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I've often wondered what Americans must of thought of this famous Wilde quote.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
In my experience as an American English speaker, the word 'gutter' primarily refers to the edges of a paved road where water and debris run. It is also metaphorically user to refer to the conditions of a low station in life. "I came from the gutter, but now I am rich!"
So in that context, Oscar Wilde's quote makes a lot of sense.
In my experience, virtually no one who grew up in Canada says "orientated". At least under a certain age - and I'm pretty sure you'd be under that age Nat!
Canadians say "oriented" AFAIK.
Really? Then I've been saying it wrong. I say "orientated."
Yes it is. He could have picked better accents to emulate.
You can say that again. I got my kids out of Michigan just in time for that accent not to stick. They've lost it now, but when we first came to Nashville, my daughter's schoolmates made fun of her Michigan accent.
In my experience as an American English speaker, the word 'gutter' primarily refers to the edges of a paved road where water and debris run. It is also metaphorically user to refer to the conditions of a low station in life. "I came from the gutter, but now I am rich!"
So in that context, Oscar Wilde's quote makes a lot of sense.
So, you don't use "gutter" to refer to the trough along the sides of a roof?
The New Orleans Yat accent has striking similarities.with the NYC area accent, because NOLA was the largest city in the antebellum South and attracted many of the same immigrants that came to New York, including many Italians.
The Southern accent is fading with younger generations due to movies. With the film industry in Hollywood, the standard American accent is becoming more and more like the Californian accent.
I know there is a divide between the Upper South, Scots Irish accent of Tennessee and the Tidewater accent of Coastal North Carolina, which was settled by the English.
I don't speak French, but I heard the Cajun accent of Louisiana French is actually quite similar to the French accent of the French New Brunswickers.
Have you read the book American Nations, by Colin Woodard? If not, you'd probably enjoy it. He talks about the founding and indigenous cultures in the US, Canada, and Mexico that still have great influence today.
Last edited by newdixiegirl; 08-25-2020 at 01:24 PM..
But you live in Tennessee, where people have that Southern drawl. So the American accent you're most familiar with is the Southern accent. If we're talking about native English speakers from the US West Coast, their accents are much closer to Canadians. You could probably still tell the difference in certain words being pronounced differently like in drama and sorry. But then again, I was born and raised in California, and I generally have an American accent but I pronounce quite a few words differently from other Americans.
I say "narrator" as nuh RAY ter, not NAIR ray ter.
I pronounce "leisure" with a short e, so that leisure rhymes with pleasure.
I say missile, mobile, etc as rhyming with "aisle" instead of rhyming with "bull."
I say judiciary as ju dish ur ry, not ju dish ee air ry. Four syllables instead of five.
When I say inventory, it sounds like infantry, but with a v instead of an f. No sound for the o.
Does me saying above words like that count as an accent? Maybe, but it's very subtle, kind of like the difference between a guy from Anglo Canada vs. the US West Coast.
I think some of your pronunciations are almost British, which I guess is also a result of your Hong Kong-born mom's homeschooling.
How do you say "schedule"? Sked-jule, or shed-ule?
I do. I grew up scraping mucky leaves out of the roof gutters :-)
But that is a secondary definition. If someone were to say, "I grew up in the gutter." I picture the street, not the eaves of a house.
Well, yeah. Growing up in the latter would be really uncomfortable.
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