[General] Accent Related

[Eden Darien]

Originally Posted by Raymott

This called accomodation in linguistics. You accomodate your accent to your conversational partner. It works with grammar and vocabulary, etc. as well.

Indeed.. Just for some extra info.

In Communication, Accommodation Theory is a process by which people change their language behaviour to be more or less the people with whom they are interacting.

[bhaisahab]

Originally Posted by jackolantern

As others have said, there is no neutral accent. There are basically two major categories of accents, broken down into many different varieties. British English is one, and American English is the other. In British English, the largest variations are Scottish, Irish, England proper and Australian. They all share more of a soft, flowing pronunciation. There are many different regional dialects and accents through each of those. American English does not really have any related country accents, outside of Canada and countries that speak American English but have accents from their other native languages. American English can sound harder, with more defined "cuts" between letters.

Typically, with American English, the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington, etc.) is seen as having a "neutral accent". This is fortunate for people learning English, because almost all actors in Hollywood movies have a neutral American English accent, unless the movie calls for a different accent (such as Southern, Northeast or Mid-west). You could try watching some movies and working on imitating how they speak. Just be sure that they are speaking how you are accustomed (from language learning CDs, class, etc.), or they could be speaking with a regional accent. But most will be neutral. That is, of course, if you want to try to cultivate an American accent.

Irish people, especially in the Republic, would be very upset to hear their accent described as British.

[jackolantern]

Originally Posted by bhaisahab

Irish people, especially in the Republic, would be very upset to hear their accent described as British.

Haha! Of course it is not a British accent. But it is much closer to British than American. This is, of course, not a scientific way of grouping them, but only a very basic way of either "soft, flowing pronunciation" on the European side, or "hard, choppy pronunciation" on the American side.

And as for the Republic, I would not dare say that over there -looks over shoulder-

[Eden Darien]

Hahaha... so that's why I think to classified English into two categories is not enough..

Nowadays, the language have been spread all over the world. We can see that there are a lots of Englishes in this world. These are varieties and should be accepted as a uniqueness not as mistakes.

But sometimes it makes me sad by hearing people especially (non-native speakers) whom think that English besides America and Britain are all wrong... Em, especially those accents related matters... Sad eh...

[Hortence]

Originally Posted by Eden Darien

Hahaha... so that's why I think to classified English into two categories is not enough..

Nowadays, the language have been spread all over the world. We can see that there are a lots of Englishes in this world. These are varieties and should be accepted as a uniqueness not as mistakes.

But sometimes it makes me sad by hearing people especially (non-native speakers) whom think that English besides America and Britain are all wrong... Em, especially those accents related matters... Sad eh...

I strongly agree! I think that all accents are charming.

[Eden Darien]

I know, the perspectives are sort of biased! But there's nothing we can do unless we have/obtain certain qualifications or something similar to that. It's hard to change people views.

Sometimes it's ridiculous when others try to judge your English merely based on your nationality... Sad eh...