Being married to a Dane, I have learned that English is a very difficult language to speak, if you’ve primarily learned it through reading and not listening.
It has taken me years to get him to remember ceramic starts with an ‘s’ sound and not a ‘k’ sound.
Gravel does not sound like grave with an ‘l’ at the end.
His name is Thomas, pronounced the standard way, yet I still cannot get him to say the last name ‘Thompson’ with the same hard ‘t’ and silent ‘h’ sound; he says it with a soft ‘th’ sound, like in the word ‘thumb’. It is so weird!
You cannot begin to believe how often I have to ask him to spell what he’s trying to say, because I don’t understand a word of it. He’s an utterly brilliant man, but he could never win on Jeopardy because he’d be penalized for pronunciation on every response.
HOWEVER, I would much rather that than have him try to speak English with an American accent. You can’t imagine how horrible it sounds when he tries that, bless his heart.
Well, I was assigned a 6’10" skinny Persian. And don’t you DARE refer to him as Iranian (his family came here when it was still Persia). He was born and raised in Manhattan, but doesn’t have any kind of New York accent. Well . . . except for the Mary/marry/merry thing, which he attributes to my midwest accent.
The stereotypical New York accent does not exist in Manhattan. There are accents peculiar to Manhattan, but they are most often found among people who spoke both English and the Puerto Rican variant of Spanish growing up. It’s instantly recognizable.
If you want to hear a real New York accent, you’ve got to go to Brooklyn. Queens has its recognizable accents, too.
I think the terms are: Sshtoopid f’ing Idiot! (I haven’t heard “idiot” since I left NYC)Sshtoodpid f’ing car. Sshtoopid f’ing weather. Sshtoopid f’ing morons.
I came to Chicago to marry my standard-issue Polish descendant, and I adore his accent, which he swears he doesn’t have. I love it when he calls his MAHahm and orders PAP and when he posts on all his Dat Cam sites.
It tickles me to no end that he can’t hear himself.
Heh. I remember reading a travel blog of a man who cycled around Ireland. At one bed and breakfast, his host asked him if he wanted “karn flex”. Thinking it was some sort of Irish dish, he accepted in the spirit of adventure, and then found out it was “corn flakes” which was being served for breakfast.
I suppose it depends what you mean by common, by the time of the 1798 Rising I believe over half the population spoke English as their first language but going back to the 17th century English was already common, due to plantations and such. It depends on the region of Ireland too with Dublin being English speaking a lot longer than many of the other towns and cities in the country.
I use americanisms deliberately, keeps furiners on their toes. My favorite was when I was in England, and repeatedly annoy my friends by asking people where around here I could pick some glastonberries.
