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I was thinking of the US where eating McDonalds and visiting the mall is considered the norm. Much less so in the UK where these thing are frowned upon much more. You could also look at the US where being a socialist is a crime! I think that if I lived in the US with my views, I would find it much more difficult to be accepted by ordinary people than here in the UK.
The item I'm 'aving a 'ard time with is this 'erb thing. Suddenly all these guys with American accents are gabbling on about 'erbs - as in Rosemary, Sage and Thyme. Not sure if this is all in acknowledgement to the fact that the Latin-americans are now the largest minority group in the US or what and hence the use of this pronouciation.
"Ay, 'ave you 'eard the one about 'erbs and 'ash browns?
No? Nor have I. Just trying to make a point. Herb is spelt H-E-R-B pronounced "herb". Same with "hotel". Same with "happy" pronounced "happy" and NOT 'appy.
Not sure how this came to be but it sure sounds whacked out. Thought I'd share the one. 'ave a 'appy day.
And while most folks in Britain pronounce the h in words like herb and herbivore, in the States we like our 'erb. Unless of course you're speaking of herbicide and herbivore, when we pronounce the h.
My opinion, be it ever so 'umble.
Funny note... been listening to a lot of UK radio online lately, and every time a DJ tries to do an American accent as a gag, they do the worst version of a generic Southern accent I've ever heard... It's like the East and West coasts simply do not exist in their minds! (I guess that's not unlike all Americans who try to ape the English either doing a stilted "proper" accent, or an even worse version of something vaguely resembling cockney...)
Boston?
Er, is that the one where they say Bawwwwston?
But surely England has more accents than four?
Cockney, Brummie, Souse, Geordie, Mancunian, plus the regulars like Estuary English, West Cuntree, Black Country (Doodlay), Yorkshire...
And over the border, there's Welsh, look you, talk about Dai Versity...
We have a wide variety of accents encompassed by the term "Southern"... Georgia is not the same southern accent as Texas, Louisianan, Florida, etc. Etc., etc., etc...
The west coast, from what I've seen, is the only large region that doesn't seem to have major regional differences in accents (with the exception of inner city accents in large urban areas). It is sort of a large expanse of "non accent" in a way. You'll find most people on the West Coast speak with what is known as Standard American English, which is the speech style you hear spoken by most national newscasters, and prerecorded audio systems like the announcements in airports.
Standard American English
Yup. It's because in most parts of California, (and the west in general), everyone is from somewhere else. Hardly anybody's a native.
In California we have different "ways of talking" more than accents per se.
Like the Jerry Lewis accent:
That's where every sentence ends as a question? Even if what your saying is a statement?
Los Angeles Chicano-Speak (sometimes known as huevon-ics, heh, heh)
That's the one where it's ora-le this, and ora-le that. Q-Vo, etc.
Then there's that Valley Girl stuff from the San Fernando Valley. You can also hear it a lot around Palo Alto, near where the Googleplex is located.
And I love hearing the old authentic jazz guys speak; their way of speaking is what the beatniks were emulating.
And that's just around my baliwick.
lawman
Or the same person can order one in Jamaican, by using different words.
A beer can sandwich..man
Which proves the English have high understanding of dialect, -:
(ok stolen from ali g)
PS twister is often used in Yorkshire and applies to a "cheater".
ie, he cheated at cards, nothing but a twister. Though usually used by the older generation only.
US pint = 16 US fluid ounces -or- 16.65 UK fluid ounces
UK pint = 19.2 US fluid ounces -or- 20 UK fluid ounces
(Yeesh... almost makes one wish we'd gone metric)
...but most US bars use 14oz. "pint" glasses. Some even hand you a heavy-bottomed 12oz. glass when you order a pint. Absolute outrage! (I won't even go into what passes for "beer" in most of these places...)
Yeah, you got us beat on the beer issue, hands down. No contest.
Americans tend to cut up all thier food, dispense with the knife and then start to eat the meal with the fork, we like to hack up the meal as we go along (apart from piza which we eat out of boxes).
Us English also like to eat meat of dubious origin from wagons in car parks on the way home from the pub.
Last time I did McDonalds was after a really bad session in Hamburg, copious amounts of 'weiss bier' and no sign of a Donah Kebab wagon.
I ended up at a German McDonalds at 3 in the morning, ordered a gross mac and a Coke (whilst being careful not to mention the war), took one bite of the burger and decided it was time to go home.
ps forgot to mention, the car park version tastes great after beer, comes with chile sauce but like most best meals may have an affect the next day.