Pronunciation difference between NAmE and BrE

Most Americans understand the British perfectly and don't need any kind of "translation". And *most Americans are familiar with the most common words such as "lorry" "rubber" or "petrol", but there are some which may be confusing. When I moved to Ireland from the State I was surprised to find that when speaking of hospital care that "casualty" means something very different in the two countries.





*There are stupid people everywhere.

<<Is this normal in America? Do people really have so little exposure tot he English accent that they don't know what it is when they hear it?>>

If you go to the big cities, where exposure to British and non-American accents is very common, then you probably won't have any problems being understood, nor will anyone mistake you for being anything but a Britisher (although, some might mistake you for Australian if you speak Cockney or Estuary! lol). However, if you go the more rural areas and flyover states, where the accents and people are more homogeneous, then you risk not being understood.

Fast food joints are another matter, however. I live in Los Angeles and most of the fast food restaurants are staffed by Latino immigrants whose command of the English language isn't always stellar. So don't expect them to understand what a Britisher is saying when they have a hard enough time understanding what a genAm speaker is saying.

We can understand all the accents used in movies like Harry Potter just fine. So if you speak like any of those characters, you shouldn't have a problem. What happened most likely is that you were speaking to a non-native speaker of English (very common in fast food restaurants), and that is why they had difficulty understanding you.

Oh and you probably just assumed she was American because you probably can't tell the difference between an American accent by a native speaker, and that of a foreigner with a near-native sounding accent. A similar thing happened to me. Some foreigners with near-native British accents living in America are often mistaken for Brits, especially Dutch and Scandinavian people, but no Brit would think they were native.

To Gabriel, 1%?! What are you talking about? I'd say it's at least 75%. I was talking to an American friend and commented that we seemingly pronounce most words differently (Aussie and American). For instance:

Cloth, Caught, Kit, Goat.etc: are all different between RP and GAE. The vowel in words like 'face' and 'eat' are probably identical for all intents and purposes. Of course comprehensibility between pronunciations does not equal identicality.

Trimac20:
As I said in my post, I was accounting for systematic differences which are easily predictable. The 1% refers to differences such as SCHEDULE (GenAm /skɛdʒul/ RP /ʃɛdjul/) or LABORATORY (GenAm /ˈlæbəɹəˌtɔri/ RP /ləˈbɒɹətɹi/).
The differences you are talking about are mostly realizational differences for words with the same underlying pronunciation. For example, the pronunciation of GOAT or KIT is, for both GenAm and Australian English, phonemically identical: /got/ and /kɪt/ respectively. However /o/ is usually realized as [oʊ] in GenAm and as [əʊ] in Australian English, and /ɪ/ is normally [ɪ] in GenAm, but [ɪ̝] in Australian English.
Interestingly, the vowel in FACE (phonemically /e/ for that lexical set in both accents) which you claim is "identical for all intents and purposes" differs much more dramatically in realization between GenAm and Australian English. It's [eɪ] for most Americans (thus [feɪs]) and [æɪ] for most Australians (thus [fæɪs]).

Ah yes, those 'tomato/tomato' things. On that note, I find it interesting how Americans tend to pronounce certain words in what you'd expect would be the 'British' way, and many Brits the American way. Some examples are 'aqua' and 'pasta' for Americans (I also find the way they say 'calm' and 'father' intersting, kinda raised and 'posh' sounding, in contrast to their general flat pronunciation of those vowels) as opposed to most English people saying pasta as 'pass-ta' (incidentally Aussies say 'pahsta').

Yes, GenAm and AE is probably even more different than RP and GenAm. Although the vowel in 'goat' is probably evolving in a rather strange way. Not sure if you notice younger aussies saying words like 'no' as 'noi' or 'noy.'

JJ - that is a fair point mate. The girl did seem to have an American accent but was certainly of a Latin Ethinicity (spelt right?) so if they do have problems with even American accents then I am not surprised the poor girl would have struggled understanding me!!

Trimac20 - that is sooo true geezer. I never understood why Americans say Pasta the way the English would (or at-least how us Southern gits would anyway!!) i.e to rhyme with FARSTER (or to be more correct - with the long A) and that we pronounce it the way the American's would! The pronunciation of the name Tanya is the same. Here in England we will use a short A whereas the Yanks will use a long A so that you get that R sound as in TARNYA. Odd stuff mate. Wooo!!

The [A] or [Q] vowel in words like "pasta" is perceived as the "correct" sounding pronunciation--the pronunciation that is used in the language that the word comes from [sic].

I have found that many people working in fast food restaurants are far less proficient in English than most people would be led to believe. At least here in Colorado. If you were to say anything unexpected that is outside of the normal limited "scripted" fast food ordering lingo with which the employees are familiar are you are likely to not be understood and just get a head nod or be ignored completely.

Don't forget that the shitty sound quality of the intercom in your typical fast food drive through doesn't do ANYONE any favors -- it's hard to understand each other even when you're both American, sometimes!

As for the American ah-sound in pasta and aqua, well, why wouldn't we say them that way? I'm pretty sure Italians also say "pahsta", and they invented the word. The real question is, why don't Brits say it correctly? -- after all, they love to "ah" all those words that originally had short A's, like glass and fast!

The one British pronunciation that invariably makes me cringe is "gwack-a-mo-lee" (yes, "gwack" rhymes with "quack"!) for guacamole. Guacamole should have an ah-sound, hands down. There's no short A sound in Spanish. I know the word originally comes from Nahuatl, and who knows what it sounded like in that language, but today's version comes to us courtesy of Spanish, so let's at least go with that! If you really want to get authentic, the G even disappears -- go to a Mexican restaurant and you will get "wahcamoleh". I won't hold anyone to that standard who can't at least cuss in Spanish when they stub their toe, but get the freakin' vowel right, please!

<</lAst/ is last in London, but lost in L.A.>>
So are "last" and "lost" homophones in BrE? Or do they have a direct pronunciation for "lost"?

It is odd how the British insist on pronouncing "Pasta", "taco", "Picasso", etc with that vowel.

<<My favourite line to raise the eyebrows of a yank when over there would have to be "where can I go and smoke a fag". It gets a brilliant reaction everytime. >>

Yeah, I'm not really sure our fags would enjoy that.

In a related vein, you can't imagine how much more amusing the visual was for me when I encountered the following passage from the title character in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason: "Now I can finally have a fag in public!" Needless to say, that took on a whole new meaning that I'm not sure the author intended....

No, "last" and "lost" are not homophones in BrE.
But it so happens that if a Londoner, for instance,
says "last," an LA-born might think that the London fella
has said "lost" instead.

This has happened to me before, as I am cot-caught merged.
My friend from England said something about "last year,"
but I initially heard "lost year"...

I hope that clarifies things for you.

A bother-father-cot-caught merged American that pronounces "pasta" as [p_hQst@] is hardly ptonouncing it like in the original language. Even [p_hAst@] (pahstuh) is incorrect. I believe that the closest is a California vowel shifted individual's pronunciation of the vowel in the word "pass" for "pasta" (which also sounds like the "ah" vowel to other Americans)