LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 15.MAR.2000 (04) [E]

Thu Mar 16 00:00:03 UTC 2000

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 15.MAR.2000 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Language varieties"

> From: John M. Tait [jmtait at altavista.net]
> Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 09.MAR.2000 (05) [D/E/LS]
>
> Yes - you wonder what the 'Scottish' would have sounded like. One of my
> sons is playing a game called 'Age of Empires 2' by Microsoft, supposed to
> be set in the 'Braveheart' era. The 'Scottish' accent sends us
> into fits of
> laughter - certainly it has elements of _southern_ Irish, as well as Lord
> knows what else. With their money, MS could have hired Sean Connery!

Actually, this has a rather unfunny aspect if you know what lies behind it.
I've "consulted" for two American novelists in the past few years on the
speech of their Scottish characters, and I've found that there's no
persuading them to remove the Irish dialect from their "Scots" dialogue.
This puzzled me with the first novelist, but the second explained that Irish
accents are very popular in America at the moment and they want their Scots
dialogue to look Irish no matter how ridiculous it might seem to me!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
http://www.fleimin.demon.co.uk

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From: Mike Adams [abrigon at yahoo.com]
Subject: NW Pacific Coast

I will agree that in the NW US we have elements of
English from all over.. I have some odd ones I picked
up some place..
I almost say Traysure. I say Wosh instead of Wash. I
do say Gal from time to time.. I was born in the Boise
Area of Idaho, spent like 5 years there, then 5 in
Portland area, but grew up in Alaska with oil people
from Texas/Arkansas/Louisiana so... I may have some
fun in my word usage.. It often depends on who I am
with, and my mind set.. I sometimes will slip into a
southern accent or an irish one.. Long story, or an
almost upper class English at times.. Longer story.

Mike

=====
Send me email at: Abrigon at yahoo.com

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From: Mike Adams [abrigon at yahoo.com]
Subject: Irish/Scotish Accents

Wait until you here someone speaking with a Welsh
accent, it is almost incomprehencible by me, of course
over time I think I could figure it out..

There is colonies of Scots in British Columbia who
speak with a very scottish accent.. As well as some
who still speak Gaelic in Nova Scotia area.. I
sometime can do an Irish accent, but sometimes scotish
elements slip in, but after all what is a Scot, an
Irishman who got lost going North.. Scoti is an old
latin term for an Irish Raider basically. Wierdness is
to hear a person from East India who still has their
accent, but who is speaking in Glasgow Scot accent as
well, real fun.

Well Northern Irish (Protestants) are Scots, they came
over c.1700 under command of King James to replace
some of the locals who were less than loyal and all.
If I remember right that is.. So the accent is still a
bit Scotish, especially when they visit cousins just
across the water from time to time.

I do love Richard Geres accent in I forget the movie,
he atleast kept it up most of the time, but ... seen
yes to many really bad accents from movies.

Michael Adams (Mother is a Ni'Donnabhain in the old
way, Donovan in the American)

From: John M. Tait [jmtait at altavista.net]
Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L,
09.MAR.2000 (05)
[D/E/LS]

John wrote:
>
>I work occasionally in amateur theatre. A couple of
days ago, while we
were
>building a set for the next production, someone
couldn't recall the
name of
>the stage manager and said "You know, the girl from
Ulster". One of
the
>actors, who comes from Southern Ireland said "You
mean Moira - I
always
>thought she was Scottish". Moira is in fact from
Bangor and has quite
a
>pronounced Ulster accent. Another Southern Irishman
then said that
when he
>had been in a film set in Northern Ireland he had
great trouble with
the
>accent and kept lapsing into "Scottish".

Yes - you wonder what the 'Scottish' would have
sounded like. One of my
sons is playing a game called 'Age of Empires 2' by
Microsoft, supposed
to
be set in the 'Braveheart' era. The 'Scottish' accent
sends us into
fits of
laughter - certainly it has elements of _southern_
Irish, as well as
Lord
knows what else. With their money, MS could have hired
Sean Connery!

John M. Tait.

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language varieties

Mike wrote (above):

> I almost say Traysure. I say Wosh instead of Wash.

But do you say it with an 'r', as "Warshington," like any self-respecting
Warshingtonian would?  Oh, I remember: you are a Northwesterner but not from
Washington State.

In the beginning line of "Almost Live," a local comedy show now gone national,
they say "... and there is no 'r' in 'Washington'" ... with good reason.

Strangely, those who say "Warshington" don't say "to warsh" or "warshing" ...
Go figure!  Well, people here also pronounce "Whidby Island," a local island,
as "Woodbee Island," and that's the only acceptable pronunciation.  One thing
you have to hand them though: they do get their tongues around local
Salishian-derived place names like "Puyellup" ([pju'El at p]), something few
other Americans manage to do (predictably saying *[p(j)u'jElVp]).  (The 'y' is
omitted as in the now most common American pronunciation of 'beyond' as
[bi'Ond].)

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron from Seattle, Warshington

----------

From: Pepijn Hendriks [pepijnh at bigfoot.com]
Subject: Re: LL-L: "Language politics" LOWLANDS-L, 15.MAR.2000 (02) [E]

In the ongoing discussion on Canadian English, the following:

I've found to be the following book quite an extensive and interesting
account of Canadian English:

Orkin, Mark M., _Speaking Canadian English. An Informal Account of
the English Language in Canada_, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd,
London, 1971.

It contains chapters on the origin and the ingredients of Canadian
English, its pronunciation, spelling and syntax, names (place names as
well as personal names) and even slang.

-Pepijn

--
 pepijnh at bigfoot.com -- http://www.bigfoot.com/~pepijnh -- ICQ - 6033220

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