Does my cousin have a difficult voice to understand?

[zenithfreedom]

By voice I mean accent. He's given me permission to post a short soundclip of his voice. He's moved abroad and learned English quite later on in life.

vocaroo.com/aKPfKojiOvC1

I imagine he was trying to talk clearly for the purpose of the clip
I know a LOD watcher when I see one.

It's an interesting mix of accents! I also think American, Irish and, now I've read the thread, I agree with Dutch too.

I found most of it easy enough to understand but I didn't get his name.

Blimey a right mix but I’d say a mix of American and Irish, I can’t hear any South African at all, however all fairly clear.

the kind of shhhlur sound

Yes, I found that really off-putting, and I imagine when he's not trying to speak especially clearly, it could make him hard to understand. I got American and Irish, but it was the lack of enunciation and the slurpy way he speaks that makes him difficult to listen to, for me.

I couldn't make out his name, but other than that it was fine.
As a PP said, it doesn't sound like normal chatty speak, more how you'd do a presentation.

It shouldn't be a problem at all though. I have worked in international companies all my professional life and people adjust, or make allowances or do whatever they need to do.

Has he lived in more than one part of Ireland? There's a strong south Dublin influence, but the bits others are hearing as Dutch I actually think could potentially be influenced by somewhere in rural Ireland with a 'stronger' accent, possibly Kerry? I'd guess 20s. He does have the kind of slightly exaggerated American accent I associate with ESL - didn't get any African twang off it, so I wonder if before age 8 he was educated in an international school? Though accents I'd be most familiar with in East Africa would be Kenyan and Ethiopian so I just don't think I hear either of those. I can understand him, but he is really enunciating every word, I can see if he were speaking quickly and you weren't used to I'm talking you could stumble. I thought he said his name was something like 'Enola 99' which doesn't sound right! And I wouldn't necessarily assume a race from the voice along.

He reminds me of a friend of my mum´s who is Boer (Afrikaans), I would say in his 40s and white. Although the fact that he asks makes me think he isn´t white/caucasian. I understand him fine although it is an accent I am not used to.

I know a LOD watcher when I see one.

😂

I’m Irish/American and dh is South African. I don’t hear any Afrikaans but can pick up both Irish and American accents. His accent is quite similar to mine, actually. I was born in Ireland, moved to America when I was a toddler and then moved back to Ireland in my early 20s. He sounds late 20’s-early 30’s and I would guess Caucasian, but that’s only a guess. You can’t really tell from that clip.

I can hear a Scandinavian type accent mixed with American and Irish. I picture him as a blonde haired blue eyed late 20's to early 30yo.

He said he was born in Africa so I'm guessing maybe a Dutch speaking country?

I hear South African, American and Irish, and he's probably 25-35

There's a bit of Africaans flatness to some vowels.

He sounds a bit like someone I know who is Irish but worked in N America for a while although they've lost a lot of their N American twang now.

I can pick up American, Irish and hints of a Dutch type accent.

No idea on race.

Maybe late 20s, early 30s.

Oh and there are some sounds where words run together that are hard to pick out but mostly I can understand what he's saying.

He sounds age 30
Race - at a guess East Asian,
Accent - he sounds like people I hear in London who are born in a country that neither parent grew up in (and parents vastly different accent) and moved around as a child so picked up accents as he went.

I can understand him

Very easy to understand with clear diction. He sounds nice ! Obvious American intonation with Irish vowel sounds layered on top. I can’t hear his African roots but some may be able to. Age- Thirties ?

Mostly American with a hint of Dutch. Pretty easy to understand.

@Tinselandlights

I have a degree in linguistics and that is quite hard to understand to me.

Part of it is because he doesn't enunciate the ends of his words very clearly and because his is not a familiar accent, the ear can't 'fill in' what he was saying. I haven't a clue what he said his name was.

To me he sounds as though he hasn't gone to an international school for all his schooling because his vowels are quite idiosyncratic.

I agree, especially about the filling in part. Some of the sounds are unexpected, there isn't a consistent pattern. I also suspect, as others have said, that he is being very careful to enunciate in this recording and perhaps at other times, he is more difficult to understand.

I picked up his name as Enola Martin? He also said 1999 but then asked how old he was?

I would categorise his accent as "difficult to place". It's obviously a mixture, American predominates, and I don't think I would have picked up Irish unless he had mentioned it. He's somebody who I would need to tune into to understand everything, but would get easier with practice.

Age - 30's. Race - no clue.

I can understand too. Its an unusual accent and i love an unusual accent. I can deffo hear the Irish, but sounds a bit more Canadian than American with some of the intonations. I'd say there are flavours of south African pronunciation in there - which will be some of the dutch etc but quite a few east Africans speak with more clipped English so this may come from picking that up. So interesting to hear.

The name sounded like Winola Martin 99 when I listened a 2nd time.

Nice, warm voice. Can pick out the Irish and American and, yes, the Dutch shlur sound.

20s to 30s and no idea on race - didn't think that would be detectable from an accent.

His accent certainly wanders a bit from American to Northern Irish to Dublin, but he's perfectly easy to understand.

I would guess he's between 30 - 40 and he's white.

I found his very understandable in that clip - and I say that as someone who normally watches TV with subtitles. I heard an American accent, albeit a slightly unusual one. Had he not said about how he's moved around, I'd have assumed an unfamiliar regional US accent.

I'd assume he was a young adult - 25-40 perhaps?

From his accent I couldn't work out anything about his ethnicity.

He sounds very much like my cousin's husband who's originally from some tiny village in the middle of nowhere Nova Scotia but has lived in the UK for about 10 years now.

He sounds Dutch - it’s the way he says s combined with that sort of American accent they often have from learning English.

Perfectly understandable apart from his name, couldn’t tell you age or race from a voice though...