实战口语情景对话 第1008期:Local Accents 地方口音

Curtis: Hey Spencer, so I was just thinking, it's kind of interesting. Sometimes your accent, it's hard to pinpoint where it's from, sometimes I think it's from a country outside of the US, but you're from North Carolina, right?
柯蒂斯：嗨，斯宾塞，我在想，这很有意思。有时你的口音让人很难确定你来自哪里，有时我以为你来自美国以外的国家，不过其实你来自北卡罗来纳州，对吧？

Spencer: I am from North Carolina, although the other day I was at Starbucks and ran into some friends, one of whom, I never met before and she said, "Oh, where are you from?" And I said, "North Carolina." And she's like, "Are you sure?" Yeah. No, I've lived with a ton of different people from just all over the world and I've found that I've come to mimic their accents. My best friend, she's Welsh and then probably after her my two best friends are, one's Aussie and one's Kiwi. And so everybody who I meet tells me that I tend to sound either Australian or New Zealand ish or Kiwi or even British. So yeah. No. And it's funny too because of American accents, people tend to think that the south has a very strong dialect, they speak really slow, sound...
斯宾塞：我来自北卡罗来纳州，那天我在星巴克遇到了几个朋友，其中有一个人我以前从来没见过，她说：“哦，你来自哪里？”我回答说：“北卡罗来纳州。”然后她说：“你说真的吗？”我回答是的。我和来自世界各地的人一起生活过，我发现我总会模仿他们的口音。我最好的朋友是威尔士人，我还有两个好朋友，一个是澳大利亚人，另一个是新西兰人。我遇到的所有人都跟我说，我的口音听起来像澳大利亚人或是新西兰人，甚至是英国人。嗯，这其实很有趣，因为一般人们认为美国南方人的口音很重，他们说话很慢，听起来……

Curtis: Right, right. Extra vowels.
柯蒂斯：对，没错。有附加的元音。

Spencer: Extra vowels, yeah, from Wilmington, North Carolina. But no, like I've lived out of the country now for a couple of years and nobody has really been able to pinpoint me, "Oh, North Carolinian, yeah, southern accent." So yeah, no way. I have a mixed blend of accents.
斯宾塞：附加的元音，就像这样：我来自北卡罗来纳州威尔明顿市。不过现在我已经在美国以外的国家生活了几年的时间，没人能确定我来自哪里，没人说：“哦，你来自北卡罗来纳州，嗯，你有南方口音”。没有人做到。我有好几种口音。

Curtis: So what accents are your favorites?
柯蒂斯：你最喜欢哪种口音？

Spencer: I really love the South African dialect of English, it's, you know, a mix of British English, Australian and it's just really cool sounding to me. I also really like the Kiwi, the New Zealand accent, some Australian but not quite, I feel like they don't quite hang on to their words as long. Australians tend to kind of draw out words whereas I feel like Kiwis are a bit more short. I think just a lot of the words are a lot more euphoric, for example in America, we say, you know, "Trash", and it just doesn't sound very good to the ears. But you know, British and Australians, they say, 'Oh, rubbish'. And it just sounds a lot better to me, instead of saying like, "What, I did't hear you, what." They say like, "Oh, pardon." It just sounds more polite I think and more like better sounding to the ears.
斯宾塞：我非常喜欢南非式英语，那种口音混合了英式英语和澳大利亚式英语，我认为那非常酷。我也很喜欢新西兰口音，我感觉一些澳大利亚人不再拉长音说话，不过这么做的人不太多。澳大利亚人习惯拉长音、慢吞吞地说话，但是新西兰人习惯短音。我认为这让很多单词变得明快起来，比如在美国我们将垃圾称为“trash”，耳朵听起来很舒服。可是英国和澳大利亚将垃圾称为“rubbish”。对我来说，短一些比说“什么，我刚才没有听见你说了什么”要好。他们会说：“哦，请再说一遍”。我认为这种说法更礼貌一些，而且也让耳朵更舒服。

Curtis: And the stiff- upper-lip culture.
柯蒂斯：还有保持冷静的文化。

Spencer: Yeah, stiff upper lip culture. I'm not a big fan of the Canadian accent. I feel like a lot of times they say, "Hey", kind of after everything. And it sounds very much like American accents. I don't ... being from the south I don't have a big ... I don't really like the northern accents, they tend to ... we say speak as if you are holding their nose, so like this, right, that was southern, but they seem to talk through their nose.
斯宾塞：对，不让他人看出感情变化。我非常喜欢加拿大口音。他们经常说“嘿”这个词，基本上在每句话之后都会加这个词。听起来很像美国口音。我来自南方，但是我没有……我不太喜欢北方口音，他们……我们说话时像捏着鼻子一样，比如这样说是南方口音，像是用鼻子说话一样。

Curtis: Oh, like western for example.
柯蒂斯：哦，就像西部人。

Spencer: Yes, exactly.
斯宾塞：对，没错。

Curtis: Like maybe from Boston, where you park the car.
柯蒂斯：比如波士顿人说话是这样的：你把车停在了哪里。

Spencer: Exactly, yeah, jazzy, jazzy shower, yeah. It's interesting too like when I lived in Sweden, the Swedes from Stockholm, thought the same of the swedes the south that they spoke as if they were eating soup at the same time that they were speaking.
斯宾塞：没错，很花哨。这很有意思，我在瑞典生活时，来自斯德哥尔摩的瑞典人也认为，瑞士的南方人在说话时像嘴里含着汤。

Curtis: Oh, okay, okay.
柯蒂斯：哦，好。

Spencer: And the people from southern Sweden thought that the stockholmers were speaking as if they're also like holding their nose at the same time that they were speaking.
斯宾塞：而瑞士南方人则认为斯德哥尔摩人说话时像捏住了鼻子。

Curtis: Okay, so really nasal sound.
柯蒂斯：嗯，鼻音很重。

Spencer: Exactly.
斯宾塞：没错。