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

[Traitorfish]

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

Yeah, we could all do with a drink.

 

[Antilogic]

I sound like I'm from Southern California. I say 'like' and 'dude' quite frequently.

Do you also describe most things as "crunchy" or "legit"?

Some American northern cities vowel shift with a bit of Chicagoese ("supposed to" becomes "supposedta" or "and" becomes "ahn", soda is "pop" and "sneakers" are "gym shoes") and a pinch of Cali surfer for emphasis. Also, I think specific to the town I grew up in it's Row-za-velt Road or idit Rooo-za-velt. I forget but was corrected by someone from California.

Without the Cali surfer part, I do this all the time. Abuse of contractions is pretty common in American English accents.



Most of my young years were in Ohio, and by the time my family had moved to Georgia I think my pronunciation was nearly fixed so I didn't pick up on the Southern drawl. I still say "you all" as two different words, the contraction does not come naturally Now I'm up north again, and few locals think I have an accent (which means I'm a Midwestern-North American English speaker in the international community).

 

[Leoreth]

Yeah, we could all do with a drink.

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis tells me that's not what he meant

 

[Takhisis]

Court and caught are homophones here, and, I believe, in a lot of the UK.

What if you're caught stealing a cot? Do you get sent into court?

Listen to the Cat Gaelic in this documentary on East Sutherland Gaelic, it's very different to the language Hebrideans speak and hard to understand, but closer to what many 19th century Scots spoke than modern Hebridean standard.

I understand next to nothing, I'll have to lsiten to it more closely during the weekend.

 

[Pangur Bán]

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.
.

Why can't you say Bohemia when you refer to the whole country? That's the whole point about semantic overlap.

Let's just say that the early medieval history is often a hot subject for debate in Central Europe

Moravian understandment!

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.

Bohemia surely is the "Czech lands", here, by definition?

But indeed, conversion is the sine qua non of all the high medieval Slavic states that produced modern nations. The church comes with writing and creates administrative structures--or introduces Roman ones-- like provinces, bishoprics and parishes than don't change everytime the regional or local top dog changes. Which is at the heart of what I think you are saying.

 

[Oruc]

I have a mackem accent, it's not very strong though.

 

[KMRblue1027]

I have a South Jersey accent which is surprisingly quite different from a North Jersey or Philadelphia accent. Mine fairly close to John Stewart's of the Daily Show accent.

 

[Mango Elephant]

I have a Southern accent and an Raleigh dialect. An Raleigh dialect is pretty much more a drawl than a twang, but some words are still twanged. I guess it's a result of being on the Fall Line, in between the coast and the hills. Most people here don't have a Raleigh accent even though they live here because they're immigrants or the sons and daughters of immigrants, but my family has old roots.

 

[Winner]

Why can't you say Bohemia when you refer to the whole country? That's the whole point about semantic overlap.

Because to me it sounds as if someone said Bavaria, but meant the whole Germany by it. I use it in that sense only when I used the whole name - Kingdom of Bohemia.

 

[mangxema]

Now I'm up north again, and few locals think I have an accent (which means I'm a Midwestern-North American English speaker in the international community).

When I was up there for an interview, people seemed to not accept that I grew up in Georgia until I mentioned that my parents were from Chicago.

 

[Arwon]

"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.

Not necessarily a good indicator. Most other people can't tell NZers from Australians but we can recognise the difference pretty much instantly.

 

[Dachs]

Not necessarily a good indicator. Most other people can't tell NZers from Australians but we can recognise the difference pretty much instantly.

Also, the fact that there are regional dialects in both Canada and the United States would seem to indicate that varieties of Canadian English and American English are possible to differentiate. If you can tell the difference between a New Orleanian's accent and that of a New Jerseyan, surely you can tell the difference between a New Orleanian and a Newfoundlander...

 

[Traitorfish]

Speaking only for myself, I can differentiate most American accents from Canadian pretty easily. It's only a few Northern-Midwestern accents that are a problem, and to be honest my inclination is to lump them in with Canadian rather than Canadian in with a generic "North American". That would be a bit like arguing that there's no difference between English and Scottish because some foreigners don't know where to place Geordies.

 

[Jos Ballenbak]

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

Link to video.

 

[Dachs]

Not to mention the fact that, as Dachs suggests, I wouldn't mistake either for Joisey or Norlins.

The local pronunciation of "New Orleans" isn't actually "Nawlins" or "Norlins", and it definitely isn't "New Or-leenz". The emphasis is on the "or", with the vowels in "leans" either being shortened (e.g. "New OR-linz") or separated (e.g. "New OR-lee-ans").

I cannot IPA, though, so it's hard to describe.

EDIT: Drat, ninjaedit. Oh well.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Because to me it sounds as if someone said Bavaria, but meant the whole Germany by it. I use it in that sense only when I used the whole name - Kingdom of Bohemia.

The difference there is that Bavaria doesn't actually have that meaning.

Though, for instance, Allemania (Romance word for Swabia) and Saxony (northern Germany) were both used by different neighbours pars pro toto for the whole of Germany. There was a period when Francia meant both north-western Germany and Gaul.

Such things are interesting and don't need to be rationalised out.

"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.

For the record, most such nationalizations of dialect groups have no coherence and totally useless for classifying isoglosses, they should absolutely not be used but will be because everyone loves countries. Some regions, like Ireland or Scotland are useful (e.g. Scottish vowel rule), but for colonial areas not at all. Most Canadians share the same distinct clusters of isoglosses distinct in "standard" US English, but some small regions differ, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia; generally Appalachia and the south are different in the US, north-east a little too, the rest of North America is similar. (i.e. national boundaries irrelevant). Appalachian accents aren't really American accents in any linguistic sense, but are classified as such for politico-geographic/cultural reasons.

Link to video.

 

[emzie]

"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.

I have a slight accent here and I get occasional comments. I think a good definition of an accent would include members of one group being able to tell apart another, even if a third group cannot tell the two apart.

 

[Pangur Bán]

An interesting chart for a more linguistic look at "accent" differences. Even though very little of the actual variety is represented because it's based on "national standards", it's still interesting and can be used to apply to many accents you'll hear:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects#Chart

 

[Arwon]

I want to be a mountain folk ):

 

[emzie]

I want to be a mountain folk ):

No matter how smart you are, you will be forever stereotyped when you open your mouth. Having grown up near Appa-latch-a, it's taken me time to not hate it. In the same sense, I really like Newfie accents, but to most Canadians, they sound awful.