Additional context:

Native speakers of my mother tongue do not all understand each other due to some pretty extreme dialects. Now that I’m in Europe, I’ve noticed multiple instances of people sometimes not understand the dialect of someone from a village 10-20 km away…

In contrast, for example most American, British, and Australian people can just… understand each other like that?? I never thought much about it before but it’s pretty incredible

Edit: thanks everyone, and clearly I didn’t think of certain parts of the UK when I was in the shower and thought of this…

  • AreaKode@lemmy.world
    57·
    1 个月前

    I live in the US Midwest with almost no accent. Anytime I go somewhere where people have strong accents, my brain really has to work to understand them. It’ll take a couple of days of immersion before I really start to understand people.

      • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
        134·
        1 个月前

        Midwest is classic “broadcast English”. It’s considered an almost neutral accent without a strong sense of place associated with it.

        • Luke@lemmy.mlEnglish
          161·
          1 个月前

          A so-called “neutral accent” is still an accent.

          • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            1 个月前

            I never really understood it until I met people from Iowa for the first time. They didn’t have an accent in the way that San Diego doesn’t have weather, just a climate.

          • iltoroargento@lemmy.sdf.org
            5·
            1 个月前

            Yeah lol I will agree that it’s less heavy of an accent, for the most part, but most people can still tell unless you literally talk like a news anchor. Same with West Coast accents tbh.

        • tourist@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 个月前

          “Broadcast English”

          Interesting term

          I’ve always noticed that In movies and TV shows, North American accents mostly sound “normal”. But when I talk to Americans/Canadians in person or online over voice chat, I cannot pinpoint the accents, it just sounds “American” to me.

          I almost never hear the

          “I’m walkin here”

          “Folks won’t take kindly to you around these parts”

          “I pahked my cah at the Hahvahd yahd”

          “I’m sorey aboot that”

          I’m totally down, I just need to, like, check my schedule?

          etc.

          kinds of exaggerated accents

          everyone sounds like someone from CNN to me and then they say they’re from Arkansas or something

            • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
              2·
              1 个月前

              Never really. Mid-Atlantic was taught in elocution lessons but didn’t really exist outside film and theatre.

              • FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish
                1·
                1 个月前

                Oh I actually thought the comment I replied to replied to your comment about broadcast English xD

              • Triasha@lemmy.world
                1·
                1 个月前

                I thought it was native to wealthy families from Jersey/Virginia/Maryland. People that grew up in Martha’s vineyard.

                • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
                  2·
                  1 个月前

                  Only if they copied the movies. Stewie in the Family Guy speaks in a Mid-Atlantic accent which is why he pronounces his H’s etc.

                • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  1 个月前

                  I’ve always preferred calling it “trans-atlantic” to avoid confusion with that “Mid-Atlantic Region” of the US which is on the East Coast roughly from New Jersey down to Virginia, maybe even the very northern Coastal parts of North Carolina. Some people include New York/NYC but I can’t agree. Ok, maybe parts of New York bordering Pennsylvania.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 个月前

        When I first did tech support 30 years ago, I could nail what state an American was calling from, but not the Midwest, all same same.