Accent Expert Explains How to Tell Accents Apart | WIRED

hi my name is Eric singer I'm a dialect coach you may have seen me here before talking about accent performances and movies but at Texas accents and South Asian accents have in common the answer is retroreflection so today I'm going to offer you some quick and easy ways to tell one accent apart from another when those two accents are pretty similar in a lot of ways can you ask somebody to say a simple phrase to try to tell whether they're from say Australia or New Zealand I'm originally from Sydney Australia Lily pa New Bedford Massachusetts number one how to tell an Australian from a New Zealand er we can use the kit foul in Australia there's a realization that is not too far off from my own American accent for instance something like an e sound an Australian might say that's something like this myth myth myth New Zealanders tend to centralize this sound so instead of the tongue being arched up a little bit towards the front of the mouth it's relaxed down a little bit towards the middle of the mouth and you get something closer to a schwa the good you can hear that here men men men myth myth myth myth so there's one actually very famous phrase that you can use that you could ask somebody at a cocktail party say to pronounce to try to tell whether they're an Australian or New Zealand er if you're not sure and that phrase would be fish and chips an Australian might say that's something like this fish and chips fish and chips fish and chips whereas the New Zealand version might sound more like this fish and chips fish and chips fish and chips fish and chips fish and chips fish and chips fish and chips number two how to tell somebody from the north of England from somebody from the South of England [Music] many accents in both places of course but the cool thing is you can draw a line straight across England north of that line struck words words like cup under mother love son are gonna have a vowel sound something like ooh very similar to the vowel sound named foot words like would butcher woman look here is a northern English person and you can hear their Strutt vowel call in the South they're gonna be two different bells one is strut and one is foot and they won't sound the same here's a speaker from the south cop cop cop from the north fun fun fun so if you meet somebody and you're pretty sure that their accent is from somewhere in England but you want to know whether it's from the north or from the South you could ask them to say the following phrase did you cut your foot from the north from South cut your foot cut your foot cut your foot cut your foot cut your foot so of course there are many different northern English accents two famous ones are Geordie from Newcastle and Brummie from Birmingham one way that you could potentially tell a Geordie accent from a Brummie accent would be to take the face well a Brummie is going to have a sound that's kind of similar to a London sound it's a diphthong it's a vowel sound that starts and ends up e moves from I it takes a journey so if you hear something like this gripe kegs gripe gripe gripe you're dealing with a Brahmi if you hear something that's much more monophthong a something like this great kicks great great great then you're dealing with a Geordie phrase could be David bakes grape cakes you can hear that here David bicks great kick David banks great cats they excrete kicks thanks Greg cats screw kicks next up New York and Boston [Music] now this one's probably easier to hear in place if you're American probably less so if you're not an American the lot bowel is going to be very open fronted no lip rounding in a New York accent lot hot not god here's a New York speaker not-not-not it's gonna be a little bit lip rounded in a Boston accent so more like law God here's a Boston speaker not not not not not not not so here's a phrase you could ask somebody to say that's not a lot of pots if they say it with an AA that's not a lot of pots they're probably from New York that's not a lot of pots that's not a lot of pots if they say with an awl that's not a lot of pots that Boston that's not a lot of pots that's not a lot of pots that's not a lot of pots that's not a lot of pots that's not a lot of pots that's not a lot of pots next up New York City in Philadelphia so both New York City in Philadelphia raise the trap foul in certain circumstances so you'll get air instead of ah they do it in different places in New York accent you get trash and traffic you also get sad and bad here's a New York speaker trash trash trash where is in Philadelphia those are not some of those trap words that are going to get raised we get other ones like man and hand so you'll get something more open like my own ah traffic trash sad bad here's a Philadelphia speaker on similar words with a different sound traffic traffic traffic so if you want a quick cocktail party test you could have somebody say trash for traffic Trish Trish traffic traffic Trish traffic Trish traffic that's it for accent party tricks I'm Eric singer [Music]

Channel: WIRED

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Keywords: accents, erik singer accents, technique tutorial, accent expert, accent expert breaks down, accent expert breaks down accents, accent expert breaks down regional accents, regional accents, new york and boston accents differences, new york accent, boston accent, northern english accent, accent differences, how to tell accents apart, australian vs new zealand accent, new zealand accent, australian accent, erik singer, erik singer accent expert, dialect coach, wired

Id: XKuPfZpzEHg

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Englander91]

"If you want to tell two accents from the north of England. Take Newcastle and Birmingham"

Brummies aren't northern, feed him to the lions.

[u/synchh]

That was cool, but the philly "traffic" almost sounded nondistinct to me. The NY accent was pretty pronounced, but I wouldn't have guessed the philly one.