Isolated for six months one winter, a group of scientists changed how they spoke.
  • someguy3English
    63·
    10 months ago

    You put international researchers from different countries together, it doesn’t surprise me that it would blend together.

    Among those staying at Rothera that winter were a couple of Americans, an Icelandic mechanic, a few Germans, some Scots and a Welsh speaker.

    • IndiBrony@lemmy.worldEnglish
      54·
      10 months ago

      An American, an Icelandic, a German, a Scotsman and a Welshman walk into Antarctica, and þú cannae verstehen the fuck unrhyw af Þeim sagen.

    • RuBisCO@slrpnk.net
      30·
      10 months ago

      “Howdy, XO,” he drawled. The old west affectation common to everyone from the Mariner Valley annoyed Holden. There hadn’t been a cowboy on Earth in a hundred years, and Mars didn’t have a blade of grass that wasn’t under a dome, or a horse that wasn’t in a zoo. Mariner Valley had been settled by East Indians, Chinese, and a small contingent of Texans. Apparently, the drawl was viral. They all had it now. “How’s the old warhorse today?”

      James S.A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
      106·
      10 months ago

      Yep, intentionally modifying your speech patterns to be understood better isn’t exactly adopting a new accent, it’s just using simpler/common words and enunciating.

      • tributarium@lemmy.world
        10·
        10 months ago

        In the article they talk about extremely subtle pronounciation changes. It doesn’t seem like it was a conscious decision.

        I used to have a job where I was the only non-Indian on my team and I didn’t go as far as to develop an accent (also I went home every day lol unlike these guys) but I felt like I was unintentionally picking up some Indian affectations/word orders.

    • Nougat@kbin.social
      71·
      10 months ago

      Tangent story, I was in Manitowoc, WI, on a motorcycle trip. In WWII, they built submarines there, and they have a US submarine at a museum on the lake.

      You might remember Manitowoc as being the area where Making A Murderer happened. Turns out that series only gives a light impression of the local accent there. The tour guide for that submarine sounded like he was speaking a completely different language from English.

  • BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world
    10·
    10 months ago

    Research the researchers… did they run out of stuff to study and seek a grant for linguistic research?