Thread: Now That was a Bit of a Laugh

Quite by accident while cruising around on you tube, I discovered that there seems to be an infatuation (particularly amongst young Brits) with the "American" accent. It was rather amusing watching them run through this muddled mess of California Valley Girl, New York Piason, and some of the most painful "southern" English (which they dubbed "Redneck"). Seeing all this, a few things came to mind.

1. Having spent a bit of time in the UK, I must admit the British accent sounds very precise, careful, polite and gentile. Unlike American English, British English seems much more formal, (Cockney dialect notwithstanding). In Cambridge one evening I struck up a conversation with a college kid at a pub. He said, I sounded like Andy Griffith and invited his mates over to marvel at my Mayberry accent. They all had a good laugh and seemed very entertained. I think I even heard the term "bloody colonial" bandied about.

2. I was quite intrigued by the term "American" accent. Truth is, there's only a small percentage of us who speak the non-regional American English that would be anywhere close to being the generic "American" accent. Speakers of this non-regional American English are generally, but not always, midwesterners. I've heard it spoken in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois but I've also heard folks from Ohio and Indiana with an almost Applachian or Kentucky twang as well. Folks from Chicago, certainly have a distinct accent as do Wisconsans, Minnesotans and some folks from Pennsylvania. The non-regional dialect can also be found out west in places like Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho.

3. Nearly as intriguing as the term "American" accent, is one that many of my own countrymen use, "Southern" accent. The question again becomes, which Southern accent? West Virginia sounds different than Texas, the Carolinas different than Florida, Georgia, Alabama or Mississippi, etc. The Cajun accent is of course a horse of a completely different color. Where the British kid got Andy Griffith is beyond me, no Carolina dialect here. It was likely the most pronounced "Southern" accent he had ever heard so (for him at least) it was an easy comparison.

4. For even more linguistic fun, there's this odd use of the term Redneck to describe their strained attempt at a southern accent. The term has never really had anything to do with either language or geography. Originally, redneck was used to describe rural farm folks. They worked in the fields a lot and typically had sunburned necks (see also, farmer tan.) Today, for some reason, the term is very closely associated with the southern U.S. but in the broader sense it's typically someone (male or female) with (in the words of Jeff Foxworthy) "a glorious lack of sophistication." Using this definition, any American will tell you that Rednecks are just as common in Minnesota or even Canada, as they are in Mississippi. In fact, I'll bet a dime to a donut that there's even a few British rednecks.
Good Night Fellas!

Ha ha, there are definately British rednecks. There are rednecks everywhere in my opinion. There certainly were where I grew up in Canada. Nothing wrong with that either.

Having lived in England for the last 13 years I haven't noticed any infatuation with American accents myself. There are obviously many local accents and dialects here as you know. Newcastle 'Geordies' sound very different from Scottish people not at all far away. The Geordies sound very different to the Brummies, the Brummies sound different to Londoners, the cockney Londoners sound different to people from Cornwall and Somerset and so on. Even where I live there's a distinct accent that doesn't fit with anything else, 20 miles up the road in Corby people have thick Scottish accents even though thesedays most of them were born in Corby not Scotland. A bun is a roll in Northampton, it's a cob where my wife comes from, it's a bap in some places and anywhere you go you'll get funny looks when you ask for the wrong one. That's what keeps it interesting to me.

I love hearing the Northampton accent or any accent for that matter. People here say Ta da instead of good bye, 'Me duck' and 'sausage' is an affectionate name to call people. The sad thing is it's more and more the older people you hear with broad accents thesedays. Younger people are adapting a more universal accent thesedays, it's a more street sound than traditional I'd say. An 18 year old from London won't sound that different to an 18 year old in Northampton now as they tend to generally use the same slang. Words like 'innit' and saying 'yeah' a lot for no reason similar to valley girls saying 'like' and 'whatever'. It's more an Ali G approach to language here thesedays, even my 7 year old lad is sounding more street each day due to hearing his mates at school. Shame really as I enjoy all the diversity here when it comes to accents.

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