The longer I spend in the US, the more I realise what a starring role that intonation plays in the language. I knew of course that English has never been as ridgid as, say Italian in these matters (almost always penultimate syllable if you’re asking) but I hadn’t realised quite how fluid it all is.
First there’s the rising interrogative intonation – the rot here seems to stem from California (of course it is also endemic in Oz) . This is a) irritating (people sound so unsure of themselves if everything sounds like a question) and b) catching – quite a few other people have caught it from those already infected.
Then there’s the emphasis on different syllables within a word. Whilst for us Brits that doesn’t make things hard to understand, but for the locals it means that I could be speaking a different language.
Examples:
UK: PRO-cesses US: process-SEAS
UK: miGRATE-ory US: migraTORY
UK: hexAgonal US: hexa GOnal
UK: sax-OFF-onist US: saxoPHONEist.
I’ve been here a year now and I’m still not learning the language. I’m ashamed to say that I have however started to overuse the only collective noun recognised over here – a bunch….. Maybe coming up with a collective noun for Americans will help cure me.
How about: A bloat? An awesome? A bellicose? A bunch? Urgh please help.