Do some North Americans ......?

[II./JG27_Rich]

I was wondering do some Canadians and Americans really have a problem understanding Scottish and English accents? I read a review by a girl and she really liked this series as do I...BIG TIME! but lots of things were flying by her because she couldn't understand what people were saying. Just curious

 

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

Outside of the Cockney accent, English is easy enough. Scot and Irish accents from deep in the country can be difficult. Most others are not a problem. It also depends on the receivers attitude to an extent.

 

The English like to say we are a people separated by a common language

Edited November 13, 2015 by [LBS]HerrMurf

[Finkeren]

As someone who has English as second language, I don't really find the different English dialects too hard to understand. I've been traveling along the West coast of Ireland and on the Scottish isles and had no trouble understanding people, except for a single guy from Orkney, who thought I'd better understand the strange semi-Danish dialect of English that he spoke at home, but which was almost complete gibberish to me.

 

I really think that with all the global communication and intermingling of today, the very distinct dialects are heading for extinction. Here in Denmark we have some very outlandish dialects in parts of the country that are nearly unintelligible for other Danes, but few people really speak like that anymore, even among locals.

 

I imagine it's much the same elsewhere. Distinct dialects gradually fade into a mere 'accent' the less isolated people become.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Finkeren

[ACG_pezman]

I've watched that show, it's on netflix here. I had to turn on subtitles. The kids were the hardest to understand. After a bit though I started to understand it.

[unreasonable]

English speakers in the British Isles have very little left in the way of dialect - defined as different usages of grammar or vocabulary - but there is still considerable variation in accent. The most obvious one being the long "a" in Received Pronunciation (aka The Queen's English) and southern regional English in a word like "bath" (pronounced "barth") becoming a short "a" in the north of England (as in "pastel colours"). But there are also some urban accents that are pretty much incomprehensible unless you were born in the appropriate slum. Glasgow is the obvious one, but Wolverhampton in England has an accent that is every bit as bizarre. Foreigners will be unaware of this since no-one in their right mind, English or foreign, would ever willingly go to Wolverhampton.

 

For a foreigner this may sometimes be less noticeable than for a native, since the ear is less attuned to what is "normal".   

 

What I have noticed, across all accents in the UK, is a deterioration in diction and the ability to express coherent thoughts without recourse to cliche, which is another thing altogether. Mumbling and gulped speech, the dreaded glottal stop, "like", "you know", and so on. Now that white, public school educated males are the only class in the UK against which it is permissible to express violent hate speech, even the Eton educated luvvies of our film and theatre have taken up the protective colouration of the new prolespeak. This makes it much harder for anyone who does not have English as a native language to understand what they are saying, but if it stops them from being abused or attacked in the street by strangers because of the way they speak one can hardly blame them.

 

I generally find Americans easier to understand than Britons, since they usually have better diction, the only exception being those who are attempting some kind of "gansta" patois.    

[Mastermariner]

Interesting language and here is a good BBC documentary (several parts) to explain why.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsVz5U76kX0

 

Master

[C-Bag]

I have Acorn tv on the roku and we watch several series that were originally BBC shows. For some of the reasons that unreasonable mentioned we have to put on the subtitles. But there's been times where we've had to do that with American films because of bad recording and mastering techniques. There is this trend to make the dialog quieter than the background noise that's too loud and just generally bad eq'ing or maybe it has to do with compressing Dolby 5.1 surround down to stereo for tv. Dunno.

 

But it all has to do with production and the show. Some of the Acorn shows the people talk fast and mumble or swallow,their words and when you throw in a couple of slang word or expressions it gets us behind the curve and we miss whole sections of dialog. Then other shows there is no problem at all. As an American we generally love the English accent. But it's doubly hard when someone has like a mix of accents. One of the hardest for me is people from certain parts of India. It was explained to me by a linguist that the diphthongs are wrong, so even though the words are right, the emphasis is in the wrong place. If they speak slowly I can flip it around in my head. But there's been guys I've worked with that no matter how long I listen to them if they don't slow down its total and complete gibberish. Some Cajun speech is like that for me too. It's not about not being exposed to different accents, I have been my whole life. I worked around guys who could speak little or no English and we could communicate. But you start throwing in parts of different languages with mixed up diphthongs and I have no idea what they are trying to say.

[NobbyNobbs]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FFRoYhTJQQ

[unreasonable]

@Master, thanks for link, that is indeed a good documentary. They do not make them like that anymore.

 

I agree with C-Bag about the recordings: a friend recommended I watch the series "The Wire" and although I could see that the writing and acting was good it was an effort to make out the dialogue against the relentless background noise.  I watched one episode with a Californian friend of mine, and mentioned that the actor playing one of the policemen sounded more like a posh Brit playing rough than a Bostonian Irishman: (Dominic West, Old Etonian - I honestly did not know who he was - have been away a long time....)

 

Not sure if it is just dipthongs with Indians, I think part of the issue is one of stress. Although English is not tonal like Thai or Chinese, if you put the stress on the wrong syllables, or on the wrong word in a sentence, it can sound very odd indeed. Some Indians have a very sing-song accent which can be hard to follow. Peter Sellers used to have fun with that. 

[No_85_Gramps]

I think when you first start watching it can take some time to adapt to the accents. My wife and I have been watching BBC shows for years and generally we don't have any problems understanding. Broadchurch required subtitles for a few episodes until we got used to the accents. Indian Summers has not been a problem.

[Feathered_IV]

Strike a light.  Those septic tanks have got it all sixes and sevens.  Having a bath I reckon.  Tha's pukka, an no mistake.

[SharpeXB]

I get a kick out of hearing Scottish and English people try to speak with an American accent. Like Ewan McGreggor in Blackhawk Down. He's pretty good. Accents are a funny thing when you figure what a young country the USA is. By historical accounts northerners and southerners had trouble understanding one another in the mid 19c when the nation was only 100 years old.

Also George Washington almost certainly spoke with an English accent.

[unreasonable]

I get a kick out of hearing Scottish and English people try to speak with an American accent. Like Ewan McGreggor in Blackhawk Down. He's pretty good. Accents are a funny thing when you figure what a young country the USA is. By historical accounts northerners and southerners had trouble understanding one another in the mid 19c when the nation was only 100 years old.

Also George Washington almost certainly spoke with an English accent.

 

Damien Lewis seemed pretty good at that to me - he has certainly had enough practice - but an American might hear something odd. I thought all the BoB cast were convincing, half of them were British.

 

But the actors all have dialect coaches these days - I certainly cannot do American. I can do New Zealand, but that is easy as they only have one vowel.

[Feathered_IV]

Damien Lewis does a pretty good job. I recall when Band of Brothers was out, there was a conversation at Ubizoo regarding his portrayal of Dick Winters. A couple of American members expressed their pride in Lewis as such a fine example of their country's manhood. I guess he was pretty authentic then.

[C-Bag]

My favorite movie for language WTF's is Snatch, especially with Brad Pitt. It takes away from the confusion to have it subtitled.

 

 

There's another scene where they pick up this guy off the streets and I have no idea what the accent is but with Pitt when I saw the flic a couple of times I could make out enough to figure out what he was saying. Have no clue with the other bloke.

 

I also had a hell of a time with The Wire. I think it's worth noting one of the lead dealers is English and I didn't know it until I saw him in a BBC series.

 

I also didn't know Damien Lewis was English but there were moments that I wondered if he had a speech impediment and had therapy or coaching. It was a little like in Mrs. Doubtfire and Pierce Brosnan was trying to figure out where he/she was from

[SharpeXB]

Oh yeah Damien Lewis sounds like a native. Really good.

[kestrel79]

When I read this thread this is the first thing that popped in my head haha

 

 

Edited November 16, 2015 by kestrel79

[II./JG27_Rich]

It's funny I've never had any problem. It's probably because I've been watching English movies ever since I can remember. The Carry On movies were a big hit with me when I was small. I also watched Please Sir, The Avengers...the 1960s series The Saint with Roger Moore and others. There were actually quite a few good English shows on when I was a kid. I always liked them...Now I'm shooting them down LOL

Edited November 17, 2015 by II./JG27_Rich

[Y-29.Silky]

As a Minnesotan 98% of it you'll understand English/Scottish accents as your everyday English, but every now and then, there'll be a word or two in there where it's like "What???" Same goes for many accents in North America. Lived in the South for a couple years and people sometimes couldn't understand me because I talked too fast or just used slang they never heard of, sometimes I couldn't understand them because they mumbled like they were speaking cursive. All in all, nothing is a game breaker.  On the other hand...

 

Here's a challenge, try understanding this English...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF7Q3ROyWW8

Edited November 19, 2015 by Y-29.Silky

[Chuck_Owl]

I don't have a lot of difficulties understanding Scottish, Irish, British, Australian or American accents. Of course, there are a couple of idioms and colloquialisms that I won't catch right away... but to me that's the charm with different accents. I grew up surrounded by all types of english-speaking folks so I got acquainted early on to many flavours of english.

 

We have a similar thing in french as well. French from France and french from Quebec are the same tongues on paper but many people from France can't understand a word we're saying. Strangely, most quebecois can understand the "France" accent quite easily. Quebecois speak an older form of french (which dates back to the 17th-18th century) which has been partially transformed into frenglish due to our fellow canadian and american neighbors. The two branches of french evolved differently and sometimes the barrier between accents can be a difficult one to overcome, especially if you throw everyday slang into the mix.

[sop]

No one can understand Scottish just a known fact , they sound funny though so that makes up for it

[MiloMorai]

Back in high school Chuck some of us went to Quebec City for the Winter Carnival. We used the Parisienne (SP??) French we were being taught in school. Big mistake.

[DD_Arthur]

No one can understand Scottish just a known fact , they sound funny though so that makes up for it

 

Amen!

 

[Chuck_Owl]

Back in high school Chuck some of us went to Quebec City for the Winter Carnival. We used the Parisienne (SP??) French we were being taught in school. Big mistake.

 

A classic. :D

[Mastermariner]

 

Some words are not logic but learned.

 

Master  

[LizLemon]

There are some really odd accents in the us

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZgw09CG9E

[Y-29.Silky]

We have a similar thing in french as well. French from France and french from Quebec 

Is Louisiana Cajun different from your French and French? @30 seconds.

 

Edited December 1, 2015 by Y-29.Silky

[C-Bag]

^THIS^ is exactly what I was talking about! I can't wait to see if Chuck understands this ok. Went to a party one time and the host had invited the crew he was working with. They were all Cajun pipe fitters. Really nice people and could understand us it seemed just fine but just like the guy in this video I could only 1 in 30 or 40 words. It helped when he was pointing at the ingredients but even then...wow.

[Chuck_Owl]

I can understand quite easily what this gentleman says (but he mumbles a lot), but that's because I grew up with people with a very thick regional accent and slang. His accent is probably closer to the francophones from Acadie (New Brunswick area). Folks from "Cadie", "Acadie" or "Cajun" (sometimes pronounced "cadjun") originally were from the Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia) where the first french colonies settled. After the conquest of Quebec (known as New France or Nouvelle-France at that time), many Acadiens were deported by force in Louisiana and other corners of the british colonies. 

 

But yeah, I can understand him fine. I have many friends from New Brunswick who speak a bit like that. My grandfather had an even thicker accent though, which I also caught and sometimes "slips away" when I get carried away in animated conversations.

Edited December 3, 2015 by Chuck_Owl