I think I speak for most Americans when I say that I wouldn't know if somebody was imitating a Canadian unless I know that they are. However, if I'm listening to a Canadian I can tell after a while. To me most of them sound a little Scottish.
I find a remarkable number of Americans can't distinguish between British and Australian accents (anything less broad than Steve Irwin's, at least). I've had Americans listen to me and Dave the office Brit carry on a whole conversation, and still be unable to hear a difference.
We actually find that African-Americans have better success on average in picking our accents. Not sure why that should be.
I haven't heard anyone speak like JM here yet. Perhaps I haven't been close enough to Modesto.
My SIL is from Modesto, and she does have an unusual accent. I haven't noticed her R's so much as a tendency to sound almost Canadian on her oh's and ooh's, but really nasal on other vowels.
~~You call two-two-two, two two-two two, I got an answer machine that gets straight back to you and says "hey, how ya doin', sorry ya couldn't get through, but if you leave your name and your number, then I'll get back to you...
John! I have no idea what your former post means, but it's good to read you again, no matter in which accent.
Plenty of Yanks playing Brits and doing pretty well. And you know most of those Watcher's Council folks, including Harris Yulin, were American.
Harris Yulin doesn't sound even
remotely
British to my ears. I had explained him to myself as a Yank addition to the COW.
A lot of Brits trying to do American accents or vice versa seem to get stuck somewhere in the middle of the pond, neither one thing nor the other. And while we're talking about Spike's bad American, that sounds like mock-Somerset to me, with the very extended R and odd vowels.
A lot of Brits trying to do American accents or vice versa seem to get stuck somewhere in the middle of the pond, neither one thing nor the other.
Heh, I wonder how I may sound (on the rare occasions I get to speak English, that is). I know it's not 'Israeli', and mostly people can't 'place' me. However, they're usually not American/Brits/Australian, but people whose second language is English, so they don't have the trained ears of most of you guys.
I wonder how I may sound
wonders how expensive it would be to speak to Nilly on the phone and find out
