Sniffles, toilet bowls by the side of the road, accents & Australianisms

Oct 17, 2005 14:54

"If you build it, he will come" (Field of Dreams)
"If there is a flu, Koala will catch it". (The Doom of KoalaNo please don't tell me about flu shots! It is my Doom - I must catch every single flu that flies past. Also I am so not appropriate for the Codral "soldier on with Codral" ad given that when I'm sick, I must take to my bed and make sad ( Read more... )

accents, sickly koalas, weird things by the side of the road, aussie slang

Leave a comment

petitevanou October 17 2005, 19:16:54 UTC
Having the strange mind I do, I tried to think of scenarios.

lol, I visualised it and you had me laughing for a while :D

Accents are funny, I just love a neutral UK English accent, not too posh not too regional, just plain , clear and simple. I don't like English Northern accents, don't like the Irish accent , sorry Irish people, you are lovely but the sound grates me! I love a standard, American accent, but when it goes to south, I find it tough to understand, kinda a cute in a weird way , but tiring.
As for Australian accent, to me , from my French perspective, it's like an English accent, mixed with some US nasal sounds and this acute aaaa, well I can't write it, but it actually sounds like the French e with an acute accent on it, strange but true. This acute sound is more present, to me, in what I think you described as a broad Australian accent ( However, I am French so ignore me lol! )

When I first moved to the UK, identifying the various English , regional and national accents was extremely hard, now it sounds so obvious!

I just find it funny how some accents get on people's nerves, others sound lovely and soothing, sometimes you just get used to one, some make you think of something specific. Apparently the most trusted accent in the UK is Scottish, again, not for me, grrrrr, cute but really annoying after a while.

I loved your list of Aussie words, I had to learn English slang quickly to fit in so a list like this would have been so useful.

Walkabout, I heard that before, it was a movie title, a very good movie!

Pom or Pommy, an English person?, lol, funny, I never knew that, I 'll have to ask my English other half if he knew that, I be he will say yes, and I'll look ignorant :P
I wonder where it comes from?

As you know English people called the French *Frogs* because some of us eat frogs, it's ok, frogs are cute :P, but hahaah, we call them rosbif ( French pronunciation of Roast beef) as a reference to the Poor English cooking ( or so it is perceived in France) we basically caricature English cooking as a piece of boiled beef , hmm, yummy, I'd rather be a frog, lol.

Isn't weird, how we always mock our neighbours, Iam sure you have kiwi jokes in Australia!

lipogram (LIP-uh-gram) noun

A piece of writing that avoids one or more letters of the alphabet. From Greek lipo- (lacking) + gram (something written).]

fascinating, I had never heard of that before ! Wow, I 'll have to check out that book now. :)

ok, I am done spamming your LJ, :D ;)

Reply

koalathebear October 18 2005, 02:23:41 UTC
Accents

I'm with you. I love accents. I actually do like the Irish and Scottish accents but I am a walking cliché..... I like some US accents but not the really manic one that you see on television :) Does this mean you still have a French accent? I'm seeing that we're going to all do an 'accent meme' one of these days! Something like ..... 'read aloud a short piece that you like / you wrote in your own accent'. Hee hee.

The Australian accent drives a lot of people insane because we almost always have a rising inflection at the end of the sentence as if we're asking a question. It's something I work very hard to remove from my voice but I know that I do it from time to time if I'm lazy.

Walkabout, I heard that before, it was a movie title, a very good movie!

Oddly enough the word is oddly appropriate for you. Sometimes when someone vanishes to do his/her own thing you say he or she's gone walkabout. It can also mean just hopping off to have a bit of time and space for yourself - getting away from work, the rat race and all the pressures of life. I think the French call it un petit week-end much to the displeasure of L'Académie française who probably want it called une petite fin de semaine or something like that :)

Perhaps one of these days, petite petitevanou will go walkabout ;)

Pom or Pommy, an English person?, lol, funny, I never knew that, I 'll have to ask my English other half if he knew that,
I be he will say yes, and I'll look ignorant :P I wonder where it comes from?
Would you believe that there is an entire wikipedia article all about "Alternative words for British". *giggle* Admittedly 'pom' is not a very nice word because it usually refers to a 'whinging pom' - a Brit who comes to Australia and complains all the time about everything and that it is not as good as Britain ;)

I think a lot of Brits think it's ok to do that because Australia is a former colony. :) I know the Americans during the war used to call the Brits 'limeys'.

As you know English people called the French *Frogs* because some of us eat frogs, it's ok, frogs are cute :P

Ah Australians call French frogs too ..... :) I have eaten frogs legs I must confess.

but hahaah, we call them rosbif ( French pronunciation of Roast beef) as a reference to the Poor English cooking ( or so it is perceived in France) we basically caricature English cooking as a piece of boiled beef , hmm, yummy, I'd rather be a frog, lol.

Well the Chinese have too many nasty names for foreigners. Big Noses and Foreign Ghosts, Foreign Barbarians for Westerners.... there are a lot :P

Isn't weird, how we always mock our neighbours, Iam sure you have kiwi jokes in Australia!

Australians are terrible. They/we mock everyone. I say they because I don't make some of the awful sheep jokes that they make about NZers ;)

ok, I am done spamming your LJ, :D ;)

It's not spam! You are always most welcome in my Tiny Corner of the Universe :)

Reply

petitevanou October 18 2005, 18:20:30 UTC
I don't have a French accent, I sound pretty much English, with a neutral accent, just like my other half, but I do make pronunciation mistakes especially when I am tired or angry, so that's a give away that I am not English, but people can't tell I am French :D

Un petit week-end, well I must be doing a walkabout very often then :D Yes, we tend to use English words everywhere. It's very bad, proper French people complain a lot about this. The French Canadians are worse than the French French, they have th utmost respect for the French language, more than likely due to the fact that they are surrounded with English speakers!

In France we even have quotas, hmmhmm, of how many English speaking songs can be played on the radio, this is to protext French speaking artists, otherwise, everything would English, weird hein ?

lol, I am not surprised the Brits have this " it's better in the UK " whinny reputation, lol, they are proud :P but it's not all so true, A LOT of Brits are moving out to the continent, because, life is better and cheaper, and loads would love to go to Australia and New Zealand, but there are tough immigration laws, so it's not that easy.
I just want to go back to France *sniffles*

so you've eaten frogs, and I have not :P who's the frog lol :D :P Shall I call you ma petite grenouille? not as cute as petit ourson, :D

big nose, lol, I heard that before,

in the UK they have sheep jokes too, but the victims are Welsh, ooops :P

it was a pleasure to spam your LJ one more time :D :P

Reply


Leave a comment

Up