Accents

-
I've often times hide my accent when I talk to other Norwegians and other people here in Norway. It's become such a huge habit of mine lately after someone saying to me, "Well, I was expecting you to talk like George W. Bush!" that I realized I've hid my accent so much (and I don't sound like George W. Bush!!!).

The reason for me hiding it is because when I did talk without masking that long drawn out southern accent, people would ask me what I said or what I was talking about and I soon pinpointed it not to fluency in English, but just the way I said things. When first meeting even my husband asked me what I was saying at times. After repeating the same word several times I finally began to catch on to why he couldn't understand me. He couldn't understand what I meant with words like "semi", "iron", "oil", "shy" and many other words with an "i" or a "y" somewhere in them. Once I had a cousin ask Arild if he's tried boiled peanuts, but she pronounced it as "boooold" peanuts. He had no idea what she said.

I hate feeling like I might be losing a part of myself, so I've been bombarding myself with videos of  Kentucky accents. I've even tried to think in the accent, but that doesn't bode too well when I've been trying to make myself think in Norwegian and my largest mistake I'm making in Norwegian now is sounding "too American" when I speak.

Of course my "accent anxiety" lessens when I'm on the phone with family or friends, but I'm still concerned about this.

When I was searching the other day for videos on Kentucky accents, I came across this video which surprisingly is an accent study which was done in the county in Kentucky I grew up in!

Kentucky Accent
KY, OH and TX accents

Comments

Unknown said…

>This is an informative post review. I am so pleased to get this post article. I was looking forward to get such a post which is very helpful to us. A big thank for posting this article in this website. Keep it up.
essential home accents
December 13, 2012 at 11:07 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Expat Life

-
I've finally begun reading a book that has been in my reading list for a few years now; Norwegian By Night by Derek B. Miller. The author is actually an American man from Boston living in Oslo. Although it's a thriller, the expatriation of the main character is relatable. Sheldon Horowitz, a Marine, relocates to Oslo with his granddaughter, an American married to a Norwegian man. One particular quote, or paragraph rather, stood out to me, "Lars, being Lars, was overjoyed and encouraging and optimistic about her ability to adapt and join the pod. Norwegians, true to their nature, prefer to spawn in their own waters. Consequently Oslo is peopled by Norwegians married to a shadow population of displaced souls who all carry the look of tourists being led like children through the House of Wax." According to Wikipedia  16.8% of Norway's population is made up of immigrants. Granted this number also includes children born to immigrants regardless of being born in Norwa...
Read more

The Dyne

-
Image
Separate dyne!  On beds a dyne (duvet) is used and you purchase covers in many prints and different types of fabrics. These are a pain in the butt to put over the duvet, but we manage. Many people have a duvet for summer months and a duvet for winter months. Oh, and the most common thing is for each person to have their own duvet. Moving to Norway as a newlywed, I wanted to have one duvet that we shared on our bed thinking it would be extra cozy and we'd cuddle more. Newlyweds are hilariously idealistic though! This lasted only a few months before we surrendered with white flags in the war zone that was our sleeping quarters. Turns out, I'm quite territorial over the duvet. I hear a lot of women are like this. I freeze easier than my husband so I was often less comfortable than I wanted to be and he's a night owl who goes to bed later than I do which means every time he lifted the duvet, a gush of cold air would follow him waking me. We gave up with our idealism o...
Read more

Froot Loops

-
Image
Froot Loops! Who'd have thought so many Americans would be joyously celebrating Froot Loops' arrival to Norway like it's 1972? Yet here we are. Froot Loops have arrived in Norway. Our bland, unvaried  cereal aisle has become  slightly  more colorful. I say slightly because, well, the Froot Loops that have now ascended from cereal heaven to Norway are lacking some color. You know, artificial color! That good ole unhealthy stuff us Americans are so accustomed to eating. When I poured my first bowl of these Froot Loops, my first thought was  it looks like a comparison picture of how someone with colorblindness views Froot Loops.  My eldest daughter on the other hand exclaimed, "WOW! SO COLORFUL!" Same taste, just lacking some pigment. As it turns out, there are some ingredients which are allowed by the FDA, but are not allowed in foods in Europe.  Food dyes are one of those things, but if a product has certain dyes in it, they must have a warning la...
Read more