what is meant by "more clipped"

mad madd   Monday, January 03, 2005, 03:13 GMT
I've read where ppl have posted that british english and canadian english are more crisp and clipped. What does clipped mean.

How does one learn to make their accent crisp without being to formal. I find that my accent has become too formal and snooty. I've been working on speaking more from the front of my mouth and projecting from the front like singers are taught.
Brennus   Monday, January 03, 2005, 06:13 GMT

"Clipped" refers to speech which has short, crisp sounds; kind of a stacatto, machine gun type sound. In English, such an accent is associated with the British upper classes. The few people I've heard who spoke a "clipped" English were mostly immigrants from the London area of England. I knew an American kid in Junior High and High School who talked with a clip but he did it because he thought it made him sound special and different. I don't know how he acquired it . None of his relatives spoke that way though so I know he didn't pick it up from them.
karl   Monday, January 03, 2005, 06:57 GMT
i don't think that is a charecteristic of canadian english
Tiffany   Monday, January 03, 2005, 07:37 GMT
Where did that observation come from karl? No one has made reference to Canada.
Ved   Monday, January 03, 2005, 07:56 GMT
Tiffany, in the first two lines.

...

Mad madd, no variety of Canadian English I have ever heard could be called clipped. Quite to the contrary. Canadians draaaaaaaaaawl and mauuuuuuuuuuuunder. In a most lovable way, of course.
Tiffany   Monday, January 03, 2005, 16:10 GMT
Ah, my eyes seemed to slide right over that! Anyway, in that case, I agree with Karl! (And yourself of course)
Damian   Monday, January 03, 2005, 18:41 GMT
"Clipped" in the type of British English which I suspect Mad Madd refers to is the type of spoken English you would never hear today, even among the aristocracy unless they are pretty ancient. The same goes for members of the acting profession who are now pretty old as well.

Listen to some of those very old pre 1960s black and white British movies and you will get a good idea of that clipped, clearly enunciated speech which I believe was quite common in those days among the so called elite....upper class types and educated people. A well known example was the English playwright, actor, lyricist and songwriter Noel Coward. His speech was typically "clipped" in the social style of his day. I looked him up and he died in 1973, but his heighday was the 1920s to the 1960s. No one around today would speak the way he did. It's just the way tastes and styles change, and people who today spoke the way Coward did would be ridiculed I would guess, even in the south of England. Well, they would wouldn't they.....it's all like Estuary speak now, innit? Even Prince William and his bro.

As for the theatrical types then, they had speech training in that sort of accent at drama schools...probably they had to use marbles as part of this process! I think it sounds very funny, not just because I am a Scotsman and think it another example of outdated English elitism, but because it just sounds so forced and unnatural.

That's my half penn'orth anyway!
Dave   Monday, January 03, 2005, 21:58 GMT
I find a lot of Chinese and Japanese who learned English very early speak in a clipped manner, even if there is no detectable accent.

Most Canadians speak very clearly, and the stereotypical accent you might hear on TV is not that common. Its more of an East-Coast accent, and is less common as you move westward. It probably developed out of the Scottish Accent.

Canadians speech is often defined as being very 'neutral' and really doesn't sound much different that the US Midwest Speech.
Ved   Tuesday, January 04, 2005, 22:28 GMT
...But get a suspected Canadian to say "about the house" and you'll know right away if they indeed are Canadian.
Tiffany   Tuesday, January 04, 2005, 22:35 GMT
:) <- for Ved. But truly, this accent is not everywhere in Canada. I find that most of my cousins for Toronto speak without that accent. Ved, do you speak with this accent?
Dave   Tuesday, January 04, 2005, 22:41 GMT
I Had a friend who brought his GF up from Washington DC to Ottawa, and she was quite dissappointed that everyone sounded just like she did.

She even asked me to say that exact phrase.

I was also quite surprised when I travelled to Dallas that the (thick) Texan accent is not as common as most people think.
Dave   Tuesday, January 04, 2005, 22:44 GMT
I find most people will get an accent after a few drinks :D
Ved   Thursday, January 06, 2005, 04:55 GMT
Gosh, no, Tiffany, I speak with what used to be my British accent (and with every new acquaintance there is a new theory of my ethnolinguistic background to listen to).

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Torontonians like to say that you immediately know when you've crossed the border at Niagara Falls, as you'll hear people talking about such things as "a cup of hat caffee" and "McDanald's".

...

It is true that not everybody marches about saying "a boat the hoes" (or "a boot the hoos") in Toronto, but you do hear it every now and then.
Ved   Thursday, January 06, 2005, 04:58 GMT
>>Dave Tuesday, January 04, 2005, 22:44 GMT
I find most people will get an accent after a few drinks :D <<

Yeah. I used to know a Danish guy who claimed that every Dane starts speaking Norwegian after a couple of pints down the pub.

Funny for a language geek comme moi.