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Post by greer on Dec 24, 2008 2:08:42 GMT -5
I think Ann got their Australian slang from the glossary on the back of the menu at Outback Steakhouse.
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Post by sugarandspicexx on Jun 22, 2009 3:50:19 GMT -5
I like the Hobarts, too. In one book, I remember it was mentioned that their accents were starting to fade. And in another, it one of the boys said something, and the narrator said he "still had a trace of an Australian accent." I can't remember which books either of those came from, though. I guess if you moved to the US from another English-speaking country as a really little kid, you'd lose the accent eventually. But I always liked to imagine them with the accent of their native country. This topic has always really interested me because the way it works is sorta weird. Don't hold me to this as 100% fact but as far as I've been told If you move to another country before the age of 15, you will lose your original accent. After that you're stuck with it. My dad was Italian, he came here at 9 and had no trace of an accent. Nor did his younger brother who was 6 or 7 ish or his older brother who was 12. Yet their older sister who was 15 still has a very strong Italian accent. Back to the Hobarts, I think they're great. But I'm an Aussie and just excited to see some Australians in the series. The fact they named the family 'Hobart' has always made me though. (For those of you who don't know, Hobart is a city in Tasmania) I don't know, naming them after an Australian place seemed weird.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2009 8:37:12 GMT -5
I like the Hobart boys. Their accents are really cute. And Ben seems like a good guy for Mallory. He's really sweet and all like in "Mallory hates Boys (and Gym)". This topic has always really interested me because the way it works is sorta weird. Don't hold me to this as 100% fact but as far as I've been told If you move to another country before the age of 15, you will lose your original accent. After that you're stuck with it. My dad was Italian, he came here at 9 and had no trace of an accent. Nor did his younger brother who was 6 or 7 ish or his older brother who was 12. Yet their older sister who was 15 still has a very strong Italian accent. Well... my cousins and their parents moved to Canada when my eldest cousin was around twelve or thirteen and around seven years later, she went back here and had NO trace of any Canadian accent whatsoever. She still spoke as if she had never gone to Canada in the first place. And believe me, if I moved to the States or something, I'm sure I'd lose my accent (since I'm already used to speaking with an American accent here).
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
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Post by alula on Dec 2, 2009 19:44:32 GMT -5
With regards to actually learning an additional language, there are some psychological and neurological studies that suggest that after puberty, people are much less likely to be able to speak without an accent. It's known as a "critical period"--after that certain pathways in the brain close or slow down. I don't know how true that is for people speaking the same language with different accents, though--some people seem to be much more "adaptable" if they move to different regions.
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Post by Kylie90210 on Dec 2, 2009 20:19:24 GMT -5
Gah, I hate the way Australian accents are portrayed in these books, they shame me every time, lol. I soo don't think we sound like, and we especially don't talk like that.
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alula
Sitter-In-Training
Posts: 406
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Post by alula on Dec 2, 2009 23:27:32 GMT -5
haha, all the accents are pretty bad. The one that gets me is Mme Noelle.
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Post by sparklymouse on Apr 13, 2012 13:54:52 GMT -5
Who do you think has the room that looks into Myriah's, though? I was skimming the thread, and this made me laugh. Myriah was going to learn the importance of good curtains as she got older. I wonder why two of the kids had informal nicknames (Ben and Johnny) and two of them had mature adult names (James and Mathew-hate that spelling, btw).
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 13, 2012 14:39:57 GMT -5
^Unless she develops a neighborly crush. Johnny 4, Mathew 6, James 8, and Ben 11 (every now and then 12) I could see the two youngest sharing a room and the two oldest have their own. We know they didn't have bunk beds because of how echanted they were by them (beds) at the Pikes (Mallory Hates Boys and Gym). That's a good question, Sparklymouse. Maybe because Ben and Johnny were mentioned more? James, (the name) we know is (probably) second to John in terms of AMM "love." Mathew did seem out of no where. When I was a kid, I adored playing with my playmobil kids. They all had names and siblings. I even remember pairing up the boys and girls for "dates." Anyway, one of the boys was named Mathew. I have no clue why especially because I had a second figure named MatThew. Memories.
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Post by booboobrewer on Apr 13, 2012 16:43:52 GMT -5
Re: the nicknames, maybe because Ben was the first and only child for three years, plus Benjamin is sort of a mouthful. And Johnny because he's the baby.
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Post by sparklymouse on Apr 13, 2012 17:41:08 GMT -5
I'm not knocking the nicknames, kinda the other way around. I wondered why James wasn't Jamie or Jimmy and Mathew as Matt or Matty (or Math, haha. Terrible). But it's the same with the Thomas kids' three nicknames and the oddball that is David Michael. (I'm not knocking full names either. I'm just curious how parents chose to shorten one kid's name and not another. It happens in real life too.)
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 13, 2012 19:01:20 GMT -5
^Poor David Michael. Although Andrew, except on rare occasions, was never Andy. Even though "Andrew" doesn't ring anywhere near as "old" (sounding, to me) as say Bill, (Bill Korman), it still was odd that was always his name. Ann wrote a book called "Inside Out" about young boy named James with autism and his family. Jonno, James' brother and the naarator, explained to the reader that in order to give someone a nickname you really have to know him. Maybe because James Hobart, David Michael, Andrew, and even Mathew Hobart were more background characters, the writers never bothered to "know them?"
In between coughing today, I've been thinking about the Charges' nicknames in general. I think Buddy was the only kid with a non (part of name) traditional nickname, wasn't he? Aside from Squirt, of course.
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Post by sparklymouse on Apr 13, 2012 20:56:03 GMT -5
Did the Ps call Jenny "Princess" or was that just a term of endearment from the club?
I'm shocked Watson didn't call Karen and Andrew "Muffin and Champ" or some other stereotypical rich person nickname.
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Post by zoar3 on Apr 13, 2012 20:58:34 GMT -5
^I forgot about Jenny. The P's called her "Our Angel."
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Post by candykane on Apr 14, 2012 8:56:14 GMT -5
I'm not knocking the nicknames, kinda the other way around. I wondered why James wasn't Jamie or Jimmy and Mathew as Matt or Matty (or Math, haha. Terrible). But it's the same with the Thomas kids' three nicknames and the oddball that is David Michael. (I'm not knocking full names either. I'm just curious how parents chose to shorten one kid's name and not another. It happens in real life too.) My sister and I are a real-life example of that...I never really thought about it before, though! Her name is Michele, but no one has ever called her that. My parents called her Shelley right from the start and so has everyone else. I've only ever been called by my full name.
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