My god man, you folks have to get some national TV announcers showing the rest of your countrymen how things are pronounced. I think the TV network news did a lot to standardize the desirable accent over here. What you've got would drive me batty! Regards, Bob S.
On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 5:08 PM, mike wilson <[email protected]> wrote: > On 05/05/2011 20:28, Bob W wrote: >>> >>> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of >>> Boris Liberman >> >> >>> On 5/5/2011 16:55, mike wilson wrote: >>>> >>>> Southern Scotland. That's not bad for a native speaker to understand. >>>> Here's a selection of more extreme versions from the same area. >>>> http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rab+c+nesbitt&aq=f >>> >>> Hmmm. I think you live relatively close to there, right (*)? >> >> Mike lives in the part of England that has probably the most impenetrable >> accent of all. >> >> People here like Scottish accents, although the chap in the BBC video has >> a >> rather difficult one - Glasgow, I think, like Rab C Nesbit. But people >> with >> Scottish accents are much sought after to work on telephone help desks. >> It's >> probably something to do with the way they pronounce "See you, Jimmy". >> >>> Also, I >>> suppose you meant to say "non-native speaker" if you were referring to >>> me. But I appreciate the slip of your tongue :-). >>> >> >> Plenty of native English speakers struggle with some of the regional >> accents. Especially people from the South, but I was barred from a pub in >> Manchester once because the landlord didn't like my accent. >> >>> One of the popular science programs here has a presenter that always >>> raises his voice towards the end of the sentences. He sounds vaguely >>> similar to this accent except that his is perfectly clear. Well, he's a >>> popular science program presenter after all. >>> >> >> Send a Youtube link if you can find one. It'd be interesting to hear. The >> rising intonation is a new thing to British English, having come here from >> New Zealand within the last 20 or so years, and is generally restricted to >> young women. Maybe your presenter is not British. >> >> The British Library has an interesting archive of regional accents. This >> is >> what Mike Wilson sounds like: >> <http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/england/byker/> > > I actually live no more than ten miles away from there and the accent is > this different: > http://www.bl.uk/learning/resources/sounds/mp3/world-map/england/sunderland-canny.mp3 > > A few miles further south and you get: > http://www.bl.uk/learning/resources/sounds/mp3/world-map/england/cockfield-fell.mp3 > > Whereas go the same distance west and: > http://www.bl.uk/learning/resources/sounds/mp3/world-map/england/whitfield-gan.mp3 > > The one from the north doesn't seem to be working: > http://www.bl.uk/learning/resources/sounds/mp3/world-map/england/england/holy-island-granda.mp3 > > There are people I know who claim to be able to place a person to the part > of the village they were brought up in, by their accent. > >> >> B >> >>> Wondrous, wondrous indeed. >>> >>> (*) No hint, no pun, nothing, merely pointing out something that >>> occurred to me. >> >> >> >> > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
