|
 |
Languages/dialects that are ’laughed at’ | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4889 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 9 of 54 08 January 2012 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I think a south-western accent in England, like an overexaggerated Cornwall accent gets quite a bit of comedic use. I think the assumption is that everyone living in that area is a dumb farmer (of course, not true). Altho I don't think we really have any accents where we would laugh for just the accent itself (I could be wrong). Oh!!! Maybe more recently the "chav" accent could cause this effect...
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 10 of 54 08 January 2012 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
Which one is Rimmer using at the end of this clip in Red Dwarf? I've always wondered what accent that is (I'm not too familiar with British accents). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 11 of 54 08 January 2012 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
The short answer is that it depends, but in general encountering things that are different from what one is used to can create a reaction and these reactions may spread within the speech community to the point of creating something stereotyped, caricatured or formulaic. The long answer is that I find that it's for historical/cultural or generalized social biases that some dialects/variants become interpreted perjoratively by others. It can also become highly personal with some dialects elicting a stronger reaction than in other people. English dialects provide plenty of fun under the right circumstances. English from the southern USA (basically Texas eastwards) can get looked down upon by outsiders and not just from the northern USA but I've noticed that Britons and Canadians can be amused by "southern" speech. Some Americans poke fun at Canadians' speech and even that of people from Minnesota, Wisconsin or northern Michigan (i.e. the "U.P.") since the sound of what's used in those northern US states can sound a lot like how Canadians speak. Like you, all of the languages that I've studied exhibit this phenomenon since there's some standard variant standing among a continuum made up of non-standardized variants/dialects. Off the top of my head, the transitional dialect/language used in northeastern Czech Republic ("Lachian/Silesian") tends to be used in Czech comedic sketches to portray simpletons. Finnish as used natively but colloquially in most of eastern Finland is looked on by outsiders with slight derision or quaintness (the Savonian dialects) Apparently Savonian's lengthening of certain sounds, changes to diphthongs compared to what's found in standard Finnish and occasionally lengthy phrases are taken by non-Savonians as a link to dull-wittedness or slower thought processes since the differences often mean that a Savonian can take up to a few seconds more to say something E.g. "How it's going?" Mitteepä kuuluu? (Savonian) Mitä(pä) kuuluu? (approximation of spoken Finnish) Mitä kuuluu? (Standard Finnish) "I don't know" Minen tiijä mittää (Savonian - mittää corresponds to standard mitään and seems redundant here. Basically it's "I dunno nuttin'/anything") Mä en tiijä (approximation of spoken Finnish) (Minä) En tiedä (Standard Finnish) "I'll come again" Mie tuun tuasiisa (Savonian - usually around southern Savo) Mä tuun taas (approximation of spoken Finnish) (Minä) Tulen taas. (Standard Finnish) There is a partial historical or social explanation for this perception since in both instances the respective native territory of Lachian and Savonian were far from the perceived "civilized" or urban areas of the speech community (Bohemia (including Prague) for Czech; Ostrobothnia, Finland Proper, and Uusimaa for Finnish). As the socioeconomic status and political power of people in the urban areas rose more than that of people in rural regions, these people also started to build condescension of the rural person's linguistic habits often via introduction of a standard language conceived largely by educated people from the cities. There's even a saying about this among Savonians which indirectly reflects the perception of Savonian compared to other Finnish dialects/variants. Ei se savolaesuus synti ou vuan suur häppee. (Savonian - "It's not a sin to be from Savo, only a great shame.") When I was visiting Finland, I stayed in Savo with a friend who said that he did not like to use Savonian unless he were in very informal settings or hanging out with other Savonians. At work he told me that he used standard Finnish and minimized the use of Savonian when speaking to clients regardless of where they were based. This is a bit of the reverse of your example with the villager speaking in something from the "outside" (in this case as in Bihari) since my friend preferred not to signal his distinctiveness by using his native dialect. Edited by Chung on 09 January 2012 at 5:20pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5052 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 12 of 54 08 January 2012 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
I was going to write about that accent and that movie! In Russia, the most ridiculed accents are Ukrainian, Odessan and Estonian. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kyknos Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5497 days ago 103 posts - 140 votes Speaks: Slovak, Czech*, English Studies: German, Spanish | Message 13 of 54 08 January 2012 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
People from Moravia make fun of the Prague dialect. People from Prague make fun of people from Brno (the capital of Moravia), especially those speaking so called Hantec. Everybody makes fun of people from the northeastern part of the country (Heavily influenced by Polish). And this video makes fun of the Pilsen dialect. If you want to have some fun with dialects, switching them every hour or so while driving on a highway, come to the Czech republic :)
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| FireViN Diglot Senior Member Brazil missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5230 days ago 196 posts - 292 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian | Message 14 of 54 08 January 2012 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
In Brazil people tend to make fun of all the accents/dialects, but I guess my beautiful caipira (with some 30+ million speakers) accent is the first victim. It's basically banned from media because it sounds "ugly" and "uneducated".
When they have an actor speaking Caipira on TV, he must be dumb or lives in a farm with simple life.. or both. Weird since São Paulo is the richest state in Brazil, and that's where the majority of caipiras are (not to mention Minas, Paraná, MS..) Sometimes it's funny though. Edited by FireViN on 08 January 2012 at 11:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zecchino1991 Senior Member United States facebook.com/amyybur Joined 5259 days ago 778 posts - 885 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew, Russian, Arabic (Written), Romanian, Icelandic, Georgian | Message 15 of 54 08 January 2012 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I suppose that rural accents tend to get made fun of. For example, as many people have
said the Southern U.S. accents are often considered "funny." Also, as someone said the Upper Midwestern accents (Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc) are sometimes made fun of, at least where I live. I'm not sure why though. Maybe they are just distinct. Also, American people love to make fun of how Canadians say words with "ou." But maybe it's just because that's the only major noticeable difference between their dialect and the standard American one... Edited by zecchino1991 on 08 January 2012 at 11:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4889 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 16 of 54 09 January 2012 at 12:19am | IP Logged | |||||
I *think* that's the "farmer" type of accent from the south-west of England which I mentioned... Please someone correct or agree with me lol, I'm not 100% sure. I used to LOVE watching Red Dwarf when I was younger :o) I'm wondering now how non-English natives handle accents such as Lister's? Is it tricky to start with and gets easier with more exposure to it? 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
