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North American English Dialects

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Re: North American English Dialects

#11

Post by zabzonk »

DeathArrow wrote: post #9
shevy-java wrote: post #6

Goose language? Or yankee doodels? I was taught British English. I think America English is in many ways simpler, but my brain is wired to british spelling as well as pronounciation for the most part. Now it depends who has good spoken british english. One of my all-time favourites is Rowan Atkinson, but his english is kind of more theater-trained really; if you compare it to the Monty Python guys for instance. War c…

>Now it depends who has good spoken british english. My favorites are David Attenborough and BBC in general.

The BBC actually has an official "Pronunciation Unit", which tells people like newsreaders the "proper" way to pronounce words and placenames. Unfortunately, particularly in the latter case they often get it wrong. For example, my late Dad was born in a small West Yorkshire town called Sowerby Bridge, which the unit insists should be said Sourbee Bridge. Everyone, without exception, who lives there knows it is Sorebee Bridge. Writing in to the BBC complaining about this and many other similar errors is a popular hobby.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Pronunciation_Unit

Re: North American English Dialects

#12

Post by buu709 »

walrus01 wrote: post #7

This has missed the Atlantic Canadian Cape Breton dialect, which if you listen to some age 70+ people who've lived their whole lives in the Sydney, NS area is significantly distinct from Halifax or other areas in the south/southwest of Nova Scotia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Cape_Breton

Most of Newfoundland being lumped in with the Atlantic Provinces too. For the most part you can tell where on the island someone is from based solely on the accent. Hell, I've lived & worked with people from the south coast and I still have a hard time even understanding them sometimes.

Re: North American English Dialects

#13

Post by throw0101a »

gtr wrote: post #10
shevy-java wrote: post #6

Goose language? Or yankee doodels? I was taught British English. I think America English is in many ways simpler, but my brain is wired to british spelling as well as pronounciation for the most part. Now it depends who has good spoken british english. One of my all-time favourites is Rowan Atkinson, but his english is kind of more theater-trained really; if you compare it to the Monty Python guys for instance. War c…

Patrick Stewart is from Yorkshire not Scotland, by the way.

> Patrick Stewart is from Yorkshire not Scotland, by the way.

I thought the House of Picard was from France…

Re: North American English Dialects

#15

Post by walthamstow »

shevy-java wrote: post #6

Goose language? Or yankee doodels? I was taught British English. I think America English is in many ways simpler, but my brain is wired to british spelling as well as pronounciation for the most part. Now it depends who has good spoken british english. One of my all-time favourites is Rowan Atkinson, but his english is kind of more theater-trained really; if you compare it to the Monty Python guys for instance. War c…

"Arksing" is also present in Caribbean English and came to London via there. This and other 'incorrect' pronounciations come from slavery-era creole dialects, I think.

I like people who speak a more modern English from my part of London. Check out TV personality Big Narstie or football pundit Clinton Morrison. You'll love 'em.

Re: North American English Dialects

#16

Post by walthamstow »

A recent series of Alone was won by a guy from Goose Bay, Labrador. To my ear, as a Brit, it just sounds Irish, right down to saying 'tree' for 'three'. I can only imagine that's where the initial settlers were from and the isolation meant it never changed much.

Re: North American English Dialects

#18

Post by unsupp0rted »

walthamstow wrote: post #16

A recent series of Alone was won by a guy from Goose Bay, Labrador. To my ear, as a Brit, it just sounds Irish, right down to saying 'tree' for 'three'. I can only imagine that's where the initial settlers were from and the isolation meant it never changed much.

Spoilers! That season/series was a really fun watch.

In previous seasons/series they didn't have the formula down yet, so 2/3rds of the episode were one literally starving person after another, just sighing into a camera about how hungry they are, how cold it is, and how nothing is changing.

Whereas in this one some people did incredibly well, others tapped out after setbacks, illness, or made thinly-veiled excuses about illness (even though they just lost the drive to stay in it). 5/5 would recommend.

Re: North American English Dialects

#19

Post by 999900000999 »

Is anyone archiving these accents ?

As much as I’m happy that kids now have access to YouTube, and thus can use the neutral influencer dialect, something about our culture is being erased.

I grew up speaking both a neutral California accent and bits of AAVE. AAVE itself is drastically different depending on the part of the US you’re in. I can barely understand southern AAVE. NYC AAVE is much faster, but I think NYC people think faster in general.

I really do believe YouTube can bring gaps. If your a kid in Albania you can see life though the eyes of someone in Oakland.

And hop on a zoom 30 minutes later to chat. This would be unimaginable 50 years ago.

Re: North American English Dialects

#20

Post by nsavage »

walrus01 wrote: post #8
nephihaha wrote: post #4

I feel that the Maritimes are somewhat simplified here, especially Newfoundland and Labrador which has some of the most distinctive accents on the continent, at least among older people.

It's absolutely oversimplified, someone from a small coastal town in Newfoundland does not sound at all like a person from much of the same area labeled "atlantic canadian" in Nova Scotia, or in larger cities like Fredericton or Moncton in NB. Putting basically all of NB, NS and NF as one large pink blob on the map is a drastic oversimplifiaction. It also seems that whoever created this kind of gave up when figuring…

I'm from Ontario and its very simplified in my experience as well. Maybe the problem is the sample audio clips they have are all 'posh', its not how most people speak. Two large examples I can think of that even have their own wikipedia pages are the Ottawa Valley Twang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Valley_English) and the 'Torontomans' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_slang). I grew up in Toronto, and the latter isn't just something funny you see on tiktok, people actually talk that way.
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