Re: Probability of Article Replacement?

From: "Joe" <joe@...>
Subject: Re: Probability of Article Replacement?


> It's odd...colloquial British speech is so far removed from standard
english
> that it's barely similar. In TV programmes(even soaps) it's hugely watered
> down.  And my dialect(which is what I'm taking these examples from), is
> pretty RP-ish.  The standard greeting in British youth culture is
'alright?'.
> It generally sounds like [O@i?], with a rising tone.  I sometimes wonder
how
> (or if) Americans can understand us Brits having a conversation with each
> other in allegro colloquial speech.
I'll have to say that for me, BBC-English is usually quite understandable,
through the sort of exposure to it one gets over here.  But when I was in
England, I had a very hard time understanding much of the ordinary
conversational stuff.  And not just youth/street sort of things, but
sometimes talking to people in various shops, or at the inn.  The second
best part about Cymru was that I could understand the English spoken there
much better, though I did run across two old gentlemen speaking Cymraeg...

You might be interested to know this:
I often thought that BBC English was quite similar to American English and
that that's why we could understand it.  But in talking with some friends
who are here from Mexico (and whose American English comprehension is _very_
good), they mentioned that they had a _very_ hard time understanding what
Brits were saying.  We were watching some movies, and one of them asked me
what we called the particular language they were speaking.  They were under
the impression that it was some closely related language like Catalan is to
Castillian (Spanish).

And by the way, the best part about Cymru was the food, though after a week
in England, it's not hard to find better food.  Though finally seeing signs
saying "Croeso y Cymru" with little tiny English below was pretty cool.  And
the castles...  And the monastery we visited...  All right, so it was all
really great.

Reply