Dialects (split from Erik's Summer Project)

@Wildcat- Yeah, Id like to meet Erik, too. If Im lucky when I go to Louisiana, I might be able to see Frankie in Naw'leans. Even though I don't know what street or anything he lives on.
Off topic for a second, does everyone here say LouISIana OR do they say it like me, Looseiana?

Re: Erik Per Sullivan's summer project...

The former--the latter is wrong.

Re: Erik Per Sullivan's summer project...

Looseiana is not wrong, i believe that's the way most people that live in Louisianna (or the south in general) actually pronouce it. It's just southern dialect. Just like people in Louisville, Kentucky usually pronouce it Loueeville. Tomato vs. tomoto. But this is way off topic so I'll shut up now, or we can split the thread an continue this discussion.

Re: Dialects

So you went and made this it's own thread, huh?
Anyways, we here in the south say alot of things different from everyone else. Much like the Looseiana thing, when other people say Pecan as PAcan, we say PEcan. And something else I swear we do- everyone calls food buffets a buffet(without saying the t), we say it buffeT(saying the t).

We actually don't pronounce the T in buffett, but I've heard a lot of people do it. We do, however, pronounce the R in Foyer (as in the small area that a lot of homes have just inside their main entrance), but a lot of people say foyee. We also say PEcan, tomAto, PotAto, and caramel only has 2 syllables. Another thing that's different, not so much dialect, is what people call certain things. Like I have a friend from Minnesota and he calls going to a movie--"going to see a show." And a bag that you get at the grocery store is called a "sack." And he drinks "pop" rather than soda. And what exactly does "Ayuh" mean?

Where's that quiz J found a couple of weeks ago?

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofamericanenglishdoyouspeakquiz/

I found it again.


I say tonight more like tanite(or tonite), tomorrow like tomarra, pecAn, tomAto, potAto, looisiana. It's a Yankee accent that gets me more every day though.

This thread is really interesting and useful for me...

The link you gave doesn't work anymore.

I have several questions : Do Tv and newspapers have a an influence of any sort on your natural accent and pronunciation. I mean, do english people use american words after hearing them several times on tv for example? (or the contrary)

If you wanna know, british english was formerly the only english to be teached in France. But nowadays it has changed but it's a little weird, because officially we have to study both. In reality not all the teachers do that, and several keep on teaching only british english. Especially up to high school.
We are supposed to choose one and not to mix them. Actually I've chosen american english for 5 years, but it's interesting to see how some test givers react when you speak with an american acent. My teachers/examinors are either native american or native english speakers. So sometimes they kinda fight with each other, or at least they say they don't like the way you speak. That's fun...

Honestly I don't know if I've an american accent but watching american movies and Mitm (of course) has obviously changed my accent. For me the accent people have in london is really neat and nice but honeslty the pronunciation is harder to imitate than the american accent.. I guess it's not the same for everyone here, but for me..

Try again, I fixed it. You might have to hit refresh, though.

The King's English is more formal, and fancier, the kiind of stuff you expect if you go to an International party, and EVERY nation is there.

Ameican English, however, is more informal, and more comfortable to use (although I can't really opinionate here, since I'm an American. )

American English developed because Americans are lazy.

Great Britain must be funny for dialects, as there are quite afew considering the size of GB .Some of them are really hard to understand I can never understand a Scottish person, I have to ask them to repeat it serveral times (not all Scots, just the ones with the really heavy accent)

yardgames said:

American English developed because Americans are lazy.

Click to expand...

Sure. Honestly the american "flap" is something I like... (You know when you say "complicaded" instead of "complicated", that's fun) The problem is that "later" tends to be similar to "ladder", right?...

This kind of stuffs is the main reason why so many people who learned british english don't understand anything when they hear american english... For example my parents..

simon_4420 said:

Great Britain must be funny for dialects, as there are quite afew considering the size of GB .Some of them are really hard to understand I can never understand a Scottish person, I have to ask them to repeat it serveral times (not all Scots, just the ones with the really heavy accent)

Click to expand...

Once there was a scottish guy talking on tv, I didn't get anything...

The way cowboys from the Texas speak is totally fun too..

In my country the only dialect I've some problem to understand is farmers'. Otherwise some provinces use two languages : french and another one which is only spoken in a particular area.

I don't know who you're talking about, but I pronounce my t's.

yardgames said:

I don't know who you're talking about, but I pronounce my t's.

Click to expand...

Yes, lets not forget that Sam's quiz scores indicated that he has the perfect All-American accent and should be a role model for us all.

I love British, Scottish and Australian accents, btw. I also like to listen to people who are from Masachussets, especially around the Boston area.

Not All-American; I'm not a baseball player! General American.

I don't know if this makes me less American but...I like basketball better than baseball.

Firstly (mainly out of habit) I'm going to, or should I say gonna disagree with J. Firstly it's technically called Received Pronunciation rather than King's English, mainly due to poltical correctness & this form of English is only really apparant in a minorty. I don't think it's true to say American English is a lazy form, if you look at most of the regional variations in Britain they're far 'lazier' than the American version. I also protest (I'm starting to sound annoying and preechery sorry ) to many of the Hollywood interpretations of the English accent; they're either crap, over the top cockney or ridiculously posh.

Personally, my accent (though in my oppinion I obviously don't think I have one ) is probably kind of RP, however I do have a Manchunian twang- if you want to know what full on Manchunian is, look to the band Oasis, rather than Daphney from Frasier. That test told me I was 50% Yank though!

I think it's an Americanized test--not meant for Englanders. Either that or you just have so much pride in America...

well, forgive me for calling it the King's English.

I don't know if I can J. it hurt me pretty bad By the way, Yardgames, Englanders isn't a real term, it's English or Britons- although some irritating pedantic people get annoyed when you refer to them as British, because technically it's removing some of their cutlure by grouping them with other countries (I'm not one of these people ) they're perfectly happy to sing a British national anthem though.