Sudden Accents

DaSilva · 04-07-2007 11:36PM

Some of you guys reactions are amazing, such a sensative crowd to get annoyed by something so irrelevant.

My father aint Irish, and I've spent alot of my life living abroad, however most in Ireland. I spend most of my college days hanging around with foreign people. Then I'll be back home and out with the lads and they'll be like, whats with your accent?! It changed you moron, it might happen to you someday also if you leave the country for some other destination other than "playa deh ling gles". However thankfully my friends arent idiots and will give me a few slags but arent actually sensitive like alot of you guys and get upset.

GAA widow wrote:

Did a bit of psychology in college......v. basic, therefore I'm no Dr. Phil. One lecturer told us that a sudden change in a person's accent is a sign of weakness of character.

The only sign im seeing is one of stupidy too take anything from the sudoscience of sudosciences, psyhology, as fact.

Hermione* · 05-07-2007 12:47AM

aidan_dunne wrote:

This is something that annoys the absolute fúck out of me! You hear all these feckin' pretentious kids and teenagers going around now with some sort of put-on half D4/half 'O.C.' American accent calling their mothers "mom". It drives me fúcking nuts! :mad:

You're Irish, you little twáts! You don't call her "mom". You call her "mammy" or "ma". Even "mum" is just about bearable. But not "mom". Never mom!

God, I could have written that post for you! Doing groceries in the Merrion Centre, all you hear is children whining 'mo-ooom' at their mother. It's enough to make me consider bringing my mp3 player to avoid listening to them :rolleyes:

I do however call my mother Mum

. Or also Mother or Mummy, which stood out quite a bit in primary school, but she always called her mother one of the three interchangeably, so it was what I learnt to say and I never developed the ability to call her Mam. Even the thought of it sounds wrong!

Blush_01 · 05-07-2007 12:58AM

My cousins (from North Tipperary) have always called their mother Mom, since they were tiny. Their cousins on their mother's side all call their mothers Mom too. I guess it's a family thing. Mom doesn't bother me in the least. It doesn't sound even marginally as vulgar as Ma or as childish as Mammy (which my own mother still calls her mother). What the hell difference does it make?

Tchocky · 05-07-2007 01:03AM

DaSilva wrote:

The only sign im seeing is one of stupidy too take anything from the sudoscience of sudosciences, psyhology, as fact.

Damn religion of spelling!

Unpossible · 05-07-2007 09:47AM

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote:

I don't know where you get that. My mother who is in her fifties always called my grandmother "Mom" and so did her 2 of her sisters (two didn't, it was "Mum"-strange ), and they were from a lower to middle class background from rural Cork. I call my mother Mom as well.

All my family use mom as well, the only family members that don't are the english ones, they use mum. We are from kerry so maybe its a south-west thing. I really can't understand the anger some posters here have towards people who simply use the word mom.

nice1franko · 05-07-2007 10:01AM

DaSilva wrote:

Some of you guys reactions are amazing, such a sensative crowd ....The only sign im seeing is one of stupidy too take anything from the sudoscience of sudosciences, psyhology, as fact.

me fail english. thats unposibel!

Red Hand · 06-07-2007 11:11AM

Unpossible wrote:

All my family use mom as well, the only family members that don't are the english ones, they use mum. We are from kerry so maybe its a south-west thing.

Yes, I think so too. I remember in Irish claases at school, some stories had the child addressing it's mother as "a mham" which does sound alot more like "Mom" than "Mam" to my ear. So maybe Mom as Irish people say it comes from the gaelic?

Unpossible · 06-07-2007 11:47AM

"a mham"

come to think of it, in kerry irish (or at least in kerry when we speak irish**) "a mamai/mhamai" sounds a lot closer to mommy than mammy

**edit; I mean those of us who live in kerry but are not fluent/native speakers

Don1 · 06-07-2007 01:10PM

My Dad used to phone his brother in England (very strong English accent as he lived there for 40 years) and they'd be on the phone for up to an hour. When my dad would come off the phone he'd be coming out with English phrases and have a touch of the accent! After an hour! When he'd go to visit him after a few days you'd think he lived there all his life.
Strangely it only happened with him, never with our American relatives or when we were over there. Weird.

The Saint · 06-07-2007 02:12PM

Two words, 'Trinity Accent'

This drives me fcuking spare. People from different accents from all over the country arrive in Dublin to go to college in Trinity. Regardless of their accents when arriving within a few weeks thay be speaking in that ponsy cnutfaced accent thinking that they are better than everyone else. Bloody pretentious tools. I know people from around the country and in the majoity of cases they pick it up, as well as the attitude.

I've been living in Dublin for 10 years and still have the same accent as I had when I first came, thank god.

exCrumlinBoyo · 06-07-2007 02:36PM

Coileach dearg wrote:

As far as I'm concerned and I speak for every culchie here, the day you lose your accent is the day you lose your identity!

I confirm my friend. I have been living in the Florida for 5 years now and where I am is real southern, I mean redneckville is an understatement. I had a really thick common Dublin accent and when I moved over here people could not understand me at all. I had to force myself to slow down in my talk, I had to pronounce all my words from beginning to end which when I am home makes me sound like a D4 head, very posh Dublin accent I am told.

I would be lying if I said I did not loose some of my accent. I spend most of my time in work on the phone talking to Redknecks and I think its only natural to pick up words, mannerisms. Sometimes I catch myself speaking in a southern twang and its a wake up call for me. I would hate to loose my accent as its my identity which I am very proud of. I hope never to loose my accent and I think that is up to me. When a day goes by over here that I met someone and they don't ask where is that beautiful sexy accent from, is the day I will worry and take a quick trip back to Crumlin to bring me back up to scratch !!

People here in Florida love the Irish accent especially the women they die for it big time.

dodgyme · 06-07-2007 02:47PM

bandit*baby wrote:

Hardy .... i study in Cork and the majority of the people i communicate with on a daily basis are from - come on now guess where - Cork, I've always had a relatively neutral accent just a bit of a Dublin twang so its obvious that after 2 years of living, studying and working in cork that i start to pick up the accent
now i've returned to dub for the summer it took 3 weeks before my accent returned to normal
and its not delibrate i don't even realise that i'm speaking with an accent whether its a dublin one or a cork one

It's the sign of a feeble idiot and is let happen if not deliberate. I have uncles who have lived in the north of England for 70 years and still have their strong irish accent as opposed to 2 'college' years in cork. bottle of cop on mate.

karen3212 · 06-07-2007 03:19PM

aidan_dunne wrote:

This is something that annoys the absolute fúck out of me! You hear all these feckin' pretentious kids and teenagers going around now with some sort of put-on half D4/half 'O.C.' American accent calling their mothers "mom". It drives me fúcking nuts! :mad:

You're Irish, you little twáts! You don't call her "mom". You call her "mammy" or "ma". Even "mum" is just about bearable. But not "mom". Never mom!

I swear, sometimes when I hear someone Irish saying "mom" it makes me want to go over, grab them by the shoulders, shake them vigourously and shout at them, in time honoured Boardsie fashion, "She's not your "mom", she's "YORE MA", "YORE... FECKIN'... MA! Get it into your thick skull you O.C. wannabe!" :mad:

Ahem, sorry about that, folks, I just needed to get that out of my system. Normal service will now be resumed!

My mother and her sisters all called my Gran mom, as I have always called my mother mom and mommy. I think it might be a Munster thing. Mum was the other one I hear here. I've never heard a child here say Ma.

R0ot · 06-07-2007 03:26PM

My Accent changes, when im at uni its more of a gentle belfast/donegal accent when im at home its a standard donegal accent, when im at work its a thick country donegal accent.

MarkR · 06-07-2007 03:38PM

My american accent has softened a bit in the 17 years i've been here. Talk to me for a few minutes and you'll be wondering where the hell i'm from. Or two seconds sometimes and it'll be glaringly obvious. Particularly if i say the word "waiter", "tomatoe" etc.

I do pick up accents pretty well. I like to think I learned another language. (Irish English)

I definately merged the accents to help me understood and fit in, so it looks like i'm not a feeble idiot. *phew*

I still have problems with aluminum. Oddly, when I'm making a joke I'll put on a bit of a west limerick accent. Like pat short or something!

Oh, the official term for quickly acquired accents is the J1 accent.

Just remembered once, years ago. I had been off work on holidays for two weeks. Had nothing to do but play games and watch tv. All these had american accents. My wife (girlfriend at the time) called me up and thought it was some american visitor. Hmm.. Maybe I am a bit feeble. I'll stick with slightly bi-lingual musical eariness!

Oliverdog · 07-07-2007 07:07AM

Echelle wrote:

Has anyone noticed the "croak"that has now become the norm when younger American women speak? Don't know where it began but it is now appearing in Ireland. Not nice.

YES! OH YES! I never stop shouting at the TV when I hear this, and you're right, it's spreading everywhere.
I feel it's an attempt to take on a husky, mysterious tone so as to appear sexy.
This only works if the listener happens to be a Natterjack Toad. Otherwise, it sounds stupid.
Thanks for posting this - stamp it out by laughing right in their faces!

Red Hand · 07-07-2007 07:11PM

Unpossible wrote:

come to think of it, in kerry irish (or at least in kerry when we speak irish**) "a mamai/mhamai" sounds a lot closer to mommy than mammy

**edit; I mean those of us who live in kerry but are not fluent/native speakers

Haha, well, I'm from Kerry originally so I guess I'd be biased towards that point of view. There is flatter "a" vowel sound in Kerry/Southwest Irish as I hear it in "a mhamai", making it more "vommy" than the "vammy" as in most other parts of the country.

Incidently, does anybody have any examples of native accents that they wish would be replaced by something else even if it was American or OC and thus foreign sounding? I hate to say this, but the "Muckerrrr, Co Monaghen" acent grates on me...

snickerpuss · 07-07-2007 07:42PM

People are always asking me if I'm American and I'm from Dublin. When I was in America everyone knew I was Irish a mile off, I think I've just got a neutral accent.
I do live in Coolock and I'm well spoken so maybe thats whats confusing them! Though I do say me instead of my!

Johnny Meagher · 08-07-2007 12:10AM

wow, there is a lot of feeling out there about accents! I'm one of those people so despised here that pick up accents! I once had a conversation on the telephone with a Cork woman and was speaking in a Cork accent about 3 sentences in, I noticed this and was embarrassed. I get scared that people think I am taking the mick. Let's not forget how an accent is acquired! Why does it have to be for life? I totally agree that when people deliberately change their accent (which as you all know is very hard to do) you have to ask questions. But when you just acquire another accent in the same way you acquired the one you started with, why do you blame people for that? Are you saying I'm trying to be black if I get a tan?
The "Trinity Accent" is fascinating, do you know it is almost unique in the world? Well I heard that on the radio one day. An accent that exists not in a geographical area but in an institution!
What do you think about this one, I am not sure if I can explain it but it is said to be particularly Irish. Before we speak, we we purse our lips and open them making a smacking sound and have a sharp short intake of breath, then we speak. Apparently nobody else does this

I think that's a gas.

luckat · 08-07-2007 09:40AM

I met an upper-class man a few years ago, and talked to him for about half an hour.

We disliked each other on sight, and his accent migrated to the mincing end of west-Britdom, while mine skulked into the Rialto area.

As we talked, though, we found stuff in common, and soon he was showing me catalogues of stuff he made and I was telling him funny stories.

I suddenly noticed that our accents had sneaked gradually back from their ghettos and more or less met in the middle.

Didn't say it to him, but it made me laugh.

MDTyKe · 08-07-2007 09:48AM

That BBC NI correspondant. I take it you mean Martina Purdy or something. It's not an american accent - it's nowhere near it! Clearly very strong Canadian - and that's because she *is* Canadian...

And I actually live outside Newry, which is quite a neutral North-South accent compared to many. However, I find when I go up North, I start to sing when I talk - as in very Northern. When I go to college (Dundalk) I get an Irish twang. I suppose there's a bit of American in there somewhere.. but that's probably due to over-exposure on my behalf to them.

Matt

eth0_ · 08-07-2007 09:57AM

I am from Belfast and lived there til I was 13 when I moved to the south. I lost my accent within a year, purely because I was sick of people in school saying "ZOMG were you ever in a BOMB!" etc, or taking the piss out of my pronounciation of certain words.

13 years later my Northern accent tends to only come out when I am talking to other Northern people - I find it almost impossible to NOT speak in a southern accent around my friends in Dublin.

Sudden Accents

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