Are American true native speakers of English?
Well, that makes him only a few years older than me, as I'm copyright 1972. Usually I prefer younger men (five year rule!), but I can be talked into making the occasional exception -- I'm an equal opportunity employer.;P That man can work a cape. And sadly, even with his face half fucked up, he was still TEN times hotter than the other guy in that little love triangle -- what the hell was she thinking? A la verga!
Americans say Gerard as Jer-RARD. It's an inherently ugly name, as far as I'm concerned, and that's not just a by-product of the fact that we have mastered the art of pronouncing the 18th letter of the alphabet in its full beauty. If you want to be called "GEH-rud" than you might want to look into respelling it as Jared -- which we DO pronounce that way. But around here, if you insist on putting two R's in your name, you're gonna GET two R's.....
I didn't notice any Scottish accent on him in Phantom, 'cause I think he was faking straight English, but it did creep in when he was singing -- sort of the reverse of the idea that singing flattens out most accents.
>>"Jeh-rard" has two syllables in BE.<<
>>Gerard as Jeh-rid? Are you sure they're not saying Jarrod? <<
>>I've never heard an Aussie or fellow Brit pronounce it that way<<
Case in point on the dreadful "alternate" pronunciation; testimonial from a Brit:
>>The stress should be on the first syllable - strongly sounded, while the second syllable is a very weak affair...something ike a simple "uhd"....or more correctll like "GEH-rud"<<
Some Aussies have caught this Geh-rud (or Jeh-rid as I wrote) bug too which would be a recent phenomenon as I had never heard it either until reality television shows made it big.
Whichever way you pronounce the name Gerard you have to admit the bloke is well and truly fit, but maybe a wee bit too obsessive about it.....excessive narcissim is not really a desirable quality even if understandable. How can he spare the time to spend so much of it down the gym - at best I can only manage about three or four hours per week there at the very most.
Gerard Butler's accent...undeniably Lowland Scottish...BUT...if you listen carefully to his speech you can hear traces of the American creeping into it....he really needs to watch that very closely or it will completely contaminate it! He really should counteract that by spending less time over in America - he shoud come home to Scotand more often, join our local Outdoor Pursuits and Activities Centre, and do some working out walking, jogging and general mucking about up in the Trossachs....he no doubt knows the area very well, as I do. ;-)
http://www.visitscottishheartlands.com/areas/trossachs/index.cfm
Jesus, why do Americans have to continually insist that they speak "English" instead of a run-off pidgin drivel salopp slang? Their vocabulary may vaguely resemble English but at the end of they day they are just a bunch of trigger-happy GW-Bush-loving cowboys with no real culture with a chronic need to have to try to "prove" to the world that they have anything to contribute besides Big Macs and Mickey Mouse.
What's with all the trolls?
Maybe it's a convention? Trolls of the World 2009? There have certainly been enough of them in this forum recently. . .
I am very sure that the english spoken in the US would be considered a dialect. It varies a lot regionally, but I'm pretty sure the reason we don't call it "run-off pidgin drivel salopp slang" has to do with how much space that would take up on government forms.
<<Whichever way you pronounce the name Gerard you have to admit the bloke is well and truly fit, but maybe a wee bit too obsessive about it.....excessive narcissim is not really a desirable quality even if understandable. How can he spare the time to spend so much of it down the gym - at best I can only manage about three or four hours per week there at the very most.>>
It's all good. I would only need an hour or so of his time, and he would probably get some good cardio out of it. Win-win.
<<Gerard Butler's accent...undeniably Lowland Scottish...BUT...if you listen carefully to his speech you can hear traces of the American creeping into it...>>
Uh .... like what? Definitely not noticeable to us Americans!
He is well fit (something I'd really like to say in real life if it wouldn't sound completely ridiculous). I can't hear any American accent on him, but I'm sure that's the Phil Keoghan effect (sounds NZ, or more realistically Australian, to Americans and American to New Zealanders). Wonder how that will go for him. Everything I've seen him in suggests his not the best at adjusting his accent (bless his hot abs).
From a historical point of view American English can be regarded a dialect. It was the English pilgrim fathers who came to the US and brought the language with them. From that point, the language developed in a certain direction in the States. That's why there are differences between US and British English. I am from the <a href="http://students.washington.edu/stc6/washington/seattle-things-to-do.html">Seattle area</a> and sure that people here are not speaking "true native English" - whatever this might be.
From a historical point of view American English can be regarded a dialect. It was the English pilgrim fathers who came to the US and brought the language with them. From that point, the language developed in a certain direction in the States. That's why there are differences between US and British English. I am from the <a href="http://students.washington.edu/stc6/washington/seattle-things-to-do.html" target="_blank">Seattle area</a> and sure that people here are not speaking "true native English" - whatever this might be.
I'd say 66 % of Americans have a General American accent.
Only 3 % of Britishers use RP (Received Pronunciation aka. BBC English).
That means, people from UK are more likely to sound ''dialectal'' (that is they are more likely to have an accented speech).
No way, American MTV would allow heavy Southern, Bostonian or Chicagoan accents in their program, but look at MTV UK, most youngsters there have a heavy Cockney or Cockney-like accent. It sounds very rural.
I'd say 66 % of Americans have a General American accent.
Only 3 % of Britishers use RP (Received Pronunciation aka. BBC English).
That means, people from UK are more likely to sound ''dialectal'' (that is they are more likely to have an accented speech).
No way American MTV would allow heavy Southern, Bostonian or Chicagoan accents in their program, but look at MTV UK, most youngsters there have a heavy Cockney or Cockney-like accent. It sounds very rural.
<<No way American MTV would allow heavy Southern, Bostonian or Chicagoan accents in their program, but look at MTV UK, most youngsters there have a heavy Cockney or Cockney-like accent. It sounds very rural. >>
I wouldn't say that Am MTV wouldn't allow their hosts to have regional accents. Otherwise, many kids in the programming for Am MTV, like the Real World characters, have accents.
***most youngsters there have a heavy Cockney or Cockney-like accent. It sounds very rural***
That has to be the first time I've ever seen/heard the "Cockney" accent described as rural!!! ;-)
