Not sure if this is an IMHO, a GQ or a MPSIMS, but what the hell.
Most of you probably know I’m an American living in Ireland. On two occasions here I’ve been mistaken for an Australian, and an Australian girl I work with just told me she’s frequently asked if she’s American. And this is by people who we’ve had conversations with, not who just overheard us say a word or two.
We both find this unbelievable as we don’t think we sound anything alike - in fact, I’ve always considered Australian to be about as far from American as Anglophone accents get - but it’s occurred to me that of course we wouldn’t think we sound alike, so I’m putting it to you guys. Do you find American and Australian accents to be at all similar, or have we just happened to encounter a few incredibly thick people here?
(NB Apologies to Canucks and Kiwis for not asking your opinions but I think you might be a little too close to us to be as objective as the British and Irish would be.)
I often get Dame Edna Everridge confused with Hillary Clinton – but that’s only because of the similar clothes sense.
Nah, don’t be daft. Chalk and cheese. I can only think you get mistaken for an Aussie because you’re a much rarer breed – people expect to come across travelling Aussies, they’re much less likely to meet an American so maybe they just assume you’re Aussie. Pisses Kiwi’s off no end, of course. Tourism might be a little different but I assume you give off more of a traveller’s vibe and hang out away from the tourist haunts.
You’re accent has probably changed somewhat if you’ve been ‘away’ for a while so if they think you’re an Aussie now, it won’t be long before they think you’re……English :eek:
FWIW, I need to spend a little time with people before distinguishing Aussie / Kiwi and US / Canadian. South African is, of course, a different kettle of fish all together.
No, I can’t see that they are at all similar. As you said, there is an enormous diference. Still, it seems that this has happened only twice. Maybe that was two people with an incredibly bad ear for accents. (Untidy sentence -perhaps I mean two ears, or four.)
But, then, your Australian friend says it happens “frequently”. I would suggest it is some kind of joke, but that doesn’t sound very convincing either.
I’ve mistaken Australians for Americans at first hearing, as long as they haven’t used any of the giveaway sounds (long vowels, r’s at the end of words). I swear there’s something about the intonation that’s a bit similar. In any case, I’m not used to hearing Australians (or wasn’t before this summer) and am used to hearing Americans, and I think there’s an overwhelming tendency to hear whatever is familiar to you.
Of course, I’m so accent-deaf that I’ve also mistaken a Nigerian for a Brit putting on an American accent, with embarrassing results for all concerned. So you may not want to listen to me.
I don’t confuse them & I haven’t been to Australia or America. I don’t usually confuse NZ accents with Ozzie either (nor South African.) I don’t understand why some people can’t hear the difference, it seems huge to me.
Colin, maybe you’ve met my dad. He can’t tell the difference between an Australian and an English person to save his life. I have no idea how he could have so much trouble with this one. (Well, I did get confused by some extremely drunk English soccer hooligans in London once, but my dad makes this mistake regularly.) Actually, now that I think about it, it has more to do with his idea of how English and Australian people behave. For instance, we were waiting in line behind some (obviously) English people who appeared to be having a good time, and we chatted a wee bit before my dad broke in, “So, you’re Australian?” They were quite surprised, and I was pretty embarrassed. Dad explained later that he didn’t think English people would be having so much fun. (I wish I was kidding.) So my guess is that the confusion might be based on perceptions of how you should behave.
BTW, don’t bother trying to tell apart Americans and Canadians. With a few notable exceptions on both sides, we can’t do it with any kind of regularity ourselves. There are a few key words that tend to be pronounced differently, but in general, it’s the same accent.
A lot of Germans can’t tell what English-speaking nationality I am, but I’ve never had a fellow-English speaker mistake me for anything. Must be the Southern US accent!
What is interesting, if I go to a place that is off the beaten tourist path, I get mistaken for all sorts of weird things. My best guess is because I’m speaking whatever language (usually German) with an accent, they can’t place it, and just go by looks. Which is still bizarre, because not once has anyone asked if I was Korean. I get Italian a lot, and I don’t understand because IMO I don’t look, sound or act even vaguely Italian.
I’m an American living in Scotland, and I’ve also been occasionally mistaken for being Australian. I always put it down to the fact that although my accent is fixed, in the time I’ve been living here my intonations and pitch variations have been altered to reflect those of the British dialect. So I figured the mixed features of my dialect were throwing people off my accent. Btw, this change is by no means permanent – I pretty much go back to normal “American” when talking to my family, just like my mom annoyingly goes back to “New York” when talking to hers, despite how long she’s lived in Baltimore.
As for which accents sound similar, to my mind both Australian and Irish accents sound like crosses between English and American accents, only with different combinations of the features of each. E.g. Irish accents sound very similar to (standard) American accents with differences only really noticeable in vowel and retroflexed (/r/ and the like) sounds. Australian accents to me sound more like English accents (although I can easily tell them apart), except that Australian accents seem to have this Southern twang which is found in the States but not in England. To me Scottish accents sound the most different, being so “heavy” and “full” (for lack of better descriptive words). And I have the most difficulty identifying Welsh accents. Partly because I haven’t heard very many at all. I usually identify accents as possibly being Welsh after deciding that they are not English, Irish, American, Australian, or Scottish – and there’s only one left!!
Personally I don’t see how you could mix up the accents.
And from knowing you IRL I don’t see how somebody would think you were a Aussie.
The only explanation I can think of is that the people who made the mistake were not that familiar with the accents and just guessed bacause they knew it was foreign. ???
I have to compliment you on your accent. Usually when we west europeans speak of an american accent we speak of the nasaly twang of the vast majority of our middle class,middle country american tourists.
You have a rather non descript accent and it could easily be ascribed to a number of nations. It is not typically australian but thats considered a fair guess for when we are trying to “suss” out the origins of an exotic caucasian.
For what its worth when Im abroad people always asume Im american. Go figure.
Speaking as an American living in the UK, I can say I’ve never been mistaken for an Aussie, but I’ve been mistaken for everything else, up to and including a Russian. (This last happened last week when I had the flu.)
Most commonly I’m mistaken for a Welshman or an Irishman. The problem I guess arises because the English around here (Oxford) notice my voice is different but don’t think it’s different enough to believe it’s from overseas. I don’t know where this puts the significant number of people who think I’m German or French, but there you go.
To those of you in this thread (I know who you are ;)) who’ve been living in a “different” country for a number of years: do you notice that when you go back to your “home” country, no one believes you’re from there? For example, here’s a brief list of where people think I might be from depending on where I am at the time:
In America: British (not even a question about it)
In Canada: Irish or “Are you from the North Bay area?”
In UK: Irish/Welsh/American/Canadian (with exceptions).
It’s strange having an accent which doesn’t seem to match anyone else’s anymore!
I also find Aussie and English accents rather similar (I can tell them apart, but I understand why some people can’t). As for the Irish accents, it depends. Middle-class folks from the Greater Dublin area don’t tend to have what we would think of as really strong Irish accents so I can see saying they sound similar to American accents - but you sure wouldn’t say that about someone from Kerry or Sligo! I think “heavy” and “full” would apply to them as well.
I don’t hear a Southern twang in Australian accents, but I do in Donegal accents. Northern Ireland meets North Carolina. The sexiest accent on the planet IMHO.
And I also usually can only identify the Welsh by process of elimination!
Thanks for the compliments Damhna - and Duke, you had to remind me
