I was watching a recent rerun of the sitcom Fraiser and in this episode Daphne's brothers from England, Manchester visited her. I found the reason I found this quite percuilar was her brothers had "cockney" accents despite they're supposed to be from Manchester? (Cockneys come from East London and parts of Essex). The reason one of the many stereotypes about the US is that Americans have difficulty telling the difference between foreign accents so I was wondering how true that was or to what extent that is true?
Daphne's accent is more like a Burnley/Blackburn area than Manchester!
I have also found that the Americans, in general, find it difficult to distinguish between UK regional accents...probably because they don't hear enough of them. They tend to assume we are all from London too! I can mostly tell the general area where a person is from over here but then I make the effort to learn and remember...I'm living here after all and I think it's a courtesy to know a bit about the country in which you reside.
I have also had people ask me if I am from
a)Ireland
b)Australia
and c) Russia!!!! o
Debs x )
The majority really would have no idea of the different Brit accents.
Why would they when they have no contact with Brits in general, any more than most Brits wouldn't be able to tell an the difference in American accents.
In the UK we can recognise regional accents and if (as Deb has demonstrated) you are especially familiar with a particular region you can even distinguish accents which are from areas only a few miles apart. I couldn't tell between Blackburn and Manchester, but I can tell between Kent and Essex or Kent and London and even town Kent and country Kent! Our ears are tuned in to British accents - put me anywhere in the British Isles and in less than a day I'll be imitating the locals - not to take the mick but just because I am so tuned in.
On the other hand, after 12 years here I am now able to distinguish between Boston, Central Mass, New York, Wisconsin, Rural Kentucky and the deep south, but that's it. There are many different accents here too but yer average Brit in the UK would all them all "American" and, incorrectly, all "Yanks".
The greatest distinction between the US and the UK is that in the UK you can get in your car in London and drive for a couple of hours or so and hear a totally different accent if not a totally different language.
Can you tell the difference between an Aussie and a Kiwi straight away? Or a Canadian from British Columbia and a Murrikan from Oregon? Or say a Murrikan from SoCal and a Murrikan from Arizona?
/"Carry On Cowboy" - quite possibly the most atrocious Murrikan accents I've heard in my life.
Aussies and Kiwis, generally yes.
Aussies/Kiwis and South African, yes.
Canuks and border dwelling Murricans....difficult most of the time but I guess if you lived on the border then you'd be able to spot it a mile off.
Canuk and "Received Pronounciation" Murrican ( if such a thing exists) I would say yes. The Canadian pronounciation is much tighter and the vowels shorter...in general!
Debs x )
I have also had people ask me if I am from
.....and c) Russia!!!!
Me too!!!! :lol: I took it (lightheartedly) as an insult as I envisioned a butch, buxom, Russian short-putter-type female. :o However, I have since seen pics of Russian girls on various websites (those who are looking for American boyfriends/husbands) and they're all gorgeous! Therefore, my conclusion is that we're gorgeous, deb, that's why we've been asked if we're Russian! :wink: :lol:
Then they have the nerve to get offended when you say that you can't tell the difference between the American accent and the Canadian one. Although I am starting to recognise the difference.
Actually, thats a good comeback when someone says "Oh, I thought you were Australian" - "Well, thats OK, a lot of Canadians make that mistake"....
D
Being a Londoner I get the Australian thing a lot too. After they feel like they offended me I say you could have done worse, I could be from New Zealand. I then explain to them that the Aussie accent originates from London which explains their near miss.
I wll use the Canadian thing in the future, adeshell, I like that one.
I once had a girl ask me if I was French. French! It was a rather sheltered part of hicksville. It reminded me of the DiGiorno TV commercial.
As for different accents over here, I can distinguish a "normal" Canadian accent from a US one, although Wisconsin and UP Michigan comes pretty close. Just ask someone you suspect to be from WI to say "code". I have no idea how they shape their mouth for that, I could never imitate it. I can usually pick out a Minnesota accent too. Elsewhere I can pick out a New England accent, a NYC one, and a southern one, and that's about it. I have spent a lot of time in various states too, but have not been able to tell them apart.
Final thought from me for a moment...
It would be difficult for an American to tell the difference between UK regional accents when they don't know the country at all. They stumble over the whole E+W+S=GB. GB+NI=UK thing like it is advanced algebra.
Come to think of it they don't know their own country that well. Michigan barely exists and is often nothing more than a smear on outline maps (taking the political border through the middle of the lakes rather than the land ones), while most people know Detroit, few know Michigan, and this carries over into what we as foreigners learn about the US. Anyone see the Frank Caliendo Madden skit where he is presenting election information and he calls Illinois Chicago etc? I think the only one I get mixed up like that is Omaha Nebraska, cos there's nothing there to know it for...
Ah..... being a londoner as well, I get the aussie thing as well, and the occassional south african/ kiwi. Those that have travelled out, know the accent, and the ones from the boonies, just don't have a clue
Being a Londoner I get the Australian thing a lot too. After they feel like they offended me I say you could have done worse, I could be from New Zealand. I then explain to them that the Aussie accent originates from London which explains their near miss.
I wll use the Canadian thing in the future, adeshell, I like that one.
I once had a girl ask me if I was French. French! It was a rather sheltered part of hicksville. It reminded me of the DiGiorno TV commercial.
Us West Country people truly throw many Americans.
One problem is that with our long vowels (ohh arr me darrhlin') we sound a bit American to start with. This makes for some difficult explainations -- "oh, but you've lost some of your accent" "no, actually, I've kept it, it's just a bit like yours . . ."
Also, they are convinced, perhaps not without reason, that we sound Irish. It is true that there are few elements in the west country accent that sound Irish; in fact, I've even had English people think that I am Irish, before and after I moved over here, but even more so now that my accent HAS picked up a bit of American, which probably makes me sound, to some ears a bit like an Irish Bostonian (which is odd given that I've only spent about 36 hours total in Boston).
I love accents and was fortunate enough to study Linguistics in college with a professor who was passionate about them. One of our exams was actually a listening exercise where we had to identify about 40 different English accents and write a few lines about what technical aspects of the accent gave it away. By the way, per his scientific analysis it is absolutely clear that there is indeed greater accent variation in the United Kingdom than in any other English speaking country (it's not just that we are more familar with it so hear it more than others do).
So last night, as the door to door salesman realised I was not going to buy his product, he quit trying to sell me stuff and we had a bit of a chit chat.
Him "So, I hear you are not from around here"
Me "Nope, could you tell that this is not a Mid West accent"
Him "hahaha, well I can tell that you are from Australia, I am really good at differentiating foreign accents"
Me (rolling my eyes)"yes, wow how did you guess, you are so clever, I am from Australia roll "
So I decided to play this lie along a little, as he was so sure of himself, but then he laid into how people often confuse the British and Australian accent, but only a fool would not know the difference. And to dig himself deeper into his ever expanding hole, he went on to slag off the Brits, as spending all of their days drinking and having no culture.
I let him rattle on for a little bit, laughing to myself, and then he left.
I have decided that from now on, if people tell me where my accent is from, I will just agree, and see where it takes me.
Gave me a whole ton of laughs last night )
lol Michelle - that was funny