English Phonetics Diary #2

     This week for my Phonetics Diary I watched another video from the English with Lucy channel, this time about the difference between three different English accents - Canadian, American, and British. I later realized that it was much more focused on vocabulary and culture than pronunciation, but since it was a series that would later focus on pronunciation much more, I thought it would still be valuable to share. I had a lot of fun hearing the differences between the different regions and realizing which set of vocabulary I have absorbed into my own speech.

    The first conversation was about what the letter 'z' is referred to as - 'zee' or 'zed'. The first option is used in American English, while the second in both British and Canadian English. Personally I've grown quite accustomed to both. I feel like even early in my education I would hear both, however out of laziness and my time in the US, I most often just use 'zee'. I also loved the conversation about shoes for sports - Canadian as 'running shoes' or 'runners', American as 'sneakers', 'tennis shoes' or 'running shoes', and British as 'trainers'. Personally I usually refer to them as 'sneakers', sometimes 'running shoes', but I'm also very familiar with 'trainers'. This is where I started realizing that I am the furthest from the Canadian way of speaking. Having lived in the US and consuming a lot of American media on the daily, that is definitely the way of speaking I am most used to, but there are a lot of British terms that I am aware of and even sometimes use. For example, they also discussed names for carbonated drinks - Canadian as 'pop', American as 'soda', and British 'fizzy drink'. Once again, I use 'soda', but I am also familiar with 'fizzy drink'. I've never heard anyone use 'pop' however, which I found very interesting. Parties before getting married were another aspect discussed - Canadian as 'stag and doe' or 'jack and jill', American as 'Bachelor/Bachelorette party', and British as ' hen do' or 'stag do'. This time the only option I've heard of was the American way. Finally, I also loved hearing about the names for the piece of paper to wipe your mouth at a restaurant - Canadian as 'serviette', American as 'napkin', and British uses both. I've never heard of 'serviette' before, it sounds quite posh to me, but it's really cool to know more about how differently English is used around the world. 

    This was an extremely fun video to watch and learn more about the English language. It was a very reflective experience trying to analyze my own language and which version I connect with most. I definitely realize that it wasn't focused on what our course is about, but for my next post I will watch the second part of the series, which will focus on pronunciation exclusively. I am really enjoying this series about accents and cannot wait to share my findings from the next video.