Why do some Americanisms irritate people? 9

[1DMF]

Britain was defeated in South Africa due to the Boar wars and Zulu uprising, where originaly Gandhi fought for the British, however disgusted by the British and their treatment of the 'lower classes', he then went on (after many times in prison) to lead India to independence!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

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[djj55]

Ben brought up Jamaican English. When I as in high school we had a student English teacher that was from Jamaica. Took us a couple of weeks to get understand "Queens" English. Hey we were a bunch of mid west farm kids.

djj
The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23) - I need someone to lead me!

 

[hjgoldstein]

==>Boar wars

Is that something to do with the pig meat industry?

And anyway, how can you have farmed wild boar?

Do I discern the beginnings of a Boer Boar Bore?

It is time for pacifists to stand up and fight for their beliefs.

 

[N1GHTEYES]

At university, in our first-year "Vectors, Fields & Relativity" course (many, many years ago now), we had an Indian lecturer. He not only had an exceptionally strong Indian accent, but seemed to prefer to mostly eschew vowels. There were two very recognisable, but incomprehensible, phrases he used all the time. As well as I can render them, they sounded something like:

crunkdelt fungsh and curwlnyuh cwdnts.

It was a good two or three weeks into the course before one of us finally deciphered these utterances:

Kroneker Delta Functions and Curvi-Linear Coordinates.

After that, most accents seemed easy...

Tony

 

[Noway2]

it's not until a few sentences that the clearly USA accent comes through

The last time I visited England, I was waiting at the train station for the train bound for London. They had just announced the train going to Liverpool, which was in the opposite direction. A man from India asks me if this was the train to London, and I told him no. As soon as I spoke, his eyes went wide, he dropped to his knees, held his hands up in the air and said, "Thank God, I finally found someone I can talk to. I just can't understand these people's accent!"

I have often times wondered if the different US accents or dialects, e.g. Southern US, cause particular difficulty.

 

[1DMF]

- haven't you heard of the great pig wars of 1902?



"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

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[flapeyre]

Ever seen two wild hogs fight? Now THAT'S a "Boar War".

-- Francis
The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to the office.
--Robert Frost

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> haven't you heard of the great pig wars of 1902?
Didn't they make a movie about that starring Kevin Bacon?


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[1DMF]

With co-star James Gammon (RIP)

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

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[N1GHTEYES]

I always thought Kevin Bacon was a bit of a ham.

Tony

 

[strongm]

>Britain was defeated in South Africa due to the Boar wars and Zulu uprising

An entirely different point and again not entirely accurate. South Africa, in the shape of the Union of South Africa (itself a unification of the Transvaaal, Orange Free State, Natal and the Cape of Good Hope that probably could not have happened without the British victory in the Boer War), remained initially a dominion of the British Empire and later a member of the British Commonwealth right up until 1961. Hardly a picture of defeat ...

>Gandhi fought for the British

He didn't fight for them (although he did technically support the British war effort). He was a volunteer stretcher bearer.

 

[BadBigBen]

Indian accented English, wow what an earful, I still have problems today trying to discern what some of the engineers (one of our customers) try to tell me at times...

Cajun,

oh my, how can you forget the heroine of that movie...

Ms. Piggy

and Oh, how are those crawdads down on the Bajou these days?

I found that the Acadian (Cajun) English of New Orleans, is quite pleasing to the ears, like a sing-song, but sometimes never knew what they where talking about...

now how about that Texan drawl, I'm quite sure that to a Brit could be hard to understand...

"I cud git a par of plahrs and cut some war with the war cuttin' plahrs," - LBJ, former President...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
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[MCuthill]

1DMF,

==>And don't forget half of Can(a)da speak French!
As a Canuck, I am thinking this statistic a bit high. Perhaps in Canada as a whole (really not sure), but would vary hugely by region. I took it right through high school and though perhaps I could get by, I certainly wouldn't state bilingualism as a skill on my resume! *chuckles*

I read an article the other day about recent immigrants to Canada being confused when very few of the people they met could speak both lanuages. (granted, I beleive the article spoke of immigrants who have settled in the West and I think specifically Calgary). Seems since we have two "official" languages, people think us linguists! heh heh most of us barely speak one.

National Post Article

Cheers!

Mike
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[N1GHTEYES]

Perhaps surprisingly Ben, as a Brit, I tend to find very few problems with most American accents, no matter how outlandish. My wife is from the US - specifically Maryland. The old local accent around there can be a bit thick (as in the MR Ducks spiel), particulary around Crisfield & Smith Island, but generally I've never had a problem.

On the other hand, at our wedding, way back in the mists of ancient time, her folks were hilariously confused & befuddled by the Lancastrian accent of some members of my family.

I guess the difference is that we are exposed to American accents all the time on TV, but I don't suppose you guys hear too many instances of dialects from "oop north".

Tony

 

[flapeyre]

Canadian English isn't too different than American English, accent-wise. I used to have a book (can't find it since the hurricane) that quoted a banker from Buffalo, NY:

I know when I'm in Canada. It's just that I can't prove it.

The main differences, the author said, are the rise in inflection at the end of a sentence, which comes across as "eh?", and the pronunciation of a long "o" as "oo" ("going oot and aboot").

-- Francis
The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to the office.
--Robert Frost

 

[1DMF]

He didn't fight for them (although he did technically support the British war effort). He was a volunteer stretcher bearer.

Strongm , You're telling me that on a battle field the medics don't carry weapons and aren't trained as soldiers? You would walk onto a raging battle field with thousands of Zulu's atacking you with no means of defending yourself?

The British won in South Africa as much as the USA won the war of independence!

But then again, we did used to send little boys out with a flag , to stand in the middle of the battle field to mark the range the riffles could fire!

I guess we are all glad we didn't live through those times i'm sure!

MCuthill-> perhaps half might be too high , i wasn't aiming to count them ;-) - I know what you mean though, I am English, yet I strugle with it

Flapeyre -> It seems the Ozzies have that inflection too, everything sounds like it's a question?

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

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[flapeyre]

Another quote from my book:

Two Australians can be conversing in English, and no other English speakers will be able to understand what they're saying.

He also told the story of an Enzed (New Zealder) in Los Angeles, who wanted to fly to Oakland, California, but, because of his accent, he was repeatedly referred to a flight to Aukland.

-- Francis
The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to the office.
--Robert Frost

 

[strongm]

>on a battle field the medics don't carry weapons and aren't trained as soldiers?

Army (in this case British army) medics, sure. Ghandi was not one of those. He was a non-combatant stretcher bearer, a member of the unarmed volunteer Indian Ambulance Corps that he had been instrumental in creating (and which was originally not intended to operate under fire). And he certainly never went anywhere near rampaging Zulus.

>The British won in South Africa as much as the USA won the war of independence!

<sigh>

 

[1DMF]

I guess I got the wrong impression when visiting the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi!

"In complete darkness we are all the same, only our knowledge and wisdom separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"

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[Noway2]

This is going off topic, but this discussion reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:

Two Canadians sit down in a bar in Australia. A local, recognizing them as foreigners, comes up to them and says, "G'Day mate, where are you from?" In response the Canadians reply, "Saskatoon Saskatchewan." The Australian gives them a puzzled look and again asks them where they are from and gets the same reply. Not understanding their answer, he asks a third time and yet again receives the same reply. At this point, the Australian goes and sits back down with his friends who ask where the foreigners are from, to which he replies, "I don't know. They don't speak English."