What accent do you really hate? and which one you love?
>>you know what really irritates me? in any situation that is remotely formal i'm expected to "lose" my normal (for lack of a better word) accent like it's something "bad" or inferior. it's a fascinating thing to be in the middle of boston and hear no one speaking with a local accent because many have had it drummed into them it's "bad." this is particually true of someone like me with a strong boston (eastern new england,coastal)ny/nj, or southern accent. i sincerely think it's less of a problem for people from the midwest, and i suspect the rehtoric/non-rehtoric thing plays a big part of this. my girlfriend actually had a teacher (a middle-aged woman from wisconsin) seriously try and "correct" her english, she insisted the boston accent wasn't proper. i think most north americans are more comfortable with a rehtoric accent. trust me, i know from broad experience, i can go anywhere outside the northeast in america and my accent stands out like a sore thumb. when i go over-seas many people don't think i'm american at all. in england i get people who think i'm australian or (LOL) canadian. the "american" accent they're used to hearing (the so-called general or standard american english, or whatever the hell it's called) is so unlike mine. i don't know how john kennedy got elected, he must have sounded like he was from outer space to alot of americans. john kerry has no accent at all.<<
At least here, I am more than comfortable using the informal register of the dialect here in most social situations. The use of formal registers here is primarily linked to specific social situations where the use of such is customary (and is often linked to expressing politeness, especially in business transactions), as well as usages like expressing emphasis or verbal italicization or speaking to individuals who are likely to not fully understand informal or very informal registers here, rather than any kind of social pressure to speak more like General American.
Also note that the scope of such social situations is much narrower than in cases like, say, the socially conditioned usage of standard Hochdeutsch versus other High German and Low German dialects. For instance, I not uncommonly speak very informally (think very heavily elided, with sound shifts such as [V] -> [A] being practically complete, and with no attempt being made to approximate GA at all) with coworkers while working. In this sort of situation, in a German-speaking context, for instance, one would probably be expected to speak standard Hochdeutsch or something close to it.
>>i sincerely think it's less of a problem for people from the midwest, and i suspect the rehtoric/non-rehtoric thing plays a big part of this.<<
On a local level, this is likely a matter of perception of local dialects by the individuals who speak them themselves. For example, in the Midwest most individuals either don't have a consciousness of having distinct dialects of their own, or if they are aware of speaking differently from others, they generally do not view such in a negative light and quite likely identify with their dialects, as is very commonly the case here in Milwaukee. This is even if the dialects in question vary quite significantly from General American, as is often the case in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. This contrasts with the apparent internalization of stigmatization of local dialect forms by the speakers of such forms themselves in the case of non-rhotic dialects spoken in the Northeast. However, such is really just an accident of history, since there are features in this region which could easily be perceived similarly, such as interdental hardening.
>>my girlfriend actually had a teacher (a middle-aged woman from wisconsin) seriously try and "correct" her english, she insisted the boston accent wasn't proper.<<
This is probably more a matter of many English teachers being horribly prescriptivist assholes than anything else really.
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I like accents mixed with Irish accent, English accent and American accent. Is that okay if I say that? I've heard people speak with accent like that and it's ABSOLUTELY sexy!
Jess
How do you speak in a norwegian accent
I like what we Belgians call "Oxford English" or "BBC English". Some people say it sounds snobbish or needlessly posh, but I absolutely adore it. I also like the accent of a South African native speaker. I once met this old lady sitting next to me on a flight from Cape Town to Durban and she was so "very colonial". It was such a delight to just listen to her, talking about her "son and daughter-in-law who live in Howick, that's in the Natal Midlands near Pietermartizburg, you know. Have you ever been to the Midlands?" It is a shame that this old school English seems to disappear in South Africa these days. What I also like is the accent people in New England speak with. I find it very charming.
Now for the accents I hate: the Texan accent. By further extention, all Southern States accents. I mean, it sounds moaning and is sooooooo sloooooow that I just can't focus whenever some-one is speaking to me in that accent. A French accent! Aaaaarrrgghhh!!! Drives me nuts! I always get flash backs from British comedy series "Allo, allo": I will only zzay zeese once: bee vèèèrrrrrie carrrrreful! Some other very annoying accent is a Spanish accent... Especially when you've got some pretentious Mexican expat moaning about everything being soooooo bad in Belgium (bad weather, cold people, the rat race, the cost of living, blablabla) and everything being sooooo fantastic in Mexico. "Belgium is borrrrring..." Well then I've got news for you: if everything is better in bloody Mexico, why don't you just go back to that corrupt, third world banana republic of yours in stead of consistantly insulting your host country?? Thank you very much!!
I really liked the Belgian places I've been to besides Brussels, which like all capital cities is not really representative of the country they're in. Everybody goes to Bruges (isn't it Brugge in Flemish?)...what an interesting place, and so is Antwerp. The only sad thing about Belgium is that it's always been at the heart of European battlefields and paid such a heavy price for the privilege.
"Oxford/BBC English" is not really the main accent of England by a long, long way, Belgian - as you no doubt know. Listen to the BBC national channels (TV or radio) - the main UK-wide ones I mean and not the many local and regional ones - then you will hear the much more common nondescript RP type accent with wee bits of Estuary now and again, it depends on age groups and maybe some other factors. What I'm trying to say is that the "posh" type English English is rare except in some older people from certain social backgrounds particulary, and definitely confined to England, especially Southern parts.
I take it there is some sort of "friendly" banter between the Belgians and the French when it comes to accents? No way would I be able to tell whether a French speaker was either French or Belgian, or French speaking Swiss for that matter.....or a Monegasque...or a Corsican.
The accent thing in "'Allo! 'Allo!" was fantastic the way it as organised. The British actors were playing French people talking French....but talking in English with an exaggerated English version of a French person talking English which for the benefit of the whole show was supposed to be French. The most well known phrase was as you said...the French girl passing on important information to be kept secret from the Germans: "Leesten verrrry carefoooolee - I vill zay zis anlee vonce!" (trilling the Rs perfectly).
Any English spoken in a British accent was obviously a British character being given shelter from the Germans by the French...like those two half witted "posh English" type RAF airmen always hiding in weird places and popping up unexpectedly saying in unison: "Oh! hello!" - in best Oxford English.
Best of all was the British officer disguised as a French police officer but with very limited knowledge of French - delivered in English of course but full of errors like "I was pissing by the door so I dripped in to saw you hipping that everythoong was will with you pipple". Brilliant!
Oh yes I'm well aware of the fact that there are many accents in the UK. Nevertheless, I like the "posh" English. When I said I hate English being spoken with a French accent, I meant ANY francophone person speaking English with this particulary annoying accent, whether that person be French, Belgian, Swiss or Québecois. Whenever we were in Britain, South Africa, etc , I used to say to my mum: "Mum, could you please stop speaking English as if you were acting in 'Allo 'Allo?"
PS: Yes, the official Dutch name of Bruges is indeed "Brugge". But I guess for English-speakers the French "Bruges" is slightly more pronounceable than the Dutch "Brugge" :-) Brugge/Bruges is still quite easy, what do you think of Antwerpen/Anvers, Liège/Luik, Mons/Bergen, Leuven/Louvain, Soignies/Zinnik, Jodoigne/Geldenaken, De Haan/Le Coq or Mechelen/Malines? Ah, the joys of living in a bilingual country :-)
As you might have expected, the above message is mine...
The Belgian bloke
What the heck are all those comments for a pair of simple questions: "what foreign accent you love the most?, and which one you love the least?
I hate the way arabian people speak English. I find indian and Oriental accents irritaring. I find red-hot brazilian accent, Italian accent and french accent.
American accents are soooooo annoying!!! The people are really stupid too. HAHA isn't it funny how they are so arrogant, and think they're so powerful, yet they've never won a war? In the past they tried taking over canada 7 times, and the canadians kicked a@$ everytime. And on the 7th time, they were so annoyed with the yankes that they went and burned down the white house. haha take that!
<<HAHA isn't it funny how they are so arrogant, and think they're so powerful, yet they've never won a war?>>
Huh? Who do you think won the American Revolution, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, etc.
>>HAHA isn't it funny how they are so arrogant, and think they're so powerful, yet they've never won a war?<<
Isn't your problem that they've won just about every war?