Help! Our Youth Have Lost Their T's

Hmmm . . . now that's a hard one. Perhaps it's a super contraction of He isn't? hain't.

 

While living in Jolly Ol, I did get some words down: 'shire' is pronounced 'sure;' forget pronouncing h's, as they are always silent, and learn to 'listen FAST!'..... and I guess Cockney is British 'redneck?!'

 

Australians have always flattened out vowels. But to the wider topic, I think Australia is the all time champ for miss pronouncing things. Seriously, what other country can not even say its national capitol properly?

 

Growing up b4 Sat & Cable, just local broadcast, I didnt hear the Aussie accent til I was around 13-14 yo. Had spent 1 yr in England by then, but couldnt catch the location of that accent....definitely unique like the marsupials that live there! But Croc Dundee made it popular in the US...

 

[video=youtube;lQr9TXZoYiQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQr9TXZoYiQ[/video]

[video=youtube;IPIeOezvLgo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPIeOezvLgo[/video]

 

Well the Australian accent comes in three broad types. Type one is virtually indistinguishable to British, Croc Dundee is a type three. I watched a documentary a few years ago that explained the mechanics for the Australian accent are very hard to mimic, but learning how to stop speaking in an Australian accent is very easy. It would surprise some to know how many Australians work on US TV, and get away with sounding apple pie American

 

Yes, I've seen that in the news media. Think both the typical Americans & Aussies are more 'informal' and their languages reflect that. And not class conscience..

What type are you?

 

I am a type two bordering on a one. Even in Australia I have been confused for English. The type two comes from the family having deep roots in the inner city of Sydney and I suspect the type one may come from an Englishman my grandmother married in her second marriage. And the infiltration of Australians goes beyond just the news media. The shows, Fringe, NCIS and the Mentalist all have Australians in them

 

Think Mel Gibson would be a good example of that; ref the Lethal Weapon series

 

I don't know where you live that they stopped pronouncing T's but everyone still pronounces them where I am. lol

 

Perfect English is spoken in Nebraska.
A very neutral accent....

 

Yeah, not an AZ thingie! Seems to be the HS youth in other states, particularly NJ & NY...I get it by watching national TV...!

There is also a kind of 'valley girl' speak going on with girls/young women (even in college)..every so often you will see a young college grad on TV trying to 'mask' it but it still comes thru...hopefully, they will outgrow it as it sounds unprofessional.

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Must be their corn cobs that they use for TP that helps...

 

Pft...My cousin has been talking like a valley girl forever, it really is so stupid sounding. lmao

 

From this article, I must be referring to "Kardashian" (dont watch the show so dont know!)

From Valley Girls to the Kardashians, young women have long been mocked for the way they talk.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/science/young-women-often-trendsetters-in-vocal-patterns.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Who knew?!!!!!!!!!!

 

You have a good ear, but shire is actually pronounced 'shar' (without the accentuated American 'r' sound) by people who speak RP, and shi-er (two syllables) by most of the rest. It is pronounced 'sher' (a very short sound) when it is used in the county sense - as in Devonshire (Devonsher).

I have it on good authority that there is no such thing as a British accent - there are so many it is too difficult to generalise - but there are quite clear class distinctions in British speech. The dropping of the 'h' is peculiar to one social class who says 'ere where most of us would say here. But I noticed that was also common in New York, where certain people say 'uman being and 'erbs, for human being and herbs.

And no, Cockney is a regional vernacular (strictly speaking - someone born within the sound of the Bow Bells,) and you can have a highly educated Cockney.

Bernard Shaw was not kidding when he wrote something like - "Whenever a Englishman opens his mouth to speak, some other Englishman despises him." I think American attitudes to speech are much healthier.

 

Just decided to put seeing St Mary Le Bow church in London on my bucket list. Also on the list is a piligrimage up to the Beatle's haunts in Liverpool, and seeing James Herriot's Yorkshire.

 

Humanity is sad, there is only a small percentage of people in the world whose work truly advances our species, improves our quality of life, and makes the world a better place.

 

Not really an issue , the Greek language entirely dropped Q and W centuries ago without using any flexibility or functionality .

 

Did you perhaps mean to write 'without losing any flexibility or functionality'?

 

Yes , apologies .