ameriacans and english

Bah! I didn't know you were that close to Zurich! - Was there (briefly) last year - could have extended!

Margo, what at pity! Whenever you come to Europe, be sure to let us know! You should have come to visit us and meet Nisse and Mysan!

HAHAHA! Well said!

32 and one of the younger people? I'm 20

hm
as i have previously explained my grammer is normally extremely good but a mixture of little time and some coursework due in the next day cused my grammer to take a second place and to be honest when you admit to being 14 noone takes you seriously no matter how grammaticlly correct you are.

Actually, if you appeared to be intelligent, I would.

thank you
now im aware that some people out there will take me seriously ill try to show you my better side.

Bravo, Wanton Witch!

urs - I would be delighted to meet you some other time but I was very busy with work and didn't really get outside the office/hotel much, so you wouldn't have caught me on best form. A very kind offer, anyway. Danke vielmals.

D1Doris - I usually find myself on threads with people older than myself, that's all - enjoy whatever age you are for its special benefits!!!

KP

I can 'certify' that your German is much better than you make people belief here!

("Understandable" even in a loud pub! :wink:)

Spoken english is very different to written english.
When written or used in broadcasting news, correct grammar has to be used or the sense of what is being told goes out of the window.

When spoken in everyday conversation, English takes on a different form. It's grammar that often goes out the window and the inclusion of vernacular and dialect become more prevalent. Spoken/street English is or can be very hard to follow if it's a language you are not used too.

Joe Public isn't that conversant with The Queen's English.

The same is true of French. Learning correct Parisian French is very different from learning conversational Marseiles French.

You think that is young? I'm 17 :wink:

Between the wanton grammarians and the flat-Dutch speakers here, i'm all in a tizzy.

MWH, no offense intended, but please do note, as KP points out, that as this is not a chat room, and we have gradiose pretensions to erudition; so when you post in a language thread, you need to meet a high standard, albeit for largely superficial as opposed to substantive reasons.

On many other occasions here, i write in what might be termed a "vernacular" style. One of our members once made the comment (which i found haughty) that as an editor, he always believed that when people claim to write in a manner which reflects their speech, that they actually are incapable of writing correctly, and are making an excuse. I did not respond.

I was born in New York, at a time when it was the largest city in the world. However, i grew up in rural settings, mostly in the American South, and have always revelled in the many ways that people express themselves without reference to "correct" grammar and composition. For my editor friend here, i would simply observe that it is in fact more difficult to write "in the vernacular" than it is to write in a grammatically correct fashion.

You prolly know what i'm gettin' at, less you ain't from around here. Say, you ain't from around here, air ye?

Like OAK says, the spoken and written versions of any language are different. I suppose the idea is that although we talk differently, we should all be able to write the same.

If I were to type the above in my natural (North Eastern English) accent (of which there are at least 10 sub-accents), it would go a bit like this:

Y'know mate, like OAK sez, th' spokun and th' wri'un vershuns of, like, eny language are diffren', y'know. 'Spose th'idea is tha' although we tark diffruntly, like, we should all be able to wri' th'same. Yeh?

Where is your accent from, mutwillig hexe? Be you one a' them zoider drinkers?

Tip: To avoid the wrath of A2Kers, just use some punctuation and capital letters where appropriate.

He said, sheepishly . . .

Baa, baa. It's a sheep in wolfs clothing

Does California also has its "own" accent? Just wondering

This is an entertaining thread because of the assumptions some of you have over the meanings of "accent" "dialect" and "language".
In particular the usage of phrases like "best English" or "correct English" are intellectually equivalent to "best dressed" and "correctly dressed".

May I heartily recommend Crystal's "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" if you are are interested in this fascinating area. I guarantee it will be a revelation.

The main german that is spoken in germany is the hamburger dialect. That means, if you are watching news on RTL or SAT1 or ARD, the broadcasters would be speaking german in Hamburg-dialect.

Well, I live a couple of years in Germany -some decades, to be honest- and I never noticed that.
(And I'm sure, A2K-member hamburger will join me - although he is just visiting Germany now and then :wink: )



Actually, I don't think, many people even in Hamburg could understand that dialect!

Believe me, German news are read in high German, not in any dialect!
(And besides in some folkloristic shows/plays etc, you wont find any spoken dialect in tv-programs at all.)

And not only in Germany Walter. A friend of mine is British and he said to me once that the English they teach us at our school is "BBC-English" - English that is perfectly correct, but not spoken anywhere in Great-Britain (except on the BBC-news :wink: )

"BBC English" is also known as "RP" - received pronunciation. It's roughly what I speak, though some of the phrases I use with friends will be coloured by the fact that I live in London and, therefore, use some regional words and the occasional bit of Cockney rhyming slang!

If you watch Eastenders on BBC1 and compare that to the news, you'll contrast (East) London accents with RP.