I want to learn about how language is spoken.
September 29, 2016 8:55 AM   Subscribe

What are some youtube channels and podcasts that highlight and talk about the differences in language and accents with examples?

It's always blown my mind that people can change their accents at will to imitate a person or group of people. I can't even wrap my brain around it. It occurred to me that is because I grew up not paying attention to how people are speaking, but their intentions behind what they're saying. (The same works with music, I pay much more attention to the melody and beat long before I pay attention to the lyrics)

Needless to say this meme about "rise up lights" sounding like razor blades in an Australian accent delighted me to no end.

I was inspired by this recent blue post to ask this question, because I can't think off the top of my head how the American Jewish accent really sounds and how that makes it sing-songy.
posted by INFJ to Writing & Language (5 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Google youtube accents
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:04 AM on September 29, 2016


A lot of actors will listen to accents on sites like Dialects Archive in order to learn new accents. Or actors will also look up news reports and documentaries from the region they're studying, so they can hear passers-by and other real people being interviewed.

If you spend 20 minutes speaking along repeatedly with these kinds of clips (like just copy what the speaker says 1 second after they say it), you can learn the mouth-shapes and common phonetic sounds of a dialect pretty fast.

A similar meme to "rise up lights":
If you say "beer can" with a British accent,
You've just said "bacon" with a Jamaican accent
posted by pseudostrabismus at 11:47 AM on September 29, 2016


This is a big deal when studying Norwegian because there are many regional dialects with fairly large differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. For example, here's a video comparing the Bergen dialect (bergensk) to the Oslo dialect. The same channel has other videos about different dialects, or about how to pronounce specific vowels and consonants in Norwegian.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:48 AM on September 29, 2016


A really good foundation for accents in speech is the International Phonetic Alphabet. Various places have recordings related to the specific sounds of a particular accent. The actor William Hurt, uses it to be very precise and specific when he uses an accent. From my perspective, it allows him to be more subtle and nuanced in his speech.
posted by Altomentis at 12:53 PM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just to add to the accent meme pile:
If you say 'Space Ghetto' in an American accent, you've just said 'Spice Girl' in a Scottish one.
posted by lovedbymarylane at 8:17 PM on September 29, 2016


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