'Odd' pronunciation from around the world
I'm just awondering, accential variations aside, how odd can Spanish get pronunciation-wise.
For example, in Bogotá, it's not unusual to hear taxi drivers referring to (carrera) septima as la 'sektima', which seems... odd.
11 Answers
Ha ha, of course I could have been more considered with my phrasing, in 'defence' I did put the word odd in inverted commas.
To be absolutely clear as to my meaning, of course accents other than that with which we speak are notably different to us. City, in most parts of the UK it pronounced as it is spelled (or spelt), with a 't' sound. In a few parts of the UK it is pronounced, as indeed it is in much of the US 'cidy'. Within the context of the local accent, this does not sound out of place.
I was, on a slow news day, wondering if there were other examples of the pronunciation of certain words that do appear out of place. Here it is is not the norm, nor so far as I can tell anything to do with accent, to replace the letter 'p' with 'k', yet we have septima pronounced as 'sektima'.
Not the most interesting of topics I grant you...
Maybe more interesting than the anomalies in my speech:
From my part of the world it is common to use 2nd person conjugation for the first person:
I likes cheese
It's also common to precede the verb with 'd', a contraction of do. This is utterly redundant, it does not add any emphasis to the declaration as would saying 'I do like cheese':
I d' likes cheese
It is also very common to add a 'me' to the end of the declaration, again this adds nothing in terms of meaning:
I d' likes cheese me
For a feel of how English is spoken where I'm from, you could listen to anything by Goldie Looking Chain...
In my opinion, "odd" is in the eye, or in this case ear, of the beholder.
Spanish from Spain sounds odd to me. Spanish from Andalucía, specifically, even more so. The Mexican accent sounds odd to me, and the Argentinian speech is really weird. Chileasn speak really oddly, and Colombians sound really funny.
But then, if you are from Spain, Mexico, Chile, or Colombia, the accent from other places sounds really odd too.
Likewise, I learned English from the US East Coast - New York to be specific. Southern US English sounds odd to me. People from Boston speak funny, and Canadians are a hoot.
The Brits speak with a really odd accent, and don't get me started with the Jamaicans.
Of course Kiwis top it all with the weirdness of their speech, although Indians are pretty close up there too. 
I am, of course being silly. Anything that is not familiar to our ears will sound odd, no matter what.
I'm just awondering, accential variations aside, how odd can Spanish get pronunciation-wise.
Not the most interesting of topics I grant you...
I am interested in both regional accents and regional dialects so these topics are interesting to me. I would like to ask about your dialect. I notice you have used the word awondering instead of wondering. Also you have used accential. When I tried to look this up, the dictionary had no listing. Online, it asked if I wanted the word accidental or the word essential Your dialect is very interesting to me. Please tell us where you are from.
'Course there is language-based snobbery - all over the shop, based on deviation from R.P. (received pronunciation, or 'posh English' for those unfamiliar with the term). Differences in vowel sounds make up the bulk of accent-based differences and so one's pronunciation of words like bath and scone tell an observer much about your accent and therefore, in the olden days, your social status. The ruling class would talk in R.P. and the working class in their local accents. I imagine that 'concerned' parents slash grandparents, in a bid to 'better' themselves and their offspring, picked on such words as scone and bath for correction purposes specifically as they, in regional accents, vary so much from R.P. And we still suffer from this, in part, today.
I, in a resolute bid to ignore this nonsense, refused to bathe and eat scones for about 15 years so as to avoid any kind involvement in the scon/scone, bath/barth debate. Not being able to quash the cravings and reeking to high heaven, in '93 I renounced my boycott and instead resolved to revert to Klingon were I ever to need to use those words or similar...
'I don't know if this happens elsewhere in England, but around here there is snobbery about the pronunciation of the word 'scone'. In my family we always pronounced it so that it rhymes with 'gone', but I've discovered that quite a few think that's incorrect or lower class - I heard one mother I know telling her son he could "..have one if he called it 'scone' " (to rhyme with bone).'
I say the word 'scone' rhyming with gone, too.
I don't know if this happens elsewhere in England, but around here there is snobbery about the pronunciation of the word 'scone'. In my family we always pronounced it so that it rhymes with 'gone', but I've discovered that quite a few think that's incorrect or lower class - I heard one mother I know telling her son he could "..have one if he called it 'scone' " (to rhyme with bone).
I find the differences in accent between rural and urban parts of the same county fascinating. (I'm thinking particularly of Essex)
In the towns, I think the accent is very similar to parts of London, but where I was born the accent (which I would surely have had I not moved around a lot) is more like that in rural Suffolk (where I currently live).
My name on here is derived from something my nan used to say - in front of people's names she would add 'boy' or 'gal', even when the said person was an adult.
"Well look if it isn't the boy Nick!"
"How's that little ol' gal Sally then?"
or sometimes using it before surnames
- "I saw the boy Thompson yesterd'y". (day pronounced like 'di', rhyming with the 'y' in 'ready')
Also, the word 'old' was often added in for no apparent reason, but had an affectionate feel
"Oh she's a dear little ol' gal" (this would be a child!)
"That's a lovely little ol' dog you got there."
'Wu' (th 'u' like that in the Southern 'up') instead of 'well'.
- "Wu' Penny!"
and 'oo wu!' to remark on something unusual. Has to be heard really....
Oh, there's so much, some day I can do a little rendition on Skype, my aunties and uncles who have lived in the same area all their lives still talk this way.
Poke fun at Canadians, eh! There is a sorcerer in Lachine and for a couple of loonies will put a wendigo in the tuque above your parka. You get no nanaimos for christmas.!
Moe, please provide an English translation.
And then you have the shortening of 'to the' to t't' as in 'cooming t't' poob?', where the 'oo' is pronounced as the 'u' in the standard English pronunciation of 'push', meaning, for the non-native speakers '(Are you) coming to the pub?'
I find british regional variations of accent intriguing as well, I mean people up north, would for example shorten the 'a' sound in cast, whilst I probably, being from London would lengthen it slightly. Also, in most areas of northern England, the letter y on the end of words as in happy or city is pronounced like the i in bit, and not long i.
Also, the best-known Northern words are nowt, owt and summat.
