Mary's Accent and Languages


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To me, Mary still sounds like an Australian. Of course its a much more refined English with a Danish flavouring to it, but still very aussie. It was especially noticeable during the Royal Jewels documentary that was just released. I think because she was interviewed in her own home and in private she was more relaxed and there for the aussie accent was more noticeable.

Completely agree. Her Aussie accent really came out in that documentary. When she was in Australia and conducted interviews, she still had an Aussie accent. It's hard to get rid of it. My sister-in-law has been in the US for years and her Aussie accent is still very prominent.
 
South Australian is very english sounding in its pronounciations. QLD and NSW and to a lesser degree Vic and Tassie have a much broader Aust twang.

I'd have to disagree re Victoria. Queenslanders accents are much more broad in comparison to those in Victoria. There is a distinctive rurality in the way Queenslanders talk. Victorian's and New South Welshman are more measured in the way we talk, yet we do not share the slight English lilt often attributed to South and Western Australian's.

Melbourne is largely regarded as the culturally refined/diverse hub of Australia and is a place of considerable European influence where as Queensland has a distinguishably organic presence throughout the state. It is both stereotypically and distinctively 'Australian' in this regard with a large Indigenous population and a predominately caucasion majority otherwise.

And while Queensland boasts a population of around 4 million +, Melbourne's population alone exceeds 4 million people and that is not including the states rural cities and towns.

Naturally, this all plays it's part with regional accents.
 
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To me, Mary still sounds like an Australian. Of course its a much more refined English with a Danish flavouring to it, but still very aussie. It was especially noticeable during the Royal Jewels documentary that was just released. I think because she was interviewed in her own home and in private she was more relaxed and there for the aussie accent was more noticeable.

Excuse me, where I can find this video?:flowers:
 
Melbourne is largely regarded as the culturally refined/diverse hub of Australia and is a place of considerable European influence where as Queensland has a distinguishably organic presence throughout the state. It is both stereotypically and distinctively 'Australian' in this regard with a large Indigenous population and a predominately caucasion majority otherwise.
Im sure compared to NSW and QLD Victorians sound culturally refined. To me it sounds very australian with a really noticeable twang. This does of course vary to degrees throughout the suburbs. I wasnt have a dig at any of the states I was merely drawing from experiences having lived equally in 3 of its cities for the last 30yrs. Sorry if you were offended by my comments:flowers:
 
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I admire Mary for working hard to learn Danish.I am currently learning to speak Swedish and it is not easy! More respect for Mary! She speaks it well!
 
Cant judge Mary's Danish, however its certainly difficult to learn a new language as an adult (and Danish doesnt sound easy to me), certainly she has made a better effort than her father in law Henrik.

Having said that, I dont find Mary a good speaker at all, she is not a natural to me for speaking publicly, even in her native language English she seems to be struggling in terms of being nervous, stumbling or finding the right words when asked question (last example in Washington).

I think some people are naturals, they can talk for hours without a script, some arent, they will always look stressed or heavily rehearsed. Each to his or her own talent.
 
Cant judge Mary's Danish, however its certainly difficult to learn a new language as an adult (and Danish doesnt sound easy to me), certainly she has made a better effort than her father in law Henrik.

Having said that, I dont find Mary a good speaker at all, she is not a natural to me for speaking publicly, even in her native language English she seems to be struggling in terms of being nervous, stumbling or finding the right words when asked question (last example in Washington).

I think some people are naturals, they can talk for hours without a script, some arent, they will always look stressed or heavily rehearsed. Each to his or her own talent.
Yes, I have noticed that she isn't a naturally charismatic speaker, like King Hussein was, or Prisident Clinton, but she is making her efforts, Danes out there, how is Marie in the speech enviornment?
 
Yes, I have noticed that she isn't a naturally charismatic speaker, like King Hussein was, or Prisident Clinton, but she is making her efforts, Danes out there, how is Marie in the speech enviornment?

Why is Marie called to this thread?
This' Mary's thread!
 
Why is Marie called to this thread?
This' Mary's thread!

Given that both Mary and Marie are not natural Danish speakers it's obvious that comparisons will be made between how well they do. There's nothing wrong in that. I believe that Marie's Danish is better than Mary's? I have no idea, but it's what I've seen stated elsewhere.
 
Marie is doing well in the Danish language but to say her Danish is better than Mary's is pure nonsense.
But we can always count on you when it comes to putting Mary down, EIIR.
 
Given that both Mary and Marie are not natural Danish speakers it's obvious that comparisons will be made between how well they do. There's nothing wrong in that. I believe that Marie's Danish is better than Mary's? I have no idea, but it's what I've seen stated elsewhere.

I can assure you that is not the case. Mary has a much better command over the danish language both in vocabulary and pronunciation.
That said, it's obvious that Mary isn't indistinguishable from a "native" dane. However, her accent is very difficult to "lock down". Obviously she has a bit of english/(british?) accent but she might as well be an argentinean who's good at english who's beginning to learn Danish.

Sometimes I find Maries language to be influenced by her geography. She seems to be adapting to the local dialect in southern Jutland ("high" a's). On a side note, this indicates that she's spending considerable time with the locals. Aside from that, Marie has a markedly french accent although it's getting fainter.
 
Marie is doing well in the Danish language but to say her Danish is better than Mary's is pure nonsense.
But we can always count on you when it comes to putting Mary down, EIIR.

How is that a put down? Did I say Mary's Danish was rubbish? No. Did I say that Marie's Danish was perfect? No. In fact, I quite clearly stated that I didn't know whose Danish was better, merely what I'd seen reported elsewhere.

I very, very rarely say anything about Mary at all; the Danish RF is very, very rarely mentioned in our media here so I don't know a whole lot about any of them. But if it makes you feel better to imagine that I'm some sort of hater, go ahead.
 
english/(british?) accent

An accent can be at times hard to pin point when the indavidual speaks in their learned tongue. Personally, I can detect an accent but to my ear it resonates as Australian english.
 
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:p I'm almost 100% sure she didn't mean to .... again ;)

Or you could choose not to see things through Mary-tinted glasses and see it as a compliment to Marie? Or as me merely stating what I'd heard elsewhere?

But, we all know that anyone who makes anything other than glowing tributes to Mary is hounded out of the Danish forum, as discussed elsewhere.
 
Let's get back on track, shall we? :)

Is it me you are referring to?
Because I have stated that Marie's pronounciation is very good indeed and she's is very easy to understand.
Mary has a more distinct accent, in that respect she's no different form other English speakers. Presumably it has something to do with different sounds.
The Æ and Ø sounds exists in the French language but not so much in English.
It is also my impression that learning languages is not one of Mary's most outstanding talents, while Marie speaks several, albeit more or less related, languages.
That doesn't detract from Mary. On the contrary in fact, it just means she has had to work even harder.

Mary's mastery of Danish is very good indeed. Even down to the idioms. Marie is not there yet. - She will eventually and I do believe she will end up speaking Danish with a less distinctive accent than Mary.

Mary's accent is charming because she actually master the language, in contrast to Prince Henrik, whose understanding of Danish is excellent indeed, but his spoken Danish is pretty bad and that annoys a lot of people.

Given that both Mary and Marie are not natural Danish speakers it's obvious that comparisons will be made between how well they do. There's nothing wrong in that. I believe that Marie's Danish is better than Mary's? I have no idea, but it's what I've seen stated elsewhere.
 
I have danish friends and tried to learn pronouncing some words or to relate the spoken danish to what is written .. for me, this language could be from another planet ;) my tongue gets twisted and I cant get any sense into it .. so cudos who does take on that language..

EDIT: mothertounge - german; english, french, italian, and a bit of spanish; working understanding of Dutch, Swedish and Portugies
 
Or you could choose not to see things through Mary-tinted glasses and see it as a compliment to Marie? Or as me merely stating what I'd heard elsewhere?

But, we all know that anyone who makes anything other than glowing tributes to Mary is hounded out of the Danish forum, as discussed elsewhere.

Of course I could. Will remember to do so the next time :flowers:

Hounded? Doesn't sound good.
 
Actually I don't expect anyone to make glowing tributes to Mary.
I just don't like posters who jump on every opportunity to say something negative (or merely stating what they heard elsewhere :D). And then accuse those who comment on their constant negativity of hounding them out of the Danish forums.
 
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Let's get back on track, shall we? :)

Is it me you are referring to?
Because I have stated that Marie's pronounciation is very good indeed and she's is very easy to understand.
Mary has a more distinct accent, in that respect she's no different form other English speakers.
Presumably it has something to do with different sounds.
The Æ and Ø sounds exists in the French language but not so much in English.
It is also my impression that learning languages is not one of Mary's most outstanding talents, while Marie speaks several, albeit more or less related, languages.
That doesn't detract from Mary. On the contrary in fact, it just means she has had to work even harder.

Mary's mastery of Danish is very good indeed. Even down to the idioms. Marie is not there yet. - She will eventually and I do believe she will end up speaking Danish with a less distinctive accent than Mary.

Mary's accent is charming because she actually master the language, in contrast to Prince Henrik, whose understanding of Danish is excellent indeed, but his spoken Danish is pretty bad and that annoys a lot of people.

I honestly don't remember where I heard it.

Be very careful though, Muhler, apparently what you just said is considered a 'put down' to Mary on this forum.
 
EIIR, I would say there is a huge difference between Muhler's posts and yours.
 
He said that Mary had more of an accent than Marie, that learning languages was not one of Mary's most outstanding talents and that he believes that Marie will end up speaking Danish with less of an accent than Mary will. All that is a way of saying that he believes that Marie will speak Danish in a more natural sounding way than Mary will.

All I said was that I had read elsewhere that Marie's Danish was better than Mary's. Apparently that's a huge put down of Mary, even though I expressed no opinion of my own.
 
I've always enjoyed Mary's diction and delivery, she has an elegant and thoughtful speaking manner, IMO.
 
He said that Mary had more of an accent than Marie, that learning languages was not one of Mary's most outstanding talents and that he believes that Marie will end up speaking Danish with less of an accent than Mary will. All that is a way of saying that he believes that Marie will speak Danish in a more natural sounding way than Mary will.

All I said was that I had read elsewhere that Marie's Danish was better than Mary's. Apparently that's a huge put down of Mary, even though I expressed no opinion of my own.

I've heard it as well that Marie's Danish is better, but I don't speak Danish, so I can't judge. As to French accent - it is very difficult to overcome in my opinion and we shouldn't forget that Mary is the CP and married since 2004, whereas Marie is learning Danish only since about four (?) years. What I've always found funny is the odd accent Mary has when she talks English nowadays.
 
Hello, I just ran across this discussion...so, please forgive me if the link to musical ability and languages has already been mentioned. There is a definite link.

In our family, we have several pianists, violinists, band members, sopranos, baritones, bass, etc. And, everyone of us has an "ear" for sound, which includes nuances of speech. This often includes an ability to mimic rather well, too, which can add to the general fun.

And, those who never ever change their speech patterns may not have a musical "ear"? Smile...
 
I've heard it as well that Marie's Danish is better, but I don't speak Danish, so I can't judge. As to French accent - it is very difficult to overcome in my opinion and we shouldn't forget that Mary is the CP and married since 2004, whereas Marie is learning Danish only since about four (?) years. What I've always found funny is the odd accent Mary has when she talks English nowadays.

I have similar opinion like you. I don't speak Danish, find it as a very hard language to learn and I admire all of which could master it. For me Marie sounds more natural, she probably doesn't have big vocabulary yet, but she started learn Danish less then 5 years ago. And I'm pretty sure that she often speak French with Joachim and babies cause they want raised them multilingual. Mary is trying but I would expected better results after 8 years (she started to learn before the engagement). When she speaks I have an impression that she's trying to find a words or she translates them in her head. Often makes breaks and whole saying is not smoothly. It spoils the overall impression. I won't say anything about her English but when I saw her engagement interview I wasn't sure where did she come from. Her accent is hard to place. She speaks correct Danish, probably doesn't have language skills like Marie but it doesn't mean that she should try harder. Denmark is now her homeland and it would be nice to hear than CP of Denmark speaks Danish well.
It just my opinion and I know that some posters won't agree with me.
 
It is actually fun to compare Mary and our Marie and their approach.

Marie to this day use fairly simple expressions and simple sentences, which is probably a sound idea and very useful for fairly non-committal conversations.

Mary on the other hand had to, (and wanted to) take on more complicated subjects and also convey more complicated subjects. And that meant that she used more complicated words to get her exact meaning across. Using a word like "voldsudøvende = someone committing violence" (from a documentary) which is difficult for us natives!
Mary admitted that she initially tried to translate what she meant to say directly from English to Danish - and as you probably know, that doesn't work.
It's my impression that Mary has charged the Danish language head on, and on a fairly advanced level, while Marie use the school-approach: This is a cow. The cow is brown. Cows eat grass. - You get my meaning? ;)

And then there is the little thing about local accents. Mary speaks with a distinct Copenhagener accent. Or Northern Zealandic accent perhaps.

Marie speaks with a slight southern Jutlandic accent, as nwinther pointed out.
Now, over the years I have been contacted by several who wanted to learn Danish and they have later said that people speaking with a southern Jutlandic accent are much easier to understand. One of them, an American, attended a class at university and she had a Danish teacher from Copenhagen. She had problems understanding spoken Danish. So she was allowed to use a YouTube video of a former PM delivering a New Year speech as a part of her examen. He spoke with a distinct Southern Jutlandic tone. She found that he was much easier to understand - and she passed. :flowers:
- As a native I am not in a position to say why the PM is easier to understand than QMII delivering her New Year speech. But I can well imagine that I would find it easier to understand someone from Boston than someone from New Orleans, who are saying the exact same thing.

Then there is the spouse-factor. You of course learn most from the one who is closest to you.
And we don't know about Marie's approach. Perhaps she used the approach of asking questions all day long to the point of Joachim waking up at night, bathed in cold sweat, screaming: "It's a sheep. The sheep is white. Sheeps taste...ehh". :eek:

Alexandra on the other hand has admitted that she and Joachim did not speak Danish that much together initially. "It would be a teacher-pupil relationship" as she put it. But she has an interest in languages and she has a German speaking mother. That probably helped as no one can put a finger on Alexandra's Danish.
 
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agami.pearl said:
I have similar opinion like you. I don't speak Danish, find it as a very hard language to learn and I admire all of which could master it. For me Marie sounds more natural, she probably doesn't have big vocabulary yet, but she started learn Danish less then 5 years ago. And I'm pretty sure that she often speak French with Joachim and babies cause they want raised them multilingual. Mary is trying but I would expected better results after 8 years (she started to learn before the engagement). When she speaks I have an impression that she's trying to find a words or she translates them in her head. Often makes breaks and whole saying is not smoothly. It spoils the overall impression. I won't say anything about her English but when I saw her engagement interview I wasn't sure where did she come from. Her accent is hard to place. She speaks correct Danish, probably doesn't have language skills like Marie but it doesn't mean that she should try harder. Denmark is now her homeland and it would be nice to hear than CP of Denmark speaks Danish well.
It just my opinion and I know that some posters won't agree with me.

Maries way of speaking is a very simple one, even when she is interviewed in english. So her pronounciation and accent might be better, but I don't think that her vocabulary will be as big as the one of Mary or Henrik.

I don't think Mary translates words in her head. Her replies while in a conversation are too fast for that. I think the main point when giving interviews is, that she chooses her words carefully, which imo is a good thing to do.
 
Careful Dierna23 and agami.pearl your posts will be construed as put downs too if you're not careful!

Saying one is better than the other when doing something that most of us never bother to do - try to become fluent in a foreign language - is not a put down in any way, shape or form. It's difficult to do and they both appear, from what others are saying, to be making a decent fist of it.

Although I do agree that Mary now speaks English with a rather distinct Danish/British twang.
 
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