Accents

[Carol the Dabbler]

What is "phonetically correct" English, anyhow -- considering all the different languages we've borrowed words from?  And there are so many different pronunciations of even very plain, simple words that trying to determine what's truly "phonetic" is asking for a battle!

 

[Meyers]

Toronto: "go park yore car in the yard eh"?

 

Boston: " go paak the caa in tha yad.

 

 

Meyers

[Pawse]

Robert Downey Jr did quite a good job of doing an English accent.

[by the sea]

What is "phonetically correct" English, anyhow -- considering all the different languages we've borrowed words from?  And there are so many different pronunciations of even very plain, simple words that trying to determine what's truly "phonetic" is asking for a battle!

 

Whew !  Just digging out from the latest blizzard.  Spent 3 hours shoveling this morning.  I have 2 driveways (what was I thinking ??  ) and my garage driveway has totally disappeared and, of course, my snowblower is in the garage !  Left the car outside in the other driveway just to be sure but had to shovel for 3 hours to set it free.  What a wonderful winter !!  

 

Anyway, I think my Swedish friend meant that I sounded more like him than any other native English-speaker he had met.  Interestingly enough, he actually did sound like me and vice versa ... his English not having the sort of British accent you hear from lots of Europeans ... the basic sound was quite similar.  He'd "perfected" his English watching TV !  I watch a lot myself.  

 

Debbie

[Carol the Dabbler]

Ah, yes, I see what you mean.  I'm guessing that he had watched mostly American tv and movies, and meant that you sound more like them than English-speaking European (or British) people typically do.  And I assume that's true.

 

I don't really see how that equates to phonetic correctness, though.  It's just another accent.