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No, I completely disagree. And I'll tell you why: I've been in so many situations where I was the only person in a room full of Americans, British and Australians... And I was the only one everyone could understand. If five people cannot understand themselves but they understand me, my accent is the correct accent
ROFLMAO
You must be one hell of a popular feller at international parties! I confess to being jealous. Whew!
I mean, by your own mini auto-biography, you have a history of being in git-togethers where everybody but YOU couldn't be understood by anybody else! Lord 'a mercy!
The natural question to ask is were you the translator to all those who couldn't understand anyone else but you? I mostly wonder if you could could get across the differences but similarities of "Danny Boy" vis a vis "My Pretty Fraulein" twist them Brits and Germans...?
As it is, I only get invited to catfish fries and BBQ's. C'mon down sometime and I'll introduce you around. We all speak the same language down here...no need for translation! Breakfast, dinner, suppertime...please and y'all come back. That is the language of Southern hospitality...and is recognized all over the world.
You must be one hell of a popular feller at international parties! I confess to being jealous. Whew!
I mean, by your own mini auto-biography, you have a history of being in git-togethers where everybody but YOU couldn't be understood by anybody else! Lord 'a mercy!
The natural question to ask is were you the translator to all those who couldn't understand anyone else but you? I mostly wonder if you could could get across the differences but similarities of "Danny Boy" vis a vis "My Pretty Fraulein" twist them Brits and Germans...?
As it is, I only get invited to catfish fries and BBQ's. C'mon down sometime and I'll introduce you around. We all speak the same language down here...no need for translation! Breakfast, dinner, suppertime...please and y'all come back....
G'night y'all!
Those were simply the native English speakers I also have many tales of business meetings and situations involving foreigners with respect to international business deals and the like.
The Japanese in particular find my "accent" to be clear and precise by comparison.
Of course, I was living in Manhattan and then Chicago during this time period... Currently I'm in Los Angeles, and national or multinational situations are still very common. Why don't you come on "up here" and bring your business suit and tie. I'll introduce you to my colleagues and show you the strange and unusual world where cultures and nationalities different than your own collide
The Japanese in particular find my "accent" to be clear and precise by comparison.
BUT...? When all this self-promotion of yours is over and done with -- you still don't answer the concrete question of exactly what IS this accent of yours that you advertize as "normal" normal? As in, by what linguistic standards?
Hell, buddy...if you will just do THAT...I am even willing to concede it is arguable that you might, just might, have been born when the moon was in the 7th house...and Jupiter aligned with Mars... (with apologies to the Fifth Dimension...hee hee).
BUT...? When all this self-promotion of yours is over and done with -- you still don't answer the concrete question of exactly what IS this accent of yours that you advertize as "normal" normal? As in, by what linguistic standards?
I'm not actually certain what it is that you're asking. Your wording is incorrect.
With respect to normal, take off the last two letters and you have "norm". My accent is the norm-- it's the accent the news, television programming and educated circles use.
Another synonym to norm is "mean". My accent is the "mean" with respect to pronunciation. My accent's pronunciation has few variations from words as they are specified by every English dictionary. The standard deviation from the mean of my accent is significantly less than southern accents or northeast urban accents (mostly soft r's or drawls on soft a sounds).
In short, my "accent" as such is a very precise way of enunciating with little if any deviation from the standard rules of English. Yes, even English has standard rules as to what is proper and improper pronunciation. Again, that whole "dictionary" thing. It is from my accent that other accents deviate.
As an example:
Quote:
I gotta hit the sack... G'night y'all...
There's no such word as "gunight", or how you yourself would say that word aloud. Obviously that's a commonly shortened expression, but the point is that you change the way the words are normally pronounced. And assuming that you personally have a southern accent, you'd most likely drop the "d" in "good" and the end of "night" would be soft. "Guh nigh, ya'll".
With respect to self-advertisement, you wanted to know in what situations I'd been a "translator" and I told you. Just yesterday a colleague from Liverpool simply could not understand another from Dallas. The Dallas accent was the least muddled of the two, but both could very clearly understand me. I'm truly sorry if these types of exchanges are not a regular part of your day. I really value diversity of experience
So... Good night to you too, sir. If you want to be obnoxious about this, I can be twice as obnoxious as yourself. But, better understood
I was going to respond to this thread, but since I am from some rural part of Georgia, I guess I better not since probably no one could understand me.
I mean this in fun, seriously! I have seen us (and by us, I am referring to the earlier statement you made about "rural Georgia") stereotyped so much that it ceases to bother me anymore - well, not too much anyhow.
In my way of thinking, a stereotype becomes a stereotype because there is a grain of truth in it - either in the past or currently - and then is exaggerated to the point of being comical - no matter what the geographical location.
I will tell you this though, as far as men with southern accents are concerned, Matthew McConaughey has the most divine accent! Liquid and comforting. Of course, that is just my humble opinion!
I'm not actually certain what it is that you're asking. Your wording is incorrect.
With respect to normal, take off the last two letters and you have "norm". My accent is the norm-- it's the accent the news, television programming and educated circles use.
Another synonym to norm is "mean". My accent is the "mean" with respect to pronunciation. My accent's pronunciation has few variations from words as they are specified by every English dictionary. The standard deviation from the mean of my accent is significantly less than southern accents or northeast urban accents (mostly soft r's or drawls on soft a sounds).
In short, my "accent" as such is a very precise way of enunciating with little if any deviation from the standard rules of English. Yes, even English has standard rules as to what is proper and improper pronunciation. Again, that whole "dictionary" thing. It is from my accent that other accents deviate.
As an example:
There's no such word as "gunight", or how you yourself would say that word aloud. Obviously that's a commonly shortened expression, but the point is that you change the way the words are normally pronounced. And assuming that you personally have a southern accent, you'd most likely drop the "d" in "good" and the end of "night" would be soft. "Guh nigh, ya'll".
With respect to self-advertisement, you wanted to know in what situations I'd been a "translator" and I told you. Just yesterday a colleague from Liverpool simply could not understand another from Dallas. The Dallas accent was the least muddled of the two, but both could very clearly understand me. I'm truly sorry if these types of exchanges are not a regular part of your day. I really value diversity of experience
So... Good night to you too, sir. If you want to be obnoxious about this, I can be twice as obnoxious as yourself. But, better understood
Coldwine, Coldwine, Coldwine.
All of that would be terribly informative and scathingly correct if most people in the upper Midwest spoke in a non-regional, "General American" dialect. In fact, that dialect is generally reserved for the Southern Iowa, Far-western IL, Northern MO area.
Most people I've run into in the Chicago area have either a "Chicago Urban" accent or an Upper Midwestern accent. Sometimes this manifests itself with "dese" and "dose". ("Da Bears", et. al.).
Sometimes it's more subtle. One of my favorite words? "Both". Many Chicagoans I know pronounce it as if there were an "L" in there. "Bolth".
Anyway, none of this is to say that YOU have a strong accent. After all, you've lived in different areas and surely keep yours in check for work (as we all do.... you're certainly not the only one on this board who has business meetings...). However, I've lived in Chicago for a long enough time to say, without reservation, that this place is chock FULL of accents, and not everyone who has one brought it with them from elsewhere...
coldwine - as a lifelong Chicagoan whose family is originally from New England, I can assure you, my accent has been commented on by my family from New Hampshire more times than I care to admit (and they have no room to talk). If you think that people from the Chicago area do not have a unique accent they can call there own, well, I don't know what to say there.
Additionally, such a smug assurance of your own linguistic superiority isn't going to make you any friends, and shows a basic misunderstanding of the tenets of non-prescriptive linguistics and the mapping of American dialects (of which Chicago is absolutely not considered General American).
And yes, CarolinaBredChicagoan keeping accents in check is a common practice for many in the professional world. Believe me, I have a different way of talking when I'm talking to to the president of my institution about research I've been conducting and when I've had a couple of drinks and am discussing the current state of the White Sox. In fact, many people successfully change their accents for work. When my grandfather moved from nyc to the south for a job, he figured out pretty quick nobody would buy anything from him if he sounded like 'that kid from the bronx' and toned it down quite a bit for the sake of work, to the point where there were times people had no clue where he was from until they got to know him casually and he'd let lose.
I'm not actually certain what it is that you're asking. Your wording is incorrect.
With respect to normal, take off the last two letters and you have "norm". My accent is the norm-- it's the accent the news, television programming and educated circles use.
Yes, I am familiar with this particular accent you say you have (or don't have! LOL). It is one which makes people sound as if they came off an assembly line, as opposed to actually being from somewhere. A beta out of Brave New World, perhaps...?
Seriously though, I have no problem at all with it, light-hearted barbs above aside. As many before and after you have pointed out, this "neutral" accent is one which in our world today has its place and marketable value. I don't like it, but accept it as reality. My problem is when those who go thru so much effort to lose their natural dialect -- again, often for very understandable reasons -- presume to think such bestows some sort of badge of intellectual superiority. As I am sure you will agree, education, knowledge and/or common sense are not intrinsically linked to one's accent.
Quote:
There's no such word as "gunight", or how you yourself would say that word aloud. Obviously that's a commonly shortened expression, but the point is that you change the way the words are normally pronounced. And assuming that you personally have a southern accent, you'd most likely drop the "d" in "good" and the end of "night" would be soft. "Guh nigh, ya'll".
I see you got the joke! I might add however, that it could be argued you "mis-spelled" the second person plural pronoun so lyrically lovely to Southern ears. That is, being a contraction of "you-all", it would be correct to pronounce (and spell) it as "y'all."
That is, the apostrophe in a contraction is supposed to fill in for missing letters. In the case of you-all, one would take out the "ou" since there is nothing to take out in "all."
With that said, I don't really care how it is spelled, just as long as its use is respected!
Quote:
With respect to self-advertisement, you wanted to know in what situations I'd been a "translator" and I told you. Just yesterday a colleague from Liverpool simply could not understand another from Dallas. The Dallas accent was the least muddled of the two, but both could very clearly understand me.
Just so we are clear on this, I would not presume to denigrate your own experiences and line of work. Sounds interesting, far as that goes. I mean that sincerely. The problem comes in when you make supercilious presumptions such as this one:
Quote:
I'm truly sorry if these types of exchanges are not a regular part of your day. I really value diversity of experience
I hope you realize how mis-placed this seeming "pity" of yours comes across. I am sure, however, that there are a millions of ordinary Americans -- such as the guy who fixes your car, or woman who cashes your check -- who manage to make the world go 'round even if they go thru life blissfully isolated from the worldly experiences you speak of (that ol' preposition at the end of a sentence, dammit).
Diversity of experience? I too value "diversity of experience". What are you saying here...?
Quote:
So... Good night to you too, sir. If you want to be obnoxious about this, I can be twice as obnoxious as yourself. But, better understood
Good morning, now!
Obnoxious? No...I try never to be obnoxious. So chances are good you are correct in that you can be twice as obnoxious as me. I do, however, tend to poke fun and engage in parody (self-parody too) when dealing with people who seem to take themselves too seriously. And -- as another poster said in different words -- presume superiority in realms which are, at best, extremely subjective and relative, anyway.
One last thing. I enjoy a good discussion/debate and don't take it personal, unless the other makes it that way. In which case I am up to the task. I prefer, however, to go by the adage that reasonable people can disagree...and still keep it civil and courteous.
I keep coming across this post and have been trying to ignore it, but it is so mean spirited I couldn't help but check it out. Only a troll would start a thread like this. Has anyone noticed that only non-southerners always bring up the civil war? Do you, Rooster person, have so much free time that all you have to do is insult people from the south? Apparently your attitude when you lived down south was so annoying that you were not too well received. It is very understandable and we are very happy your not among us anymore. I am sure you have the most sophisticated accent in the world. Too bad we can't hear it for ourselves. For your information, your narrow-minded generalizations about southern accents show your ignorance. There are so many different accents that you couldn't count them. But here I am feeding the troll. You need to get a life and maybe do some volunteer work or something. If this was someone on here making fun of foreign accents, it would not be tolerated.
I have a life, thank you. I didn't insult anyone from the south until I was attacked by these confederate flag wavers. I don't have an accent. I made some friends in the south, but it wasn't for me. I wanted to go back up north where people are blunt and the seasons change. So I am ignorant now eh? Nice comeback, slick. My generalizations show my experience, not my ignorance. I personally like the Louisiana accent better than the South Carolina accent, it's easier on the ears to me. So don't call me ignorant, ok pal?
I'll admit that I said that "Hate America/civil war comment" to get a rise out of that poster, but that was the only thing I have said in this thread to deliberately get a rise out of someone. It was a retaliatory statement as a result of being called a Yankee. Therefore, I am not a "troll" as you so call it. I posted my opinion to why some people would hate southern accents. That's all I came here to do, and then I get viciously attacked by these people for stating my opinion. I do not pretend to think that notherners are better than the south. You people talk different, and it's funny to me, and vice versa. We have different cultures, values, and even beliefs. It's just sad to me that America is divided like this, between the blue states and red states. You guys may think that I'm saying that I'm better than you. That is not the case. You are just different. But when you start insulting and accusing me of things, yes I will retaliate and say things I wouldn't normally say. It's human nature. Be a hater all you want.
You people would fit in perfectly in the PA forum.
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I might add however, that it could be argued you "mis-spelled" the second person plural pronoun so lyrically lovely to Southern ears. That is, being a contraction of "you-all", it would be correct to pronounce (and spell) it as "y'all." 
