Mad kitty!

"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 07:30:42 -0700, Seanette Blaylock
yodeled:

"Yowie" had some very interesting
things to say about "go down cellar":

I'm remembering when I rang a very fancy hotel in Minneapolis to talk to
my
friend who was away on business. I used to think I didn't have a
particularly strong Australian accent, but the receptionist simply
couldn't
understand me until I started speaking in my fake American accent. For a
hotel that would surely get guests from all over the world, I would have
thought my accent would not present a problem, but perhaps Australian
sounds
*particularly* strange to American ears.

Not to me, it doesn't, and I happen to like the Aussie accent. I like
the sound. :-)

I lived with one for quite a few years. You get used to it.
Sometimes you can even understand it. :P

But I have to say that when I was hearing news reports on NPR about
the recent Australian election, I was almost jolted out of bed by the
strength of Howard's ("Haaaaaaaad") and Latham's accents. 'Strewth!

Both speak with quite an "educated" city accents (except for Mr Howards
characteristic "aaah" and "umm"s) and would have most likely taken
eloquotion(sp?) lessons. The way the speak is similar to our news anchor
people, which have to speak "correctly" (for an Aussie, anyway).

The further you go from the cities, the stronger the accent and slower the
drawl. People from Far North Queensland, Northern Territory and the northern
bit of Western Australia have much stronger accents than us urbanites, who
in comparison speak very fast and "clip" our words.

Yowie

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Yoj" wrote in message
m...
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 07:48:18 +1300, Bev
yodeled:

Cheryl Perkins wrote:

Kreisleriana wrote:

The former Mr. T (an Aussie) had people remark to him that it
must be
cool to live in a country from where you could drive all over
Europe.
:P

I've heard that many people think that Australia and Austria
are
the same
place, which would certainly lead to that kind of confusion!

--
Cheryl

Even funnier are the people who think that Australia and New
Zealand
are
part of the same country or people who think New Zealand is a
part of
Holland or Alaska. When we travelled around the US recently few
people
could pick our accents. They always began by thinking we were
English,
no, Australian then, nooo, then they gave up

Bev

"New Zealand: The Canada of Australia"

Forget New Zealand (I don't mean really)! That's beyond most of
our
ken. In fact it was beyond my Aussie Mr. T's ken, too, but I
think
that was on purpose. :P

I don't know it it is because I am so familiar with "down-under"
accents that I don't see why most Americans mistake them for
English.
But I suppose that there are so many English accents that they
think
that those just might be a couple more.

Theresa

Actually, the most common Aussie accent bears a definite resemblance
to
the English Cockney accent. There is also the fact that a large
number
of Aussies came from England originally, and never lost their
English
accent.

To your American ears, it probably does, but I suspect I and alot of
other
Aussies (and Cockneys) would disagree. As I said up thread, its
probably
what you are used to, and since youaren't used to either accent, you
can
hear the similarities, but I can't.

Then again, as speech patterns go, both Aussies and Cockneys do employ
alot
of rhyming slang.

Yowie

Maybe what I'm really hearing is that to me, an Aussie accent sounds
closer to a Cockney accent than to an American accent (whichever one
you're talking about) - except that I notice that some Aussies add an
"r" to the end of words that don't have one, and so do some Americans -
Bostonians, for instance.

Joy

Joy

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Yoj" wrote in message
m...
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 07:48:18 +1300, Bev
yodeled:

Cheryl Perkins wrote:

Kreisleriana wrote:

The former Mr. T (an Aussie) had people remark to him that it
must be
cool to live in a country from where you could drive all over
Europe.
:P

I've heard that many people think that Australia and Austria
are
the same
place, which would certainly lead to that kind of confusion!

--
Cheryl

Even funnier are the people who think that Australia and New
Zealand
are
part of the same country or people who think New Zealand is a
part of
Holland or Alaska. When we travelled around the US recently few
people
could pick our accents. They always began by thinking we were
English,
no, Australian then, nooo, then they gave up

Bev

"New Zealand: The Canada of Australia"

Forget New Zealand (I don't mean really)! That's beyond most of
our
ken. In fact it was beyond my Aussie Mr. T's ken, too, but I
think
that was on purpose. :P

I don't know it it is because I am so familiar with "down-under"
accents that I don't see why most Americans mistake them for
English.
But I suppose that there are so many English accents that they
think
that those just might be a couple more.

Theresa

Actually, the most common Aussie accent bears a definite resemblance
to
the English Cockney accent. There is also the fact that a large
number
of Aussies came from England originally, and never lost their
English
accent.

To your American ears, it probably does, but I suspect I and alot of
other
Aussies (and Cockneys) would disagree. As I said up thread, its
probably
what you are used to, and since youaren't used to either accent, you
can
hear the similarities, but I can't.

Then again, as speech patterns go, both Aussies and Cockneys do employ
alot
of rhyming slang.

Yowie

Maybe what I'm really hearing is that to me, an Aussie accent sounds
closer to a Cockney accent than to an American accent (whichever one
you're talking about) - except that I notice that some Aussies add an
"r" to the end of words that don't have one, and so do some Americans -
Bostonians, for instance.

Joy

Joy

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Yoj" wrote in message
m...
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 07:48:18 +1300, Bev
yodeled:

Cheryl Perkins wrote:

Kreisleriana wrote:

The former Mr. T (an Aussie) had people remark to him that it
must be
cool to live in a country from where you could drive all over
Europe.
:P

I've heard that many people think that Australia and Austria
are
the same
place, which would certainly lead to that kind of confusion!

--
Cheryl

Even funnier are the people who think that Australia and New
Zealand
are
part of the same country or people who think New Zealand is a
part of
Holland or Alaska. When we travelled around the US recently few
people
could pick our accents. They always began by thinking we were
English,
no, Australian then, nooo, then they gave up

Bev

"New Zealand: The Canada of Australia"

Forget New Zealand (I don't mean really)! That's beyond most of
our
ken. In fact it was beyond my Aussie Mr. T's ken, too, but I
think
that was on purpose. :P

I don't know it it is because I am so familiar with "down-under"
accents that I don't see why most Americans mistake them for
English.
But I suppose that there are so many English accents that they
think
that those just might be a couple more.

Theresa

Actually, the most common Aussie accent bears a definite resemblance
to
the English Cockney accent. There is also the fact that a large
number
of Aussies came from England originally, and never lost their
English
accent.

To your American ears, it probably does, but I suspect I and alot of
other
Aussies (and Cockneys) would disagree. As I said up thread, its
probably
what you are used to, and since youaren't used to either accent, you
can
hear the similarities, but I can't.

Then again, as speech patterns go, both Aussies and Cockneys do employ
alot
of rhyming slang.

Yowie

Maybe what I'm really hearing is that to me, an Aussie accent sounds
closer to a Cockney accent than to an American accent (whichever one
you're talking about) - except that I notice that some Aussies add an
"r" to the end of words that don't have one, and so do some Americans -
Bostonians, for instance.

Joy

Joy

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 07:30:42 -0700, Seanette Blaylock
yodeled:

"Yowie" had some very
interesting
things to say about "go down cellar":

I'm remembering when I rang a very fancy hotel in Minneapolis to
talk to
my
friend who was away on business. I used to think I didn't have a
particularly strong Australian accent, but the receptionist
simply
couldn't
understand me until I started speaking in my fake American accent.
For a
hotel that would surely get guests from all over the world, I
would have
thought my accent would not present a problem, but perhaps
Australian
sounds
*particularly* strange to American ears.

Not to me, it doesn't, and I happen to like the Aussie accent. I
like
the sound. :-)

I lived with one for quite a few years. You get used to it.
Sometimes you can even understand it. :P

But I have to say that when I was hearing news reports on NPR about
the recent Australian election, I was almost jolted out of bed by
the
strength of Howard's ("Haaaaaaaad") and Latham's accents. 'Strewth!

Both speak with quite an "educated" city accents (except for Mr
Howards
characteristic "aaah" and "umm"s) and would have most likely taken
eloquotion(sp?) lessons. The way the speak is similar to our news
anchor
people, which have to speak "correctly" (for an Aussie, anyway).

The further you go from the cities, the stronger the accent and slower
the
drawl. People from Far North Queensland, Northern Territory and the
northern
bit of Western Australia have much stronger accents than us urbanites,
who
in comparison speak very fast and "clip" our words.

Yowie

On my first trip to Australia, I didn't notice any difference in accents
in the various places I visited. On my second trip, I noticed some
differences, as well as different speech patterns. For instance, most
places I went, the usual greeting was "G'day". In Darwin, it was,
"Howaya?" I noticed a few times, though, that if one Aussie greeted
another with "Howaya?", the other usually responded by saying "G'day".

I have some Aussie CD's, and find that, although their accents aren't
the same, both John Williamson and Lazy Harry have what I would call an
Aussie accent. To my dismay, Slim Dusty pronounced most words the same
way I do. In fact, one song ("We've Done us Proud") sounds as though it
could have been written about the United States, and there is nothing in
his pronunciation to give a clue otherwise. I say to my dismay, because
I like the Aussie accent, and I like Aussie slang too.

Joy

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 07:30:42 -0700, Seanette Blaylock
yodeled:

"Yowie" had some very
interesting
things to say about "go down cellar":

I'm remembering when I rang a very fancy hotel in Minneapolis to
talk to
my
friend who was away on business. I used to think I didn't have a
particularly strong Australian accent, but the receptionist
simply
couldn't
understand me until I started speaking in my fake American accent.
For a
hotel that would surely get guests from all over the world, I
would have
thought my accent would not present a problem, but perhaps
Australian
sounds
*particularly* strange to American ears.

Not to me, it doesn't, and I happen to like the Aussie accent. I
like
the sound. :-)

I lived with one for quite a few years. You get used to it.
Sometimes you can even understand it. :P

But I have to say that when I was hearing news reports on NPR about
the recent Australian election, I was almost jolted out of bed by
the
strength of Howard's ("Haaaaaaaad") and Latham's accents. 'Strewth!

Both speak with quite an "educated" city accents (except for Mr
Howards
characteristic "aaah" and "umm"s) and would have most likely taken
eloquotion(sp?) lessons. The way the speak is similar to our news
anchor
people, which have to speak "correctly" (for an Aussie, anyway).

The further you go from the cities, the stronger the accent and slower
the
drawl. People from Far North Queensland, Northern Territory and the
northern
bit of Western Australia have much stronger accents than us urbanites,
who
in comparison speak very fast and "clip" our words.

Yowie

On my first trip to Australia, I didn't notice any difference in accents
in the various places I visited. On my second trip, I noticed some
differences, as well as different speech patterns. For instance, most
places I went, the usual greeting was "G'day". In Darwin, it was,
"Howaya?" I noticed a few times, though, that if one Aussie greeted
another with "Howaya?", the other usually responded by saying "G'day".

I have some Aussie CD's, and find that, although their accents aren't
the same, both John Williamson and Lazy Harry have what I would call an
Aussie accent. To my dismay, Slim Dusty pronounced most words the same
way I do. In fact, one song ("We've Done us Proud") sounds as though it
could have been written about the United States, and there is nothing in
his pronunciation to give a clue otherwise. I say to my dismay, because
I like the Aussie accent, and I like Aussie slang too.

Joy

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 07:30:42 -0700, Seanette Blaylock
yodeled:

"Yowie" had some very
interesting
things to say about "go down cellar":

I'm remembering when I rang a very fancy hotel in Minneapolis to
talk to
my
friend who was away on business. I used to think I didn't have a
particularly strong Australian accent, but the receptionist
simply
couldn't
understand me until I started speaking in my fake American accent.
For a
hotel that would surely get guests from all over the world, I
would have
thought my accent would not present a problem, but perhaps
Australian
sounds
*particularly* strange to American ears.

Not to me, it doesn't, and I happen to like the Aussie accent. I
like
the sound. :-)

I lived with one for quite a few years. You get used to it.
Sometimes you can even understand it. :P

But I have to say that when I was hearing news reports on NPR about
the recent Australian election, I was almost jolted out of bed by
the
strength of Howard's ("Haaaaaaaad") and Latham's accents. 'Strewth!

Both speak with quite an "educated" city accents (except for Mr
Howards
characteristic "aaah" and "umm"s) and would have most likely taken
eloquotion(sp?) lessons. The way the speak is similar to our news
anchor
people, which have to speak "correctly" (for an Aussie, anyway).

The further you go from the cities, the stronger the accent and slower
the
drawl. People from Far North Queensland, Northern Territory and the
northern
bit of Western Australia have much stronger accents than us urbanites,
who
in comparison speak very fast and "clip" our words.

Yowie

On my first trip to Australia, I didn't notice any difference in accents
in the various places I visited. On my second trip, I noticed some
differences, as well as different speech patterns. For instance, most
places I went, the usual greeting was "G'day". In Darwin, it was,
"Howaya?" I noticed a few times, though, that if one Aussie greeted
another with "Howaya?", the other usually responded by saying "G'day".

I have some Aussie CD's, and find that, although their accents aren't
the same, both John Williamson and Lazy Harry have what I would call an
Aussie accent. To my dismay, Slim Dusty pronounced most words the same
way I do. In fact, one song ("We've Done us Proud") sounds as though it
could have been written about the United States, and there is nothing in
his pronunciation to give a clue otherwise. I say to my dismay, because
I like the Aussie accent, and I like Aussie slang too.

Joy

On Sun, 24 Oct, Theresa wrote:

---------------------snip----------------------
Take it from me, they have vowels and diphthongs down there that never
appeared in the British Isles.

Speaking of diphthongs, DH and I were visiting Oahu with her brother
and his then-current flame, Cher. We were driving along looking for
the Kalanianiole Highway and discussing the mellifluous Hawaiian
language. I remarked, hoping to get either DH's brother or companion
to bite, that you never knew what was a diphthong.

"What's a diphthong?" asked Cher, taking the bait.

"You see" I replied, "that's what you never know!"

Regards and Purrs,
O J

On Sun, 24 Oct, Theresa wrote:

---------------------snip----------------------
Take it from me, they have vowels and diphthongs down there that never
appeared in the British Isles.

Speaking of diphthongs, DH and I were visiting Oahu with her brother
and his then-current flame, Cher. We were driving along looking for
the Kalanianiole Highway and discussing the mellifluous Hawaiian
language. I remarked, hoping to get either DH's brother or companion
to bite, that you never knew what was a diphthong.

"What's a diphthong?" asked Cher, taking the bait.

"You see" I replied, "that's what you never know!"

Regards and Purrs,
O J

On Sun, 24 Oct, Theresa wrote:

---------------------snip----------------------
Take it from me, they have vowels and diphthongs down there that never
appeared in the British Isles.

Speaking of diphthongs, DH and I were visiting Oahu with her brother
and his then-current flame, Cher. We were driving along looking for
the Kalanianiole Highway and discussing the mellifluous Hawaiian
language. I remarked, hoping to get either DH's brother or companion
to bite, that you never knew what was a diphthong.

"What's a diphthong?" asked Cher, taking the bait.

"You see" I replied, "that's what you never know!"

Regards and Purrs,
O J