fake accents, c or d?

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So I have these friends. Well they used to be friends and to be honest it was really only the guy that was a friend, and then he got this girlfriend. And I should say that even before the girlfriend, he had this problem, and the problem is this: he has a fake accent. It's a thick irish brogue that appeared out of nowhere one day. Actually it kind of crept in, but became more pronounced when he drank. Okay, well, he's irish, it was college, being irish is like being a minority for white people in college, blah blah. But then it turns out: he's not irish. His irish surname: not his surname. His celtic spelling of his first name: not his legal spelling.
Okay well I just learned to ignore this. Then he started dating the girlfriend, who I thought was russian, or eastern european of some sort, because of her prediliction for Nabokov and her reading russian and so forth. But: she's from Virginia. South or West or something. Trailer trash to the hilt. Together they were the faux-euro twins. Their accents fed off each other until hanging out with them was like being in some kind of wacky ethnic sitcom. Did I mention these accents are fake? THEY ARE.
Eventually I just learned to enjoy it. At work meeting: "What part of Ireland are you from?" "Eh....uh, I'm not from Ireland, I just spent a lot of time there." (not true). Introduced to neighbor from Holland: "What part of Europe are you guys from?" "We're not." "You are shitting me."
There's no end to this story yet.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 05:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Har har, I have a fake accent. But when you've been faking an American accent for 20 years, it becomes so much a part of you that you only stop faking it when drunk! Hah hah!

What I really hate are North Americans who literally step off the boat in the UK and suddenly sprout "British" accents. Totally comical ones that are all about enlongated A's and dropped Aitches, which is what they *imagine* a "British" accent to be from Dick Van Dyke movies. Sigh.

― kate, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 07:33 (twenty-three years ago)

the entire population of leeds has been under the misapprehension that they are mancs since about 1995. i have never seen such large scale self-esteem problems

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 07:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I have, after 12 years of living in London, British usage but not the accent, so I find myself saying things like, 'that's a total liberty, you're well out of order' but spoken in the American version of RP (what people speak like where I'm from if they don't have the 'Fargo' accent). UNLESS:

1. I am drunk.
2. I am being facetious.
3. I am in a minicab/taxi and do not want to pay American Tax.
4. I am speaking to my friend Helen, who is from Essex, and Zelig her voice, which can also happen to me in the company of Scots with a burr (I do this: my mother used to be able to detect whether I'd been round the Australian neighbours or the Texan neighbours purely by how I sounded when I came back).

I get into huge amounts of bother speaking to Minnesotans who think I'm English *purely because of how I structure my sentences*.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 08:06 (twenty-three years ago)

the other day i noticed that there were shards of london in your accent suzy.

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 08:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I once spent an entire holiday in London talking in a fake "cor blimey" cockernee accent. I was hanging out with this English guy (who may or may not have been a cockernee himself) and we kept informing each other that we were both "diamond geezers".

and then I never saw him again.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 08:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I wish I had the guts to adopt a fake accent. There's far too much accent rockism around.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 08:40 (twenty-three years ago)

3. I am in a minicab/taxi and do not want to pay American Tax.

Oh, I try to do that too! Also if I'm trying to get people to move down in the elevator in Covent Garden I put on my best english accent.

Although, when I was in NY in November, we had an aweful time with the Cab drivers there. I figure my accent was unintentionally affected just enough for them to think that I was not an American. Or do all the Cab drivers there stop during your journey to get coffee and gas and then charge $70 to go from Hoboken to Brooklyn?

― marianna, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 08:46 (twenty-three years ago)

It's fair enough for people who have been in a country for a decade. Hey, I mean, that way I can say that my American accent is earned, not a put-on.

I'm talking about people who have been in the UK A FREAKING WEEK who start going all Dick Van Dyke.

― kate, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 09:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Cor blimey, you are a bit of a chair and table, intcha?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I put on fake accents all the time. I don't even know why, it just happens. Not on such a large scale missive as those two in the subject story, however. I mean, that's just strange and off.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 13:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, when I don't want to have give directions, or even talk to people, I put on a very heavy "Scandinavian" accent and pretend I don't know what they're talking about. It only works if you're blond... ;-)

― kate, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 13:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a fake neutral accent, I suspect. My natural accent, i.e. the one I had as a kid and was imprinted from what was around me, is a blend of north-of-Boston (closer to the Maine end of the spectrum than the Good Will Hunting end; my brother has a Southie accent, though) and my father's Alabaman. I also had years of speech therapy as a kid, because I couldn't pronounce /rl/ sounds, and I think that's when I figured out how to knock the accent out of the way.

I have had people accuse me of having an Oregon accent (is there such a thing, distinct from a Pacific northwest accent? I know no one from Oregon), and Crudders, our mutual friend S used to accuse me of having a Toronto accent, even though I've never been there.

Six years of New Orleans, and I can't fake any of the local accents to save my life -- there are too many of them, and I can sort them out in my ear, but not my head.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never had a real accent. It has changed over time due to location and drunkenness. Occasionally when I'm back in Kentucky, the real me comes out, but only rarely.

The only really troubling thing about this is that I no longer pronounce Louisville the way it should be pronounced, because I adjusted for Northeasters' inability to interpret Southern accents when I went to college.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 15:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I have no earthly idea if I have an accent or not - some people say yes, some people say no, but there are a couple I can put on if I want to.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 15:19 (twenty-three years ago)

that's Louvall, right stence?

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 15:25 (twenty-three years ago)

g--ff, yeah that's basically how you pronounce it.

luna, I don't know if you've got an accent either, but you shore do have a sexy voice.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I've sometimes been known to pick up this accent that involves elongating my O's and talking slowly and more pronounced. Sort of West Coast, maybe.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 15:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I do not think I have much of a regional accent. And my English accent sounds mysteriously Australian. I had a dream last night though that I was showing some american tourists around London and I was faking an English accent... but I kept saying things wrong and giving it away.

― Mandee, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 15:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Ally I have no idea what yoowa tawkin about.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I know you are being sarcastic, but do you remember when I convinced everyone I was secretly Southern?

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 17:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Putting a cowboy hat on your head isn't very secret.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 17:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Ally's not Southern?

― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 17:59 (twenty-three years ago)

My Bristol accent is only put on to impress people, obviously. (For those in America, that's a joke, as no one has ever ascribed any positive qualities to that accent, as far as I know.)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE HAT, YOU BASTARD.

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE HAT, YOU BASTARD.

I would paste this to the "funniest things to say at the moment of orgasm" thread, but I'm not gonna go searching for it.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes I'm half-way through a (drunken) sentence when I realize I'm speaking in an overblown-out-of-proportion-Groudskeeper-Willie-style Scottish burr. By that point I have to just finish the sentence that way, and occasionally people are like, "wow, are you from like Australia or something?" (not cuz my accent is off-base really, but cuz Americans, as you may well know, are DAFT AS FACK).

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I often adopt the accents of people I spend a lot of time around, fairlu erratically though. I had a design professor who had a lovely West Texas burr which I tried on, only partly consciously, for a time. I also tried on a Jewish accent (emphasis on peculiar sentence formations like "You want I should . . .") for a time c. 1995. When I was in school out East my accent would, depending on the needs of the situation, become markedly more "Chicago" or decidedly New England.

I once was working as a intern with this lovely girl who seemed to have some kind of indefinable Eastern European accent. One day I asked her where she was from (in that eager way that connotes "You are so exotic") and there was this terrifying silence. She said, "New Jersey." I muttered something about her accent as it slowly dawned on me that she had some kind of speech impediment.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:43 (twenty-three years ago)

This one guy at work, who is from Canada, always says I sound like I'm from Toronto. He also says I sound like Audrey Hepburn.
I don't think I have the typical Wisconsin accent, as I don't say "Wiscahhhnsin," but I don't know.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:46 (twenty-three years ago)

I've been unable to shake this thick eastern european accent the last few days. It infected me with this one "I just want bang-bang-bang" song that I heard. Leave me alone accent! I am an amurican, not crebapoplovslokian!

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never heard a good fake accent, therefore dud.

i have the normal boring upstate ny accent, but i've had people ask if i'm from canada...apparently i actually "say about wrong," although i do not say aboot, and i say a's without inserting y's before them sometimes. i don't get it.

― Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 19:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Travelling on the bus these days in London you can't help hearing all these twenty-something lasses (and it's always women, never men) affecting soap-opera-lite Australian vowels, whether consciously or not. " Did yuououjjjuuou?" - "Naoaoaoaojauau."

― darren (darren), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 20:59 (twenty-three years ago)

haha Darren I'm from Dublin and there's a girl from London in my class who apparently does this. At least people seem to take the piss about it anyway.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 21:02 (twenty-three years ago)

http://movieweb.com/movie/anaconda/co3s.jpg

Fake accents rule!

― JesseFox (JesseFox), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 22:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never heard a good fake accent, therefore dud.

Maria, have you heard the one about the elephants and the itching powder?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 22:22 (twenty-three years ago)

My most useful fake accent involves cranking up my NuZild accent to another level so that ESOLs like my tutees or my Mum can't understand me.

However my "Mr Chen" accent is arguably funnier.

― b.R.A.d. (Brad), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 22:33 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

only crazy ass mofos do this!

― huell howser (chaki), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Remember when Kyle started threads?

― Adam In Real Life (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

IAN TO THREAD

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 21:43 (twenty years ago)

Peter Smith to thread, too!

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

http://re2.mm-c1.yimg.com/image/980316133 Oh, come on. I just broke my fucking ribs and hand. Have some sympathy. Jesus Christ.

Oh, I thought this was about me.. funny, that. carry on. cheersthanksalot.

― -- Esther (dave225.3), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

Hilariously, my b/f sometimes does this when he's really drunk. He gets this odd english accent that he swears blind (ahur hur) he isn't affecting on purpose. One time it went on for hours.

I mean his surname is L0nd0n, but come on. I wonder where he gets the accent from?

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 22:32 (twenty years ago)

from being insane.

― huell howser (chaki), Thursday, 18 August 2005 00:54 (twenty years ago)

we're getting pretty awesome, speaking as objectively as possible

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Thursday, 18 August 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

you should come see us in dc or bmore sometime over the next three weeks

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Thursday, 18 August 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

from being insane.

lolz, I must show him this thread now =)

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 18 August 2005 02:37 (twenty years ago)

What's all this "real accent" talk? Aren't they all learned and potentially dropped like anything else? Or maybe the British accent is the natural one, i.e. the American woman who came out of a coma with one.

― Cunga (Cunga), Thursday, 18 August 2005 05:31 (twenty years ago)

Do you have a link to that story, Cunga?

― Laura H. (laurah), Thursday, 18 August 2005 05:35 (twenty years ago)

"British" accent, har har har har har har.

On the phone last week, my mum told me I had an accent. YES BUT WHAT ACCENT IS IT!?!??!?!

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:08 (twenty years ago)

i am tempted to do this. my accent is horrible. estuary glottal stop frenzy. i am rather more posh when speaking on the telephone. it's weird.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

I tend to copy whatever accent the other speaks. Of course not consciously nor immediately, but when I hang around someone long enough, I tend to copy it. :-( I hate it.

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

I think I do this sometimes too :/ Can be embarrasing on a support phone call imitating someone with an accent I dont have! I deal with a lot of arabic speaking people and seriously have to stop myself saying "alooo!" to them argh.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 18 August 2005 08:30 (twenty years ago)

I don't adopt an accent really when I'm around other people who have one, but my inflection does change a little to mimic the way they speak. It's more out of nervousness - I figure if I change my speech pattern a little, I won't sound like a typical, loud American.

― Draw Tipsy, ya hack. (dave225.3), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

The American woman in my office says she's Anglicised her accent so that her daughter doesn't grow up with an American accent - which seems a very odd thing to do to me, mind you she is from Boston and her father was a psychoanalyst

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

... so now her accent's all over the place and you can't tell where she's from half the time, but occasionally a bit of Bawwwwwwston slips thru

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:30 (twenty years ago)

anthony kyle monday sounds jealous of the couple's bond through the love for learning different accents.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:38 (twenty years ago)

i tend to find myself saying idiotic things and pronouncing word in all manner of insane ways whenever i spend any time in the states. this is just because i like to be understood and it's much easier than getting annoyed and yelling: "IT'S CALLED ENGLISH FOR A REASON, YOU KNOW - I AM RIGHT AND YOU'RE NOT!"

― stelf)xxxx, Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:43 (twenty years ago)

We've made it this far without mentioning Tim Westwood yo?

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

Or Jamie Oliver?

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

Madonna!

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

I have a fake ILX accent

― The Lurkers, Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

undeniably classic

― pete smith, exiled from his fake accent bandmates in NC, Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:16 (twenty years ago)

intonation of voiCE - ( with regard to going up at the eND) = dud

― willdabeast, Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

But that's so Canadian, eh?

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

australian

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:22 (twenty years ago)

It's pretty popular with the young things where I work

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

bonza

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

"IT'S CALLED ENGLISH FOR A REASON, YOU KNOW - I AM RIGHT AND YOU'RE NOT!"

There's actually a (debated) line of reasoning that some of the American accent and usage today are actually closer to the way English was spoken 300 years ago than it is in modern England e.g. that the New England accent today is closer to original East Anglia accent of the pilgrim fathers. The purest preserved accents are actually said to exist in the most rural and isolated places (such as Appalachia), and conversely the more cosmopolitan a place is (such as London), the more subject it becomes to linguistic influence change. England has lost the r in many contexts, while American English is usually still rhotic, and in other instances the Americans preserve some older usages that the British such as "gotten." In reality, both British and American usage have changed markedly in the last three hundred years, and neither really has the market on "authenticity" and this is very silly.

― Laura H. (laurah), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:30 (twenty years ago)

England has lost the r in many contexts, while American English is usually still rhotic

Hence the incomprehension of a lot of English ILXors when I said "porn" is pronounced differently from "pawn"!

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:42 (twenty years ago)

but.. but... english accents sound so proper and old-timey

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:44 (twenty years ago)

Since when were the Pilgrim fathers from East Anglia?

― Raston Warrior Robot (alix), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:44 (twenty years ago)

i can't imagine why anyone would deliberately put on an accent that wasn't theirs. what a weird thing to do!

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

laura has a point, but dave, and the english in general, remain otm.

raston -- include lincolnshire,, and yer there.

― N_RQ, Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

Mmm, I think they were mostly from Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire.

(xpost)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but in America, pawn is pronounced more nasaly - pAHwn, rather than the English pAWn.

(This R thing was originally taken by many linguists to mean that American accents were related to Cornish/West Country accents. Until someone helpfully pointed out that the Pilgrims were not actually *from* Plymouth, they just left from there.)

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:46 (twenty years ago)

Obviously I had assumed that as they sailed from Plymouth that they must have been from there.

― Raston Warrior Robot (alix), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Yes but the debate was over whether there was any difference in the pronunciation between "porn" and "pawn", which there isn't in "Standard" English (xpost)

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but I was saying that the Americans having a difference between pronounciation of "porn" and "pawn" is due to differing American pronounciations of O and A, rather than a necessarily pronounced R. Even that is a regional American thing.

(I've noticed some actually over-pronounce R's in words that have none, such as "idear" for "idea" - or maybe it's just me that does that.)

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:55 (twenty years ago)

Ah, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrright!

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

Now we are going to address the difference between the continental rolled RRRRRRRRRRR and the Scots gurgled RRRRRRR

(It took me forever to learn how to do the former. Perhaps why my French accent is still so rrrrrrrubbish.)

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

Scots don't gurgle, they burr

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:03 (twenty years ago)

You can dress it up in a bonnet and call it a burr, but it's still phonetically a gurgle! It's done in the throat and not on the tongue. GURGLE.

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:04 (twenty years ago)

What in the wurrrrrr-uld are you on about, girrrrul?

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:05 (twenty years ago)

"She cursed me up and down and rolled her Rrrrs. Her beautiful Rrrrrs."

― Win A Lie-Down, Mrs. Davies (kate), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:13 (twenty years ago)

When I was about 14/15 I decided to stick with an English accent because it sounds much nicer and is far more *revered* here than an American accent. Before that I could easily switch between the two.

I've only twice heard someone say that I could never be English because my accent wasn't right. One said that the way they could tell was the way I for example pronounced the word "it."

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

i can't imagine why anyone would deliberately put on an accent that wasn't theirs. what a weird thing to do!

it's not always conscious and deliberate though!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:39 (twenty years ago)

yah, when i went to Glasgow for a long weekend, i ended up unconciously imitating the cadence of the girls i was staying with (rather than the accent).

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

i swear at people more when i'm in scotland

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

'ELLO GUVNA!

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

on reflection, i probably sounded like a total putz. sing-song cadence with my demented estuary accent is probably the dumbest thing they ever heard.

i swore less, because i am over-polite as a guest. i probably inflected a faux-poshness, g-kit telephone stlye, for half of my stay. then let the MASK SLIP.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

what REALLY bothers me is british/english bands/artists with faux-american accents while they sing. a vast majority, probably. what's that all about?

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

Rock 'n' roll sounds better in American

― Diddyismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

tis true - when i sing i often sing in the singer's accent.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

i sing in my own accent. i threatened our bassist/backing vox man with violence if he attempted faux-american. so we have a subtle blend of essex twattery and oxford poshness.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 18 August 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

Try being a posh southerner and singing the word "dance" - it just sounds ridiculous. (me singing Eminem to thread)

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 18 August 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

Try being a posh southerner and singing the word "dance" - it just sounds ridiculous. (me singing Eminem to thread)

i think the ridiculousness may not have come solely from the word dance ;)

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

i can't imagine why anyone would deliberately put on an accent that wasn't theirs. what a weird thing to do!

i do this all the time, it's great. it is playful mockery out of affection rather than contempt.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

Peter Trudgills stuff on Americanisms in pop songs is quite interesting, if a bit dated.

― Raston Warrior Robot (alix), Thursday, 18 August 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

There are lots of American singer who affect British accents—Billy Joe and Anton Newcombe for starters. If you can pull it off who cares? Not pull it off in the sense that it's credible, but in the sense that we accept that it's done in the spirit of homage and actually stop noticing after a while.
I do accents all the time. It's almost Tourettic. We listen to the BBC World Service—those people are fabulous grist for the mill (do they raise them in a laboratory?) and then my husband's relatives from Maryland, the south-east Massachusetts locals with their execrable r-dropping (so different from the wuhld suhvice r-dropping). There's always the FRENCH. And the mentally retarded! Imitatable accents abound.
Then comes the fateful moment when you're doing the accent and you suddenly realize that there's a retarded person or a BBC announcer in the room. Oh shame.

― Beth Parker, Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

Billie Joe sounds more California surfer twang than faux-brit to me.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

Maybe the California surfers are all really BBC announcers.

― Beth Parker, Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

There's always the FRENCH. And the mentally retarded! Imitatable accents abound.

I like the accent DEAF PEOPLE have!

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 18 August 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

My Canadian friends think I sound like a Limey, my English friends think I sound like a Yank (most English people can't distinguish much variation in North American accents, other than obv. south vs north).

I slowly capitulated, first to "to-MAY-to", then to "squirl" (for "squirrel") and even "wahlk" (for "walk"), but for a long time the one thing that alerted Canadians to the Limey behind the mask was a seemingly innocuous "et" instead of "ate".

None of this transformation was conscious, though. I think I was a macaw in a former life (pron. Ma-CAH).

― David A. (Davant), Thursday, 18 August 2005 22:35 (twenty years ago)

I find I have to fake what should be my own accent, due to having an English mum and an American girlfriend that have seriously warped the way I speak. I wish I was joking. When I'm teaching and such, I put on a bit more of a thicker 'ocker' accent.

― Mike Stuchbery (Mike Stuchbery), Thursday, 18 August 2005 22:49 (twenty years ago)

I like the accent DEAF PEOPLE have!

Also see RHODE ISLAND.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 18 August 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

Buddy Cianci! Colossus of Rhode Island!!!!

― Beth Parker, Friday, 19 August 2005 12:31 (twenty years ago)

There are lots of American singer who affect British accents

Robert Pollard. Though he doesn't actually sound British at all.

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Friday, 19 August 2005 12:36 (twenty years ago)

You're both right. You need both the dropping of the R and the opening of the vowel to create the homonym. If the R weren't dropping, "porn" would become "pawrn" (although that does exist in some regional American accents).

(I've noticed some actually over-pronounce R's in words that have none, such as "idear" for "idea" - or maybe it's just me that does that.)

Are you from the Boston area? We originally dropped the R as the English did, but later restored it to our usage. The reintroduction created an intrusive R, as people adding it back started appending it to a lot of words that didn't need it, like "idea," or "vanilla," or perhaps most hideously, "law" (which ends up pronounced like the name of Data's evil brother).

― Laura H. (laurah), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

... you get that "intrusive R" a lot in South (Eastern) England too, so "drawing" comes out as "drawring"

― Diddyismus the Blind (of Alexandria) (Dada), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

No, never lived in Boston, though I did live in New England for a bit.

I think it's more to do with growing up in the UK (no R) then moving to the US and having to reintroduce the R - hence sticking it in places it doesn't belong. And then to add another layer of confusion, moving *back* to England and not knowing what to do with my R's.

Arrrrrrrrrrr.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

Give them to the Southerners. They need them so desperately.

― Laura H. (laurah), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

I have a closet full, thanks.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 19 August 2005 13:55 (twenty years ago)

it's funny cause I can only have a fake accent, unless I start speaking English with a West-Flemish accent. EW!

― nathalie starts to cry each time we meet (stevie nixed), Friday, 19 August 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

Ah, lol the fake accent is soo funny. I used to be obsessed with a british band I will not say who it was a few years ago, that I was starting to go around talking like a brit. I eventually stopped, but I still throw a bit of a few words out there. I live in Southern Illinois, born and raised. lol. Ive been all over the US, but never out of the country.
Here in southern Illinois you either have a chic"aa"go accent or a St. "laouis" accent. or a Kent"UUU"cky accent. I have more of a St. Louis accent, cause I have alot of family there and it is like my second home. I don't know naturally I can pick up a british accent much much easier than any others. And its not the whole, "Queen Mum" get up either. I'm pretty good. I really don't understand accents that well. Sometimes I can sound like a hick, others like a city boy, with a bit of english thrown in there sometimes. I think it was the way I was raised. My mom used to speak with a bit of brit sometimes too. (mostly joking) but I think in the near past my family spoke with a British accent. Now its all screwed up lol.
Most people in my town hava a S"UUU"th"UUURRNN" illinois accent. its superbly white trash.

― Bruhe, Sunday, 21 August 2005 06:42 (twenty years ago)

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