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Accents

  Tags: Multilingual | Accent
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages Post Reply
LorenzoGuapo
Triglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 6255 days ago

79 posts - 94 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: French

 
 Message 1 of 3
29 April 2011 at 8:06pm | IP Logged 
I like the sound of different accents and wanted to make a thread dedicated to different questions about different accents, so if anyone wants to add a question feel free.My questions are,
1. What languages have the most or least accents? I know Spanish has at least 20 something, one for each country at least and I've heard but not 100 percent sure that Russian has only a few despite being spoken by a large amount of people.
2. Are there any accents that are tough for you to distinguish either in your native language or target language? In my native language its tough for me to distinguish someone from Minnesota and someone from Canada, in Spanish its tough to distinguish someone from Montevideo and someone from Buenos Aires, in Portuguese someone from Angola and Mozambique.
3.What accents are you able to imitate the best, and which sound the clearest to you? While on the other hand which are you not able to imitate or sound the most unclearest?
Remember this about accents in any language not just the languages I listed above.


1 person has voted this message useful



Haukilahti
Triglot
Groupie
Finland
Joined 4775 days ago

94 posts - 126 votes 
Speaks: Finnish*, English, Polish

 
 Message 2 of 3
29 April 2011 at 9:24pm | IP Logged 
Accents or dialects? I'd say Italian is quite strong too in both.
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iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5073 days ago

2237 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 3 of 3
29 April 2011 at 11:27pm | IP Logged 
In Spanish, I speak with a noticeable Caribbean accent with some Mexican and Castillian slang thrown in for a bit of added spice- that's what my Argentine and Chilean friends tell me.

I've noticed the different accents whilst traveling in Spain. The accent changes in Colombia from the coast to inland as well. I can spot the difference between Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican Spanish. I don't know Argentina. I wonder how much difference there is in accent between BA, Córdoba and Tierra del Fuego?

In English, it's not just each individual country's general accent but accents also can vary quite significantly regionally. Obviously the following are just a few examples of the diversity in English accents.

In England the accent can change in just a few miles. For example, in Northern England- Scouse, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Geordie.

In the US the accent changes occur over broader distances- New York City, Boston, New England, New Orleans- deep south, upper south, tidewater, southern Appalachian, midwestern.

In English speaking Canada- Newfoundland, Maritime and Ontario accents are noticeable to me. Here in the Caribbean, I can discern Jamaican, Northeast Caribbean and down-island accents. South African English sounds markedly different from Nigerian English. I was unable to discern regional differences in Australia, maybe an Australian can comment as to that. Can a Sydney-sider spot a Tasmanian or someone from Perth over the phone? I've only ever been to Auckland in New Zealand but I wonder if there is a discernible South Island Kiwi accent?

English is quite a diverse language in its spoken form which is one of my favorite features of my native language. How long it will remain so diverse is anyone's guess. Are the forces of homogenization brought about by mass communication too strong to resist? Already I see fewer and fewer young people, under 30 today, born and raised in the US South, with genuine Southern accents. Here in the VI younger people are becoming more Americanized in both culture and speech. What a sad language English would be if everyone sounded generic.

Here's a video of an English bloke imitating 24 accents in English- WARNING- SWEAR WORDS USED: 24 different accents in English

Edited by iguanamon on 30 April 2011 at 1:26pm



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