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View Poll Results: Does Irish sound more like American or English English?
More like American English 10 25.00%
More like English English 30 75.00%
Voters: 40. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 07-29-2013, 05:59 PM
 
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I think aside from the rhoticity Irish English is definitely closer to British English. Irish has some similarities to West Country (the pronunciated r's, the oi sound that's prevalent in southern Ireland, the piratey lilt) and also to England's north (words like mam and craic and the plural grammar) but it's completely unique too. The accents of southern Ireland sound closer to what you hear in the West Country while Northern Ireland and Donegal sound more like Scottish.

In terms of grammar Irish English is pretty unique because of Gaelic's substratic influence and the fact that some forms that have disappeared in England never died there.
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Old 07-29-2013, 09:24 PM
 
Location: Southern California
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In my opinion Hiberno-English, sounds pretty similar to the West Country accents, and both of them sound more similar to the American general accent than any other English accent.
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Old 07-29-2013, 09:53 PM
 
Location: North West Northern Ireland.
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I think that proper Irish English accents sound more similar to Wales than the USA. Although in the island of Ireland we use words that Americans use that the British would not use for example, Scallions or Couch.

Overall I would say that the accent most similar to Ireland would be that of the north west England accent.
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Old 07-29-2013, 11:03 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TyrannosaurusZack View Post
In my opinion Hiberno-English, sounds pretty similar to the West Country accents, and both of them sound more similar to the American general accent than any other English accent.
West Country doesn't sound anything like American imo. Aside from the rhoticity. I suppose it's somewhat similar to an Atlantic Canadian accent though.
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Old 07-30-2013, 12:09 AM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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English accents, especially in the West country.
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Old 07-30-2013, 08:52 AM
 
Location: Southern California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by belmont22 View Post
West Country doesn't sound anything like American imo. Aside from the rhoticity. I suppose it's somewhat similar to an Atlantic Canadian accent though.
I didn't say it sounded like American, I said of all the English accents in England, West Country sounds the closest to American. When you compare it so Cockney, or Liverpool, or a Manchester accent, you'd see that they sound radically different, while West Country is still very different but closer than any of the others.
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Old 07-30-2013, 12:46 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
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In my opinion, it's rather hard to compare British or Irish accents to American ones. However, to some degree, you can hear how most English accents may have evolved once you've heard enough from England. I knew a guy who was from England and he sounded rather Australian but not quite. Manchester seems to sound closet to American to me.

Within the US, perhaps the east coast would be as close as one could get to a British accent and this is due largely to those accents being non rhotic. In other cases, similarities are seen just in certain words used. Many Americans in the south and some Black Americans use the word 'reckon'. A word still used commonly among the Irish and some British speakers but has all but disappeared from the rest of the USA.
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Old 07-30-2013, 06:55 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TyrannosaurusZack View Post
I didn't say it sounded like American, I said of all the English accents in England, West Country sounds the closest to American. When you compare it so Cockney, or Liverpool, or a Manchester accent, you'd see that they sound radically different, while West Country is still very different but closer than any of the others.
Yeah I suppose West Country would have a bit more in common with American than any of those accents. I'd probably say East Anglian is the closest though, actually (as different as it is).
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Old 07-31-2013, 12:31 AM
 
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Irish to me sound similar to people from Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall in SW England in terms of general sound and the R-sound, with vowels similar to some northern English accents like Yorkshire.
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Old 07-31-2013, 08:01 PM
 
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Originally Posted by oreocookiexo View Post
Irish to me sound similar to people from Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall in SW England in terms of general sound and the R-sound, with vowels similar to some northern English accents like Yorkshire.
I agree. That's pretty accurate.
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