Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

[historyman]

Seeing as Cheryl Cole is rumoured to be taking speech lessons in view of her upcoming appearance in the US X Factor, it made me think of my own Belfast drawl and whether I'd be understood if I went on American TV.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12619718

When I visited the States I didn't have many problems because I was conscious of speaking more slowly than normal, but that isn't always practical, especially if you're on live TV.

Has anybody here had that type of experience either with Americans or other nationalities? What do the OTFers in the States or elsewhere think about this?

[Guest]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I've never had major problems making myself understood in the States although I have been mistakenly identified as Irish a few times. As you say, that might be because I'm making a real effort to speak slowly something that I'm not likely to be able to keep up all the time permanently living in Australia.

I've always found speaking on the phone here in Australia far more difficult than face to face conversations and I dread having to spell my street name which has lots of vowels in it. Australians pronounce "e" as "a" and "a" as "e' and it becomes a nightmare. Then you have the awkward local pronunciations of words like maroon, router, data and aquatic.

My children have broad Australian accents and, when they speak to their grandparents back in Scotland on the phone, neither party can understand what the other is saying. It often surprises me that the kids understand their parents because in the house we fall back into using Scottish words that we wouldn't use in front of Australians - ken, hoose, dug, aye, fitba', dinnae, etc.

[Wyatt Earp]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I was amazed when this first happened to me, because I didn't at all think it was going to: I talk like what I am, a North London state-grammar educated boy, and I'd arrogantly assumed that "kind of halfway between BBC and Cockney" was understood everywhere in the English-speaking world.

And mostly it is. But not if you get even slightly colloquial. I got asked "How're you doing?" by a lemonade seller near Faneuil Hall in Boston, and when I replied--well, the fact that I replied at all would have foxed him a bit, as I now realise--but when I replied "Yeah, not too bad; yourself?" he looked as if I'd responded in Wolof or Tagalog.

Another time was in a bar in Champaign, IL, and this English guy asked me where I'd got my Reeves and Mortimer t-shirt. I said "Me sister give it me", and the bartender turned to Other English Guy and said "What did he just say?"

I didn't realise I did speak all that colloquially, to be honest, until I went to the US. You end up using American turns of phrase (including, yes, "Can I get...") because it's just easier.

[ad hoc]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

Yes, I think it's usually the expressions that cause confusion rather than the accent.

Though having said that I recommend never watching an episode of Taggart (the old one with Mark McManus) with an American. You'll never be able to follow the plot as you'll have to interpret every word.

[The Purple Cow]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I think the accent is definitely part of the problem. I have a terrible time in Minnesota and Wisconsin, slightly less so in New York. In the twin cities nobody can understand a single word I say, I even struggle to order a cup of coffee.

Having said that I'm struggling a little here in Nantwich as well. 25 years in Amsterdam has left me with a distinct foreign 'twang' to my voice and people are forever accusing me of being South African.

[Wyatt Earp]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

There's generally bin a murrdurr.

[Wyatt Earp]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

The Purple Cow wrote:

I think the accent is definitely part of the problem. I have a terrible time in Minnesota and Wisconsin, slightly less so in New York. In the twin cities nobody can understand a single word I say, I even struggle to order a cup of coffee.

Last time I was in New York, which is admittedly EIGHT YEARS AGO (can you believe that, FF?), I was struck my how crawling with fuckin' Limeys it seemed. Compared to Chicago, where you scarcely meet any.

[historyman]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

Now that I've been thinking about this for a while, I do remember one or two incidents Stateside.

One was in New Yawk, in a Grand Central Station diner, where I attempted to order a tuna and onion sandwich. I pronounced it the only way I knew how - 'Chewna'.

I repeated it several times after receiving quizzical looks and exasperated cries of 'Whadyasay', before I realised I had to play the game their way: 'Sorry - Toona'.

More often than not though it was colloquial phrases, rather than accent, that provided the entertainment. Americans loved my use of 'I wouldn't say no' rather than 'yes', when responding to a request.

"D'ya wanna beer?'

"Well, I wouldn't say no."

That cracked my American hosts up every time...

[Kusal Flyer]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

historyman wrote:

it made me think of my own Belfast drawl and whether I'd be understood if I went on American TV

Do we (ie, people from Belfast) have a drawl? I've always associated that with speaking slowly.

Melbourne Arab wrote:

I dread having to spell my street name which has lots of vowels in it

Wooloomooloo?

Or are you 'Melby-A' in the 'hood?

My children have broad Australian accents and, when they speak to their grandparents back in Scotland on the phone, neither party can understand what the other is saying

I lived mainly abroad (unsuccessfully defending the Brit Empire) until I was 11. There was never any real problem understanding the grannny- even though most people from Larne can't undertand what other slow Larners are saying much of the time.

[Guest]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I got that when I moved to Taunton! The delivery men when we moved in asked 'Wheres it to?' as they carried a chair in...

Everything is referred to as 'She' and when my neighbours have had a few drinks, even after 7 years I still can't understand what they're talking about.

[evilC]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I think we 'British Isles types' usually like to think of our accents as the 'default' way of pronouncing English (despite the huge variation in accents).

However, what has struck me more, over the decades, is how so much of the non-English-speaking world that learns English does so with a distinct North American accent. People from Northern Europe and the Middle East seem to be the most regular examples of this. (The Dutch pronunciation of "bluejeans" still makes me smile.)

So is it possible - inevitable, in fact - that the universal pronunciation of English will eventually become that of the North American mode?

(Btw - I still say "con-TROV-ersy" at the telly every time I hear thereon the pronunciation of that word as "CONtro-versy". This will, of course, make be both wrong and stuck in the 80s ...although it was the 70s when I - and my generation - learnt to pronounce it the former way.)

[ad hoc]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

evilC wrote:

So is it possible - inevitable, in fact - that the universal pronunciation of English will eventually become that of the North American mode?

I doubt it. English as an International Language is driven far more by English interactions taking place between non-native speakers. I don't think there will be a default accent, to be honest. There'll actually be more rather than less (think of Indian English, Singaporean English, Kenyan English, Nigerian English, Jamaican English etc etc)

What may change as English becomes the default language of international communication (if it does, as this is by no means certain), is that the language itself will start to simplify. Wikipedia on English as a Lingua Franca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_a_lingua_franca

[Er Liquidatore]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I've got a couple of American friends over here; one from Chicago and one from New Jersey, and when I speak as I would with my friends back home they get mightily confused. I kind of like it, except when they try and pull off my accent.

Please, Americans... don't do that. You sound stupid and patronising (in fact, no-one should ever do it with anyone's accent unless they're very good at it, as you sound stupid and embarrassing.)

[Anton Gramscescu]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

But there are so few Monty Python jokes that sound good in an American accent....

[Er Liquidatore]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

It really is irritating

[Wyatt Earp]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

Controversy's an (s. A. C.) interesting one: it began as CONtroversy in both varieties of English, unaccountably drifted towards conTROVersy in British English, and is now drifting back again under the influence (I assume) of American English.

[Guest]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

The reason this drives me crazy is that if someone said 'toona' or whatever else in American to me - I would fucking understand what they meant. The fact it doesn't work both ways is immensely irritating to me. It probably makes me a rascist of some sort, I realise that.
Also I spend a vast chunk of time each day replying to emails from Americans saying 'You've spelled 'realize' or 'jail' or skeptical' wrong.' I write politely back about British usage (and no, I don't give a shit about Greek roots in -zein or fucking Oxford fucking usage) and they write back, not, 'Oh of course, you're British, you're writing about London, how silly of me', no, they write a variation of, 'I didn't know British people spelled words wrong.' It drives me fucking crazy.

[Er Liquidatore]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I find is such situations a haughty post-imperialist demeanour works, kind of like Peter Fallow in Bonfire of the Vanities.

[Third rate Leszno]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

I mentioned this on another thread recently, and have been pondering it a bit more subsequently. For me, understanding other english speakers with heavy accents (e.g. West of Ireland, Broad Scouse, Hebridean, that bloke from the swamp in Ax Men, Indian call centre worker etc.) is about adjusting my brain to the cadence and flow of their speech, rather than the actual words and phrases they use. Once I've picked up the flow, I can make sense of what they're saying, even if I can't understand every word.

Yet when I go to America, some people definitely don't seem to be able to do the same with me. I've also been mistaken for Australian (I can only presume they've never met one). In New Zealand, Australia, Canada - no problem. Just some people (a very small minority) in the USA.

[Ginger Yellow]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

So is it possible - inevitable, in fact - that the universal pronunciation of English will eventually become that of the North American mode?

I expect so, given the greater global salience of US movies/TV, not to mention the (presumably) greater numbers of American ESL teachers. I've noticed it most strikingly in Russia and Israel, where good English speakers have a distinctly American sounding accent. I haven't noticed that at all with Dutch people, though. They just sound Dutch to me. Arguably the only serious counterweight is the huge number of relatively British influenced people on the Indian subcontinent.

All that said, I don't think there will be a universal pronunciation. One variety may be disproportionately common, but if anything the trend is toward multiplication of English pronunciation rather than homogenisation.

[garcia]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

The reason this drives me crazy is that if someone said 'toona' or whatever else in American to me - I would fucking understand what they meant. The fact it doesn't work both ways is immensely irritating to me.

we only understand their accents so easily because we have been hearing them in TV and movies all our lives though.

i think (doesn't everyone) my accent is quite neutral as irish accents go. when you compare it to my grandparents, who all have working class dublin accents, you can clearly hear the influence of all the foreign TV i watched as a child.

depending on the company he's in my dad's accent sometimes becomes a bizarre hybrid of english and working class dublin, a bit like frank stapleton or ronnie whelan. answers the phone "allo" as though he was from kent, at least he used to before caller ID. but he still instinctively says things like "buke" and "cuke" instead of book and cook. the result of working most of his life since the age of 15 surrounded by brits & trying to blend in. he never made an effort to sound scottish though.

i haven't had problems being understood by americans, but south africa is a different story, a lot of them hadn't a clue what i was saying.

my girlfriend is working in the hospital at queen square and apparently her colleagues are always marvelling at her wild & windswept west of ireland accent. this may be because most of the irish people working in medicine in london, certainly most of those who have worked their way to the highest level, have camouflaged themselves with oxbridge accents. in fact her accent isn't strong at all and a proper limerick accent would probably sound like a foreign language to english ears.

although they have no trouble hearing the words she is saying she finds that a lot of her expressions cause amusement ("grand" meaning "OK", the tense "i'm after [doing x]", "to give out" meaning to scold or rebuke, "what's the craic" meaning "what's going on"). in turn she is puzzled by the english "footballer's tense" ("i was stood there" etc) and the way english people describe stuff as "rubbish!" (they didn't have BBC television in limerick when she was growing up & she doesn't watch much TV even now).

[delicatemoth]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

Brno wrote:

If you try to talk like Nigel Tufnel you'll be fine. Around me. Failing that, I favor the Pakistani who has been educated at Oxford accent. Better than English English. The point is it needs to entertain and/or soothe.

I take it my habit of explaining "Oh, bother!" would meet your approval. It tends to cause amusement with other English people. I think I got it from my mum.

Hard to understand dialects of the same language are one of the joys of life for me. My ex-girlfriend is from rural Aberdeenshire - she's a teuchter - where they speak a dialect known as Doric, and when she's with her family I can understand maybe one word in three. It sounds beautiful.

[Mitch]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

a proper limerick accent would probably sound like a foreign language to english ears.

Out of interest, having never been, where would the accents on Father Ted stand on that spectrum? (As in the local people from Craggy Island, rather than the priests.)

[ad hoc]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

The first time I flew to the US (on an American airline), the flight attendant asked me what i wanted to drink. I replied "water". She didn't catch it and asked again. I replied as I had done the first time. This happened again and then on the 4th time, frustrated, I said in as good an approximation as I could muster "Wadurr". "Ah, wadurr", she said and poured me one

This was someone whose job is to fly back and forth across the Atlantic and serve people drinks, and she still couldn't understand a (fairly close to RP) rendition of water (wortuh) in an English accent. Mad.

[Renart]

Would Americans Understand Your Accent?

The father of one of my daughter's friends at her school is from Glasgow, and occasionally he'll say something to me that might as well be Norwegian. It's the cadence as much as the pronunciation that throws me off. Otherwise, I've never had too much trouble with any sort of British or Irish accent, but I wouldn't be surprised if most people who come to the U.S. from abroad quickly learn to adjust their speech at least a little in order to be better understood.

I grew up in California, so I have no accent, of course.

As for North American English influencing the rest of the world, I'm sure it's happening, but thanks to the Internet North American English is in turn being influenced by British and world English as well. As just one example, I never heard the phrase "has gone missing" or "went missing" on the news as a child, but now it's almost standard when they're talking about a kidnapping or disappearance.