I don't know if everyone will find this post interesting but I'm always interested in different dialects and... well some interesting things happen to accents when you ship across the pond.
Accents are funny things. They give away social and geographic location, culture (to some extent), and general generally reflect an understanding of self (New Yorkers who took pride in the flair their dialect gave their rants for example). I've always been fascinated by accents, specifically in how they move and change in some ways but don't change in others. This meant of course, that I'm having a field day over here, specifically because the city of Durham has a rather international flavor due to the University and while English is obviously the dominant language it is spoken in dozens of different ways. However, in all of this cacophony of sounds my favorite group though is the Americans and the ways in which our American English merges with different British dialects creating an odd linguistic mutt.
Read the rest...
Now, this obviously isn't a big difference, we share a large majority of the same vocabulary and patterns but its amusing to watch Americans come over and to see our dialects change, some slightly, some much more so. Two people I really enjoy listening to are our curate and another American youth worker in the city. The curate (an entry level pastor) is originally from Texas and then moved to somewhere outside of DC for many years (20 or so I think) and has now been here for nearly ten. So her accent is a cross of between Texan, with some mid-east coast tones, and then these random nuggets of 'Britishism' thrown in. And how she speaks varies in each context, sentence to sentence, and sometimes even within the same sentence. So its not at all uncommon for her to sound straight from the heart of Texas (with the full on twang and all) only to insert a word she says with a distinctly British tone.
Take the phrase "Now, y'all are going to celebrate holy communion with the body of Christ."
Which sounds more like, "Naw, y'all are gonna celebrate ho-oly communion with the body(sounding more like 'buddy' rhyming with fuddy) of Christ." When she first said something like that (I don't know if I ever heard her say that exact phrase) I chuckled to myself (does this make me a bad person?), because I find that shift from texan to BBC English funny. This habit gets me into trouble sometimes because I'm trying not to giggle as she is addressing serious matters. But I love the way she says 'autumn' because... well it feels so unnatural for her but she says it anyway.
The other person works with youth and so not only has she picked up nuggets of British english but she also picks up youth slang. What's even better, in my opinion, is that this girl is from Louisiana and carries around her linguistic origins. Her voice mail sounds straight out of Baton Rouge but when I talk to her there is that same juxtaposition between BBC English and the southern draw. When I first met her I felt like I was playing dialect ping-pong, because she would flip from the sugary sweet southern draw to (an indelibly british way of) saying 'rubbish.' So phrases like, 'She's sweet, bless her heart... too bad she's rubbish.' (Where the rubbish goes up a couple of steps on the 'bish' part, like she's just seen a mouse and jumped.) I love it, great fun.
Our own accents have changed some as well, though I think significantly less than some people, but changed none-the-less. I think this comes across most in intonation and the phrasing we use. Small things, but they put the emphasis (em-PHA-sis) is in a different place often here... and so you change to accommodate that. Its feels weird to know the way you speak is changing but its kind of exciting as well.
Two final thoughts:
1) I'm still amazed that I occasionally run across people I can barely (and sometimes can't) understand despite the common language. I know this happens in the US as well, some southern draws are hard to pick out (Boomhouzer from King of the Hill) but I didn't really think about it till I heard some Geordies talking recently.
2) A moment of personal confession, I'm afraid of talking to people on the phone because I lose track of a surprisingly large amount of what they say. Its embarrassing to not be able to understanding someone who speaks perfect English (and proper English, easily understandable in other contexts) but I have a hard time over the phone. When I was called and told I got the post I have now I was incredibly excited... except I wasn't entirely sure that's what he said until a few minutes later in the conversation. oops!
Accents are funny things. They give away social and geographic location, culture (to some extent), and general generally reflect an understanding of self (New Yorkers who took pride in the flair their dialect gave their rants for example). I've always been fascinated by accents, specifically in how they move and change in some ways but don't change in others. This meant of course, that I'm having a field day over here, specifically because the city of Durham has a rather international flavor due to the University and while English is obviously the dominant language it is spoken in dozens of different ways. However, in all of this cacophony of sounds my favorite group though is the Americans and the ways in which our American English merges with different British dialects creating an odd linguistic mutt.
Read the rest...
Now, this obviously isn't a big difference, we share a large majority of the same vocabulary and patterns but its amusing to watch Americans come over and to see our dialects change, some slightly, some much more so. Two people I really enjoy listening to are our curate and another American youth worker in the city. The curate (an entry level pastor) is originally from Texas and then moved to somewhere outside of DC for many years (20 or so I think) and has now been here for nearly ten. So her accent is a cross of between Texan, with some mid-east coast tones, and then these random nuggets of 'Britishism' thrown in. And how she speaks varies in each context, sentence to sentence, and sometimes even within the same sentence. So its not at all uncommon for her to sound straight from the heart of Texas (with the full on twang and all) only to insert a word she says with a distinctly British tone.
Take the phrase "Now, y'all are going to celebrate holy communion with the body of Christ."
Which sounds more like, "Naw, y'all are gonna celebrate ho-oly communion with the body(sounding more like 'buddy' rhyming with fuddy) of Christ." When she first said something like that (I don't know if I ever heard her say that exact phrase) I chuckled to myself (does this make me a bad person?), because I find that shift from texan to BBC English funny. This habit gets me into trouble sometimes because I'm trying not to giggle as she is addressing serious matters. But I love the way she says 'autumn' because... well it feels so unnatural for her but she says it anyway.
The other person works with youth and so not only has she picked up nuggets of British english but she also picks up youth slang. What's even better, in my opinion, is that this girl is from Louisiana and carries around her linguistic origins. Her voice mail sounds straight out of Baton Rouge but when I talk to her there is that same juxtaposition between BBC English and the southern draw. When I first met her I felt like I was playing dialect ping-pong, because she would flip from the sugary sweet southern draw to (an indelibly british way of) saying 'rubbish.' So phrases like, 'She's sweet, bless her heart... too bad she's rubbish.' (Where the rubbish goes up a couple of steps on the 'bish' part, like she's just seen a mouse and jumped.) I love it, great fun.
Our own accents have changed some as well, though I think significantly less than some people, but changed none-the-less. I think this comes across most in intonation and the phrasing we use. Small things, but they put the emphasis (em-PHA-sis) is in a different place often here... and so you change to accommodate that. Its feels weird to know the way you speak is changing but its kind of exciting as well.
Two final thoughts:
1) I'm still amazed that I occasionally run across people I can barely (and sometimes can't) understand despite the common language. I know this happens in the US as well, some southern draws are hard to pick out (Boomhouzer from King of the Hill) but I didn't really think about it till I heard some Geordies talking recently.
2) A moment of personal confession, I'm afraid of talking to people on the phone because I lose track of a surprisingly large amount of what they say. Its embarrassing to not be able to understanding someone who speaks perfect English (and proper English, easily understandable in other contexts) but I have a hard time over the phone. When I was called and told I got the post I have now I was incredibly excited... except I wasn't entirely sure that's what he said until a few minutes later in the conversation. oops!
3 comments:
Josh, I completely empathise with you there. We found that exactly same thing happened to our accents when we were living in the States. I think we took a certain pride over it in fact, but then had to be careful to revert to "proper" (!) English when we came home! Gerard and I still use some American phrases between ourselves and with our former ex-pat friends. I will have to think of some of my favourites to tell you another time. What is really intersting is that when I write to you or Megan, I even find myself THINKING in a semi-American (pronounced sem-eye of course) accent and am more inclined to write in one! Weird...
Just so long as you don't lose your Michigan accent.
Did you notice the funny Dutch inflection/cadence Amber throws in sometimes? It makes me laugh.
--Lindsey
I find myself rather aware of accents and I used to have a rather strong Michigan accent and dropped most of it during college, though I'll make sure to hold onto the bits n' bobs I still have.
Emma, oddly enough when I read your comment semi-american was distinctly not American (sem-ie) though Megan read it as sem-eye. Funny...
Also I was recently back in the states and found myself searching for the proper terms and fighting urges to call a bathroom/restroom a toliet/loo... weird.
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