Simply a way of pronouncing a word.
When many speakers of the same language separate, they develop accents through evolution. We see influences of other languages on the original language and an accent is developed, it displays in the pronunciation and sound of certain words.
The Australian accent is merely a variation of English that has evolved over the period. It's implanted from the accent brought by European settlers, particularly British Isles. It has developed its unique features due to various geographical, historical, and cultural factors. As it was growing, it experienced contact with different indigenous Australian languages, along with immigrant languages like German, Italian, and Chinese. Which impacted the features of English in Australia. For example, The word 'mate' can often be pronounced as 'moit' as a diphthong (sound of two vowels in a single syllable). You may have heard Chris Hemsworth, our very own Thor speak with this accent.
The American accent can be considered the most momentous, easy-to-mimic accent, generally because of the strong R sound. The USA is the biggest native English-speaking country, therefore obviously there are many American regional accents with lots of variance between them. You may have heard the names of Californian and Southern American accents, but haven't actually understood the difference if you aren't a native speaker. It's the I that the southern people pronounce as ah. eg, 'why' as 'wha', 'my' as 'mah', and many more differences.
Ever heard the Canadian accents, eh? The main difference is the diphthongs used by the Canadians which is known as the Canadian Raising, therefore the pronunciation of 'about' as 'aboot'. And the 'eh' is possibly implanted from the British Isles too.
"Besides you're saying it wrong. Its leviosa not leviosar." Well yeah, Hermoine did give us a lesson to learn about the British accent a lil bit. The R is generally not pronounced unless it precedes a vowel. eg, sir, mart, etc. While you can pronounce the R sound in words like brick, drink, etc. There isn't only a single British accent tho. you will find a whole family of the British accent entrenched from various different geographical regions in the UK.
Besides these, there are many English accents around the world such as the Irish accent, South African, Scottish, and New Zealand.
Learning these accents is fun and you should totally go for it to flex it next time in front of your friends. ;)
This could happen easily just by immersing yourself in the media of that accent. Movies, shows, songs, podcasts whatever you find entertaining. Dive into the phonetic sounds, pronunciations, and sometimes new words. Imitate it yourself, observe the sound of the vowels, consonants, and even their lip movements. Along with practicing it with native speakers and you are ready to flex it in front of your friends at the next house party.
Besides this, other languages influence the new speakers in speaking English, as you may have heard how the French, Russians, or Indians speak English, and I think that is very attractive.
Accents develop in all languages in spite of their roots, and geographical or cultural differences, and that's the beauty of languages.
Comments