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What to do with pluricentric languages | ||
Tags: Diglossia | Simultaneous study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| morinkhuur Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 4475 days ago 79 posts - 157 votes  Speaks: German*, Latin, English Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi) | Message 9 of 18 30 March 2013 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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In German schools the general rule for teachers is to teach the European varieties of both English and the
Romance languages. In reality though, most teachers teach their students to speak with a German accent as they mostly speak like that themselves. Of course they will still claim to speak "British English" but no one in Britain speaks English like my English teachers do. Students who speak with an American or Australian accent are allowed to do so but they must keep to British spelling conventions in exams etc. The same goes for Spanish, where teachers mostly use Iberian grammar and vocabulary but make no distinction between ce/ci/z and s, pronouncing all of them like a German s not like the Iberian s. From my exposure to American media and American-dominated internet communities, I initially picked up an American accent and American spelling but later on I also learned to imitate some British accents fairly well. I'm currently working on my Australian pronunciation and I would love to be able to speak with a Liberian or Nigerian accent. My approach is not to focus on regional varieties until I've reached a certain level of proficiency. Then I decide for one variety to be my "home accent" (In English this is the American accent). After I've mastered that accent I try to imitate other regional accents as well. I learned a lot of my Spanish in different countries of the Caribbean (Panama, Costa Rica and Cuba) so my Spanish "home accent" is sort of a blend between several Latin American varieties. At the moment I'm trying to acquire an Iberian Spanish accent. Surprisingly I find this quite difficult and I'm having more problems with the Iberian s than I had with the arguably more exotic Arabic ع. Also there seem to be some slight differences in the pronunciation of r between Spain and Latin America. The only accent I really wouldn't like to learn is Argentinian. The [ʃ] sound for ll and y somehow sounds really ugly and "un-Spanish" to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4807 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 10 of 18 30 March 2013 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I learn the variant which I am most likely to need and use.
English: I can understand both european and american but there are dialects which are more difficult. I speak and write something in between, I strive for brittish grammar but there is some american vocabulary as most of my input is american. French: Definitely french French. The other european variants are not that different and I am quite unlikely to visit Canada or the French speaking african countries in next ten or more years. Spanish: European Spanish as there is an ocean between me and the other dialects. In general, when it comes to Spanish, the teachers at schools here point out the alternatives much more than teachers of other languages from what I've seen and heard. (Teachers of English often treat the other variants as something wrong and undesirable, teachers of French sometimes show the other variants as something interesting but not too important) German: At my level, I am happy to speak bits of standard German and what I can understand, I can understand both from Germans and austrians. Should the choice come, I will chose German German without hesitation. They don't have the Alpes but they have Berlin and many other beautiful cities I would like to visit and more books and films than Austria or German speaking part of the Switzerland. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5564 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 11 of 18 31 March 2013 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I aim for overregional vocabulary and an only slightly foreign (and hopefully not obviously German) accent, until I get a personal reason to learn a regional variant better. Of course, learning to understand regional variants is a given.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6395 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 12 of 18 31 March 2013 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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In English, I'm fine with sounding generally European. Not having an obvious Russian/Slavic accent is enough. I don't like movies all that much and I've never been to an English-speaking country and these are essential for sounding native-like.
At school I was taught to always say soccer because the British know this word too. I've managed to shake it off and at most I now write "football (soccer)" :) I like the British spelling more but I've picked up some American forms of course. In Portuguese, I've been corrected for my European usage by Brazilians XD Recently I've been working on my comprehension of the Brazilian variety. If I ever went to Portugal I'd be sure not to pick up anything specific to Porto, as I support Benfica :P Football has played a role with my Italian too. I support Fiorentina and I have friends from Florence and this is the city I want to visit most - and conveniently enough the Tuscan variety is the closest to the "standard". And Croatia is the most interesting part of the former Yugoslavia to me (again, football :P). Besides, Serbian is closer to Russian so for me the best way to know both main varieties is to focus on Croatian. I'm still struggling with Serbian cyrillics, tbh. Spanish is the only world language where I prefer the non-European variety - "general" Latin American or even specifically Rioplatense. I especially don't like the "lisp". Edited by Serpent on 31 March 2013 at 4:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4466 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 13 of 18 01 April 2013 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
It's just a D-less and voiceless version of the Spanish sound: yo [ d͡ʒo ] -> [ʒo ] -> [ ʃo] 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4747 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 14 of 18 02 April 2013 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | ||
This was funny to me when I encountered it in real life, twice: upon meeting this Colombian, and in a separate occasion Guatemalan family, and their kids upon finding that I ha lived there and thus my Spanish was Argentine (though not rioplatense, a different accent), they began saying things like "veni aca", "estoy tranqui", "que zarpado!", etc. I asked them how they know those things and they said "Floricienta". Upon doing some research, I saw that Argentine children and teen shows have somewhat of a cornered market in Latin America (which I figured somewhat anyway since Argentine and Mexican television tend to have the biggest budgets), but that they actually had airtime in channales like Disney, Discovery, and others in Europe and even in places like Russia, Israel, and India (and rabid fans at that), which was pretty shocking. I spent a couple of days once just watching shows like "Rebelde way", "Chiquititas" or "verano del 98" on youtube in a bunch of languages like German, French, Italian (this was before I really could understand a lot). Many are still on youtube and I have to admit hearing the dubbed voices of a few of the people whom I know their real voices was quite amusing. Edited by outcast on 02 April 2013 at 4:56pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4747 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 15 of 18 02 April 2013 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
Then learn the Mendoza variety of "argentine". The "sh" sound is a German "j". Argentina is a big country, there's at least 7-8 accents I could list. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4466 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 16 of 18 03 April 2013 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Most regional Argentinian accents are disappearing due to mass media (TV from Buenos Aires).
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