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ahh mistakes with accents . . . Waiting in line at a museum in Northern Ireland (Derry) we were chatting with the canadians in line in front of us. We started talking to them after hearing their canadian accents. The woman at the register asked them what part of the states they were from
That's an easy one to confuse in many cases, depending on what part of either of the two countries a person is from. My husband is Canadian and at least 8 times out of 10 gets asked if he's American or what part of America he's from. I suppose some Canadians might get offended (don't know why) but he doesn't at all. I can tell the difference between the two accents but I did live in Canada for half my life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solibs
Outside a pub in London (Tottenham?) with a bunch of friends from Philly/New Jersey some local guys started to chat up one of the girls we were with. After a few minutes I heard one of them ask her if she was Australian. They were all shocked to learn that she was from NJ perhaps they were familiar with this urban aussie accent you speak of.
Now, that's a surprise! I wouldn't think you'd confuse those two accents!
But it all depends on what you're exposed to. Living in Perth, I can not only hear who's a Pom (obviously) but I'm able to pick out where they're from in England in a lot of cases - Yorkshire, Leicester, Manchester, Liverpool, London, Devon. When I lived in Canada I could only pick out the obvious ones like Cockney and the plummy BBC announcer type accent. And same for the Scots - I thought they just had one accent til I got to know Glaswegians and noticed they sounded quite different to my friend from Edinburgh. Quite fascinating actually, the UK having so many very different accents in such a small geographical area. Australia is far larger yet the general accent seems a lot more homogenous, with only slight regional differences, to my ear at least.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vichel
That's an easy one to confuse in many cases, depending on what part of either of the two countries a person is from. My husband is Canadian and at least 8 times out of 10 gets asked if he's American or what part of America he's from. I suppose some Canadians might get offended (don't know why) but he doesn't at all. I can tell the difference between the two accents but I did live in Canada for half my life.
Now, that's a surprise! I wouldn't think you'd confuse those two accents!
But it all depends on what you're exposed to. Living in Perth, I can not only hear who's a Pom (obviously) but I'm able to pick out where they're from in England in a lot of cases - Yorkshire, Leicester, Manchester, Liverpool, London, Devon. When I lived in Canada I could only pick out the obvious ones like Cockney and the plummy BBC announcer type accent. And same for the Scots - I thought they just had one accent til I got to know Glaswegians and noticed they sounded quite different to my friend from Edinburgh. Quite fascinating actually, the UK having so many very different accents in such a small geographical area. Australia is far larger yet the general accent seems a lot more homogenous, with only slight regional differences, to my ear at least.
Yes, like shades, alot of people differentiate accents by looking at the contrast between them.
Since reading up about accents I'm able to pinpoint people by their accent pretty successfully: those in the UK, usually within a city or county, and even Australians increasingly. In Australia it's more a few words that tend to be give-aways like 'chance', 'castle' or 'melbourne', or the way place-names are pronounced (like Albany) although this is still a general guide.
Yes, like shades, alot of people differentiate accents by looking at the contrast between them.
Since reading up about accents I'm able to pinpoint people by their accent pretty successfully: those in the UK, usually within a city or county, and even Australians increasingly. In Australia it's more a few words that tend to be give-aways like 'chance', 'castle' or 'melbourne', or the way place-names are pronounced (like Albany) although this is still a general guide.
THANKFULLY everyone has always thought I was British (even when I was a child, which was odd), to the extent that when I lived in the UK even the Brits didn't think I was Australian (just a very proper speaking English Girl).
To be honest, I've always been pleased about this... just yesterday I had to call the Commonwealth Bank back in Australia about a matter and I virtually *cringed* at hearing the accent. Ugh. It's so harsh and unbecoming.
As much as Prisoner Cell Block H is my guilty pleasure, accents apart from "Erica Davidson's" grate on me the wrong way.
Some Australian accents are obviously worse than others though. I'm not saying all American accents are perfect (far, far from it), but neutralized American accents (I live in the U.S currently) don't annoy me nearly as much for some reason.
I feel compelled to buy things when pitched by an Australian.
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