Quote:
Originally Posted by Lindy
I think that an accent is something that you pick up from listening to and speaking with other people in your group or area. Aussie may well be a dialect. I've also heard it called 'Strain. The difference between Austin and Boston in the USA would be an accent. I had a college language professor who said that if you had lived in the same place from birth through high school he could talk with you for a few minutes and guess your home to within fifty miles. He meant within the USA, of course, and would proceed to demonstrate his skill.
The way that adults talk to small children, pets, and perhaps "gay voice" as well would be what I would refer to as an affectation rather than an accent or a dialect.
Lindy
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Thank you for clearing this up. Dialect is rather regional differences in speech?
I'm not really sure in fact how to describe accent in Finnish. I'm trying to find a way to simplify these concepts for me, since I have no education on these matters. I hope you don't mind my ramblings...
Sounds interesting what is said about affectation. I have noticed in some other forum, while gradually learning English expressions, that I may try to copy the style of a certain poster, if I like their way of using English. I would probably do that with speech too, if I had the chance to talk in English!
I like what Charlatan proposes.
I dislike myself adults exaggerated change in tone (note?) when talking to children. My dislike has nothing to do with the topic, but children sound "childish" and it is for physiological reasons. You can usually tell girls and boys apart.
In most cases we can also tell the gender of an adult, even though it would be toned by a "gay voice", right? So, we pay attention to "gay voice", because it sounds pretencious?
I know via net a gay (bi) man, who says that his voice is high pitched and he's easily mistaken as a woman on the phone. His growth was stumped in childhood after cancer treatments and this messed up his testosterones.
He does not want to see there might be a connection, whereas my mind ponders whether the medical condition "turned" him gay. And his voice might be indicating this.
I know very little about anything, this includes hormones, they seem a complicated issue to me.