LL-L: "Pronunciation" LOWLANDS-L, 18.SEP.2000 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 18.SEP.2000 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Thomas [t.mcrae at uq.net.au]
Subject: LL-L: "Pronunciation" LOWLANDS-L, 18.SEP.2000 (01) [E]

> From: Lowlands-L <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: LL-L: "Pronunciation" LOWLANDS-L, 18.SEP.2000 (01) [E]
>
> That's usually the case when people have an accent, or really speak
> something
> other than the standard language. It seems rather amusing to others.
I can vouch for this in Australia, a country I love but where they tend to
regard their relatively standard pronunciations as the 'only way'. We Scots

frequently have to put up with garbage like, 'Wy don' yer tock Aengelish
Mae?.' It's particularly irritating when one rises to make a speech and
gets
a barrage of 'Yew'll need an aenterpritter!'. Fortunately this is largely
confined to older people but it does hurt when one gets it on a regular
basis.
Australia is the only place in my wide travels where I've encountered this
problem. Interestingly enough I never had any problem with my many Asian
students and friends who told me they had trouble understanding the
Aussies.

Regards
Tom
Tom Mc Rae
Brisbane Australia
"Oh wid some power the Giftie gie us
Tae see oorselves as ithers see us"
Robert Burns--

----------

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

Tom wrote:

> I can vouch for this in Australia, a country I love but where they tend
to
> regard their relatively standard pronunciations as the 'only way'. We
Scots
> frequently have to put up with garbage like, 'Wy don' yer tock Aengelish
> Mae?.' It's particularly irritating when one rises to make a speech and
gets
> a barrage of 'Yew'll need an aenterpritter!'. Fortunately this is largely

> confined to older people but it does hurt when one gets it on a regular
> basis.

Tom, while this is certainly stupid, crass, annoying and inexcusable, I
don't think it is meant to be mean-spirited or anything like that.  It's
just socially unacceptable and happily mostly confined to old-timers.  In
fact, I've got the impression that oftentimes there is even a certain
element of "intimacy" in it.  My impression of Australians is that there is
a certain level of "love" for Scotland and for the Scots, which should not
be surprising considering that such a large percentage of Australians are
of Scottish descent and aware of it.  I heard many an Australian say that
they found Scottish accents "charming" or something like that.  Similarly,
American accents are sometimes made fun of, but it is my impression that
most Australians perceive some sort of bond and similarities with
Americans, even those who dislike American world politics.  (In fact, there
was a period in which Australian DJs would put on American accents.)  I
noticed that foreign, namely non-English "accents" are not made fun of as
much as are "accents" of other English speakers, which to me signals some
sort of teasing among family members.  Or it could simply be that I myself
have a foreign "accent" and thus never heard about it.  ;)

I used to work with a mixed bunch of people in Australia, many of them with
foreign "accents".  The only ones that were teased, and rarely so, were
three Scottish people who spoke what I thought was pretty much Standard
Scottish English.  One that was *not* teased was an older Scottish man from
Glasgow who had been in Australia for over thirty years and still was not
or only partly understood by all but a handful.  (It took me about 6 months
to get the general gist of what he said.  I think he spoke English with a
heavy dose of Scots mixed in.)  I gathered that his "problem" was
considered serious, so people would not tease him but would complain about
him behind his back.

Hopefully, all this will soon be a thing of the past.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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