Angela Harlem said:Oh God, dont get me started on Z. It's bad enough it replaces S so often, but at least fucking pronounce it correctly!!
Ok, I'm getting annoyed lol...
I'll second the and then try to keep my trap shut!
Angela Harlem said:Oh God, dont get me started on Z. It's bad enough it replaces S so often, but at least fucking pronounce it correctly!!
Ok, I'm getting annoyed lol...
Angela Harlem said:
It's totally choice eh bro
anitram said:However, he also says Australian and NZ English sounds extremely hick to him, particularly the widespread addition of the letter "R" at the ends of words which end in a vowel, which he says is generally seen as a determinant of old style class (or lack thereof) in England proper.
Angela Harlem said:I don't usually see any accent in Australians
beli said:
Liar, liar, pants on fire!
You told me my accent was completely different to yours.
Axver said:
Edit: Wait, you said 'end with a vowel'. There go my examples! I'd say that when Kiwis say words that end with vowels, we sometimes add an 'uh' sound, like Africuh, not Africar.
anitram said:
My boss is from NZ. He actually lived in England (has a PhD from Cambridge).
And he has many, many, many times called me Martiner (instead of Martina). Usually it is when the following word starts with a vowel. For example, he will say "Martina, can you do this" but he will also say "Martiner are you going...."
I pointed it out to him once. He was completely oblivious to the fact he'd been doing it and in fact didn't even understand what I was talking about, he was that unaware of it.
Axver said:
Now that I've thought about it and said both 'Martiner' and 'Martinuh' out loud ... they actually sound really similar.
beli said:
You reckon? I dont think so. I guess Im hearing an R heavy USA accent when I hear 'Martiner'. Bit like the way people from California say rule-errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, instead of roo-laaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Axver said:
When I was actually focusing on pronouncing the 'r', then yeah, that's exactly what happened. But when I said 'Martiner' with the 'r' from 'car', it was pretty close to Martinuh.
Angela Harlem said:
You're the exception, you dusty red hick! You just sound private school whipped, I mean educated.
beli said:
Thats because there is no "r" in car. lol.
indra said:Of course, I always thought y'all had a bastardised form of english anyway, just as we do (except different).
indra said:Being from the sticks of Ohio, and an atrocious speller to boot, I probably will be shredded in this here thread.
But I think any plans for going to Australia or New Zealand have just been shot to hell. Yikes! It would freak me out knowing people were picking apart the way I speak. Of course, I always thought y'all had a bastardised form of english anyway, just as we do (except different).
biff said:For "I could care less" to make sense, you would have to imagine what it might sound like if someone actually said it. It's Yiddish in inflection, being very sarcastic in its up-tone: "I could care less??" The first three words are all on the same note, and the last word is a full note higher. It really means: I honestly could not care less, with a big cynical shrug.
beli said:
That would go right over my head.
Its a bit like how USA people say "I lucked out" and its means something good to some people in the USA. In Australia it means that the person has run out of luck ie something bad has happened.
biff said:Well, I agree that the expression "I lucked out" means something completely different in our countries, as opposed to the U.S.
But that's an idiomatic expression.
What I'm talking about is inflection and physical gesture, in addition to the actual words. The literal words mean less than the way in which they are expressed.
Axver said:Also, I've been told by a few people that in the US, if you refer to someone as your 'partner', it means they're of the same sex as you - in other words, that you're gay. Any Americans want to confirm or deny this? I'd use 'partner' to refer to someone I'm romantically involved with but not married to. I hate the word 'girlfriend' because it sounds so 13-years-old, but I use it online now after a couple of Americans told me 'partner' makes me sound like I have a boyfriend.