OT And we call all of this English?

[rob101]

Even if you Aussies speak "normal" English, you still have all that slang.

i didn't mean we speak "normal" english i meant that those other clips were more representative of "normal" Australian English. and yes we do have slang.

[Javier]

I know english is not the official language, but they select a Caracas guy that hardly speak any english. And for Maracaibo, it is a guy influenced by its Canada residence, wile must of the english influence in Venezuela is from USA.

If I make this finding extensive to every other region, this work is a nonsense.

Javier

[Gayle]

The website says they (the linguistics department at George Mason University) welcome comments on these English samples. Those of you who think the samples are not representative should tell them because this stuff is being used for scholarly research.

[rob101]

The website says they (the linguistics department at George Mason University) welcome comments on these English samples. Those of you who think the samples are not representative should tell them because this stuff is being used for scholarly research.

lol i am not going to do their job for them, its departments like this that got crap loads of funding whilst departments in my university that provided graduates for the core industries that keep australia ticking over (mining resources engineering) could barely keep their heads above water.
call me bitter but i don't really care too much to help intellectuals in these fields

[Javier]

funny finding.

Javier

[GJPinAU]

He actually says Wednesday! When it should be Wensdee
And you get slabs of meet or a slab of beer.

[Zeuk in Oz]

Aussies--enlighten us. What's the deal with your regional speech patterns?

As a "wog" migrant ( ) for whom English is his second language, may I add my 2c.

I think, Gayle, that there is much less variation between regions in Oz than you might imagine, with the noticeable exception that your older "bushie" ( bushman = stockman or farm worker ) might in some cases talk a little like the Sydney person on that site.

To my ears, the Perth and Brisbane accents on that site were very close to what I hear every day, and the Darwin accent not too far away. The Sydney accent is probably what we sounded like 80-100 years ago before the Kiwis affected our speech patterns.

As said, the speech patterns don't vary much across the country with the noticeable exception of the short vowel sound which has really become prominent over the past 20 years and is considered to have originated from NZ and Melbourne. Here in Sydney we used to say dance with a long vowel sound on the "a", but the shorter vowel sound on the "a", a more British or posh or cultured pronunciation, has now become popular.

Otherwise someone's vocabulary is more likely to give them away as to their origins.
For example :
A "suitcase" or bag for most Aussies is called a "port" in northern NSW and some parts of Queensland.
To give someone a lift on a pushbike is a "dink" everywhere except Sydney where it is a "double".
"Devon" is a popular processed sausage meat on school lunches almost everywhere except South Australia (especially Adelaide) where it is called "fritz" and I think it is called "belgium" in Tasmania.
In South Australia they have an unique name for what are called telegraph or power poles everywhere else : "stobie pole".
You can also give yourself away by whether you go swimming in "cossies", "swimmers", "togs" or "trunks".

Gayle, I would suggest that you take up the challenge as roving historian, archivist and international delegate and make the trip to Terrigal in June to hear us speak in person. We'll pick you up from the airport and put you up during your stay ! Should Paul or any of the other Kiwis show then that would give you a real comparison.

Serously though, perhaps we should all post recordings of us reading a prepared passage - that might really be a laugh !

It would be even funnier if we chose half a dozen languages and we had a go at all of them !

[rob101]

"Devon" is a popular processed sausage meat on school lunches

devon a popular processed sausage? not lately, at least not in the CBD in a deli i worked at when i was at uni, people were more likely to get mortadella than that crap.

don't forget queenslanders putting "ay?" on the ends of sentences. and you new south welshman calling a schooner a "middie" (glasses of beer for those who don't know)
there are also interesting things like my parents sometimes called lunch: dinner and dinner: tea as they do in parts of england.

[Nick.Hay]

Great find Gayle!!!

Its pretty all the different accents...

I laughed listening to the guy from northern Ireland... Its gold!!

[Bruce Kennett]

interesting stuff . . .

the arkansas sample certainly sounds colorful. i tried the new england ones (i'm in rural new hampshire), and they seemed much paler/more neutral/less colorful than a lot of what i hear from many of my neighbors around here. i wonder how they picked the particular people they recorded? although you might think that "yankee humor" records exaggerate the accents of new englanders, i certainly hear it that same way, plenty thick and undiluted, from some of the locals.

back in the late 70s i lived in linz, austria for a year while i was studying book design at an art school. this is a big industrial city up in the north of the country. we had several hundred students from all over austria, a handful from switzerland, and just me and a guy from zaire as more far-flung students. i can remember vividly one day seeing two students trying to have a conversation in their local dialects. these guys were both austrians, mind you! one was from vorarlberg (high alps, in extreme west of country, with ski resorts like st anton) and the other from burgenland (southeast part of country, next to hungary) and they were unable to communicate via their normal dialects. they had to speak in hoch deutsch because there were so few words in common otherwise.

bruce

1992 525iT
1976 Citroen HY-IN2 H-van pickup
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