I thought this was pretty cool.
I've wondered the same thing but the truth surprised me.

http://www.nicholasjohnpatrick.com/post ... sh-accents

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Cool. I love learning things like this. My sister will be very keen on it. She studies languages and has a fascination with how they evolve.

Ham

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Do you believe yet?

If anyone is interested I know a couple great books that are fun, witty reads about language. Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors and has written on all kinds of topics ranging from the Appalachian trail to small islands. I first read his book on the English language titled: "The Mother Tongue" which covers the language's evolution from it's earliest roots to modern day. I then read his continuation book titled "Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States" which covers accents and specific things related to America's history involving language. Some great books and as a side note I have to recommend "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bryson as one of the coolest "everything" kind of books I have read. He doesn't get it all perfectly correct but all in all he put together a superb book concidering his topic was...everything.

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Ha, what do ya know...it happened exactly reverse of how i'd imagined. Thanks for the link.

Woah, that's pretty cool! I always wondered how the American accent evolved. Linguistics and accents have always been fascinating to me.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

I LOVE "A Walk in the Woods"! I read it as a senior in high school. It was intelligent and hysterical. I laughed out loud at certain points

I'll have to pick up a copy of his other book(s)

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"Oh honey, I would but...I don't want to" ~ Karen Walker

That is pretty neat.

From watching Top Gear I've been hearing a lot of the British accent. I also find the way they pronounce some of the words is funny.

Nissan isn't Knee-San it's Niss-san there. Aluminum is al-la-loom-knee-um too. I find it funny though.

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On a random and semi related note, I learned why the following sentence makes grammatical sense:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Using the word Buffalo to mean three different things
being from Buffalo, i.e. Buffalo men
as a noun, the animal
meaning to bully


so the above sentence reads

buffalo from Buffalo (Buffalo buffalo) that other buffalo from Buffalo (Buffalo buffalo) bully, also themselves bully (buffalo buffalo) other buffalo from Buffalo.


Or more simply

Buffalo buffalo that Buffalo buffalo (bully also bully) Buffalo buffalo.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

They say schedule funny too. Like shhhhedule. And I talked to one guy from the UK once and he pronounced the "ch" in "Michigan" hard so it sounded like he was saying Mitchigan.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

haha, I LOVE the 'shhhedule'...I always hear it from the english guys at work, I always want to use it when i'm talking to them but I think they'll think i'm insulting them, they're kind of uptight.

We had a buddy in Germany that was from London and we nicknamed him "Vitimin" since he would bag on us for our accent and we would turn around and say "Yeah, whatever Vitimin."

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Haha I always say shhhedule because I think it sounds funny, but I don't have any English friends to offend.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

Good quotes from the article - translation: people from England, NYC or Boston are more likely to pronounce a Mini Cooper as a "Mini Coopah". Conversely, in England, NYC or Boston a Corolla is more likely pronounced as a "Coroller", instead of a Corolla.

At work, we've had two guys from Brighton, England here for the last 2 weeks. It's been great talking to them and learning English expressions. A big rivalry is a "dahby", which I guess is spelled darby.

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

"al loo MIN ee um" is the English pronounciation, for the record. This always struck me as just plain wrong. It's as if the word they are pronouncing is spelled "aluminium", which it ain't!

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

Right? That has ALWAYS bothered me, its like...how does an accent account for adding letters in which aren't even there? I think they just sort of collectively decided it sounds cooler.

I should ask the Brighton guys about that...if I remember!

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This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
--Emerson

Oh my god, the boston accent. I'd rather have a crowd playing vuvuzelas directly in my face and then beating me with them afterwards than listen to a boston accent.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

The reason is that they spell it "aluminium", so they pronounce it this way because they write it this way.
On a side note, in German it's also spelled "aluminium" as in its Latin origin.
So, it's not an accent thing, American English somehow lost a letter.

EDIT: I was wrong, the Latin origin is alumen

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Oh, I see it now. Wonder how we lost a letter then?

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Two cuntrag Rags fans sat next to us at the game. I tweeted "A chick could be a perfect 10, but if she opened her mouth and an NYC accent fell out she'd be an instant 0" and later in the game "These New Yawk brawds need to put something in their mouths so I don't have to hear them again. I don't need to say what."

So yea, I'm not a fan of the New York accent. Or the Boston accent. Those chicks need cocks in their mouths so I don't have to hear their voices.

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mechaphil