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Stop the rising.



 
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ESL Forum | What do you want to talk about?
What do you understand by the words "oracy" and "literacy"? | Calling forum members by their names?
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Stop the rising. #1 (permalink) Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:46 pm   Stop the rising.
 

Quote:
Standards of spoken English are generally very poor and many people have a limited vocabulary. The influence of American TV has led many adults and children to raise the intonation at the end of a phrase, making it sound like a question instead of statement.

Jennifer Kataria, London

Is that rising intonation at the end of a phrase particulary American? I think I've heard Aussies or new Zealanders do it.
Molly
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Stop the rising. #2 (permalink) Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:05 am   Stop the rising.
 

Possibly, but it wouldn't be emotionally satisfying for a European to blame it on anyone other than Americans.
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Stop the rising. #3 (permalink) Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:59 am   Stop the rising.
 

Jamie (K) wrote:
Possibly, but it wouldn't be emotionally satisfying for a European to blame it on anyone other than Americans.

Sorry? Don't get your meaning.
Molly
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Stop the rising. #4 (permalink) Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:35 am   Stop the rising.
 

Jamie (K) wrote:
Possibly, but it wouldn't be emotionally satisfying for a European to blame it on anyone other than Americans.

Do you mean continental Europeans, Jamie? People in Britain and Ireland usually poke fun at speakers with an Ulster (Northern Irish) accent. Everything they say sounds like a question. It's quite awful, definitely minus 10 on the sexy accent chart.
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Stop the rising. #5 (permalink) Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:56 am   Stop the rising.
 

Ralf wrote:
Jamie (K) wrote:
Possibly, but it wouldn't be emotionally satisfying for a European to blame it on anyone other than Americans.

Do you mean continental Europeans, Jamie? People in Britain and Ireland usually poke fun at speakers with an Ulster (Northern Irish) accent. Everything they say sounds like a question. It's quite awful, definitely minus 10 on the sexy accent chart.

The derision of people with Ulster accents never reaches me here in the States. I only get the complaints about American English infecting "real" English. Very often the people complaining point to usages that are also incorrect in America as if they were our normal way of saying things. And it's not unusual for these people to unwittingly use several old Americanisms in their complaint that they believe are British in origin.
Jamie (K)
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Stop the rising. #6 (permalink) Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:37 pm   Stop the rising.
 

Quote:
Very often the people complaining point to usages that are also incorrect in America as if they were our normal way of saying things.

Is that the case with "raising intonation at the end of a phrase?
Molly
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
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Stop the rising. #7 (permalink) Tue Jun 24, 2008 13:00 pm   Stop the rising.
 

Jamie (K) wrote:
The derision of people with Ulster accents never reaches me here in the States. I only get the complaints about American English infecting "real" English. Very often the people complaining point to usages that are also incorrect in America as if they were our normal way of saying things.

I think I know what you mean. It's like taking this character Sloane Peterson from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' and claiming hers is a typical American accent (remember '...and then this one time, when we were on summer camp...'). I must admit it's quite tempting since you can exploit a certain stereotype, but of course it doesn't do justice do American English as a whole.
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