Job Discussion Forums

sheeba · Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 1123

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/

I came accross this site today and thought it may be of interest to any who are researching UK dialects or have an interest in dialects in the UK.

I find it quite warming to listen to some warming dialects from Northamptonshire, Wales,Glasgow and the North of the Uk whilst also listening to those ranting 'cor blimey guvner' in Hackney.

There is also information for linguists about the dialects. I find it useful to read this as I listen. It points out pronunciation(Leeds -play in t'road) and grammar differences(for example the Leeds 'it were lovely')

sheeba · Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 1123

And don't some of the accents from the 50's sound just the same as many today? I think so!

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

A Glaswegian accent warming????? Wink

A study of Language by George Yule(Cambridge) is a good read.

sheeba · Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 1123

Yeah I quite like the Glasweigen accent. Maybe I'm strange.

I'm quite liking this Middlesbrough recording too. Bit of character. RP sucks.

I'll look out for Yule. Cheers.

Trudgill is OK but he misses a lot in 'International English'

jwbhomer · Joined: 14 Dec 2003 Posts: 876 Location: CANADA

If only there were some surgical procedure which could cure the glottal stop.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:47 pm Post subject:

Wha' are ya trayin t' saiy?

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

I think sometimes people from outside the UK think our accents are all homogenous. I once phoned my electricity company's call centre and couldn't understand the operative. Not Bangalore but Liverpool, and I really struggled to understand the guy. As an ESOL teacher I thought I was used to understanding mangled English, but this was far worst than anything in class!

My accent's a bit neutral as I grew up abroad, but a bit of 'Ampshire can come out in the right circumstances. I sometimes introduce a bit of Brum, or northern vowels into classes just to keep students on their toes. They get too much in their comfort zone if they just hear one teacher's accent, in spite of the improvement and variety in available recordings these days.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Interesting site. Thanx for the info.

11:59 · Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:27 pm Post subject:

It's interesting to note that for the US release version of Trainspotting, Robert Carlyle's monologue for the (in)famous 'And after that, the game was mine' pub scene (see URL below) was re-dubbed with Carlyle speaking much more slowly, with clearer pronunciation, and with fewer UK (or perhaps, Scots, or even Glaswegian) specific colloquialisms. The following is the original UK version, and what is funny is that even though my Dutch, German, Swedish, Finnish, and Icelandic friends can understand it, very few Yanks appear able to do so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0wRRiMZEEQ

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:30 pm Post subject:

I'm a yank, and didn't find trainspotting hard to understand....

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

sheeba · Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 1123

Americans I know have problems understanding many English dialects except their own.

I think The Long way home is right that us Brits are used to more varieties so cope perhaps better as communicators with other English dialects. Considering our terrible language skills it's at least nice to see we have some linguistic dialect skills

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

I find the various UK accents (much less dialects) very difficult to understand, mostly the city dialect. When I was in the small towns (mostly around Oxford) I had no problems. But here in China, the college grads from the cities ( I won't be specific), can't understand a word.

Don't know why, but I find this to be very age related. Older teachers here from Scotland, etc, I have had no problem understanding (older, 30 y/o or more, vs 20 something) Any ideas why?

I do remember years ago, in the Guardian, a statement from Whitehall saying foreign students ought not to study at Glasgow? or Edinborough because the English was so at the colleges there

william wallace · Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 2869 Location: in between

I'd love to have such astute students- they (Beijingnese, as in Beijing residents, temp or what have you) still get tricked by L1 and L2 teachers......Yuck! Rolling Eyes

P.S.I've read up so much on linguistics,grammar,psychology of language acquisition ....I'd love to be challenged. Maybe that lack of a sense of challenge is indicative of China ? Asia ? Global ?