English accents
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Entertaining and edifying.
As I said recently (last paragraph of this post: "Irish accents" [8/13/23]), I'm enchanted by all the accents that I've ever heard. I find them to be endlessly fascinating.
Selected readings
- "What makes an accent 'good' or 'bad?" (11/17/20)
- "Dialect vs. accent (vs. language)" (11/30/18)
- "Mandarin with an English accent" (4/5/23)
- "Mandarin with a German accent" (5/8/19)
Tom said,
August 26, 2023 @ 11:35 am
The video mentions
– pirates and
– slaves
very often. I imagine, certain political minds have managed to spin this into, the English gifted the world with culture and civilization—like the not-so-Kwarteng, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/30/ghosts-of-empire-what-kwasi-kwartengs-book-tells-us-about-him
Singlish is most entertaining—you don't go to the park -> go to pa'k (with a Chinese fourth tone style).
Afrikaans: If Americans ever learn to say Charlize Theron -> thron'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGuuzVf-Zg in her native way …
Ralph J Hickok said,
August 27, 2023 @ 7:59 am
My son and his family recently moved to England. On her first day in school, my 6-year-old granddaughter was told by a couple of her new classmates that her accent is "not posh."
Terry Hunt said,
August 27, 2023 @ 8:36 am
@ Ralph J Hickok
Depending on the socio-political attitudes of the classmates' parents, that could equally well have expressed approval or disapproval.
Viseguy said,
August 28, 2023 @ 8:00 pm
Wonderful video. Reminds me of the assignment we had in Bill Labov's Linguistics 101 course, half a century ago, for which we were asked to transcribe various English dialects from his field tapes. Cockney left me flummoxed, but the most impenetrable of all was a dialect from deep in rural Texas. No matter how many times I rewound, I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Also, based on emphatic instruction that I received from a native in the summer of 1975, the "correct" pronunciation of Newfoundland is "new-FOUND-land", accent on the second syllable, with all of the syllables enunciated in full. Since my sample size of 1 is statistically insignificant, I'd be interested to hear if others can confirm or contradict this.
Haamu said,
August 29, 2023 @ 3:08 pm
Re "Newfoundland": My experience in Canada and as a once-frequent CBC listener is that the middle syllable is the most likely one to be reduced. There are variations, but the only apparent standard is that the final syllable is pronounced like the word "land" and given a stress equal to (or even greater than) "New."
"Noof'n-land, rhymes with understand" is the rule I was given.
In the US and UK, it seems the most prevalent pronunciation is with a reduced vowel in the final syllable, like Finland, England, Scotland, Poland, etc. But many Canadians disagree.
Patrick King said,
August 31, 2023 @ 7:07 pm
I understand it's Newfoundland