Wednesday 19 April 2006

Can't believe me own voice

My accent is changing. Small things, like the T appearing when I say "water," nudging out the D in the Canadian pronounciation. Last week I said petrol instead of gas and didn't even notice until Andrew told me. "Alright?" is one of my favourite questions - so much shorter than "how are you?" The T at the end doesn't really exist - it's kind of crushed up and becomes something softer, like the way plastic bottles are made into fleece. Somehow. Like magic.
I love to mock comedian Peter Kay's call of desperation as his Rich Tea sinks into his tea: "Me biscuit...it's fallen in me brew..."

And this - The BBC taking the mickey out of the grand tourist and art critic Brian Sewell. The actor stands on the street, pretending to be proud Londoner Brian, raising funds to educate Northerners. Best line: "Did you know that there are people in the world today who have no idea what a goat's cheese roulade is."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/deadringers/clips/clip9.shtml

Mostly my accent is becoming more English. This is the fault of Andrew and also of my favourite voices on the radio or telly. (That's another thing. I much prefer the word "telly" to "TV"). I can't pick up the Scottish accent - it's too hard and it's impossible to make my pronounciation sound subtle. The only thing I can get away with is the word "wee," which hardly makes me giggle anymore.
I listen to the tourists and I can tell a London accent from the stretched vowels of someone from Liverpool. People from Newcastle talk like their words are being diced on a cutting board. When I meet someone from Glasgow, I simply smile and nod and hope they don't realize I don't understand what they are saying.

I just realized that in a week and a half I will have been in the UK for a year. Bloody hell - that went fast.

2 comments:

PurestGreen said...

I throw in the odd "eh" sometimes, just to make myself feel more homesick. The use of "Yee haw" has now changed and is used to describe working really hard at something. Ie: She's really giving it yee haw.

Marcheline said...

Yes... but HOW did you GET there? Did you have to have a job first, or did you marry a Scotsman?

Need the info.

- M