If I were visiting the US from a non-English speaking country and had recently learned to speak “The Queen’s English”, I would have great difficulty understanding what was being said. The Brits call it speaking American, not English. Most obvious are words that sound alike but are spelled differently (homonyms), like “to, too, two”, there, their, they're”, “capitol, capital”, “tow, toe”, “ate, eight”. Then there are words that are spelled alike and sound alike but have different meanings depending on how they are used in context (contranyms) like “cleave, dust, bank, lay, execute”. Heteronyms are words spelled alike but have different pronunciations and meanings like the “wind blowing” or “wind up the toy”, “it is appropriate to speak”, or “he will appropriate the funds”, “I caught a bass” or I play the bass”, “he will lead a group” or “the bullet was made of lead”. And this is without adding a local or regional accent!
I live in the southeast US where English words are pronounced with deep diphthongs and southern accents that sound ultra exaggerated to people of other English-speaking countries (even those with odd accents like Australia and South Africa). Some southern words can have a completely different pronunciation and/or meaning depending on the state (LA, GA, MS, AL, SC, TN, KY, FL, etc.). A typical example is all and oil. In "southern" it is difficult to hear the subtle difference between "awl" and "awl". (Several years ago I watched a comedy skit based on the southern pronunciation of these two words. Hilarious!) And there are southern words that can be used as singular or plural like the contraction y’all. Tire is pronounced “tar”, wide is “wad”, bream is “brim”, “wash is worsh”, “car is cah”. Lots of other words ending in “r” are pronounced as if they ended in “ah” (rhotic) like motah’ (motor), jah’ (jar). There is just barely a hint of difference in “pat, pet and pit” when said by a true southerner. For a giggle go to http://www.gagirl.com/southern/south.html “How to Speak Southern”.
If you get to South Carolina be prepared for the dialect called Gullah or Geechee that originated with African American slaves. In Gullah date is “det”, gate is “get”, and eight is “et”.
I have a slight southern accent and can be understood by almost all “Yankees”, including my husband who is from New York. Not so for some of my deeply rooted southern friends who find it difficult to understand a New Yorker and New York's wait staff find it difficult to understand my southern friend’s dinnah’ oahdah’. Eudora Welty wrote her stories in a southern dialect and reading them is just as difficult as hearing her read them!!
Accents from Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, America and other English-speaking areas (like Wales, Ireland, Belize, etc.) make learning and speaking the English language difficult, at best. Learning English with a British, Aussie, SA or Southern US accent can make people stare. A Chinese émigré with a southern accent is jarring to your ears at first. Children of Central American immigrants are fluent in Spanish and Southern here in MS. “I pity the fool” who wants to master English whether here or abroad. Even we who speak English cannot agree on any standard pronunciations. Tomato. Tomahto. Regional immersion is essential in the US.
Even though it is not easy to learn, English is still the international language of business. Oops, I forgot Wall Street Speak!!! Is that really considered English?
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