Interesting pronunciation details - Brit English
 

I was curious if darjeeling was pronounced the way I assumed (It is, in the English speaking world).

In the process, this video popped up which had nothing to do with Darjeeling, but I thought it was interesting how for some vowel pronunciations, Americans are more like a northern British accent and for some vowels, we are more like a southern British accent. The blond is also VERY easy to watch.

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They're pretty close. Throw in some London Cockney to hear a real difference.

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Had a weekend to blow in London (mid 80's) and met a cutie on the train Friday night with a strong Cockney accent. She spent the weekend with me. No overnights. Just some smooching. I was on SOHIO's dime so plenty of my money to take her out to decent places. We had a blast. She was quite the ambassador and helped me through her expressions I did not understand. Fond memory.

Also spent a couple days in Gloucester. At breakfast I overheard two kitchen staff talking. Just 15 year olds and I knew they were speaking something close to English but could not really understand them. Asked other staff and found they were from Wales.

The missus likes mysteries, and the Brits are top at making them, so we watch a bunch of British shows. We probably don't hear that much Cockney, but we do get some here and there.

Cockney is interesting, especially how they come up with their slang which is usually a long round about process of rhyming and association.
Cool.

When I watch episodes of Dr. Who I have to turn on closed captioning to have a chance at understanding some of the accents.

I imagine it is like them watching Swamp People and understanding the heavy Cajun accents.

When I drove up to Plymouth, MA to see "the engraved rock" on the beach we were looking for a parking spot. I pulled up to a parking attendant and he had a VERY heavy Boston accent, and was speaking a foreign language to me as far as me understanding him. He finally said it word for word slowly, that the lot was full, but I could leave the car and the keys in one spot and he would park it when someone left. I declined, and asked if I could do a U turn in and out of the lot. I found a good spot on the street and we walked down to see the rock.

I've watched a lot of videos on the accents from the Britain and other countries and the one that I hear the most about is the Geordie accent.

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I'm lucky that I've got a good ear to understand folks even with strong accents. My wife is pretty hopeless at understanding folks with accents. I'd say that for me it may be due to moving around and being exposed to so many folks when I was young (dad was in the Navy), but I really think it's just something that some people have and some folks don't (although I'm sure with practice it can be improved/developed)

Even so, I once spent a week in Aberdeen Scotland. When some folks with stronger accents spoke to me, it took me a second or two for my brain to process what I'd heard, which doesn't sound like much, but in a regular conversation, 1-2 secs is an eternity.

The heavy accents from New England are interesting, but can also be kind of grating.

I too was a military brat. I went to 1st and 2nd grade in Hawaii and was proficient at pidgin English. Then we moved to Montgomery, AL. We got there on the second day of school, and the teacher wanted to do a pop spelling test. She would say the word, and we were supposed to spell it.

She had a VERY thick southern accent, thicker than 50 weight motor oil in -20 temps. I simply could not understand her. I made a ZERO on my spelling test. She sent home a note to my parents in a sealed envelope saying she wanted to talk to my parents. She told my dad she was afraid I was just too slow for normal school. My dad said ma'am I have a hard time understanding you at all, my son has no chance as we just moved here from Hawaii.

He and mom fought to get me into a class with a teacher that could speak with just a minor accent. It was nice to be able to understand the teacher.

Man, that Geordie accent was difficult to understand if they speak it fast. I had a roommate from the Ireland who grew up on a farm. He was impossible to understand. He was constantly asked to slow down when he spoke

Oregonians talk like radio announcers..no accent at all. Think Johnny Carson speech...although he's from Nebraska.

Sure would have been fun to insert a Georgia Peach in that opening video. A buddy married one. Love how her voice flows like honey.

I have a pretty easy time hearing through most accents, too. Heavy asian accents, latino, redneck...no problem. When I was in Australia, a guy there was talking to me and I knew he was speaking English, but I had no clue what he was saying. First time I'd ever encountered that.

Couple of trips to Aberdeen with BP/SOHIO. Many of the peeps were expats/higher level folks so there was not a language challenge.

The language fun came in with the support staff. Educated but Aberdeen based so I still pick up a lot of color.

One story unrelated. Maybe 1996-ish. Lady from Anchorage assigned an IT Expat posting as a manager in Aberdeen walked to the local bank - right next to the BP campus - to open a checking account. They would not allow her to without her husband's approval.

A friend of mine is from Aberdeen and I said you don't sound very Scottish. He laughed and said we have our own accent, and elaborated by saying they speak like this so others can understand them. He said a big percentage of Aberdeen are from elsewhere and are there for the oil industry.

The one that always gets Is they way they pronounce H, it’s always hey-tch, even when it starts a word.

Other than that being a Canadian, meh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q47CuQX0gn8

I don't understand a thing from this farmer. This old roommate of mine wasn't this bad, but close when he gets excited and speaks in his normal speed. He kept saying he has to dumb his English down for us American folks

I just noticed the name, Sean Mc something at 1:53. What is that.

Another. Go to 0:22 if you want to skip the auction. What the heck are these two old guys ssaying? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT2OVUY2gZY

I had a roommate in college who was an exchange student from Swansea Wales, (actually Llanelli, farm country...). He would phone his mum and flip back and forth between Welsh and English...but I couldn't even understand the English because it was about 50% faster than he spoke to even other native British speakers. Same year I met a blonde who was the daughter of an RAF pilot in Cardiff. Literally 50 miles apart, and they had completely different accents, mannerisms, everything. Location, upbringing, money...

Through him, I met pretty much all of the UK exchange students that year, about 20 of them from ALL over the Isles. By the end of the year I was pretty good at picking out accents of new people within about 100 miles. I've lost that skill even though I now hang out with a bunch of British ex-pats now (mostly Yorkies and Scousers).

I also learned that year that keeping up on a night of drinking with them had nothing to do with how DRUNK one got, but how one composed themselves while falling over pissed. I assumed that Brits never got drunk, but what I learned was Brits get VERY drunk, they just don't do things like moon people on the street, or pee on cars, or puke in bushes. They're *respectful* sloppy drunks :D

Some of them do, and on top of that they have their own words. IIRC, where we say "what, where, when, who and how", they would say "fit, far, fan, fa and foo."

I loved it and wish I'd stayed longer. I worked for a company that provided network access over satellite for the oil industry.

A thick scouse spoken by a native the first time I tried to understand it... along with all the slang words thrown in and the sing-songiness... was wayyyyy beyond my ability. But I love it to this day.

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A thicker version of Steve McManaman's scouse is very close to what I heard that first time...

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two accents heard here most often are jamican and Bahamian
jam can be very hard to follow Ja
but the Bahamian is like better english then I speak [i speak Midwestern standard]

really dislike and find had to follow indian or pak esp teck support phone calls
and I can't tell the difference

SA or NZ are eazy but auzzie needs a book to get the slang rimes strait

A friend of mine live in northern England. He grew up in Scotland and claims he can tell which town any Scottish lad is from by his accent.....