Accent and a Slang

I think I qualify to provide my honest opinion on language and accent of different people around 3 different continents. During my incessant travels in west, I came to know that different people have different ways of speaking the same language. English – being a foreign dialect to Indian I am not wrong in saying that it has become the virtual mother tongue of very many people so far.

Globalisation - for my early years was able to understand Americanised English and follow the witty dialogues in Friends (this show being the only one showing on Z-cafe 10 years back). My perception changed along the years and now it’s the ability of India doing business with the top-notch firms and Indian youth being able to challenge the inadvertent fall of the global economy.

Getting back to accent and slang – I can proudly say that I always understood any kind of accent, but slang is a different ball game. I have always been a language enthusiast but I would never admit that I know it all. I was surprised to know that there are lots of accents in the United States as well. My first visit to the mighty land was to Boston with its varied history and the majestic River Charles. During my brief visit I learnt that there was daily speak and a native speak – (trust me first few days I did not notice the difference because for me Bostonian accent or not it was just English)

Getting on with every day conversation and because of my training profile I had to mimic the accent to make an impression with the class. Now I can differentiate between Texan accent, the deep southern accent, the northern or the more generalized accent of English and also Canadian from all of the above.

Staying in UK is a marvellous experience as I always dreamt English people spoke the good old Oxford English straight out of the dictionary. (I admit I even imagined people to be talking like Julius Caesar – How art thou? From my age old Shakespeare books). I had to start all over again on my accent research as I have English accent, Scottish (Highlands and Midlands), Welsh and Irish which I could identify so far..

Slang – I can never differentiate a swear word from slang as I have been observing a group of oldies as well as a group of high school brats. Both the groups use the same slang for different purposes. I have learnt a few but it would not be the ideal launch pad for all the slang I have learnt, as I have to be the moderator here folks!!

Bloke, Geezer – terms for a man
Bird, Lassie – terms for a woman
Wee – Scottish term for little, small, young – personal or impersonal

These are some of the better ones I can politically write in a public domain. The funniest of all the terms is ‘aye’ when you respond with a ‘yes’ both in Scottish and English. It reminds me of the agricultural folk in east Godavari district when they say ‘aye’ at the end of every sentence – who knows they might have got it from the Brits.

Disclaimer: None of this is a copyright so you can use it however you wish!!