[Wikipedia-l] The value of Pronunciation

[David 'DJ' Hedley]

> David Gerard wrote:
> > I was amazed when I moved to Walthamstow (London E17). I heard accents
> > from people obviously born here that sounded like NOTHING ON EARTH I'd
> > ever heard before. The Australian accent is incredibly homogeneous by
> > comparison.
>
> American, too.  I pride myself (more or less) on speaking a very
> standard American English with a very standard American accent.  This
> has become more important as I speak to people whose first language is
> not English, because a very mainstream American accent is easy to
> understand (for people who watch American movies, at least, which
> means a lot of people).
>
> Germans and Dutch and French have reported to me that I am easier to
> understand than Angela, for example.  (She has a beautiful accent in
> my opinion, but it sounds Very British.)
>
> Now, even so, I once took a fun little quiz/survey online (which I
> can't find now) which was able to identify that I'm from the south --
> it utilized vocabulary and pronounciation questions and in some cases
> I had no idea that there were regional variations at all.
>
> --Jimbo
> _______________________________________________

Most of the world can't even tell what language i'm speaking most of the
time. I'm from Newcastle, England and have the accent to suit.

I think that in Britain, the further North your accent originates from, the
harder it is for those not from your area to understand you. The London
accent is fairly easy to comprehend in comparison to a Manchurian or Geordie
accent.

- D. Hedley