Job Discussion Forums

dduck · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 422 Location: In the middle

whit ye rambling aboot mon?

Iain

Capergirl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 12:12 am Post subject:

I was listening to Prime Minister Blair today and found his accent to be very easy to understand and very 'quaint'. I thought to myself, "This must be what they mean by posh!" Very Happy

fromCanada · Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 48 Location: Ontario

I'm from Ontario, Canada and my accent is often confused as being American...except when I say words like "house" and "out and about." The Americans always find my "o"'s hilarious! That is, if they don't think I'm one of them first! Rolling Eyes

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I'm from Vancouver. I've been told by my Indonesian students that my accent and speech patterns are (much) easier to understand than those of my English, Irish, and Australian co-workers.

Sounds good - but then out of curiosity when I've asked my students to try and imitate my accent, they produce a drawl like a cowboy from a bad Western movie. Rolling Eyes

dduck · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 422 Location: In the middle

mjed9 · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 242

The second most depressing part of accents is the students who believe they need to be speak with a North American accent as they consider that in some way this will be of greater benefit.

The most depressing part of accents is the students that I occasionally come across who believe that English is an American language at which point I have to start the whole British Imperialism re-education segment of the class.

Capergirl · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2003 12:01 pm Post subject:

dduck · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 422 Location: In the middle

Yes, it's true. But his accent isn't Neutral

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

nomadder · Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:47 am Post subject:

Dyak: The Americans must love the English about now. War pals.
Canadians like you too. There was a time when we wanted to join up with you last century. There have been Canadians who sometimes come back to Canada from England with a (fake) British accent-sometimes after even a few months. Japanese love all things English. You can't be doing too badly considering tourism in London.

Speaking of England. Which accents are in and which are out? Don't those from Newcastle(among others) get a bad rap though I still can't figure out why. I can usually identify if an accent is north or south but what's considered good or bad I don't know. In Canada Capers and Newfoundlanders are usually the accent that about equals American south though not everyone has the accent of their assigned geographic locations as Capergirl said. I've met many a Texan, etc. with no southern accent. I wonder if this is because not every place has it or people get rid of it. I'm sure accent changing happens everywhere.

I think people abroad for awhile can get a different accent. In Japan people tended to get CNNish with a few British expressions and the odd Japanese word thrown in. Like kids brought up bilingual they use whatever feels right. Who cares who started it.

Me-I sound run of the mill North American except like a previous poster said about ou. House would be more hoese than howse. Not huse as some Americans tend to think we say.

bullitt · Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 49 Location: Shanghai

Mike_2003 · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 344 Location: Bucharest, Romania

I've heard the same story many times concerning posh. Here's what I found on the net:

There are several suggestions for the origin of posh. The best known derives it from an acronym associated with the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company. It supposedly stood for �Port Out, Starboard Home�. The Company is said to have marked the tickets of higher status passengers with this so that they were put in cabins on the side of the ship that got the benefit of the cooling sea breezes on the outward and return journeys from Britain to India.
The trouble is there�s absolutely no evidence for it and P&O flatly denies any such term existed. It�s just an urban legend, though rather a persistent one. Other suggestions, rather more probable, are that it is an abbreviated form of polished or polish (an example of what�s called grammatical syncopation, where a middle syllable has been left out), or that posh originally meant �halfpenny� (from the Romany posh �half�) and then developed into �money� before acquiring its present meaning. Or it may come from the slang pot (�big�, hence a person of some importance).

This is from a site called World Wide Words: http://www.quinion.com/words/index.htm, well worth a few minutes browsing.

Mike

bullitt · Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 49 Location: Shanghai

hmm, thanks for the correction...That site looks pretty interesting too..

Bullitt

Slim Pickens · Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 299