The English language is so wonderful and simple (Page 2): Once you know a few simple rules, being American and hearing non-Americans speak English gets a lot easier. For instance...

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

SteveR wrote:

Do vowels in other languages not have different sounds? Is English unique?

As I recall, we covered this in about the third grade.

And then there are diphtongs.

Once you know a few simple rules, being American and hearing non-Americans speak English gets a lot easier. For instance, vowels in American English are different from the vowels in most European languages, including British English and most other English-speaking countries.

British English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese all use the Latin vowel sounds Ahh, Ehh, EEE, Ohh, and OOO, with Yih or Ih often used for Y. H comes out Haitch, and J comes out 'h' in some cases. Bilingual Mexicans generally speak English more like Americans, because many of their teachers are American. There are, of course, many exceptions.

In college, I worked summers in textile mills back when there still were textile mills in SC. I was working with a Pakistani and two working class Brits, one from Oldham and one from Accrington. Occasionally, they had a visiting manager from Manchester. The four or five of us were repairing and re-conditioning textile machinery made by the British company my Dad worked for. The mill "fixers" (maintenance workers) working with us were native South Carolinians of Scots-Irish and Irish descent. They had spent 98% of their lives within 50 miles of home. It was as if they spoke a COMPLETELY different language from the Brits. Many of them had no more than an 8th grade education. The Pakistani sounded more like the Brits, because he learned English from British-sounding teachers and college professors as he grew up.

Anyway, I often played translator within that group. I understood all their accents, and most of their word usage differences, because I'd taken a LOT of English lit classes by then. They would laugh uproariously when I would translate, "Dat dough-un lukk rahht. Gee-me dat dere wree-inch" ("That doesn't look right, hand me that wrench," in "mill worker-ese") into, "Ah dough-aunt like thaaht. An' me thaaht spannah," in the particular regional British vernacular of my coworkers.

English has many variants all over the world. To this day I marvel at how we can speak the same language and yet make no sense to one another. Throw in its usage as a second language, and things can get interesting! Thank goodness for subtitles on TV shows from Britain, Australia, India, and New Zealand.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

burkphoto wrote:

Once you know a few simple rules, being American and hearing non-Americans speak English gets a lot easier. For instance, vowels in American English are different from the vowels in most European languages, including British English and most other English-speaking countries.

British English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese all use the Latin vowel sounds Ahh, Ehh, EEE, Ohh, and OOO, with Yih or Ih often used for Y. H comes out Haitch, and J comes out 'h' in some cases. Bilingual Mexicans generally speak English more like Americans, because many of their teachers are American. There are, of course, many exceptions.

In college, I worked summers in textile mills back when there still were textile mills in SC. I was working with a Pakistani and two working class Brits, one from Oldham and one from Accrington. Occasionally, they had a visiting manager from Manchester. The four or five of us were repairing and re-conditioning textile machinery made by the British company my Dad worked for. The mill "fixers" (maintenance workers) working with us were native South Carolinians of Scots-Irish and Irish descent. They had spent 98% of their lives within 50 miles of home. It was as if they spoke a COMPLETELY different language from the Brits. Many of them had no more than an 8th grade education. The Pakistani sounded more like the Brits, because he learned English from British-sounding teachers and college professors as he grew up.

Anyway, I often played translator within that group. I understood all their accents, and most of their word usage differences, because I'd taken a LOT of English lit classes by then. They would laugh uproariously when I would translate, "Dat dough-un lukk rahht. Gee-me dat dere wree-inch" ("That doesn't look right, hand me that wrench," in "mill worker-ese") into, "Ah dough-aunt like thaaht. An' me thaaht spannah," in the particular regional British vernacular of my coworkers.

English has many variants all over the world. To this day I marvel at how we can speak the same language and yet make no sense to one another. Throw in its usage as a second language, and things can get interesting! Thank goodness for subtitles on TV shows from Britain, Australia, India, and New Zealand.

Once you know a few simple rules, being American a... (show quote)

Thick accents don't help either.....

SteveR Loc: Michigan

burkphoto wrote:

Once you know a few simple rules, being American and hearing non-Americans speak English gets a lot easier. For instance, vowels in American English are different from the vowels in most European languages, including British English and most other English-speaking countries.

British English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese all use the Latin vowel sounds Ahh, Ehh, EEE, Ohh, and OOO, with Yih or Ih often used for Y. H comes out Haitch, and J comes out 'h' in some cases. Bilingual Mexicans generally speak English more like Americans, because many of their teachers are American. There are, of course, many exceptions.

In college, I worked summers in textile mills back when there still were textile mills in SC. I was working with a Pakistani and two working class Brits, one from Oldham and one from Accrington. Occasionally, they had a visiting manager from Manchester. The four or five of us were repairing and re-conditioning textile machinery made by the British company my Dad worked for. The mill "fixers" (maintenance workers) working with us were native South Carolinians of Scots-Irish and Irish descent. They had spent 98% of their lives within 50 miles of home. It was as if they spoke a COMPLETELY different language from the Brits. Many of them had no more than an 8th grade education. The Pakistani sounded more like the Brits, because he learned English from British-sounding teachers and college professors as he grew up.

Anyway, I often played translator within that group. I understood all their accents, and most of their word usage differences, because I'd taken a LOT of English lit classes by then. They would laugh uproariously when I would translate, "Dat dough-un lukk rahht. Gee-me dat dere wree-inch" ("That doesn't look right, hand me that wrench," in "mill worker-ese") into, "Ah dough-aunt like thaaht. An' me thaaht spannah," in the particular regional British vernacular of my coworkers.

English has many variants all over the world. To this day I marvel at how we can speak the same language and yet make no sense to one another. Throw in its usage as a second language, and things can get interesting! Thank goodness for subtitles on TV shows from Britain, Australia, India, and New Zealand.

Once you know a few simple rules, being American a... (show quote)

Burk...Consider the richness and variation of two things before mass communication in America: accents and music.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

SteveR wrote:

Burk...Consider the richness and variation of two things before mass communication in America: accents and music.

I would argue that both are still with us, although accents may be weaker due to broadcasters' influences, and music may be MUCH more highly evolved due to recording and transmission technologies.

America is a huge melting pot of cultures. The more populous the state, the more likely it is full of different influences from all over the world.

charles tabb Loc: Richmond VA.

SteveR wrote:

Do vowels in other languages not have different sounds? Is English unique?

As I recall, we covered this in about the third grade.

And then there are diphtongs.

As I remember from school the vowels were a e i o u and sometimes y

Sorry ! I don't have an example for the Y.
I'm getting too old now, I guess.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

charles tabb wrote:

As I remember from school the vowels were a e i o u and sometimes y

Sorry ! I don't have an example for the Y.
I'm getting too old now, I guess.

Same letters; different sounds in different languages... even different sounds in regional versions of English (American vs British)

SteveR Loc: Michigan

charles tabb wrote:

As I remember from school the vowels were a e i o u and sometimes y

Sorry ! I don't have an example for the Y.
I'm getting too old now, I guess.

Yes, but sometimes a vowel is short and sometimes it is long. That's what the OP was pointing out. My question was whether or not vowels in other languages are also long and short....or not.

gener202002

nervous2 wrote:

I thank heaven that English was my native language and that I didn't have to learn it as a second language later in life. Spanish is so simple.

Definitely, but understanding Spanish pronunciation of words can be very difficult. When they talk slowly, I can get a pretty good idea what they are saying, but when they talk at normal speed, I don't understand a thing.

Spanish does lend itself to a lot of slang and colloquialisms though, not that other languages don't. In my neighborhood I would guess 80% of neighbors speech Spanish, some only Spanish, and they tell me the slang is so wild that people on the north side of town can't understand the Spanish on the south side of town, let alone some of the small towns around here. Well, they are exaggerating...at least a little.

gener202002

SteveR wrote:

Yes, but sometimes a vowel is short and sometimes it is long. That's what the OP was pointing out. My question was whether or not vowels in other languages are also long and short....or not.

In Spanish for the most part a vowel is pronounced only one way. It is a lot easier in a lot of ways. One thing I have trouble with is they use direct and indirect objects far more than we do, and it seems to me they use the passive voice more. And they definitely use the subjunctive a lot whereas in English, the subjunctive has all but disappeared.

This may not be totally accurate as they are two different types of languages. However, a lot of the ancestry is the same. English is German mixed with Latin, Spanish is Latin with a touch of Arabic, and a few other things. Closer to the original Latin than even Italian is.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

gener202002 wrote:

In Spanish for the most part a vowel is pronounced... (show quote)

Yep. I took Latin in junior high for two years. I can usually decipher signs in Mexico when they are in Spanish only, but I don't speak Spanish. French is also mostly Latin, but farther from it than Spanish.

gener202002

burkphoto wrote:

Yep. I took Latin in junior high for two years. I can usually decipher signs in Mexico when they are in Spanish only, but I don't speak Spanish. French is also mostly Latin, but farther from it than Spanish.

Yes, thanks for verifying that, burkphoto. I took four years of Spanish in school, but I don't remember a lot of it. I like learning language, not that I actually do it that much, because not everyone thinks exactly the same, and the way a language is expressed can reveal a unique way of looking at the world. It gives us a little different look at the philosophy of cultures and ways of viewing the world and reality.