American perceptions of British accents

[ObsequiousNewt]

Accents are food? Never heard of that type of synesthesia...

Exactly! English is high in liquids.

[linguoboy]

A posh Scottish accent can sound American.

To non-Americans, maybe. I've never in my life heard a Scot--posh or otherwise--who I'd take for an American.

The GEICO Gecko sounds unexceptionally Estuary to me.

[Solarius]

Accents are food? Never heard of that type of synesthesia...

That's a thing, actually.

[Drydic]

I met a South African woman once whose accent was close to RP, but there was something there that was "not English". At first I thought she was a New Zealander.

The trick to recognizing a South African accent is that while Australian chucks all of the vowels into a stew and mixes them around, and Kiwi adds a hint of lemon, Afrikaners just add a ton of salt. You would sound like that too if you ate Dutch candy growing up.

You're not a synaesthete by any chance, are you?

Accents are food? Never heard of that type of synesthesia...

I believe Sam is alluding to this.

[Travis B.]

I believe Sam is alluding to this.

I presume those actually contain ammonium chloride and not sodium chloride, right?

(Licorice with ammonium chloride really isn't bad at all, seriously.)

[Rhetorica]

No idea! But apparently it makes a lot of people's faces implode, which was what I was alluding to. Strangely-rounded vowels are so much easier to produce when you can't muster enough muscle control to enunciate anything else.

[Particles the Greek]

Accents are food? Never heard of that type of synesthesia...

Expressed that way, it sounds like one of the analogies from the various versions of the LCK: ACCENTS are FOOD.

[ol bofosh]

Accents are food? Never heard of that type of synesthesia...

Expressed that way, it sounds like one of the analogies from the various versions of the LCK: ACCENTS are FOOD.

Sponge cake is tasty - > French is tasty.

My stew is made of various ingredients. -> My accent is made of various ingredients.

I put heating the baked beans on the stove for a few minutes - > My accent has been heated on the stove (of culture) for a few decades.

I roasted the chicken in the oven for a few hours -> English has been roasted in the oven (of the British isles) for under a millenium.

Mmm, makes me hungry...

[Particles the Greek]

PHONEMES are INGREDIENTS. Hmm... there could be something in this.

[ol bofosh]

The other day I prepared myself something out of a alveolar nasal and velar plosive, swilled it round my mouth a few times but a velar nasal came out!

[ObsequiousNewt]

Multiple series of stops have been known to link together, on a molecular level, as chains. When baked, as in Germanic languages, a curious process known as "chain shifting" occurs.

[Drydic]

Multiple series of stops have been known to link together, on a molecular level, as chains. When baked, as in Germanic languages, a curious process known as "chain shifting" occurs.

So you're saying Hansel and Gretel is a shared racial memory?

[ObsequiousNewt]

Multiple series of stops have been known to link together, on a molecular level, as chains. When baked, as in Germanic languages, a curious process known as "chain shifting" occurs.

So you're saying Hansel and Gretel is a shared racial memory?

Naw, I was trying and failing to mke a joke about polymers. Forget it. I like the "liquids" thing better anyway.

[Drydic]

Multiple series of stops have been known to link together, on a molecular level, as chains. When baked, as in Germanic languages, a curious process known as "chain shifting" occurs.

So you're saying Hansel and Gretel is a shared racial memory?

Naw, I was trying and failing to mke a joke about polymers. Forget it. I like the "liquids" thing better anyway.

And I was trying to springboard off your joke into another one.

[richard1631978]

In the mid 1990s I met a woman who sounded part American part Australian, but was actually South African to me & my Dad's surprise.

She mentioned a lot of people had asked about her accent, & most thought she was Canadian or from New Zealand.

[Copperknickers]

A posh Scottish accent can sound American.

To non-Americans, maybe. I've never in my life heard a Scot--posh or otherwise--who I'd take for an American.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s01igaVi7EcO

(and that's a Glaswegian's attempt at an Edinburgh accent, its still probably more Scottish than they would say it).

[Rhetorica]

yeew've clayerly nevurr been to ed'nburrah

Aside from the fact that no American knows how to pronounce the names of British cities (I personally think the Scottish pronunciation of "Edinburgh" sounds like something pinched from an Aussie saying "Canberra"), it's not quite mistakable, though it does definitely use the same inventory. Just a little mixed up, like someone pasted a bunch of accents from the US together and couldn't decide which ones to use for what. There's hints of a Southern twang, for example, but other words come out quite GA-like, in a combination no American would actually have.

[ol bofosh]

A posh Scottish accent can sound American.

To non-Americans, maybe. I've never in my life heard a Scot--posh or otherwise--who I'd take for an American.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s01igaVi7EcO

(and that's a Glaswegian's attempt at an Edinburgh accent, its still probably more Scottish than they would say it).

I met someone from Edinburgh a few weeks ago, but he didn't sound Scottish. More like a rhotacised southerner. Someone once asked him if he came from Devon.

[finlay]

A posh Scottish accent can sound American.

To non-Americans, maybe. I've never in my life heard a Scot--posh or otherwise--who I'd take for an American.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s01igaVi7EcO

(and that's a Glaswegian's attempt at an Edinburgh accent, its still probably more Scottish than they would say it).

oh ok not bad actually. probably better than my glaswegian.

i've been mistaken for american, for what it's worth. i'm usually mistaken for english.

[Particles the Greek]

Aside from the fact that no American knows how to pronounce the names of British cities (I personally think the Scottish pronunciation of "Edinburgh" sounds like something pinched from an Aussie saying "Canberra"),

/ˈembræ/ ya bass

[jmcd]

A posh Scottish accent can sound American.

To non-Americans, maybe. I've never in my life heard a Scot--posh or otherwise--who I'd take for an American.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s01igaVi7EcO

(and that's a Glaswegian's attempt at an Edinburgh accent, its still probably more Scottish than they would say it).

oh ok not bad actually. probably better than my glaswegian.

i've been mistaken for american, for what it's worth. i'm usually mistaken for english.

Yeah, that's easily believable (for both the recording and you getting mistaken).

The way people speak in Edinburgh does vary, as it does in many cities. I myself have been mistaken for English, including by people from Edinburgh, on some occasions but never by an English person.

[linguoboy]

A posh Scottish accent can sound American.

To non-Americans, maybe. I've never in my life heard a Scot--posh or otherwise--who I'd take for an American.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s01igaVi7EcO

(and that's a Glaswegian's attempt at an Edinburgh accent, its still probably more Scottish than they would say it).

Q.E.D. That sounds unmistakeably Scottish to me.

No, I haven't been to Edinburgh, but I've spoken with Edinburghers. (Edinburgeois? Maybe that's the problem--they weren't posh enough.) The vowels are a dead giveaway every time.

i've been mistaken for american, for what it's worth. i'm usually mistaken for english.

But by an American though?

(It should be noted that there's also the Heisenbergian tendency to adapt your speech to that of your interlocutor to take into account. Everyone seems to do this to some extent, but with some people it's very noticeable, almost to the point where it sounds like mockery.)

[finlay]

By a Canadian. Close enough.

I had also been hanging out with my American friend all day, and I have a tendency (as I think I've mentioned already) to start t-flapping around Americans (and Canadians), just like you mentioned there. A lot of people don't find anything remarkable in my accent until they listen closely, I think, which contributes to mistaking me for other places – a lot of them will declare that they do in fact hear a twang or a strange vowel after they hear where I'm from.

[Particles the Greek]

No, I haven't been to Edinburgh, but I've spoken with Edinburghers. (Edinburgeois? Maybe that's the problem--they weren't posh enough.)

Edinburghensians, actually.

[finlay]

Actually there isn't a word in common use. "People from Edinburgh" is fine. Edinburgers is possible but sounds silly.