| Cohaagen |
06-22-10 03:36 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl
(Post 1421268)
One of my favorite subjects! I love accents, words and everything linguistic. One of my personal weird hobbies is to imitate foreign dialects, syntax, sentence structure, and any verbal peculiarities. I can do pretty much any accent in the world, but my American accent comes out by making the vowels sound a little flat when pronouncing a word I haven't heard spoken before.
British accents are among my favorites because of the tremendous variety within a comparitively small space. Cockney English is probably the most fun to do, but I also love many Scottish accents for the way they flow.
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This is also a pet subject of mine, so it's genuinely great to see someone from the US who is interested in the regional nuances. Most Americans can't tell the difference between an Irish and Scottish accent, as I once uncomfortably found out!
Quote:
And then you get to Nairn and you have to speak out of your nose
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Naaaeeiiirn - the fastest town in Scotland.
I consider myself pretty tuned-in to the differences in US accents from growing up on the Clyde near Site One at the Holy Loch, going to school where 1/3 of the class was American, hanging out at the Px, bowling alley, Dunkin' Donuts, etc., before I went to sea. Most British people have a fairly good ear for American accents due to a sort of involuntary training through movies, but I suspect there are many for whom the difference between a Massachusetts (or "Massive Chew Sets" as we used to call it) and New York accent is as indistinguishable as the disparity between the Liverpool and Manchester dialect is to Americans - obviously, a native British would be able to discern the difference in the latter instantly.
The interesting thing about American accents is how they tend to become more homogenous the further west you go. A lot of this has to do with the rapid expansion of the USA in the 19thC, and the lack of opportunity for isolated communities to develop (with certain exceptions: the sing-song Scandanavian/Canadian inflection you get in people from Minnesota and North Dakota, for example). By contrast, in some of the very old parts of the North East US, particularly the affluent ones, you get enclaves of very old communities who can immediately spot an outsider from their accent - even someone who grew up only 100 miles distant. Yet, there is no real difference between a San Francisco and San Diego accent (I've already thought of the lisping joke, so don't post it) despite being separated by about 500 or 600 or so miles - about the distance from Inverness to London.
And yes, people in Britain do use the "cu..." word far more. It is the verbal weapon we find closest to hand, and (uniquely) is not necessarily an insult. An American will usually say "faggot" or "mother****er" instead. |
