Ever noticed that no one thinks they personally have an accent? We once went to Canada and a waitress said she liked our accent (scottish) and we said we liked hers, and she said, oh I don't have an accent. Now clearly no one speaks a definitive absolutely neutral version of English and everyone has an accent. First of all by country and then secondly by region. And if ANYone has a claim to be speaking the definitive version, it has to be the English.
2007-06-24 23:34:59 · 7 answers · asked by sonfai81 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
it is true no one thinks they personally have an accent!
i once heard a joke that had to do with accents and stuff,
the conclusion was that everyone spoke,
narmal, nermal,or normol... but no one spoke normal!!!
i found out that i had an accent when my friends started asking me to stop saying certain words, that made them laugh.
but it is normal for someone to think they do not have an accent because their accent is affected and created by their society. everyone living around them speak with the same accent thats why they tend to think that this is the normal way and all other are accents!!!!
2007-06-25 00:00:01 · answer #1 · answered by Robin 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure that I agree totally with that, as England probably has more different regional accents than any other English-speaking country.
The only variety of English which can truly be thought to be "accentless" is so-called BBC English, also called "Received Pronunciation" (or "RP"), but it is an artificial variety of English, so probably doesn't count.
2007-06-25 00:08:23 · answer #2 · answered by GrahamH 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree, the language is called "english" so it's the English who speak it properly. The rest of us all have accents... my fellow Americans are ridiculous when they claim to have no accent.
Of course now the question becomes: WHICH English are speaking it properly?
If it's "The Queen's English" then only Her Majesty speaks it properly... and if that's proper english I want no part of it.
2007-06-24 23:41:08 · answer #3 · answered by doppler 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
What accent?
Well I guess everybody speaks with an accent of some kind in any language, even if they themselves deny it.
2007-06-25 21:22:46 · answer #4 · answered by Martin 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My son lives in New Zealand, and always has and he has had heaps of people ask him wot part of the US he's from. Wot is up with that! I think it could be that we don't hear our own voices like others hear them.
2007-06-24 23:43:38 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yers, I fink yer righ' on in saying the Poms 'ave go' i' righ'.
2007-06-24 23:41:07 · answer #6 · answered by bumblecrumb 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is because those we were raised around is the "normal" for us.
2007-06-25 05:37:30 · answer #7 · answered by RB 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋