1. What accent do you speak in when you speak your native language? Don't tell me you don't have one, because everyone has an accent, even if it's the "standard" accent for the language in question.

I have several. My native accent is what's called "Modified RP" – very very few people speak true Received Pronunciation anymore; instead, people speak something that's a bit like RP, but with a slight tinge of their area's regional accent. Mine is modified in the Kentish direction. Phone me some time if you want to hear what it sounds like: I haven't had anyone X-SAMPA my speech yet, and I don't yet have the knowhow to do it myself. Handily, there's a very famous person who comes from my town: his name is Orlando Bloom. So if anyone wants to know what a middle-class Canterbury accent sounds like, just watch one of his films. (The working-class accent is very different: it's like Estuary English, with a few small variations that I can tell people about if they want to ask.)

After five years of school in Scotland, though, I have a second accent which sometimes surfaces. One day, after around 2.5 years there, I found myself speaking with quite a noticeable Scottish accent. It wasn't quite like native Scots', but it was most certainly rhotic, which my normal accent isn't, and my /{/ and /A/ (long A and short A: the two vowels in "castle" and "cat" if you're from the South of England) merged into something between the two (listen to anyone from Edinburgh). Also, I started saying "school" like a Scottish person (roughly [skY@5], for anyone who knows X-SAMPA – [5] is a dark /l/) and words such as "poor" and "sure" stopped rhyming with "more" and started rhyming with "sewer". This accent surfaces when a) I'm in Scotland, b) I'm talking to Scottish people or even thinking about my Scottish friends, and c) am a bit drunk . (I might add d): when trying to chat up girls abroad ).

Here at Cambridge, my accent turns into another type of Modified RP: modified in a Public-School-accent direction rather than a Kentish direction.

No matter which of those I'm speaking in, my medial and final /t/s frequently become glottal stops.

I share your exasperation for people who claim not to have an accent: unless they are mute, this is untrue, and they should know it.

2. Do you mispronounce words because of your accent? I'm not talking about simple variant pronunciation. I'm talking about the way people in Boston say the word "career" like "Korea" and "Korea" like "career" (or, for example, the way Billy Joel sings about "Brender & Eddie" in "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" ).

I really don't understand. What on earth do you mean by "mispronunciation"? The example you gave is precisely "simple variant pronunciation" – I pronounce "Korea" and "career" in exactly the same way (except when in Scotland): [k@rI@]. Why is this a "mispronunciation"? I also pronounce "shore", "Shaw" and "sure" in exactly the same way (again, except when in Scotland). You imply some standard of "correct" pronunciation: what is it? And yet at the same time, you allow for "simple variant pronunciation" as something valid. This question makes nonsense to me – I'd be very glad if you could explain.

3. Do you speak any other languages fluently enough to have a distinctive local accent in that language? For example, my Moscow accent, my friend's Parisian accent when he speaks French, etc.

Unfortunately, the only language I can speak to a reasonable degree of fluency is French (and it's been going downhill since I left my bilingual Prep School ). I've been told I can fool French people for a little bit; but once the conversation gets going properly, they'll notice I'm not a native. If I have any accent in French other than a mild (or otherwise) English one, it would probably be that of very rich Parisians, as that's what most of the children I learnt French from at the said school were. One thing I know I do which is probably unique to that dialect/sociolect is add a hint of a fricative to the end of words that end in /i/. So, for example, the word "mie" will be pronounced [miç].

My accent recognition in French is not good; I simply haven't been exposed to different accents enough. The best I can do is to distinguish a very obvious Southern accent from what I would consider "normal" French speech, and also (if I'm lucky) a Belgian accent. I also remember having a French Listening practice tape with Amiens accents on it: they sound very strange! I want to hear a proper French-Canadian accent sometime, to see what it sounds like and whether I can understand it.

4. Are any of your accents "looked down" upon? (For example, Cockney or similar accents in England, Algerian accents in French, Caucasus accents in Russian, Long Island accents in American English, etc., etc., etc. )

Only by inverse snobs – when I come back from Cambridge I sound pretty "posh" (although I think I do anyway ).

5. As long as we're speaking about accents, are there any foreign accents which, when you hear your native language spoken in, turn you on/sound pretty ?

Scottish (does that count as foreign?); Irish (but not Belfast so much – I'm talking real Irish); Greek (Greek girls are amazing: even when they're so pretty that you know they have to be getting regular sex, they still sound really sweet and innocent!); Generic American (as seen on TV) excluding Southern (sorry Texans – nothing personal! I think I might be being influenced by American prejudices – there's a scary thought!).

6. Are there any foreign accents which make your language sound awful?

Any really thick foreign accent will do that; I don't really think any one is worse than another, if the strength is equivalent.

Okay, that's it. 'Twas a short survey.

Thanks – it was interesting, especially reading some of the others' responses.

One other note: when I was in Connecticut on a school trip, someone noticed that my accent wasn't Scottish (it was for most of the trip, due to the company I was in, but I must have gone back to English when talking to this lady) and asked where I was from. It turned out she'd guessed that I was from Kent, and probably from Canterbury, before I told her, but she hadn't said so until I confirmed it. I was quite astonished. She had a son-in-law that was from Canterbury, but still, it's bloody impressive!

Yours, Tim .


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This message last edited by Eyeless Myrddraal on 4/25/2004 at 7:33:42 PM.

• Edit 1: 4/25/2004 7:33:42 PM