Accents and Languages

Ask anyone who has learned more than one language and they will tell you that English is probably the hardest language to learn, especially if it isn't your first language. Although many English speaking people will say French is hard because of the masculine/feminine structure, most people whose first language is something besides English or French agree that English is harder.

It's easy to see why. We have all sorts of rules which have contradictions - best example is the I before E rule. It goes "I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in neighbour and weigh." Which sounds like it would cover everything, right? Wrong. It's when the combination sounds like E that you have to know which way a word is spelled. For example niece, liege, and siege follow the I before E rule but leisure and seizure don't.

Then there's British English versus American English, which is more for how words are said rather than spelled unless it relates to OR. British words usually have an U in them like neighbour. American words don't have the U - neighbor.

Then there are all the words that sound alike but are spelled differently - to, too, two, sew, so, sow, toe, tow, read, red, etc - or are spelled the same but sound different - I can read the book, I have read the book.

Then, of, course, there are all the punctuation rules as well.

That's the writing side. Speaking it brings new problems. Because now we get into regional accents. Some places also have speech idioms, things like adding sounds (um, ah, er, etc) to words, local words or phrases, and different sentence structure and syntax (ex. no, it wasn't me).

Imagine, for example, learning to speak English in one area and moving to another where the people add sounds to words like ah. Since some words actually do end with an sh sound, it can confuse a non-native listener. I'm going to the park-ah. She was wearing a parka. To someone for whom English is a new language it can be confusing to know if both sentences refer to  parks or parkas.

So, it's no wonder English is confusing to people.

But you know, all those accents make for some interesting listening. Sure, there can be some embarrassment from mishearing or misunderstanding what someone says. But as long as everyone keeps a sense of humour then it can be a bonding experience. It is still up to the native speaker to be patient with the other person and make sure they can understand one another.

Which is another post.