Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc CPU
now that you mention it - yes, that's another thing that causes many Germans some trouble. Fact is, German doesn't have that sound that corresponds to 'w' in English. Dutch has, AFAIK, but right now I can't think of a Dutch "dictionary" word where 'w' is pronounced as in English, only a place's name: Leeuwarden. But even that may be just an effect of the local Frisian dialect, I'm not sure.
|
I've never really looked, but I'd be suprised if there wasnt a 'w' in Frisian. AFAIK that is the closest relative to English.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc CPU
I'd be surprised if it didn't. Maybe even more so, because English is spoken in so many countries across the world, while the prevalence of German is limited to a comparably small spot - Germany, Switzerland and Austria, plus maybe a few very small patches.
And picking up your North England vs. Australia story, I remember a day when I was at the station waiting for a train, and a young guy came over to me: "Speak English?" - "Yes", I confirmed. And then the man fired a torrent of words at me that sounded a bit like English, but I didn't understand anything. I asked him to speak a bit more clearly and slowly, and then I was able to understand, though I had to concentrate hard and fill some gaps with guesswork. He was a Scot, he told me, a bricklayer who had been in Germany for a four-week-job that earned him a lot of money, but there wasn't anybody he could talk to. He complained that even among the staff of the hotel where he'd been staying, hardly anybody understood him, and now he was happy to get home again.
|
You can get the same issue even within fairly local areas, even in australia.
Some of the people from the country areas of australia (aka 'anywhere that is a farming/grazing/mining area not on the coast') can have very think accents and use terms that other australians dont understand. There are big differences in accents and terminology between the main capital cities as well. Its not at the stage that it is in England though. For example, if you take someone from Brisbane and someone fronm Adelaide, they could have problems with terms and accent used by each other. While it wouldnt find it as hard to understand each other as someone from southern England and a Scotsman could have, the difficulties are there.....and Brisbane and Adelaide are both less than 200 years old.
Given a few more hundred years, there could be as much difference between Brisbane and Adelaide as there is between someone from London using 'Received Pronunciation' (aka ' 'the Kings/Queens' English, or BBC English) and a Scottish bricklayer using his/her local dialect.
BTW, because of my the accent and terms I use, sometimes have people think I'm English, or from South australia (Adelaide). I've even had to use the local accent (as best as I can manage anyway) and terms with some people here in brisbane so that they can understand me......
