Here’s a thing I’ve noticed. It has to do with accents, but the theory can be applied to a lot of other things, as well: The farther away we are from a place, the more everything seems to look and sound the same.
I’ll give you an example, because so far you have no idea what I’m talking about.
In the United States, everyone below Iowa and east of New Mexico speaks with what is generally referred to as a southern accent. Whether you’re from Cleveland or Calgary or Copenhagen, that’s what you hear – and it’s all you hear. Those southerners all sound alike. Don’t they?
Move in closer, though, and details emerge out of the haze. You start to discern that people from Texas don’t really talk like people from Alabama, any more than residents of Kentucky speak exactly like their neighbors in Tennessee. There are similarities, and just as many subtle differences. In fact, the more you listen, the more you realize that it’s possible to distinguish speech patterns from within various parts of the same state. Even small towns can have their own distinct accents, but in order to hear those distinctions, you have to be near the action. You also have to pay attention.
What does this have to do with anything? I’m not certain, but I think failing to acknowledge this premise is one of the ingredients in a dangerous process. It begins in ignorance, winds through insensitivity, and leads inevitably to hostility, racism, and xenophobia.
All Koreans look alike. Yes, from a distance they do, just as any crowd of total strangers will seem to share only that element of strangeness. We’re too far away to recognize their unique qualities. It’s after you meet and get to know individuals that you can tell one from another. The same thing happens with planets and cows and shades of color and disco music and Girl Scouts and identical twins and men with cerebral palsy. And soldiers.
I keep coming back to accents, though, because it’s a good example of how we influence each other over time. How do local accents form? Does one person suddenly start pronouncing a word a certain way, and everyone follows along? What keeps it going, and changing? Why do people in New England drop the letter R from certain words that have them, and then insert them into words that don’t? Were those conscious decisions, or two separate tendencies that eventually converged?
Sometimes I imagine a gigantic vacuum machine that sucks all the people out of the world, blends them together in a big drum, then sprays them back out in random places. Assuming everyone now had to stay where they ended up, would the same accents return over time, or would there be all brand new ones? Out of the varied mixture, would there always be a single rhythm and pattern that would come to dominate the others?
When people are speaking a language we don’t understand, we can’t hear the accent at all. At least I can’t. Again, that’s because of distance, and inexperience. People from different regions of Algeria and Argentina must converse with an identifiable cadence and set of inflections, but I wouldn’t notice. To me, it’s all just Arabic and Spanish. I wonder, can people who don’t speak English notice a southern accent? Can they tell a Canadian speaker from an American? Melbourne from Manchester?
Speaking of Manchester, why do all foreign journalists have British accents? I think they’re faking. They know that if they sound British, everyone will think they’re intelligent. Maybe that’s how they got the job in the first place. I’m not even sure where that idea came from, because I’ve been to London, and they didn’t seem that smart to me. They call an apartment a flat. I’m no genius myself, but a flat is what happens to your tire when you run over a broken beer bottle. And they refer to a drugstore as a chemist. Everybody who’s ever watched cartoons must know that a chemist is a person who mixes liquids together and tries to make them explode. What does that have to do with medicine? If you have a migraine or a nervous condition, a loud bang and singed eyebrows is the last thing you need. So why a television reporter would adopt an English accent to impress us is beyond my comprehension.
One more thing. People with Irish, Scottish, and Australian accents sound normal when they sing, so they’re obviously pretending to speak that way in order to appear charming. I guess that works for a little while, but sooner or later we realize that they all talk that way, and the charm begins to fade. The fact that they all look alike doesn’t help either.
Mostly Bright Ideas 
ranu802
August 1, 2014
Although I was reading your posts somehow it felt I was hearing it too, isn’t it awesome, chemists, flats, is what I used to know first, then I came to Canada.Chemists became drugstore and flats became apartments, there was a learning process going on within me, every time I said flats, the kids in the school where I taught raised their hands, when I asked what they want to know, immediately the mouthy kid said, “Miss what is flats?” I was stumped I couldn’t recall at that moment it is apartment in North America.
Then there was the issue of my accent, ‘miss you have a strange accent.’
Another wise one got up and replied, “No she does not, my mother’s accent is the same as her’s.”
His mother was from England and I was taught English by Irish nuns.
Now the way I pronounce pass is different from how I pronounced it before I came to North America.
I found your post very interesting they all are but this one reminded me how I used to speak and how I speak now.
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
I hadn’t thought of this before, Ranu, but having the accent can help reduce the confusion caused by different terminology. If you say flat with an English accent, at least some people will automatically know what you’re talking about. Say it with a Canadian pronunciation, though, and it will probably be less clear to the listener.
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Admin
August 1, 2014
Nicely said (though we don’t all look alike in Ireland anymore I am happy to say – 🙂 ) and this is what happens when we don’t listen more carefully –
http://urbantimes.co/2014/07/strange-love-or-how-to-stop-fighting-and-stop-using-the-bomb/
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
Trisha, it’s been a long time. I hope you’re well. On the issue of right-and-wrong, Us-and-Them, it seems that in most places, people are becoming less tolerant of different views and behaviors. Absent an alien invasion from another part of the galaxy, I don’t know that we’ll ever be capable of feeling as though we’re all on the same side.
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Andrew
August 1, 2014
My wife grew up in England and this week we’ve had the grand kids visiting. We’ve been trying to teach them English words like biscuit, boot, crisp, chip and the proper way to pronounce banana and half.
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
Be careful, Andrew. The word biscuit alone could start another war.
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shoreacres
August 1, 2014
It’s interesting what cues we learn early on, to help us distinguish one person from another. When I moved to Liberia, I can’t tell you how many times I heard, “You white people all look alike.” What? I thought. As it turns out, we white folk tend to use hair and eye color as distinguishing features — those are some of the cues that help us figure out who’s who. But for the Liberians with whom I worked, nose shape was a primary cue!
Not only is a Texas twang different than a Southern drawl, smack dab between Texas and Mississippi lies Louisiana, and all those Cajuns. When I started sailing, the hardest task I had was learning to understand tug captains named Boudreaux, Doucet and Savoy. There’s a fellow who calls into the weekend fishing show I still can’t understand. I know he’s telling stories, though, because the hosts always are laughing.
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
As a permanent newcomer to eastern Canada, I’m continually amazed by how many people don’t understand what I’m saying, yet have no trouble communicating with each other. No matter how fast or mumbly or messy their speech, they seem to be on the same wavelength. The act of talking — and listening — is a complicated thing. It involves rhythm, routine, vocabulary, and a lot of visual cues. And that may be why people tend to adopt the local accent soon after arriving. It’s just easier.
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dianasschwenk
August 1, 2014
You can’t imagine how thrilled I was when you mentioned Calgary! I live here in Calgary, originally from Montreal. I’m very aware of different accents across this great country of ours.
I find cities that have people from all over living in them – like Calgary and LA almost seem to lose any kind of accent. Normally I can tell an American a mile away by their accent, but not people from LA, they sound like me unless I listen very closely.
It doesn’t seem to take great distances to reveal accents either. Waterton National Park (Canada side) and Glacier National Park (USA side) are 20 minutes apart. Yet the moment you cross the border, you hit an American accent…odd…
Oh and just for the record: Canadians do not say aboot instead of about, that would be Scots who do that…and if there’s a hint of it at all, it would be in the Maritime provinces, eh…
Diana xo
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
Diana, you can’t imagine how thrilled I was that you mentioned the Maritime Provinces. That’s where I live. I find that it isn’t so much vocabulary or pronunciation that causes problems, or even differing idioms and expressions. It’s the general sound of the speech — inflections, pace, and rhythm. It takes a while to tune in to that, and in public conversation, there isn’t always time.
Do people in Alberta have trouble with your Montreal accent?
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dianasschwenk
August 2, 2014
I was an anglo-quebecer and when I first moved out west in 1983 people thought I had a French accent. When I go back to visit I hear it now too! I think I’ve been Alberta-fied. 🙂
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Deb Weyrich-Cody
August 11, 2014
Particularly in Nova Scotia…
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Jac
August 1, 2014
Growing up in NY, the only time I heard an accent that was not familiar, was on TV. We didn’t seem to have that many transplants where we were, except maybe from NJ, and I always thought they pretty much sounded the same as us. Living in CO, where almost everyone is from someplace else, I can now distinguish accents between Kentucky, Texas and Oklahoma. Not only that, I have learned to listen more closely so I can also tell who is from Ohio and those other states, where the accents are a bit more subtle. I also used to think that everyone from the north east sounded the same, but now I can hear the differences between Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island, and NJ. I guess it’s a matter of paying attention, not only to how they say it, but what phrases they use. What I’ve also found is that if I listen to someone with a different accent long enough (about 10 minutes!) I start to pick up on it, but usually just for a minute. As soon as I hear myself speaking with a British accent, I realize what a sponge I am, and go get myself a cup of cawfee.
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
I wonder if some accents are more stubborn than others. When Joe and Noreen moved to Florida, their Bronx accents didn’t budge an inch. Then again, maybe they had other New Yorkers around them, so they could remind each other how they were supposed to sound.
Sometimes I wish we had video from our early childhood. I can hear the voices of friends and relatives in my head, but I can’t hear my own.
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O. Leonard
August 1, 2014
This post sure got me thinking. My Aunt, from New York, insisted we had a Western accent when I was growing up in Wyoming. However, when we went to visit her for any period of time, we would pick up the New York accent and it would take a while to lose it. Us Westerners will insist we don’t have an accent, but Easterners insist we do. My brother lives in Maine, he talks like he’s from there originally, and he’s not, so accents are clearly absorbed the longer you stay. I can go to Texas, where my wife is from, and I’m talking you’all and ain’tya and speck they do in no time. I’ll bet if I go to Australia, I can get an Aussie accent if I stay there long enough. So I agree that those singers and movie stars with the Australian accents perpetuate it to sound “cool.” Like Nicole Kidman, for example. She was actually born in Honolulu anyway. She’s married to Keith Urban, so maybe they talk with an Austrailian accent around the house to perpetuate the accent.
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
Picking up the local accent may have something to do with not wanting to stand out, at least not all the time. I’ve noticed that when traveling in Italy, I feel a little self-conscious about wearing bright colors. Yet, in Mexico and the Caribbean, I’m comfortable in even flashier clothing than I would normally wear. We like to think of ourselves as independent individuals, but that peer-pressure thing never goes away.
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walt walker
August 1, 2014
My experience as an American teaching English in Europe was that all the textbooks were not just in English, but from England. This suprised me at first because I’d always approached the universality of English as being due to American dominance in the world post WWII. But we are an arrogant people, and we forget that we speak English for the same reason most of the rest of the world speaks English – because the sun, at one time, never set on the British Empire. So it makes sense to me that foreign journalists speak British English, not American English. Especially if they’re from India, where they actually play cricket and drink tea, which are two of the most anti-American activities I can think of.
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bronxboy55
August 3, 2014
Most of the former British Empire is still tugging at the queen’s hem, too, for some reason I can’t quite fathom. So it seems the sun still hasn’t set.
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subodai213
August 1, 2014
You can’t hear the accent you grew up with. Until, of course, you’ve moved away and have stayed away long enough to be able to finally hear it. I grew up in Michigan, then lived alllllll over the place: four different countries with different languages, and most of the US.
Midwesterners DO have accents. I can hear Wisconsin, I can hear Minnesota. But I thought, well, Michiganders don’t have accents, until I had lived longer outside of Michigan than in it.
I could hear the accent in my brother’s voices. I thought I no longer had an accent. Then I heard a recording of my own voice. Yup, there it is…I still sound like a Michigander.
Steven Spinker has written a VERY good book on language, that being “The Language Instinct”.
In it, he discusses the fact that It’s been found that you acquire the accent of your current living area ONLY at puberty.
Which explains the situation of some English friends of mine…they moved here with their first born son being 17 years old, and he had his birthplace Manchester accent. Their second son was 10 when they moved to the US, and he speaks without a trace of english accent.
I can hear foreign accents: High German (Berlin) and “low German” (Bavaria) are very distinctive. Spanish has so many different accents, that I can usually tell who is from Mexico, from Puerto Rico, from Noodgeork (New York).
I can even tell English accents-Yorkshire vs London vs Manchester, etc.
However, I think that part of that is one has to have a ‘knack’ for languages. I do…I can speak survival German, Spanish and Korean. But my husband, who is far smarter than me, speaks only American English, and thus, can’t tell.
“Strine” (Australian) isn’t too hard to understand, but every once in a while, while on a vacation trip to that country, I’d be stonkered at what did you say??
I overheard someone mention the egg nishna stopped working. Egg nishna? Egg Nishna?? Is that a dish?
Nope.
Air conditioner.
The oddest feeling, though, was when I’d say something to an Australian who would then look at ME as if I’d spoken Klingon, and I”d have to repeat what I said, two or three times, before they finally understood me.
Apparently, I have an American accent. Really??
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bronxboy55
August 3, 2014
I’ve noticed that when I find myself listening to someone with an accent — Australian, for example — it takes me a little while to tune my ears to what I’m hearing. Once I make the adjustment, I can hear everything clearly. The problem with sudden and short encounters is that there may not be time to do that, and the communication never happens.
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subodai213
August 3, 2014
I have the same thing happen to me. It DOES take a while for my ‘ear’ to catch on, but it does.
A few years ago, I watched a television show covering the war in Afghanistan. One Afghani asked the soldiers for a ‘chunsah.’ Chunsah? Finally they figured out he was saying ‘chain saw’. Chunsa was how he heard it and how he pronounced it.
I lived in Korea for several years, and discovered that the Koreans who learned American English from soldiers picked up the accents of those people they learned it from. And I learned Korean from a southerner South Korean, and was teased when I moved to Seoul (northern South Korea). I spoke Korean with a southern accent!!
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earthriderjudyberman
August 1, 2014
I did wonder why The Beatles and many others in the British Invasion did not sound British when they sang. But when they spoke, there it was … that unmistakable accent from Herman’s Hermits to Mick Jagger. Why is that?
By the way, I have unintentionally picked up accents from people I’m talking to … while I’m talking to them. I don’t know why I do this. One of my co-workers noticed it when she passed my Scottish boss and me in the hall. I sure hope he wasn’t offended as that was not my intention. Interesting post, Charles. 😉
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
Judy, I think picking up the speech patterns of others is a sign of empathy and sensitivity. You so easily put yourself in their place that you even begin to talk like them. That’s my theory, anyway.
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earthriderjudyberman
August 2, 2014
I like that, Charles. I’ll go with that. 😉
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thecontentedcrafter
August 1, 2014
It makes life interesting doesn’t it! You all sound odd to me 🙂
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
If only it were just the accents that were odd.
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Belladonna Took
August 2, 2014
And then there’s the sweet young thing behind the counter, or at the restaurant, or you name it, who brightly says, “What a beautiful accent! Where are you from?” And when I, deadpan, say, “No, I don’t have an accent – you do!” they’ll get all embarrassed or offended or plain disbelieving, because normal people don’t have accents, and clearly I’m the weirdo.
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bronxboy55
August 2, 2014
My son once told me he didn’t like London because everyone there had an English accent. He didn’t understand that to them, he was the one who spoke differently.
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Belladonna Took
August 2, 2014
Funny. But kinda makes me want to bang my head against something. On a personal note … on my one, very brief, en-route-to-America visit to London, I was sitting on the steps outside St Paul’s just nibbling on something and watching the world go by, and I thought, “Those people are speaking real Cockney!” It was very cool…:) I love the way we’re all so different.
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Hedwigia
August 31, 2014
Sitting on the steps outside St Paul’s you’re more likely to hear American, Japanese Polish or Italian than cockney! I’m English and find London very disorientating – and not sure I’ve ever heard anyone sounding cockney there! Hardly any English English at all. 🙂 Same goes for Stratford upon Avon in the summer. All furriners. 😀
Though I do know what you mean – we were on holiday in Wales, and I got quite a kick out of hearing people having fluent conversations in Welsh. Good local colour. They were probably complaining about the tourists.
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Belladonna Took
September 1, 2014
Wellllll … maybe they were just English…lol. There were plenty of furriners too, but they don’t say “Luv” in quite the same way. The people I was watching appeared to be young office workers out on a lunch break, bustling along and paying no attention at all to dusty old cathedrals. Very different from what I was used to hearing in Johannesburg!
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Hedwigia
September 1, 2014
“Luv” is great isn’t it? “Duck” is another good one – means much the same thing, though no idea why. Maybe from duchess, but that might be wild imagination!
I work with someone from SA, and I really love her accent – and her laid-back attitude too – very cheery to work with!
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Belladonna Took
September 1, 2014
Oh yes, we’re good at being laid-back…:) Tell her I say Howzit!
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Doug Bittinger
August 2, 2014
Another round of great insights, I especially likes the ponderization of whether someone who does not speak English at all hears accents. I too have noticed that when people sing, they don’t have the accent.
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bronxboy55
August 3, 2014
Doug, I actually have trouble imagining someone listening to spoken English and not understanding what’s being said. I obviously hear most other languages as just streams of sound, but I can’t seem to convert English to that unintelligible sound in my head. I guess the words and their meanings are too tightly connected.
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rangewriter
August 2, 2014
I’m so glad you addressed those pesky r’s that east coasters don’t quite seem to know what to do with. I always wonder how kids ever learn to spell when they grow up inside an accent like the Bostonians, or my dear Georgia Peach, who’s been far from Georgia for many years but I still have to ask her to repeat things so I can decipher what the heck she just said. Puzzling to be sure.
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bronxboy55
August 4, 2014
I wonder if your friend from Georgia tones the accent up or down, depending on who the listener is. If she were to return to her home state for a visit, the old speech patterns would likely come back full force. Maybe it works something like a dimmer switch.
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rangewriter
August 5, 2014
You know, Charles, I’ve listened very carefully to her in a number of different situations. Even in the most intellectual and academic circles, her accent is a jarring juxtaposition to her highly educated and well articulated comments. I’ve never been with her in her home environs…I can’t imagine the accent becoming stronger than it is, but I suppose that is possible.
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Elyse
August 2, 2014
In my French class in Switzerland, we had a student from the West Virginia hollers with moonshine in every word she spoke. Listening to her speak French, even to the rest of us who were butchering the language was painful to say the least. And yes, the Teacher could hear the difference. The muscles in her jaw tightened when the student spoke, and she frequently looked on the verge of tears when the student read dialog aloud. So did we all!
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bronxboy55
August 4, 2014
And then there are actors who, in real life, have very strong accents that you may never hear when they’re performing. I wonder what skill that is that allows one person to do it so well and another not at all. Is it just a matter of listening? Could it be that simple?
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subodai213
August 2, 2014
I read a funny thing some time ago, and can’t remember exactly how it went but I’ll give it a go:
The reason New Englanders and Southerners sound so odd is that, in New England, all the ‘R’s floated up into the sky and only came down in the far south.
Dahn it, I’ve mangled it.
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bronxboy55
August 4, 2014
I lived in the Boston area for a while, and there were several occasions when I unknowingly pronounced the names of people and places with the local accent — just because that’s the way I’d always heard them said. I realized this only after I later saw the names in print.
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The Moon is a Naked Banana
August 3, 2014
‘…they call a drugstore a chemist.’
Well, of course we do. When I first heard the word ‘drugstore’ when I was 10 or 11 I was horrified, because I could not believe that there was actually a store that had the gall to sell illegal drugs.
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bronxboy55
August 4, 2014
I think that’s why some people prefer pharmacy. It removes the confusion — unless they’re going out for some Coke.
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Margie Brizzolari
August 3, 2014
Great post and comments! Sometimes we take on the accents of our new home in order to SURVIVE! I’m a South African living in Italy. You may be aware that Italian has started to borrow English words heavily, and when I first came her, I promised myself that I wouldn’t stoop to speaking like an Italian. Until I went to my butcher and tried to buy hamburger patties, which are locally called – you guessed it – hamburger. “Tre hamburger”, I said in my best Italian. I was obviously speaking klingon! After three tries, I sighed, cringed, and said ” Tre umboorger.” Every vowel and consonant enunciated. His eyes lit up and I got my meal for the day. To this day, ten years later, I still order “umboorger”. No communication, no food!
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bronxboy55
August 4, 2014
You won’t get any sympathy here, Margie. Not while you’re living in Italy.
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Margie Brizzolari
August 4, 2014
Yeah, I know. It’s a hard life, but someone’s got to live it!
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silkpurseproductions
August 3, 2014
The first time I travelled out of North America was to England. I was 15 or 16 and was told to make sure anyone I dealt with knew that I was Canadian and not American. I thought that was silly because I sounded like a Canadian. At least I thought I did. It turns out growing up so close to the border and spending so much time in the US on a regular basis had some influence on the way I sound. Everyone I met thought I had an American accent. It was very strange.
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bronxboy55
August 5, 2014
I guess to someone living in England, the Canadian and American accents are almost indistinguishable.
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kerbey
August 3, 2014
I always wondered why they sounded normal when they sang, ever since I was young and listened to Olivia Newton-John and then heard her speak like a Brothers Gibb. I don’t travel, so I only know the U.S., but it’s true how different it is when you get to know parts better. In Texas, we say “we’re fixing to go eat,” which is odd in itself, but in Arkansas, they say it like, “We’re finta go eat.” Even odder. My husband has suddenly morphed into some backwoods bugger, and has been saying GEE-tar instead of guitar and thee-ATE-er instead of the normal theater. Not theatre. And he says Mex-ee-co instead of Mexico. I hope he’s not having a stroke.
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bronxboy55
August 5, 2014
It’s funny how we grow up thinking there’s one correct way to say things, and it’s always the way we say them. Since moving to Canada, I’ve noticed certain expressions that just sound wrong to me, but when I really think about it, I can’t come up with anything to justify my opinion. For example, people here pronounce been as though it rhymes with seen and green. If I had to be honest, my pronunciation — bin — is the one that makes no sense.
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kerbey
August 5, 2014
I suppose that does make sense. We have been saying it incorrectly. Helen Mirren is on TV right now, saying “lit-ra-ture” in 3 syllables, instead of 4.
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TheFeatheredSleep
January 5, 2017
Anything the divine Mirren utters is mana to my ears whether wrong or no (She mispronounced cocaine) 😉
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icedteawithlemon
August 3, 2014
The only place I’ve had difficulty understanding the local dialect in the U.S. was Boston (except for a bartender who had the most charming Irish brogue), and I’m guessing the Bostonians had just as much difficulty understanding me. I’m hoping the Canadians have an easier time of it.
And I think you’re right about all those journalists with English accents.
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bronxboy55
August 5, 2014
I bet the bartender was faking, too.
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She's a Maineiac
August 4, 2014
What’s really bizarre is my Mainah accent comes and goes. Ayuh. It really comes out in full force if I’m sitting around chatting with my older brothers and my mother. We’ll be all: “Didya pahk the cah in the yahd?” But when I’m talking to my own kids, I sound almost normal again. It’s incredible how accents seem to be ingrained in your brain like past memories and only come out at certain times.
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bronxboy55
August 7, 2014
I think it’s related to the process that causes us to change personalities, depending on who we’re with at the time. It almost seems as though we have different scripts wired into our brains.
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Deb Weyrich-Cody
August 11, 2014
Honestly, I think it’s directly linked to that empathy thing you mentioned earlier. I find, if I’m speaking with someone with a different way of speaking, it only takes a few minutes before I’m mimicking their way of speaking. To me, it seems that the harder you struggle to understand someone else’s speech, the less success you’ll have; but, if you can just let your brain relax, everything will suddenly come into focus.
Thanks! I really enjoyed this post and the comments… (Oh, and Diana sent me: )
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marymtf
August 5, 2014
I’ll have to take notice, Charles whether or not people sound like they’ve got an accent when they are speaking their own language. I’d like to think that we judge people by their actions rather than by their accents. Or, at least, I do.
As for flats, Aussies used to call apartments flats (I didn’t see anything wrong with that; I thought apartments were funny) until the prices went up.
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bronxboy55
August 7, 2014
An accent seems to be a specific pattern. If we don’t understand the general pattern of the language itself, there’s probably not much chance we’ll be able to recognize the more specific one. At least that’s how I think it works for me.
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lazyperson21
August 6, 2014
I was in California a couple of months ago. I found it really funny that everyone kept asking if my boyfriend and I were Australian (we’re English), but then I realised that I cant tell the difference between Canada and US accents (and other than maybe being able to identify someone is from the south all US accents sound the same!), New Zealand vs Australia is impossible and even worse, when I’ve had a few too many drinks, I’ve managed to confuse a South African accent with both Australia and NZ as well!
The other thing that struck me about the US was just the sheer umber of things that have different names over there – it may have the same grammar rules but American English is a very different language to English. It took me forever to realise that cilantro was just coriander!
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
I think a lot of people recognize that someone is speaking English with a different accent, but that’s as far as they can go. Distinguishing British from Australian or New Zealand from South Africa requires more experience than they have.
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accidentallyreflective
August 6, 2014
Hey!! I’m from near London and I’m kinda smart!! ha ha!
Loved this post as per usual. Agree with everything you said (apart from the London bit ahem) esp regarding the loss of accent when singing! What’s all that about? I’m not still not getting your posts in my inbox and still can’t figure out why?! Not happy!
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
I’m not receiving new post notifications either, so I’m back to fishing around.
Do you like London? Everyone I’ve ever met who’s from England — but not London — hates the city. Why is that?
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accidentallyreflective
August 11, 2014
I love London! I lived there for 3 years and also have family there.
I did get fed up with the place after a few years, mainly due to congestion and miserable, unfriendly people (I think that’s why people may not like it).
However, now after moving away and having a break – I love going back often and showing my children the excitement and the sights etc.
I couldn’t live there or raise my children there, but it’s def worth visiting regularly.
You should visit!
I don’t know what’s happening with the notifications. It’s very annoying. Maybe we should alert them…
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bronxboy55
August 19, 2014
I spent about three days in London and loved it. But living in a place and visiting it as a tourist are not the same.
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accidentallyreflective
August 25, 2014
Yes you’re absolutely right! I just came back from Florence and we absolutely loved it! However, the locals absolutely hate it and the tourism industry that makes it.
Many people commute 30 miles in to the city and leave immediately after finishing work.
I on the other hand can’t wait to go back! Hope you’re well.
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TheFeatheredSleep
January 5, 2017
I like London but you’re right, tourist versus living there are two titally different things. England is gorgeous but London is a city much like all the worlds big cities they’re very homogenous. Don’t get me started on my countries largest city, Paris is hideously overrated, I’ve never understood that.
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elsie182
August 6, 2014
Loving your post as usual! I’ve had many deep (sort of) thoughts about accents myself, and about the personality traits that we associate with them. From a Swedish perspective, there are HUGE differences between north and south and east… 😛
When my family and I visited London, I realized that my sister (who at the time had had two years of English studies) could speak a little, but had great difficulty understanding people; her teacher speaks an American-ish accent and pronounces all the “R” and “T” and “H” sounds…
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
Swedish is a perfect example, Elsie. To someone like me who is unfamiliar with the country, the sound that makes speech Swedish is all I can hear. My brain ignores any regional differences.
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Connect-the-Cloths
August 6, 2014
Beautifully explained! & Yet another bright point! ;D Well done.
♥ | http://www.connect-the-cloths.com | xoxo
http://blogspotter.co/connect-the-cloths/
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
Thank you, Carsla. By the way, your blog is amazing.
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Val Boyko
August 8, 2014
Great post and conversation! Diana sent me over. I’m glad she did.
I think familiarity breeds sensitivity to accents … just like taste and smells. I’ve been going to Italy for several years and I can tell the difference in regional accents now. I’ve been drinking wine for several years and can tell the difference in grape varieties and regions.
Back to accents – I’m from Scotland and I can usually tell within 20 miles where any Scot is from.I guess I’m familiar with them 😉
Val
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
Thanks, Val. I’m glad to hear from you. Which parts of Italy have you visited?
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Val Boyko
August 12, 2014
Charlie, its taken me a while to catch up with comments…. You are very gracious to ask where I’ve been. I’ve been to Italy 7 or 8 times and have seen a lot of it! Still to explore is the southern toe and the Amalfi coast …
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jensine
August 8, 2014
it seems you’ve never been to an Irish pub … they sing very Irish and not American at all …
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
You’re right. I haven’t been to an Irish pub. I’d love to visit the country, though.
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jensine
August 10, 2014
well worth a visit and you’ll hear words pronounced in a way you never thought possible
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peakperspective
August 8, 2014
Terrific post. I ventured here from Diana’s site. She’s obviously got lovely taste.
As far as accents go I’m from Wisconsin and married an Englishman. I soon learned that when meeting others for the first time folks would automatically add thirty IQ points to him and subtract the the same from me. Ugh.
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dianasschwenk
August 8, 2014
oh my gosh – that’s funny! 😀
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
Has your husband’s accent rubbed off on you at all? Do you find yourself changing the way you say things? And has he?
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peakperspective
August 10, 2014
Weirdly, as I married him when I was 23, I was still at the stage of learning vocabulary. New words introduced by him – and unbeknownst by me until I caught on as to why some of my American friends gave me skewered looks, I learned them with HIS pronunciation – not accent. In America, we’d say someone with tenacity was perseVERant. In the UK, it was perSEVerant. Just one example, but one of many.
Of course, my husband’s accent only increased as he got older–determined to stay as British as a cast member of an Agatha Christie play.
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Ian Munro @ leadingessentially.com
August 9, 2014
First stop ever on your blog and I’m glad I did (thank you Diana)! You are a brilliant writer that inspires emotion, particularly joy.
I’m drawn to this particular topic as well. I wonder what happens when we zoom in to the individual with their r’s in the wrong places to understand them beyond their unique tribal form.
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
Thanks for the comment, Ian (and thank you, Diana). I took a linguistics course in college and found it fascinating. Sometimes I wish I’d gone into that field.
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Bruce
August 10, 2014
Funny and it all makes sense Charles. I really like the cartoon pointing out the weehd accent.
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bronxboy55
August 10, 2014
Thanks, Bruce. I always appreciate your feedback.
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kasturika
January 18, 2015
I can relate to this tendency of people putting other people in watertight compartments. Around here too people are referred to as ‘south Indian’ or ‘northeastern’. Each of those people are very different and diverse and it gets frustrating and appears insensitive. It can truly be dangerous… and it is very likely to result in violence.
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swamiyesudas
April 11, 2015
Yeah, Charles! We don’t even listen (or read) carefully, but We are giving answers! 🙂
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TheFeatheredSleep
January 5, 2017
This is so funny and clever! As a French wonan living in Texas with a British accent I’m usually considered a young rich snob, hilarious when you consider I’m neither rich nor young. Never found a Brit accent helpful, should have been a journalist; ) i am an occasional snob about food though so the pretentious stereotype may be going strong … 😉 this was very very good!
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