American with a sprinkle of Canadian, Michiginian (seriously separate form of English), English (to confuse people), with Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, German, and Hawai'ian thrown in to confuse.
TEG
TEG
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Do you use British English, American or some different kind of English?
- Thread starter kabunaru
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Oh and then of course there is that very special standard of English as spoke by Brian Sewell posher than the Queen
That man sounds so theatrical and affected...it's incredible. It reminds me of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes.
Early Modern English or Shakespearean English sounds more romantic and poetic to me than Modern English (either British or American).
As long as you can learn to sing Handel's Messiah with proper diction what does it matter what "brand" of English you normally speak?
As long as you can learn to sing Handel's Messiah with proper diction what does it matter what "brand" of English you normally speak?
I guess the appropriate response to that would be
"Hallelujah!"
I guess this could be the standard English accent of modern era:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3G618-hxgA
That's the way that English is supposed to be spoken I guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3G618-hxgA
That's the way that English is supposed to be spoken I guess.
I speak California English, which I guess is like American English, we just sprinkle "dude" , "awesome" in the sentences here and there. Sometimes it sounds a bit like Valspeak.
California English
Valspeak
California English
Valspeak
Since we're talking about accents, I thought I might as well share this:
I speak English with an English accent of course and I've been living in Taiwan (Chinese speaking as I'm sure you all know) and the one thing about this country is that 80% of all English teachers here are north American, and not only so people speak American English here they talk like Americans too... Talking to anyone here I often hear 'oh I love your 'British' accent'.. and then having to explain why there's no such thing!
But the worst part of this is, Chinese speaking ears are highly tuned to the 'tones' of Chinese speech meaning if you say something only very slightly wrong in Chinese, your speech becomes indecipherable.
So going into Starbucks shortly after I got here (I can speak the lingo now but before....) and asking for my chosen coffee blend.. the waitress asks 'hot or iced'. I of course reply in an English accent 'hot'. She looks confused and says 'haaht'? Yeah, 'hot' I replied. 'whaat haaht?'. Still confused up until I decided to give up and just reply 'haaht' just so I could get things moving!
Another one just yesterday, I was speaking to a very American speaking Taiwanese and telling her that I 'can't come' to this thing she wanted me to do [as in 'caahnt' in English accent] and again, she didnt understand what I said, I had to reply [EngAcc: 'CAAHNT.. CAN NOT... CAAHNT COME'] she eventually replied 'oh you KEANT, CAN NAAHT come, oh, ok' and she actually put me on hold to take the mick.... unbelievable!
I have plenty more.....
I speak English with an English accent of course and I've been living in Taiwan (Chinese speaking as I'm sure you all know) and the one thing about this country is that 80% of all English teachers here are north American, and not only so people speak American English here they talk like Americans too... Talking to anyone here I often hear 'oh I love your 'British' accent'.. and then having to explain why there's no such thing!
But the worst part of this is, Chinese speaking ears are highly tuned to the 'tones' of Chinese speech meaning if you say something only very slightly wrong in Chinese, your speech becomes indecipherable.
So going into Starbucks shortly after I got here (I can speak the lingo now but before....) and asking for my chosen coffee blend.. the waitress asks 'hot or iced'. I of course reply in an English accent 'hot'. She looks confused and says 'haaht'? Yeah, 'hot' I replied. 'whaat haaht?'. Still confused up until I decided to give up and just reply 'haaht' just so I could get things moving!
Another one just yesterday, I was speaking to a very American speaking Taiwanese and telling her that I 'can't come' to this thing she wanted me to do [as in 'caahnt' in English accent] and again, she didnt understand what I said, I had to reply [EngAcc: 'CAAHNT.. CAN NOT... CAAHNT COME'] she eventually replied 'oh you KEANT, CAN NAAHT come, oh, ok' and she actually put me on hold to take the mick.... unbelievable!
I have plenty more.....
Nice to see we're spreading American English around. If I go overseas I waaahnt people to be able to understaaand me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_English
Appalachian English!
American by birth, Southern by the grace of god!
YEE HAW
ok seriously though, this is a pretty accurate article.
Appalachian English!
American by birth, Southern by the grace of god!
YEE HAW
ok seriously though, this is a pretty accurate article.
I'm sorry, but they are all English accents, when talking in international terms. Unless you profess that there are no national accents at all.
There is also a generic English accent.
I think every country (English speaking) has a generic accent. Like Aussie, or American or English.
I mean a perceived English accent isn't Scouse, Cockney or Geordie. The smae with American, it's not Bostonian or New Yorker (sorry, I don't know or am unaware of what you'd call this accents in slang).
Is the Trans-atlantic Accent the South African accent? I heard that South African accent is the most neutral accent of the English language.
Nice to see we're spreading American English around. If I go overseas I waaahnt people to be able to understaaand me.
Wait, why is this a good thing? In this day and age, it shouldn't really make much difference...but why, besides our perceived superiority to everyone in the world, is it a better thing for us to spread an incorrect malformation of the English language to somewhere in the world as compared to any other form of it?
There is nothing incorrect about American English - or do you think we should all speak like the Queen? Now you're beginning to sound like the French with their Academy trying to tell them how to speak their own language...
There is nothing incorrect about American English - or do you think we should all speak like the Queen? Now you're beginning to sound like the French with their Academy trying to tell them how to speak their own language...
When I say "Incorrect malformation," I was making the point that English English is the closest to original English, and is where the language is originated from (thus "English"), and Americans changed the language a lot for whatever reason. My only question was why it is such a great thing to be spreading American English as compared to other forms of English, when American English is technically less correct, historically. As much as it sounds like it, I do not want to make it sound like I think everyone should spell/speak English English, I was just curious about the American English thing being so great.
I'm American, by the way. Born and raised.
Well, by that reasoning we should be spreading Old English - after all, it was the original version of the language upon which everything else is based...
Historically, aside from spelling, which was invented to make teaching easier the US, American is actually closer sounding to historic English than English. This is due to major vowel shifts in England due to influence from Europe and several lower dialects becoming standards (like scouse).
TEG
Once again: I wasn't saying we should be spreading any other form of English. I was asking why it's a better thing to spread American English than other forms?
Edit: I do think it's a good thing, by the way, for kids to learn a lot about Old English. That's why kids still study works by Shakespeare and many greats of the older ages.
Fair enough. I don't know that much about language, so you could very well be right. I'm an American who uses British spelling, but I don't care if anyone uses American English - it's not like it's a life-threatening decision for me. I was just a bit weirded out by the statement (which I very well could be misinterpreting, and if I am completely missing, I apologise) that it's a good thing we're spreading American English (as opposed to any form of English/other forms).
TEG said:
I lolled when I read this
I'm from Michigan, and English people like to make fun of my "accent" The beauty of the English language is that it changes, adopts and adds new words. We really don't want to go back to Old English of Anglo-Saxon times; 'The Canterbury Tales' was difficult enough to read, never mind 'Beowulf'!