You Are Your Accent?

mike65

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3235934.stm

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-accent25.html

Facinating, not only in itself but also the reaction of those who know the "victim".

Do you think ppl are judged by thier accent and do you judge yourself....(its a good idea to tape yourself and play it back before you dis anyone elses accent!)

Mike.

snickerpuss

Damn accents!
All through my childhood i was slagged off something terrible because i had a "posh accent", made even worse by the fact that where i live isnt very posh at all.
Grrrrrr.
Its not as weird now.
Though still, i have to say i find certain accents attractive.

beardedchicken

ooh, that was really interesting. i had heard about foreign accent syndrome before, as they said, it usually occurs as a result of some kind of brain lesion like a stroke or a brain haemorrage, but it really makes you realise how delicate the brain is, when something so small can cause such drastic effects on language, cognition, even personality, it makes you both appreciate and wonder at the fact that your own brain functions normally!

ur mentor

accents are all part of the first impression.
like handshake, eye contact, smile, posture, dress, grooming.
Its a cliche I know but those first few seconds make a long lasting impression.
of course if you are from someplace foreign (like Cork!!) and unintelligible then they continue to matter.:D

skipn_easy

I heard two different recordings of that woman on the radio and it was really weird to hear how different they were.

I think accents do play a large part as to what people think of you, at least initially. For one thing your accent except in extreme cases like the one above says a lot about where you're from, what kind've school you went to, where your familys from and who you hang around with. Its not something I'd base all my opinions on but it would certainly leave me with an impression.

gurramok

Some people deliberately distort their accent to try to be above 'the rest'

The crappy Dort accent from certain postcodes in dublin leaves a distinct impression that the person using it is either dishonest and/or pretty stupid

Nevyn

I was introduced to a guy over the weekend and he looked and sounded very east london but swiftly informed me that he is Polish and that his parents moved the family there when he was young. He hates the fact he does not sound polish and that everyone assumes he is a Brit.

We all do it , we all judge people by how they look , speak and carry themselves before we get to know them.

MiCr0

in a similar vain,
i was asked last weekend which private school in the UK i had gone to.

The fact that i've spent 3 days - max - in the uk made me a bit curious.......

Crash

I occasionally get odd bits of accents drifting into my speech. i think its down to being brought up abroad and taught in an international school, but its still weird. I know people who sound incredibly british but are actually Full on Irish and never been to the UK for extended periods of time. tis odd that.

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by gurramok
Some people deliberately distort their accent to try to be above 'the rest'

The crappy Dort accent from certain postcodes in dublin leaves a distinct impression that the person using it is either dishonest and/or pretty stupid

Marketing --> Morketing

woosaysdan

i think that i have the sollution for this problem, people have been known to remember facts about thing that happened many years in another life!!! maybe she was someone born in england in another life!!!

eirebhoy

I get judged straight away as stupid because of my common Dublin city accent. I got rejected many a job because of my accent and I wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting a customer support job. Also, it is very hard to get into niteclubs with a common Dublin accent.

I could tell 90% of peoples accents before they open their mouths. If I saw a posh bloke down a mine hole or a skanger in a suit I would notice them straight away. I find that a bit weird how you can notice a posh and common person from their face alone. For example, if you see Robbie Keane for the first time at a posh ball in a tuxedo you would know his accent straight away.

How is this possible? Do people's faces grow with who they grew up with?

MarkR

States for first 11 years, clare for the next 14. Result, where the hell are you from? He he.. One lady said i sounded like a pilot! On a related issue, why are so many irish (?) dj's sounding american? Or is it just me?

Mark

sceptre

Originally posted by Legbreaker
On a related issue, why are so many irish (?) dj's sounding american?/B]

The wally factor?

This mid-Atlantic accent thing seems to have become more, er, popular among DJs in the past decade. I blame the people who hire them more than anything else.


"Hoi! I'm Tone-ey Fent'n"

embee

Im from Ardee, Co. Louth.

When I went to Uni in Maynooth, my classmates all thought I was from Northern Ireland.

When I lived in Cork, people thought I was from Tipperary.

When I worked in a call centre talking to English people, they thought I was from Devon/Cornwall.

I am reliably informed by my friends and family that my accent hasnt changed.... So whats that all about?????

"You Are Your Accent"....... apparently not......

Specky

Oh!! I have a brilliant idea that will prevent anyone from being unfairly prejudiced against anyone because of their accent.

What we should all do is paint our skin a particular colour depending on what country we're from, that way no-one will treat us like a foriegner because they'll be able to see that we're really Irish through and through....


Hmm...hang on a minute.....I think I may have spotted a slight flaw in my plan.....

woosaysdan

yeah where will we get the paint

Exit

Or the brushes? Or any painting paraphernalia at all?

p

Originally posted by eirebhoy
I get judged straight away as stupid because of my common Dublin city accent. I got rejected many a job because of my accent and I wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting a customer support job. Also, it is very hard to get into niteclubs with a common Dublin accent.

Curious, would you consider taking voice coaching/accent elimination, or do you consider it to much part of who you are?

I could tell 90% of peoples accents before they open their mouths. If I saw a posh bloke down a mine hole or a skanger in a suit I would notice them straight away. I find that a bit weird how you can notice a posh and common person from their face alone. For example, if you see Robbie Keane for the first time at a posh ball in a tuxedo you would know his accent straight away.

How is this possible? Do people's faces grow with who they grew up with?

I reckon there's some kind relation to how you look vs what you sound like but I think most of what you'd be judging on would be clothes and general physical persona.

I doubt you'll be able to tell accents in properly controlled conditions.

casper-

Yep .. if one more person says I'm American I'm going to throttle them Mind you, apparently I'm starting to prononuce some word with a Dublin accent and I haven't been here long ... so who knows? Perhaps I'll grow into a completely untraceable accent that confuses everyone

earwicker

But it's not just the DJs (grrr Gerry Ryan grrr) affecting the accent. It's the plebs as well. I've noticed lots of people now using the word "sucks" ("X sucks ass, man!" Really bothersome: and what's wrong with a r s e anyway? And speaking of the fundament, there's the reprehensible "butt.").

When did all the "shops" become "stores"?

"Yore ma" is rapidly morphing into "Your Mom."

"Toons" for the perfectly serviceable "music."

"Whatever" for any sort of reasoned comeback/ response.

One pronunciation that really gets my goat is "process" botched into "prawh-cess."

There's lots more, but I'll stop now. :eek: :rolleyes:

mike65

Hi earwicker, all outline are nothing less than symptoms
of Greater Friends Disease is fear...never watch it myself so I say arse...

edit> The above makes little sense, I really must read back my posts before letting them loose. It should have read something like -

Friends is ****ing up our culture!!!!!!


Mike.

earwicker

*Whoosh!*

Paddy20

Imho. People generally misjudge others throughout thier lives. How many times have you been proved wrong after having judged someone else based on first impressions ?.

My accent is very difficult for me to judge, but others that have never met me before, generally get my origins wrong. As a result I no longer jump to conclusions about strangers based on my first impressions.

P.:ninja:

earwicker

Mike: Thanks for clarifying.

Capt'n Midnight

Colin Pillinger

azezil

Someone once said to me "you don't have an accent, you must have spent a lot of time in dublin growning up" ... i didn't know weather to laugh cry or hit him

People often judge others on their accents, its often foolish but i admit i've done it myself!

sunbeam

Originally posted by azezil
Someone once said to me "you don't have an accent, you must have spent a lot of time in dublin growning up" ... i didn't know weather to laugh cry or hit him

I've had that said to me too. For some reason most people seem to think I come from south Dublin rather than Mayo. The last taxi driver I encountered spent the entire journey arguing that if I really came from Mayo I must be from a very wealthy family. :rolleyes:

mike65

Originally posted by sunbeam
For some reason most people seem to think I come from south Dublin rather than Mayo.

:ninja: Is all I can say...

Mike.

sunbeam

But I must add that I have yet to be mistaken for someone from D4

gurramok

Ply them with lots of drink, and listen to their real accent flowing

Dónall

It's extremely interesting to hear about how so many people are so wrongly judged by their accents. I may have the record for where people have thought I'm from. Scottish,South African, Australian, Canadian, English (only once, thank God, and I was speaking Irish :dunno: !!!) Scandinavian, Spanish and just vaquely foreign - not from here anyway.....

Outside Dublin I'm assumed to be from Dublin, here in Dublin people say "where the f+k are you from anyway?"

I sort of have an excuse; I'm originally from Athlone, spent my teens at boarding school in Dublin, then college in Dublin and Maynooth, and then twelve years in Spain. That doesn't stop people giving you hassle about my accent though. I think people hate someone trying to be what they're not, especially " putting on airs" or whatever. Which is fair enough sometimes, but inverse snobbery can be as nasty and stupid as straightforward snobbery, I think.

It is also genuinely difficult to have one clearly identifiable accent unless you literally spend your whole life in the exact same place. Otherwise it is hard to say what your real accent is, no matter how much you drink.

Having lived in Spain I have to say that the obsession with accent is also peculiarly "English", and that includes ourselves I'm afraid. Sure, accents exist in Spain - but people quite happily adapt their accents as they move from say Andalusia to Madrid, just because it's more practical.

Finally, it's weird and almost dizzying (and I'm sure a few of you have had this experience) to be abroad and have English and Americans tell you amazing it is that you could live abroad and still have such a thick Irish accent and then come home and be told you don't sound Irish at all (or not Irish enough) - a difficult game to win.:mad:

Sev

Originally posted by azezil
People often judge others on their accents, its often foolish but i admit i've done it myself!

I do it all the time, it's not foolish.. of course I keep my opinions to myself. I know it might not sound very PC, might sound quite narrowminded or whatever, but that's where you're own cop on comes into the equation. The truth is you can tell a whole lot about somebody by the way they talk, in their accent, in their tone of voice. The reason being.. is that yes, somebody might have a particular accent because of the region in which they live or grew up, but... people still impart their own flavour onto that accent by their very own sense of what kind of impression they want to give to others of themselves. People put on accents, sometimes in a very deliberate effort. Othertimes its the product of a subconscious self conditioning that gradually changes one's natural accent over time.

mike65

Originally posted by Dónall
.

Having lived in Spain I have to say that the obsession with accent is also peculiarly "English", and that includes ourselves I'm afraid. Sure, accents exist in Spain - but people quite happily adapt their accents as they move from say Andalusia to Madrid, just because it's more practical.

I'd say thats to avoid being stoned given the "distinct" views any one region of Spain has about any other region.

Mike.

l3rian

i have to admit i hate the cork accent - they sound a bit thick (sorry cork people)
i quite like the donegal accent - its kind of cool

Specky

I like regional accents, I think they're really interesting even though some of them irritate the hell out of me (particularly dislike Belfast and Birmingham....perhaps it's a 'B' thing...) but people are most definitely judged by the way they speak, just the same as they are judged by the way they dress, whether or not they wear a tie, whether they eat with their mouths open, whether they swear a lot etc etc etc...

None of these things really matter in the grand scheme of things but unfortunately in life we will often find ourselves in situations where the road ahead is blocked by someone who does think these things are important. We have a choice: stand by our principles, keep our odd little idiosyncracies and hope that the world will change before we and our kind dissappear into the obscurity of time or outwardly conform to the required norms and progress.

Things have improved a tiny little bit over the last thirty years, they will probably improve a tiny bit more over the next thirty, that's brilliant, roll on the revolution. In the mean time I shall don my suit and tie when I meet customers, I shall refrain from F'ing and blinding (wherever possible) when I meet the bank manager and I shall continue to allow my accent to modify itself in a way that suits the people I'm talking to if it gets me understood and achieves the required result.

Am I selling out? Am I denying my working class heritage? No. I'm just getting on with my life before it's over.

Boberto

I don't have an accent... THANK JEBUS!
I'm from drogheda and the accent is awful

Apparently people can hear dublin twangs in specific words i say (cos i work there) but i don't notice it...

lili

well, i have a little french accent, like antoine decaunes the presentator of trash tv on channel 4 some years ago.:D
except that none undestand me, it cause to me not too much problem. by the way if i try to speak with an english accent seems to me worse, i think.

Specky

That raises the interesting point about how some see non-irish/english accents as being somehow "sophisticated". Like going to the US and speaking with an Irish or English accent, the yanks just lap it up.

Your french regional accent is probably completely indestinguishable to us (hey you could be swiss or belgian or whatever for all we know!!) but it probably just sounds like a "cool french accent".

The way we sound places us into a particular stereotypical pigeonhole. The problem is that the french accent probably has a lot more positive stereotypical characteristics than the Dublin accent.

lili

why the accent of dublin is so particular?

mike65

Originally posted by lili
why the accent of dublin is so particular?

Not sure what you mean lili, I'm not sure there is a "Dublin" accent, only class accent as far as I can tell - someone from Darndale will sound diff to someone in Foxrock. I could say the same about Waterford and Cork.

Mike.

lili

well in france we make fun of the canadian accent (we can't take seriously what a québécois could say, due the words employed and the funny accent).

i like the accent of marseille, it's a singing accent, accent of the south.

i must admit we make also fun of the belgium accent:D but it's in a good spirit, we like them a lot.

i have to say about the irish language that i never thought it was so different of the english language, i was quite surprised to read it here.

Specky

chalk and fromage....

Lukin Black

I loved the skit (scène) in "Diner de Cons" where the wee bald guy puts on the Belgian accent - "Je prends l'accent belge? (Non!) Allo ? Pourrais-je parler à Mr Leblanc juste une fois".

But yeah, the Québecois accent is rather strange. The funniest accent I've heard though, was hearing Spanish people speak French, that was a laugh.

Is there much of a difference with the French-Swiss accent?

lili

hmm...
when i will understand the joke i promise to answer to it

lili

Originally posted by Lukin Black
I loved the skit (scène) in "Diner de Cons" where the wee bald guy puts on the Belgian accent - "Je prends l'accent belge? (Non!) Allo ? Pourrais-je parler à Mr Leblanc juste une fois".

But yeah, the Québecois accent is rather strange. The funniest accent I've heard though, was hearing Spanish people speak French, that was a laugh.

Is there much of a difference with the French-Swiss accent?

the swiss people speak very slowly. which gave them not a dynamic attitude.

spanish people speaking french?, hehe, where?:D
they are damn proud and if it was not for business they don't bother to speak it;)

lili

Originally posted by Specky
chalk and fromage....

i still don't understand, i watched my english dictionary and "chalk" means "craie".
or maybe it have another meaning?

Specky

English saying, things that are completely different from one another are described as being "like chalk and cheese"...

lili

Originally posted by Specky
English saying, things that are completely different from one another are described as being "like chalk and cheese"...

ah ok.
so it was about the english and the irish language i suppose.

Specky

yes I suppose...so long ago now I'm beginning to forget myself...nothing like the language barrier to turn a moment of flippancey into an afternoon of explanations....:D

lili

yes, it's damn difficult to talk with me:p