Where have all the accents gone?

[Celesta]

Hi Hook,

Yes, they do. It's in the link, I think.

Best,

Cel

[Lyn]

The strangest thing happened recently. I was sitting at a table talking to Dan when a complete stranger stopped and asked, "where in the south of England are you from?" Not the usual where are you from, or are you Cockney/Scottish/Welsh/Australian/French etc. I've never been asked "where in the south of England" before! Mind you, he had his Plymouths and his Portsmouths mixed up, but it was nice, I admit, to not have to explain that I'm not from Swansea or London or Sydney or Southall.

[Sam Flynn]

I once helped a blind lady across the road in Hampstead. Once we'd reached the other side she thanked me, and added, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but which part of India do you come from?". That's the Welsh accent for you...

[DVV]

Sam,
we're waiting for your answer.
Gujerat or what?

[Celesta]

Hi Lynners,

Strangers used to come up to me and start speaking in a foreign language. It happened a couple of times when I was waiting for the bus, once in the lobby of the building I worked in and in other instances. Turns out they thought I was Swedish. I have no idea why. One of them became very angry with me when I didn't understand him. He finally said, rather loudly, "Aren't you Swedish?!!" I said "No, I'm from Atlanta!" and he waved his arms at me and stomped off! I don't know why this kept happening but it happened for a couple of years on and off.

The closest I can get to Swedish is my famous imitation of the Swedish chef on The Muppets. I knew a Swedish guy and he loved it. He said it sounded just like Swedish, except that it was nonsense words.

See ya.

[Pippin Joan]

People are more migratory today, as well as influenced by accents from television. I'm from Vermont, USA, and the local accent is much more typical "northeastern" than when I was a child. Most people had a strong local accent then, and it is fast disappearing. My heart thrills when I hear an old-timer greet me with "hoi-hoi". It will soon be gone. My son still imitates his school bus driver who let him off each afternoon with "'Noight, Jimes."

[bodiam]

Actually it depends. In the case of Barack, assuming just for illustrative purposes that he was born in Kenya, his mother would have to have lived in the U.S. for ten years after the age of 16 according to the laws in place at the time in order for him to have U.S. citizenship. His mother did not do this thus the controversy. Even children of U.S. servicemen born abroad, while entitled to U.S. citizenship, are not necessarily considered natural born citizens if one of their parents is a foreign national. The laws have changed from time to time.

[Chris George]

Hi all

I took a private tour of Brooklyn Revolutionary War sites a week ago and could certainly hear the distinctive Brooklyn, New York accent in the voices of several people who spoke to me.

In regard to the diminishment of English regional accents, it would seem to me the Liverpool or "Scouse" accent has not lessened. Just listen to Liverpool FC's Steven Gerrard or Jamie Carragher... or Manchester United's Wayne Rooney, also a Liverpudlian.

Although I am from Liverpool, I have actually lived most of my life in the United States, though still viewing myself as a proud Liverpudlian and Englishman. I was not aware when I lived in Liverpool of the marked difference between the thick accent of the north end of Liverpool (Bootle, Liverpool, and the Scotland Road area) and the milder Liverpool accent of the south end (Mossley Hill, Allerton, Childwall etc). The north end accent actually seems to have been growing more marked rather than less. Carragher is from Bootle and though Gerrard grew up in Huyton, an eastern suburb of Liverpool, I think his family were from the north end of the city.

I am from the south end of Liverpool and probably never did have much of a marked Liverpool accent, not helped by me spending part of my school years alternately in Liverpool and the United States (mostly in Maryland but one year in Connecticut).

The Beatles were also from the south end and I have a theory that they may have accentuated their Liverpool accents as part of their image. John Lennon of course was not the working class fellow he sounded like... though the other members of the group did come more from working class families, particularly Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), from the Dingle -- he could be excused for having a thicker accent. But even so their accents today sound mild against those of the aforementioned footballers.

All the best

Chris



Ringo's neighborhood in the Dingle, Liverpool: here's my wife Donna with Gerard Fleming who took us on a Beatles tour of Liverpool. This is the pub featured on the cover of Ringo's "Sentimental Journey" LP. The Empress pub is on High Park Street, on the corner of Admiral Grove where Ringo lived as a boy, visible on the right.

[Captain Hook]

Barack Obama's Birth Certificate

In the case of Barack, assuming just for illustrative purposes that he was born in Kenya...

Hello Bodiam,

But Obama was not born in Kenya. He was born in Hawaii, as the certificate below shows. He therefore is a natural-born citizen under the provisions of American law.

All the best,
Hook

[Pippin Joan]

First, I think it's a matter of being a native, nor a natural. Secondly, doesn't America observe the jus sanguinis principle besides the jus soli one? In oter words, don't the children of American citizens born abroad have a right to American citizenship in the same manner as all children born in American soil have that right?

I do think this law needs revision. I imagine that when the constitution was first written, being a born American was an important issue of identity, but people are so mobile today. John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, which fortunately for him, was an American possession at that time. I remember a presidential hopeful years ago whose parents were diplomats in Mexico when he was born, and from what I recollect, that did not equal "American-born". Arnold Schwartzenegger quipped that he's working on a constitutional amendment to that rule.

[DVV]

Just realised I'm born on 4 Aug like Obama.
And just like him, my mother is "caucasian", while my father is not!
I'm the next French president. No doubt.

[Celesta]

Ah ha! A Leo! I knew it!

I was born in August, too.

David, we are august persons!

[The Good Michael]

According to the Hittite calendar, I was born in the month of Aglympsa which makes me a sand newt. The qualities are: quick, evasive, clever, and low on the food chain.

Mike

[Celesta]

A striped newt or a spotted one?

[DVV]

To me, this was a most interesting and relevant pub talk, and the question had been worded by Limehouse with great elegance.

Happy new year all, especially those who love their region, town, village, district, neighbourhood, and defend their accents and local culture and language.

In other terms:

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda ! (thanks to Sam...)
Buan' annado, bèn granado ! (this one from Provence)
Melkam addis amät! (ethiopian, specially to Simon Wood))

to Anna : "Ayzosh!" (amharic expression, meaning both: "be strong, and don't worry")