Are we becoming too Americanized, dudes?

snowstorm445

I've been living in Dublin for several years now and I have to say that of all non-American people in the world (apart from maybe the Canadians), the accent on some people (mainly southsiders) in Dublin is the most American sounding one that I've come across anywhere. Perhaps its just me coming from Cork where our accent is still fairly strong, but among young Dubs I have a hard time distinguishing it from many Americans you'd hear around the place.

I'm not just talking about the standard D4 accent which has a bit of a weird British influence in it as well, but in this case even the tones and turns of phrase are almost indistinguishable from Americans. A really droning sort of accent that clashes fairly noticeably with regular Dublin accents. American pronunciation of certain words as well (eg. "zebra", the letter z, even the word tomato) is quite common as well.

Also there tends to be a large amount of idea diffusion from America that has had a significant impact on our cultural and political outlook. Obviously there are things like names (many names that are given to children these days are fairly transparently American) but it's also visible in terms of social issues; Irish social liberals for instance spend an inordinate amount of time importing wholesale political activism on problems that afflict American society for sure (such as racial diversity in the media, politics etc.) but which patently don't apply in a more homogenous society like Ireland. Numerous articles in some papers for instance complain about the extent of white privilege in a country where even today more than 95% of the population is characterised as "white".

So, like, what do yall think? Are we more and more 51st state like in our general character than we like to think?

mada82

Awesome post.

ArnoldJRimmer

You spelled the thread title wrong, its Americanized

Barry Badrinath

10-4 Big Daddy

Panthro

Gosh no!

Arghus

Americanized my ass.

snowflaker

aluminium

Surreptitious

What you say about my mother?

Agricola

By "we" you mean Dublin? Probably then, yeah.

The rest of us are still humble aul Irish gobsh1tes thank God. Soft to day to ya.

...And Justice

snowstorm445 wrote: »

I've been living in Dublin for several years now and I have to say that of all non-American people in the world (apart from maybe the Canadians), the accent on some people (mainly southsiders) in Dublin is the most American sounding one that I've come across anywhere. Perhaps its just me coming from Cork where our accent is still fairly strong, but among young Dubs I have a hard time distinguishing it from many Americans you'd hear around the place.

I'm not just talking about the standard D4 accent which has a bit of a weird British influence in it as well, but in this case even the tones and turns of phrase are almost indistinguishable from Americans. A really droning sort of accent that clashes fairly noticeably with regular Dublin accents. American pronunciation of certain words as well (eg. "zebra", the letter z, even the word tomato) is quite common as well.

Also there tends to be a large amount of idea diffusion from America that has had a significant impact on our cultural and political outlook. Obviously there are things like names (many names that are given to children these days are fairly transparently American) but it's also visible in terms of social issues; Irish social liberals for instance spend an inordinate amount of time importing wholesale political activism on problems that afflict American society for sure (such as racial diversity in the media, politics etc.) but which patently don't apply in a more homogenous society like Ireland. Numerous articles in some papers for instance complain about the extent of white privilege in a country where even today more than 95% of the population is characterised as "white".

So, like, what do yall think? Are we more and more 51st state like in our general character than we like to think?

Yep. It's the opposite to the far right in Germany, we are going extreme left, to make our younger generation full of shít.

Pelvis

snowflaker wrote: »

aluminium

A loo minimum?

snowstorm445

mada82 wrote: »

Awesome post.

Like oh my gawd I know, right?

LeinsterDub

Be the lord Jesus not this feckin thread again

Jim Bob Scratcher

mada82 wrote: »

Awesome post.

Radical post

...And Justice

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Be the lord Jesus not this feckin thread again

Yep it only ends in bans.

biko

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

seachto7

As long as we keep building and naming petrol stations after presidents and selling paddywhackery to tourists, mainly Americans, we deserve everything we get.

The Backwards Man

Bust a cap in his azzzzzz

snowflaker

I'm not in the correct place, right now, to digest this post op, so I'm gonna ask you to respect my safe space and refrain from using judging words while I take a Xanax

Westernyelp

seachto7 wrote:

As long as we keep building and naming petrol stations after presidents and selling paddywhackery to tourists, mainly Americans, we deserve everything we get.

How dare you dis the Barack Obama plazaaaaaasaaaa!!

snowflaker

Wheres Trump's Pumps? Clare???

Westernyelp

Westernyelp wrote:

How dare you dis the Barack Obama plazaaaaaasaaaa!!

I think it has 2 Supermacses!

mada82

The last 15 years has been an incredible journey

Fr_Dougal

My god, he has a gun; shhoooot him!

Grayson

...And Justice wrote: »

Yep. It's the opposite to the far right in Germany, we are going extreme left, to make our younger generation full of shít.

I think you just proved the OP's point.

I have this liberal/conservative bullsh1t. I'm pretty much a centrist. I believe in the freedom of the individual but also believes that we should always see if it negatively affects others. I pretty much always look for the middle ground. Because of the american bull that's polluted our discourse I'm apparently a tree hugging lefty who's destroying the country and is making the younger generation full of ****.

sjb25

snowstorm445 wrote: »

I've been living in Dublin for several years now and I have to say that of all non-American people in the world (apart from maybe the Canadians), the accent on some people (mainly southsiders) in Dublin is the most American sounding one that I've come across anywhere. Perhaps its just me coming from Cork where our accent is still fairly strong, but among young Dubs I have a hard time distinguishing it from many Americans you'd hear around the place.

I'm not just talking about the standard D4 accent which has a bit of a weird British influence in it as well, but in this case even the tones and turns of phrase are almost indistinguishable from Americans. A really droning sort of accent that clashes fairly noticeably with regular Dublin accents. American pronunciation of certain words as well (eg. "zebra", the letter z, even the word tomato) is quite common as well.

Also there tends to be a large amount of idea diffusion from America that has had a significant impact on our cultural and political outlook. Obviously there are things like names (many names that are given to children these days are fairly transparently American) but it's also visible in terms of social issues; Irish social liberals for instance spend an inordinate amount of time importing wholesale political activism on problems that afflict American society for sure (such as racial diversity in the media, politics etc.) but which patently don't apply in a more homogenous society like Ireland. Numerous articles in some papers for instance complain about the extent of white privilege in a country where even today more than 95% of the population is characterised as "white".

So, like, what do yall think? Are we more and more 51st state like in our general character than we like to think?

.

Wibbs

snowstorm445 wrote: »

the accent on some people (mainly southsiders) in Dublin is the most American sounding one that I've come across anywhere. Perhaps its just me coming from Cork where our accent is still fairly strong, but among young Dubs I have a hard time distinguishing it from many Americans you'd hear around the place.

I'm not just talking about the standard D4 accent which has a bit of a weird British influence in it as well, but in this case even the tones and turns of phrase are almost indistinguishable from Americans. A really droning sort of accent that clashes fairly noticeably with regular Dublin accents. American pronunciation of certain words as well (eg. "zebra", the letter z, even the word tomato) is quite common as well.

Yep that's definitely been a shift alright. Previously the D4/Dort accent was more aping the received British accent(which was as irritating), but in the last 20 years the shift has been towards the American, mid Atlantic accent. Both are doing, but the mid Atlantic one even more so. It seems more prevalent(though not exclusively) among younger women. Where some seem to need to run some adenoidal race to prove how droning and nasally they can be. Add in the imported words like "Mom"* and going to the "store" etc(a while back someone on here asked me what was wrong with "store". Nothing, only it used to be a place you kept stuff, rather than where you went to go shopping). Among said types water has become "waaaader" and the like. Vowels have lengthened. Hell even a desiccated old fart like Prince Philip of the UK noticed it on that Irish trip with his missus, when he asked a local in Trinity College "are you from around here, you sound American". She was and she wasn't.

Now language and accents change. That's what they do, but it does grind on my ears. Maybe because I'm of an age when a mid Atlantic drawl was seen as the sad preserve of local radio DJ's, or ex pats who lived in the US a month coming back with the accent trying to sound "cool" and were regarded as anything but?





*in before the "well it's always been Mom in an enclave of Kerry/Connemara", it sure as hell wasn't in Dublin or Cork or Waterford or...

Westernyelp

Westernyelp wrote:

How dare you dis the Barack Obama plazaaaaaasaaaa!!

I think it has 2 Supermacses!

languagenerd

Actually a recent study found that Twitter users in Ireland used the fewest American spellings of any nation and the second-fewest American vocabulary terms (only Britain used fewer). Twitter is obviously a subset, but their study included every public tweet in English with a location within a certain timeframe. Going by that, our English is far less Americanised than we think.

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/13/american-english-language-study

That said, chains like Starbucks taking over cities points to a lot of Americanisation of culture.

Sexual Chocolate

Ayatollah Khomeini is that you ? :pac:

No seriously I agree but I always thought when it comes to kids speaking in such a way that it was down to television.

And dont a lot of Israelis have an american twang in there accents as well ? Though no surprise.

Academic

snowstorm445 wrote: »

I've been living in Dublin for several years now and I have to say that of all non-American people in the world (apart from maybe the Canadians), the accent on some people (mainly southsiders) in Dublin is the most American sounding one that I've come across anywhere. Perhaps its just me coming from Cork where our accent is still fairly strong, but among young Dubs I have a hard time distinguishing it from many Americans you'd hear around the place.

I'm not just talking about the standard D4 accent which has a bit of a weird British influence in it as well, but in this case even the tones and turns of phrase are almost indistinguishable from Americans. A really droning sort of accent that clashes fairly noticeably with regular Dublin accents. American pronunciation of certain words as well (eg. "zebra", the letter z, even the word tomato) is quite common as well.

Also there tends to be a large amount of idea diffusion from America that has had a significant impact on our cultural and political outlook. Obviously there are things like names (many names that are given to children these days are fairly transparently American) but it's also visible in terms of social issues; Irish social liberals for instance spend an inordinate amount of time importing wholesale political activism on problems that afflict American society for sure (such as racial diversity in the media, politics etc.) but which patently don't apply in a more homogenous society like Ireland. Numerous articles in some papers for instance complain about the extent of white privilege in a country where even today more than 95% of the population is characterised as "white".

So, like, what do yall think? Are we more and more 51st state like in our general character than we like to think?

You’ve combining unrelated things in this post.


(1) Accent. This works in both directions. Having you ever spent time in U.S. cities? The Irish accent has strongly influenced American pronunciation, even among people who themselves are not of Irish descent. The phenomenon is probably strongest in the northeast, but you’ll also encounter it in Midwest cities like Chicago. I’ve never heard an American complain about how the Irish accent has changed American pronunciation, even though it self-evidently had.


(2) The political stuff has been done to death here, so I’m not going to bother commenting.


(3) Other posters are upset about not the accent question but about semantic questions. Having more than one word for something (“crisps”/”chips” or “flats”/”apartments,” for example) honestly doesn’t bother me in the least. Who cares?