All you Brits and Aussies crack me up with your words and phrases!

Any of you familiar with the Wisconsin accent? We poot the bayg in the cer and go for a ride don't cha know?

Out of all the American accents, I'd say the Boston one annoys me the most... Probably stems from the utter hatred of my college marketing teacher and her nasally whining Boston accent. Gah... Still sends shivers down my spine just thinking of it.

Factory Lad, correct

Raideur; that reminds me of Katherine Hepburn, was that her accent?

Living in Atlanta I gots me a bit uh accent, but go outside the Metro area...Deliverance was filmed 2hours from my house. LOL

"Goa don yonder bout aspell till ya'll rech a the smillersparm (The Miller's Farm) go raght fer wile bout a countree male and der ya r" Or something like that.

I wondered what is the perception of American regional accents with our Commonwealth friends. Give an example many Americans can/cannot tell the difference between Scottish, Irish accents. Do our Aus, UK, NZ, Can. members prefer one regional accent over another. IS there a quintessential American accent?

Here is some fun courtesy of Joel Chandler Harris (Uncle Remus) and his Tar Baby story, One of may favorite sections of the story:

“Brer Rabbit keep on axin’ ’im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin’ nothin’, twel present’y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis’, he did, en blip he tuck ’er side er de head. Right dar’s whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis’ stuck, en he can’t pull loose. De tar hilt ’im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.


//Durn I think I dun broke my spell check! LOL

What i really dont understand is why americans call the fuel you put into cars "gas" when it is quite obviously a liquid.

Originally posted by tiddly54
What i really dont understand is why americans call the fuel you put into cars "gas" when it is quite obviously a liquid.

That is because the term:"Gas" comes from Gasoline not gaseous. BTW Petrol is short for Petroleum Spirit. Spirit = Gas so in fact "Petrol" is a seemingly correct colloquialism of a technically incorrect term. While "Gas" is a misleading and seemingly incorrect term for the correct technical term Gasoline. LOL Of course Diesel is so much easier, named after its inventor but is really light weight fuel oil. LOL

Originally posted by Imperium Americana
I wondered what is the perception of American regional accents with our Commonwealth friends. Give an example many Americans can/cannot tell the difference between Scottish, Irish accents. Do our Aus, UK, NZ, Can. members prefer one regional accent over another. IS there a quintessential American accent?

I personally can't tell the difference between American regional accents. But I think if there is a quitessential American it'd be the Californian one according to some people who have travelled a bit. And there's always the Texan or Southern accent.

I guess those two are the what you might call "stereotypical" American accent.

Originally posted by Dr Love
Where are all the Aussies? You guys have some great words and phrases too.

Peace

A lot of aussie words are similar to British ones. Although American words and phrases have taken a greater hold recently due to the amount of American tv shown on our commercial networks and music and all that.

[edit on 10/2/06 by D]

I laugh at these two differences.
When an aussie is drunk, he will say he is pissed where for an american this will mean is he is angry.
And also, when an american says he roots for a team, it means his supporting his team. For an aussie to root means to have sex.

In America, you say chips for what we call crisps, and you say fries for what we call chips, and in the uk (french) fries are a type of crisp, or chip. Confused?

Regarding Brits and Ausies making themselves understood in America:

Ar, R'm frum the Black Country, its bostin ay it. Yow woe ar'ly mekkout a word er ow R spake if R wuz ter goo the'er! Tararabit!

[edit on 10-2-2006 by Paul]

Bloody L

"Britain and America: two great countries divided by a common language." - Winston Churchill

I am an eternal fan of dialects and accents and love to try to imitate them as best I can.

For what it's worth, the variations within a country can be as great or greater than between countries.

But I must ask, is it as hard for Brits to understand Americans as it is for Americans to understand Brits?

Some slang from the great Southern land
Strewth!= Oh god or wow
Stone the crows= Wow
Taking the raw prawn=Pulling your leg
Buckleys chance= no chance
'On ya = Well done
Ankle Biters=little kids
mad as a Cut snake=someone very upset, that could do anything
Yank=American
Busy as a one legged bloke in an arse kicking contest=Doing nothing

Originally posted by Paul
In America, you say chips for what we call crisps, and you say fries for what we call chips, and in the uk (french) fries are a type of crisp, or chip. Confused?

Regarding Brits and Ausies making themselves understood in America:

Ar, R'm frum the Black Country, its bostin ay it. Yow woe ar'ly mekkout a word er ow R spake if R wuz ter goo the'er! Tararabit!

[edit on 10-2-2006 by Paul]

Wheres yow bin from? stowerbridge me........bin listnin ta tha claats on baycan radioo?

Originally posted by Majic
But I must ask, is it as hard for Brits to understand Americans as it is for Americans to understand Brits?

My first reaction would be to say 'no, we understand you easily', mainly because of our familiarity with one of Amerca's great cultural exports, the hollywood movie, which we are all used to seeing and hearing, and all therefore are familiar with what we perceive to be the American accent.

From personal experience though, and in concurrence with your previous point, I know its not that simple. When I was at school, we had a kid come over from Alabama on an exchange program, and his speech was very difficult to understand at first. People would say to him "how come you don't speak like a normal American, like in the movies?"

I would infer that most people in the UK would consider an American accent much more comprehensible than a regional UK accent/dialect, such as my own (alternative link). Oddly, in another take on it, my French girlfriend understands the Blackcountry dialect really well, even speaking a weird version of it herself at times, but still prefers to have subtitles on when we watch an American movie!

Originally posted by ridcully
Wheres yow bin from? stowerbridge me........bin listnin ta tha claats on baycan radioo?

'Ensford me, down by Littleton pitbonk an Cannock Chairse. I ay aired baycan radyo for yonks mucker

It was quite funny last week when there was a small groupr of Americans in the local chippy in Maltby buying kebabs, one of the Americans clearly didn't have a clue what the girl behind the counter was saying and his friend, Also American, had to act as interpreter, lol.

Originally posted by Paul

Originally posted by ridcully
Wheres yow bin from? stowerbridge me........bin listnin ta tha claats on baycan radioo?

'Ensford me, down by Littleton pitbonk an Cannock Chairse. I ay aired baycan radyo for yonks mucker

Im gonna have to drop the BC writing chap! I see your band play around the wolves, I go up to Blast Off fairly regularly. Hate the Canal Club though, not sure why, just do! You can catch up with the Clarts here
Honestly, its proper funny chap, you'll piss yourself

Originally posted by ridcullyIm gonna have to drop the BC writing chap! I see your band play around the wolves, I go up to Blast Off fairly regularly. Hate the Canal Club though, not sure why, just do! You can catch up with the Clarts here
Honestly, its proper funny chap, you'll piss yourself

Alright ower kid? I dower cum round wolvo that much, shud though, sounds like a roit loff! Should ava decco one day.

Yowl find this un down Snobs in Brummegem.

Originally posted by FactoryLad

Originally posted by ridcullyIm gonna have to drop the BC writing chap! I see your band play around the wolves, I go up to Blast Off fairly regularly. Hate the Canal Club though, not sure why, just do! You can catch up with the Clarts here
Honestly, its proper funny chap, you'll piss yourself

Alright ower kid? I dower cum round wolvo that much, shud though, sounds like a roit loff! Should ava decco one day.

Yowl find this un down Snobs in Brummegem.

I really feel like I should know where Snobs is. Is it down Broad St or round that way? Im sure a couple of my mates went there recently. Went to the Med Bar a few weeks back. Got extermely drunk and fell down n cracked me bum bone. Not once but twice, bloody killed us. Saw in the new year at Ricocos too. It was all going well till the fire alarm went off. Proper pissed off at that since Id just copped off with some bint I got talking too

I'm in Halesowen mate, only down the road - so you should know where Snobs is if I do!

It's just off Victoria Square, next door to that greek restuarunt Athens. Get to the bottom of Broad St. under the subway and your there.

My spiratual home, good tunes and double vodkas for £1.50

mince pies - eyes

say yeah, ummm, right, at the start, middle, inbetween, or end of sentences...that makes you sound very english, as we don't all sit around drinking tea with the queen, example:

ummm, you'll never guess what, right, there was this guy, yeah, and he was really silly, right... i think you get the point.

lorry - truck

garage - garaaaaaaaage

boot - trunk

and also to be a bit more proper english, don't pronounce ya words right, leave of lil' bit er and der...

Its in the ponunciation too, like Garage, as you say in America its Garaaaage, but where I live its 'garridge'.

Rhyming slang is always evolving too 'Britney Spears' is now used for Beers for example. There are also instances of where rhyming slang has evolved into an accepted word. For example 'scarper' meaning run away or clear off, is derived from 'Scapa Flow' meaning 'go'.

And we all like a lady with nice thrupenny bits don't we.

[edit on 10-2-2006 by waynos]