Trinis does aquire foreign accent fass eh ?

[Scorpio]

I've been accused of this before, but i want to make a distinction here... there is a differnece between aquiring an accent and changing the way you speak so that you will be more understandable to people not familiar with Trini dialect & pronounciation....

I have done is the latter, but I know trinis who go away for less time than me and they done have big accent already...

What allyuh think about this ?

[Solachica]

:D
Is true. I've seen people buy their ticket and get an accent.
I admit I wud talk different in foreign when talking to people there who wud not understand me but it's not with an accent...I wud just talk slowerrr becos usually I does talk fast and wud use correct english.
If I in foreign and meet ah Trini me ent talking no slower. :lol:
My relatives there in US over 30 yrs and still sound trini....the kids talk with the accentbutthe Trini talk does come in now and then :lol: is funny to hear my lil canadian cousin saying when next we going to lime :mrgreen:

[Sumana]

Scorps I used to have to "tone down" the trini accent :lol:

[Scorpio]

^^^ Sumana, what do you mean by "tone down" your accent ?

[Sumana]

Like...not talk as trini as usual...then again somehow in Trinidad, when u start to talk perfect english they tell you that you have an accent :| Like i had a Trini accent, but it wasn't full blown..unless I took a few drinks...or i was vex :lol: :lol: my friends used to get me vex on purpose :lol: :lol:

[snowbird]

You are correct Sumana, there is a big difference between 'modifying your speech' and acquiring an accent.
Having said that, I think it is quite easy for someone who is in an environment where they interact with little or no countrymen to begin to actually speak like the 'locals'; take the Southern States in the US, or even places like Australia, I know Canadians who have relocated to those areaa who eventually pick up the drawl.

[Scorpio]

I see, now this brings up another question, are there times in TRinidad when it's not appropriate to speak like a Trini ? Like in a job interview, for instance ?

[Sumana]

Well I mean if you go to a job interview I'd hope that you're talking the queen's english!!!

[strombo23]

i notice that when they dont understand me the first time, and i speak a little slooooowly on the second, they have no problems understanding me. ofcourse, you cant use short cut words like cyan, yuh, meh etc. i also notice too that trinis like to keep to their kind more than any other group i've been exposed to in FL. AND would you believe, "they" find that rude. i know for me, i dont like to repeat mehself. mabye dats why.

[Sumana]

I used to hang out with a lot of ethnic people - but not really Trinis.

[snowbird]

^^^
Kindred spirits perhaps :) , been there.

[Scorpio]

Strombo, I also hate repeating myself, but I know if we didn't all gorw up watching American TV shows, we woulda be asking them to repeat themselves to. :D

[Solachica]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
I does find it hard to understand jamaicans and even Tobagonians when they talking to each other. :?
Ah tobago feller tell me I does sing and talk. :lol:
me ent have no patience to understand some ah dem english people to eh.
and I ent understand dem trini youths especiallythe fellers who does call radio stations and talk like jamaicans. :roll:

[KFCSpicy]

:D
Is true. I've seen people buy their ticket and get an accent.
I admit I wud talk different in foreign when talking to people there who wud not understand me but it's not with an accent...I wud just talk slowerrr becos usually I does talk fast and wud use correct english.
If I in foreign and meet ah Trini me ent talking no slower. :lol:
My relatives there in US over 30 yrs and still sound trini....the kids talk with the accentbutthe Trini talk does come in now and then :lol: is funny to hear my lil canadian cousin saying when next we going to lime :mrgreen:


Same here. Is de fact that I am tired of hearing ..."eh?" "K you speak too fass for us"

[Solachica]

:roll: I have some relatives here in Trini who does tell me slow down they can't understand me.....but sometimes when I pick up a speed I does really go too fast eh. :lol:

[KFCSpicy]

yuh is a bike ah wah?

[KFCSpicy]

I does laff when I go home and people ask me if I am from the US of A. Even when I was in secondary and convent people used to ask me if I was from america cause I spoke clearly and concisely. But little did they know is because ah de space in meh front teeth that I used to lisp and that got meh feeling self-conscious about it too bad. SO I acquired a form of speaking to minimalise de lil tie tong and it just comes out like I reallllll from foreign dread.

[Scorpio]

^^^lmao :D

[Ali]

i know i would really suck big time if i tried to put on ah accent :o

[Solachica]

:lol: :lol: ah bike. Must be ah 10 speed one :mrgreen:

[Pumkinvinefamilee]

I have been in the US for over 20 yrs and still when Time Warner worker came to fix my wireless problem this morning, he arks mih wha part ah Trini I from. :o

[sheppy]

well u might find u pick up words ... i know i have to pronounce some words differently or else people just don't understand you...

so for instance i in d grocery...looking fuh a pack a D-cell duracell...ask d lil boy in d apron..where are the bat-er-ries
he look at me like i now ask him what have a horn and flies...eventually i say bad-eries...and light bulb goes on
*sigh*

i find whereever i go yuh does hadda do that...

[sheppy]

p.s

is a garbabge truck
(that have a horn an flies)

[KFCSpicy]

troo.^^

[littleone]

I have been in the US for over 20 yrs and still when Time Warner worker came to fix my wireless problem this morning, he arks mih wha part ah Trini I from. :o

ah hear yuh dey pumkin. i been here since i was 5 years and i does still talk like ah trini. de bess is when i go to the roti shop in orange, it have this ole hard trini oman who only come up here a few years now and askin me if i want potato with my chick peas instead of if ah want aloo with meh channa! ah does want to dead oui. :roll:

[KFCSpicy]

i remember years ago i went on meh lunch break wid a friend to de roti shop in st augustine junction...well i dey reading de signs and i see bhagi so my friend order and it was my turn so de girl say..."wey yuh warnt? :shock: " I say Bah - Guy everybody stop doing what dey was doing to turn and look at me. Here meh friend Bah-Guy? :o Yuh mean Bahgee? :shock:

Ah shame shame shame shame...wdf? I is de god father according to meh father...steupse. Well dey roll for about an hour. When we went back to school dat beeeetch tell everybody wid ears.

About 2 years or so ago went home on vacay and went to TGIF with my girls and we ordering...de girl say "wey yuh warnt?" I say Cahhoon chicken. Wdfffffffffffffff? Even I had to roll wid laff at meh dohtishness den. She say yuh mean Cajun chicken :shock: lmaooooooooo. Ok so this should be on the thread tings yuh shamed of. sigh!

[Midnight]

I wonder why is that ..............

Speaking fluently is much better than any accent.


midnight

[sapodila]

I have been in the US for over 20 yrs and still when Time Warner worker came to fix my wireless problem this morning, he arks mih wha part ah Trini I from. :o

ah hear yuh dey pumkin. i been here since i was 5 years and i does still talk like ah trini. de bess is when i go to the roti shop in orange, it have this ole hard trini oman who only come up here a few years now and askin me if i want potato with my chick peas instead of if ah want aloo with meh channa! ah does want to dead oui. :roll:
:lol: :lol: :lol: alyuh crack meh up dey man.........ah could relate very well having to speak the Queens english in foreign land ...slowly and audible.... ah RCMP ask me if I am British.... :lol: :lol: :lol:..... ah eh "acquiring" no "accent" nah. I will speak my english and be understood ...... first shot. No need to impress anyone but myself.

[Sumana]

So i'm not the only one that get the brit comment!!

[sapodila]

So i'm not the only one that get the brit comment!!
You are definately not alone. A New Yorker friend refused to leave a very important message on my voicemail. He said that "he was not sure who "the British woman" was". :roll:

[BW]

This might just be me, but whenever people keep asking me to repeat myself, I just switch a southern-US accent instead. You know, like in the old cowboy movies. Lots of "that there", "well I done reckon", or "Well I ain't suppose" and so on. It sounds weird, but people from the states or the UK have no absolutely no trouble understanding it, since each word is spoken so slowly and sometimes repeated for emphasis.

On another note, Grenadians have no trouble with my regular trini accent. :shock:

[KFCSpicy]

lmaooooooooo^^^

[kayt]

My sis got her London accent from on her plane trip to London. I on the other hand took over a decade to get my accent to a Trini-london mix. Many times people would ask me if I've just come to UK. They don't believe that my sis and I have been here for almost the same time. One of my cousin's who's retired and lived most of his adult life here still sounds as if he's in Trinidad.

[KFCSpicy]

But the british doh have an accent that worth copying...yuh just have to slow down yuh speech. They are supposed to be speaking the proper language yet all u does hear is innit and yeah and yuh get me bruv. Please why do we think that sounding like someone else from another country is cool?

[littleone]

when ah watching any movie with dem henglish and dem ah does have to put on the subtitles and the volume loud, loud cuz ah cyah understand them not fuh hell. lawd faddah, ah shame.

[kemist]

When i first came to t'dad as a chile, the other school chirren use to make fun of my canadian accent. It didnt take long for me to pick up de trini accent and today there is no trace of my former canadian accent. I speak 100% trini.
Whenever i go back to visit relatives i doh try to speak like dem, i just speak a bit slower, even when i go out and meet new people.
One ting i observe tho, de trini accent is ah babe magnet in toronto!

[Solachica]

I have a cousin who came to Trini to live and spent abt 4 yrs going to school here. He went back when he was like 13. he sounded Trini when he left but now there is no trace of it.
Guess is becos no1 speaks like a trini around him there so he's not exposed to it anymore becos his mother changed she accent :roll:

[bradygirl]

After living in Texas for 19 yrs and being married to a 100% Texan for 15 yrs (and not having enough trinis to chat wid) my accent kinda have a Texas drawl :shock: People could still tell ah have trini in mih accent tho :D

[KFCSpicy]

hmmmm texan drawl mix wid trini accent? dying to hear you talk now. :?

[sapodila]

hmmmm texan drawl mix wid trini accent? dying to hear you talk now. :?
who making first draw :lol: :lol: :lol: ..... sorry to spam eh

[bradygirl]

hmmmm texan drawl mix wid trini accent? dying to hear you talk now. :?
It doh wuk around odder trinis tho KFC...cuz as soon as ah hear ppl talking wid trini accent ah does fall right back into mih trini ting. Ah go ha to tape mihself torkin' and leh yuh lissen ;)

[KFCSpicy]

lmao...kool! :lol: