Regional accents

[clangfield]

Two parts to this.
1) Having watched the whole series of Sharpe (90's Napoleonic war tales starring Sean Bean), I read one American reviewer's comments concerning his difficulty in understanding the various accents - the main characters were from Yorkshire and Ireland, although there was the occasional Scot alongside the Cornishman and upper class Londoners. My question is: are British regional accents so hard to distinguish? Can you (Americans) tell Manchester from Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham? Can you tell Northern Irish from Southern, and from Scots (BTW don't include Sean Connery's attempt at Irish in The Untouchables - not even close to being accurate)? Or do you still think we all sound like Hugh Grant or Dick van Dyke?
(Before the Brits get carried away - can you tell Shropshire from Worcestershire? I can't!)

2) From the other side, there are some very distinctive American regional variations: the New York Bronx (although in many movies the Jewish and Italian intonation seems very similar), the Texan drawl, Alabama/Mississippi, the upper class Boston - but can one tell that someone is from say, Washington state rather than Oregon? North v South Dakota? Kansas v Iowa? Or does the mid-West all melt into one?

[nietzsche]

Learn how to make gunpowder from such items as dead cats, whiskey, your living room ceiling, manure and maple syrup with simple hand tools and techniques that have been used for centuries.

[Frigidus]

I honestly couldn't tell you what each of those accents would entail. I can tell the difference between a "standard" British accent and the 'Ullo govenah' type but that's about it.

[Lootifer]

I can tell the difference between northern and southern english.

Likewise the major differences between west, midwest and east american.

But any more refined than that an I fail.

However, most of you idiots cant tell a Kiwi from and Aussie; and to us we are worlds apart (as in I could probably tell you roughly how long a born and bred Kiwi had been living in Australia for based on their accent).

In other words it comes down to experience.

[Serbia]

I've been learning to pick up on differences in English regional accents, but that's only because I'm married to an English lady who's pointed out different accents to me.

Here in the US, the more I travel, the more I can notice subtle regional differences. The Florida accent is slightly different from other "southern" accents. A Floridian sounds different from a Texan. I'm from Detroit, and currently working near Cleveland, and while most of the time I can't pick up on anything, there are some very slight differences that just kind of strike me from time to time.

Bollocks.

[saxitoxin]

In California, you know if someone is from Los Angeles because they use the word "the" in front of motorway identifiers, like "the I-5" instead of "I-5" but refer to neighborhoods without "the" like "Playa del Rey" instead of "the Playa del Rey." But you know if someone is from San Francisco if they do the opposite and refer to motorways without "the," like "I-5" but neighborhoods with "the" like "the Castro" and "the Tenderloin."

[chapcrap]

In other words it comes down to experience.

Yep.

Being from the Midwest, I can tell you that a large part of people do melt into one, but there are definitely differences.

As far as the rest goes, I think it really is experience. I can tell the difference between English, Scotch, Irish accents, but telling which region they came from is a little different...

[saxitoxin]

[muy_thaiguy]

Two parts to this.
1) Having watched the whole series of Sharpe (90's Napoleonic war tales starring Sean Bean), I read one American reviewer's comments concerning his difficulty in understanding the various accents - the main characters were from Yorkshire and Ireland, although there was the occasional Scot alongside the Cornishman and upper class Londoners. My question is: are British regional accents so hard to distinguish? Can you (Americans) tell Manchester from Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham? Can you tell Northern Irish from Southern, and from Scots (BTW don't include Sean Connery's attempt at Irish in The Untouchables - not even close to being accurate)? Or do you still think we all sound like Hugh Grant or Dick van Dyke?
(Before the Brits get carried away - can you tell Shropshire from Worcestershire? I can't!)

2) From the other side, there are some very distinctive American regional variations: the New York Bronx (although in many movies the Jewish and Italian intonation seems very similar), the Texan drawl, Alabama/Mississippi, the upper class Boston - but can one tell that someone is from say, Washington state rather than Oregon? North v South Dakota? Kansas v Iowa? Or does the mid-West all melt into one?

Accents in the US, for the most part, do not vary state by state, but region by region mainly. Exceptions would be Texas and maybe a couple of others.

As for other countries, I can tell where they are from for the most part (country by country) but not what region (of said country).

[jonesthecurl]

I remember someone saying that they couldn't make head nor tail of Law and order UK because if the accent. Truble is, there's a whole lot of accents in there, and expecting everyone to sound the same will trip you up dreadfully.

I love the skillful use of accent in Game of Thrones. The Stark girls, for instance, have a different accent to the boys - because they spent more time with Maesters and their Mum/ Nurse, and less time with the soldiers and their father. The youngest boy hasn't pickedc up the "commoners" accent to the same extent yet.

[saxitoxin]

[BigBallinStalin]

lol @ 0:28

quote: "herneh dannah nanneh fenneh annah!!"

[BigBallinStalin]

[
Accents in the US, for the most part, do not vary state by state, but region by region mainly. Exceptions would be Texas and maybe a couple of others.

As for other countries, I can tell where they are from for the most part (country by country) but not what region (of said country).

Depends on how you divide the regions. Lumping the Southern States into "same accent" would be incorrect--even when excluding Texas and Florida.

[thegreekdog]

I can differentiate between "highborn" English and whatever the peasants speak and Scottish and Irish. Look at that! I put it in order of cultural relevance!

[waauw]

aussie accents are the best

[clangfield]

Interesting... I didn't know about Florida, I thought the accent there was largely, well, "elderly".
I saw a quote once from Vivient Leigh about how she prepared to play Scarlet O'Hara - by practising saying "four-door Ford" as "foh-wer doh-wer Foh-word'.
I also heard a voice coach say that if you want to sound Northern Irish, say "power shower" as "pahr shar".
One I have picked up on is a Canadian tendency to say "aboot" instead of "abhaot" for "about" (sorry, I can't do phonetic spelling very well); I've only heard it from a couple of people, easterners I think, so I'm not sure how widespread it is.
I guess there are other key words that distinguish - for example, the ultra-posh English tendency to say "hice" instead of "house".
Any others?

[notyou2]

aussie accents are the best

I disagree. Newfoundlanders (Newfs) have the best accents:

[waauw]

I disagree. Newfoundlanders (Newfs) have the best accents:

I'm sorry but that just sounds like a queer kind of irish
at least aussie is fun to try out

[ConorJames]

As an Irishman, I feel the need to point out that Irish accents are not British regional accents. While I'm on the subject, there are many, many regional Irish accents, not just Northern and Southern (or Republic, if you prefer). For the most part it varies from county to county, but sometimes from town to town, and in the larger towns, different parts of town have their own accents. You can always tell if someone is from the north of Dublin or the south, and you can even tell if a southsider is from Donnybrook as opposed to a different part of south Dublin.

To be fair, having lived in Ireland for all my life until about a month and a half ago, the little differences are more obvious to me than they would be to an American. I do wonder if many people have trouble differentiating between Irish and Scottish accents though. I know a few Americans who absolutely can't. I also know some eastern European people who can't differentiate between English and Australian accents, so I wonder if people from other countries have the same problem.

[jonesthecurl]

People in the US often confuse my accent for Australian.
the US has a huge number of accent, not just regional. Some people from Newark are very difficult for me to understand - there's this odd thing of mumbling and not moving your lower lip very much.

[Timminz]

One I have picked up on is a Canadian tendency to say "aboot" instead of "abhaot" for "about" (sorry, I can't do phonetic spelling very well); I've only heard it from a couple of people, easterners I think, so I'm not sure how widespread it is.

If you listen carefully, it's not "a-boot". It's "a-boat". In my 30+ years of living in Nova Scotia, I have not heard a single person say "a-boot", naturally.

Also, in eastern Canada, there are numerous accents. The Newfs, and the Capers have the most distinct accents in the whole country. After that, it's more of a difference between rural and urban areas. There's not much of an accent in Halifax, for example. The only difference I've been able to distinguish between an eastern urban accent, and say, an Albertan, is the letter A in words like "exam". Here (Alberta), it's like "ex-ah-m", whereas back home the A has a bit of a nasally sound.

[BigBallinStalin]

Interesting... I didn't know about Florida, I thought the accent there was largely, well, "elderly".

There's pan-handle Florida,
what I call "marsh Florida" (which is north of Miama/Ft. Lauderdale and south of most of the pan-handle),
then there's the distinct nation of Miami and its hinterland.

I saw a quote once from Vivient Leigh about how she prepared to play Scarlet O'Hara - by practising saying "four-door Ford" as "foh-wer doh-wer Foh-word'.
I also heard a voice coach say that if you want to sound Northern Irish, say "power shower" as "pahr shar".
One I have picked up on is a Canadian tendency to say "aboot" instead of "abhaot" for "about" (sorry, I can't do phonetic spelling very well); I've only heard it from a couple of people, easterners I think, so I'm not sure how widespread it is.
I guess there are other key words that distinguish - for example, the ultra-posh English tendency to say "hice" instead of "house".
Any others?

When it comes to expressing the various accents of Southern USA, don't rely on movies for any credible portrayal. They don't care about accuracy--(being fiction and all, no surprise there).

[saxitoxin]

I like the comments ... "What a pretentious bastard. His father has an accent and tons of more character. That guy is a walking vagina in my book."