Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Floridared
(Post 7397632)
When I answer the phone at my restaurant, I say this is Paul speaking, and quite often it goes quiet for a second, then they'll reply Pooal? One guy even called me Ball! I was tempted to ask "left or right" :confused:
Do you get the same dumb look when you spell it out and it dawns on them what your name is? :eek: |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Umpatan
(Post 7397546)
Maybe you ought to tell them that THEY got an AMERICAN accent. I know we have hundreds of different variations in the UK, but to play their egos on this, it would be good to remind them whose language are they speaking.
They need to be reminded that English comes from England! I speak with a Canadian accent because I came to Vancouver when I was five. And when I return, I am commented on having an American accent, and I do say it is a Canadian accent, and that is the way it is, because it is I who has the accent being raised abroad. I think if you like North America but want to live where they don't hate the British, you should try Canada where they are mostly descendants of loyalists. (Of course, French Quebec is a different story) |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
This might be a load of bollocks and maybe already been discussed on here. But i did hear that the American accent is similar to how people talked in Britain a few hundred years ago, and we changed the way we speak due to changes in fashion, etc.
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Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by orangemirror
(Post 7398264)
This might be a load of bollocks and maybe already been discussed on here. But i did hear that the American accent is similar to how people talked in Britain a few hundred years ago, and we changed the way we speak due to changes in fashion, etc.
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Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Norri
(Post 7399347)
I have no idea but my guess would be bollocks :D
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Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
I am mocked almost daily for my accent. My boss actually quizzed me yesterday on how I pronounce certain words; if I pronounce them the way he does, the response was, "oh, that's okay then". if not, he'd laugh. Seems to be fair game, open season on accents, year-round.
Servers get my order wrong regularly, and I've never had anyone here get my name right on the first try (although, admittedly, it's a somewhat unusual name). I suppose if I weren't so confident (read: stubborn), I might try to soften my accent, but I don't want to sound fake. *shrug* Just my experience from the other way 'round. |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
I get asked daily about my accent ... even in McDonalds
I work in a Dr's office and this really old southern man called and was trying to ask something .. he couldn't understand a word I was saying and vise versa lol, had to get someone else to take the call. One time I was in the mall and I got asked if we have Kangaroos in England ..... :blink: |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Okuda
(Post 7401813)
One time I was in the mall and I got asked if we have Kangaroos in England ..... :blink: |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Okuda
(Post 7401813)
One time I was in the mall and I got asked if we have Kangaroos in England ..... :blink: |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Norri
(Post 7399347)
I have no idea but my guess would be bollocks :D
The 'most common stereotype of the 'English' accent is 'Queens English' 'or whot one speaks when one is considered frightfully posh' Officially know as Received Pronunciation' or RP and made famous worldwide by the BBC world service and British colonialism. It is a deliberately created form of pronunciation that borrows from all sorts of English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh dialects. Most other English 'accents' Geordie, Brummie, Liverpudlian, etc etc are not accents at all but dialects and therefore more authentically 'natural'. Because of RP and the snobbery and elitism that surrounded it,much that was common in dialects throughout the country at that point became softened, or even ridiculed into obscurity or localized/marginalized. This did not happen to the same degree in America. For example the softening of the R sounds, what had been Budder became Butter through RP in England but remains as Budder in most of the USA. Of course the typical (and there is really no such thing) 'American accent' of today has been greatly affected by the immigration from other countries/cultures and has changed vastly from the time of George Washington, as well as developing distinct regional differences. However it is highly likely that a 17th century Englishman would be far more able to understand a broad American accent than the weird Ameri-Engl-Mid-Atlantic-Hollywood-glish that is so common in many parts of the UK today. Just for fun whilst we are talking about accents and words - Bollocks was the Anglo Saxon word for testicles. Like most current 'English' Swear words it was a perfectly normal word. In fact in Anglo-Saxon England there were no 'Swear words' only curses. Only when the Normans turned up (and they spoke French) bringing Christianity with them did the Church start associating Anglo-Saxon words with paganism start to label them 'bad' words. If you used Anglo-Saxon words you were defacto a heathen yobbo... the rest is history. Fork me! I guess Pete & Dud, Viz, Gordon Ramsey et al would have had a considerably less in the arsenal if was not for the Normans ehh? Here endeth the lesson...And yeah, I know this is really nerdy and pedantic but its Friday, should rekindle the flames in this thread. Sir Denis |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg
(Post 7402071)
Bollocks was the Anglo Saxon word for testicles.
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Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by orangemirror
(Post 7402171)
Interesting stuff. I wonder why Americans don't use bollocks if it goes back to Anglo Saxon times? It's probably my favourite swear word. It has so many uses. I've taught it to all my US relatives and they all love it and use it all the time instead of bullshit. They don't really understand that it's rude though so even the 5 year olds run around shouting it. Oh well.
I suspect that whilst a healthy ability to mock the religious establishment has always been tolerated in Blighty such things do not go down as well with our more devout brethren here in the colonies ... so it most likely it died out. I love the fact that Parminda Nagra as Neela says it all the time on ER without editing, but Hugh Laurie (with a great US accent) cannot say Arse (sorry, Ass) on House without being censored. Brilliant! |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by orangemirror
(Post 7402171)
They don't really understand that it's rude though so even the 5 year olds run around shouting it. Oh well.
That's ma boy! |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Sorry I could not help myself......
A December 2000 white paper from the Advertising Standards Authority. titled 'Deleted Expletives' Places "bollocks" in eighth position in terms of its perceived severity, between "pr*ck" (seventh place) and "ar**hole" (ninth place). Well at least they get their Biology right! By comparison, the word "balls" only reaches number 22. I know, I am bad, sorry, sorry, sorry, I just love that they actually spent time and money compling a list that runs to 64 pages!!!!! http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archi...rch/delete.pdf |
Re: is your accent something that gets commented on alot
Originally Posted by Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg
(Post 7402196)
I love the fact that Parminda Nagra as Neela says it all the time on ER without editing, but Hugh Laurie (with a great US accent) cannot say Arse (sorry, Ass) on House without being censored. Brilliant!
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