"Strange " English language..

I had great experience with them as a student.

Yet used by millions in preference to any other. Millions who do actually learn and do pass their exams.


A local form of English?

That's far from reality. English English is by far the most widely used and understood. Even people who watch foreign stuff on TV like Breaking Bad prefer to study using textbooks in standard English and of course the exams they sit are Cambridge ones.


You should see some of the current ones. They change often of course and the newest ones are amazing.

For two reasons...BE makes them appear more educated. Reason two: inertia.

I spoke to many people in Poland and all were trying to sound American. With the US troops in Poland, many will realize the obvious superiority of American spelling and in the way it sounds.

I would really like to know what moron looked at "program" and said: There is something missing here...Hmm...what could it be...I got it!!! We need to add "me"!!!

Summarizing, British English is disgusting and fake. It will die the way the French did - the language of diplomacy and lovers...my ass...

The most annoying and pretentious thing about BE is that the Brits are lazy fvcks and pronounce "r" only if it's the lead letter.

Another is how they pronounce "know". Hey, azholes, "know" is not a song so make it short.

Historically, the French bastardized British English. Americans said hell no and came up with the most perfect language known to humanity.

That you know next to nothing about it. Watching a few movies or maybe BBC once or twice is not enough to form an opinion. It is as if someone after watching a few American films would conclude that Americans suffer from chronic sinus disorder.

Hey, azhole, tell me what I stated in 123 and 124 that is not true.

It is not true they don't speak uniformly (the same way)across the country.
Watch your sinuses you sound even deeper talking from Putin's ass,

Hey, moron, are we discussing English or Putin?

Normal people quote first. Then they highlight the parts of the quoted text that are not true. Finally, they post the truth.

Is every Polak a moron adults have to guide by the neck?

BTW, I would appreciate it if you just fvck off and find another way to demo your low IQ.

Both! Got on with the program. Are you slow or just senile?

Is every Polak a moron?

And why not?


Most aren't, however you are in every sense.

Spot on, jon!!

You got me conditioned like that Pavlov dog that whatever you say is pure crap. That made my life very simple and I really appreciate it.

At this point, Rich, I think I'd trust Pavlov's dog over you! LOL

How strong is this accent?

youtube.com/watch?v=3wdqH0tiwPg

It sounds very odd like I never know what vowel is going to actually appear in a word but on the other hand, she's very easy for me to understand (which is often not the case with strong regional accents or even british tv).

I notice a lot of long i sounds becoming something like 'oi' (loif for life) and final syllabic l becoming 'oo' (peopoo for people). I've heard both of those before but didn't know they can go together?

On the other hand that might be because she's speaking about a pretty easy to understand topic.... if she and three other people were just casually discussing events in their lives I might get lost (I'm pretty sure of that....)

Quite strong. Very villagey from East Anglia.


I found the same.


Some would say it's a very pure form of English there. Odd to me though; she sounds almost Aussie sometimes. Worth mentyioning that her region is where a lot of the early settlers to New England came from and the East Anglia accent has had some influence on modern AmEng.

What do you think about these two. The first is from my home town, from the 'urban' part. He's actually a teacher from a cultured family who's hamming the accent up:

youtube.com/watch?v=c40IbUdljO8

And she's from down the road, from a mining community where the accent is strong, a bit like mine once was. I never thought I'd like a 'punk poet' until I heard her stuff:

youtube.com/watch?v=w1WSAYFj298

BTW, my own accent is somewhere between the two, or was until I went away to a 'posh' university and it softened a bit.

I thought glottaling intervocalic t was a southern thing but they both do... beau'ifal

The second one there are stretches that I don't understand at all (one beginning around 0.44 or so).

Not only. It crops up in a few dialects.


It's not the easiest accent. Around Knottingley (pronounced Notla) where she's from the accent is especially strong as it often is in (ex) coal minIng places. It's still thee and tha territory. She's making an effort to sound 'ultra-local' though.

There's quite a lot of post-2004 Poles in the small towns around there. Maybe that will have some influence in the future, maybe not. I met a 20 year old woman who moved near there from Poland as a kid and she had a strong local accent. She asked if I was Polish (I was speaking English) but I guess that most of the people she hears around there sound very local and I don't any more.

The bit after 0.44 is about winning goldfish (at a carnival) and eating them for dares. I stumbled at about 0.51, something about "our nasal accent suiting them (southerners).

Too late to edit. The thing about the nasal tones is that it suits the phrase 'our kid' (a younger brother/sister).

Then you don't know anything about Britain. In the West Country the 'r' is very strongly pronounced.

Just for you ;)

The Wurzels - Combine Harvester




She sounds mainly Australian to me!


I couldn't make it out at all.

Exactly my point from before, Feniks! The West Country accent is probably the closest
in Great Britain to North American Standard, with the exception of New England such as Boston,
New York (especially Brooklynese) or deepest Deep South.

Most YouTube videos have subtitles, and can be useful sometimes.

They sailed from Plymouth (near the West Country) to Plymouth Rock. Many also came from eastern England, especially East Anglia which was very rich at that time due to the wool industry, was relatively densely populated and was very very Protestant.


Even very. I'd not expect auto-generated subtitles to handle her accent very well though; they're bad enough with Corrie and Emmerdale.

Yes, that's right.

Thanks. I didn't know that but it doesn't work too well for accents. Just put the subtitles on for that clip of Jon's video. Didn't make a whole lot of sense!

I heard 'eating them for days' and was feeling sorry for them if they're that poor.... (although goldfish are carp so....)

That's Liverpool where they eat rats.

This is from a Man U fan site so I felt sick looking at it however it explains that reference
fanchants.com/nl/football-songs/manchester_united-chants/park-park-2/

Why does everyone hate them? I remember when their main player was a French diva (the type who didn't do teamwork so they had to build the rest of the team around him)... IIRC he gave a kung fu kick once to a fan which is pretty cool (I know... unsportsmanlike.... but pretty cool, like Zidane's headbutt which was objectively awesome).

My favorite soccer team is easily Crystal Palace and I don't know the first thing about them (nor do I really want to) I just think it's a great name.

They just do. Man U have more fans in Rio than Manchester.

Plus there's an element of tribalism; Man U are RC, Man City are Protestant.

And if you support team X, you hate teams A, B, C etc. Same in Poland.


The (now closed) Crystal Palace railway station is an architectural dream. Sort of neo-Byzantine. Sadly now used by a taxi firm as their office but for many years was used as the cathedral of several exotic religions sects.

Never heard or read anything about this in all my years following football. Now, Rangers and Celtic would be a different matter of course.

Getting back to topic, what accent is this strange (but cute) English language?

twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1791005735855226975