BAAZ

Actually IME in Italy it's slightly different. There are local "dialects" in most part of the country, ranging from very strong accents and some local terminology through to what are effectively languages with relatively little in common with standard Italian. However, most people also learn standard Italian and are capable of switching between one and the other; they use standard Italian to speak with people from other parts of Italy, much in the same way as Dutch people speak Dutch with each other but use English to speak with people from other parts of Europe.

The difficulty many non-British people have in the UK is that many British people are only able to speak in their local accent, and they often use different vowels from standard English and don't pronounce their fair share of consonants. My Italian wife often gets stuck with this on calls to call centres, and ends up having to hang up and call back, hoping that someone else answers the phone...

ajax

Most American accents are relatively intelligible. All Southern accents (and there are several) are quite melodic and most New England accents are actually similar to those found in England (flat vowels and dropped Rs, for instance).

As a native-born US national, the one I struggle with is the Louisiana Cajun accent. It's just so weird. I'll see if I can find an example.

Teefaf

Yes, I've had people think I'm Irish as well. And Americans often ask me if I'm English. That, I don't get.

Silver Fox

Well as we are on the subject of accents, it always amuses me when I am in California and ask for a "mocha" (my pronunciation of it is "mocker") when it is locally pronounced as "mow-car" (which is fine) but they are unable to make the quantum leap from mocker to mow-car in a lot of cases. Always causes a smile in my mind.

Swanhunter

My (slightly estuary/home counties) pronunciation of "water" seems to cause enormous problems in the US.

Phil the Flyer

If you truly believe that attempting to uphold standards is 'condescending' then good luck to you.

Silver Fox

Me too. And under no circumstances can I bring myself to say "tow-may-toe". I would rather go without.

Zamoyska

I'm a native N.Y'er! I totally struggle with some Southern accents. As far as Boston is concerned I was just thinking of someone I know in NY who has the thickest Boston accent imaginable, I'm usually totally lost when he's taking to me.

bernardd

It seems like the strength of the accent depends very much on when the region was settled, and how mobile people were at the time. Accents are fairly strong and more localized in New England and pockets like Louisiana than, say, Phoenix where almost everyone is a newcomer.

The part I find difficult is some of the first generation immigrants who don't have a great command of English and often still have strong accents from their home countries, some of whose languages are radically different to my own.

Despite the few reservations I still have enormous admiration for any group that can weld together a nation from so many immigrants speaking so many different languages. Thankfully for me the language they adopted was dumbed-down English, which is close enough to my Mother tongue that I only had to remember to cut some longer word from my vocabulary.

Wilbur

Heh, no kidding.

I went to college with a guy from Tangier Island, and he was almost universally loved because no one could understand his native tongue. And this from a bunch of insular Appalachian-Americans with a fairly old-fashioned lexicon and diction ourselves!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRED-vr_xFw

Tangier was settled in the 1600s, and I would suggest that they are unlikely to have any call centers located there in the near future.

They did know how to stand in queues, however, and not barge in like a horde of barbarians.

henkybaby

It's not so much what you are trying to do, but how you phrased that attempt. To be clear, you are being condescending once again in your response, but I take no offense.

DYKWIA

Wow - how did we get here? Typical of the BA forum

Anyway - I'm glad most people took my rant in the right way. I was fuming at the time, not least because the impression it gave to the tourists that were queueing.

My main gripe was the BA/BAA staff in uniform.

Thanks for the responses.

Cheers,
Rick

ajax

Yes and no. There is a higher concentration of older accents in long-settled areas (two states I lived several years each in - Maine and Vermont - have similar but distinctively different accents) but there certainly are accents specific to more-recently-settled areas. Arizona has a specific accent (I can always recognise it when I return), as do places such as Wisconsin and California. They may be more diffuse in their geographic distribution, but they are definitely there.

It can be a struggle speaking with some non-native English speakers, but as someone who lived in a non-English-speaking country for a few years and who tried to exist in an acquired language, I have tremendous respect for everyone who does it (because it is bloody difficult!).

Now, now.

HIDDY

What standards are we talking about here?

This is a forum frequented by many nationalities who do not have English as their first language. In my opinion they always post using a acceptable standard of English. ^

T8191

Curious [or not] but interesting nevertheless.

My wife and I both speak what would be called "RP" ... West London/Surrey, un-accented, no regional dialect. And when in the USA we're often told "Oh, I love your accent. Are you Australian?"
What is the sentence for Assault Through International Outrage in Virginia?

Equally, my fading hearing can still usually place people in the approximate State/Region they come from. I find that weird.

And of course, being British, I queue/stand in line and call people Sir/Ma'am and drive of their 'wrong side of the highway'. And I'm VERY polite to US Police-persons!