Accentuate the Positive

[sierra_le_oli]

Accents can change with a change in surroundings, but despite my time away, my accent is apparently still identifiable as Kiwi. Or Australian to most English people, but close enough. I figured it had changed since moving to London though, but didn't know how much

Comments

[furrfu]

If I had more time and money, I'd love to get some diction lessons, to get a 1930s style accent to match the outfit. (Something like John Betjeman, or Richard Dimbleby.)

A brogue to match my brogues, if I may have my little joke. :-)

[sierra_le_oli]

That would be brilliant. :-)

[sollersuk]

My recent cringe thing was realising that I was starting to use North West vowels.

(And actually I can distinguish Kiwi from Oz. And if I'm not sure I always ask "Whereabouts are you from?" Same thing with American and Canadian)

[sierra_le_oli]

You're doing very well then. I know it annoys some people but the Aussie and Kiwi accents are close enough that it's hard to tell if you're not familiar.

"Whereabouts are you from?" is much appreciated after the eternal, "so, you're from Australia?". Mind you, at least it makes a change from explaining to French people that I'm not Irish.

[furrfu]

People always assume I'm dutch. I find this perplexing -- to me, flemish and dutch english accents sound completely different.

[sierra_le_oli]

Probably in the same way that Aussie and Kiwi accents sound different to me? I guess they just don't hear enough Dutch and Flemish people speaking English to be able to learn to tell the difference.

[swaldman]

FWIW, your accent is weak enough that I don't particularly notice unless I'm listening for it. This may, of course, be partly because I'm poor at spotting accents. Or possibly because being in London trains me to ignore accents? *ponders*

I usually ask re Aus/NZ and (some) US/Canadian, rather than assume, because while I can tell them apart side-by-side I can't usually do it in isolation.

[sierra_le_oli]

It might also just be that you've become sufficiently used to my dulcet tones that you don't "hear" my accent any more.

I think you've pinned down the difficulty for a lot of people re: Aus/NZ and US/Can. They can hear it, proven by how often we get called Aussies, but it's a lot tougher when there's nothing on the spot to compare the accent to.