"Americans only". Please explain American dialect to me. Thanks?

Question

"Americans only". Please explain American dialect to me. Thanks?

Answer 1

Upper New England (too fast), New York-ease, Ebonics, and H,I,J,K are all difficult for me to understand sometimes for one reason or another. I'm from Scotland/London, and there are actually some accents in Britain that I have to work at understanding. But any English/US/Australian accent can be understood if you listen attentively. At least it isn't like India and China, and some other Asian countries that don't even speak the same language at all. lol Oh yes. I currently live in Texas and have no problem with that. You should hear my crazy mixed up Scottish/English/Texas accent. lol

Answer 2

It's simple. In the southeast we say steps. In the northeast they say stoops. Same meaning. Same language but different words with the same meaning. That is American dialect. It is universal too. Usually dialect may come from different settlers in a given region.

Answer 3

There are so many US shows on UK TV, and have been since the 50s, the majority of people who live in the UK should have no problems...

Answer 4

The differences that do not get into films or tv sitcoms are mostly to do with food (rutabarga for swede, eggplant for aubergine, zucchini for courgette) with household items (skillet for frying pan, faucet for tap), and techncial terms (ground for earth in electric circuits, railcar truck for railway rolling stock bogie, gear shift for gear stick, trolley car for tramcar, cross tie for railway sleeper, switch for points, coach class for standard aka third class on trains, and a motor coach is a long-distance bus.

There are also words that have been lost in the USA, such as fortnight, hundredweight, furlong. There is also a group of compound words where the Americans use only the second half, Brits (usually) the first: cotton-thread, bath-tub, taxi-cab, tin-can, motor-car. Attitudes to jay walking (crossing on red) depend on individual police force policy. Never try it in Columbus, Ohio. The most dangerous place for road accidents is a small rural county in northern Nevada. The use of firearms increases as one moves south and west. Drive by shootings in big cities are about as common as in Manchester or South London, Safe states? Maybe Vermont or Minnesota? Keep well up north if you are allergic to whirlwinds (now thanks to unpatriotic journalists, virtually americanized 99% as "tornadoes" or "twisters.") Oh, and remember always to say "sir" and "ma'am", at least to strangers, customers, jacks in office and your elders and betters. And if you should visit Québec: speak French and service will instantly improve 200%. And in Miami, speak Spanish and get your interlocutor to do the same if you want any hope at all of effective communication (this is not hostility, just incomplete acculturation)..

Answer 5

Only British people...from Jamaica, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Iran, The Bahamas, etc



You are referring to 380 million mate! Or you could say Only Chinese...they are 1.100.000.000 only.

Answer 6

I'm not sure what all the differences are between our dialects. I don't know what you mean by photography laws? No laws I'm aware of. I don't know what you mean by crossing on the red man? We don't have a dress code...just have to be wearing clothes in public. Where are you visiting? Each state has their more dangerous cities.

Answer 7

Cell phone is correct.Rubbish is correct Pavement is the road surface (usually tar based), not sidewalks. Pedestrian crossing/ cross walk. Car bonnet is called the hood. Car boot is called the trunk. Photography are pretty much non existent unless specifically stated. Any state with less gun control laws tend to be safest. My home state, Vermont is about as safe as you could get. Might have four or five murders a year. New Hampshire is very safe as is Maine. Stay away from NY, Conn, Colo, Rhode Island, Mass, Ill (esp chicago), NJ.

Answer 8

Unless you're from the past you will have been raised on a steady diet of American food, films and TV shows. You already know their language inside out without ever having visited so don't worry about that.

Answer 9

Personally, I would say not to waste your time worrying about it. If anything, keep your slang down to a minimum because that's where the majority of the differences are, and you Brits have a lot of slang. The problem is, for Americans as well as Brits, is that we don't realize how much slang we actually use in daily life. Even in your examples, no should have a problem understanding any of those except for maybe "skip". Then again, how often does anyone use "dumpster" in daily life. Are you expecting a run-in with a skip while you're here?



Anyway, the fun part about going to another country is the language difference, isn't it? By the way, Dr. Who and Downton Abbey are terribly popular here, and who doesn't like Monty Python or AbFab. So if you run into a snit, pretend you're in the Dept of Insults and channel Eric Idle (then run like mad). And Russell Brand and Ricky Gervais are on TV (that's a telly) quite frequently, so you see, we're not totally unfamiliar with your accent. If worst comes to worst, try pretending you're a BBC newsperson (they're always fairly understandable to us - well, to me at least) or Julie Andrews.



As with anywhere in the world, if you stay away from the dodgy parts, you'll usually not run into any problems.



Safest/dangerous states? Stay away from the West coast states (volcano, earthquake and tsunami zones, not to mention the killer whales). Stay away from the NorthEast coast (hurricanes, New Yorkers, and the Mafia). Stay away from the Gulf coast (again hurricanes and Latino drug gangs (haven't you seen "Scarface"? and the BP oilspill). Stay away from Southern and Mid-West states (tornadoes, country music, Honey Boo Boo). You're probably safer visiting Canada.



Photography law? No taking or distributing pictures of naked children, otherwise knock yourself out - it's a free country.



Dress code? If you've kept up with the latest hip-hop videos, you'd know it's bootie shorts and string bikinis for the ladies, and whatever for the guys.



Traffic Safety: Don't jaywalk and no crossing against a red-light (red man)



Gun laws: I'm not sure but I think they make you carry a gun in Texas and Arizona



Otherwise have fun!