Accent with the strangest vowel sounds

Rick Johnson   Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:25 pm GMT
I think to my ears the New Zealand accent has the strangest vowel sounds as each letter sounds like one of the other vowels. For example, like Australia, they have the South East English "u" sound that has more of an "a" sound (It's probably more clear to my ears becuse Northern English "u"s are given their full weight so people exclaim BUgger! rather than Bagger!.
They also have the South East English lengthening of a sounds to "ah" as in glass, grass, plant etc. "E"s sound more like "i" so "pen" sounds like "pin"; I think this is part of a general vowel shift that has been reversed in most parts of the world. Also it seems to have some West Coast Scots sounds so fish sounds like fush (a short shallow "u" sound) and "stairs" sound more like "steers".

I remember when I worked in Australia, there was a Kiwi girl who would ask me "cad you lind muy fufty cints for samthing to ate".

Strangely though, for all the differences its still a pretty easy accent to understand!
Uriel   Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:08 pm GMT
To my ears, it's the Scots who sound the strangest -- a little like they're being tortured with pliers (don't hurt me, Damian! It's an INTERESTING sound!)

I've never understood this whole u-for-i thing that New Zealanders are always accused of. I guess they just don't sound much like my u's.
Rick Johnson   Wed Aug 24, 2005 10:47 pm GMT
Uriel,

Nor my "u"s. I didn't understand it at first either, it isn't by any means a proper "u" sound more of "e" crossed with a "u".
Mark   Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:26 am GMT
Last night I watched a show on television about fishermen from Northeastern Scotland (shown on PBS here in the USA). They had very peculiar pronunciations of some vowels, and subtitles were used for much of the program. I think they were speaking very thickly accented Scottish English, not Scots; it seemed that the main peculiarity of their speech was the pronunication of vowels and dipthongs.

The word "boat" sounded like "bawt", and "down" sounded like "dune". "Shake" and "make" sounded like "shaahk" and "maahk". One man pronounced "more" something like "mare" and "most" was "mayst".

One interesting thing I noticed was that their pronunciations of the words "again" and "been" sounded just like the common American pronunciations that I use, rather than like the way I thought British people said these words.
Travis   Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:35 am GMT
What they were speaking Mark, still definitely has Scots features, as Scots proper never experienced the Great Vowel Shift, and the pronunciations of "boat", "down", "shake", and "make" clearly point towards pre-Great Vowel Shift pronunciations in English. And likewise, the pronunciations of "mare" and "most" that you refer to are actually probably highly conservative forms which were preserved in Scots. Compare them with German "mehr"/Dutch "meer" and Dutch "meest" respectively, with which they are practically identical. If they were speaking English, one way or another they were speaking English with a very strong Scots substratum, to the level of very significantly influencing the pronunciation of core grammar words like "more" and "most".
Kirk   Thu Aug 25, 2005 3:52 am GMT
<<One interesting thing I noticed was that their pronunciations of the words "again" and "been" sounded just like the common American pronunciations that I use, rather than like the way I thought British people said these words.>>

Actually what we think of as the American pronunciations for those words have long been (bin? heh) established as British variants. While "been" with [I] (as in "sit") and "again" with [E] (as in "bed") have won out as American pronunciations, depending on the speaker "been" may be [I] or [i] (as in "seat") and "again" may be [E] or [eI] (as in "bait") in British English.
kiema   Thu Aug 25, 2005 5:12 am GMT
Broad Australian accent is the strangest.

TODAY sounds close to my TO DIE :)
Mark   Sat Aug 27, 2005 2:34 am GMT
I suspect that the folks on the program I saw were probably native speakers of a Scots dialect, and that they were as relatively easy to understand as they were due to the fact that they were altering their speech toward English patterns when being interviewed by reporters.
Paul   Sat Aug 27, 2005 8:07 am GMT
The Aussie accent is a bit of a stange one if it's really thick.

I heard a Bayou accent from Louisiana that was almost impossible to understand. It didn't really sound like any other accent I've heard.
Gentle Damian   Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:31 pm GMT
**(don't hurt me, Damian!...**

URIEL: As if I ever would whatever the provocation!!...not that you were being provocative...we ARE a strange breed...just ask Adam. I just listened to myself speaking and I do sound strange - really weird...all those rolled Rs and stuff and when I said Auchtermuchty is a nice place it sounded as if I had a serious throat condition....but I don't notice it cos everyone round here sounds the same anyway so who gives a toss.... and at least my mum loves me. :-)
Uriel   Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:16 pm GMT
We love you, too, weirdo. And we worry that when you talk, it sounds like it hurts....
Winston   Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:13 am GMT
Ultimately the accents we hear the LEAST of are going to sound stranger, OR slight variations on common accents, like some Canadian accents (rather than US accents) or like the accents heard in the Office (they put real curl on their "Rs"
Uriel   Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:49 am GMT
I think the strangest thing about Canadian accents is gradually realizing that "Hmm, this guy talks a little funny, but I can't quite place it..." without it ever occurring to you that it's a "foreign" accent, until they flat-out say, "I'm Canadian."
Kirk   Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:03 am GMT
<<I think the strangest thing about Canadian accents is gradually realizing that "Hmm, this guy talks a little funny, but I can't quite place it..." without it ever occurring to you that it's a "foreign" accent, until they flat-out say, "I'm Canadian.>>

If they have the giveaway Canadian Raising but no Northern Cities Vowel Shift it's pretty obvious to me that it's a Canadian I'm speaking to. However, I've met Canadians without Canadian Raising so when they told me they were Canadian I was surprised.
american nic   Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:07 am GMT
Plus, that describes some Americans, like me. Particularily in Minnesota and North Dakota (not sure about where else), many people have full Canadian Raising, but no Northern Cities Vowel Shift.