Accents

In my head the Brits all sound like Dick Van Dyke, the Americans like John Wayne, Scandinavians like The Swedish Chef and .....

Neither did I until yesterday, but now I do and it's soooo much fun.

HolyMoly wrote: akamaisondufromage wrote: In my head the Brits all sound like Dick Van Dyke, the Americans like John Wayne, Scandinavians like The Swedish Chef and ..... I'm gonna try that now. "'allo, 'allo, Guvner!" "Glooby glooby yorka doorby yoorma..."

And you have to do akamaisondufromage in a West Country accent like Willie Rushton:

Dean wrote:

Edited by The T - September 28 2012 at 13:12

CCVP wrote: CPicard wrote: CCVP wrote: CPicard wrote: Being born in Marseille, I'm rather used to the Southern French accent. If you want to hear good examples of this accent, try to watch movies with Fernandel or Raimu: it may make people from Provence not sounding very... serious, but it has its charms. I won't say it could remind of the Northern Italian accent, but... On the other hand, the typical Parisian accent is... I mean, I'm glad this accent is disappearing because it sounds like someone clearing his throat before spitting. I also have problems with the accent of the suburbs which just sound... coarse and vulgar and aggressive. The accent of Northern France (Lille, Roubaix, the towns close to the Belgian frontier) is quite exotic to my ears: people there seem to speak with a deeper tone than anyone else, but alas! they don't sound...er, bright.   Don't you speak occitan anymore? Who told you I ever spoke occitan??? Furthermore, which occitan? Provençal occitan? Languedocian occitan? Gascon occitan? I supposed you spoke it because Marseille is in Occitania, even though the language has been practically killed by Frenchmen during the 19th and 20th centuries. In any way, I thought people still spoke it around that part of France in their day to day lives.  As for the specific sort of occitan, I have no idea.

Marseille has never been an occitan-speaking town: keep in mind that this city had always received many waves of migrants since the Ancient Times.
Not only the city had been founded by Greek colons (and the spot was already inhabited by Celt-Ligurian tribes), but it quickly became an ally of Rome. It's not uncanny to think that the Jewish community is here since the times of the Roman Empire.
There's also an important Armenian community, present since the 17th century.
Then, there have been migrants from Italy, Maghrib, Comorias, Turkey, etc... And even migrants from the rest of France.

So, Marseille never had an "occitan culture", it had always been a crossover culture and the French linguage was the obligated... er, "Lingua Franca" for the various cultural communities.

For the rest of "Occitania", we have to make a distinction between (close to Italy and the Alps, orientated towards Mediteranea), and Languedoc and Gascony which shared the history of the "Crusades" against the Catharist heresy.
In Provence, people don't really care for this "occitanomania" and remain attached to the French identity (maybe it can explain why the right-wing nationalist vote is so strong... )

One last word: Frenchmen never killed Occitan, nor they killed Briton, Basque, Alsatian or Flamish. It's rather the social and economical evolution of Europe and, thus, France which led people to leave their native region to find work elsewhere.
They may keep relationship with their "homeland" with letters and mail, but they had to adopt the French linguage to communicate with their coworkers... or their spouses!

ole-the-first wrote: In Russia accents are almost indistinguishable. Russian language has two main dialects, Northern Great Russian and Southern Great Russian, and there are some minor differences in pronounciation, but now the really different Russian accents you might find only somwhere in the villages. So if you'll consider the speech of citizens from Northern and Southern Russia, you'll probably find no difference here.

[obligatory]

"In Soviet Russia, accents have a you!"

[/obligatory]

Padraic wrote: The T wrote: I wonder what I sound like...  Ricardo Montalban.

Kaaaaaaahn!

CPicard wrote: CCVP wrote: CPicard wrote: CCVP wrote: CPicard wrote: Being born in Marseille, I'm rather used to the Southern French accent. If you want to hear good examples of this accent, try to watch movies with Fernandel or Raimu: it may make people from Provence not sounding very... serious, but it has its charms. I won't say it could remind of the Northern Italian accent, but... On the other hand, the typical Parisian accent is... I mean, I'm glad this accent is disappearing because it sounds like someone clearing his throat before spitting. I also have problems with the accent of the suburbs which just sound... coarse and vulgar and aggressive. The accent of Northern France (Lille, Roubaix, the towns close to the Belgian frontier) is quite exotic to my ears: people there seem to speak with a deeper tone than anyone else, but alas! they don't sound...er, bright.   Don't you speak occitan anymore? Who told you I ever spoke occitan??? Furthermore, which occitan? Provençal occitan? Languedocian occitan? Gascon occitan? I supposed you spoke it because Marseille is in Occitania, even though the language has been practically killed by Frenchmen during the 19th and 20th centuries. In any way, I thought people still spoke it around that part of France in their day to day lives.  As for the specific sort of occitan, I have no idea. Marseille has never been an occitan-speaking town: keep in mind that this city had always received many waves of migrants since the Ancient Times. Not only the city had been founded by Greek colons (and the spot was already inhabited by Celt-Ligurian tribes), but it quickly became an ally of Rome. It's not uncanny to think that the Jewish community is here since the times of the Roman Empire. There's also an important Armenian community, present since the 17th century. Then, there have been migrants from Italy, Maghrib, Comorias, Turkey, etc... And even migrants from the rest of France. So, Marseille never had an "occitan culture", it had always been a crossover culture and the French linguage was the obligated... er, "Lingua Franca" for the various cultural communities. For the rest of "Occitania", we have to make a distinction between (close to Italy and the Alps, orientated towards Mediteranea), and Languedoc and Gascony which shared the history of the "Crusades" against the Catharist heresy. In Provence, people don't really care for this "occitanomania" and remain attached to the French identity (maybe it can explain why the right-wing nationalist vote is so strong... ) You shouldn't discard nationalism so easily, you know. French people are on the way to making themselves foreigners in their own lands, as are people in the UK. In a number of places around the country you already are the minority, and immigrants account for more than a fifth of France's and the UK's population. Still, that's another discussion.  One last word: Frenchmen never killed Occitan, nor they killed Briton, Basque, Alsatian or Flamish. It's rather the social and economical evolution of Europe and, thus, France which led people to leave their native region to find work elsewhere. They may keep relationship with their "homeland" with letters and mail, but they had to adopt the French linguage to communicate with their coworkers... or their spouses!