American English pronunciation!

Pronouncing "herbs" and "erbs", I just can't get my head around this one - wannabe Frenchies as far as I can see!

 

Also, I noticed when American's talk, they don't hyphoate:

American: I will not
British: I won't

American: I will do that
British: I'll do that

I often wonder where this comes from.

 

[video=youtube;om7O0MFkmpw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw[/video]

 

Honestly, I only heard of that one instance...

 

I use won't, I'll, etc. all the time...

 

Yeah, but you're a "progressive" RP

 

I know, I know...

*hangs head in shame*

 

When I was learning English, it wasnt American English!

(A) ESL should teach things like:

"Awesome" means "thank you"

and also how to pronounce things.

Whatchadoon?
Schwego?
Zatso?

 

Nope. I've been listening to Obama talk for 4 yrs now and have heard him say 'corpsemen' everytime he addressed a Naval officer.... never once heard him say 'corpsmen'.

If it had happened one time, then after that heard him say the proper and respectful 'Corpsemen', I wouldn't have given it any tho't - just chalk it up to a mistake and later an adviser corrected him....

The 1st time I heard him say 'corpsemen' at a Naval ceremony, I was surprised and wondered 'how could he mispronounce such an easy word?' - then after the show, they showed a clip of Obama the previous year saying it and he's always said it.

I'm very defensive of our military and I just detest him when he, their Commander-in-Chief shows them such disrespect.....

 

I just want to know how you pronounce the name of that big river in London "Tems" instead of Thames or Edinburgh like "Enen-burra" instead of ending like Iceberg? Unless they were assimilated from a pre-english language. If that's the case ignore my crass and uncouth manner from this knuckle dragging seppo you pommy twits.

 

I hate the over use of the word awesome, it really boils my (*)(*)(*)(*). Awe-some is a meteor, is a volcanic erruption; things that are awe inspiring. Not "that's awesome" for bringing a cuppa tea.

What do American's say when they actually see something awe inspring?

 

Many place names in England and Scotland, certainly of older settlements, come from older, pre-English (and even pre-Scots and pre-Scots Gaelic) names, from either Latin or Brythonic/British (i.e. 'Old Welsh') roots.

Edinburgh:

The Scots spelling of 'burgh' is essentially the same word, and from the same old English root, as the English word 'borough', both from 'burh', a spelling which would seem to suggest that it's the root of the current pronunciation - in other words, the word is 'burh' (i.e. something like 'buruh'), and nothing really to do with the 'g' or a word like 'burg'. The 'g' in 'burgh' is effectively silent, but the 'h' isn't. Quite why the 'g' is in there at all is another matter, but spellings in the Anglo-Saxon derived languages (i.e. English and Scots) can often be somewhat approximate!

Thames:

Again probably derived from an old Celtic and Latin root, with the 'th' just being someone renaissance prat's clever idea of making it somehow look more 'classical' and 'authentic'. Why the second syllable has effectively died out I don't know, but Anglo-Saxon pronunciation can sometimes be as approximate as their spelling, and they do tent to drop syllables to shorten words and names on a fairly regular basis (often, I guess, as local colloquialisms that then just stick).

We celts, especially of the brythonic variety, are perfectly used to such 'crass and uncouth' ignoring of our historical influences, though, as much (if not more) from the 'pommy twits' as from the 'knuckle dragging seppos' or other colonials!

 

Unless it's a really, really good cup of tea, delivered without requst in an almost telepathic response, at a time when a cup of tea is really, really needed but hasn't yet been mentioned. I have felt a considerable sense of awe on several such occasions!

Of course, the chances of getting a really, really good cup of tea from an American are fairly slim anyway!

 

Say the word "Herb" out loud.

 

Or anyone - try getting a decent cuppa on the continent, disaster! Fruit teas - yes, "English tea" = (*)(*)(*)(*) weak and no milk *angry*.

 

Not sure why it really matters. Here in Canada some Canadians say "aboat" while others say "about". America use checks while Canadians use cheque's. America is a Country of over 300 million people who are vastly different from each other... so it only makes sense that that dialect will differ from religion to religion. Some say "military" while others say "mill-a-tree", "herb" "erb", does not really matter to me and certainly is not grounds to besmirch a whole Country.

 

I think since there are more English speaking North Americans than Brits, our way of pronunciation rules. English is an evolving language and has evolved far beyond the parochial pronunciations of that island.

On the other hand, maybe in a century Global English may be pronounced more as Indians and Chinese pronounce it.

 

I'm from tranna and i don't know whatchew guys are talking aboot.

Make my timmies a double double.

 

It's also a language with a long and evolving history of approximate spelling and pronunciation, and a wide variety of regional dialects with words and pronunciations all of their own. Some of the words have evolved in pronunciation a fair way from their spellings anyway, and some of the US spelling are far more sensible than the UK versions. I don't think it really matters who is 'right' and who is 'wrong' on such things - everybody's effectively been making it all up as they go along for generations anyway! The locals of the village of 'Mildenhall' in Wiltshire have pronounced the name as 'Minal' for centuries, and that's just one example of many (Leominster = Lemster, Gloucester = Gloster, Cheltenham = Cheltnum, etc., etc.)!

I don't really see that the English have any justification for complaint about apparently alledgedly slack American pronunciation of 'their' language - it's 'their' fault for developing a language without any proper rules in the first place!

 

It does seem that other languages do have some sort of academy or final authority for what is "correct" for their own language. English doesn't seem to have that other than usage, which eventually winds it's way into dictionaries.

 

Part of the reason for that is to try to stop English words in particular creeping into their language by common usage, and I don't think that's entirely unreasonable - it would be a very dull world if everyone ended up speaking just a slightly different form of pseudo-English by dafault! On the other hand, sometimes perhaps they do get a bit draconian about it all, which could be counter-productive to what they want to achieve in the longer term as people choose to ignore them. There's so many different forms of English that it just wouldn't be possible to do that, whereas maybe 'official' version of other languages that have existed for a long time may have ironed out some of the variations in usage that used to exist.

As a Welshman, to an extent I probably do have a slightly different point of view on the English language and its history than many English people, though, and maybe I'm less inclined to worry about the USA making the language its own rather than speaking in 'standard' English, as defined from England. Not only is the use of it here in Wales sometimes quite odd-sounding to others, because of colloquial phrases that have persisted as direct translations of the Welsh even after the speaking of Welsh has diminished within particular communities (for example, asking where someone lives with the question 'Where are you living to?', which is quite common), but we're also a little sensitive to the actions of making language 'official' and the attempted promotion of one form of spech over another, even if it is supposedly 'for the benefit of the people':

That kind of thing is a part of 'British' history, and the history of the English language, about which most people in England remain blissfully unaware. And then they wonder why we want to cling on to our language, and why the language and its equal status in law (which it now has) is so strongly supported even by those of us who aren't fluent in it. I remember my late grandmother telling me of how she would be punished (by a 'fine') if she was caught speaking Welsh in school, even though it was her own native tongue. Little wonder that I think it's vitally important for all of our road signs, official documents and so on to be in Welsh as well as in English, for all those people who do want to use it (and about 20% of the population in Wales speak Welsh, with a rising number of non-native people learning it and/or sending their kids to be educated in it).

And then there's the whole 'RP' thing, and the attempted promotion of an 'official' English accent instead of all those nasty regional accents and dialects finding their way on to TV and radio (also now thankfully a thing of the past).

Language, of any kind, can be a beautiful thing if it is allowed to flourish and evolve in its own natural way among the people who speak it to each other, and the variety of human tongues and dialects is something I see as a very positive and interesting thing. For centuries the government of England didn't seem to see things the same way at all, though, and thought everbody would be so much better off and happier if they just spoke exactly the way that they did themselves. If they don't like the way Americans use 'their' language, frankly they can stick it where the sun don't shine! They have no right or authority to judge - the only sad thing in that is that the US so universally (well, almost!) adopted one language (English) at all, rather than maintaining what could have been a fasinating mix of native american languages and various immigrant languages, or evolving their own separate languages from that mix. I have no time for the 'them hispanics should learn English if they want to come here' kind of nonsense either - 'free speech' should be speech in whatever language people want to use, and 'officialdom' should respond to a large numbers of speakers of any minority language in a particular region positively by adopting its use alongside English themselves!

 

Taylor Swift has learned to do an English accent recently having been to the UK so frequently of late and she was asked to pull off the trick during an interview at the largest shopping mall in Europe. The standard British accent spoken by the interviewer sounds pretty and formal and a Southern accent has folksiness that is uniquely American and personally I can do both.

[video=youtube;mnsRNqLcR4U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnsRNqLcR4U[/video]

 

So you point to one area (Texas), and apply a stereotype (which could not be further from the truth in any large Texan city, they are as homogenized as any metropolitan city now, and could not be closer to the mark in the country) and proceed to give us poor dumb Americans elocution lessons.

I take it you have never heard a Scouser... or a Glaswegian... East or worse Central Londoner?

Turn off the tube. There is a whole world outstairs.

 

My opinion is that Brits are just verbally lazy. I am not sure why they constantly choose to butch the english language. It is quite the pet peeve for us Americans who prefer to use proper english

 

That accent is certainly uniquely American, but there's plenty of fine 'folksy' accents in the UK too. They don't come much folksier than this particular archeologist:

[video=youtube;61lfmiAMC84]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61lfmiAMC84[/video]

I might be biased, but for me the best speaking voices in the world come seem to come from South Wales - there is something about the Welsh accent, when used thoughfully, that just seems to naturally lend itself to simultaneous clarity of diction and emotional expression:

[video=youtube;kF-4ynZIgs8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-4ynZIgs8[/video]

[video=youtube;lsrOXAY1arg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsrOXAY1arg[/video]

[video=youtube;PLNsPhKlucY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNsPhKlucY[/video]

I'll admit I may be biased, though.