the only things I've ever heard about the Canadian dialect.

 

[madviking]

If "eh" and "zet" are the only features of "Canadian English", then it's absurd.

There are also phonetic things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_english

 

[Winner]

There are also phonetic things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_english

"As such, Canadian English and American English are sometimes classified together as North American English, emphasizing the fact that the vast majority of outsiders, even those from English speaking countries, cannot distinguish Canadian English from American English by sound."

Ah, yes.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Bohemia = Čechy, the western region of the Czech Rep. "Czech" is either the nationality or the language.

I know, but since the words you guys use are the same it is better to translate consistently... just to help us guys understand, either use Bohemia/n all the time for everything or Czech/ia all the time for everything. In my own area of research historians often refer to a thing called "Scotia" or "Alba" and distinguish it from "Scotland", but in doing so they are hiding the fact that there is no difference in the sources and depriving their readers of an insight into that world. (which had concentric but differing definitions of place- and ethnic-names)

As you know, I would love 'Czech Republic' to change its English name. When we hear "Czech" we think of decrepit communist factories and bearded female swimmers, but when we hear 'Bohemia' we think of culture and sophistication. It's ignorant and silly of course, but c'est la vie.

EDIT: Picked up on another post you made, too late. So Czech now has an innovative neologism to deal with this problem? I like it. It's like the way people now have to use Germanic to describe historical Germans because Germans are now just inhabitants of an arbitrary territorial unit called Germany, and there are other territorial units where 'Germanics' live. Sort of stuff can be a pain in the butt for historians, but I guess one has to live with such things.

What I referred to was "Velká Morava", or "Great(er) Moravia", the first Slavic state which was more than a tribal confederation. Its core was situated in eastern Moravia/western Slovakia, but it later expanded into Bohemia, parts of Pannonia and Poland. Then it was destroyed by the Maygars, and since then Bohemia has been the political centre of the Czech lands (I know this term must be confusing. In Czech we use "České země", plural, to refer to Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia).
.

I'm not sure we have this kind of detail, but I know a lot of scholars tend to think of it as a kind of proto-Hungary which was Magyarized and became Hungary. I.e. Hungary is the descendant rather than any Slavic state. Not that it matters, Bohemia and Greater Poland are the two Slavic regional units that were in the right position at the right time and converted and turned themselves into national states. Ohthere's voyage and the Old English Orosius are a fascinating insight on how things might have been had conversions happened then, but I digress too much!

 

[warpus]

"As such, Canadian English and American English are sometimes classified together as North American English, emphasizing the fact that the vast majority of outsiders, even those from English speaking countries, cannot distinguish Canadian English from American English by sound."

Ah, yes.

Is there such a thing as "American English" ? There are tons of different accents, from the south, to Boston, to wherever.

The "Canadian" accent is pretty much uniform across the entire country, except for Quebec and the maritimes, I think.

It only mirrors the dialect spoken in some parts of the U.S.

 

[Winner]

I know, but since the words you guys use are the same it is better to translate consistently... just to help us guys understand, either use Bohemia/n all the time for everything or Czech/ia all the time for everything.

But that would make no sense at all. I can't say "Czechia" when I mean Bohemia as the western part of the Czech Republic. I equally can't say Bohemia when I refer to the whole country.

As you know, I would love 'Czech Republic' to change its English name. When we hear "Czech" we think of decrepit communist factories and bearded female swimmers, but when we hear 'Bohemia' we think of culture and sophistication. It's ignorant and silly of course, but c'est la vie.

There is a small political party which wants to restore the monarchy. I suppose they'd also change the name of the country back to "Kingdom of Bohemia". If they ever win the elections with a 2/3 majority in the Parliament, you may be granted your wish

EDIT: Picked up on another post you made, too late. So Czech now has an innovative neologism to deal with this problem? I like it. It's like the way people now have to use Germanic to describe historical Germans because Germans are not longer Germans but inhabitants of Germany and other states. Sort of stuff is a pain in the butt for historians.

(I just noticed the edited part.)

I'm not sure we have this kind of detail, but I know a lot of scholars tend to think of it as a kind of proto-Hungary which was Magyarized and became Hungary. I.e. Hungary is the descendant rather than any Slavic state. Not that it matters, Bohemia and Greater Poland are the two Slavic regional units that were in the right position at the right time and converted and turned themselves into national states. Ohthere's voyage and the Old English Orosius are a fascinating insight on how things might have been had conversions happened then, but I digress too much!

Ah, well, Hungarians... Let's just say that the early medieval history is often a hot subject for debate in Central Europe, these days especially among some Hungarians and some Slovaks (Czechs have calmed down in the past two decades, we now mostly deal with our own guilty conscience concerning the Sudeten Germans and the Roma holocaust). Hungarians sometimes have a tendency to "prove" themselves as a fully European nation by downplaying their nomadic origins. Slovaks one the other hand now claim Greater Moravia as the nation state of the "Old Slovaks", whatever the hell it means It's so silly, you can't imagine.

AFAIK the early Hungarian state indeed inherited some administrative divisions and practices of Greater Moravia, but so did Bohemia. The key thing to remember here is that Greater Moravia was essentially pro-Byzantine, while Bohemia was a client state of the Western empire and thus followed the Latin version of Christianity. Therefore, the ascendancy of Bohemia as the principal seat of political power in the Czech lands marked the final "Westernization" of this region.

 

[Winner]

Is there such a thing as "American English" ? There are tons of different accents, from the south, to Boston, to wherever.

Well, yes, what we call "Standard American English" is of course a generalization. As someone in this thread said, it's the kind of English your hear from American news anchors.

The "Canadian" accent is pretty much uniform across the entire country, except for Quebec and the maritimes, I think.

It only mirrors the dialect spoken in some parts of the U.S.

As I said, for me personally it is VERY difficult to distinguish between North American English accents. I can recognize some of the specific ones (the stereotypical Southern accent), but that's about it. To me, Canadian English isn't at all different from the American English except for a few trivial things. That is not an offence, it's just my impression as a non-native speaker.

 

[warpus]

Well, yes, what we call "Standard American English" is of course a generalization. As someone in this thread said, it's the kind of English your hear from American news anchors.

As I said, for me personally it is VERY difficult to distinguish between North American English accents. I can recognize some of the specific ones (the stereotypical Southern accent), but that's about it. To me, Canadian English isn't at all different from the American English except for a few trivial things. That is not an offence, it's just my impression as a non-native speaker.

Ah, you are basically correct then. The main difference is really spelling (colour vs color, etc.)

 

[sophie]

Gosh I see why Bill got so annoyed in that peninsula thread. This thread is essentially meaningless without IPA.

 

[Winner]

Gosh I see why Bill got so annoyed in that peninsula thread. This thread is essentially meaningless without IPA.

Feel free to use it, I don't have a problem reading it. Most people do, however.

 

[Veles]

Actually, Bohemia is a super-awesome name for the country. It's supposed etymology is connected with Celtic Boii tribe, but, by a strange and fortunate coincedence (which is surely a sign from Perun and Veles), in Slavic language Bogemia means "God's country", from Bog/Boh/Buh meaning "God". It also sounds close to Boi/Voi, an old Slavic root, meaning "Warriors". So you get both the reference to God chosenness and military prowess in a single name. What's not to like?

If it was up to me, I'd named the whole of the county "Bohemia", with subdivision according to river drainge basins, so that Elbe basin part would be Chehia, Danube basin part would be Moravia, and Odra basing part would be Silesia. It all would be incorporated into [new free and democratic] Russia, of course Or better, a communion of Slavic states (ruled by me).