Literature The British English vs American English thread!

[RabbitLuvr]

Well yeah those are obvious, but I mean regional within a State. For example,to you guys I probably have a Newcastle accent but to a Newcastle-er I sound posh and have a very strong Durham accent. My friend Dr has a Sunderland accent...but we're all from the same 'region'...

Where I am, if you grew up in the city you're more likely to sound like people on tv sound, but if you grew up outside of the city, you likely have a more pronounced rural/southern accent. I'm sure there are places that have a lot of variation, but not that my ear can recognize. I am likely to mix up or not distinguish the difference between New York and New Jersey, though I have been told they're different.

 

[Digger]

I usually tell my man exactly where I'm going and how long to expect me to be away because there are few things more annoying that getting into the bathroom and then he realized he needed something and knocks and asks if I'm going to be long. Private time.

Growing up we had seven people sharing one small bathroom... no shower, just a tub... so announcing that you were going in there and exactly how long you were going to be, was standard operating procedure. Otherwise, you ran the risk of having your bath interrupted so someone could take a dump.

 

[hungryraccoon]

Knickers is one of the best words ever.

Many people have thought I was Australian before. Even British people. How weird is that?!

 

[Lord Snot]

Another one I thought of when driving home. In the US people have addresses like 2049 Fanny Pack Street, whereas here it's rare to find a door number above 300 or so. Their streets must be really long.

 

[kazyeeqen]

There's not a lot of regional variation in the northwest. We sound like news anchor people, which is to say, neutral, as much as any accent can be... Sometimes someone sounds a little country, and the native americans on the reservations around here have an accent, but mostly it's pretty mild, even in the very rural areas.

Australian and English accents don't sound the same to me. I have a harder time with NZ and Australian, but it's still different, but more subtle. I don't know all the different regions in GB, but I can tell they are different. I can identify a cockney accent usually too.

 

[ledboots]

Another one I thought of when driving home. In the US people have addresses like 2049 Fanny Pack Street, whereas here it's rare to find a door number above 300 or so. Their streets must be really long.

Even on little streets they put long numbers some times. I know in my county, you can tell how north someone is by how high the house number is.

 

[Lord Snot]

Even on little streets they put long numbers some times. I know in my country, you can tell how north someone is by how high the house number is.

That's odd, they don't start at 1?

 

[ledboots]

That's odd, they don't start at 1?

No, my street only has about 20 houses, but the numbers are four digits. Starts at 2580. My cousin that lives north of me is 17670 even though there are only 4 houses on her street. I have no idea why!

 

[Lord Snot]

Well that definitely makes more sense than having 2580 houses on one street!

 

[mlp]

Regional accents in the U.S. cover wider areas, generally. With a few exceptions, you wouldn't be able to pinpoint the city from which someone comes. That's to be expected, considering the size of this country and that historically people have been more mobile within it than is true of most other countries in the world.

A lot of Americans have difficulty distinguishing between the various accents of GB, Australia, New Zealand, etc., and a lot of Americans have difficulty understanding non-American accents generally. That's simply a function of lack of exposure, IMO. When I was in college and grad school, I hung out mainly with non-American students, and at that time, I could easily identify countries of origin by accent and by physical appearance. I've gotten much rustier at that in the intervening decades, during which I have lived in much more homogeneous environments.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

Even on little streets they put long numbers some times. I know in my county, you can tell how north someone is by how high the house number is.

It's the same where I live. Numbered streets (example, 95th Street) run east-west. Houses on the north-south cross streets (which have word names, example Quivira) are numbered in relation to the numbered streets. So 9500 Quivira would be on the corner of 95th St Quivira. Street numbers get larger as you go south, so 9500 is farther north than 11900.

This breaks down a bit when a major "number" street gets a word name in some spots, but retains the number name in others. And idk what's going on over across the state line, Missouri's system (or lack of) makes no sense to me.

There is probably a convention for numbers going east-west, as well, but I don't know what it is.

 

[PTree15]

Where I am, if you grew up in the city you're more likely to sound like people on tv sound, but if you grew up outside of the city, you likely have a more pronounced rural/southern accent. I'm sure there are places that have a lot of variation, but not that my ear can recognize. I am likely to mix up or not distinguish the difference between New York and New Jersey, though I have been told they're different.

South Jersey is different from north Jersey, IMHO, and some in north Jersey may sound like New Yorkers given the proximity of north Jersey to New York City. I'm more familiar with the south Jersey accent, having relatives there and having lived in Philly, which has its own interesting accent. In my home state of Rhode Island, there are regional differences. In some cities, I've noticed people pronounce "Three" like "tree." Lots of silent H's in the "Thr" combo.

 

[ledboots]

I am bad at distinguishing British, Australian, New Zealand, Eric, but I love how they all sound!

I grew up in the n.e. of the US, so I'm good at Boston, NYC, upstate NY, RI, NJ, etc differentiation, and now the different Florida accents, as well as the great southeast accents.

I saw this posted once, I love the pen=pin, pen /=/pin in the south east.
http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

 

[mlp]

I love regional accents, with the exception of New Yorkers' tendency to add "r" at the end of words ending in vowels. For some reason, that affects me like chalk squealing on a blackboard.

 

[thefadedone]

I love regional accents, with the exception of New Yorkers' tendency to add "r" at the end of words ending in vowels. For some reason, that affects me like chalk squealing on a blackboard.

My mom does this and it drives my sister and I crazy!! All my relatives talk like that also. They are all from Long Island so they have pretty thick New York accents.

 

[Digger]

MLP... I have no idear what you are talking about!

 

[mlp]

MLP... I have no idear what you are talking about!

I officially hate you now.

 

[Digger]

I officially hate you now.

No, you don't.

 

[mlp]

No, you don't.

 

[Digger]

These Brits need to accept that they are jealous of our tongue.