As I listened to an Australian speaking on television the other day, I was struck by something. Their accent.
This got me thinking. I soon realised that many people who claim to speak English as their first language actually communicate in a sort of broken version of the real thing - not unlike that spoken by people for whom English is a second language. The amount of bending and contortion that the language undergoes before emerging from the speaker's mouth is incredible. Ironically, even the English are guilty of this, speaking in a delightfully round and clipped way that at times becomes difficult to understand.
People speaking English as a second language are often plagued by intonations and mannerisms that follow them from their first language. This accent, as far as I'm concerned, is very similar to that of a New Zealander, or an American Southerner, or a Liverpudlian in that all of them are so unique and flavourful that they almost stray from the path of English altogether.
Well, that was a remarkably short rant, but I've run out of things to say on the subject.
