best english speakers

<<Dutch are just great, but I think the closest language to English is "Frisian", I'm not sure if that's the way you say it in English, but it's a language spoken in some region in the Netherlands, very close to English. Would a Dutch person or a Languages expert comfirm this, please??>>

That's exactly what I meant when I said some northern island in The Netherlands, they actually speak Old English, but they are Dutch, and it is very close to Dutch although it isn't the same language and lots of Dutch people can't understand what Frisians say. That is indeed the closest language to English, and Dutch follows, it's just a step away. But yeah that is what I meant to say, that is why Dutch people speak such good English, it's cause they're closely related.

Frisian is spoken in Friesland ; it's a province of the Netherlands, in the northwest of the country.It's considered to be a language, not a dialect, and they have for example a tv channel for their language. But I think it's very, very close with dutch.

Dutch and English have many similarities ; I know this because it's obligatory learn them in school, but the pronunciation does differ much. I think that if you are a native speaker of one of this language, to learn the other will be very easy for you. Possibly like for a french to learn catalan.

Then the mere existence of Frisian is amazingly interesting in my opinion, as a language which is the closest to English, which is one of the most erm... peculiar languages in the world.

But how similar are they? I mean can any Frisian speaker write some phrases in contrast to English, or much better, to make a recording of the same thing said in English, Frisian and Dutch. That'd be brilliant.

Thanks in advance
Pete

<<to make a recording of the same thing said in English, Frisian and Dutch. That'd be brilliant. >> that would be brilliant indeed!

I think the World Best English Accent is from Sri Lanka

what about italians, they speak very well english si

<<what about italians, they speak very well english si>>

No, they don't. They speak very good Italian, at least better than mine. XD

Fresian would be 'written' closer to Dutch since they used a Dutch influenced alphabet. Verbally? I don't know... I haven't heard of Fresian.. could someone post a link to a sound file of the language?

I am from Inverness and certainly we speak reasonably clear English but like all regions we have a lot of words that have evolved in to local versions.

In Inverness Butter is pronounced with no "T"s. Mother is pronunced "Muuher", Father is "Faaher". Shopping is "Shopeeen"

Invernesians also speak very quickly, especially when talking to another born and bred local. However just 11 miles along the firth people from Beauly speak with the same accent but the words are very drawn out.

You would say you came from "Beuuuullly"

The local word to cover all eventualities and situations is "Right enough!" According to the tone of your voice it can mean you agree or disagree. A cross between yes and also the equivalent of a teenagers "whatever!" but in use in Inverness for as long as I can remember and I'm old.

>> Shopping is "Shopeeen" <<

Glad to see at least one other person in the world says it like this :)

I agree that the best English speaker are the Dutch and the Scandinavians. Instead, Germans, Spanish, French,... have strong accents and our English sounds fine

Sorry, I meant "Our English does not sound fine"

<<Shopping is "Shopeeen">>

That's interesting. I've heard of this happening in the Pacific Northwest (eg in User's speech), but I didn't know it could occur in Scotland as well.

Myself, I would pronounce it as "shop-ing" ["SQpIN] or "shoppen" ["SQpn=].

>> Myself, I would pronounce it as "shop-ing" ["SQpIN] or "shoppen" ["SQpn=]. <<

Wow, so people that pronounce -ing as -in really do it for all -ing words. I thought they did it just for certain words like "walkin'" and "talkin'", but I guess it makes sense that it would be for other -ing words too. Shoppin' sounds very strange to me, although I don't know why.

>>best (non native) english speakers<<


Northern Europeans, they sound like native Englishmen and most often with a vocabulary to boot. Their public school system ought to be darn good.