Accents

[Enzo]

What, you expected some play on words? Talking about speech accents.

Here in the USA we have tons of them. I hear them easily. Texas doesn't sound like Tennessee, which doesn;t sound like Virginia. Michigan sounds different from Minnesota. Eastern accents vary from North Carolina, which is different from Baltimore, different from Philadelphia, unlike New York. Boston, Maine, Vermont all sound different. I heard a guy talking here in Michigan once, walked up to him and said, "Baltimore, right?" Blew his mind, I was right.

I suspect a lot of this nuance is lost on foreigners. I mean side by side sure, but I think generic southern drawl, versus Boston, and a neutral accent sums up most movies...maybe?

I know there are a lot of British accents. Mostly I know what I hear in the movies. There is movie Cockney - I 'ope I make it 'ome. Oh yes, and call everyone Guv'nah. I think our equivalent is a Brooklyn New York accent. There is the mustachioed MAjor Frumphington-Smythe home from the wars in IN-JAH, and he pronounces "here" as HYUH. And the basic Judi Dench in the Bond movie speech.

Since we have a couple Scots, I hear a generic Scottish accent, different from Englanders, but I don't know how much range there is around Scotland. DO Glaswegians sound substantially different from Aberdeenies? In the USA ours are spread over thousands of miles, which is a lot in kilometers. Those Scottish cities appear to be only a hundred miles apart. I recall listening to some fellow from the Isle of Something discussing something (in English) and was at a loss to understand a word he was saying. It was on public TV so they had subtitles, bless them. Maybe having to get there by boat affects the speech. Oh, and of course Sean Connery.

I hear different English - from England - speech patterns but have no idea how they are distributed. For that matter, I might think that Major F-S may have an accent born more from social caste rather than geography. I might be wrong. Sorta like here we have Valley Girls or the New York wine bar set. I don't know what I expect, Michigan itself is about three times the size of Scotland. And here we have definite West Michigan accents, differing from greater Detroit, and certainly the upper peninsula sounds more like Minnesota. So I am curious.

[Heid the Ba]

Since we have a couple Scots, I hear a generic Scottish accent, different from Englanders, but I don't know how much range there is around Scotland. DO Glaswegians sound substantially different from Aberdeenies?

Yes, very, and both are different from Edinburgh and Dundee. Edinburgh and The Borders are very different accents though barely 30 miles apart.

In the USA ours are spread over thousands of miles, which is a lot in kilometers. Those Scottish cities appear to be only a hundred miles apart. I recall listening to some fellow from the Isle of Something discussing something (in English) and was at a loss to understand a word he was saying. It was on public TV so they had subtitles, bless them. Maybe having to get there by boat affects the speech.

Isolation has a lot to do with it, as does having Gaelic as a first or second language.

Oh, and of course Sean Connery.

Nobody shounds like Shean.

For that matter, I might think that Major F-S may have an accent born more from social caste rather than geography. I might be wrong.

I think you are right, Major F-S's accent would be largely a product of school and the army rather than regional. Educated Scots tend to have a less accented, more generic accent than working class Scots; so Lianachan and I will sound more similar that an Edinburgh and a Highland bus driver would.

Edit: Tagfix

[Lianachan]

Agree with my countryman there, but will add that there are three indigenous languages in Scotland. English, Gaelic and Scots (often maligned as a dialect of English, it's actually a sister language to it). So when you're hearing what sounds like a "Scottish accent" of the English language, there will undoubtedly be times when it's actually Scots you're hearing.

[Lianachan]

Oh, and there's a separate dialect known as "Highland English", which is English language but with strong Gaelic influence on phonology, grammar and vocabulary - extremely common in the Western Isles and parts of the Highlands.

[Enzo]

Well, to watch TV, apparently you all say "Hoot, mon." a lot.

We hear Scotty on Star Trek, the occasional Scottish story from the David McCallum character on NCIS, and Scrooge McDuck. Oh yes, and Groundskeeper Willie on the Simpsons.

I remember that island guy was talking about a fish, but he pronounced "fish" so it rhymed with "hush," or "rush."


Actually i think it more likely I hear an Irish accent on TV than Scottish. Apparently everyone in Ireland is involved in terrorism.

[Heid the Ba]

Well, to watch TV, apparently you all say "Hoot, mon." a lot.

That is Lianachan's lot, we're the sweary southerners, all glottal stops and profanity.

the occasional Scottish story from the David McCallum character on NCIS,

Given where David McCallum was born there is a reasonable chance we were born in the same maternity hospital. He is a good example of education rather than geography shaping his accent. He was brought up in England with Scottish parents and has the mellow, educated accent I referred to rather than a Maryhill accent (as deployed by most of the neds in Taggart). I lived in and around Glasgow until I was fourteen, in Dumfries for eleven years and Edinburgh for the last thirty but apparently I still have an identifiable West Coast accent, albeit quite mild. The older I get the more I realise how much I sound like my brothers, one of whom didn't live outside Glasgow until the last couple of years and the other has lived on Skye and Mull for at least two decades. The Mem is east Central Scotland born and bred and has a noticeably different accent to me, though that may have something to do with me working in West Fife and her in the Edinburgh office of a big London firm.

I remember that island guy was talking about a fish, but he pronounced "fish" so it rhymed with "hush," or "rush."

There is an old story about fishermen from neighbouring villages arguing which ends with one saying "At least we dinnae ca' feesh fush!".

[Lianachan]

Well, to watch TV, apparently you all say "Hoot, mon." a lot.

That is Lianachan's lot, we're the sweary southerners, all glottal stops and profanity.

I thought it was your lot. It's certainly not a Gaelic thing.

[Heid the Ba]

I think it was Stanley Baxter pretending to be a Highlander. Good FSM, I would have sworn he was dead but apparently not.

[g-one]

Being close to Fargo here, of course we all speak like Marge Gunderson. But we don't have those hats.

[Enzo]

Ah, where "spoon" is a two-syllable word. Spoo-win

[Halcyon Dayz, FCD]

But we don't have those hats.

But you do want one.

[MM_Dandy]

I've got one, but I don't think I sound like Marge. Strangest American accent I've heard so far is from southern Indiana/Ohio where the basic Midwestern blends into the Southern/Appalachian accents.

[Enzo]

I spent some time in Boston on business, and I enjoyed the locals with their thick Boston accents discussing the accents of the New Hampshire guys. "I think they have a speech impediment" said one.

[g-one]

Any time I hear a Boston accent I think of this scene:

Watch on youtube.com

[Enzo]

I cannot for the life of me recall what movie it was, some sort of farcical British movie. in one scene, the police inspector is at the door of some Cockney woman's home, trying to ask her something. As she stands in her door, there are a zillion screaming kids fighting and running around yelling. The inspector is having a hard time hearing here, and at one point she says, "I apologize for the 'iatus." He says, "the what?" " 'iatus." Then he says "So do I."


In case it doesn't translate well in print: hiatus/I hate us.