Accents
Jan 31st 2010 | 5:23 pm
#31
half a century
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 10,222
From: Sarf Lundun to East Van :)
Re: Accents
I like the Welsh accent - Torchwood & Gavin m Stacey always cheer me up 
Jan 31st 2010 | 5:25 pm
#32
Sawdust making harpy
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 11,291
From: Alberta
Re: Accents
lol yup with a surname like Jenkins it kinda runs in the family Dad hailed from Pontypridd 
Dad hailed from Pontypridd
Feb 1st 2010 | 12:04 am
#35
Slob
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 6,345
From: Ottineau
Re: Accents
As accents go, I realize the southern British one is the nicest and most correct, people over here comment on it all the time. But what do you think is the worst? To me, the Canadian accent sounds a lot like the American one, but a bit more simple. Personally I think the Australian accent is the worst. It's sort of like the accent equivalent of having bad breath. No matter what they say you just want to get away from them. But accents are curious things. Do think yours has changed since emigrating? Do your family and friends back home now take the piss when you speak to them?
My accent when I speak French has probably changed a bit. I'm told that I speak French with a European accent but I'm aware that sometimes I let some Quebec slip in.
My vocabulary in both languages has changed.
Feb 1st 2010 | 12:14 am
#36
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,866
From: Cochrane, Alberta
Feb 1st 2010 | 12:17 am
#37
Slightly Canadian
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 10,146
From: St. John's, Newfoundland
Feb 1st 2010 | 12:21 am
#38
Slightly Canadian
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 10,146
From: St. John's, Newfoundland
Re: Accents
I don't actively dislike any accent, but would agree about having a distain for lazy speech in any accent, and particularly estuarial english. Although having lived and worked in Essex for sometime I got pretty immune to that.
Although my perfectly articulated RP serves me well, I do find myself adapting and adopting to the circumstances that I'm in. So, when in Essex, one get's a bit Essex dar'nt one etc etc. This is a sub-concious reaction from me and I generally don't realise I'm doing it. Trouble is, that people can think you're taking the piss!
"Yis, 'bys, I talks some different when I'm in Newfoundland."
Although my perfectly articulated RP serves me well, I do find myself adapting and adopting to the circumstances that I'm in. So, when in Essex, one get's a bit Essex dar'nt one etc etc. This is a sub-concious reaction from me and I generally don't realise I'm doing it. Trouble is, that people can think you're taking the piss!
"Yis, 'bys, I talks some different when I'm in Newfoundland."
Feb 1st 2010 | 1:58 am
#40
Slob
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 6,345
From: Ottineau
Re: Accents
I don't actively dislike any accent, but would agree about having a distain for lazy speech in any accent, and particularly estuarial english. Although having lived and worked in Essex for sometime I got pretty immune to that.
Although my perfectly articulated RP serves me well, I do find myself adapting and adopting to the circumstances that I'm in. So, when in Essex, one get's a bit Essex dar'nt one etc etc. This is a sub-concious reaction from me and I generally don't realise I'm doing it. Trouble is, that people can think you're taking the piss!
"Yis, 'bys, I talks some different when I'm in Newfoundland."
Although my perfectly articulated RP serves me well, I do find myself adapting and adopting to the circumstances that I'm in. So, when in Essex, one get's a bit Essex dar'nt one etc etc. This is a sub-concious reaction from me and I generally don't realise I'm doing it. Trouble is, that people can think you're taking the piss!
"Yis, 'bys, I talks some different when I'm in Newfoundland."
Feb 1st 2010 | 2:02 am
#41
Magnificently Withering
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 6,908
From: Oakville, ON
Re: Accents
I don't actively dislike any accent, but would agree about having a distain for lazy speech in any accent, and particularly estuarial english. Although having lived and worked in Essex for sometime I got pretty immune to that.
Although my perfectly articulated RP serves me well, I do find myself adapting and adopting to the circumstances that I'm in. So, when in Essex, one get's a bit Essex dar'nt one etc etc. This is a sub-concious reaction from me and I generally don't realise I'm doing it. Trouble is, that people can think you're taking the piss!
"Yis, 'bys, I talks some different when I'm in Newfoundland."
Although my perfectly articulated RP serves me well, I do find myself adapting and adopting to the circumstances that I'm in. So, when in Essex, one get's a bit Essex dar'nt one etc etc. This is a sub-concious reaction from me and I generally don't realise I'm doing it. Trouble is, that people can think you're taking the piss!
"Yis, 'bys, I talks some different when I'm in Newfoundland."
Actually, as the possessor of what a lot of people would think of as an insufferable pulbic-schoolboy-RP accent, I do find myself adapting accent and speech patterns to my surroundings. When I worked in a computer showroom in Walthamstow I ended up with a sort of bastardised Essex-estuarial sound which my mother couldn't bear but which my customers seemed to find easier when parting with their cash than listening to a mouth full of plums.
Now that I work for an Indian company in Canada, my English is pulled about all over the place - both written and spoken. In emails to colleagues I find I slip into a sort of pseudo-Hinglish construction, with lots of quirkily formal archaisms ("note my email of Weds last; would appreciate a reply to the same at your convenience" is one I received this morning). My family back in the UK have remarked not so much that my accent has changed, but my vocabulary certainly has. Things like gassing up the car before going to see the movie at the theatre, or keeping to the sidewalk while walking to the store with the kids for some candy.
To the original question: I don't think I have a least favourite British accent. I find Doric - or even English from a thickly-accented Aberdonian - really hard to understand for the first few days of hearing it, but I actually quite like the accent. I prefer that to a heavy Glaswegian accent. I'm not too keen on West Midlands accents, but I find the East Midlands quite endearing (signs of an ill-spent couple of years in an around Loughborough/Nottingham/Leicester?). I have too many Scouse friends to dare to say I don't like the noise they make when they speak...
Last edited by Oakvillian; Feb 1st 2010 at 2:07 am.
Feb 1st 2010 | 2:07 am
#42
Slob
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 6,345
From: Ottineau
Re: Accents
I concur. One finds oneself endeavouring to blend in with one's interlocutors through adoption of their phraseology, if not their pronunciation.
Actually, as the possessor of what a lot of people would think of as an insufferable pulbic-schoolboy-RP accent, I do find myself adapting accent and speech patterns to my surroundings. When I worked in a computer showroom in Walthamstow I ended up with a sort of bastardised Essex-estuarial sound which my mother couldn't bear but which my customers seemed to find easier when parting with their cash than listening to a mouth full of plums.
Now that I work for an Indian company in Canada, my English is pulled about all over the place - both written and spoken. In emails to colleagues I find I slip into a sort of pseudo-Hinglish construction, with lots of quirkily formal archaisms ("note my email of Weds last; would appreciate a reply to the same at your convenience" is one I received this morning). My family back in the UK have remarked not so much that my accent has changed, but my vocabulary certainly has. Things like gassing up the car before going to see the movie at the theatre, or keeping to the sidewalk while walking to the store with the kids for some candy.
Actually, as the possessor of what a lot of people would think of as an insufferable pulbic-schoolboy-RP accent, I do find myself adapting accent and speech patterns to my surroundings. When I worked in a computer showroom in Walthamstow I ended up with a sort of bastardised Essex-estuarial sound which my mother couldn't bear but which my customers seemed to find easier when parting with their cash than listening to a mouth full of plums.
Now that I work for an Indian company in Canada, my English is pulled about all over the place - both written and spoken. In emails to colleagues I find I slip into a sort of pseudo-Hinglish construction, with lots of quirkily formal archaisms ("note my email of Weds last; would appreciate a reply to the same at your convenience" is one I received this morning). My family back in the UK have remarked not so much that my accent has changed, but my vocabulary certainly has. Things like gassing up the car before going to see the movie at the theatre, or keeping to the sidewalk while walking to the store with the kids for some candy.
Feb 1st 2010 | 2:09 am
#43
Magnificently Withering
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 6,908
From: Oakville, ON
Re: Accents
Fear not, it wasn't just a shop, it was one of those clone-PC makers that published phone-directory-sized ads in Computer Shopper and PC World every month. I worked mainly in the marketing dept, but had to take my turn in the showroom on Saturdays and the occasional Sunday morning.
Feb 1st 2010 | 2:15 am
#44
Slightly Canadian
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 10,146
From: St. John's, Newfoundland
Re: Accents
Actually, as the possessor of what a lot of people would think of as an insufferable pulbic-schoolboy-RP accent, I do find myself adapting accent and speech patterns to my surroundings. When I worked in a computer showroom in Walthamstow I ended up with a sort of bastardised Essex-estuarial sound which my mother couldn't bear but which my customers seemed to find easier when parting with their cash than listening to a mouth full of plums.
Now that I work for an Indian company in Canada, my English is pulled about all over the place - both written and spoken. In emails to colleagues I find I slip into a sort of pseudo-Hinglish construction, with lots of quirkily formal archaisms ("note my email of Weds last; would appreciate a reply to the same at your convenience" is one I received this morning).
