Too close for comfort

[audioguru]

Of course Americans pronounce the word WATER as "wahddah" especially in New York.
They also pronounce the word BATTERY as "badry". "My car's badry needs replacement."

 

[tcmtech]

Of course Americans pronounce the word WATER as "wahddah" especially in New York.
They also pronounce the word BATTERY as "badry". "My car's badry needs replacement."

So because you experienced weak verbal skills some place in New York that represents the whole of America?

Its a good thing we Americans don't take you to be an accurate representation of all Canadians!

 

[audioguru]

America has a few dialects which are heard on their TV ads:
1) Southern drawl.
2) New York ghetto.
3) Hillbilly in many mid-eastern states.
4) Florida Spangish from Cuba.
5) Texas, Arizona and California Spangish from Mexico.
Many more areas have their own unique dialects like Boston and Chicago.

Wikipedia lists Spanglish, African-Americish, Latinish and Yinglish as some of the dialects.

I am a typical Canadian who does not speeky zee French. I speak English.

I am glad that sometimes subtitles are used to show text when an American is talking with his horrible accent on Canadian TV.

 

[Reloadron]

Of course Americans pronounce the word WATER as "wahddah" especially in New York.
They also pronounce the word BATTERY as "badry". "My car's badry needs replacement."

That is strange as I was born and raised in NYC and never heard words pronounced that way. Gee, even in up state NY never heard those pronunciations.

"wahddah" Sounds more like a New England around Boston pronunciation. Like clam chowder being chowda.

Eh?

Ron

 

[#12]

I quickly picked up that "wahddah" as a New York variation...like...The Bronx?

anyway...I enjoy watching dialects of English. Here's one for you: A girl from western New York corrected my pronunciation of Jenny, as compared to Ginny. In the midwest, there is no difference, and I couldn't tell the difference until she carefully demonstrated it to me. Fascinating!

Sometimes I watch Oz-trial-yun movies or British TV just to enjoy the subtle differences.

 

[audioguru]

In Canada some British TV shows have subtitles so we can read what they are saying.
"Have a drink of Wo-Tah!" It is really Water or Wahddah.

 

[HiTech]

I am glad that sometimes subtitles are used to show text when an American is talking with his horrible accent on Canadian TV.

So, now America's dialects are horrible to you - eh?? Maybe it's age related, cranial limitations (eh?) that can't keep pace with the variety -eh?

**broken link removed**

 

[audioguru]

My wife is from Spain and learned French, English, Italian and Portuguese in Montreal. She has a unique accent but I can understand almost everything she says in English.

In Canada, people in Vancouver (I was raised there) speak exactly the same as the people in Toronto (I live here) which is 4000 miles away, even the millions of Chinese people who recently moved here. But in America or Britain people across the street speak completely differently in their own dialect.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

In Canada some British TV shows have subtitles so we can read what they are saying.
"Have a drink of Wo-Tah!" It is really Water or Wahddah.

We don't say "Wo-Tah" in England, we say "water" - there are a number of strong regional accents though, as in any Country - and many American made TV programmes seem to imagine the English are all Cockney (which is just a tiny area of one city).

I presume you get Midsomer Murders over there?, thats reasonably representative of English accents.

It's a laugh Canadians complaining about the English, when Canadians all sound like Americans anyway (apart from the French/Canadians of course).

 

[audioguru]

As I listed before, Americans have a few strong accents.
All Canadians speak almost the same, phonetically correct English.

British, Australian and New Zealanders speak weirdly.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

So Canadians claim to speak more correct English than the English

When Canadians actually speak American, and not English at all.

I've only met a fairly small number of Canadians, and every single one I thought was an American, having a horrible American accent - including a friends son's wife, who he met and married in Canada, then moved back here a few years later.

An old friend of mine moved to Medina, not far from Canada, many years ago now - he's got a terrible American accent when he comes back here, yet in the USA they say he's still got an English accent

People don't realise they have an accent at all, because it's normal to their local area.

 

[tcmtech]

What it all comes down to is everyone thinks the language and local variations of it they grew up with are correct and that everyone else has the accent and speaks incorrectly.

Who Speaks the Most Proper English? - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com

AG you speak Canadian not English thats why most everyone not from your area sounds different.

Nuf said.

 

[HiTech]

AG's been inhaling way too many lead fumes from his solder pencil.

 

[audioguru]

I mentioned the word "water" as having different ways of saying it. Some people call it "Wo-tah" and other people call it "Wahddah". I call it "Water".

How about Solder? Some people call it "Soddah" or "Soldah". I call it "Sodder".
Transistah or Transistor? Dahlington or Darlington?

I just finished listening to "Accents of England" and the Manchester and Liverpool ones were hilarious and unintelligible.

 

[gabeNC]

I work for a British company and most of the upper echelon are from across the pond. I nearly need subtitles with the guy from Wales. Even his own countrymen mock him.

I'm friends with a dozen of them and I thought the difference between our accents (Redneck South Carolina versus Boston) were bad. We've got nothing on you guys.

 

[bryan1]

The last Canucks (Audioguru's) that came over here for an outback holiday spoke with such a drawl they sounded like a wounded donkey on heat, anyway we warned them about walking under gum trees as a drop bear might attack them and they are ferocious animals that will devour a tourist hat and the head beneath it. As they walked off we just about on the ground laughing as every tree they past they were looking up. Eh we even got a few yanks scared with that too....

It has been said before that the only true canucks live in ice huts and the white scum down south are a bunch of inbred convicts mixed with the frogs (French). Now as our esteemed elder canuck is older than some 6' thick gums trees over here I reckon there would be a mixed breed of pommy/frogs/ and more than likely Irish in his bloodlines. This could explain why most of his posts are one liners as after one line his memory has gone into overdrive.

On a more even note if we're going to pick on language one has to checkout the kiwi's (sworry EM ) they pronounce six as sex and fish & chip as fush & chops etc. It is really a good laugh to listen to a kiwi in their full glory with every second word being 'bro' ..........

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

On a more even note if we're going to pick on language one has to checkout the kiwi's (sworry EM ) they pronounce six as sex and fish & chip as fush & chops etc. It is really a good laugh to listen to a kiwi in their full glory with every second word being 'bro' ..........

My daughter was lent a DVD about Poi Juggling, which is from New Zealand.

The accent was horrendous - "step to the lift" - instead of "step to the left"

 

[HiTech]

My daughter was lent a DVD about Poi Juggling, which is from New Zealand.

The accent was horrendous - "step to the lift" - instead of "step to the left"

I'm surprised it wasn't "stip to the lift" instead!

It is also against the law in Canada to burn leaves in the fall due to the air pollution caused. My piles of leaves at the curb are vacuumed away ans chewed up by a city truck. Broken trees are mulched on the spot by a very noisy "chewing" machine. Fireplaces will soon be banned. I hope that smoking stinking diesel busses and truck engines will soon be banned. --- AUDIOGURU​

My town bans any kind of burning unless the property owner has a minimum 75' clearance to obstructions in all directions. Leaf burning is prohibited and curb-side pick up is provided. It goes to a huge composting site where front loaders keep mixing it and it's resold to local residents as inexpensive mulch. Banning fireplaces sounds rediculous... that would never fly with us on this side of the border. Infact this summer I cut and split over 10 cords of firewood (sold most of it tho). There's a new law here that prohibits idling a diesel motor longer than 5 minutes. Signs are posted everywhere reminding delivery trucks. Thing is school buses and garb age trucks seem to be exempt. Also most interstate truck stops still allow idling diesels. The reefer trucks have to remain running to operate the freezer unit.
​

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I'm surprised it wasn't "stip to the lift" instead!

It perhaps was?, but the 'lift' was more pronounced.

 

[Roff]

I used to have a British friend named Peter who loved to hear himself talk. My wife once asked him, in all seriousness, why he called himself "Petah", but pronounced "idea" as "idear". He got really pissed off at her!