D'Irish Accent

Hazys

Im living in Boston at d moment, and I'm learning to speak much more slowly and pronounce every word because the americans at times cant understand me.

I dont particularly have a strong Cork accent or anything, its more that I'm used to speaking quickly and to Americans it becomes a muffled sound when the Irish accent is thrown in.

In most conversations when i have to explain things, I'm undertood, I no longer get the bemused/smilling&nodding feel off the people at work and then they just ask me to explain again.

But i do notice that in the one off conversations and statements, I'm still as fast as ever, for example:

Guy at work: How are you doing today?
Me: I'm doing good.
Slight Pause
Guy at work: I'm fine, thank you. (Walks off)
Me:

While walking past another guy at work:
Me: Hows it going?
Other guy at work (After awkward pause): "Going?!?"

That conversation might just be put down to him not knowing what "Hows it going?" means.

EskimoErased

Anybody seen the episodes of Heroes that are set in Cork? I was mortified...


"Jayz lads, where're the ipods?"

*Shudder*

Dudess

"Mortified"? It was a bunch of Americans putting on leprechaun accents and it was filmed in some L.A. studio but set in "Cork".

EskimoErased

Oh I know it wasn't actual Corkonians, just horribly embarrassed because that's how the stupid L.A. gits see us. Era.

_blank_

The Cork accent is by far the worst.

Followed closely by Co Louth, specifically Dundalk.

mikom

Saruman wrote: »

My wife is horrified by punctuation and grammar mistakes and she did not even take a higher level English class.

I am too by some such as a lit of peoples inability to pick the correct "there" or "their" and "were" or "where" etc.

Ahem.

Rsaeire

EskimoErased wrote: »

Anybody seen the episodes of Heroes that are set in Cork? I was mortified...


"Jayz lads, where're the ipods?"

*Shudder*

I know the feeling. I cringe every time I see a similar "Irish" situation on US TV. In saying that, I thought that Caitlin, Katie Carr, who played the love interest of Peter Petrelli, was believable in her accent. I imagine it helped that she's originally from the UK and has probably heard a real-life Irish accent; as opposed to the Irish Hollywood variety.

Saruman

Hazys wrote: »

Im living in Boston at d moment, and I'm learning to speak much more slowly and pronounce every word because the americans at times cant understand me.

You know, thats probably why people like my accent. I used to speak like a dub when i was younger. Very fast and so on. I grew up in Palmerstown and hung around with lots of people from Ballyer (ballyfermot).

Anyway, Americans could not understand me so i guess i changed over time. I used to speak loud and fast. Now im soft spoken and speak much slower. Partly because of the American influence over the years and partly because my personality changed. Im much more "zen like" as in stuff does not bother me, im laid back. Im the sort of person who would only raise their eyebrows if a bomb went off... I do not panic. Although put me behind the wheel and stuck behind an driver who is not confident and braking every few seconds and im homicidal

Crumble Froo

yep, im living in new zealand, and have lost most of my accent... when i first got here, i had to repeat myself again and again, cos people just couldnt catchw hat i was saying at all...

8months later, i've been complimented on 'how much my english has improved'.

apparently im easier to understand now, people still catch that i've an accent, but don't know immediately where the accent is from.

Dudess

EskimoErased wrote: »

Oh I know it wasn't actual Corkonians, just horribly embarrassed because that's how the stupid L.A. gits see us. Era.

Rsaeire wrote: »

I know the feeling. I cringe every time I see a similar "Irish" situation on US TV.

LOL - I don't understand why we should be embarrassed by their ignorance. I thought that scene was ****ing hilarious!

Richard

obl wrote: »

I hate the way putt, put and push tend to merge into one pronounciation in Irish English. I also hate the letters "oar" and "haych".

Otherwise it's just Hiberno-English grammar that annoys the **** out of me.

I don't pronounce r or h in the way you describe and probably wouldn't speak Hiberno English, but for those who do - it's just as legitimate as English as spoken in England.

Tar.Aldarion

Yeah most Irish accents are terrible.

Green Hornet

The Waterford city accent is terrible! Today FM (Ian Dempseys morning programme) had some great sketches taking it off.

I dont mind most others though.

tolosenc

Richard wrote: »

I don't pronounce r or h in the way you describe and probably wouldn't speak Hiberno English, but for those who do - it's just as legitimate as English as spoken in England.

Well, I spent a few of my formative years across the waves, and I'll admit to being pedantic about a lot of things, but to me it just sounds like someone didn't learn to speak properly. It really pissed me off in an French to English translation I did in college last year where I wrote "an HTML page" which was hypercorrected to "a HTML page".

And one aspect of Hiberno-English that really grinds my gears is when people can't differentiate between much and many/less and fewer/least and fewest/little and few/amount and number. Though it exists elsewhere, it's prevalent here.

I study linguistics, and I know that it's best to be descriptive rather than prescriptive concerning how people speak, but I find it horrible when words are used pragmatically or syntactically incorrectly, aswell as semantically incorrectly.

sidneykidney

I have recently discoverd that i love the Waterford accent on a girl :pac:

starflake

sidneykidney wrote: »

I have recently discoverd that i love the Waterford accent on a girl :pac:

Ask her to say "well girl, lets go to school and get a baloon"... You'll soon discover you dont love it so much!

Heroditas

Hard to figure out which accent is the worst.
Certainly, the accent on the girl who previews the TV on Sean Moncrief's show is very annoying.
"Ya well we're waaatchin' the excitin' shaaaw layher awwwnn, it's brillint. Gettin' bedder each week." :rolleyes:

That Nikki on the Apprentice was in dire need of elocution lessons.
little = liddle
better = bedder
Pronounce your T's sweetheart.

Midlands accents are awful too. Most of them sound as if they're trying to conceal a gob-stopper in their mouths while they butcher the language with their indeciperable grunting.

token56

Apparently I have a rather strong Laois accent, never even knew there was a Laois accent. It has something to do with the way I say "no" apparenatly?

consultech

My skin crawls when I hear a posh Irish accent on telly pronouncing "ate" sounds as "aysh".

Green Hornet

sidneykidney wrote: »

I have recently discoverd that i love the Waterford accent on a girl :pac:

:eek::eek: Horrible accent!

Ann22

Just watching Nadine Coyle on the Late Late. She's a lovely looking girl and a great singer but her accent is horrific. She seems to have developed a quare twang on top of her usual one...the way she pronounces 'that' for example sounds really american. It doesn't blend well with the strong northern accent. Nice down to earth girl though.

Jigsaw

Surprised no one has said the Ballymena/North Antrim accent yet. I come from Antrim town, went to school in Ballymena for a while, live in Belfast and my dad's from Donegal so I have a bit of a mixture tbh. Would like to erase the Ballymena aspect though.

Sofiztikated

The Cork accent gets on my wick, can't understand them at all. I can pick out a few words here and there, and have to formulate the sentences in my head.

The Carrickmacross accent also does my wick, mostly because I assosciate it with arseholes.

Thick Nortsoide Dub accent I like, not really sure why.

C*nty Southside/D4/Killiney, man, I hate them. Bastardised LA/Cambridge YaYa's.

South Fermanagh accents, I like, it just sounds cool.

Belfast, nope, can't understand them at all.

Longford accents, I sorry to all you Longfordians, but you sound like pikey's, every single one of you.

Keeeeeeaaavan, Jebus, it does my brain in, and the sad thing is, I'm living here, and its creeping in. "Bridie, I keeeeeyan't get de keeeeyar started. De ting is foocked."

Whats my accent? Well, Clones(Monaghan, born and raised)/Fermanagh(From school)/Mild Dublin(Lived there for 5 1/2 years)/Cavan(Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it)

basiladair

I'm looking for help with the phonetic pronunciation of an Irish surname.

A friend has an Irish grandfather and we have had some discussion as to the correct phonetic pronunciation of his last name ... KILFOYLE. The grandfather is from Kilkenny if that helps. People here typically say "KILL FOIL" we the emphasis on the first syllable. Yet others routinely pronounce it "KILL FILE" with the emphasis on the second syllable.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

regards
B

Melange

starflake wrote: »

Ask her to say "well girl, lets go to school and get a baloon"... You'll soon discover you dont love it so much!

Oh God, I almost can hear those violently mangled and elongated vowels in my head. Waterford accent ftl. Probably Ireland's worst.

Latchy

basiladair wrote: »

I'm looking for help with the phonetic pronunciation of an Irish surname.

A friend has an Irish grandfather and we have had some discussion as to the correct phonetic pronunciation of his last name ... KILFOYLE. The grandfather is from Kilkenny if that helps. People here typically say "KILL FOIL" we the emphasis on the first syllable. Yet others routinely pronounce it "KILL FILE" with the emphasis on the second syllable.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

regards
B

The correct sounding of the name ' Kilfoye' is as Kill foil .

It's like in north west England were people who say the name ' Kavanagh ' will pronounce it ' Kavanna 'with emphasis on the van

The English will also say Moran with emphasis on the 'an' were as Irish people refer to it as Moran with more emphasis on the r

5318008!

obl wrote: »

I also hate the letters "oar" and "haych".

wtf???

Are you saying we should pronounce them "arrrrrr" (like a stereotypical pirate) and "aych" (with no real "h" sound in the letter ("ch" is a different sound than "h")?

There's a certain type of weak non-regional middle class Irish accent (the type you might find on a slightly nerdy teenager who doesn't really identify with any sub-groups of society (such as D4s, skangers, emos ect.) that's probably the most neutral and properly pronounced in the world.

This wasn't me though, i've the tiniest bit of northsider in me that only really comes out when i'm around d4s.

English don't pronounce "r" properly in the middle of words and their vowel sounds are all messed up. Don't even get me started on other countries.

A7X

LOUTH ACCENTS FTW

CHealy

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Strong Cork accent as well but that just makes me laugh on the inside because it's just so so so so boggerish.
quote]

Which strong Cork accent??? Stong county Cork, strong West Cork, North Cork, Cork City........

Even in Cork city alone theres a few variations.

This is the best example iv come across at a typical Southside and Northside accent in the city. The first fella is Southside and the second is pure Northside.

ps. Please dont comment on the stupidity or the crapness of the song cause any intellegent person would see that. Its just an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOhHRw-5bw0

bill_ashmount

CHealy wrote: »

This is the best example iv come across at a typical Southside and Northside accent in the city. The first fella is Southside and the second is pure Northside.

ps. Please dont comment on the stupidity or the crapness of the song cause any intellegent person would see that. Its just an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOhHRw-5bw0

Sweet Jesus :eek: