What the smeg is Lister's accent?

I don't know why, but this thread has really worn me out!

I tend to look upon the entire English-speaking world as one giant nationality of which I am a part. I'm American. By the way, an American couldn't detect a Canadian accent if his/her life depended on it! They sound American to us, except for that different pronunciation of "out".

I've been watching UK television my entire life, and I haven't learned to distinguish all the local accents. Maybe my brain was hard-wired in a certain way early on, from having been born here. Liverpudlian's easy. I'll have to remember that handy hint about Scottish people becoming enraged when you can't understand them.

I'm wearing myself out now. Sorry, is this really boring? I can't tell. I'm very sleep-deprived and I could very well come back here tomorrow and find I've just posted random letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols and not words. That did happen once. My brain feels as if it's going on strike.

 

Depends on the American. I can usually pick up on a Canadian accent (which again is widespread depending on the part of Canada the person comes from)

 

I'm not American, but I can usually spot Canadians!

 

Well, Noah Webster had something against it, and everyone else basically did what he told them. Prescriptivism, there.

 

The Scottish guy I worked with some 10 years ago was always just very sad (looking) when I didn't understand his joke he told in his Scottish accent.
Maybe he didn't become enraged because I'm a non English native speaker and he was working in the Netherlands.
Or he was just a really friendly man (I think he was).

 

Yes, come to think of it, if Webster told me to jump off a cliff, I'd do it. Good thing he's dead. Phew.

Good point, we all think of it as American spelling and embrace it, but it really must have been an arbitrary decision on his part. I mean, what solid reason could there possibly have been? Writing u's cause carpal tunnel?

 

To be fair Torchwood wasn't meant to be a comedy show (although it has it's comedic moments.) A lot agree with you on the third rate sci-fi though.

 

RTD doesn't like science-fiction, which is more than a slight problem.

 

His reasoning was we don't pronounce it so it's an unnecessary letter and clutters it up. Some of his more...erratic choices of spelling to make the English language simpler and closer to how it's pronounced never caught on and were quietly dropped from the dictionary after he died.

Aluminum is interesting though. The man who discovered it orginally called it alumium. Four years later he changed it to Aluminum. Americans dutifully went along with the change. The Brits disliked Aluminum because it broke a pattern with other elements so added a bit to make Aluminium.

Strange but true!

 

Thanks for that. I now know that Brits dislike the breaking of a pattern. I also now know that Brits enjoy a great number of syllables when they are describing various metals!

More on this particular situation as it develops.

 

I thought Alaska was the largest state and that Canada is another country altogether

 

Yeah so did I but I new Canada was a Country....we had a war with them! Lasted 3 days...the Great Pig War! (another strange but true for you)

 

There seem to have been many strange little skirmishes and incidents along the border with Canada right after US independence, because the wording in the treaty was vague, and no one could agree on where the border was. A couple of areas in northern New England declared independence, just so as to have some sort of government to run things, I think.

 

But the Great Pig War on the Border with British Columbia and Canada is the only OFFICIAL war with Canada to be held....that lasted 3 days. It's one of those things you learn in school in Washington and giggle about.

 

And the only casualty of the conflict was one pig.

 

Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I never could stand what he's done to Doctor Who. I only hope his successor is a better writer.

 

Exactly!