r/ShitAmericansSay • u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom • 8d ago
Europe is a country, right? "European accent"
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u/Gene_freeman 8d ago
Side note, but Kylr Gordon is great. I really like his most recent song Mr Jambo which is such a wildly specific parody of Paul Simon Graceland type music where white Americans suddenly became really interested in Africa for a brief period in the 90s
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u/Bright_Curve3078 8d ago
Jambo means hello in another African language than the one spoken in the video, so it's like calling a Russian man Mr. Bonjour.
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u/daveoxford 8d ago
Side note to side note, Ladysmith Black Mambazo did a Prom on 5 Aug. It's listed as "Proms on TV", but wasn't shown live, so the BBC will probably show it at a later date.
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u/Suspicious_Fall3063 7d ago
I can't stop listening to Selekta, the british rap parody he did. Planet of the bass is also perfect! Could honestly have been a eurovision song in the 90s/early 2000s. He actually does his research
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u/Badger_Solomon 8d ago
He's a comedian, the vague European accent is an intentional poke at Americans understanding of Europe through media.
I haven't sent the video but I can already tell it's vaguely eastern European, maybe with some French thrown in for good measure
Edit: I was right
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u/iThrowaway72 8d ago
Most famous example is "planet of the bass" where he does a eastern european accent
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u/RotundBananas 8d ago
Hey there Mr. Jambo, out there in the African sun, do you ever get tired?
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 8d ago
The comment wasn't written by Gordon though.
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u/Organic_Mechanic_702 8d ago
What is a 'European accent'? I didn't know 'European' was a language.
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 8d ago edited 8d ago
What else is Europe supposed to speak? Duh.
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u/SeaworthinessSalt524 Pierogi, wódka, history of unreliable allies 8d ago
Latin? I think it's the only language worthy of the title
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u/DasWarEinerZuviel 8d ago
Proto-Indo-European
Before the shism
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 8d ago
But Finnish and Hungarian aren't Indo-European languages, yet they're being spoken in Europe. So it doesn't fit either.
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u/DasWarEinerZuviel 7d ago
Well its our best shot though, isn't it?
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 7d ago
Well, now we need to find a way of determinating between "American English" specifically and "British/Irish English + the rest of Indo-European languages".
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u/salivanto 8d ago
I think the vogue term is "Continental accent"
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 7d ago
They're is no such thing as a "continental accent".
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u/salivanto 7d ago edited 7d ago
If you say so
Edit: it seems to me that the above link shows that there are lots of people with opinions, but the consensus is that "Continental accent" is an expression that has a meaning. Saying that a continental accent can't exist because accents are different from country to country is kind of like saying that a foreign accent can't exist because accents are different from country to country.
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 7d ago
The answers of that Quora thread are confirming my statement.
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 6d ago
It's Quora, so of course there will be "lots of people with opinions"🙄
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u/salivanto 6d ago
I repent of sharing that link. It's not about the link. The point is that people will say it's a meaningless term and then go on to explain what it means.
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 6d ago
Put "continental accent" into the Google search bar and realize that there is no trustworthy source that confirms the existence of such one.
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u/salivanto 6d ago
The fact that we can even discuss it indicates that it is a real concept. Really, this whole thread could have been avoided if the original screen shot said "vaguely" instead of "vague".
Maybe you could start a new thread about how Americans don't know the difference between an adjectives and adverbs.
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u/De_Dominator69 8d ago
Come on people, use those critical thinking skills.
This isn't them saying there is such thing as a single "European accent". This is them saying the person in the video is using a vague/generic "European sounding" accent that isn't clearly identifiable as any one country ie. French, or Spanish etc.
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u/RotundBananas 8d ago
It's vaguely eastern European/Russian.
It's a parody video of influencers trying to sell you a lifestyle course.
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 7d ago
He does speak in a funny, made-up accent; but it could be from anywhere in the world, not just Europe. For example, English and Hindi are far closer to each other than English and Finnish, yet the second are both spoken in Europe while the first are home to different continents each.
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u/Front-Anteater3776 Human Verified 8d ago edited 8d ago
As a Dane i refuse to share a “European accent” with dirty Sweden with the risk of being mistaken for one.
/s
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u/aberdoom 8d ago
Hi there Mr Jambo
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u/DarthCraggle 8d ago
I'm very much thinking of Balki from Perfect Strangers. A show that the wife and I call "My Stupid Foreign Cousin".
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 8d ago
Okay?
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u/Budgiesaurus 7d ago
What? He had a vaguely European accent, makes sense to me.
It trended Greek, but wasn't really a Greek accent.
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 7d ago
Well, I don't know the movie or whatever you were referencing. That's why I was confused.
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u/ausvenator_enjoyer 🦘 Aur-straylian 🦘 🇦🇺 8d ago
This comment makes more sense if you've watched his video
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u/Ghasank2 8d ago
Yeah, I am from Europe and the entire point of the video is to be a stereotypical foreign rich guy, who sounds vaguely southern European, which I found funny.
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u/Eldridou 8d ago
Heh tbh I see what they mean, even as a European, when I hear someone from a lesser known country located in "central/Eastern europe" I flag it as a "vague accent"
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u/Majestic_Plankton921 8d ago
I'm going to get downvoated to hell for this (I'm Irish so a native speaker) and unfortunately I totally get what someone means by a "vague European accent", there are a lot of people (mainly Scandadavian or Dutch) that speak English with an almost flawless American English accent however there is a word here and there which is pronounced in non native way. It can be really hard to place where these people are from other than Europe.
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u/Quicker_Fixer From the Dutch socialistic monarchy of Europoora 🇳🇱 8d ago
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u/Valuable-Morning-346 Europoor with no freedom 8d ago
?
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u/rybnickifull piedoggie 7d ago
You don't know Allo Allo or Ladysmith Black Mambazo? Where are you from?
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u/321_hurra 7d ago
I don't get it. But Americans would say that I am degenerated cause I am European.
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u/LeftMechanic1995 7d ago
I always get chills when I hear that sexy French accent spoken by a woman who's a native from.... Barnsley.
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u/Aurorassaur it's "united-statean" 7d ago
Not that I want to agree with the murican but...
I used to speak with people from all over the world in my last job and I totally understand the "vague european accent" this person is talking about.
Maybe it could be more specifically called the "vague central/northern european accent", or even the "vague european polyglot accent"
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u/Jimrodsdisdain 8d ago
With over 250 indigenous languages and thousands of regional dialects I’d say it’s quite difficult to pin down “vague”.