mat in tn Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 Because what we speak here is not English. Hell, I have a hard enough time understanding people from my own nation (usually the deep south) Not a criticism of them or their vernacular, just an observation of how varied "english" is, in a nation divided by distance and culture. easy there fella. yall dont gotta pik on us in da south. at least we dont pahk tha cah in tha yahd:nabble_smiley_tongue: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBrother-84 Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 easy there fella. yall dont gotta pik on us in da south. at least we dont pahk tha cah in tha yahd:nabble_smiley_tongue: Is that Klingon? During Big Brother’s Big Tour, our biggest “accent” surprise happened while traveling through Tennessee. A pickup was following us and, since I don’t drive Big Brother really fast (well, let’s say “too slow for US guys”), I stopped on the road side to let them pass us. They stopped just beside me (they were two men), and began to tell me… something. I explained (with my strong french accent) that I’m not really fluent in english, so the repeated more slowly to explain me… something. This time I did catch (maybe) some words like «arin’» and “hurch", and while they were pointing the church parking across the street, I supposed that they were asking me to go there. So we met there, they were really nice guys and we all made efforts to understand each other. They just wanted to talk about the truck, we had a cool friendly time with them. Mat, my wife and I are keeping super memories about Tennessee folks… and their “lovely” accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 easy there fella. yall dont gotta pik on us in da south. at least we dont pahk tha cah in tha yahd:nabble_smiley_tongue: I'm not picking on anyone or any thing If you can make something intelligible from a Louisiana patois you're doing far better than me.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 I'm not picking on anyone or any thing If you can make something intelligible from a Louisiana patois you're doing far better than me.. I have only lived in the South. English was pretty much the educational medium and that's how I learned it, but have always been more fluent in it than my native language. When I moved to the US for education, I could hardly follow "Midtown/Downtown Atlanta" accent. I had to learn differences in spelling. Ex- 'colour vs color' I met my wife who is a 'Southern Belle' from Arkansas in 2008 and my first interaction with her family was filled with words I have no idea what they were, so I'm sure they thought I was just dumb. "over yonder, fixin' to, bless your heart". I have not had too much trouble with southern dialects. After 15 of being with my wife, my speech is all confused and jacked up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 I have only lived in the South. English was pretty much the educational medium and that's how I learned it, but have always been more fluent in it than my native language. When I moved to the US for education, I could hardly follow "Midtown/Downtown Atlanta" accent. I had to learn differences in spelling. Ex- 'colour vs color' I met my wife who is a 'Southern Belle' from Arkansas in 2008 and my first interaction with her family was filled with words I have no idea what they were, so I'm sure they thought I was just dumb. "over yonder, fixin' to, bless your heart". I have not had too much trouble with southern dialects. After 15 of being with my wife, my speech is all confused and jacked up I use colour, grey and a few others... Tell me something of the varying dialects in your homeland. You've said that your state was under French control, and I know Goa was Portuguese. Then you have Muslim and Buddhist enclaves in the extreme north like Kasmir. I always love to learn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 I use colour, grey and a few others... Tell me something of the varying dialects in your homeland. You've said that your state was under French control, and I know Goa was Portuguese. Then you have Muslim and Buddhist enclaves in the extreme north like Kasmir. I always love to learn India is as varied as Europe. If it were not for the British, it wouldn't have been unified into one country. The only reason for unification to make sense today is for economies of scale in military, manufacturing, etc. Most of the states have their own language, they are not dialects by any stretch. All the surrounding states from over where I grew up have a different language (writing script, vocabulary, grammer, sentence structure). Completely unintelligible. The only unifying language is English. I do not understand Hindi, or any other Indian language except 'Tamil'. The cultural similarities between states are just about the same as between neighboring countries lets say in Europe and Asia. About Automobiles, I had no idea automatic transmissions existed until I moved here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 India is as varied as Europe. If it were not for the British, it wouldn't have been unified into one country. The only reason for unification to make sense today is for economies of scale in military, manufacturing, etc. Most of the states have their own language, they are not dialects by any stretch. All the surrounding states from over where I grew up have a different language (writing script, vocabulary, grammer, sentence structure). Completely unintelligible. The only unifying language is English. I do not understand Hindi, or any other Indian language except 'Tamil'. The cultural similarities between states are just about the same as between neighboring countries lets say in Europe and Asia. About Automobiles, I had no idea automatic transmissions existed until I moved here India has an astonishing space program. They just landed on the moon! How close is Tamil to say, Sri Lanka/Ceylon? I remember the Tamil Tigers from about the mid '70's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 India has an astonishing space program. They just landed on the moon! How close is Tamil to say, Sri Lanka/Ceylon? I remember the Tamil Tigers from about the mid '70's About 25% of Srilankan population is estimated to speak "Srilankan Tamil". Those people are descendants of the original migrants from Tamil Nadu. It is somewhat mutually intelligible (further apart in intelligibility than WASP/Country English ) with the Tamil spoken in Tamil Nadu, although they speak a purer form of Tamil which existed in the homeland.. oh maybe from 1000AD (Wild guess... they sound Ancient !!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 About 25% of Srilankan population is estimated to speak "Srilankan Tamil". Those people are descendants of the original migrants from Tamil Nadu. It is somewhat mutually intelligible (further apart in intelligibility than WASP/Country English ) with the Tamil spoken in Tamil Nadu, although they speak a purer form of Tamil which existed in the homeland.. oh maybe from 1000AD (Wild guess... they sound Ancient !!) Isolated populations tend to stick with the old ways. (and language, evidently) Some of the oldest written language is Sanskrit. I think I'd love to hear that spoken! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ifitaintbroke Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Because what we speak here is not English. Hell, I have a hard enough time understanding people from my own nation (usually the deep south) Not a criticism of them or their vernacular, just an observation of how varied "english" is, in a nation divided by distance and culture. Quite true. We speak American, and there are many dialects. On Sunday, I dealt with 2 older gentleman from South Africa. I could barely understand them, but they were speaking English. Now, they were straight from S A, and had not been here long, so their accent is strongly flavored with Afrikaans I've met other South Africans who have been here longer, and I could understand them perfectly. Another great example of that process: last year (I think), I dealt with 2 guys from Georgia (the other one), and had a hard time understanding them. A couple of weeks ago, I sold an oil change to a Russian who evidently has been here for a while, his accent is noticeable, but, again, I can understand him perfectly. This has happened to me, also. Though I have lived my whole life in South Georgia, (yes-we capitalize it) I am not considered to have a Southern accent by those around me. My father grew up in North Dakota, and my mother's family is mostly from the Northeast(Boston/Rhode Island), and part from NC. I grew up in the Savannah area, where people don't have as strong an accent as out here in "the country". When I started at the parts store, I could barely understand many of the people I talked to. There are several dialects in this area, and I have met a few people that even my coworkers from out here couldn't understand. My own speech has als changed greatly since spending so much time around different people, and I'm well aware that I talk differently depending on who I'm around. When talking to rednecks, I talk more like them. When dealing with Hispanics, I try to have as little accent as possible, to help them with the language barrier (though I do speak a smattering of Spanish). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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