The Way Different Peoples Speak English

[Frigga]

I'm mostly thinking of the way people who have English as their mother tongue. I'm not a professional linguist, so this will not be as scholarly of a thread, though others that are are more than welcome to bring more technical posts. :)

My personal thoughts?

British people seem to emphasize their vowels much more than Americans. It also seems as they do not like to enunciate hard consonants such as the letter "H".

Americans much more seem to enjoy their consonants, but do not put the same importance on the vowels as the British do.

Just think of how an American would say "I am an American" to how a Brit would say "I am British". Or the way each one would say "Would you like a cup of tea?"

Australians? Well, to Americans they sound like the British, but not quite. I am uncertain how they sound to Brits, but my personal inclination is that they sound more like Americans but not quite. So my personal thought is that they are a cross between the two.

I think it's fascinating how different people from all over the English speaking countries sound different, even though we're still speaking the same tongue.

:)

[Foxy]

I am Italian and these are the differences I can heard:

British: they speak with shorter and more distinct consonants (more similar to Germans). They mark more the end of the words.

Americans (in particular from the South and South-West): they speak with less distinct consonant, omit the final -er, which sounds like an A, mark more the vowels insted of the consonants.

So, from my points of view, it's the opposite of what you said.

Scottish ppl tend to distinct syllables even too much (same thing happens in Italian with Sardinians, indeed the character of "The Simpsons" Willie is translated with a Sard accent :D)

I can't distinguish Welsh, Irish, Austrialians and others.

Foreign speakers:

Italians: tend to mark vowels, don't pronunce the "H", "TH" and "DH" and to prolongue the syllables. They also tend to make the sounds "D" and "T" dental, instead of palatal. That's becouse in Italian we don't have the sounds Th, dh and h and accents and vowels are very important to understand Italian words, based very much on opened/ accented vowels.

Germans: tend to pronunce the syllables more closed and to omit vowels, but define vowels more than Americans.

[Hrolf Kraki]

Are you speaking about the standard? I mean, there are different dialect groups in America and in England so even people within one nation will speak differently. But standard is a different matter; British often has one particular pronunciation while American has another.

[Hrolf Kraki]

... but define vowels more than Americans.

Hey we have the schwa [ə]; only vowel you need.

[Albion]

Australians? Well, to Americans they sound like the British, but not quite. I am uncertain how they sound to Brits, but my personal inclination is that they sound more like Americans but not quite. So my personal thought is that they are a cross between the two.

I think it's fascinating how different people from all over the English speaking countries sound different, even though we're still speaking the same tongue.

Australians sound like an amalgamation of different English regional and Irish dialects. Their way of speaking sounds based on southern dialects but is far more direct.

[Comte Arnau]

Brits: Seem to speak faster, pronounce consonants in a stronger way, forget to say final r's...

Americans: Seem to drag their vowels longer and have a sort of more nasal voice, pronounce r's but forget to say their t's (it's center, not senar!!)

Scottish: Good thing, they're able to roll r's like a real man. Bad thing, no way to understand it when they leave the standard.

Australians: Like British, but with some weird diphthongs and saying aces like ices.

[Albion]

Brits: Seem to speak faster, pronounce consonants in a stronger way, forget to say final r's...

Americans: Seem to drag their vowels longer and have a sort of more nasal voice, pronounce r's but forget to say their t's (it's center, not senar!!)

Scottish: Good thing, they're able to roll r's like a real man. Bad thing, no way to understand it when they leave the standard.

Australians: Like British, but with some weird diphthongs and saying aces like ices.

Only southern English drop the r's.

[Wulfhere]

Australians don't sound anything at all like Americans. They do, however, sound rather a lot like Londoners, so much so that I am, on occasion, unsure if a particular person is from London or Australia (especially if their accent isn't a broad one).

[Mindflare]

I have a friend from New Zealand. She was trying to explain the difference between how Kiwis and Australians speak. She said when she lived in Australia they made fun of her accent but she made fun of theirs. Go figure..