Finding America

Me and Tarah

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One my all time favo(u)rite sounds in the world is hearing an American use British slang words. You'd be surprised how often this happens, as my counterparts this side of the Pond aim to mimic my accent through choice phrases such as bugger or plonker.

And there's something so majestically unnatural about the pronunciation—as if the American in question is learning, through baby steps, to speak an entirely new language. Of course, in many ways, this is exactly the very challenge they are undertaking. And just as how, say, German sounds woefully misrepresented when spoken in a British accent, so too does British  English in an American brogue.


It was for this very reason that I figured a video depicting this very scenario would make for quite the interesting experiment. Let me know what you think.




Purchase Anglotopia's Dictionary of British English.

This article was written by Laurence Brown. Laurence is a British expat living in Indianapolis, Indiana, and has written for BBC America and Anglotopia. He is Editor-in-chief of Lost in the Pond and loves nothing more than to share these articles with anglophiles, expats, and other interested parties on social media. Follow Lost in the Pond on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

3 comments:

  1. The only one I take issue with is "snooker" with a "LONG oo" sound (as pronounced in "kook") rather than a "short oo" sound (as in "book"). My husband and I say the word "snooker" properly (to rhyme with "booker"), thank you--and we're from the Midwest, too!

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  2. Haahahahahah!
    Your American accent is pretty good, actually. You're right; some British words just do not sound right in it.

    I need to work on my British accent so I can curse more colorfully. :)

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  3. This was fabulous! An American accent just doesnt do justice to these terms. Sad really, They are such fun terms!

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