HUZZAH! Banned from Rentech.com!
ZephyrZodiac:
Actually, we say, "next Tuesday week" here in the UK, so it wouldn't sound odd to us! What I find interesting is that a lot of expressions in current use in parts of the US were current in 18thC english but have died out here. One that comes to mind is "I have been here these three weeks", which I believe is still used in some US regions.
Hook:
The English you hear on TV is "midwestern" and is considered unaccented. I have no idea how people in the midwest actually talk. :) For those who think midwestern is an "accent," do network newscasters have such a thick accent you can't understand them? :D At least they don't have to have subtitles like some of the people in the stories they report on.
There's nothing wrong with ElviraGoth's post. My mother and I moved to Texas from Pennsylvania when I was 7 and I had all the same problems. And I *never* wanted to pick up that "horrible" accent! Yeah, yeah.... eventually I did.
I married a Texas girl. I was in the US Army stationed in Germany at the time. When she flew to join me, she knew she'd have language problems in Germany, but when she had a layover at the airport in New York, she couldn't understand a thing people there said.
After being away from Texas for a couple of years, I lost most of the accent. The only time I had the accent was when I was very tired. It was really interesting because when I was tired I could *hear* myself talking with an accent.
We've both lost our Texas accents over the years from living in other places, even though we've been back in Texas for over 20 years. It was amusing to play an audio tape my wife had sent me before we were married, and compare her thick drawl then with her current speech (that was about 5 years after she left Texas).
Hook
laeshanin:
Quote from: reggikko on 2005 August 16, 11:43:33
Ah, the old misplaced apostrophe. It is the bane of my existence. The thing that gets me is that it isn't even one of the crazy rules of English. Plural? Yes? No apostrophe! Easy, right? It's bad enough when it's used on a sign that was handwritten for someone's garage sale. At the Palace Theater near my house, the sign on the custodian's door says "Janitor's Only". Doesn't someone check these things?
Mostly those that have no idea about possession or contraction, I think.
Interesting about the accents. I'm from the Midlands (UK) and have very little accent, according to the people I work/live with, but as someone pointed out, the minute you remove yourself from the local area someone will immediately point a finger and go "oooh, you're from Brum, aren't ya". Brummie accents are considered to be the most unattractive in the UK, even more so than Black Country (Dudley/Walsall, so called because of the industrialisation of the area, mining etc). I can, however do a very good West Country and Manc accent which confuses people. :)
ZephyrZodiac:
Well, Brummie may be considered unattractive, but at least most people can understand it! And I've found that Brummies themselves are among the friendliest people in the UK, as goes for the Midlands generally. Stand in a bus queue for an hour in London, and you're lucky if anyone talks to you, stand in one for five minutes in the Midlands and you can be chatting to a perfect stranger as if you've known them all your life!
reggikko:
Quote from: Kitiara on 2005 August 18, 03:05:35
Reggikko - Did you have a problem with the previous post too?
First off, I'll admit I've been in a pissy mood lately. :D
Secondly, as a Southerner, my hackles get raised sometimes when I feel like people are equating a southern accent with stupidity. I'm not saying that was Elvira's intent, but my pissyness took it that way. I guess it comes from years of Yankees coming down here and telling us what to do. We can be prideful and stubborn and sometimes we may lay the accent on even thicker just to flummox you. <wink>
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