How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
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Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
- 44-40 Willy
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Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
I was stationed in Scotland for a couple of years and made friends with some of the local folks. I'm originally from the Arkansas/Texas stateline area and have been accused of having a Texas accent all of my life. My Scottish friends though said that they could understand me better than they could most Americans. I did pick up a few of their ways of saying things while I was over there though.
44-40 Winchester. Whacking varmits and putting meat on the table since 1873.
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Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
Yeah she may have passed through Texas a time or three, but she ain't from here.Rimfire McNutjob wrote:I'm pretty sure that's a Georgian accent...JohndeFresno wrote:my wife listens to a Texas cook, Paula Deane on TV. We say "this" like it is spelled.
You're not the only one who has noticed: University of Texas researchers say Lone Star twang is fadingvancelw wrote:But I have become dismayed that most Texans don't speak like Texans anymore (even that depends on what part of the state you're from.)
The rest of the article is at the hotlink...
Do you talk Texan?
Say these sentences: “I pulled open a drawer to find a banana. Then, I peeled it.”
Did your “pull” have an “oooh sound, as in pool? Did your “peel” come out more like pill?
Probably not.
Most Texans no longer sound like stereotypical Texans, according to language researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. The twang, they say, is fading.
“What’s so striking is that 30 years ago, about 80 percent of all speakers had clear Texas accents,” said Lars Hinrichs, an assistant professor of English and director of the Texas English Project.
“Nowadays, the recordings my students bring back of people who grew up in Texas hardly ever have a strong Texas accent.”
The reasons are predictable — immigration, urbanization, gentrification — and the shift is most noticeable in people who live in a city, or are younger than 25. Today, people who live in Texas cities sound more like accent-neutral Midwesterners.
But Hinrichs and other researchers said they discovered something surprising when they began studying Texans’ use of their native tongue.
We haven’t abandoned the y’alls and drawls, we just use them when the time is right.
So, when a city-dwelling saleswoman is working in East Texas, she’ll often slip into the hyper-polite “thank you kindly” mode. Or when a Texas-born man is speaking to an elderly woman, he’ll default to the respectful “yes, ma’am.”
“It builds rapport, it’s quaint, it’s friendly,” said Hinrichs. “When you hear someone talking with a Texas twang, you feel like you’re talking to a good person.”
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
-Mark Twain
Proverbs 3:5; Philippians 4:13
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This running with the Joneses boy
Just ain't where it's at
- Canuck Bob
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Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
Every Californian I've met spoke English as a second language, pretty handy with Spanish though.
Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
How do the British learn to speak and spell?
They do not learn how! If they did, you could understand them when they spoke and wrote.
They do not learn how! If they did, you could understand them when they spoke and wrote.
The man who invented the plow was not bored. He was hungry.
Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
Seems like a lot of the news readers in the US are either Canadian or Texan, apparently nobody much wants to listen to the ones in-between. During the second world war the Canadian accent was regarded as being the most generally understood, so you got Canadians like Lorne Greene doing the news from overseas. Not sure that would work today.
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Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
rhead wrote:How do the British learn to speak and spell?
They do not learn how! If they did, you could understand them when they spoke and wrote.
Whatever you do always give 100%........... unless you are donating blood.
Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
I have to admit that Lorne Green was very clear when he spoke. If there are many who were clearer and easier to understand, then I don't know who they were. He was a good actor, too. Carol Burnett, a Texan, was very easy to understand when she wasn't in character. Despite his accent, Andy Griffith had very clear diction. Clark Gable was another one with a good clear voice who had good diction. Now, for funny accents, I think the folks from Naw Lins have a humorous accent.TomD wrote:Seems like a lot of the news readers in the US are either Canadian or Texan, apparently nobody much wants to listen to the ones in-between. During the second world war the Canadian accent was regarded as being the most generally understood, so you got Canadians like Lorne Greene doing the news from overseas. Not sure that would work today.
D. Brian Casady
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost
Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
gobblerforge - +1
What intrigues me is when many a Brit, with heavily-accented normal speech, sound un-British & like any American when they sing.
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What intrigues me is when many a Brit, with heavily-accented normal speech, sound un-British & like any American when they sing.
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Re: OT - How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
bulldog1935 wrote:England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
George Bernard Shaw
and where do they get bespoke out of benchmade?
Now, let me hear you say wisKAHNsin.
The problem is clearly universal - no one speaks English.
Actually, when I think of a bespoke gun (should it be bespoken?) it conjures up images of fine English made shotguns a la Purdy & Boss. These are made to a customer's specifications and are usually "bench made" in the sense of not being produced in a huge factory. Suits too may be bespoke---I don't know whether they are made at a bench, though they're surely not made in a sweatshop somewhere .
So, bespoke, to me, suggests custom-made more than where made.
Re: How do Brits learn to speak and spell??
nor is benchmade where made, it's how made