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| kr00t0n |
I so pissed myself when I first got into this country.
I found that South Africans (english ones, not afrikaans) spoke clearer and more fluent english than londoners.
Watching Eastenders and hearing ppl say 'Nuffink' had me in stitches :stongue:
The thing is, my mom is from Yorkshire, she went to SA when she was 15 and hardly has any accent, so I got an ancestral visa, but SA's dont think I sound very SA and UK ppl dont think I sound very UK.
LOL! |
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| ChrisT |
| quote: | Originally posted by evil_bastard
The UK has an incredible amount of accent variation. Look at the size of us compared to somewhere like North America, and we easily have more accents/dialects. The reason is probably because we have had thousands of years to form this language of ours, and in that time we have formed many individual eccentricities in our language which in some parts of the UK vary from town to town. The Americans on the other hand were all Europeans who flocked to the states and needed to adopt a common language, so they used English. Since then, they've had barely a couple of hundred years to establish variations. Sure Texans and New Yorkers might sound different, but I've never met an American I can't understand, and those places are like a thousand miles apart! I've met Scousers, Glaswegians, Cockneys, and even people from my own area (Geordies) that I don't understand! And they are all only a few hours drive away at the most.
Just like you, I can't understand cockney rhyming slang either. If someone asked me for the Duke of Kent, I'd be like WTF? Yet according to goldenarmZ' link it means "rent". You have to be a cockney to understand that basically. If you watch the movie "lock stock and two smoking barrels" (a great British film, I recommend it as one of my all-time favourites) they use subtitles for the dialogue in an East London pub because it's impossible to understand :D
I'm quite used to toning down my accent quite considerably, because I simply wouldn't survive in London let alone abroad if I spoke to everyone in thick geordie dialect. I learnt this the hard way on my first trip to London, even buying a bag of chips was an aural ordeal! I also had an American girl once ask me if I speak English when I tried to give her directions in London. That was when I realised I really need to turn it down. I can make myself understood to foreigners no problem but it's quite tiresome!
If you want some British translations, here are some useful sites on the net:
London, South-East England
http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/rc...ockney_faq.html - the language of the "Cockneys", wide-mouthed geezers from London with a very thick accent. Cockney rhyming slang, as it is known. You'll mainly only hear this sort of thing in the East end of London I think. In East London they hate nerdy words like "cop", they use words like "the filth". Londoners cannot say the letter R, it becomes a letter W, and clean (not rude) language is a physical impossibility. Ask a Londoner to say 'horrorist' and it produces funny results! People from one end of London think the other end is the other side of the world.
Newcastle (known as 'the toon'), North-East England
http://www.geordiepride.demon.co.uk/dictionary.htm - the language of the "Geordies", a bizzarre people from the North, weened on Newcastle Brown Ale and always up for a fight. Newcastle is an isolated city by British standards, and the North of England has been kind of shat on in history from both the North (the bloody Scots who we fought off for centuries, and who now get more money thn England!) and the South (who have traditionally neglected the hard-working North of England which made this country industrially so mighty). So there exists a kind of North/South divide in England. Some historians suggest the geordie dialect comes from an old form of Scandinavian. We were invaded by the Vikings (who were barbarians from Norway, maybe that explains why people here can't feel the cold) and they brought with them an odd dialect which Newcastle never really progressed from. Some people reckon thats a load of bollocks though!
Liverpool, Mid-West England
www.whoohoo.co.uk - the language of the "Scousers". These people will nick all of your money, your clothes, your possessions, kick you in, and to add insult to injury, they'll waddle off like penguins with it all! This has some Welsh influences (the Welsh language, by the way, is virtually allergic to vowels!). Like the Scots, they have difficulty with the letter R, it becomes a bit like an L.
There are loads more in England, Scotland and Ireland but I can't be arsed to explain them all.
Visit www.whoohoo.co.uk it is adialect translator, it covers all kinds of British accents, and has now added some Irish ones too. It's a great site, but translators don't work very well for obvious reasons, just like English - Spanish translators. In geordie, for example, much of our word construction is different and it's very difficult to keep up to date with British slang which changes all the time. It's got to be one of the best sites out there though. |
nice little story there, copied and pasted by any chance? |
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| ChrisT |
| quote: | Originally posted by evil_bastard
I haven't watched it in years so I can't say I've noticed. Do they take a casual stroll from Byker to see the Angel lol.
People make such a big deal of the angel. It's rubbish. Another thing I've noticed is that when people come to the North East the best thing they want to check out is the Metro Centre! I think that sums us up as an area really! :stongue: |
you are right there luke. everyone just takes a stroll to the angel of the north. it only seems to take them about 10-15 mins to get there. |
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| Maaz |
Thanks for the tips, Evil Bastard :) I'll twahy them :D
| quote: | Originally posted by evil_bastard
All I can suggest is watch some movies. The British movie industry isn't anything like as big as the US movie industry obviously (in the UK a "movie" is called a "film"). However, we have some awesome films out there, and since most are made in London, the south-East England accent is most commonly found in films, which is a very mild form of cockney. |
I've been looking for British films, but it's really hard to find them. So cockney is used only in on part of London!? Heh, it must be so weird to see a city with more than one accent... I wonder if those actors from "As If" really speak cockney then :p
| quote: | Originally posted by evil_bastard
By the end of that film you should be able to immitate an East London gangster quite easily, although I find it quite funny a Brazilian trying to speak cockney :p Portugese is considered here to be a flambuoyant and sexy language, cockney is an accent used by gangsters and geezaz! :D |
My cockney will make me sound like a sexy gangstah :D In fact, the reason I speak British English is because it sounds a lot more like my native language than American/Canadian English. If you're curious to know what it sounds like, I'll just record something tomorrow and post so you guys will decide whether my accent sounds hilarious or not :) |
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| evil_bastard |
I wouldn't say London ("Landon") has more than one accent, but it just sounds a lot thicker in the East of the city. I think it sounds a bit more nasal in south East London as opposed to the rest of the East. But to a foreigner most Londoners will sound similar.
People who aren't from the East of London get annoyed when you call them cockneys, but the rest of the country just calls all of London cockneys anyway :p |
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tranceaddict Forums Archive > Local Scene Info / Discussion > Europe > Europe - United Kingdom & Ireland
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