Accents :)

My book is going to involve two major international music competitions - one instrumental and one for rock bands. There are going to be contestants from all over the world. Seeing as I have a lot of research to do - concert halls, behaviors, superstitions, accents, etc. - I'm only going to ask for one thing...

I need a bit of help with accents from the following countries: England, Canada, Ireland, Japan, France. I'm still adding more characters, so if any more countries become part of the story, I'll make sure to post. I really appreciate your help! Thanks!

Smiles!
@;~ Saph

I can do Canada.

So, I can only speak for the Southern Ontario region, but I say stuff like "tweny" instead of "twenty" and I can be very lax with my Ts in general, as well as Gs, sometimes (like dropping a G at the end of -ing words, but that's probably common). I'll often cut the first word from a sentence (You're welcome becomes "welcome") but that could be common.

And, yes, "eh" is a part of my vocabulary. It's usually stuck on the end of a question, like "Canadian, eh?"

You can also hear my voice if you select the Easter YWS radio show, if you want to hear a Canadian accent. I'm right at the end. Although I don't know how much of an accent it is.

Also, the Quebecois accent (the accent in Quebec. Yes, it's its own dialect) is different from the rest of Canada. They'll often have a French accent. Their slang can also be heavy, but I'm not up on the terms.

Hope this helps! Unless I have specific dialogue, it's hard for me to come up with an accent.

Thanks, Rosey! You are too awesome!

@;~ Saph

Rosey did Canada but I'll give you some more.

Folks from Newfoundland have heavy accents too. Not a french accent but their own. My brother-in-law is a Newfie and he tends to say buddy a lot. Same with his dad. I don't exactly know all their terms. I just know they say buddy a lot

We do say "eh" like Rosey said. I tend to say it often at the end of sentences. Especially, "okay, eh?"

I've met people from all over Canada and we all tend to speak the same. If we have slang, I can not tell you what.

I know, it isn't much. It's just a little difficult to explain. But I hope I helped a little.

Oh! And one more thing: I just told my brother to say twenty and he said "tweny". So, unless it is just easier to nix the T, Rosey may be right about us Canadian's being lax with T's

I'm not from canada but I don't usually pronounce the second T in twenty either. I think it's just easier to not pronounce it, for all us lazy people.

Oh, thanks so much! This helps a lot. One of the main bands in my upcoming book consists of three girls - from Canada - and they're going to become best friends with the main character. You're all soo awesome for helping out with this!

Smiles!
@;~ Saph

I'm not English, although I have some friends at school who are. (To an American) It sounds like their "a" sounds are always an "ah" and they always speak rather properly. Jack, the less proper of the two, speaks faster than the other.

Sorry I can't be of more help, I haven't heard them in a few days. I'll edit if anything else comes to mind.

For french accents:

Long I sound: Fish becomes "feesh"

"Th" sounds become "z" sounds. For example, This sounds like zis, or dzis.

Long E sound: After becomes "aftaaair".

R sound: This one is hard to explain...it's rolled sort of?

Insert "euh" into speech. It's the equivalent of "um".

Hope that helps!

-Maggie

Rosey Unicorn wrote:I can do Canada.

So, I can only speak for the Southern Ontario region, but I say stuff like "tweny" instead of "twenty" and I can be very lax with my Ts in general, as well as Gs, sometimes (like dropping a G at the end of -ing words, but that's probably common). I'll often cut the first word from a sentence (You're welcome becomes "welcome") but that could be common.

And, yes, "eh" is a part of my vocabulary. It's usually stuck on the end of a question, like "Canadian, eh?"

You can also hear my voice if you select the Easter YWS radio show, if you want to hear a Canadian accent. I'm right at the end. Although I don't know how much of an accent it is.

Also, the Quebecois accent (the accent in Quebec. Yes, it's its own dialect) is different from the rest of Canada. They'll often have a French accent. Their slang can also be heavy, but I'm not up on the terms.

Hope this helps! Unless I have specific dialogue, it's hard for me to come up with an accent.

I grew up in Ontario but have lived in Saskatchewan for the last like five years. I probably don't sound anything like that. I don't use eh ever. Hey is more common here. Like, "Did you hear about so and so?" "I know, hey?"

If you want to hear my accent, watch Corner Gas Although I'm a little weird 'cause of living in two different provinces for large chuncks of time and because I have a speech impediment so my r's can be weird.

Just thought I'd mention the difference between regions. Like you wouldn't say a Texas accent is an American accent, you know?

I'm not English, but I'm learning it as a second language so I hear British English quite a lot(in tapes, videos, etc) and I get special lessons on how to speak it properly, so I can help you a little bit.
I've heard that they always pronounce Ts. They don't pronounce Rs at the end of words like "teacher", "over", "dreamer", "inventor" and such. Their "a" sounds are more likely to be like the one in "car" (a bit exaggerated) rather than the one in "cat". They also don't pronounce Rs in the end of words like "where", "there", "fair", etc.

In general, their accent is stronger than American accent and yes, they speak rather properly (like Blue Giraffe said).

I'm British so I can help you a bit about our accents...hm, let's see.
It depends if you want a posh character or not. If they're posh they're likely to pronounce the Ts properly and the Rs a little better than most. The letter U in words like 'under' sounds a bit like an A in 'apple' so it would sound like 'ander' or 'ambrella'. A main difference between English and American is the endings in words that end in ER (better, hotter etc). Americans say it 'bedderrr' and 'hodderrr' whilst the English say it 'betta and hotta'.

A more working class British accent is very different from the posh one. They are likely to say something like 'Orroite may', is you cammin' down the pab lay'er?' (roughly translated as 'Alright mate, are you coming to the pub later?') They drop Ts, Gs at the end of words and sometimes even add on a H at the beginning of works that start with a vowel. If you're from up north like me you might say 'Y'erahight love, der yer need ehneh 'elp wi' that? Nor, orkay then' (Are you alright, love, do you need any help with that? No, okay then." Us are pronounced very strange, with a very low sounding 'uh'. There are many, many dielects crammed into this small island, which would take forever to go into.

Hope I helped xxx

Hey there! I'm from Canada, I live in Alberta. This was actually really tough for me to think of, as I don't usually think of how my "accent" might differ from other parts of Canada. I have heard that Albertans talk faster than other provinces. Some of us have a strong country-sounding accents, the type you would think a farmer or rodeo person might have. Let's face it, Alberta is made up of alot of hicktown people. I'm from a small town just outside of Edmonton, but I don't have a country-ish accent at all. I do say "hey" alot, at the end of sentences, but I rarely say "eh." In the Edmonton area we speak quicker than southern parts of Albera. We speak more brightly than nasally, and we don't have a drawl at all. Instead of "dinner", alot of us say "supper."

I am neither French, English, Canadian or Japanese. But I have a very good idea of how Japanese speak English. VERY BAD
There are of course exceptions. Like Hiro Mizushima, Jin Akanishi, Cristal Kay etc. Mostly people that have lived for a period of time outside Japan. They can actually speak perfect English.
But the ones who only spoke English in school are terrible.
Since they don't have any consonances in Japanese except N they will put O or U at the end of each word that ends in a consonant.
They have many words from English, but you hardly realize ) because they pronounce it so "well"

Coffee - Koohii
Violin - Baiorin
Tennis - Tenisu (good example of U at the end of a consonant)
Pocket - Poketo (good example of O at the end)

Listen to this guy and you will get the picture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_HMS-dV_fA

I've also noticed that people with Asian accents sometimes get words like "he" and "she" mixed up, or drop them completely. I Don't know if it's because they don't have pronouns in their languages or what. Also "L" becomes "R."

Hi!
Well I could give you a pretty good idea on French and Japanese (I follow ESL) as I'm learning them. The Japanese never tend to elongate vowels, say each vowel with the same speed unless it's a specifically elongated vowel.
They don't have the 'l' sound in their language and use 'r' instead. They don't have anything equivalent to 'v' so they use 'w' like:
lava- becomes 'Rauwa' in Japanese
Japanese has tenses that are extremely polite and humbling yourself in front of superiors.
Also, they split each word based on vowels.
Eg:
Numerator: Nyu-me-ray-ta (They don't end with an 'r')