Here in the Midwestern US, we've had many nice springlike days already and a few summerish ones. It's hit in the 80's several times, which is really bizzare this early in the year. That's over 26.7 degrees celcius.But it's still down close to freezing most nights, and many days it's still cold. Bipolar weather.
We drove home from Florida over the weekend and the trees were in blooms in Virginia and West Virginia. Later, we found out the blooms are three weeks early.
Sigh. It's autumn here in upside-down-land. Soon it will be winter. But that's OK -- winter is an excuse for digging out my warm woolly (and good-looking! ) coats, scarfs, hats and gloves
I have a friend who says the same (well, "ne'er cast a clout") in a "mock" Scottish accent - which is strange because he is Scottish. He's from Dundee and has a great Dundonian accent, just puts on more of a Glasgow accent to say it. And it's an English saying. Life's odd, sometimes.
That's no different from people in America doing jokes in a Southern accent, or a NewYork accent, or any kind of accent that sounds funny, like a Monty Python one. You just gotta sometimes match the accent to the joke. And of course, if he did it in his own accent, how would that be funny to him?
Here's something I never understood: what is a Scottish accent (or an English / Italian / Australian accent, etc.)? I mean, people who live in different places within a country usually speak differently. *shrug* Glaswegians speak differently to Edinburghians, people in Liverpool or Yorkshire speak differently to people in London or the West Country, Romans speak differently to Florentines or Venetians, and I (in Melbourne, down the south of Australia) don't speak like someone out in The Bush, or the Top End. So why do people think that all English people sound like a BBC newsreader, all Scotsmen/women sound like Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons, and all Italians sound like Mario? "Mama mia! It's-a me!" *shrug* I'm guessing it's ignorance, over-exposure, and never travelling to those places? As for 'American accents' ... sheesh. Let's not even go there. Why does everyone think that 'an American accent' is synonymous with 'a really bad attempt to speak like a Hollywood cowboy'? I mean, people 'tawk different' depending on whether they're from Boston, 'New Yawk', San Diego, or 'N'Awlings', etc. etc. Heck, in California alone there are two or three different accents. So ... speaking as one for whom English is a second language, the more I listen to different accents, the more confused (and amused!) I become that some people treat "[insert country here] accent" as one gigantic monolith. Anyway, enough of my rant. I suppose I should end by saying: "G'day mate, dinkum chunder! Strewth, I'm worried about Darleen! 'Ere Bruce, it's 'ot enough to fry a donkey's bum!"
Is that how it is in Australia? A Southern accent is the easiest to parody, it’s the one bound up with the most humorous stereotypes, and it’s the most distinctive culturally. In America it’s one of the most common forms of mockery.
Australia has all kind of accents. You would often find many of them in any major city. (I've run into people from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Singapore and Pakistan ... but then again, I worked in a major hospital for years. Then again, I also ran into tourists from South Africa, Canada, and the USA ... and worked with people from the UK, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland. So I'm used to all kinds of accents, and they don't bother me). Non-Australians often associate Australia with the actor Paul Hogan and his (in)famous commercial ending with "... come down 'ere, and we'll put a shrimp on the barbie for ya." *shrug* The only people who had that broad, nasal inflection live up the Top End, i.e. northern Queensland (the northern-most state here). If you go the The Bush (i.e. inland Australia, equivalent to the US Boondocks -- rough or isolated country), you'll see mostly farmers, country towns, and country pubs. The accents there are quite different, and I wouldn't dream of attempting them. They are broader, more nasal, and much earthier, often connecting words -- like "Howisya? Siddown, 'aveabeermate! 'Avagoodweekend!" *shrug* Please don't get the wrong idea. I'm not mocking anyone, and if it comes across that way, I apologise. That's just how different people are, here in "Straya".
More distinctive than, say, Brooklyn or the Bronx? There isn't a single generic Southern accent. To this day, when a visitor walks in the door and opens his or her mouth, I know immediately if they are from my part of Texas or Arkansas. Humorous sterotypes. Right. When I was a kid, my father's job took us from Texas to California. I have never, before or since, been subjected to the level of rudeness, mockery, and prejuduce that I encountered in the Bay Area simply because of the way I talked.
I think it is more distinctive on a cultural level than New York accents. This is literally my point. I actually used the word mockery, which certainly doesn’t seem to imply that I approve of the sort of stigma that gets attached to southern dialects. I’m sorry this happened, it’s really unfortunately common.
In the region where you live or have lived you can distiguish between many accents and dialects, but in areas you aren't familiar with of course you can't. Unless you've known people from other regions and have become familiar with their accent, and maybe they've told you about others. I remember once we hired a guy we thought must be Australian—he sounded exactly like Crocodile Dundee, but it turned out he was from England. Oh, and if a country exports movies globally then people around the world can become familiar with various regional accents and dialects of that country, so much of the world is familiar with Brooklyn and Bronx and various Southern accents (though they might not know where each comes from). Many of us are familiar with several different English accents/dialects thanks to Monty Python and many movies, And then some we (before very recent times) knew only through caricatures like the Lucky Charms Leprechaun and Irish Springs soap commercials, which most likely weren't done by people who really spoke that way or even knew anyone who did. Actually that's not entirely true—I do remember seeing a movie made in Ireland when I was a kid on the Kukla Fran and Ollie show, which showed movies made in outer countries—a rarity in those days. In the 80s here in America we did start to see movies made in countries like Australia and Ireland, such as Mad Max—well, of course Crocodile Dundee,* and others. That trend has increased as we've devloped more of a global perspective (a very recent thing). No longer are people from other countries played by locals in makeup doing fake accents, like the days of Charlie Chan or when white people would put on face paint and dress as Cherokee and Iriqois for Westerns. Now in many movies actual native Americans will play their own tribe, and contribute information from their own cultural perspective. I'm sure things were very different in Europe where other countries are as close as other states are to us. * Not an Australian production of course, but he was authentically Australian, and I think parts of it were filmed there.
I just mean, for the average non-southern American, that the South is the place of maximum cultural and historical alterity within the country, and its accents are associated with this; and further, that these accents are associated with a much broader range of distinct cultural types, which are really engrained in American culture. The New York accents are like this too, and New York is a special place and a different place, and it also has durable types, like the Italian gangster or whatever. But New York is also like the quintessential City, and its inhabitants are therefore to some extent quintessential urban types (i’m speaking in the sense of popular perception). The South isn’t this way, although I guess that the homogenization of everything is having its effect there, too. Also, it’s only one city and the South is a whole region. I think that the merely phonological characteristics of an accent have little to do with its ability to conjure associations, which are cultural and historical. The minnesota/dakota accent is very phonologically distinctive, and really a great accent, but as far as I know has only recently been foregrounded in Fargo and some other small productions. Because there aren’t many cultural types for it to attach itself to, except somebody like Marge Gundersson, ie. a wholesome midwesterner. The reason somebody does an accent or thinks of a particular accent in relation to a region has mostly to do with cultural associations, and these days I suppose that comes from movies. Whenever someone mimics an accent, which is a really common sort of ludic habit that people have, it’s either to mimic a personality like JFK or to mimic a cultural/historical type. For Australians, apparently the most distinctive thing about America’s self-projection of itself via Hollywood is the Southern accent and cowboys, so that’s what comes to mind for caricature. I think phonologically there’s nothing here at all, or very little, because if you look into it I think you’ll find that the general australian accent is actually phonologically closer to lot of southern accents than to General American.
I don't think there's an accent from anywhere in the world you won't hear in New York. Come to Rhode Island if you want to hear some mush-mouth funny talk.
Speaking as a non-American, I couldn't tell if someone is from Brooklyn or the Bronx. But I can recognise a "generic southern" accent, although that's mainly because of the Hollywood influence. It's difficult to know, though, how many actors who play people from "the South" were actually born there. To give just two examples: Slim Pickens, who played Taggart in "Blazing Saddles", was born in CA -- but had no trouble playing a cowboy, given that he actually was one. Johnny Haimer played Sgt. Zelmo Zale in M*A*S*H*. Zale is from Louisiana, and Johnny was born in Missouri -- so, not too far off. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I went through a similar thing when my family moved to Australia, because I was born in Israel and moved when I was 13. Aussie kids had no idea how to deal with that, so they resorted to movie-style stereotypes like saying "Oh, yeah, Israel, where the entire country is just sand. Ride a camel to school, didja?" I ... had no idea how to answer that, or deal with the other casual prejudice and bullying. So I just ignored it as much as I could, even though it hurt. Kids can be cruel. One of the funniest things I'd ever seen was Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, dressing as "an Sioux chief" and speaking in Yiddish. As well as mocking the generic "blackface" trend -- and the Jewish Indian theory (aka that the Native American tribes are the Lost Tribes of Israel), this is based in a kind of fact, since some Jewish immigrants to America actually became part of Native American tribal communities. For instance, Solomon Bibo became governor of Acoma Pueblo, equivalent of the tribal chief. There is also genetic evidence of Sephardic intermarriage with Cherokee, Chickasaw, Talasee Creek and a few others in the SE. Southeastern Native Americans with Jewish DNA. It happens a lot more than people realise, and recently too. People continue to meet, fall in love and have kids to this day. The 3 sibling members of the Navajo rock band Blackfire halve a Jewish mother and a Navajo father. They perform some songs in Navajo. http://www.blackfire.net/. But again, their mom did not "join" the tribe.
I have heard and read more than once that a central United States, including Nebraska, accent is the least distinctive of American accents, an accent desired by newscasters and such, as purportedly demonstrated by folks such as Johnny Carson, Tom Brokaw, Dick Cavett, and the Fondas. See, e.g. the website of the Professional US English Voiceovers, https://vicsvoice.com/resources/what-is-accent-neutral-us-english.htm : Where is the Neutral American Accent Spoken? While General American is not restricted to any one region in the United States, it is most commonly spoken in the Midland region. As such, the terms Midland accent and General American are often used synonymously. The Midland region covers parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Ohio. The Desireabllity of the Neutral Accent When Americans attend an accent reduction class in an effort to eradicate their regional accents, they are taught the General American accent. This accent is commonly used by newscasters and actors, and according to Wikipedia, it is often considered "preferable to other regional accents." A Nebraska voice certainly sounds distinct to me. I recall a couple years back talking by phone to someone who I'd known in my small Nebraska hometown who had moved to southern Texas as a young adult, and with whom I'd lost all contact, and being shocked at the Texas tone to her voice.
Wondering what you science wonks and aficionados think of Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything?
I have to confess, I have heard of neither the book nor the author. But that sure is a big claim he is making! I googled it, would have downloaded it if it was available for Kindle, but unfortunately it is not.
