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What's your English accent like?
Apologies, the above file was not compressed and as a result was 10Mb !!!
This link is a MP3 and will download MUCH faster. http://s55.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=27O5IK7JAOJBG29LE1XTMLSF5G
Ok, this is just for fun, so flame me if you like, I'm used to it !
I thought it would be fun if people recorded themselves trying to impersonate an accent, other than their own ! So this is a reocrding I've just made of me (the voice from the above sound file), trying my best Canadian accent. Apologies to the Canadian's if it sounds that bad - as I said it was just for fun! Besides, feel free to impersonate my 'Geordie' accent if you like! NORTH EAST ENGLAND inpersonates EASTERN CANADIAN: http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=08HU88009WTOP0JC1GHROQ4YRM
Ha ha - that is superb!
I'm not Candian, I'm from the US but I thought that sounded real good. If I heard you talking like that in the States, I would believe you WERE American or Canadian. Good job and good fun.
Your accent is cool, David! I like Cockney too which is at the opposite of the spectrum there.
Thanks Guest 1 !
Guest 2 - I'll take your word for it ..... as long as yer Canadian! David
I would not have guessed you were from Newcastle from your first recording - and I'm from Barnsley so quite far North myself !
I could tell it was a Northern accent but it's not like some of the Georides you here on TV ! (Jimmy Nail, Ant and Dec). It's a nice, clear accent you have. As for the Canadian impersonation - It did sound North American in a general sort of way, I would fall for it but just due to ignorance of the finer details of the real accent! Good fun though, think others should try this - would like to hear and American or Canadian impersonating yours, or any British accent ! JJ
That was a pretty good job, David! I'm not familiar with the details of what a Nova Scotia accent might sound like in particular, but you sounded very North American at any rate, except for your odd pronunciation of "year". I don't know if Nova Scotians DO have this or not, but I noticed you pronounced "supermarket" as "syoopermarket", and I think it's a pretty common tendency for us in North America to say "soopermarket" instead -- but not for all of us.
Your original accent MUST be mild, because I barely noticed it at all, except for the "ou" in "south". So much for North Americans not being able to understand it... ;) One question though, to any real Canadians out there -- David said Halifax as "hallee-fax" and I usually say "hal-ih-fax". How do YOU say it?
Hi Uriel,
That's really interesting because I (subconsciously) changed some of my pronounciations to try to make them more North American and because the Eastern Canadian language is so closely related to some British and Irish regional accents, I shot myself in th foot! The 'hallee-fax' is a great example - I would say "Hal-ih-fax" in my own accent but I somehow changed it to perhaps a more American stereotypical pronounciation. Doh! Thanks for the feedback anyhoo ... I'm touring Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland next year so I'll keep practicing until then and see if I can get away with it!
I wish I could have heard it - I'm unable to record or receive sound on my computer at the minute but I'm getting a completely new one with all the works to go with it now that I'm a lot more financially solvent...yay!
David - a Geordie going all Canuck....whey aye, man! LOL By chance I cam across this snippet while going through a list of DVD's I want to buy. Believe it or not I don't have the locally set Trainspotting but I've seen it several times so I willnae bother. The bit that I thought was funny was that about the dubbing of the sound track on the American release so they would understand our local lingo over there! :-) Trivia for TRAINSPOTTING (1996) Ewan Macgregor Set in Edinburgh, it features the more degrading side of the city's drugs scene culture and the escapades of a small group of its addicted devotees, including the wild chase down Princes Street. For its American release, the first 20 minutes had to be re-dubbed to make the Scottish accents more intelligible. Hee hee.....I can just imagine.
Damian, I don't know which version of Trainspotting I saw, but quite a bit of it was STILL unintelligible to me!
<<The 'hallee-fax' is a great example - I would say "Hal-ih-fax" in my own accent but I somehow changed it to perhaps a more American stereotypical pronounciation. Doh!>> I think often whether there will be an "ih" sound or an "ee" sound can be gleaned from spelling and from where in a word that syllable falls. In Halifax, California, and Halliburton it's an "ih". Likewise, Mississippi is pronounced Miss-ih-sip-ee, not Missee-sippee. But Okeechobee IS Okee-chobee... Anyway, enjoy your trip, David!
"Accent I learned: Standard American English (like the one spoken in CNN).
Country of origin: Costa Rica. Age: 29 Native language: Spanish. How I learned English? All by myself. I improved it by reading a book about American English Pronuncation and paying close attention to native speakers (and then imitating them)." Cesar, You are such a liar. I listened to your sound file ( you have an accent-Spanish and it's kind of mild to my ear) and read some your posts. I just can'r believe you learned English without speaking it. It's impossibil to learn a language just by listening to it. If you just listen you won'r be able to speak it, or speak fluently. You lie you you say that you were to US just for a short period of time.It's either that you ahve contact with English speakers in Costa Rica or yo live here in the US. Like to praise yourself, uh?
Actually, Ceasar, some people are able to do accents by just listening to someone speak with that type of accent. I can do an Australian and British accent quite well. (my dad is part British, but he doesn't have an accent) I mean it's not perfect, but it rarely is unless you grew up speaking with that type of accent. So I don't see it as "impossible". Maybe difficult, but not "impossible". Also, she said she imitated them, and read a book about American pronunciation. That probably played a key factor too. If you still don't believe it, hey, that's fine with me. I'm not here to argue.
Anyways ... uh ... Accent I Have: Standard American English. Accent I Can Immitate: British, Australian. Country Of Origin: U.S. Native Language: English. How I Learned English: Does this really need an explanation? How I Learned British, Australian: I watch the Crocodile Hunter a lot ... and a few people in my family are British.
B-radG,
You are missing my point. Cesar's native language is not English, but Spanish. Fo ryou it's easier because your native language is English and yes I agree with you that you can do different accents. English language sound system is very hard, because English is not a fonetic language. I speak afew languages and I can do their accents pretty good, and if I would live in any of those country I would be accentless very quickly. What I mean , mainly, is that by just READING one can't just do an accent very well. In order for he/she to master that accent he/she has to speak that language pretty often to be able to change the accent.How ever Cesar sound to me like may of the Spanish living in the US.
If I knew how to edit my post I would ... but I don't, so I wont. Anyways, does anyone know why NONE of the uploadhut.com recordings work for me? They all go to "Cannon Find Server", and they seem to work fine for everyone else. Unless everyone decided to delete their recording or something. The only one I've been able to listen to was Cesar's. And though I could still tell he had a bit of an accent, it was pretty good. Any help on getting the other recordings to work would be greatly appreciated ...
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