Long distance cards are so I can use them, not run up my phone bill nor the phone call's recipent. I have not seen anything posted by Merlin in some time, for I was thinking the same thing. :-?
I had a PM from him 5 days ago....I don't know the man, he seems a little prickly about something, I've had nicer PMs.
i was born in east london and grew up in essex..so i speak with a mockney accent..very similar to cockney but not quite as thick...when im abroad esp in north america ppl often mistake me for being australian :angry: !
Really? I would have thought an accent similar to cockney wouldn't sound very Aussie at all. But then some Americans aren't nearly as aware of accents and their origins as Euro's are. I might have guessed cheeky monkey would have an interestingly thick accent
When I was over in the USofA in August and September I found my accent in any conversation over 2 words in length gave cause to polite but puzzled "I dont understand a word he said" looks. On the odd occasion I even overheard my accent being referred to as "cute" - enough to make me want a barf bag. Thankfully the folks I was with and their friends had enough of an exposure to Europe to know my accent and to decipher it (it's a not particularly strong lowland scot with a hint of doric accent). One thing commented on was that I could distinguish others accents, e.g. at bars and being served by Irish, English or Even scots and tell roughly what parts of those countries they were from. My reply to that is, "it's no different here or in any other country", we all have regional or city variations within each country and where those are small and close neighbours you get to hear most, especially in this media age. My own view is that the media age is likely to be the most destructive of regional accents and colloquial speech. You can see this in action just by watching the news programs, how many of the major presenters show distinct accents? Only in the "regional" news do you get some. Oh my, I got on a high horse there...........back to lurk mode.
I agree. I hate to see the homogenization of language and culture that occurs with the widepread acceptance of TV and movies and so forth. Interestingly enough the people of Appalachia have been so isolated in the past centuries that their accents are reputedly the most similar to 17th century English and Scottish accents found anywhere. Or so I have read. Probably now they watch MTV and CNN though.
I won't diss the man if he doesn't diss me, he started it! Merlin if you're reading this....I was being ironic, I'm not clever at all....you've heard of Babel fish? That's how I put the umlaut in. Can we hug now and make up? Back to topic.....I've got one of those crazy mixed up accents from living in many different places. But it is Home Counties based.
i speak a form of dutch witch is called flemish (very nice language with all those french words who sneaked in ) but strangly, instead of speakin it with the east flemisch accent (i live in the province "east-flanders") i speak it with an antwerp accent anyway, flemisch has a lot of accents, every twenty kilometres you have an other accent
Merlin is still about, but does not contribute much to the forum - among other things because we rarely actually discuss tanks these days. My accent has no traces of Scottish (from my mother) or Yorkshire (from my father). I have a minor Lutonian accent (Estury English but with words and syllables missed out). However, I am known for sounding 'posh' in Luton, hence the 'minor' accent!
Like Roel I have been using teamspeak to speak with people from all over the globe. Most noted that I have a Dutch accent (cant imagine what that is) What I do know is that if a foreigner would learn perfect Dutch few people here would understand him, and he would likely understand even less. We Dutch are a mess when it comes to language and pronounciation
Accents and inflection can be quite entertaining. Here in the United States, we have many regions where english is spoken with real local flavor. Living in Indiana, in a college-town, means I come in contact with many nationalities on a regular basis. In the Info Tech field, our employees come from around the globe. Our VP/IT Director is a native Australian. Many asian and indian-types work here. Communication can be difficult at times, and I've noticed their sense of humor is distinctly lacking. With that said, I love to hear a foreign accent. Much as I suppose an english-speaker from the midwest region or deep-south would command attention in an english bar. It's different and most are intrigued. I am able to speak both as a college-educated type dealing with dept heads... and am equally comfortable as a laid-back Hoosier talking to a farmer about how the harvest is coming-along. I'd buy any of ya'll a beer and make you feel right at home in Indiana. Even CHE. (Just funning ya now.) Tim
As an Admin worker in a University I get to speak with a LOT of foreigners - students & staff. Mostly Chinese, but also large amounts of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi students, a lot of Nigerians & Ghanaians, lots of Greeks, quite a few Eastern Europeans & Russians, and one or two examples from most countries that exist (we have one hundred and something nationalities here at the University of Luton!) It can be quite amusing, for example in some parts of India you shake your head to say yes, and nod to say no - which is very disorientating to her someone saying 'oh yes, sir' and vigorously shaking their head! My favourite in terms of accent are the Greek women (don't tell Mrs Ricky! ).
I have a southern counties accent. But some of my friends say it sounds a little 'posh'. ...ignorant fools...
as a flemish, i know what a dutch accent is. just say "Nou man, dat vindt ik nu eens helemaal super" and i'll bet everybody in flanders will say you have a dutch accent ("hollands" like we call it) PS, hey Stix, het is zoals jullie zeggen dat wij vlaams klappen. (oke, er is een ander accent in het vlaams op de 20 kilometer) maar neem twee mensen uit hetzelfde dorp en ze zouden niet eens weten hoe hun accent klinkt.
What he means is a Dutch accent in English, which is truly terrible if taken to extremes (which most Dutch people seem to take effort to do). However I for one have never been commented on as having a heavy accent in English, and my Dutch is not particularly accented either. Unless you count my Leiden R when I'm not paying attention. In the Netherlands, like pretty much everywhere else it seems, the local accent changes every few kilometers. Most of the cities in the west have their own accents, and Leiden (where I live) has a particularly elongated, rolling R as the main characteristic of its accent. The most annoying (to me, at least) of these accents is the Amsterdam accent, which is probably the closest imaginable thing to a southern drawl in Dutch - slow, lazy, and proud of it. :-?
