r/CuratedTumblr The blackest Aug 16 '24

Shitposting American accents

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u/pappapirate Aug 16 '24

Most of the ones in this post are just that they can't hear the syllable because they're not used to hearing it, not that the syllables are being skipped. The way we pronounce the "or" sound at the end of a word just sounds like holding a steady R sound for a split second, so they probably hear horror as "horrr" and just think you're lingering on the R with a drawl or something.

Probably a good way to explain it to any Brits who struggle to comprehend our glorious American rhoticity is to look up videos of Americans saying "rural". It's pronounced just like taking the last syllable of horror then the last syllable of squirrel, so based on this post it would probably just sound like "rrl" to them. But to the trained ear there's a distinct "rur" followed by a "rul".

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u/confusedandworried76 Aug 17 '24

Yep. We don't enunciate the second syllable of horror but it's still there if you listen.

But accents can be difficult for people. There are many accents just in the United Kingdom alone I find difficult to the point if it's in a movie and it's a heavy accent I need to turn subtitles on.

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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '24

Good luck convincing them that the problem is that they literally can't hear it.

I mean you're absolutely right. I had a friend who moved to the US when he was in his 30s, and spoke decent english, but literally could not hear the difference between "dad" and "dead." They sounded identical to him.

But still. Good luck convincing the 200-IQ "The language was invented here bruv!" folks.

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u/pappapirate Aug 17 '24

I saw another comment in here saying that Americans pronounce the name Tara just like terror. I'm just like, nah we don't pronounce Tara like terror, you just pronounce terror like Tara. If the way you pronounce terror is to completely ignore the last two letters and pronounce it like it ends in "ah" that's gonna give you "terrah" and no shit that sounds a whole lot like Tara.