Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
Be blunt. We Americans need to know. Should we try to change the way we speak? Are there certain words that sound particularly goofy? Please help us with your advice on this awkward matter.
|| Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of || sophistication and high intelligence. Many companies hire || salespersons from Britain to represent their products,etc. || Question: When the British hear an "American accent," does it || sound unsophisticated and dumb? || || Be blunt. We Americans need to know. Should we try to change || the way we speak? Are there certain words that sound || particularly goofy? Please help us with your advice on this || awkward matter.
On 2005-06-28, muldoon <brian9...@dslextreme.com> wrote:
> Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication > and high intelligence.
That depends on the accent. I believe that's probably true for the educated south of England, BBC, received pronunciation. I don't think that's true for some of the other dialects from northern areas (e.g. Liverpool) or the "cockney" accent.
> Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to represent > their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an > "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
I too have always wondered about this.
> Be blunt. We Americans need to know. Should we try to change > the way we speak? Are there certain words that sound > particularly goofy? Please help us with your advice on this > awkward matter.
-- Grant Edwards grante Yow! Mr and Mrs PED, can at I borrow 26.7 visi.com
muldoon wrote: > Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication > and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to > represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an > "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
> Be blunt. We Americans need to know.
To be blunt, I have no idea what this has to do with Python. Surely selecting the right forum to use indicates more sophistication and high intelligence than the way one speaks. ;-) -- Michael Hoffman
On 2005-06-28, Michael Hoffman <cam.ac...@mh391.invalid> wrote:
> muldoon wrote: >> Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication >> and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to >> represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an >> "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
>> Be blunt. We Americans need to know.
> To be blunt, I have no idea what this has to do with Python.
Monty Python was mostly Brits?
> Surely selecting the right forum to use indicates more > sophistication and high intelligence than the way one speaks. > ;-)
Well, there is that...
-- Grant Edwards grante Yow! Hello... IRON at CURTAIN? Send over a visi.com SAUSAGE PIZZA! World War III? No thanks!
Michael Hoffman wrote: > muldoon wrote: > > Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication > > and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to > > represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an > > "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
> > Be blunt. We Americans need to know.
> To be blunt, I have no idea what this has to do with Python. Surely > selecting the right forum to use indicates more sophistication and high > intelligence than the way one speaks. ;-) > -- > Michael Hoffman
This is from California, not far from where they did the old atomic bomb tests. Be tolerant. Mutation you know.
Now, what forum would you recommend? Any help would be appreciated.
>> Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication >> and high intelligence.
>That depends on the accent. I believe that's probably true for >the educated south of England, BBC, received pronunciation. I >don't think that's true for some of the other dialects from >northern areas (e.g. Liverpool) or the "cockney" accent.
>> Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to represent >> their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an >> "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
>I too have always wondered about this.
Since you've acknowledged that it's only the RP accent which gets that respect in the US (and since I speak it, I rather enjoy my visits across the pond) and others are either cute or obvious hicks, it shouldn't be a surprise that the same applies to the wide range of accents used by Americans.
The strong Appalachian accent of the guide who took us round some caves in WV last year was the epitome of unsophistication - although what he said was extremely informative and delved into some advanced science.
My wife's an Okie, but she speaks the US equivalent of RP - the one used by newsreaders on the main terrestrial TV networks and which is commonly thought to be used mostly in Ohio and other places just south of the Great Lakes. If there's such a thing as a standard "American accent", that's it. It neither sounds dumb nor clever - just American.
Some of those sonorous slow talkers from the South, and majestic bass African-Americans like James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman, have far more gravitas than any English accent can: to us, such people sound monumental.
But most of the obviously regional accents in the US sound cute or picturesque, while the ones Americans tend to regard as hick accents just sound comical.
The problem which a lot of fairly-midstream American accent users face is that it's the same sort of thing which Brits try and imitate when they want to suggest a snake-oil salesman. At bottom, an American accent doesn't mark someone out to a Brit as dumb or unsophisticated, but the immediate suspicion generated is that they're a phony and likely to be saying stuff without much regard for its accuracy.
muldoon wrote: > Michael Hoffman wrote: >>muldoon wrote:
>>>Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication >>>and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to >>>represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an >>>"American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
>>>Be blunt. We Americans need to know.
>>To be blunt, I have no idea what this has to do with Python. Surely >>selecting the right forum to use indicates more sophistication and high >>intelligence than the way one speaks. ;-) > This is from California, not far from where they did the old atomic > bomb tests. Be tolerant. Mutation you know.
First you say "be blunt," now you say "be tolerant?" Make up your mind!
Michael Hoffman (cam.ac...@mh391.invalid) wrote: : muldoon wrote:
: > Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication : > and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to : > represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an : > "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb? : > : > Be blunt. We Americans need to know.
: To be blunt, I have no idea what this has to do with Python. Surely : selecting the right forum to use indicates more sophistication and high : intelligence than the way one speaks. ;-)
Well you could draw a tenuous Python link on the headache inducing subject of trying to remember which spelling is which when doing something like:
Frankly, I can't watch Shakespeare or movies like "the full monty" or "trainspotting" because I can't understand a damn word they say. British talk sounds like gibberish to me for the most part. Out of all of these movies, the only thing I ever could understand was something like "I've got the beast in my sights misses Pennymoney". Haaar! Wow, that's a good one.
I think James Bond did it for Americans. He always wore a dinner jacket and played a lot of backarack--which is only cool because you have to bet a lot of money. Anyway, if you insist on making distinctions between the backwoods of apalachia and european aristocracy, I should remind you of the recessive genetic diseases that have historically plagued europe's nobility.
On Tuesday 28 June 2005 11:27 am, muldoon wrote:
> Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication > and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to > represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an > "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
> Be blunt. We Americans need to know. Should we try to change the way we > speak? Are there certain words that sound particularly goofy? Please > help us with your advice on this awkward matter.
-- James Stroud UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics Box 951570 Los Angeles, CA 90095
On 2005-06-28, Jarek Zgoda <jzg...@gazeta.usun.pl> wrote:
> Grant Edwards napisał(a):
>>>>>To be blunt, I have no idea what this has to do with Python. >>>>Monty Python was mostly Brits?
>>>Wasn't they all Brits?
>> Nope. Terry Gilliam was from Minneapolis.
> Are you sure there are no Brits in Minneapolis?
There are plenty of Brit's in Minneapolis. My favorite radio DJ is one of them.
Perhap's Gilliam has lived in Britain long enough to be considered a Brit, but he was born in Minneapolis, graduated from College in LA, and didn't move to Britain until he was something like 27. I believe he has British citizenship, so if that's the criterion, he's a Brit now. However, back when he was in Monty Python, he'd only lived in England for few years.
-- Grant Edwards grante Yow! How's it going in at those MODULAR LOVE UNITS?? visi.com
Mike Holmans wrote: > My wife's an Okie, but she speaks the US equivalent of RP - the one > used by newsreaders on the main terrestrial TV networks and which is > commonly thought to be used mostly in Ohio and other places just south > of the Great Lakes. If there's such a thing as a standard "American > accent", that's it. It neither sounds dumb nor clever - just American.
The linguistic term for that accent, by the way, is General American.
> The problem which a lot of fairly-midstream American accent users face > is that it's the same sort of thing which Brits try and imitate when > they want to suggest a snake-oil salesman.
And due to overcorrection, typically do a really bad job of it :-).
-- Erik Max Francis && m...@alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/ San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && AIM erikmaxfrancis If I had never met you / Surely I'd be someone else -- Anggun
On 2005-06-28, James Stroud <jstr...@mbi.ucla.edu> wrote:
> I think James Bond did it for Americans. He always wore a > dinner jacket and played a lot of backarack--which is only > cool because you have to bet a lot of money. Anyway, if you > insist on making distinctions between the backwoods of > apalachia and european aristocracy,
What, you think they sound the same?
> I should remind you of the recessive genetic diseases that > have historically plagued europe's nobility.
If don't think the English are willing to laugh at the nobility, you must not have seen the "Twit of the Year" skit or the election skit with what's-his-name (pronounced "mangrove throatwarbler").
-- Grant Edwards grante Yow! I wonder if I should at put myself in ESCROW!! visi.com
On 2005-06-29, Erik Max Francis <m...@alcyone.com> wrote:
>> The problem which a lot of fairly-midstream American accent users face >> is that it's the same sort of thing which Brits try and imitate when >> they want to suggest a snake-oil salesman.
> And due to overcorrection, typically do a really bad job of it :-).
That reminds me of a character in one of the old Dr. Who series. I thought this character had some sort of speach impediment. After a few episodes I caught a few cultural allusions made by the character and it finally dawned on me the the character was supposed to be an _American_.
I assume that when I try to speak with a British accent I sound just as bad to a Brit.
-- Grant Edwards grante Yow! Why is everything at made of Lycra Spandex? visi.com
On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 03:14:26 -0000, Grant Edwards <gra...@visi.com> wrote:
>> cool because you have to bet a lot of money. Anyway, if you >> insist on making distinctions between the backwoods of >> apalachia and european aristocracy,
> What, you think they sound the same?
I think that backwoods American speech is more archaic, and therefore is possibly closer to historical European speech. Susan Cooper uses this as a minor plot point in her juvenile novel "King of Shadows", which is about a 20th-century Southern kid who goes back to Elizabethan times and ends up acting with Shakespeare; his accent ensures that he doesn't sound *too* strange in 16th-century London.
[A.M. Kuchling] | I think that backwoods American speech is more archaic, and | therefore is possibly closer to historical European speech. | Susan Cooper uses this as a minor plot point in her juvenile | novel "King of Shadows", which is about a 20th-century | Southern kid who goes back to Elizabethan times and ends up | acting with Shakespeare; his accent ensures that he doesn't | sound *too* strange in 16th-century London.
Aha! Bit of North American parochialism there. The fact that he's a "Southern kid" doesn't say "from the southern states of North America" to everyone. All right, in fact it's clear from the context, but I just fancied having a jab.
In fact, I rather like the fact that he can truthfully claim to come from Falmouth, which his hearers (including Queen Elizabeth!) understand to mean the town in the West Country [of England] whereas in fact he means the town in Carolina (apparently).
TJG
| | --amk | -- | http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list | | ______________________________________________________________ | __________ | This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The | service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive | anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: | http://www.star.net.uk | ______________________________________________________________ | __________ |
________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________
On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:27:40 -0700, muldoon wrote: > Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication > and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to > represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an > "American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?
Which American accent?
Texan? Georgian cracker or Maine fisherman? New York taxi driver? Bill Clinton or Jesse Jackson or George W Bush? California Valley girl, Arkansas redneck or boyz from th' hood? Paris Hilton or Queen Latifah?
> Be blunt. We Americans need to know. Should we try to change the way we > speak? Are there certain words that sound particularly goofy? Please > help us with your advice on this awkward matter.
Speaking as an Australia, the typical "film voice" (eg Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, etc) doesn't sound unsophisticated. In fact, when we hear it, it doesn't sound like an accent at all, such is the influence of Hollywood. (Which is linguistically impossible, of course, since *every* way of speaking is by definition an accent.) The Hollywood voice is a mixture of West Coast and very light mid-Western.
But as for the rest of you, yes, you sound -- strange. It depends on the specific regional accent. At best, just different. At worst, dumber than a box of hammers. Which is of course unfair: there is no connection between accent and intelligence. But by gum, some accents just sound dumber than others. My fiancee, from Ireland, has worked and lived in the USA for half her life, and to her you all sound like Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
Lest anyone gets offended, I should point out that every English-speaking country have accents which are considered by others to mark the speaker as a thick yokel. In Ireland, they look down on Kerrymen. In England, even Yorkshiremen look down on Summerset, Devon and Dorset accents. And there is nothing as thick-sounding as a broad Ocker Aussie accent.
But don't worry, there is one thing we all agree on throughout the English-speaking world: you Americans don't speak English.
There are a few things that you can do to help:
Herb starts with H, not E. It isn't "ouse" or "ospital" or "istory". It isn't "erb" either. You just sound like tossers when you try to pronounce herb in the original French. And the same with homage.
Taking of herbs, there is no BAY in basil. And oregano sounds like Ray Romano, not oh-reg-ano.
And please, fillet of fish only has a silent T if you are speaking French.
Aluminium is al-u-min-ium, not alum-i-num.
Scientists work in a la-bor-atory, not a lab-rat-ory, even if they have lab rats in the laboratory.
Fans of the X-Men movies and comics will remember Professor Charles Xavier. Unless you are Spanish (Kh-avier), the X sounds like a Z: Zaviour. But never never never Xecks-Aviour or Eggs-Savior.
