How English is spoken

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi all.
This really isn’t subject to be categorized but I’ll just have to make it fit.

So to bring you up to speed, each day I chat with my sister-in-law in Poland ( she speaks very good English) So not so long ago I proposed an experiment to her. One that would keep her on her toes; not make her feel so confident as schools there seem to make them believe they can speak English the same way and everyone English speaking could understand her.

You know kind of like the way public schools here make you think you’re getting a good education :stuck_out_tongue:

The experiment was born out of curiousity and the opportunity to stump her as to what the person was saying. Along the way I’ve broadened my understanding of America’s differences.

My problem is that until now all my samples have come from utube and this site doesn’t have alot of the hard to understand accents that I was hoping for.

At first I started an exhaustive list of different accents, but then it became more and more apparent that the nature of this project is to confound my sister-in-law and hopefully build-up enough curiousity for her to come see this place for herself someday.

So I’m going to try and limit the scope to just what accents and ways of speaking most widely affect this country and have the most contrast with other parts of this country. Again, the emphasis is not that someone from Charleston, WV speaks different from someone in Charleston, SC (ahem) but rather accents most representative of the US and ways to speak it that is most not understood.

Obviously this is an interpreted characteristic, but here’s some of the accents I’ve been after: Creole, Gullah, Cajun, Texan, Wisconsin, Louisiana accents, Long Island accents and then the more racially different speaking: black folks vs white folks, Mexican vs Puerto Rican vs Cuban, Carribean Island English … I’ve even got a clip of “Larry the Cable Guy” :smiley:

My problem is I need help with this, it’s a big job and I want impressive material that would make m-e work on understanding so I know it will be a greater challenge for her.

So to make this post fit here in this section how about: In your opinion what is the most difficult to understand English accent? If you think this, can you provide a sound or video sample demonstrating your point? ( European Accents are welcome, but since the girl lives in Europe you get less points for this :rolleyes: )

Links should probably be emailed to me as the mods don’t like this kind of thing.
Thanks in adavance for any help I may receive.

2

Just scour youtube.

3

Hmmm…an interesting endeavour indeed. As I generally bristle at the notion that everyone in the South sounds like Scarlett O’Hara (they most definitely do not), I humbly submit for your survey the notorious accent of the old-timers of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina.

There are several things that make this drawl so interesting. First, it is (as far as I know) only spoken by natives of the central Outer Banks of North Carolina, primarily of isolated Ocracoke Island, which to this day can only be accessed by boat. Second, it is a simmering stew of Eastern North Carolinian and Maritime English accents…picture an old sea salt who sort of sounds like a down east tobacco farmer. Hard to fathom for people outside of NC, I know, but that’s the best I can do to describe it. It’s like trying to describe what Dr Pepper tastes like. Mere words do not do it justice.

Finally, it is without a doubt the hardest-to-fathom dialect I have ever heard in my native tongue. And I have heard and comprehended my share of English (Northern, Southern, etc.), Irish, Scottish, Australian, New Yorker, Buffalonian, Midwestern, New Englander, and just plain Hillbilly drawl from which to draw that conclusion. I can pretty much guarantee you’ve never heard anything quite like it.

But, for fear of sounding too hyperbolic, here is a link to an N.C. State Linguisitcs page on Ocracoke drawl:

There is a link to a page with audio clips (left sidebar). I recommend the Rex O’Neal clips, as they seem to be the only ones working at this point, but what’s there is interesting. Fortunately there are transcripts for some of them. You will probably need them :smiley:

4

If you can come up with a script, I’d be happy to record it into an MP3 so you could tease with an Aussie accent.

Alternatively, you can grab some of these http://geotalk.libsyn.com/ which will give you an Aussie accent (various people contribute) and with words she may not be familiar with as they may be Aussie vernacular.

5

Have you been to the IDEA site? That’s the International Dialects of English Archive, with accents from all over the world.

(The mods don’t like this? What sort of thing do you mean?)

6

Let’s start with some passive voice elimination (which of course is not wrong, but can be grating to this writer’s eyes):

How people speak English

7

Try some of these:

http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/search/advanced.cfm?collection=English%20Accents%20and%20Dialects&step=val_form

8

This makes me think of English teachers in Thailand. They run the gamut from “typical” Americans and Englishmen to Scots, Indians (as in India, not Native Americans) and Filipinos. The different accents can be very confusing for students here, who are used to English as they hear it in Hollywood films. Brits who don’t sound like, say, Hugh Grant often find themselves unemployable as English teachers. But Indians and Filipinos will work for so much less pay than will Americans and Brits that they are routinely hired by schools no matter what their accent sounds like, in a bid to save money.

9

Intravenus De Milo this Ocrakoake stuff is fantastic! Especially the 2 person conversational pieces. The scripting is the icing on the cake, thank you.

SparrowHawk thank you very much for this site, I played a few bits- I was curious about what they were saying people from S. Carolina sound like, lol- but I have to agree with it(although I don’t talk this way)

… however I have an aunt from Lousiana and the samples for these people really sound pretty generic in terms of a regional association; as well as some of the significance of this site is negated due to the fact that these people are reading and are aware of the reason they are reading,which makes them read like they are in a classroom vs what a typical relaxed conversation might sound like. Just the same, it’s a welcome addition to the collection I’m building.

Caught@Work how can I pass up an opportunity for free help- just one snag, the script ruins the realness of it all; I also find it’s harder to distinguish what’s being said when there are two “blokes/birds” :stuck_out_tongue: just catching-up or what-not(which is my objective).

So the difficulty if it’s a long talk, would be the script formed after the fact.

For some reason I feel like adding that I find the Aussie word “Norks” especially amusing- it just seems to me to be an extremely awkward word to slide into a pick-up line to a lady. “Excuse me miss, would mind terribly if I ogled your Norks?” :rolleyes:

Pjen thank you for all the British English sound bytes, however “utube” has several people that attempt and apparently are successful at speaking the various accents of the UK.

Any Cajuns out there? I’d love to get some real Lousiana flavor into the mix :smiley:

And the Gullah is proving hard to come by as well :frowning:

10

Um… why?

Did you never write up an experiment in a science class? That is to say, were your experiments never written up?

11

This was my first thought when I read the OP. From what I’ve heard (I believe there was actually a thread on this about a year ago), the OBX accent is the closest any one gets to the way Shakespearian English was spoken. It should befuddle a non-native speaker at least a bit.

You are agreed with. The passive voice is prefered in cases where one wants to emphasize the object rather than the subject. In this case, more sense is made by the use of the passive tense in the title because on the various accents of American English, as oppose to the people, is the focus. Of course, confusion can result if care is not taken. :stuck_out_tongue:

12

Perhaps, then, it’s your eyes that need fixing, and not the OP’s wording?

13

Perhaps. But it’s been so drilled into me that I can’t help but notice. Yes, I realize I just used the passive voice. That’s how painfully aware of it I am.

Really, there’s nothing wrong with it in small doses. I said that. But it does get a little distracting when used repeatedly. :stuck_out_tongue:

14

Oh, can this passive voice nonsense. Most people who inveigh against it have no idea what it is and use it themselves as often as not.