• cynar@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    I had a friend who worked at a wine shop. He was also 1/4 french, though with no accent at all.

    Some other friends went in to see him at work. They found it hilarious that he had this excessive french accent. It turned out he did it as a joke 6 months before, and got a good reaction from customers. His subconscious apparently ran with this, without his notice. The more he racked it up, the better the customers respected his opinions on wine. He was, however, completely unaware he was doing it!

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    18 days ago

    You’re kidding, but the “posh” accent of the British upper classes is to a greater or lesser extent trained rather than merely acquired when one is learning the language as a child.

    Also people with regional accents often actively make an effort to change their accent to RP (aka the BBC accent) when they move to places like London, though I supposed that’s pretty common the World over when people whose regional accents are from places deemed “provincial” move to the big cities in more prosperous regions.

    Oh, and immigrants, I almost forgot immigrants: many people with foreign accents do make a lot of effort to speak the local language with the local accent. In fact, for many immigrants in Britain this joke is pretty close to reality.

    So there’s actually a drop of truth in the joke.

    • marzhall@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Doubtless accurate, even here in the US I grew up in an area that pronounces water “wuhter”, and had to unlearn that when I moved to a city where that would confuse people. That said, I also picked up “y’all” from a friend in college, so it’s a mixed bag.

      But when I visit home for a week and come back, definitely some "wuhter"s slip out before I get back into full city mode.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        18 days ago

        That said, I also picked up “y’all” from a friend in college, so it’s a mixed bag.

        When I went to live in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) as an immigrant from Portugal I actually picked up the version of the Dutch “good morning” (“goedemorgen”) from the south of the country even though I was living in Amsterdam (totally opposite side of the country) because some colleagues in the first company I worked in and were I started to learn Dutch, said it like that (it was pretty much the first Dutch word I learned).

        After a while there learning the language and Dutch customs I eventually figured out I was saying good morning with basically a farmer accent from the south, by I just kept doing if for fun plus by then I abused the shit out of what I called the “foreigner excuse” (you can have tons of fun knowingly humouristically “misunderstanding” local expressions and “misusing” their language and if the joke falls flat get away with it because the locals hear your accent and think “just a foreigner, doesn’t know our language well”).

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        I grew up in an area that pronounces water “wuhter”

        the linguist in me wants to to make a map of how everyone pronounces wohter now

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      though I supposed that’s pretty common the World over when people whose regional accents are from places deemed “provincial” move to the big cities in more prosperous regions

      in statesia, a lot of what people consider a “southern” accent is just a rural drawl. when you move to the city you talk like the people you see on TV

  • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    I totally drop my southern accent at home. I only use when I’m out just in case a tourist hears me. Don’t want them to be disappointed.

  • Agent641@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Australians only do the accent when foreigners are around. With each other, the accent goes away and the Quokkas can be carnivorous again.

  • Psythik@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    I feel like this mainly applies to Scottish people. I mean the mere fact that they spell the way they speak means that they’re aware that they’re pronouncing everything incorrectly, yet they still do the accent anyway.

    The way they have to put so much effort into every word they pronounce seems extremely tiring and stressful on the vocal cords; I wouldn’t blame them for dropping the act once they’re safe and sound at home.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    Something I noticed recently about languages is that there’s three main sets of “settings”: the alphabet (or how letters map to sounds), the vocabulary (how to string letters together to form words that map to meanings), and grammar (how to legally combine words to express thoughts).

    An interesting part about the alphabet is that there’s two angles to it: the writing part and the spoken part. Many languages share most of the writing part with english (eg french, spanish, german) but sharing the spoken part is rarer. In fact, different regions that speak the same language can use different letter sounds. That’s what an accent is, or at least a big part of it (cadence and emphasis can also make the same language sound different).

    Anyways, this felt profound to me when I realized it but now I’m curious if this was obvious to people more inclined to the language side of learning for why people have accents.

    • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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      18 days ago

      English is a mess because the characters don’t match the sounds used in many words. Like tough vs though. Which Is different to say Serbian, or most other languages where the letter always has the same sound.

      But accents are slightly different than different letter sounds aswell

      For example you can have people with the same accent speak different sounds on words. Like a person that says the herb as Bayzil compared to somebody that says Bahsil, even with same accent.

  • Tomtits@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    19 days ago

    Do they really think we all speak RP?

    I’m from the North East, if I go to see my lass down in Manchester there are numerous different accents and the name of bread buns changes five times

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      It’s common in the US too, given the mashup of different cultures here. I use a different accent depending on whether I’m talking to a black person, a white person, a Latino, a native American, etc. It’s called Code Switching and most people from around the world do it without even realizing it because everyone wants to fit in (however some of us with autism might think it’s silly and refuse; it really depends on the person as to whether or not you do it).