Accents... what determines them?

[ChoppersX]

I always wondered what it is that determines someone's accents. How is that in ireland and britain there are hundreds of different types of accents and yet most people from mainland european countries all seem to speak with very similar accents, i.e someone from the south of france doesn't really sound that different from someone from the north?

[Postdog]

I can't speak French, German, Spanish, etc, etc, and to me the language is just noise wherever they are from, which is why it all sounds the same, but I'm willing to bet the natives of those countries can discern regional accents - it's just that you probaby aren't as used to hearing those differences, much the same way they probably couldn't tell a Cockney from a scouse.

[Lonnie]

I would imagine that they too would have regional accents, just that being a foreign language, we can't determine them. As a matter of interest, last time we were in Malta, there were a lot of Europeans there learning English, reason being, that because Malta is so small, there are no regional accents at all.

[mightyWBA]

Apparently Tottenham Hotspurs manager Martin Jol,who is Dutch,has such a strong accent that one of his coaches,Hans Segers,who is also Dutch,prefers him to talk in English,because he can't understand his regional Dutch accent.

[Ethel]

I had a friend from Thailand who spoke excellent English during her stay in England.

I was amazed that she could understand perfectly Rab C Nesbit and could not detect his strong Scottish accent at all.

I have known Parisiennes who could not easily understand French country people, so there are definitely regional accents in France, and imagine that is the case all over the world.

[spacechimp]

Apparently, according to the Russian librarian at my school, whose Russian lessons I attended a few times, there are no regional accents across the 10 or so time zones. This librarian is verging on the crazy though.

[spacechimp]

Although it was clear I was talking about Russia, I should have actually said so.

[lafrancaise]

Yes, there are definitely regional accents in France. You can't mistake someone from Paris or from Marseille or from Strasbourg etc they also have their dialects and slang. However, the UK does seem to have a lot more accents; you only need to go 15 miles to notice a change whereas in France you'd need to travel about 200 miles to notice a difference.

The smaller the community you live in the more accents there are, I suppose.

[DMA]

your gob determines your accent

[Bohne]

North Germans cannot understand South Germans and vice versa.
That's why there is a common language (high German), comparable to Oxford English.
This common languate is taught in schools and accents and dialects are actually said to be dying out.

I know in France there are differences, too.
Maybe you should listen to the old locals.

[Bohne]

@lafrancaise: I used to have a friend from a neighbouring village (in Germany), and we were arguing (for fun) all the time about how things are supposed to be pronounced, since in his village, the dialect differed slightly already.

[gessoo]

Hi spacechimp. You can show this to your Librarian: ;o). I know, from experience, she is wrong but I just wanted to find the proof! Just scroll down to dialects.

http://www.languagehelpers.com/languagefacts/russian.html

[rescuer]

If you listen carefully accents change in only 4 or 5 miles. A stranger to the area would probably not notice the difference. eg as you approach the Lancashire border from Yokshire it is possible to discern the 'looooook' for 'luck'.

Retired Prof Stanley Ellis (Leeds Uni) is able to pinpoint accents - and the different words used - within short distances. It was he who said from which area in the North-East that the infamous 'Ripper Tapes' came. And accents within city centres are quite different from those in the surrounding areas. They tend to more lazy. Try listening to a Glaswegian - it is difficult for English people to 'translate'. (eg' Rab C Nesbit').

My German is reasonable but on one ocassion at a Trade Fare I went onto a German stand with a German friend. When we left the stand after some 15 minutes I told my friend that I had been unable to understand much of what the salesman on the stand had been saying. "Oh" he said "he is from Bavaria." It was alsmost a different language.

[shaneystar2]

We are a bilingual family .When I worked in D�sseldorf I used to dread the Bavarian tourists as I could not understand a word they were saying. We have a friend who is Austrian and has lived here the same as Mr.S for over thirty years. He insists on speaking to us in his native language,complete with dialect and even Mr:S has a job to understand him,! My Mum in law lives in a small town in the north of Germany and when she gets together with her cronies speaks Platdeutsch ,which is complete rubbish to anyone who doesn't know what they are on about....!!

[dodgeramus]

pretty much all countries have accents and dialects (of course, many are indiscernable to outsiders), though the quantity of - and variation among - these is largely dependant on the 'age' of the communities living in the region and the population density. Thus england ('old', crowded) has many accents, Australia ('new', sparsely populated) has few. In fact, in oz most people only seem to distinguish between 'normal' and rough (yokelish) accents.. Even in the US there are only a handfull of clearly distinct accents, as there has been less time for different accents to develop (about 450 years) and more interaction between geographically seperate communities..