> From: "Bill Bonde { No matter what happens, it's caused by global warming )"
>
> Organization: Our legacy is not the lives we lived but the lives we leave to
> those who come after us.
> Newsgroups: alt.activism.death-penalty,soc.retirement,rec.travel.europe
> Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:05:22 +0000
> Subject: Re: THE WAR IN LYON
>
>
>
> Donna Evleth wrote:
>>
>>> From: satan@notinnedmeatdodo.com.au (Mr Q. Z. Diablo)
>>> Organization: Unlimited download news at news.astraweb.com
>>> Newsgroups: alt.activism.death-penalty,soc.retirement,rec.travel.europe
>>> Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:15:31 +1100
>>> Subject: Re: THE WAR IN LYON
>>>
>>> Donna Evleth wrote:
>>>
>>>>> I'm sceptical. Can you hear differences in the accent of Russians
>>>>> and Bulgarians speaking English? Maybe. But those are different
>>>>> languages. What you are saying is that you can hear the difference
>>>>> between people whose language is a specific English dialect. And
>>>>> then divide it between American and British even though American
>>>>> and British might be less different in some cases than American and
>>>>> American or British and British. It's certainly an entertaining
>>>>> thing to discuss.
>>>>
>>>> No, I cannot hear differences in the accents of Russians and Bulgarians
>>>> because I do not know either of those languages.
>>>
>>> I can most definitely hear the differences in the accents of Russians
>>> and Ukranians speaking English. It is not a big ask. I don't speak
>>> Russian at all, either.
>>>
>>>> It has to be a language I
>>>> know, and even then it has to be a dialect of that language I am
>>>> particularly familiar with. American English, preferably without a
>>>> regional
>>>> accent such as Southern or Texan, and British English are the only ones I
>>>> can do this with.
>>>
>>> Accents in the English language are incredibly fascinating to me. My
>>> wife speaks North American English with Canadian Raising (the "aboot"
>>> thing that South Park makes a great deal of fuss about). I speak
>>> English with a neutral, middle class Tasmanian accent (which is often
>>> considered by the grossly uneducated to be an "English accent").
>>> Desmond speaks English with a Scots accent which is somewhere between
>>> Glasgow, Edinburgh and nowhere in paritcular, John Rennie sounds a lot
>>> more Gine Counties than he ought, Andrew (Cerby) is middle class,
>>> neutral Melbourne, Mr Haley (long since departed the group) speaks in an
>>> utterly neutral Northern Californian accent and so on and so forth.
>>>
>>> I love it all. I love the fact that Australia and most of New Zealand
>>> has/have non-rhotic accents. I adore the NYC non-rhotic, sneery,
>>> barking noise. English is one of the few languages that I speak
>>> fluently (I can claim Japanese as a second but that is shaky at best)
>>> and I embrace all of its variants. I also pride myself that I can
>>> usually tell where people come from based on the noise that they make.
>>>
>>> I would bet dollars to doughnuts that both you and Earl have pleasantly
>>> neutral Californian accents.
>>
>> Other Americans have often thought that I have a Midwestern accent. Iowa
>> seems to be the state most often picked. I have ridden through Iowa on the
>> train. That's all. However, my parents were both from the Midwest,
>> Illinois, and Earl's parents were, too, Minnesota in the case of his father,
>> South Dakota in the case of his mother. I am never too pleased when I am
>> stuck with the Midwest label, since it's the region of the US I like the
>> least. The country is all too often flat and boring, the food is usually
>> terrible, bland and overcooked.
>>
> "General American" is speech from that area although without some
> of the possible tell tale features. What merges do you have? How
> about caught/cot? Same? I suspect they won't be for you if only
> because you say that you are older.
I am older (73), and you're right, I don't have the caught/cot merge.
>
>
>
>
>> In fact, when we were growing up (1930s and 1940s) there was no real
>> Californian accent yet.
>>
> I always took you for sounding like a Valley Girl, like fur shure.
The Valley (San Fernando Valley) was all ranches in those days, small
population. There were no Valley Girls. And I never lived in the Valley.
>
>
>> There weren't enough real Californians. Most
>> people already came from somewhere else. You accent tended to be that of
>> where else it was they came from.
>>
> Do you have the picture/pitcher merger?
No.
Donna Evleth
>
>
>
> --
> "Oh, I'm broke."
> "Take another mortgage, don't give in."
> "I thought you were broke. Where did you get all that money from?"
> "Don't question me."
> "Where did you get it?"
> "I borrowed it from the bank."
> "Well, you can't do that, that's cheating."
> "Listen you little stoat, I own Park Lane, I can borrow as much
> bloody money as I like."
> ~Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, "Absolutely Fabulous"
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