I recently watched "Beautiful Thing" a British film from 1996. The movie is set in what I think, and please correct me if I am wrong, the British call a council flat or housing estate (what Americans call a (housing) project), located in Thamesmead, southeast London. I watched the movie twice because the (cockney?) accent is so thick I could not quite understand all of the dialogue during my first viewing. Now, even if you have not seen the movie, you Anglo-(or Anglophile)Flareites might be able to answer this: do "working class" English, at least those who live in Thamesmead, southeast London, really speak in such a thick accent the average American would have a hard time understanding him? I imagine the British accent often presented in movies is an invention of Hollywood, but can the real thing (at least that of some) be practically another language to the average American?
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
The average working class Baltimorean speaks with such a thick accent its hard for the average American to understand them. Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
The answer is, yes, they do talk like that.
Posted by Raw Cadet (Member # 725) on :
Thanks for your help.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
There are also plenty of US accents that the average Brit would have trouble understanding.
All accents are lightened on TV. The average New Yorker does not sound like Joey or Chandler.
Do you have trouble understanding Lister on Red Dwarf, or anyone on Father Ted? Those are the "strong but still downplayed so that everyone can understand what they are saying" accents.
Posted by Raw Cadet (Member # 725) on :
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: There are also plenty of US accents that the average Brit would have trouble understanding.
I realize that; I didn't come down with the last shower, you know. I've got a bloody hard time understanding the North End estate boys in me own city.
quote:Do you have trouble understanding Lister on Red Dwarf, or anyone on Father Ted? Those are the "strong but still downplayed so that everyone can understand what they are saying" accents.
Give us some information here; what are you talking about? I'm a bit of a git when it comes to Brit telly, if that's what you're even talking about.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
Red Dwarf is a Sci-Fi comedy. I get it on PBS. Father Ted is on BBC America, but I've never seen it, so...
Watch a lot of Monty Python, that ewill help with accents, a little.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
i actually have recordings of myself speaking with bizarre accents.. i was raised in Rhode island til i was 10, lived in Florida for five years and then moved back to Rhode Island.. it takes about 2-3 years for the accents to reverse, and at the time when they become the most mixed is bizarre. actually the fact that i have a thicker New England accent (read:Boston) than anyone who lives around here their whole lives is bizarre.
glossary Flaahrida - Florida ( i have recordings of my 15 year old self pronouncing this 'Flor'da", with no intervening 'i') Aahringe - Orange ( pronounced 'Ornj' previously) Bawb - Bob (Proper name) cah - car bah - bar
also bizarre.. when i am intoxicated, i will either revert to an incoherent New England accent or an incoherent Southern accent.. it seems to be fairly random as to what decides it though.. the New England is usually when im happy/excitedly drunk and Southern is when im depressed/lethargically drunk
Rhode Island-isms 'down cellar' a verb meaning 'to the basement' i.e. I am gonig down cellar
'bubbla' ('bubbler') water fountain.. a word that caused a lot of confusion in FL
and the word 'wicked' is used for 'extremely' 'That was wicked cool' 'I'm wicked pissed off'
In Woonsocket, the French-Canadian population is so dominant and the pollution in the Blackstone river so severe that i cant even recognize their speech patterns.. 'parking the cars side by each' 'throwing someone down a cliff a rope'
beware your local dialects!
Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :
a smattering of Southwestern Pennsylvanian:
'crick' - meaning 'creek,' a small stream. 'youns' - plural of you, as in 'you one's.' 'allayouns' - every single one of you. 'alls' - all that, as in, 'alls (all that) you have to do. 'feesh' - fish. 'warsh' - wash. 'dahnere' - 'down there.' 'mullet' - idiotic-looking short-sided rat-tailed hairdo.
[ December 11, 2001: Message edited by: First of Two ]
Posted by Raw Cadet (Member # 725) on :
Kosh: ta.
As for the rest of you, can you eastcoasters not speak unaccented English ? As an American westcoaster, I do not have any interesting regional dialects to discuss (unless you count the "valley girl" "accent," more or less a Hollywood fiction, or ebonics, a lingual pestilence that pervades the entire nation). When people in my city say car you hear the c, the a, and the r. Not "cah." Not "cahr." Just car.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
There's no such thing as "unaccented". "Unaccented" just means, to every person, "like my accent".
BTW, I think "alls" and "mullet" are pretty widespread. "Mullet" is a universal term, really. I don't know of any other word for it.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
coolest mullet in history: Khan!
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
If anyone could pull it off it would have to be Khan.
So, I always assume Californians have none of these tasty dialecticals. Of course, I'm always wrong. It's just that most of ours involve one of the the multifarious inflections of 'Dude'. Is it that so much media comes out of the state that it seems ubiquitous, or are we all so boring that clever bits like 'Bob's your uncle' or 'out in the woop-woop' are beyond us?
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I've just checked, and I also say "ornj" and "cah". The southern English accent generally puts in the letter r to as words. Like the US to UK Ass-Arse thing, but southeners put it in other words too. Thus, "grass", which in the north would be pronounced "gr-ass", becomes "gr-arse". Same thing with "glarse".
The American accent shares something in common with strong working class accents here - the difference between "Stu" and "Stew". Most English people (and Canadians, judging from watching Shatner) say "Tew-sday", whereas Yanks and silly Brits say "Too-sday". There's also "stew-pid" and "stoo-pip".
On a slightly more interesting note (hooray!), someone fell over the other day, and I said "They stacked it". I was greated with looks of confusing from everyone born north of London. We also have arguments about what a plastic football is called. The North West call is a "flyaway", the North East call is a "penny floater", and the South call it a "plastic football". We're the crazy bunch.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
The laws of Rhode Island grammar-dynamics state that R can neither be created or destroyed.. simply we change its state.
For example.. the r that was at the end of 'cah' (a motor vehicle) we place at the end of 'pizzer' (an Italian food which is delivered to your house)
and sometimes i have been known to pronounce 'ornj' as 'aaaaaarange'
[ December 12, 2001: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
Khakis: What a Bostonian uses to open his car door.
? As an American westcoaster, I do not have any interesting regional dialects to discuss (unless you count the "valley girl" "accent," more or less a Hollywood fiction, or ebonics, a lingual pestilence that pervades the entire nation). When people in my city say car you hear the c, the a, and the r. Not "cah." Not "cahr." Just car.