I can't stop watching these videos.

"Svend" (svend)
04/08/2020 at 04:50 • Filed to: None

They are addictive.

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Your southern America is like our northern England.

DISCUSSION (12)

haveacarortwoorthree2 > Svend
04/08/2020 at 08:22

Ok, all these are 100% accurate. lmao

Funktheduck > Svend
04/08/2020 at 08:36

That’s how folks envision themselves down here. The reality is less charming.

Ash78, voting early and often > Svend
04/08/2020 at 08:53

LOL, these people are local to me and I didn’t even learn that until recently. I had no idea they were even popular outside of our little Facebook friend group, honestly.

Most of them are pretty funny and accurate, albeit a little exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Ash78, voting early and often > Funktheduck
04/08/2020 at 08:54

I was in the British Midlands with my wife and in-laws about 10 years ago (her parents are small-town Alabamians with “pretty thick” accents). The neighbor in the next apartment said, in a friendly way, “I’m surprised I can even understand you!”

I think a lot of the world expects sort of a cartoon character.

Svend > Ash78, voting early and often
04/08/2020 at 10:41

I stumbled upon them on Youtube and got watched a few out of curiosity .

I keep looking at videos of how Americans see the U.K. both from afar and from after living here for a while. Sometimes ones that have lived here for a while get stuff wrong after misunderstanding what something is, means or is for. Which is funny.

After a few I ended up lining up several at a time.

Ash78, voting early and often > Svend
04/08/2020 at 10:59

There are so many little expressions that people overlook just because they’re not used as frequently.

I still think Americans’ general view of the UK is that everyone either speaks with an RP accent or Cockney. That is all. Thanks, Hollywood!

Speaking of Hollywood (comma, Paul), I love watching episode of the Great British Baking Show and hearing so many different accents at once. For a US audience, that’s rare to see such accent diversity in one place, including expats/immigrants who are not native speakers.

The Southern Thing videos are probably the last of a breed because everyone I know (in the South) today under about 30 years old has a very homogenized, generic American accent unless they live in a very rural area . The proliferation of media in the past 10 years is probably the main reason. We’re definitely losing the last remnants of regional accents pretty quickly here.

Svend > Ash78, voting early and often
04/08/2020 at 11:16

I see quite a few expressions in there of old Cumbrians, like the quick inhalation of air for yes or okay, etc...

It’s the same with the Cumbrian accent, it’s been getting watered down as more people are settling in different areas. In the past most people stayed within the family town or city, sometimes within the same street all their lives, now there is a lot more cultural exchanges on a local level so things change about quite a bit as bits get adopted here and forgotten there.

Ash78, voting early and often > Svend
04/08/2020 at 11:33

Maybe one day people will reminisce about accents and try to protect them (like the Welsh have done with their language...or even more obscure, the Orcadian or Faeroese languages and dialects)

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend
04/08/2020 at 13:08

I find it funny when people think “bless your heart” is a compliment. Now the second video is very much me. People always say I have very little accent, even more so than people who consume far more television and social media than me. One time when I was chatting with a random German photographer I met she said in a very German way, “you do not have the singing accent I hear around here, yes?” as maybe the second thing mentioned.

But actually in those videos I didn’t think any of them had that much of an accent, and perhaps exagg erated it a little bit at that. I’ve heard some real interesting accents around and those were not them.

And the comparison to northern England is pretty interesting, since I’ve heard that from more than one person.

Svend > Ash78, voting early and often
04/08/2020 at 13:14

The Cumbrian dialect has all but died out . Norwegians who know Old Norse can speak to each other quite easily and be understood.

An amalgamation of English and old Cumbric is spoken out on the west of the county.

Cumbrian

Welsh is protected and there are laws now that things in Wales are dual signed. The trouble there is many English words don’t translate well into Welsh and few people can write Welsh for the signs so it often comes out a funny mess.

Regular Welsh sign.

Kinja'd!!!

Even the BBC legally has to make a channel and a certain amount of programming available to Welsh gaelic and Scottish gaelic users, even though when they looked at the figures, the numbers were so low, they didn’t properly register.

Languages change all the time. Many die out such as ancient Mayan, we only know old Egyptian because a stone, the Rosetta Stone, which had text from 1799 with Egyptian, hieroglyp hics and an cient Greek.

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
04/08/2020 at 13:42

Accents can be more pronounced in the moment of stress, anger or frustration I’ve found.

I think, ‘bless your heart’ is like an English ‘sorry’. depending on the inflection, manner, expression, hand gesture, etc... it can mean sorry (genuinely), get out the way, your an idiot, watch where your going, I’m saying sorry but we both know it’s you who should say sorry, etc...

Like our, ‘alright’ which can mean, how are you , I acknowledge your pre sence, what are you looking at, I’m here watch out my way, etc...

Our more city based south is more like your northern areas, more international if you will, especially in our south east and your north east . While our northern areas are less culturally diverse and more open areas like your south. I’m not saying there’s no cultural diversity, just not on a par with bigger city and more highly populated regions.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend
04/08/2020 at 14:06

Well Atlanta is somewhat of an exception because no one who lives there is from there. No one . You’ll meet someone from every western country before you meet a native. But this isn’t the case with most areas.

The southern US doesn’t tend to be as densely populated as the northern regions, but population density also decreases as you head west from the east coast, so I don’t think it is a direct comparison.

Also, accents often become more pronounced when you get old too. But you are right about emotion bringing out the accent. And colloquialisms almost always have many meanings based on context, which is usually just all around funny when someone unfamiliar with them gets the meaning confused.