Dago

Americans on famous Parisien Cathedral - Noater Dame - I love that one.

Marmalade

And the Dame part - they pronounce as in "dame" a female!!!

manc1

I love listening to the different accents when I'm back home and I hate the way Australians constantly pronounce words the same way as Americans.

newenglander

I was amazed when a Brit friend spoke Geordie to me; it was like hearing a foreign language and so very interesting that such a distinct (dialect?) has managed to survive.

Biggest thing I wonder about since my last trip over the pond is ---How on EARTH do you get what you get out of GROSVENOR????? When I saw it on a road sign I just sort of mumbled gros(mumble mumble)r to myself but my Brit friend said it right out loud as if it's just common sense to pronounce it GROVNER. How do you do that?

St.Georges Girl

That'd be 'Grove-ner, silent 's'.

newenglander

That'd be 'Grove-ner, silent 's'

I never would have guessed until I heard my friend pronounce it that way.

You'd have to live there to know that one, it's a strange one.

St.Georges Girl

Oh there are many more, like Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick, Leicester etc.etc.

Fleaflyfloflum

Beauchamp Place in Kensington London always got me especially when i was told it was pronounced "beecham" huh?

JoB

Talking of accents I come from Wigan where the dialect is still strong.

Check out these howlers from the Wigan website.

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/di...p?opt=dialect1

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/di...p?opt=dialect2

We aren't far from Bolton and we used to say (in the 70's) that minority cultures don't move to Wigan as they can't understand us. It is like another language when you here all the older Wigan folk.

Of course lots of the dialects came from the noisy mills a few hundred or so years ago. The workers used to elongate their words to be understood. A bit like some people do when talking to a deaf person.

There is a place in Wigan called Worsley Mesnes (pronounced mains).

There is Mesnes St and an American bought a big book shop along it, he ordered a great big sign saying Smith's of Main St. The locals thought that was brilliant and the sign is still there.

I love accents although have to agree Kerry Katona's is a tad grating even though I am from nearby. I think I would prefer to hear my nails down a Blackboard.

Jo

alicecat

They left out 'lift' meaning help in that Wigan dialect list. I used to get very confused when my Wiganer father-in-law used to offer us a 'lift' when we didn't want to be driven anywhere!!

JoB

Oh yeah we always used to 'cadge a lift' of me Dad when going into town:-)

mek14

I do know what it is...but i just cant speak Scottish in public here in Canada

when i came here 2 years ago, people kept giving me funny looks, and saying "sorry?", "pardon me?" so i just developed this fake canadian accent. The thing is, i dont quite know how to turn it off!! When im with my husband, we both speak "scottish" to each other, but the minute there is a candian around, i cant speak scottish - unless im drunk of course!
I cant help it - its like my brain thinks ok, someone speaks to me in canadian, so i will respond in canadian, but if someone speaks to me in scottish i reply in scottish. isnt that weird? does anyone else experience this?

I dont like it though..i want to be myself, but dont know how.

Every day i go to Tim Hortons, i think ok, speak scottish, and i go over and over it in my head, then as soon as i get to the counter, and they say "can i help you" then i respond with a canadian accent

Cookie

I often get puzzled looks too when I speak. I think its because most Scots TALK FAR TOO FAST. I bet if you slowed your speech down a bit they may understand you better.

After 11 months here my 13 year old has developed a Canadian accent, whilst the 16 year has not. I chuckle to myself when I hear my younger son speak - it's sweet.

My accent will never change but word-wise, I am becoming Canadianised

Fleaflyfloflum

I have a similar problem. When I first came to Australia I worked in a job which required me to spend a lot of time on the telephone. It was quite apparent after the first couple of days that my strong London accent was causing a problem. I decided to try to pronounce things as aussies said them just so i spent less time trying to be understood. Of course, it has now stuck and when i was back in UK recently I had a huge dose of accent identity crisis..lol I often found that as i was about to speak i had to re adjust how i said things and more often than not it came out a garbled mess.
I think I will just go with the flow in future and see what comes out no matter where i am

jojosan

How about Lawn-ces-ton in Tasmania?? I have a silent scream every time I hear a news reader say that!

Jo