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ppa93
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34534
Fri, 25 Jun 04 03:47 AM
I just wanna know what I can do in order to understand British accent. I speak American English. I realized that I cant understand British accent at all after seeing The prince and me and Harry Potter. Why do British people sound really bad? or I dont think they are speaking English haha.
Joined on
Fri, Jun 25 2004
New Member
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Xam0
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37067
Mon, 12 Jul 04 07:46 PM
"There are very few American dialects which make it rather boring in my opinion!"
This is pretty ignorant. The US has at least 24 distinct regional dialects. And no, if someone lives in El Paso, Texas, they do not say they have an accent because they border Mexico. Some of the most prominent accents in the US are (1) the New England/Boston accent, which shares the British "r" rules, "Park the car in Harvard yard" = "Pahk thuh cah in hahvad yahd", (2) Minnesota/Upper Midwest, which sounds a lot like a Swedish accent, (3) New York City accents, (not as much manhattan) "They sell toilets on 33rd street" = "Dey sell tirlets on doity-doid street", and the New Jersey/Staten Island mafia accents, which contains a lot of warped pronunciation on italian words, "fuggedaboudit", "capicola" = "gabbagool", "canole" = "ganol" , "calamari" = "galamad" (I live in NJ, so I hear this stuff all the time) we also pronounce "water" = "wohder", and "coffee" = "cawffee", "drawer" = "draw", "crayon" = "crown", (4) The Mid and Southwest (cowboy and ranchero accents), this accent almost sounds similar to a southern accent, but it has a lot of words from Spanish and Native American(adobe, beer bust, belly up, boneyard, bronco, buckaroo, bunkhouse, cahoots, corral, greenhorn, hightail, hoosegow, lasso, mustang, maverick, roundup, wingding, caballero, cantina, frijoles, madre, mesa, nana, padre, patio, plaza, ramada, tortilla), (5) Hawaiian accent, this is the remains of a creole mixed with chinese, potruguese, japanese, korean, tagalog, spanish, english, and hawaiian. Some distinct words and phrases are (aloha, hula, kahuna, lei, luau, muumuu, poi, ukulele, look-see, no can, number one (the best), plenty (very), ![Devil [6]](/emoticons/emotion-14.gif) Southern (Louisiana Cajun), this is a mix of french canadian from acadia ("acadian" is where the word "cajun" comes from), english, and spanish. It is often english with french grammar, sprinkled with slang and pronunciation from the three languages. "onion" = "un-YON", "I guarantee" = " Ah gaRONtee", and phrases such as "Let de good times role!" and "How y'all are? I'm glad for you to see me." There is also a creole in this region that is a mix of cajun and a number of african tribal languages. Someone speaking the cajun creole would have an extremely difficult time communicating with someone with a strong brooklyn, new york accent. (7) The rest of the south has a similar accent, split off into a number of regional ones. Since this area was fairly agricultural, the people moved around less, and maintained a seperate accent from the north. The accent is influenced by French and Elizabethan English. "Ah'm dyoo home at fahv o'clock.", "They a-celebratin' his birfday by a-goin' to see 'Old Yeller' in the theatah".... Some elizabethan words are, "bub, cross-purposes, fall (autumn), flapjack, greenhorn, guess (suppose), homely, homespun, jeans, loophole, molasses, peek, ragamuffin, reckon, sorry (inferior), trash, well (healthy)" -------
There are many more accents, but I am way to lazy to say anything else. Go to this website to see a regional dialect map, followed by a description of each dialect.
AMERICA HAS A LOT OF ACCENTS-----LOOK -->
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1906/dialects.html
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1906/dialects.html
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1906/dialects.html
Joined on
Mon, Jul 12 2004
US
New Member
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David
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39363
Mon, 26 Jul 04 03:09 PM
Hi ppa93. There is an obvious answer to that learn the language you use .English whether one likes it or not is the language you use with an American accent. Australia Canada India
New Zealand nearly a big chunk of the world speaks it all with their own interesting accents.
We all manage to understand each other sometimes with a little difficulty. Keep smiling.
Joined on
Sat, Mar 8 2003
Regular Member
664
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Guest,
5 yr 112 days ago
Hey!
I've been living in the US a few years now, but am still having trouble distinguishing accents (like, i can hear an accent once you actually TELL me where in the US u r from...). But one thing i don't understand is what is "upstate NY" accent. That's where i live at the mo, and every1 here is telling me it's "TOTALLY" different from NY (or Brooklyn) accent. Any1 knows what this upstate accent is like? coz maybe i can't hear it coz i am always surrounded by it...
Guest,
5 yr 110 days ago
I'm from the Detroit area too and I have to agree there are alotta accents in the US... You have the plain midwest accent, the southern, the people on the east coast, and of course the west coast... The hardest to understand is defintly the southern accent...
Different parts of the country use different words to call stuff... In my area we call coca cola or pepsi just pop, the south it is called coke, and everywhere else is soda pop. There are more then just that, but that is defintly the most obvious that comes to mind. Another is coolers and icechests. Up north we call them coolers in the south there called icechests..
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Xam0
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41338
Sun, 08 Aug 04 11:09 PM
There is definately an upstate NY accent. The vowels in the middle of some words are either changed or pronounced as dipthongs. Ill put the normal spelling of some words followed by the upstate NY pronunciation.. and then the north jersey pronunciation (where im from) which is fairly neutral compared to upstate ny.
Dog -- dwog -- dog
Frog -- frohg --frog
Cat -- keeyat -- kat
Mat -- meeyat -- mat
Walk -- wooawk -- wahk
Map -- meeyap -- map
Hat -- heeyat -- hat
Creek -- crick -- kreek
Water -- wuohdr -- wahdr
Ball -- bowul -- bahl
Fall -- fowul -- fahl
Hair -- hayer -- hare
Fair -- fayer -- fare
Have -- hyav -- hav
Has -- hyaz -- haz
Also, upstate NY, like NJ does not make a distinction in pronunciation between "Mary, marry, and merry"
Its not a very stong accent.. but its noticable.. hope that helps
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Xam0
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41339
Sun, 08 Aug 04 11:32 PM
"In my area we call coca cola or pepsi just pop, the south it is called coke, and everywhere else is soda pop. "
----I want to make a correction----
I'm from jersey
we do not say pop or coke
and we definately do not say "soda pop"
like you said everyone else does
We just say "soda"
You will never hear a new jerseyan say "pop" in any reference to soda
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Guest,
5 yr 106 days ago
if u think all americans (never call me a yankee cause i have no idea what the hell that is, i have an idea that thats what some ppl call the americans) sound that same and have the same accent u r soooooo wrong! There r so many different accents from different states: alabama, new york, texas, california, etc. u can tell if someones from alabama or other southern states, dont tell me u dont see any difference, or else ill think u guys r ignorant.
Guest,
5 yr 106 days ago
(ppl=people)
That proves another varience in american accents. i used to live in michigan, in flint (sorta near the detroit area) then i moved to colorado (central US) i did notice some differences in ways of talking and using words, and with time i started talking like the ppl here in colorado, and yet to me it sounded like an american accent (NOT a southern accent) But if i go anywhere else in the US ill have a 'colorado' accent (which i think is....close to a california one, but some ppl here have a lil texas accent) because i grew up more in colorado then in michigan (to clearify: i moved to colorado when i was 8 and lived no where else, therefore i am most likely to keep/have the coloradan accent if i go to michigan) AND again i dont think coloradans have a distinct accent, just blends with the rest of the states (except texas, alabama, etc, NY)
And i do think that the british accent can vary, take elizabeth hurly and ozzy osborne and the harry potter actors for example, i dont know if other ppl can hear it but i can hear a lil difference, but then again i just could be hearing things.
And with 'pop' 'soda' 'coke' 'soda pop', ppl in colorado say pop, some say soda though, and when we want coka cola, we say coke, lol, but coke is a slang term for cocaine (well in american) so only use coke when refurring to a drink, lol ![Smile [:)]](/emoticons/emotion-1.gif) i dont really feel like going into the slang terms for drugs, cause this forums about accents.
Also i have a question, can british ppl do other accents(non-actors)? like australian or canadan or spanish or chinese? cause i here some can and some cant, but americans, we all(well mostly, everyone i know, at least) can do a british accent, australian, chinese, and etc, to some extent, lol which i think its funny when i here brits say no they cant do them.
I also read somewhere that brits have trouble learning foreign langauges, is this true?
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