CringeFest 7: I don't have an accent

Even where there are not grammar mistakes there are ear-grating stylistic fallacies. I suggest you don't even bother, just looking at it will damage your English.

Hey so dig it out - never heard this in my life, sounds ridiculous

NO Foreigner ACCENT - no foreign_ accent

So it's totally freaking [cringe] possible to talk WITHOUT AN accent even in another language that's _ different TO your own language of your own country.

And I'm even translating for _ other people I know from English to our language and I'm sometimes talking in the patois of the regions and the oppressed parts of the US if I have to. - no grammar mistakes but doesn't sound native

This _*especially* [sounds bad] happens when I'm listening to _songs from the US. I dig it [cringe] to listen to the American Black music and the poor rural American Country in Western [?] music_ too and I'm talking with the downhome [?]sound like in _ Georgia or such

Uncounsiously I'm doing a shadow [sounds bad] of _ Travis Tritt talking like when I say

But I think not EVERYONE is SO ADVANCED with the various accents and be as totally freaking accurate as I can.

I gave up...

"Hey so dig it out" No native speaker would say this

"with NO Foreigner ACCENT" should be "no foreign accent"

"talk with out the" should be "talk without the"

"that's a different from" should be "that's different from"

"your own language of your own country" not incorrect but awkward--would not be said like this by a native speaker

"This is especially happens" should be "This especially happens"

"listening to the songs from the US" should be "listening to songs from the US"

Well that's all I have the patience for. Maybe someone else will carry on where I left off.

Just so you know, there are errors that native speakers will make when they type that they won't make when they speak.

You're totally right. I'm sure that was just a native speaker who made some typos.

As far as I remember. Genetd is French, who tries (and fails mostly) to sound like a gangsta. Btw Genetd, I quite like your messages. Seriously, I am a big fan. Always brings a smile to my face. I dont know though whether you are just trying to make fun of the gangsta speak or really try to talk that way. Either way, its hilarious. When are you posting again? Cant wait. :)

<<As far as I remember. Genetd is French, who tries (and fails mostly) to sound like a gangsta. Btw Genetd, I quite like your messages. Seriously, I am a big fan. Always brings a smile to my face. I dont know though whether you are just trying to make fun of the gangsta speak or really try to talk that way. Either way, its hilarious. When are you posting again? Cant wait. :)>>

I do believe that he is actually trying to talk like a gangsta. I think he has some strange belief that this is normal informal English when it just sounds ridiculous to natives, even when said correctly.

Admittedly, if he is dead set on sounding like a gangsta and if he has gangsta friends then I suppose he is doing quite well. He is a skateboarder if I remember correctly, so why not learn the sociolect of the people you're most liekly to be interacting with? Politicians learn "diplomatic English", scientists learn "English for the sciences", businessmen learn "business English" and literature buffs learn Shakespearian language, so a gangsta at heart should learn gangsta-speak.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Genetd is trying to parody a non-native speaker with imperfect comand of English attampting to write gangsta-speak.

<<If I had to guess, I'd say that Genetd is trying to parody a non-native speaker with imperfect comand of English attampting to write gangsta-speak.>>

This could also be the case. I never really thought about that, but it seems like Genetd is the real deal. Sadly.

Assuming that Genetd is a genuine case, and not someone trying to pose as a gangsta, does anyone else find it assuming that a person who wants to sound like a gangsta frequents a forum like Antimoon whose main purpose is to promote proper, grammatically correct English?

I'm down with learning any way I can. Sometimes it's on this forum that I learn things but mostly it's from practising with my bros and from films and the music. But its not always has to be proper and perfect grammar and such which is much harder and not as cool. If I go to LA or New York someday I don't want to sound like book talking, you know? I suggest people can make a recording of their voice in English and listen to see if it's like the native dudes. That way you can compare it and make up some of the changes when you made a mistake in your accent. Not just for the gangsta talking like some said above, but also with the downhome talk of the Countryboys and the surfer bros to as well. Those are also cool but in a different manner. We're not so down with the cockney dudes in England cuz it's hard and you don't find so many songs with the cockney singing. It's like the cockney dudes are taking away their cockney accents when they're singing. Maybe that's so they sell more records in America or maybe the bros in America won't understand the words if they're singing with the cockney accent, but in any manner, we don't have so much cockney talking to shadow as we have the cool American hip sounds.

Some of the dudes on the forum are not down with the cool jivings and such but so you know it's the same with the teachers in the English classes when the students talk cuz they don't dig it out the younger generation styles, right?

Later dudes.

Admittedly, if he is dead set on sounding like a gangsta and if he has gangsta friends then I suppose he is doing quite well. He is a skateboarder if I remember correctly, so why not learn the sociolect of the people you're most liekly to be interacting with? Politicians learn "diplomatic English", scientists learn "English for the sciences", businessmen learn "business English" and literature buffs learn Shakespearian language, so a gangsta at heart should learn gangsta-speak.

I'm a housewife. Should I learn housewiving English ?

<<Admittedly, if he is dead set on sounding like a gangsta and if he has gangsta friends then I suppose he is doing quite well.>>

Not like real gangsta friends but still straight up hip cool homies that are down for our hood. Straight out'a Velizy boi!!


<<I'm a housewife. Should I learn housewiving English ?>>

I would like to know more about the Housewife English so I can be down with speaking to the American housewifes in their own accent of their profession. I have already the L'intégrale saison 1(integrated first season) of the Desperate Housewives in DVD formating in English with the French subtitles but I do not hear they have a different accent from other American women, Though notwithstanding I would like to meet and talk with them and in their own accent if they have one!

>>This is perhaps the most widely held misconception in the Midwest today. People from those areas speak in a dialect known as the Great Lakes dialect, characterized by vowel raising that tends to be perceived as nasal by non-speakers.

If someone from those areas relocates to Western states, their accents are noted almost immediately.<<

One important factor is that people are likely to perceive standardness not in relation to any kind of national-level standard variety but rather their own *regional* prestige variety. That definitely seems to be the case here in Wisconsin, where I have heard people speak in what is clearly a very "high" idiolect, but with very clear regional dialect features being present at the same time. As people do not move around enough in the US to really level out regional dialect differences, General American itself is rather loose as a standard, and regional dialects in the Midwest are not generally strongly socially marked, it is inevitable that regional dialects will have their own influence upon the prestige varieties spoken in given areas. The significance of this is that people who speak closer to not necessarily General American but rather their own regional prestige variety may end up perceiving themselves as "accentless", even if their own regional prestige variety may sound very much accented to other English-speaking North Americans and likely reflects the influence of the dialect spoken in their own area.

I remember in particular one coworker of mine, a woman probably in her late 30s/early 40s who speaks in what seems to be very close stylistically to rather formal GA, but which at the same time has very clear non-GA-like regional dialect features. Her speech is unlike the dialect here, especially less GA-like varieties thereof, in that she uses a very clear diphthong [ŏʊ̯̆]/[oʊ̯] or [ɵ̆ʉ̯̆]/[ɵʉ̯] instead of the [o]/[oː] more typical of the dialect here for /o/ and lacks many of the many intervocalic and final elisions typical of more progressive forms of the dialect here. Yet at the same time, she has a very noticable NCVS (to the point of consistently using [ĭ̯æ̆]/[i̯æ] for historical /æ/ as opposed to the more common and less extreme pronunciations like [ɛ̯̆æ̆]/[ɛ̯æ] or [ɛ̞]/[ɛ̞ː] prevalent here) and very strong palatalization of coronals (which seemed to actually be phonemic as opposed to being allophonic, as is typical here). Hence what she speaks seems to actually be a very regional formal prestige variety distinct both from the national standard variety GA and from the local dialect as spoken by both younger people regardless of social class and middle-aged/older working class people here.

<<Some of the dudes on the forum are not DOWN with the cool jivings and such but so you know it's the same with the teachers in the English classes when the students talk cuz they don't DIG it out the younger generation styles, right? >>

Genetd, Nice post bro. Just a question: How come you are always so 'down'? Is the homie-speak depressing you, or are all the fellow homies and bros down as well? And yes, I think your English teacher would probably need to 'dig it out' since you guys are so far 'down'.

~Your biggest fan :))