Have you still got the Accent?

[rubydazzler]

But most Brits don't even know that Hawaii an American state either

Hopefully, we 'Brits' aren't quite as thick as you hope we are ...I think we know more than you think ... I thought everyone knew that about Hawaii ... and Alaska too!

 

Anyway, was I right about the American border? You're allowed to google if you're not sure

[buck]

Brits can't tell the difference between an American and Canadian accent, they think it's all the same country too

We all know over here that a house in Canada is a hoose, and they say "eh" at the end of every sentence. Many Americans think I'm Irish, though I still have the Sheffield accent I left with 40 years ago. Maybe my wife's County Clare accent got into my voice a bit. My cousin Ernie came to visit a while ago and his accent was pure Attercliffe. A waitress in a local restaurant asked him if he was Norwegian!!

[Harleyman]

Vermont accents sound Canadian too, well the ones I know do, they live near the Canadian border, that could account for it.

 

But most Brits don't even know that Hawaii an American state either

 

A lot of Vermonters are of French Canadian descent also. I had a girl friend who lived in Burlington who also spoke French.

 

Hawaii? Where's that? :hihi:

[Harleyman]

We all know over here that a house in Canada is a hoose, and they say "eh" at the end of every sentence. Many Americans think I'm Irish, though I still have the Sheffield accent I left with 40 years ago. Maybe my wife's County Clare accent got into my voice a bit. My cousin Ernie came to visit a while ago and his accent was pure Attercliffe. A waitress in a local restaurant asked him if he was Norwegian!!

 

Americans are very poor at detecting the origins of accents. In my time I've been asked if my accent is Irish, Scots, Australian:huh: and one guy even flat out said I was German (sounded like one and looked like one he said)

 

I was in a JC Penny store a couple of years ago and asked a salesman where the sports department was.

"What part of Sheffield you from?' He asked He was from Frecheville and picked up the accent after I had spoken less than 6 words. Quite amazing I thought.

[Harleyman]

Nowhere is the connection with "the old country" stronger than in Newfoundland, Glos. I spent 26 years there. Until the late '70s the provincial flag was the union jack. They tend to have a distorted view of the size of the place though, as I'd often be asked if I knew an acquaintance of theirs living in London, Manchester, or wherever.

 

Now, to correct Harleyman. Nova Scotians don't have an irish accent. You are probably thinking of Newfoundlanders and only then in certain regions of the province, such as the "southern Shore" immediately south of the capital St John's. As for the other pronounciations, 'aboot" etc., never heard of the likes of them either, eh. Whoever told you that must have been pulling your boot, I mean leg, "me boyo." Now that really is a Newfie expression.

 

You're quite right rogG about the Newfoundland accent. My mistake. But I do remember that Canadian way of saying "aboot" or "hoos" during the time I lived in Montreal for "aboot" one year

 

The French Canadian way of speaking French sounds nothing like the French spoken in France. I was told that the Canadian French was the way it was spoken in Brittany and Normandy back in the 16th and 17th centuries.

[pattricia]

I've lived in the States about 40 odd years now, everyone here hears my yorkshire accent, they say it's still there, but when I go back to Sheffield to visit my family thinks I speak American I don't hear it at all, in fact my Yorkshire accent gets even stronger (I think) after being back in Sheffield just a few days.

 

Even listening to my answer machine I don't hear a trace of an American accent one bit, but a Brit would

 

Yes, youve still got an American accent dear !!

[soft ayperth]

You're quite right rogG about the Newfoundland accent. My mistake. But I do remember that Canadian way of saying "aboot" or "hoos" during the time I lived in Montreal for "aboot" one year

 

The French Canadian way of speaking French sounds nothing like the French spoken in France. I was told that the Canadian French was the way it was spoken in Brittany and Normandy back in the 16th and 17th centuries.

 

I'd forgotten about Quebec, Harleyman. Quebecois pronounciation of English can be strange because their first language is French. And you're absolutely right that they speak an ancient variety of French quite different from that spoken in Paris. They also have a mix of anglo words scattered in there. They like it if you try speaking to them in French first. Most times when I tried it, they'd speak back to me in English, appreciating the effort I'd made but being tactfully honest about the quality of it. A bit off the Sheffield track, but just commenting on a point made.

[Texas]

Regarding this question of accents. When a person moves away from Sheffield it becomes clear that he can't 'thee and thou' as he once did. So, he has to modify his way of speaking a little. That means South of Sheffield I might add, or another English speaking country.

Then after a while comes the big test. Do you want to retain your original way of speaking(minus the 'thee and thouing') or do you want to aquire your adopted country's/other place in England's, way of speaking. I found that a lot of people who move to the States or Canada go for the second option intentionally. A girl I once went out with moved to the States, lived there for 6 months and came back sounding like 'Mama Cass.

Two other people I know have lived in Canada for 40 years or more. One of them sounds Canadian, the other sounds like the Scot he is.

So I think it's a question of choice, do you want to lose your mother accent or aquire another. Somebody's going to kill me for this.

[soft ayperth]

That's partly true, Texas. Some people lose their accent intentionally. Some accents are more difficult than others to lose though. I've not met too many folk from Glasgow who have lost their accent. It's so ingrained and you can spot it a mile away. I also think that with some folk losing an accent is at least part unintentional, the ear picking up the sound and tuning the voice accordingly. In my case, like you say, I had to drop the thees and thous or people would have thought I was from a different century. Beyond that, the sharp edges wore off effortlessly.

[Janet Olsen]

I have lived in Australia for thirty five years & still have my yorkshire accent & most other Yorkshire people I have met in Oz also still have their accent. You do have to adapt to some extent but only in actual words for example imagine my horror when at work one day someone (an Aussie) asked me to pass them the DUREX. When I recovered my composure and said I could see any durex they informed me I was looking at it.....turned out to be the cellotape. Another Queensland word I think is the word duchess meaning dressing table.

I have trouble making people understand if it is Ham or Lamb I am asking for & I remeber asking for a CD once by a band called DRAGON & after about the 5 th time of her trying to understand what I was saying my daughter intervened & pronounced the word DRAGON in the Aussie wasy which appeared to be DRAAAAAAgon.

So you do learn to adapt a little

There are other funny things that can happen as well which I wont go into too much but my mother on arrival here stated she would have to root through her handbag to find something & was very quickly advised rooting here most certainly had a different meaning & to be carefiul how she used the word.