Accent, or no accent?

[Callum Kerr]

Grungi: How about Japan... they have what? the second largest economy in the world?

And what REALLY annoys me is when people use them whenever they want to portray someone British... in a school play... I feel like screaming "they (we?) don't speak like that!!!!" It also pisses me off when they do it JUST to piss me off...

[Grungi]

oops forgot japan and hongkong, sorry [img]smile.gif[/img] theres a few others i can think of now but i cant be bothered to list em all [img]tongue.gif[/img]

i just have a problem with misconceptions is all, dont mind people doing it as a laugh, i do mind people truly believing we speak like that [img]tongue.gif[/img] but take the piss out of it by all means, i know i do [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Epona]

Vaskez - wow, Southampton eh? So your accent is probably not too far from my own, but with a slightly stronger tint of almost West Country brogue and slightly less London? It's interesting how accents change slightly the further you get from London, as a Guilfordian mine is halfway between Londoner and South Coast.

Grungi - I think you've got that spot on, accents in cities (at least in the UK, probably true of other countries too) are generally less marked than in rural areas, with the possible exception of Cockney I think, which doesn't exist outside the city. But again you're right, not many Londoners these days are full blown Cockney due to the huge mix of people here.

Charlie - LOL, I remember the blank looks you got sometimes in the US! Happened to me once or twice too. I can understand you perfectly of course, me old china and you're right, to me it was obvious you were a native Londoner. Having grown up outside of London, I have halfway between a London and a Hampshire accent, so have more drawn out vowel sounds than Londoners. You never really notice it until you go overseas, but Londoners, and to a lesser extent Southerners, speak a lot faster than people from other parts of the world. Different sentence construction, and a lot of words and expressions that we use daily just don't exist elsewhere. One thing I find in London when speaking to people who aren't natives of England is that my greeting, 'awright mate?' is taken to be an expression of concern for their health rather than a simple 'hello'.

As for telling the difference between accents, I find Aussie and Kiwi quite easy to distinguish, NZers don't seem to like vowels, at least that's the way I hear it. Similar difference between US accents and Canadian, Canadians have a very distinctive drawl and the pronunciation of many words is totally different to the US. It helps that I flatshared with a Canadian girl for 3 years! One thing I noticed was that she pronounced the word Parmesan (as in the cheese) 'Paw-me-shon' - very distinctive. She also spoke very slowly!

[Niadh]

Originally posted by Grungi: scottish and irish are NOT similar [img]tongue.gif[/img] , do i have an ear for accents or something? irish and scottish for me are glaringly different

I have to agree, being Scotish. I have been in voice chat with Irish people and they have different accents to me. And noone else except an English and the Irish person understood what I was saying. The Americans were confused, but they understood the Irish ones better. So we have very different accents.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Grungi: but is not like your lock stock type cockney or really hardcore stuff, as thats pretty rare these days except in certain areas of london.

That'll be me then. I speak hardcore cockney slang constantly, so do most people I know. Oddly enough it's recognised all over London, some people have to do a double take to twig on to what's been said....but it's not as rare as you may think.

(EDIT) I haven't seen lock, stock btw, but I know what you're saying.

[ 01-22-2003, 08:34 AM: Message edited by: Charlie ]

[Grungi]

so im bang between epona and vaskez in portsmouth [img]tongue.gif[/img] didnt realise you were both so close. Portsmouth accent is very close to london accent, practically indstinguishable except for less slang words used. Though i heard "me old china" used a fair amount in portsmouth too [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Grungi]

nah charly, look at your posts, thats not hardcore cockney, im guessing you only speak cockney when talking to other hardcore cockneys, if you were talking to an american i bet they'd understand you no problems (unless they overheard you talking to a mate in which case they might be baffled) , pls tell me if im wrong [img]tongue.gif[/img] its pretty rare in london these days to hear hardcore cockney rhyming slang, kick the bucket, things like that yes are standard, but i mean like the danny john jules story in lock stock, have you ever heard someone in reallife speak like that? i heard one who was halfway close to it and thats in my whole lifetime.

[Epona]

Grungi, having met Charlie, I can confirm that he is 100% cockney. Americans often do have a really hard time understanding him, until they get used to his accent. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Vaskez]

Originally posted by Epona: Vaskez - wow, Southampton eh? So your accent is probably not too far from my own, but with a slightly stronger tint of almost West Country brogue and slightly less London? It's interesting how accents change slightly the further you get from London, as a Guilfordian mine is halfway between Londoner and South Coast.

Guildford eh? Nice little town. I almost went there to uni

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Epona: accents in cities (at least in the UK, probably true of other countries too) are generally less marked than in rural areas, with the possible exception of Cockney I think, which doesn't exist outside the city. But again you're right, not many Londoners these days are full blown Cockney due to the huge mix of people here.

Good point, the cockney accent is a City of London only accent, and very much a working class accent. Cockney is ancient in origin and is, as you say, peculiar to London. I don't know if any other major cities have this kind of thing.