old english accent was closer to American southern accent

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by EmoBorg, Mar 10, 2013.

  1. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The only part of the Canadian accent that I always recognize is when they say the word "sorry" and it comes out "sore-ey." Apart from that, I usually can't tell the difference. I have never heard a Canadian actually talk like the old cliché about "I'm going oot of the hoose, eh?"
     
  2. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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    That's pretty cool. I'd say it's not bad, even if I hear a hint of Romanesco (the current dialect from the city of Rome, which is actually heavily influenced from Tuscan for modern historical reasons) instead of the speech of the Roman countryside, which is thought to be closer to the ancient pronunciation. Also, I think the use of just "non" as a negative reply is a modernism: Classical Latin should be "minime", "minime vero", or at least "ita non".
     
  3. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    ^ Yeah, the problem was that he wasn't allowed to write his own script. I guess they wanted to be sure that the speaker wasn't swearing in his own language (probably more of a concern for the modern languages, though). So there are translation errors in the game even though every speaker is either someone who is a native speaker or studies the language thoroughly (when, obviously, there is no native speaker).

    I had a link about three years ago. I'm trying to find the sources I had (I did a quick search of the board to see if I posted it previously. I see that you apparently asked me back then and I missed it, so my apologies. I think I never posted it). Some appear to have been dead. It's essentially developing the characteristics of a different accent when compared to the California or West Coast accent. It strikes me as something a linguist would notice more than the average person. Most people think they don't have an accent if it's subtle.

    Here are the best links I can find. I don't remember if any of them are the original story I read.

    Is There a Seattle Accent?

    A blog that has a dead link to the Seattle PI that might have been very helpful if it still existed

    A Northwest Dialect? That's Goofy Some Say

    Sorry, that's the best I can do. I get the impression that, while it's being studied at the University of Washington, the study is still in its infancy.
     
  4. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Perhaps I will listen extra closely when I visit Seattle this summer, to check for any accents that may arise. :)
     
  5. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    Eh, unless you know what to look for, it's difficult to spot all but the most obvious accents.
     
  6. USS Excelsior

    USS Excelsior Commodore Commodore

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    A regional British accent from over 80 years ago.


    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvUfLUtaXM[/yt]
     
  7. TorontoTrekker

    TorontoTrekker Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I've always found accents interesting - I used to be regularly mistaken for being English, and a roommate who actually was born in England once said to me, "I don't know what your accent is, but it's not from Southern Ontario" (which is where I've lived all my life).

    OTOH, I managed to date someone born and raised in Tennessee, and who has lived in Atlanta for the past several years, and who doesn't have what I would call a Southern accent. And yet many of my friends who also live in Atlanta have a drawl so thick I could pour it on my pancakes and call it maple syrup. ;) (Admittedly, I don't know exactly where they're from, only that they're Southerners who live in Atlanta and the surrounding area.)

    Well, that's the way it's spelled - not "sarry". :p

    There are some, but they tend to be from the east coast or northern Ontario (listen closely to Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica some time - he's from Kirkland Lake, Ontario, which is about 350-400 miles north of Toronto. (Alan Thicke is from Kirkland Lake as well, but his accent is less pronounced.) Hogan's accent is more noticeable in earlier episodes (I read somewhere recently that he was actually rather self-conscious about it).

    Hogan's son Gabriel (who plays Peter Morris on Heartland - I'm not sure if that airs outside Canada, but he also played Ian Farnham on Traders) was born in Toronto, and doesn't have much of an accent at all, that I can remember.

    Hockey commentator Don Cherry also has a very pronounced accent along the lines of what you describe.
     
  8. Deckerd

    Deckerd Fleet Arse Premium Member

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    This dialect isn't all that different from rural Cornish now, as I'm sure the Cornish dwellers here will attest. There is bleed in rural dialects in the south west so you'll hear similar in Somerset, Devon and even into Wiltshire. This is the closest to the language of Shakespeare still extant, since at the time he was writing the GVS was still shifting.

    There may be levelling out of accents on TV but on the ground, in the UK, they are alive and kicking. The most amazing thing about the UK is that for such a small island, there is a huge variety in the way English is spoken and the vocabularies used.
     
  9. Mary Ann

    Mary Ann Knitting is honourable Admiral

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    I'm quite certain the Mendip dialect has changed slightly changed since this was recorded. My father-in-law's family has lived in northern Somerset for donkey's years, and while I recognise some of the local vocab and there are lots of Z's and R's it sounds a bit flatter than what I was used to hearing from the older generation when I lived there (though I'm sure my FIL went out of his way to make sure he sounded like a Wurzel).
     
  10. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    The pronunciation in question is called the Canadian Rising. Interestingly, while more subtle for some than others, it is a uniquely Canadian phenomenon. Normally accents reflect the people who settled the area. However, British Columbia, which was settled by many people from the western United States, has it as well. It's the only accent (that I'm aware of) that stops at a political border. Although, I think in the East coast, the line is a bit more blurry.

    There's also a similar, but different phenomenon called the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (I'm using wikipedia's name, I usually just call it the Northern Vowel Shift), which is that accent you hear in Fargo (or Sarah Palin or the mother from Bobby's World). Linguists apparently think it's the most significant change in the English language since the Great Vowel Shift in Middle English.

    ETA: Blog Post Discussing the Two Accents. He points out the political boundary thing is most significant when comparing Detroit to Windsor. They're literally right next door, but have completely different accents.
     
  11. Deckerd

    Deckerd Fleet Arse Premium Member

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    The Australians have taken rising to another plane. Stephen Fry did a brilliant pisstake of it. I'll see if it's on You Tube.

    Here we go. A bit blurry but perfectly audible.
    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OluCvL0lRnI[/yt]
     
  12. ITL

    ITL Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The Wiltshire accent has a rising inflection, too. Or at least it did have 20 years ago in the part of Wiltshire that I lived in. Probably still does, for all I know.
     
  13. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    So, what's it called when Canadians pronounce "about" like "a boat"? When I visit Canada, which is fairly frequently, I have to keep going, "Ow, ow, ow," in the mirror to keep my accent from diminishing!

    ETA: OK, I see that that must be the Canadian raising.
     
  14. USS Excelsior

    USS Excelsior Commodore Commodore

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  15. Squiggy

    Squiggy FrozenToad Admiral

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    Born and raised in Tennessee, but I couldn't hear anything until I was 4...so I never developed the accent (thank God...my accent is Al Gore's).
     
  16. cooleddie74

    cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    And coincidentally, you helped invent the Internet (Hitler threadbomb).
     
  17. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

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    Wait, you too? I was deaf until age 4 as well! Sorry, that's completely unrelated to the thread, I just found it interesting.
     
  18. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

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    Yo bay arf roit are kid...
     
  19. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

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    Woah...it's like Cornwall and Fargo had a baby, and raised it in Mississippi.
     
  20. USS Excelsior

    USS Excelsior Commodore Commodore

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    This is another one from down the road from there from the same time period.


    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2GTuBDsMfY[/yt]