English Go Away! Destruction of Classic Japanese Literature!

[wagyl]

As a matter of fact my favorite urb is basal, but that is no more than a coincidence.

[kurogane]

Not to mention everybody's favourite hotel keeper.

I never even knew it wasn't beysil until I went to the UK, so perhaps that LA thang is a broader west coast thing. How do easterners pronounce it?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Not to mention everybody's favourite hotel keeper.

I never even knew it wasn't beysil until I went to the UK, so perhaps that LA thang is a broader west coast thing. How do easterners pronounce it?

It's definitely not a West Coast thing. I think that's pretty much standard North American pronunciation. Maybe the Boston Brahmins said it the British way. I wonder if anyone even speaks like that anymore.

[wagyl]

I'm no expert but even within this thread there seems to be a "z" sound or "s" sound distinction within North America for basil. In any event, plenty of material for Choko to complain about トマト and バジル.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I'm no expert but even within this thread there seems to be a "z" sound or "s" sound distinction within North America for basil. In any event, plenty of material for Choko to complain about トマト and バジル.

I don't think I've ever heard someone say "basil" with an "S" sound but I could imagine a person from the northern Midwest (Chicago for example) saying it that way. My grandmother had an old school upper-class Virginia accent and she said "tomato" with a broad A. Her accent was closer to some New England accents than other Southern accents in a lot of ways. There aren't many people left who speak like her and those who do are probably all very old.

[kurogane]

yeah, definitely a zed sound round my parts.

[wagyl]

yeah, definitely a zed sound round my parts.

Oh well, so much for me relying on your

I never even knew it wasn't beysil

but anyway, it must have been my misremembering of some Hollywood production which made me think that it sounded like "basal."

Further research (on an "inspirational baby names" site, if you must know) suggests that standard Californian pronunciation is with a "z."

[matsuki]

British English [...] they like adding imaginary r's onto words lacking like China, saw, etc...

There are plenty of places in the US where they do this to. I've heard it in NYC, central Virginia, and New Orleans. And even when I lived in Seattle some older people said "Warshington." You definitely wouldn't like the New Orleans Yat dialect. The first lady in this video speaks Yat.

Don't get me started on that....warsh your clothes, dig up the rutts, eatin' on it.

How about ending every statement like a question? That seems to be really common with Asian women from Southern California. Maybe they all learn how to speak English in Australia.

Hahahaha, they always sound confused....seen that quite a bit but is it really limited to So Cal?

I also hate when Angelinos pronounce Los Angeles with a hard "G." You don't hear that much anymore though.

Never heard that from anyone from So Cal but occasionally from a tourist here and there.

As a matter of fact my favorite urb is basal, but that is no more than a coincidence.

Coligny can probably chime in but in French, many words beginning with h, like herb (yes, french in origin) are pronounced with a the h silent...Herb sounds like erb, hamburger sounds like amburger, etc. That being said, I hear many people in so cal pronounce it with a silent h when they say herbs and then pronounce the h when they say herbal tea. Either way, doesn't really bother me since I grew up hearing both. Never heard anyone say "basal" though. Always heard it pronounced "bay-zul" or "bah-zul"

[Coligny]

http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/s.htm

It's usually pronounced like the English S. It is pronounced this way
- at the beginning of a word
- at the end of a word or syllable
- when there is a double S
- when it is followed by a C*
- in front of a consonant

The rest of the time, it is pronounced like a Z. It is pronounced this way
- between two vowels
- in a liaison (such as ils ont)

[IparryU]

British English [...] they like adding imaginary r's onto words lacking like China, saw, etc...

There are plenty of places in the US where they do this to. I've heard it in NYC, central Virginia, and New Orleans. And even when I lived in Seattle some older people said "Warshington." You definitely wouldn't like the New Orleans Yat dialect. The first lady in this video speaks Yat.

Don't get me started on that....warsh your clothes, dig up the rutts, eatin' on it.

Don't for get 'media'... When I first heard that I thought the subject changed to outer space shit...

media => me-D-er => meteor

How about ending every statement like a question? That seems to be really common with Asian women from Southern California. Maybe they all learn how to speak English in Australia.

Hahahaha, they always sound confused....seen that quite a bit but is it really limited to So Cal?

Rule of thumb, Cali Asians are either FOBs or white washed airheads. The crime rate of Asians where I am from are usually the FOBs and they put some of the red/blue raggers in their place with some of the crazy shit they do.

I think ending everything in a questions is a Cali thing in general, but Asians usauly sound a bit off anyway... Not limited to SoCal cause we got boats loads of them fuckers in NorCal too. "So, like... lets go to the movies?"

I also hate when Angelinos pronounce Los Angeles with a hard "G." You don't hear that much anymore though.

Never heard that from anyone from So Cal but occasionally from a tourist here and there.

I heard a similar pronunciation from a brit... los anGleez... then for Sarasota... sa~ruhso-ta (note that the timing of how he said it is what made it odd.. not the pronuciation per se) . He said that I wouldn't know how to say either cause I am an American... then I kindly reminded the fucker that I am Mexican and to shut the fuck up.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I also hate when Angelinos pronounce Los Angeles with a hard "G." You don't hear that much anymore though.

Never heard that from anyone from So Cal but occasionally from a tourist here and there.

I heard a similar pronunciation from a brit... los anGleez... then for Sarasota... sa~ruhso-ta (note that the timing of how he said it is what made it odd.. not the pronuciation per se) . He said that I wouldn't know how to say either cause I am an American... then I kindly reminded the fucker that I am Mexican and to shut the fuck up.

Back in the day some people definitely said "Los Angaleez" with a hard G. I lived in LA for a couple of years when I was a little kid and heard a few older white people say it that way.

How about the way Brits say Maryland? They actually say it like the name "Mary" followed by the word "land" when it should be closer to "Marilyn" with the hint of a D sound at the end.

[matsuki]

I also hate when Angelinos pronounce Los Angeles with a hard "G." You don't hear that much anymore though.

Never heard that from anyone from So Cal but occasionally from a tourist here and there.

I heard a similar pronunciation from a brit... los anGleez... then for Sarasota... sa~ruhso-ta (note that the timing of how he said it is what made it odd.. not the pronuciation per se) . He said that I wouldn't know how to say either cause I am an American... then I kindly reminded the fucker that I am Mexican and to shut the fuck up.

Back in the day some people definitely said "Los Angaleez" with a hard G. I lived in LA for a couple of years when I was a little kid and heard a few older white people say it that way.

How about the way Brits say Maryland? They actually say it like the name "Mary" followed by the word "land" when it should be closer to "Marilyn" with the hint of a D sound at the end.

Weird....I've never heard it pronounced that way by a native. Then again, immigration to so cal is pretty insane so not hard to imagine new comers making that mistake.

Maryland seems like that Louisville vid you posted...been smoothed out over the generations.

[yanpa]

I also hate when Angelinos pronounce Los Angeles with a hard "G." You don't hear that much anymore though.

Never heard that from anyone from So Cal but occasionally from a tourist here and there.

I heard a similar pronunciation from a brit... los anGleez... then for Sarasota... sa~ruhso-ta (note that the timing of how he said it is what made it odd.. not the pronuciation per se) . He said that I wouldn't know how to say either cause I am an American... then I kindly reminded the fucker that I am Mexican and to shut the fuck up.

Back in the day some people definitely said "Los Angaleez" with a hard G. I lived in LA for a couple of years when I was a little kid and heard a few older white people say it that way.

Surely the correct pronunciation is "Rosu"?

[matsuki]

Surely the correct pronunciation is "Rosu"?

Sounds more like "Ross" to me....I'm surprised they haven't shortened "rafuransu" to just "ra" yet.

On the other hand, they pronounce LAX rakkusu....which almost is never understood.

[Samurai_Jerk]

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

There are many, many evolving regional British and American accents, so the terms “British accent” and “American accent” are gross oversimplifications. What a lot of Americans think of as the typical "British accent” is what's called standardized Received Pronunciation (RP), also known as Public School English or BBC English. What most people think of as an "American accent," or most Americans think of as "no accent," is the General American (GenAm) accent, sometimes called a "newscaster accent" or "Network English." Because this is a blog post and not a book, we'll focus on these two general sounds for now and leave the regional accents for another time.

English colonists established their first permanent settlement in the New World at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, sounding very much like their countrymen back home. By the time we had recordings of both Americans and Brits some three centuries later (the first audio recording of a human voice was made in 1860), the sounds of English as spoken in the Old World and New World were very different. We're looking at a silent gap of some 300 years, so we can't say exactly when Americans first started to sound noticeably different from the British.

As for the "why," though, one big factor in the divergence of the accents is rhotacism. The General American accent is rhotic and speakers pronounce the r in words such as hard. The BBC-type British accent is non-rhotic, and speakers don't pronounce the r, leaving hard sounding more like hahd. Before and during the American Revolution, the English, both in England and in the colonies, mostly spoke with a rhotic accent. We don't know much more about said accent, though. Various claims about the accents of the Appalachian Mountains, the Outer Banks, the Tidewater region and Virginia's Tangier Island sounding like an uncorrupted Elizabethan-era English accent have been busted as myths by linguists.

[Mike Oxlong]

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

That's really cool.

[Wage Slave]

David Crystal is a great man. This book is well worth having in your collection if you have any interest in linguistics at all. Truly a mine of information.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cambridge-Encyclopedia-Language-David-Crystal/dp/0521736501/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1430118687&sr=8-2&keywords=david+crystal+cambridge+encyclopedia

[matsuki]

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

The General American accent is rhotic and speakers pronounce the r in words such as hard.

The BBC-type British accent is non-rhotic, and speakers don't pronounce the r, leaving hard sounding more like hahd.

Before and during the American Revolution, the English, both in England and in the colonies, mostly spoke with a rhotic accent.

Add to that:

The English dialects of Scotland, Ireland, and most of the United States and Canada preserve historical /r/, and are termed the rhotic varieties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and ... ic_accents

The answer is they didn't...the fucked non-rhotic inbred accent that's spoken in Britain today is what changed...much to the chagrin of way too many English teaching Brits here "It's ENGLISH!!! From ENGLAND!! Not fucking AMERIKER"

[Mike Oxlong]

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

The General American accent is rhotic and speakers pronounce the r in words such as hard.

The BBC-type British accent is non-rhotic, and speakers don't pronounce the r, leaving hard sounding more like hahd.

Before and during the American Revolution, the English, both in England and in the colonies, mostly spoke with a rhotic accent.

Add to that:

The English dialects of Scotland, Ireland, and most of the United States and Canada preserve historical /r/, and are termed the rhotic varieties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and ... ic_accents

The answer is they didn't...the fucked non-rhotic inbred accent that's spoken in Britain today is what changed...much to the chagrin of way too many English teaching Brits here "It's ENGLISH!!! From ENGLAND!! Not fucking AMERIKER"

Languages change, dude. Take a look at the Quebecers, and their museum-piece rural Frenchness.

[matsuki]

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

The General American accent is rhotic and speakers pronounce the r in words such as hard.

The BBC-type British accent is non-rhotic, and speakers don't pronounce the r, leaving hard sounding more like hahd.

Before and during the American Revolution, the English, both in England and in the colonies, mostly spoke with a rhotic accent.

Add to that:

The English dialects of Scotland, Ireland, and most of the United States and Canada preserve historical /r/, and are termed the rhotic varieties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and ... ic_accents

The answer is they didn't...the fucked non-rhotic inbred accent that's spoken in Britain today is what changed...much to the chagrin of way too many English teaching Brits here "It's ENGLISH!!! From ENGLAND!! Not fucking AMERIKER"

Languages change, dude. Take a look at the Quebecers, and their museum-piece rural Frenchness.

Yeah, but we're talking about accents...and the common misconception is that Americans went from what you hear spoken in Britain today to what is spoken in the US now. Maybe the question should be, "When did the British losing the ability to pronounce words?"

[Wage Slave]

Choko. I really thought you were smarter than this. Tell me, why do you think New Yorkers lost the ability to pronounce words? Why do you think the Scots, South Welsh and west country dwellers retained their ability to pronounce words but not people in the rest of the UK?

Languages change and rhoticity is neither right nor wrong. You can say it's the original and therefore the best. I can say it's an archaic pronunciation. Either way - speak the way you like to speak.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Choko. I really thought you were smarter than this.

You did!?

[matsuki]

Fuck you SJ!

Wage Slave - Don't get me started on New Yooork or Baaahstun. Anyhow, I'm talking about how "China" get's pronounced "Chiner" and words like "father" and "farther" sound the same. "No" and "So" become "Nao" and "Sao" and "spice" can't be differentiated from "space." Tomato Tomato....but if you introduce non-English words where the pronunciation isn't debatable, you still get most Brits making the same mistakes. Just like Japanese with "L's", it's more of a speech disorder more than an "accent." I'm sure I'm coming across like an asshole and while that is not my intent, far too many encounters with idiot Aussie/Brit English teachers here have solidified this as one of my pet peeves.

Mergers characteristic of non-rhotic accents[edit]
Some phonemic mergers are characteristic of non-rhotic accents. These usually include one item that historically contained an R (lost in the non-rhotic accent), and one that never did so. The section below lists mergers in order of approximately decreasing prevalence.

Panda–pander merger
In the terminology of Wells (1982), this consists of the merger of the lexical sets commA and lettER. It is found in all or nearly all non-rhotic accents,[22] and is even present in some accents that are in other respects rhotic, such as those of some speakers in Jamaica and the Bahamas.[22]

[show]Homophonous pairs
Father–farther merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets PALM and START. It is found in the speech of the great majority of non-rhotic speakers, including those of England, Wales, the United States, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It may be absent in some non-rhotic speakers in the Bahamas.[22]
[show]Homophonous pairs
Pawn–porn merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets THOUGHT and NORTH. It is found in most of the same accents as the father–farther merger described above, but is absent from the Bahamas and Guyana.[22]
[show]Homophonous pairs
Caught–court merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets THOUGHT and FORCE. It is found in those non-rhotic accents containing the pawn–porn merger that have also undergone the horse–hoarse merger. These include the accents of Southern England, Wales, non-rhotic New York City speakers, Trinidad and the Southern hemisphere. In such accents a three-way merger awe-or-ore/oar results.
[show]Homophonous pairs
Calve–carve merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets BATH and START. It is found in some non-rhotic accents with broad A in words like "bath". It is general in southern England (excluding rhotic speakers), Trinidad, the Bahamas, and the Southern hemisphere. It is a possibility for Welsh, Eastern New England, Jamaican, and Guyanese speakers.
[show]Homophonous pairs
Paw–poor merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets THOUGHT and CURE. It is found in those non-rhotic accents containing the caught–court merger that have also undergone the pour–poor merger. Wells lists it unequivocally only for the accent of Trinidad, but it is an option for non-rhotic speakers in England, Australia and New Zealand. Such speakers have a potential four–way merger taw-tor-tore-tour.[23]
[show]Homophonous pairs
Batted–battered merger
This merger is present in non-rhotic accents which have undergone the weak-vowel merger. Such accents include Australian, New Zealand, most South African speech, and some non-rhotic English speech (e.g. Norfolk, Sheffield).

A large number of homophonous pairs involve the syllabic -es and agentive -ers suffixes, such as merges-mergers and bleaches-bleachers. Because there are so many, they are excluded from the list of homophonous pairs below.

[show]Homophonous pairs
Dough–door merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets GOAT and FORCE. It may be found in some southern U.S. non-rhotic speech, some speakers of African American Vernacular English, some speakers in Guyana and some Welsh speech.[22]
[show]Homophonous pairs
Show–sure merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets GOAT and CURE. It may be present in those speakers who have both the dough–door merger described above, and also the pour–poor merger. These include some southern U.S. non-rhotic speakers, some speakers of African American Vernacular English and some speakers in Guyana.[22]
It can be seen in the term "Fo Sho", an imitation of "for sure".
[show]Homophonous pairs
Often–orphan merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets CLOTH and NORTH. It may be present in old-fashioned Eastern New England accents,[24] New York City speakers[25] and also in some speakers in Jamaica and Guyana. The merger was also until recently present in the dialects of southern England, including Received Pronunciation—specifically, the phonemic merger of the words often and orphan was a running gag in the Gilbert and Sullivan musical, The Pirates of Penzance.
[show]Homophonous pairs
God–guard merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets LOT and START. It may be present in non-rhotic accents that have undergone the father–bother merger. These may include some New York accents,[27] some southern U.S. accents,[28] and African American Vernacular English.[29]
[show]Homophonous pairs
Shot–short merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets LOT and NORTH. It may be present in some Eastern New England accents.[30][31]
[show]Homophonous pairs
Bud–bird merger[citation needed]
A merger of /ɜː(r)/ and /ʌ/ occurring for some speakers of Jamaican English making bud and bird homophones as /bʌd/.[32] The conversion of /ɜː/ to [ʌ] or [ə] is also found in places scattered around England and Scotland. Some speakers, mostly rural, in the area from London to Norfolk exhibit this conversion, mainly before voiceless fricatives. This gives pronunciation like first [fʌst] and worse [wʌs]. The word cuss appears to derive from the application of this sound change to the word curse. Similarly, lurve is coined from love.
[show]Homophonous pairs
Oil–earl merger / coil–curl merger
In Wells' terminology, this consists of the merger of the lexical sets CHOICE and NURSE preconsonantally. It was present in older New York and New Orleans regional accents, but became stigmatized and is sharply recessive in those born since the Second World War.[33] This merger is known for the word soitanly, used often by the Three Stooges comedian Curly Howard as a variant of certainly in comedy shorts of the 1930s and 1940s.
[show]Homophonous pairs
Other mergers
In some accents, syllabification may interact with rhoticity, resulting in homophones where non-rhotic accents have centering diphthongs. Possibilities include Korea–career,[34] Shi'a–sheer, and Maia–mire,[35] while skua may be identical with the second syllable of obscure.[36]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and ... ic_accents

There you have it...non Rhotic is pretty homo

[Samurai_Jerk]

I used to think choko was just ignorant and maybe a little slow but now I'm convinced he's out of his mind. Coligny might be more balanced. Seriously.

I guess it could be traumatic brain injury from hockey.

[Wage Slave]

I used to think choko was just ignorant and maybe a little slow but now I'm convinced he's out of his mind. Coligny might be more balanced. Seriously.

I guess it could be traumatic brain injury from hockey.

screenshot_10.png

[Grumpy Gramps]

it's more of a speech disorder

Wouldn't that technically be the definition of an "accent", all else would be a "dialect"?

[Samurai_Jerk]

I used to think choko was just ignorant and maybe a little slow but now I'm convinced he's out of his mind. Coligny might be more balanced. Seriously.

I guess it could be traumatic brain injury from hockey.

screenshot_10.png

Here's some lovely rhotic California English.

[Mike Oxlong]

I used to think choko was just ignorant and maybe a little slow but now I'm convinced he's out of his mind. Coligny might be more balanced. Seriously.

I guess it could be traumatic brain injury from hockey.

screenshot_10.png

Here's some lovely rhotic California English.

The infection has spread...Canuckistan is full of dat shit.

[Coligny]

I used to think choko was just ignorant and maybe a little slow but now I'm convinced he's out of his mind. Coligny might be more balanced. Seriously.

I guess it could be traumatic brain injury from hockey.

Challenge accepted...

image.jpg

[matsuki]

it's more of a speech disorder

Wouldn't that technically be the definition of an "accent", all else would be a "dialect"?

If so...how would you define what gets labelled as an "American accent?"

screenshot_10.png

Here's some lovely rhotic California English.

The infection has spread...Canuckistan is full of dat shit.

Hood English....yuck