Part the fifth—Language

[cosmolinguist]

I have the lurking suspicion that this entry makes no sense, is boring, or both. It sounds good in my head, but my head's been hurting since about 1 this morning, so I don't trust it. But I had to try.

This is really a topic I can't hope to do justice to--I don't know enough, and I'm not good enough at explaining such things--but I thought of a couple of specific stories that have happened recently, so I'll share those.

First of all, a few days ago Andrew told me that I now sound like a British person trying to do an American accent. (I don't know if this is better or worse than when I sounded like Kryten.) I was surprised at this, and rather dismayed, because I've heard British people trying to sound American, and it's often painful to listen to.

I think this was after I said something was "dodgy" and he said I couldn't do that. I never thought that word was "English" as such but my friends have assured me that it is. And, Andrew says, it's not that I can't say such words, it's just that he thinks the dialect and the words should match.

Today, after an otherwise-unremarkable bit of conversation about muesli, Andrew, in an apparent non-sequitur, said, "I need to hang around more English people." Before I had a chance to ask him why, he added, "I'm starting to use American inflections!" He then explained that some phrase in his previous sentence was stressed in the way an American would do it, instead of as an English person would. It's good to know I'm corrupting his language, if he and his country are going to corrupt mine.

Then I went out to do some errands. After walking in the heat, not finding any vitamin C that Andrew can take (which is a shame because he needs it), having had a headache ever since I woke up at one in the morning, and just in general worrying about this boy, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that the guy behind the counter said, "You all right, love?" but I was.

It's true that everyone gets called "love" by everyone else around here, and it's also true that "You all right?" is the local version of "How're you doin'?" in that it purports to be a question about one's welfare but is really just a greeting that doesn't require an answer. (It differs from the American variant I'm used to, though, in that I always feel compelled to reassure the person asking that I am, in fact, all right. It threw me off at first--the inflection as much as the words, it just sounded unusual to my ears. Even little sentences like that seem more ... musical, maybe, more rhythmic and less montonous, than similar words would in the accents of my countrymen.)

But it's also true that I've seen this guy at this shop several times, and he'd never before talked to me. Perhaps I just looked especially un-all right today.

Oh, speaking of people in shops, it's also fun to go around obviously being foreign, like I do--it's easy: look confused, scowl at your coins because you can't tell what they are, speak with a funny accent--and then after they give you your change back, instead of saying "thank you", use the local variant, "ta." I think I've confused some people this way. Not on purpose, but it's fun.

Comments

accents and idioms

[erisreg.livejournal.com]

humans are chameleons by nature we automatically strive to blend in,...it's funny to go to someplace and hear the local inflections,and phrases that are just common,.it even funnier to watch someone unconsciously acclimate to a ne place,.. most people don't notice though,.maybe thats part of it,..0.0

[comradexavier.livejournal.com]

What is the etymology of ta? It doesn't seem to be the obvious base of any word that I can think of off-hand, nor a contraction of some sort.

[scarletdemon.livejournal.com]

It is a contraction of "Thank" I think.

This whole entry made me laugh, I think accents etc. are great fun. :)

[cosmolinguist]

I think they are too (which is probably good; a less-tenacious person might be put off by Andrew's (and his uncle's) disparaging remarks about how the differences between their dialect and one's own obviously prove that this one is from a barbaric and primitive part of the world that only thinks it's speaking English :-)).

I'm glad I could make you laugh.

[scarletdemon.livejournal.com]

I agree with Andrew though "I going to GO LOOK"...Gah! "GO AND LOOK".

[cosmolinguist]

Of course you do. :-)

[hilker.livejournal.com]

The American Heritage Dictionary (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ta) says it’s a “Baby-talk alteration of thank you,” which is good enough for me.

[cosmolinguist]

Hmm, I never knew there was an element called "tantalum"...

:-)

I like dictionaries.

[scarletdemon.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha!

[kratkrat.livejournal.com]

"Dodgy," to describe something that is not quite right, is an English thing? That's news to me... I do it all the time. And I'm just a dumb Pennsylvania Dutch boy.

[cosmolinguist]

I know! That's what I thought. It's something I'd said before but started to be teased about when I first started talking to this English boy (everything I did was subject to ridicule when I started talking to him, though... :-)). I didn't know it was particularly foreign! But I told Andrew of the teasing I was getting and he agreed with my friends that it's English and now he makes fun of me for it too.

It's a good word, though. I just used it, in fact, in a comment on my previous post. How else could I describe the behavior of that computer if not for the word dodgy?

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

Languages and accents are fun. And not boring, so you're at least right on that count. :)

I hope your headache is gone by now.

[cosmolinguist]

I do not think they're boring, indeed, but I do know that it's possible to present a topic that interests yourself in a way that bores other people (and, as I'm a bit of a geek where languages are concerned, that'd only make it easier to go off on things of no interest to anyone else).

Also, I cannot think when my head hurts, and it'd been bothering me all day, so I felt as if my judgment were clouded as well as my thinking processes. (The headache was finally gone by the time I woke up this morning; for someone used to headaches that last about half an hour, I thought it certainly took its sweet time. I'm such a wuss about things like that.)

So all the more reason I'm glad to hear that this entry is well-received. :-)