LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 10.MAR.2000 (03) [E]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 10.MAR.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Ian James Parsley" <parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 09.MAR.2000 (05) [D/E/LS]

John and Lowlanders,

This is a complicated point to back up what John said, so bare with me.
People generally label accents according to what they expect to hear.
Thus
if they know somebody is from Ireland they will label the accent
"Irish", no
matter how it sounds - but if they don't know, they will label it
according
to how it really sounds. This explains why most English people think I
am
Scottish from the way I speak, but if they know I am from NI they will
immediately label my speech "Irish".

As for John's point, Southern Irish people, contrary to popular
misconception, actually have very little to do with Northern Irish
people.
Thus they would merely recognise Northern Irish accents as "not their
own"
and "similar to Scottish". Scots would have rather more to do with the
Northern Irish for good or ill (for example, more NI students attend
University in Scotland than anywhere else outside NI), and would
probably be
more aware of the Scottish-Ulster-Irish accent continuum (though I'm
open to
correction on that). The complication for English people that the two
major
boundaries along that continuum are about Derry-Mid Down (Ulster-Scots
vs.
Mid-Ulster) and Bundoran-Dundalk (Mid-Ulster vs. Southern
Hiberno-English),
i.e. that both boundaries fall *within* Ireland, and that speech
directly on
either side of the Irish Sea is not particularly distinct (so, for
example,
if I'm trying to find an NI radio station I might think I've found one
from
the accent of the newsreader, only to find it's a SW Scottish station).

(On this point, I actually think the most obvious example of this is
what
happens when Southern Irish and Scottish people move to Northern
Ireland.
The Southern Irish remain noticeable by their speech even after decades
(such as two neighbours of mine), whereas the Scots (particularly those
from
Glasgow southwards) only have a small change to make, particularly if
living
in NE Ulster, so that after a very short time they cannot be told apart
from
locals.)

Of course, the same applies over rather larger areas - I have heard
Americans refer to "British" accents, whatever they are. And, similarly
to
John's point, many US-Americans will label Canadian accents "British"
(according to my American multimedia atlas, Canada is a "UK-English"
speaking country), whereas very few British people could distinguish
Canadian from US-American.

Mind, I've just seen a TV program(me) where a US-American was asked to
name
any of the last five UK prime ministers and replied "Trudeau"...

Best,
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"

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