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English is weird
Wingy:
--- Quote from: FreshScrod on 25 Nov 2020, 18:53 ---I always thought it's really silly whenever someone points out accents. Like, who cares? I'm sure some people do, ...
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A lot of people do. Accent is used as a first approximation for social class, which anyone from the south eastern portion of the US moving north and/or west-wards rather quickly learns. Simply answering common introduction phrases in a Southern accent can dig one a social hole that may take decades to get out of, and can directly affect pay rates, job opportunities, etc. I'm not saying that's in any way right, but I have observed it.
Growing up military and moving around the US a lot, I was exposed to many accents growing up and can mimic many of them pretty well. Please note that there is a difference between idiom (word choices) and accent (way words are pronounced). I've learned to keep my accent fairly flat since I moved to the upper midwest so I sound like most people. But with few exceptions I've avoided taking on the idioms of my area, which I find mostly horrifying.
Case:
Truth be told, if the 50 accents in the vid Morituri linked are realistic samples ... I hardly hear the differences, I have to admit. Except for the southern "drawly" (?) ones, that is. They're very noticably not British accents, but that's about it.
A few years back, the "Liberal Redneck" guy (love him, btw) would have been beyond my capacity to parse - but apparently, my English-ears have become better. I have to focus a bit, but it's nowhere near an Australian "Bogan" accent (POIDAAAH!), for example, or some of the British ones.
P.S.: I should point out that as a non-native speaker, I approach English accents as a challenge - I couldn't care less about where the people come from (I'm a foreigner to whatever place they come from), or whatever nitwit thinks about their social class: To me, it matters how much mental resources I have to expend to enable communication (In my experience, conversation in my second language will always tire me out faster than convos in my native one - and accents add to the amount of 'brain-fuel' I have to expend), whether there's a polite way to ask the speaker if they could switch to a more standard pronounciation etc.
Gyrre:
--- Quote from: Morituri on 25 Nov 2020, 11:06 ---American English: You can hear all 20 of those vowels here, but not in any one variety. All these people understand each other. Often without even noticing.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcxByX6rh24
Here's about the thickest an American Accent gets. This guy speaks a low-status dialect; everybody understands him, but if he wants to be taken seriously in a large part of the country, he will have to work - and if he grew up speaking it, he will have to work HARD - to learn to speak a different variety.
Warning: This is vaguely political, insofar as he's arguing against stupidity.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmDIAAGrU9c
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There's a little island off the Coast of Maine that technically speaks English.
Then there's getting into the deep back woods of Arkansas, some parts of the Appalachians, and Cajun.
Gyrre:
--- Quote from: oddtail on 25 Nov 2020, 11:15 ---As a non-native speaker of English, Americans who say they "don't have an accent" infuriate me. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "not having an accent". In any language.
There's some kind of metaphor about American culture in there: it's all extremely varied, but for some reason a LOT of people think anyone similar to them is basically the default, and it's other people that differ and stand out.
--- End quote ---
Apparently I have a 'cosmopolitan accent'. Most people can't really tell where I'm from, just that I grew up in a 'big city'. I've had guesses for New York New York [1] and 'California'. Though, I'm told that I have a little bit of a Wisconsin undertone even though I've never been and my grandfather from Kenosha hadn't lived there for 30 years by the time I came around.
[1]Nebraska, one of the hickest of hick states. Sorry, but it's true. And I'm not just saying that as a Kansan.
Case:
--- Quote from: Gyrre on 26 Nov 2020, 09:17 ---Apparently I have a 'cosmopolitan accent'. Most people can't really tell where I'm from, just that I grew up in a 'big city'.
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Is that 'most people in the US can't tell which part of the US I'm coming from' or 'most English speakers can't tell which continent I live on'?
Bcs if you sound remotely like the compatriots of yours that I've met, pretty much anyone on the planet knows where you're coming from the second you open your mouth, if you know where I'm coming from? :wink: :-D
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