Why has the -er ending to words become -ah?

[Norm]

I like accents, variations on accents, youth slang variations and international cross-pollination of the afore-mentioned.

+1

Sad that so many still seem to be prejudiced against regional variations. Estuary English is hardly the latest thing. The term itself is, after all, over 25 years old and the underlying accent is, naturally, considerably older than that.

 

[Globalti]

Try this for accents..

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k

They're all good apart from the last one - her RP is not good; she needs to watch more 1940s films.

 

[wafflycat]

+1

Sad that so many still seem to be prejudiced against regional variations. Estuary English is hardly the latest thing. The term itself is, after all, over 25 years old and the underlying accent is, naturally, considerably older than that.

Except that if you're a Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Cornwall etc., born & bred and then you're yoof trying to use Estuary English, you just sound like a bit of a twit.

 

[wafflycat]

After all, everyone has an accent. I guess what people mean by a "strong accent" is an accent not like theirs?

Then you'd be guessing incorrectly. What is meant is when the accent is so strong that it becomes unintelligible to others.

 

[Noodley]

Move to Scotland, we arrrrre foreverrrrrrr speaking using the letter rrrrrrrrrrrrr when we speak

 

[Andy in Sig]

I think tagging words with ah at the end is a feature of the Mancunian accent.

Manc and more particulary Salford (a large slum to the west of Manchester proper) tend to tag (or used to) words with "oh" (rhymes with the O of "hot")

 

[Norm]

By coincidence, I'm reading this book at the moment. I'm currently in the middle of Yorkshire.

 

[Globalti]

It always amuses me to hear middle-class disc-jockeys on Radio 1 and 2 "dumbing down" their accents to try to sound more streetwise. These are the same blokes who always have a female accolade along to laugh at their crap jokes.

 

[Aperitif]

I enjoy the variety of language, User, but I really get frustrated by individuals who THINK they are imparting information in their own fashion, when, in fact. there is scant chance of understanding what is being said...I have been particularly exposed to this on numerous, recent Underground voyages. (Don't get me started on the 'apology' ergo 'all's-well because I have told you' culture that is creeping evermore into the day to day...) It's at times like this where there must be a common, or standard language and pronunciation, where listeners are informed. For English, this will perhaps be a formal vocabulary which is then adapted - not a learned adapted language that demands recipients to comprend.

Happy listening - we're all afflicted!

 

[Andy in Sig]

What's User?

BTW if we need a language policy (and we probably do) it should probably require all to be able to competently read and write Standard English. They should also be able to speak it but without any concern about what accent they use. It would IMO also be a good idea if dialects were kept up in schools (I heard about a scheme some years ago to introduce that in Norfolk). Thus people would be able to hold on to their own local cultures but would have a common linguistic ground nationally.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

Where I live (Leicester) it'd be eh. My daughter is apparently Chlo-eh. The particular area I live in can be very bad for all kind of weird and wonderful vowel changes. I'm sure my hybrid Yorkshire, Manchester, Birmingham and now Leicester accent grates on many people .

 

[Andy in Sig]

CoG,

I think there would be broad consensus on that. The only thing that I think is missing in the UK is a movement to preserve dialects. They're tremendously rich and once gone are lost for ever.

 

[Aperitif]

I'm now going to call accidental language 'a complete Crock up' innit.

 

[Arch]

It always amuses me to hear middle-class disc-jockeys on Radio 1 and 2 "dumbing down" their accents to try to sound more streetwise. These are the same blokes who always have a female accolade along to laugh at their crap jokes.

I think you mean accolyte.

I was going to mention Leicester, where it's the habit to leave the mouth half open at the end of a word, and either contract it to one syllable, or one syllable with --y on the end. The adventure playground at school was the Addy.... or more like, Addeh, as Ghost Donkey says.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

CoG,

I think there would be broad consensus on that. The only thing that I think is missing in the UK is a movement to preserve dialects. They're tremendously rich and once gone are lost for ever.

But if you artificially preserve anything beyond its natural lifespan, you just end up with a load of people meeting in draughty village halls talking about whatever it is they've preserved. Or, in the case of dialects, saying something in it on local radio late at night. What's the point in preserving something if that's what its fate is? I sometimes think folk music has gone the same way: you've got a whole load of people who think that something is worth preserving just because it's old, and all you've really got ultimately is a load of songs about club hauling or inconstant lovers that mean bugger - all in this day and age. If languages and music (and other things) evolve, then let's allow them to do so without regrets.