What's America Like?

[tabs]

So you blame Califronia for the flat.

Oh, entirely.

 

[Danny]

I think it's confusing how lots of US towns are named after UK towns.

i.e Plymouth, Birmingham, Manchester, (New) York, (New) Jersey et cetera.

 

[TheCracker]

I think it's confusing how lots of US towns are named after UK towns.

i.e Plymouth, Birmingham, Manchester, (New) York, (New) Jersey et cetera.

Yet pronounced totally differently

Birmingham in the UK: Ber-ming-um

Birmingham in the US: Bur-ming-ham with a pronounced gap between the sylables.

 

[Pupik]

Yet pronounced totally differently

Birmingham in the UK: Ber-ming-um

Birmingham in the US: Bur-ming-ham with a pronounced gap between the sylables.

We just like to use all the letters you put in your language; what good is an "h" if you can't use it? If you go to Louisiana or just about anywhere in the Deep South, you'll hear a similar "trimming" of a town's name.

It's also fairly obvious why the towns are named after places in the UK, you likely founded them, or the founder had ties to that place. There's also lots of town and state names that derive from American Indian place names.

 

[wfooshee]

Separation of Church and State is something people often say, but the constitution actually does not separate church and state, but it does say that religion is not to be taught or forced on kids in a public school.

I go to church every week, and do have my beliefs. I, like other religions, don't believe you should believe other things, but hey, people can believe what they want, fine with me, as long as I can go on believing what I believe in.

Freedom of speech, I am fine with it. I don't care if some person walks by and curses, as long as it is not directed at me.

No it doesn't, the ACLU has said that religion can't be taught, forced, or apparently even tolerated in schools, and has convinced the courts that such would mean establishing religion by the state. The constitution has not a sinlge word about the running of schools. The entire text regarding religion is

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

Freedom of speech does not cover offensive behavior. It covers the right to form and express an opinion or idea.

 

[FoolKiller]

But that's taking away their freedom to say whatever they like. That's restricting that freedom of expression, but on top of it, you decide to take away their entire freedom when they offend? This same ideology is applied every day in other countries, where if you're caught snooping around somewhere where somebody doesn't want you snooping, you get killed.

Maybe you took me as defending this position. This is what I see people doing.

For example, the NAACP will have speakers that can accuse white men of trying to poison them and use terms like cracker and whitey and they get a standing ovation. Now, as soon as a white man uses a term that may just be misconstrued as racial the NAACP holds a protest/rally and demands he be fired, accident or not he should know better.

This is not right and if people wanted to get up and use offensive terms then let them. They may look and sound ignorant but tehy have the right to say those things.

What I am trying to say is that there are those who demand their freedom of speech and use it to the extreme but the moment someone else's expression offends them they demand that person be silenced. It isn't right, but it does happen.

 

[cardude2004]

No it doesn't, the ACLU has said that religion can't be taught, forced, or apparently even tolerated in schools, and has convinced the courts that such would mean establishing religion by the state. The constitution has not a sinlge word about the running of schools. The entire text regarding religion is

Freedom of speech does not cover offensive behavior. It covers the right to form and express an opinion or idea.

What you said about religion there was what I was trying to say, just stated better.

This is part of what I said, "but it does say that religion is not to be taught or forced on kids in a public school."

 

[exigeracer]

Maybe you took me as defending this position. This is what I see people doing.

Ahh, very well then. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

Freedom of Speech is something that I believe very strongly in, even if I haven't had much of an oppurtunity to excercise it myself.

 

[wagonR]

Yet pronounced totally differently

Birmingham in the UK: Ber-ming-um

Birmingham in the US: Bur-ming-ham with a pronounced gap between the sylables.

And how do you americans pronounce Edinburgh then?

(Capital of Scotland, incase you don't know)

 

[FoolKiller]

And how do you americans pronounce Edinburgh then?

(Capital of Scotland, incase you don't know)

I've heard both Ed-in-burg and Ed-in-burrow.

 

[Dave A]

The correct pronouciation I believe is Ed-in-burrah, that's what most peopel here say anyway.

 

[FoolKiller]

The correct pronouciation I believe is Ed-in-burrah, that's what most peopel here say anyway.

Which is what I believe Americans I hear saying Ed=in-burrow are attempting to say, but we lack the Scottish accent.

Of course I know a lot of people that just can't understand Scottish, Irish, and sometimes even British accents. My dad couldn't even understand half of what was being said in Braveheart. But I can't understand half of what my dad says. The other day he was asking how many megapixels my new camera has but it came out, "How many mexiplix is it? For a second I thought he had asked me about eating Mexican for dinner.

 

[Dave A]

I lack the Scotish accent as well, I can still say Ed-in-burrah perfectly fine.

 

[FoolKiller]

I lack the Scotish accent as well, I can still say Ed-in-burrah perfectly fine.

But you do have a British accent and from here it all sounds the same.

Seriously, I do have a slight southern accent and I know I can say Ed-in-burrah too, but if you catch me talking fast it won't sound like it.

 

[Dave A]

Well there's a hell of a lot of different British accents, but none of them closely resemble a Scottish accent, the difference is probably greater than the difference between the average perception of English and the average perception of American. If you think it sounds the same then you haven't heared proper Scottish. Honestly. Also the difference between Mancunian and Liverpudlian is huge too, and Irish is a massive difference, I struggle to understand people with heavy Irish accents. cockney is easy to understand imo as are Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire accents. But no English accent I know sounds like Scottish. I can tell the difference between a New York accents and Texan .

 

[FoolKiller]

Well there's a hell of a lot of different British accents, but none of them closely resemble a Scottish accent, the difference is probably greater than the difference between the average perception of English and the average perception of American. If you think it sounds the same then you haven't heared proper Scottish. Honestly. Also the difference between Mancunian and Liverpudlian is huge too, and Irish is a massive difference, I struggle to understand people with heavy Irish accents. cockney is easy to understand imo as are Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire accents. But no English accent I know sounds like Scottish. I can tell the difference between a New York accents and Texan .

You have to realize that to most Americans Scotish is a mix between Scrooge McDuck and Mel Gibson in Braveheart and the only difference between that and a British accent is that the British sound snooty. It probably doesn't help that they commonly meet people like my company's chief operating officer who loves to throw out a "jolly good show" at least five times a day.

I honestly can tell a difference, but then I watch a lot of British import television shows as well.

 

[Dave A]

You have to realize that to most Americans Scotish is a mix between Scrooge McDuck and Mel Gibson in Braveheart and the only difference between that and a British accent is that the British sound snooty. It probably doesn't help that they commonly meet people like my company's chief operating officer who loves to throw out a "jolly good show" at least five times a day.

Well the Scrooge McDuck and Braveheart might give that impression, but it's off the mark.

As for sounding snotty, I've heared that before from Americans, but I honestly can't see why, I don't think it's possible for a Mancuinan, Cockney, Scouser or Geordie to sound snotty, amongst others.

General perceptions are often the ones that are furthest from the truth, or amongst them .

 

[Danny]

Speaking of, shouldn't this conversation be in the UK thread?

 

[Dave A]

I don't know, it's American's perception on how we talk. But anyway, moving on.

 

[Danny]

How's the cheese selection in Wal*Mart?

 

[FoolKiller]

How's the cheese selection in Wal*Mart?

About the same as every grocery store. Mostly some combination of cheddar, colby, monterey jack, mozerella, and American. You can look really hard to find things like feta, asiago, havarti, and bleu.

However, if you go into a Sam's (which is owned by Wal-Mart) they will have a large selection, but they cater to vendors. They will have the giant wheel of cheese still covered in red wax.

 

[Kylehnat]

I don't know, it's American's perception on how we talk. But anyway, moving on.

We can sum this up pretty easily: The British, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish accents are all different. They all have distinctive sound and cadence. There is no one "English" accent. Likewise, there is no single "American" accent. A Northeastern accent is different from a Southern accent, a Midwestern accent, and a Western accent. And let's not even get into Cajun Country.

 

[Dave A]

Yeah, it's the same everywhere. It'd be interesting to know which country has the highest number of local accents.

 

[Pupik]

Yeah, it's the same everywhere. It'd be interesting to know which country has the highest number of local accents.

Probably India or China; they have a lot of different dialects, too.

American English is pretty much the same, different colloquialisms from area to area, but it's mostly the same around the nation if you always use small words in your speech. Slang varies from area to area, just like any other nation with a significantly large population.

We also have people from all over the world living here; so accents have their own varitions (ever heard a Texan accent from a Vietnamese gentleman?....only in America!).

 

[Dave A]

I have a hard time understanding heavy scouse and havy Geordie accents, we have a quite diverse selection of accents in the UK.

Then again, in China there's some completely different languages from one area to the other, so that'd pose a bit more of a problem than my trying to live in Newcastle . I don't klnow much about India at all.